The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
In today's competitive business environment, productivity gains can mean the difference between a good year and an outstanding one. Yet, for small and medium businesses (SMBs) operating with limited people and technology resources as well as unrelenting budget constraints, productivity increases don't often seem possible. Technology can be the key enabler for positive growth in productivity. Nonetheless SMBs can face consistent challenges in implementing and managing the same leading-edge technology as a large business without the same big budget. "We looked at setting up our own network applications, but the costs were way out of line," says Roberta Fox, President of Fox Group Consulting, a technology consultancy, based in Markham, Ontario. "By the time I had factored in the price of a server, software licenses and technical support ? it was unrealistic." Still, the need and challenges remained. "We have 15 people dispersed throughout Canada and into the U.S.," says Roberta, "so we need access to each other's real-time schedules and a common company database." The solution was a self-serve bundle of tools from Bell that combines managed email, anti-spam filtering, scheduling, a contact database and file service. Called Productivity Pak, the service bundle is aimed at SMBs with mobile and remote workers and limited resources to dedicate to IT infrastructure. The set of tools integrates familiar and user-friendly Microsoft Outlook? and Window's XP? software, and includes email, automated anti-spam and content filtering, scheduling, contact, storage sharing and task management. Pricing starts at $19.95 for the full service bundle. "We now have one company-wide database that only has to be entered once and everybody can see it," she says. "There's a lot of collective group information we need to share when working with our larger clients. They always had access with their in-house technology solutions and support organizations. Now we, as a small business, have access to these same sophisticated network technologies." With the right technology solution, any SMB can pack more productivity into their business. More information on ProductivityPak is available at www.bell.ca/productivitypak. -News Canada
