The Global Gen World

Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM) was created in response to the demand for business-grade Instant Messaging (IM). There was also the need to ensure security and legal compliance as millions of consumer IM accounts are being used by employees of companies and organizations for business purposes. Lotus software initially launched the IBM Lotus some time in 1998 with Microsoft following suit with its Microsoft Exchange. Succeeding developments consisted of the Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and the Office Communications Server 2007.

IBM Lotus and Microsoft have both introduced federation between their EIM systems and some of the public IM networks so that a single interface may be used by employees to their internal EIM system and their AOL, MSN and Yahoo! Contacts. There are bound to be risks and liabilities for companies without effective management and support for IM use, thus the need to consider the aspect of security.

Standard video conferencing is associated with prohibitive costs. The introduction of web conferencing is an important development in business communication as it has enabled cost to decrease while application increases. More than ever, business can be done in the comfort of people’s homes courtesy of their desktop computer. Web conferencing has allowed users to do many things at a click of a button, doing away with the substantial cost entailed in traveling to do business. It has provided a suitable substitute to face-to-face meetings as users see, hear, text, chat, present and share information.

For all intents and purposes, people can meet through web conferencing whenever and wherever needed as long as the participants have access to an online PC or laptop. High costs associated with bandwidth are no longer a deterrent to communication due to the tremendous savings afforded by web conferencing.

I began my internet marketing career at a company that sold diamonds over the internet (yes, people do buy diamonds online…). As part of my position I was in charge of marketing for the site as well as foreseeing the development of our admin program and shopping cart software. As pioneers in our field, we spent a fortune on development of various in-house tools and made many modifications along the way as we gained experience. It is difficult to calculate what we spend on our programs but a rough estimate would put our investment in the hundreds of thousands of dollars on in-house software solutions alone.

While this investment was more than justifiable according to our business model, it’s hard not to laugh at what we spent on development compared to the cost of comparable programs readily available by third party vendors today. Take the shopping cart software solution provided by ashopcommerce.com for example. Out of curiosity I tried out their demo version which is available online (you don’t have to download or install anything – they simply give you access to a demo account so you can see how it works). I must say I was more than impressed. They offer one of the most complete ecommerce software solutions I have ever seen for a mere fraction of the price of what we paid in developing our own system. Ashop Commerce goes way beyond a typical shopping cart program and provides full CRM capabilities, website statistics and analysis features and complete inventory control and management. I guess when you’re dealing with the online economy you shouldn’t be surprised when things evolve at lightning speed…

Many people who go through the process of setting up a new business quickly discover they are in a typical catch 22 situation when it comes to financing their business. It’s no secret that getting almost any type of business off the ground requires significant up-front capital and unless you have a business partner with deep pockets or an angel investor you are stuck at the mercy of bank loans. The problem is that most banks don’t tend to give much credit to new businesses as they typically don’t have much to back themselves in terms of collateral or cash flow. Of course reaching a point where you have a solid enough business where your cash flow or securities satisfy a bank is tough to achieve without initial capital (hence the catch 22). In fact, in many cases, by the time a business reaches a point where banks are willing to finance them – they typically don’t need the financing anymore anyway.

This is especially true in today’s banking market where most banks have suffered from the subprime crisis and are extremely tight with credit. But this is not to say it’s not possible to get the right small business loan today – you just have to turn to the right places. A great option is available online at afsloansonline.com. AfsLoansOnline introduces a new concept for Small Business Loans which offers applicants a no risk, no loss process since they don’t charge any application fees or prequalifying fees and if they aren’t able to accommodate you with a suitable unsecured loan to fit your business needs you pay nothing. It is a known fact that most businesses end up closing down due to finance issues and not due to a poor business model. The proper financial solution can often go a long way.

A contact manager program can help keep your life more organized since it stores in fields like a database record. Typical fields would include one for your contacts’ first names, another for their last names, still another for separate lines of addresses and contact numbers and so on. A field can easily be added when more information needs to be included.

The more popular contact manager programs allow the user to assign categories to contacts such as Christmas category which would include all the contacts that have to be given Christmas cards. Most tools related to contact management can easily input data from other programs which is a lot faster than retyping by hand.

Some careers can be better enhanced if telecommunicating is used rather than enduring long driving hours to get from the house to the office. It helps the employee stay connected to the office even without his/her physical presence. Specialized technology is of course required depending on the type of job of the user. However, the basic equipment would normally include a computer, printer, phone and data lines.

Telecommunicating affords greater flexibility in time but working at home or anywhere not considered a formal office can have its own setbacks. It would help to create a working routine that is businesslike as possible such as working hours and work-related matters.

The PowerPoint Program is a case in point when it comes to versatility. It allows the user to incorporate words, sounds, images and animations into dynamic slide shows. The presentation it affords goes far beyond the traditional slide show and overhead projector manner. There is an option on how the presentation or slide show is to be created.

Templates are chosen according to which is best for the particular purpose at hand. Combination of colors, layouts and images are all considered to arrive at a decision. Ready-made backgrounds and special effects can be added plus a short voice-over narration for each slide when required. Users need not be afraid to experiment in their bid to provide the best presentation as outstanding results can come from the most unexpected combination.