Small Business Technology

ul liNew Campaigner Features Simplify Adding Images, Contact Information and Reporting in Small Businesses Email Marketing Campaigns /li liIntel Buys McAfee: How Does This Affect Your Business?/li liPlustek Announces SmartOffice PS286 Plus Document Scanner/li liContent Marketing 101: Content Is NOT King. Content Distribution Is King./li liSerious About Social Media? Never Visit Twitter.com (Video interview with Postling)/li /ul div style="text-align: center;"*****/div pstrongNew Campaigner Features Simplify Adding Images, Contact Information and Reporting in Small Businesses Email Marketing Campaigns /strong/p pimg alt="Thumbnail image for Campaigner-Logo-Final.jpg" src="http://smallbiztechnology.com/assets_c/2009/05/Campaigner-Logo-Final-thumb-150x28-1186.jpg" width="150" height="28" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" /Ottawa, Ontario (August 18, 2010) - Campaigner, a leading email marketing service provider, today introduced new features aimed at making the service even faster and easier for small businesses to use, regardless of their level of marketing expertise. Chief among these is the ability to edit images directly within Campaigner, eliminating the need to use a separate image editing program. Other features include auto-template personalization, allowing customers to include a standard set of information in every email template; the ability to import email addresses from popular email services; and the opportunity to preview emails before sending. /p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5bI6NmuccYl2ehpe2cORobLJJlg/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5bI6NmuccYl2ehpe2cORobLJJlg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5bI6NmuccYl2ehpe2cORobLJJlg/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5bI6NmuccYl2ehpe2cORobLJJlg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=z_0zijXRfgI:uoH0q36dzyc:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=z_0zijXRfgI:uoH0q36dzyc:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=z_0zijXRfgI:uoH0q36dzyc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=z_0zijXRfgI:uoH0q36dzyc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=z_0zijXRfgI:uoH0q36dzyc:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=z_0zijXRfgI:uoH0q36dzyc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/z_0zijXRfgI" height="1" width="1"/

pThere are at least 7 main vendors selling security solutions to growing businesses:/p pa href="http://www.symantec.com"Symantec/a, a href="http://www.mcafee.com"McAfee/a, a href="http://www.trendmicro.com"Trend Micro/a, a href="http://www.microsoft.com"Microsoft/a, a href="http://www.ca.com"Computer Associates/a, a href="http://www.kapersky.com"Kapersky/a and a href="http://www.avg.com"AVGbr / /a./p pI'm sure there's more players that I'm not remembering right now, but these seven come to mind. /p pWith Intel's purchase of McAfee, Intel is doing a few things:/p ul liBecoming a competitor of all the other security vendors they might have partnered with in the past/li liSolidifying their reach into the security space/li liEnabling McAfee to expand its reach into areas beyond computer and network security/li /ul h2What does this mean to you?/h2 pYou can expect to see McAfee offer more and more powerful solutions to protect your data beyond just the computer and your local network. When companies buy vendors you rely on, it is very important to look carefully at who is buying them and why to ensure that your interests will continue to be served. In this case, I would expect Intel to provide McAfee with the resources to be an even better company./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/TmbfikSw3kVXFK-5SQ7zBtVOPyE/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/TmbfikSw3kVXFK-5SQ7zBtVOPyE/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/TmbfikSw3kVXFK-5SQ7zBtVOPyE/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/TmbfikSw3kVXFK-5SQ7zBtVOPyE/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=M3xF-RGeam0:-duNZzcEWBg:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=M3xF-RGeam0:-duNZzcEWBg:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=M3xF-RGeam0:-duNZzcEWBg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=M3xF-RGeam0:-duNZzcEWBg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=M3xF-RGeam0:-duNZzcEWBg:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=M3xF-RGeam0:-duNZzcEWBg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/M3xF-RGeam0" height="1" width="1"/

pYou can easily tell those who are new with social media. They don't use third party tools to manage their social media outreach and listening. Instead they go directly to Twitter.com or Facebook.com to make their posts and join in on the conversation./p pThis is a decent start, but to really maximize your use of social media it's important to leverage 3rd party tools./p pFor example, a href="http://www.tweetdeck.com"TweetDeck/a is an application that helps you listen to Twitter conversations and post to more than one social media account. There are many other great tools./p pMeasuring your social media outreach is also important. a href="http://www.tap11.com"Tap11/a, a href="http://www.klout.com"Klout/a and a href="http://dlvr.it"dlvr.it/a are three companies that help you measure your social media outreach./p pIf you want to maximize your use of social media, do two things: /p ul liUse 3rd party applications that enhance the basic social media web sites./li liEnsure you and/or someone in your office (or a consultant you hire) can dedicate their time to help you use social media, listen to the conversations and join in on the discussions./li /ul pI spoke with David Lifson, CEO of a href="http://www.postling.com"Postling/a, about his service, which helps users track information about their company online, post about it and more./p centerobject width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Wlnds98SUX0hl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Wlnds98SUX0hl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/object/center pbRead the video summary/transcript below:/b/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/4xO0bfHCJdl8b4AJwct6CAQTgy0/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/4xO0bfHCJdl8b4AJwct6CAQTgy0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/4xO0bfHCJdl8b4AJwct6CAQTgy0/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/4xO0bfHCJdl8b4AJwct6CAQTgy0/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=nnklSxELfQw:EqAY770ECY8:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=nnklSxELfQw:EqAY770ECY8:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=nnklSxELfQw:EqAY770ECY8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=nnklSxELfQw:EqAY770ECY8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=nnklSxELfQw:EqAY770ECY8:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=nnklSxELfQw:EqAY770ECY8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/nnklSxELfQw" height="1" width="1"/

pPrinters are important for all of us. Even for those who say they are "paper less" they still need to print - an invoice, a receipt, 50 pages to read at home - everyone needs to print something at some time./p pWhen you hit the print button, it's important that your printer, prints quickly, that the output looks good and that the overall use of the printer is easy to use and highly function./p pOn the occasion of Epson releasing a new line of printers this Fall, I spoke with Epson product manager Robynne Lee about a href="http://www.epson.com"Epson/a's vision for small business printing needs:/p centerobject width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FPQQpb2P9vEhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FPQQpb2P9vEhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/object/center pbVideo summary/transcript:/b/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/DqgSoEm70FutfM4OD3bjcBfL1wQ/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/DqgSoEm70FutfM4OD3bjcBfL1wQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/DqgSoEm70FutfM4OD3bjcBfL1wQ/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/DqgSoEm70FutfM4OD3bjcBfL1wQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=iRvVsvSfjlA:otMCNodsijo:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=iRvVsvSfjlA:otMCNodsijo:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=iRvVsvSfjlA:otMCNodsijo:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=iRvVsvSfjlA:otMCNodsijo:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=iRvVsvSfjlA:otMCNodsijo:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=iRvVsvSfjlA:otMCNodsijo:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/iRvVsvSfjlA" height="1" width="1"/

pHaving content is great. I've written almost 8,000 blog posts on Smallbiztechnology.com, but just having CONTENT does no good if no one is reading it./p pThere are a LOT of dentists in your local community, but the only one that matters to you is the one you find, use and like. And guess what, for all those dentists, nothing else matters, if people in need of their services do not know about them!/p pWith social media, web sites and blogs (and any other venue for content distribution) all of these media rely on content. /p h2Small businesses often fail, because a) they don't have content and b) even the content they have is not distributed to the right person, through the right medium at the right time./h2 pFurthermore, being able to strategically leverage content means that instead of just Tweeting out about your company, it might be best to Tweet out about something your customer is doing that other customers might find of interest./p pIt's about enabling customers to visit your web site and read your most recent blog post and also see related content that might be of interest to them./p pI interviewed Paul Kenjora, Founder and CTO of a href="http://www.arkayne.com"Arkayne/a which has an amazing set of tools to help growing (busy) businesses leverage content as a tool for powerful online marketing./p pKeep in mind, content marketing can also be used for product sales. Imagine someone buying a hand bag from your web site, why not help them know what other products go with that hand bag or read about other accessories that might compliment it!/p centerobject width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pNgHAeADE5ohl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pNgHAeADE5ohl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/object/center p/bVideo interview summary/transcript/b:/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/OtpEvXEvWArWV8knbh-DDg4uy_0/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/OtpEvXEvWArWV8knbh-DDg4uy_0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/OtpEvXEvWArWV8knbh-DDg4uy_0/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/OtpEvXEvWArWV8knbh-DDg4uy_0/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=XnoH7oPdYmk:GwIy2sMkwPg:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=XnoH7oPdYmk:GwIy2sMkwPg:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=XnoH7oPdYmk:GwIy2sMkwPg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=XnoH7oPdYmk:GwIy2sMkwPg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=XnoH7oPdYmk:GwIy2sMkwPg:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=XnoH7oPdYmk:GwIy2sMkwPg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/XnoH7oPdYmk" height="1" width="1"/

pThis week's list has some really good opportunities to learn and network, whether you get our there to one of the big conferences or log in from your desktop. /p pThis list of events, conferences and webinars for growing small businesses and entrepreneurs is brought to you every other week by a href="http://smallbiztrends.com/"Small Business Trends/a and a href="http://smallbiztechnology.com/"Smallbiztechnology.com/a./p div style="text-align: center;" * * * * */div pimg alt="Thumbnail image for business_matchmaking.GIF" src="http://smallbiztechnology.com/assets_c/2010/02/business_matchmaking-thumb-150x41-1554.gif" width="150" height="41" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;" /stronga href="http://www.businessmatchmaking.com/events.shtml"Western Regional Business Matchmaking/abr / August 17, 2010, San Jose, CA/strong/p pPresented by HP, American Express OPEN and American Airlines in cooperation with the California Governor#8217;s Office of Economic Development and the California Small Business Development Centers, the Business Matchmaking Western Regional Face-to-Face Event will be hosted at the Doubletree Hotel San Jose located in San Jose, CA on Tuesday, August 17, 2010. Participating firms will receive advance education and tools to prepare for face-to-face meetings with buyers from federal, state and local government agencies and major corporations./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5ZU0D1EVcJ3AvVIDGNJmrtiDsGg/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5ZU0D1EVcJ3AvVIDGNJmrtiDsGg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5ZU0D1EVcJ3AvVIDGNJmrtiDsGg/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/5ZU0D1EVcJ3AvVIDGNJmrtiDsGg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=vH9JrpjvZ98:wO3Y5S3J-38:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=vH9JrpjvZ98:wO3Y5S3J-38:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=vH9JrpjvZ98:wO3Y5S3J-38:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=vH9JrpjvZ98:wO3Y5S3J-38:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=vH9JrpjvZ98:wO3Y5S3J-38:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=vH9JrpjvZ98:wO3Y5S3J-38:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/vH9JrpjvZ98" height="1" width="1"/

ul liTechnology Basics for Business/li liIntel's Evolution: From Chip Speeds to PC Maintenance and Uptime/li liLatest Awards and Contests for Small Biz/li li9 Minutes 12 Seconds: What Is CRM? Mr. CRM aka Brent Leary, Answers/li liIP Telphone Systems: When Telephones (Voice) and Computers (Bits) Work Together/li liManaged Telephone Service. Why Would You Want Anything Else?/li /ul pstrongbr / Technology Basics for Business/strong/p pColleen DeBaise is one of the premier journalists focused on the issues of small (growing) businesses. Read an excerpt from her book The Wall Street Journal Complete Small Business Guidebook a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703309704575413563940231170.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_smallbusiness"here/a. /p pTechnological advances have greatly increased the ease with which you can run and grow a small business. If only technology weren't so complicated./p pThese days, it's tough for any entrepreneur to make it#8212;let alone succeed#8212;without a heavy dose of tech. You need a well-designed and easy-to-use website (that's a no-brainer), plus you might benefit greatly from software, Web applications and equipment that allow you to manage inventory, track customers' purchases, process invoices, manage payroll and communicate with staff. Most entrepreneurs want the freedom to leave the office yet still stay connected, meaning they (and key staff) need to be outfitted with cell phones, laptops and wireless devices./p pNot long ago, the latest technology was only available to the biggest companies with the deepest pockets. Read more a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703309704575413563940231170.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_smallbusiness"here/a./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6ttrU0ub6_ajHgk5dw_3SLyiLPM/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6ttrU0ub6_ajHgk5dw_3SLyiLPM/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6ttrU0ub6_ajHgk5dw_3SLyiLPM/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6ttrU0ub6_ajHgk5dw_3SLyiLPM/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=o5SlX3ZkehI:r01TAcDNnlY:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=o5SlX3ZkehI:r01TAcDNnlY:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=o5SlX3ZkehI:r01TAcDNnlY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=o5SlX3ZkehI:r01TAcDNnlY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=o5SlX3ZkehI:r01TAcDNnlY:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=o5SlX3ZkehI:r01TAcDNnlY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/o5SlX3ZkehI" height="1" width="1"/

pBrian Betron director for a href="http://www.panasonic.com/promos/hdvisual-communications/hd-video-conferencing.asp"HD Visual Communication, Panasonic/a shows off his HD video conference system, in real time./p centerobject width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8B63FUqJVZghl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8B63FUqJVZghl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/object/center pVideo summary:/p pYou are seeing a live demonstration of VC500 HD Visual Communications. Brian Betron is situated in Florida while Ramon Ray (Smallbiztechnology.com) is in New Jersey. /p pThey are seeing each other through a plasma HD TV with 1080i, 60 fps and they are using the 360° HD Audio. /p pFrom the customers' point of view VC500 HD Visual Communications is a great experience. /p pPeople feel like they are looking through a window./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KeFQYFq9wCRbEOvPl21l45st6Y0/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KeFQYFq9wCRbEOvPl21l45st6Y0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KeFQYFq9wCRbEOvPl21l45st6Y0/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KeFQYFq9wCRbEOvPl21l45st6Y0/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=W7SQE2x5PUQ:WJJ1AetpsKg:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=W7SQE2x5PUQ:WJJ1AetpsKg:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=W7SQE2x5PUQ:WJJ1AetpsKg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=W7SQE2x5PUQ:WJJ1AetpsKg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=W7SQE2x5PUQ:WJJ1AetpsKg:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=W7SQE2x5PUQ:WJJ1AetpsKg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/W7SQE2x5PUQ" height="1" width="1"/

pimg alt="colleen-debaise.jpg" src="http://smallbiztechnology.com/media/colleen-debaise.jpg" width="78" height="117" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" /Colleen DeBaise is one of the premier journalists focused on the issues of small (growing) businesses. /p pBelow, from the Wall Street Journal, is an excerpt from a href="http://topics.wsj.com/person/D/colleen-debaise/5716"Colleen DeBaise/a's Book ia href="http://www.amazon.com/Street-Journal-Complete-Business-Guidebook/dp/0307408930/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1252939632sr=1-4"THE WALL STREET JOURNAL COMPLETE SMALL BUSINESS GUIDEBOOK/a/i/p pTechnological advances have greatly increased the ease with which you can run and grow a small business. If only technology weren't so complicated./p pThese days, it's tough for any entrepreneur to make it#8212;let alone succeed#8212;without a heavy dose of tech. You need a well-designed and easy-to-use website (that's a no-brainer), plus you might benefit greatly from software, Web applications and equipment that allow you to manage inventory, track customers' purchases, process invoices, manage payroll and communicate with staff. Most entrepreneurs want the freedom to leave the office yet still stay connected, meaning they (and key staff) need to be outfitted with cell phones, laptops and wireless devices./p pNot long ago, the latest technology was only available to the biggest companies with the deepest pockets. Now, prices have dropped as big players such as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and SAP try to tap the small business market. Increasingly, software is becoming available via the Web as "software as a service" or SaaS, replacing more expensive boxed software that needs to be purchased outright and installed. Open-source software, that is, software whose source code is freely available on the Internet for anyone to use or modify, has made it possible for small business owners (usually with the help of developers or consultants) to customize software for their unique needs. a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703309704575413563940231170.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_smallbusiness"(Read the full article here, in the Wall Street Journal)/a/p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SNEs91gJ1iOKncobqlV6rOofHhc/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SNEs91gJ1iOKncobqlV6rOofHhc/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SNEs91gJ1iOKncobqlV6rOofHhc/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SNEs91gJ1iOKncobqlV6rOofHhc/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=b2gy5fOrMJI:TQ4XtUcfvJM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=b2gy5fOrMJI:TQ4XtUcfvJM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=b2gy5fOrMJI:TQ4XtUcfvJM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=b2gy5fOrMJI:TQ4XtUcfvJM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?a=b2gy5fOrMJI:TQ4XtUcfvJM:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight?i=b2gy5fOrMJI:TQ4XtUcfvJM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Smallbiztechnologycom-SmbNewsAndInsight/~4/b2gy5fOrMJI" height="1" width="1"/