Patricia Fusco

Mid-sized manufacturers are getting serious about tackling product lifecycle management (PLM). They don’t have much of a choice since time to market — the time it takes to get an idea for a product from design, to manufacturing, through the supply chain system and around to after-sale services — grows shorter and shorter if they […]

Seeking to encourage small businesses to enter into the world of server-based computing, Microsoft plans to release an inexpensive bundle of its server system early in October. While small businesses will enjoy the ease-of-use and low introductory pricing, the cost of additional licenses could temper the product debut. To date, small businesses have been slow […]

Microsoft Publisher is the Rodney Dangerfield of design software — it doesn’t get any respect. That’s about to change with the release of the 2003 edition of Publisher. Earlier versions of the software more or less focused on home use — designing cards, calendars, invitations and the like. This time around, Publisher 2003 provides just […]

Over the past week, a series of viruses — most recently one known as Sobig-F — have infected e-mail systems worldwide, resulting in millions of unwanted messages. To help small businesses thwart future outbreaks of looming virus variants, SmallBusinessComputing gathered advice from several industry experts. Joe Hartman, Trend Micro director of anti-virus research for North […]

If you’ve attended any type of business expo or sat through a sales presentation from a potential vendor over the past five years, odds are good that you witnessed a PowerPoint presentation. Microsoft’s ubiquitous presentation graphics program helps you create a visual impact either in-person or online. What makes PowerPoint particularly powerful is that it […]

Over the next several weeks we’ll be taking a closer look at each of the elements included in the Small Business Edition of Microsoft Office 2003. This includes Word, Excel, Outlook with Business Contact Manager, PowerPoint, Publisher and relevant add-on applications, such as SharePoint. This week, we take a look at the heart and soul […]

Born from Microsoft’s Nov. 2001 acquisition of Great Plains Software, Small Business Manager has come a long way in serving small business management needs over the past few years. Great Plains remains a well-known financial software solutions provider under Microsoft’s guidance — small businesses should expect no less from the latest iteration of Small Business […]

According to Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based research firm, there are more than 50 million aging computers sitting on desks in offices around the world. These machines were built before the millennium — many were purchased between 1998 and 1999 in anticipation of Y2K problems. Smaller businesses often purchased consumer machines with Windows 98, while mid-sized […]

Gadgets, doodads and thingamabobs are not the mainstay of SmallBusinessComputing.com. But every once in a while, we come across a contraption that makes business communications a little easier — the Plantronics’ CT12 cordless headset telephone is one of these new-fangled, must-see devices designed specifically for home office use. The Plantronics CT12 is a single-line digital […]

All of the major vendors provide desktop and server anti-virus antidotes — this list includes McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro, CA and Sophos — as well as MicroWorld Technologies. MicroWorld is a lesser-known anti-virus vendor, but its virus thwarting solutions are worth taking a look at. MicroWorld has offices in the U.S. and India. It sells […]

The primary audience for this 288-page soft cover book is entry-level networking technicians. But sales and marketing or other non-technical professionals working in the IT industry will find it just as interesting as students and instructors will. Cisco Networking Simplified serves as a very basic introduction to networking technologies. It provides an overview of technical […]

Unfortunately, many small businesses wait until after a network attack has taken place before they investigate the benefits of setting up a firewall. Research firm AMI-Partners report that only 35 percent of U.S. small businesses currently use firewalls to protect their computer networks. Founded in 1993, Check Point Software Technologies has grown to be a […]