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Biz To Go: Taking Your Office With You

Written by: suzanne rodriguez 719 views

The days of missing important phone calls and being out of touch with the office or your data files when you’re on the road are long gone–and good riddance! Thanks to cell phones and a wide range of Web-based productivity tools, you can take your office with you anywhere you go.

Don’t believe it? Check out this list of tools and apps that will make your on-the-go life easier in 2010 and beyond:

Office Application: Google Docs is a popular—and free!—suite of online office applications. Among them are a word processor, a spreadsheet program, and slideshow presentation software. Files are stored online, where they can be easily accessed or shared with other Google Docs users. There are way too many features to list here, but here’s a sampling: templates for docs, spreadsheets and presentations; engineering functions; offline access in 40 languages; create your own drawings and diagrams; themes for forms; export images into .xls files; shared folders; bulk upload. To learn more, watch the video Google Docs in Plain English.

By the way, many people prefer Microsoft Office Online (free) or Zoho (free for individual use). It’s worth checking them all out, even trying them all out. While the offerings are the same or similar, the execution and smaller details differ…one of them will be perfect for you.

Virtual Phone Services: LiNE2 adds a second line with voicemail to your cell phone, allowing separate handling for business and personal callers. Right now the company is offering a free 30-day trial. If you need advanced features, LiNE2 integrates with toktumi’s powerful hosted PBX system, which offers advanced features such as call screening, auto attendant, do not disturb, conferencing, and after-hours call handling. Another company that gives you a second cell phone number is SecondVoice (watch their explanatory video).

Online File Storage: The Internet abounds with storage plans, and many sites offer free storage, ranging from 1GB on up. For an overview of storage sites with good reputations, refer to my Plugin post from this past October, In the Clouds: 11 Sites Offering Free Data Storage.

Managing Tasks: Taskwise provides a complete solution for easy and comprehensive task-management, with products suitable for all users, from a one-person business to a large company. A full-featured ToDo list, a powerful task manager, notepad and documents, online access and file sharing, syncing of multiple clients, and much more. The software runs on Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista, and is available for computers and mobile phones. Check out the Taskwise Quickstart Video Guide to get an idea of the feature set.

Keeping Track of Billable (and other) Time: Paymo is a handy time-tracking and invoice application. It’s free for 1-3 users (3 invoices per month), and $3.99/month for additional employees. Time Tracking features include use via Web browser, Windows tray app or Mac widget; all time entries saved; works offline with Google Gears; customized reporting; and more. The online-only Time Tracker 2.0 keeps track of the time you spend on designated tasks and/or billable clients. The software is simple in concept—as the Home page says, it’s “a to-do list with a clock.” You can export collected data into a CSV or XML file and email it. You can run multiple tasks at the same time

Calendar Sharing: Google Calendar gives you and those you designate instant access to a shared calendar. See a demo of the calendar.

Scheduling Meetings: Timebridge Scheduling Assistant is an innovative web service that works across time zones and different calendar systems. It networks calendars to see everybody’s availability, proposes the best time to meet, issues invitations, and collates responses (no calendar details are shown; merely blocks of free and busy time). You can also conference online, and Timebridge has recently formed a partnership with Box.net that allows meeting attendees to upload, share, and collaborate on meeting documents. Timebridge is free, although its Web meeting feature is not. See an explanatory video about Timebridge.

Meeting Online: Billed as “the world’s easiest web conference,” Open-source Dimdim offers a free plan where up to 20 people around the world can meet online. The free plan offers a rich feature set and doesn’t expire. After 20 people, consider the paid plans such as Dimdim Pro, where up to 50 people can meet online for $19/month. See Dimdim’s overview video.

© Suzanne Rodriguez

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