The Internet at Work

A year ago Newfangled decided to open a North Carolina office. We already had one employee in NC, but our decision to move half of us there created infrastructure challenges that had the potential to disrupt daily operations. Simple things like sending and receiving faxes while we were away from the office became problematic. Other factors like access to email, our phone system, and tracking important administrative information like sales pipeline, cash flow, invoices, and project status all involved important details that could have easily fallen between the cracks as we became less centralized during transition.

Fortunately, we discovered a handful of small business solutions that kept things flowing while we moved households, worked from hotel rooms or home offices, and set ourselves up in new locations. Most of these business tools have one a common denominator - they're internet based.


Most of the tools that helped us make our transition related to communications. Having some of us in NC, some at home, and others in RI, and the added complexity that our locations were changing from week to week made getting through to the people we needed when we needed them... tricky. And if it was tricky for us, what about when our clients needed to reach us?

Verizon Wireless/BlackBerry - Competition in the wireless industry is heated. I'm well aware as I write this that changes telecommunications could make this writing obsolete before I even deliver it. I also recognize that, with regard to cell phone coverage, location changes everything. At the moment, Verizon Wireless has by far had the widest and most dependable access for our company. I live out in the country in Chapel Hill. Throughout the past year we've tried T-Mobile, Sprint, and Cingular. None of them could give dependable coverage. But I get Verizon coverage everywhere I go, in the city and way out in the country. I also like the fact that whenever I call one of my employees on Verizon's network, we don't pay any long distance or use up our minutes. But like I said, these things change so I won't raise the Verizon Wireless flag too high. What I do love, though, is my BlackBerry. I admit it's kind of clunky - it's like the Volvo of cell phones. "They're boxy, but they're good." I've tried other phone and phone/PDA solutions for getting my email on the road. But as far as accessing and sending email while out of the office - nothing beats the BlackBerry. On top of that, Google just released Google Maps for the BlackBerry. I can now scroll and zoom in on real time maps from my phone. All the local search info works just like maps.google.com so I can look-up stores and services just like on the web version. This I like.   next >