Lauren Simonds

Mobile computing, one of the hottest business trends — both big and small — offers many advantages over desktop PCs. The obvious one is that it let’s you be, well, mobile. But mobility can come at a fairly high price, and no, we’re not referring to the price tag. We mean theft. A stolen or […]

E-mail may be an indispensable business tool, but unprotected, it’s also a conduit for all manner of spam, viruses and intrusion attacks. Keeping e-mail clean can be a challenge for any small business. And companies that must meet industry or governmental compliance regulations face yet another layer of complexity: managing, tracking and archiving e-mail. Privacy […]

Job contracts from the government and major corporations can provide a great source of revenue for small businesses — if they can get in the door to meet, negotiate and win the bids. That’s a rather daunting if — unless you have a little help on your side. Fortunately, small businesses have their own personal […]

What would you do if someone gave you $100,000 to spend on technology to improve your business? If you’re like a lot of small business owners, you might not even know where to begin. That’s why the Small Business Technology Institute and Intel structured the World of Difference contest in phases, so that entrants learned […]

It’s hard to believe that anyone running a business today would do so without using anti-virus or anti-spam protection — but it happens more often than you might think. According to a study conducted by the Small Business Technology Institute, 20 percent of SMBs do not use anti-virus software to scan their e-mail — the […]

Retailers looking for ways to integrate Point of Sale (POS) technology into their business might be interested in two new announcements from Microsoft. The news pertains to small, single-store shop owners and to growing, multiple-store owners. First up, Microsoft has established relationships with three hardware vendors — Casio, DigiPoS and HP — to provide all-in-one […]

If you plan to be in the New York City area on January 26-27, you should know about the World of Difference Conference. The third of three conferences, co-sponsored by Intel and the Small Business Technology Institute (SBTI), WOD offers small business owners a chance to immerse themselves in educational modules designed to help them […]

Online merchants had a great holiday shopping season. But they’d better watch out: Customer satisfaction is dropping. That’s the verdict of two separate reports released on Tuesday. The e-tailing group and ForeSee Results both found evidence that online merchants could be growing complacent. But this contradicts a recent report by Goldman Sachs, Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris […]

Plasma TVs, DVD systems and multimedia gadgets weren’t the only items on display last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Companies also took the opportunity to showcase the latest tools aimed at small businesses. While there were more products than we can mention in this forum, we’ve got a sampling of […]

You won’t find processing payroll at the top of any small business owner’s list of favorite pastimes. Dealing with state and federal tax forms and deadlines, personal payroll deductions, direct deposit and a myriad of other considerations, employers experience payroll as a time-consuming, complex and often frustrating necessity. PayCycle.com, an online payroll system with a […]

Small businesses with more than 50 employees, more than one physical location or that need to frequently support their customers face challenges when it comes to providing effective, cost-conscious technical support. Options include outsourcing, telephone support or relying on online companies such as WebEx, GoToAssist, LogMeIn and a host of others.

Scan, identify and control may sound like the Sci-Fi mantra of alien invaders, but it’s simply a method that a company called Cymphonix employs to help small businesses keep their networks operating safely and more efficiently. Click here for a larger image. Cymphonix, a 25-employee company based in Sandy, Utah has just released the latest […]