As an entrepreneur, I truly believe in the goodness and ingenuity of the human spirit. Your staff wants to do the right thing, and shares in each success of the enterprise. A view from the top, however, holds that to ensure the survival of the enterprise in tough economic times -- every business decision should be made with an eye towards recent technological innovations.
Satellite Office(s)
According to Colliers International, 2009 rates for office space per square foot are ranging between $27.37 and $41.15 in U.S. suburban and downtown office markets. Even if your satellite office space is cramped and modest, rents are a sunk cost that doesn't really increase sales.
For small remote operations, consider setting up employees, sales personnel, and consultants with home offices. Equipped with a PC and Internet connection, a VoIP phone, and web meeting and web conferencing technologies like Web Conferencing and Web Demos, you can 'virtually' meet on a regular basis as if in the same room.
Additionally, remote employees can gain secure access to the corporate network's files, intranet, and devices using remote technologies built into Online Remote Access and Online Remote Desktop services. Leading edge organizations recognize that telecommuting is a trend that has benefits for both employer and employee. Today, more than 30 million US adults telecommute and that number is expected to double within the next 6 years. Besides the obvious cost benefits, studies have shown that productivity actually improves when your employees work at home.
Email and Web Server(s)
Everything that happens on the internet is through the client - server communication model. A client is a device connected to the internet through a unique internet protocol (IP) address. A server is another device connected to the internet with its own IP address and does the task of serving web pages and email messages. But the server can be located anywhere on the Internet - remember this key point for later.
It's a given that companies will equip an employee's desktop with the client piece of the equation, i.e. a PC, Mac, laptop, etc. But is it possible that your web site and email servers could run more reliably, securely and cost-effectively if the server devices were to reside somewhere other than the home office?
Remember, servers are simply computer programs that run on high speed machines. Third party providers such as Google, Network Solutions, RackSpace, and others offer business class email, cloud and web hosting for a modest fee. These providers use machines designed to accurately handle the concurrent requests of millions of clients who need access and delivery of a webpage or email. These services are self-managed, secure, reliable, and flexible - with the ability to rapidly scale up or down.
Phones and Phone System(s)
Now that you've got so many employees at disparate locations, how do you manage to (economically) stay in contact with them, and keep them in contact with customers and associates? The answer is found within another Internet technology known as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This technology is used to make telephone calls via the Internet.
With a VoIP phone, your remote employees can have an 'extension' on the home office PBX by using a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) connection. This is a service offered by an Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) that will 'virtually' connect any number of remote VoIP phones to your company's main PBX, and to the existing telephone system infrastructure via the Internet. Inbound calls are routed through the main office toll or toll-free phone number, and outbound calls have the Caller ID of the same number.
And my favorite part is that the SIP connection typically will use the same Internet connection that is used for web and email access - so the cost is virtually zero.
Large Help Desk Department / IT Staff
Nothing irks me more than when I analyze cost-per-call and call volume data of our 'Help Desk' to find large holes of nothingness where this staff is basically being paid to breathe air.
What is needed is a tool that allowed internal and external customers to report a problem online, instantly alerting an IT staff member to alter the rules of physics and jump on the customer's desktop - while controlling the keyboard and mouse to diagnose and fix the problem - thereby restoring everything to perfect harmony.
Web-based remote support and remote access tools can restore order to cost-per-call numbers, and can help any business owner who has one or more computers in his/her organization that occasionally under-performs. These tools are also a great way to economically support your remote satellite locations, as well as remote web, email, and phone servers.
Large Travel Budget or The 'Million Dollar' Video Conferencing System
We can all agree that connecting with prospects, customers, associates, and vendors is important in the business world. But does every contact require a road or plane trip, with one or more hotel stays, countless meals, time away from family, etc. etc. etc.?
With a technology called web conferencing, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is 'virtually' connected to the other participants via the internet. With web conferencing, your organization can easily provide web demos, webcasts, webinars, online sales presentations, and live online meetings to customers and prospects. Additionally, web conferencing can be used for conducting online training, collaboration, and online meetings with associates, simply from each other's desktop.
