by David Moorman, President

A truly mobile office can be a tricky feat if you don’t have access to cloud technology. This Thanksgiving season, I am grateful for the advancements in our ITility by DynaSis cloud technology because of the flexibility and increased productivity it gives my business. As a business executive I need to access my company data and information on the go in real time. Over the holiday weekend I was able to do just that using an app on my iPhone. Using just my phone I was able to login to the company network, edit a document and send it back to my employee in the office, all while standing in the middle of New York city watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade with my family. While working on vacation is not my ideal, I was thankful for the ability to edit that critical document and still communicate with my employees just as if I was in the office. And because ITility by DynaSis cloud technology works on any platform, I was able to use one of the most popular devices out there--my Apple iPhone. Check out our ITility by DynaSis cloud solution for an easy way to create seamless mobility in your office. Happy Holidays!

by David Moorman, President

This isn't another lecture about minding your e-mail manners. This is a story about a new subset of e-mail etiquette. Call it wireless politeness.

An increasing number of e-mail messages are being received on small, wireless devices with limited screen space — devices such as Windows Mobile-based Smartphones. Being polite is still important. But so are a number of other considerations, including brevity, diction and consideration for bandwidth.

Don't you hate checking your e-mail and having the subject line be so long that it scrolls forever until I can figure out what the topic is, or whether it's important? Worse is the one-word subject line that says nothing and you have to open it to find out what it is and discover it's 30 lines of nothing.

So what is the etiquette for sending e-mail messages to and from wireless devices? Here are seven tips.

1. First, determine if you're sending to a wireless device.
How do you do that? Easy. Look for telltale signs, such as abbreviated words, emoticons, or the ever-helpful "Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld." When you see that, you can be relatively sure that when you reply, you're shooting a message through the air to a device that doesn't have a lot of room, both in terms of the display screen space and in terms of bandwidth. That's when you have to watch your wireless manners.

2. Don't overabrvt.
Getting to the point quickly is good, but don't over-abbreviate your words and sentences until your recipient doesn't understand what you're saying. I mean, what's the harm in writing, "I sent the files you requested yesterday," rather than, "Sent fls u rqd ystrdy." Think I'm exaggerating? I have dozens of e-mails sent to me from wireless devices that were almost incomprehensible. Why return the favor? Be brief, but also be clear. It sure beats having to resend the message in order to clarify.

3. The subject line isn't everything, but it should often be the only thing.
Want to make a wireless e-mail recipient really happy? Then keep your message so short and to the point that opening the actual message is unnecessary. For example, instead of a message header "call me, please," you should say "problem: pls call (your number)." This makes it far easier to process the information, and far less taxing on valuable air time. If your message is longer, be sure to give and appropriate header that's concise and can't be confused for spam. Otherwise, it could be ignored.

4. Put yourself in the receiver's shoes.
If you violate any of these rules, be prepared to have your message ignored.  And then, of course, there are spam guards that can be set so that e-mail that is legitimate but too wordy or containing too much HTML code can be summarily discarded. Do you really want that happening to your important messages?

5. Ask before you tell your life story.
Graduates of the e-mail etiquette school already know this one. Before you send a big attachment, find out if the receiver can handle the file. With wireless e-mail, take that a step further. If you're thinking of sending more than a paragraph, check first to make sure the recipient can deal with the information. I once got chewed out by a client for sending a brief e-mail to an account that was being checked wirelessly through a satellite phone (he was at sea). I won't make that mistake again.

6. Cut the funny stuff.
E-mails that contain animation, graphics, or anything else that might challenge the bandwidth-starved should be avoided at all costs.

7. Skip your John Hancock.
Signatures tend to get so big and lofty that they clog up the pipeline. It isn't just the name, phone number, address and several e-mail addresses. Now it seems as if every signature is also followed by lengthy legal disclaimers "This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information." Puh-leeze. No one needs to see that disclaimer when space is at a premium. And there's no easier way to strain a business relationship than to bog a wireless message down with that kind of gobbledygook.

Bottom line: keep it short and sweet — and remember that if you don't, you'll get ignored or worse, incur the wrath of a customer.

But relax. There's a way to at least heighten your awareness of the fact that you're dealing with wireless recipients. In Outlook 2003, scroll over to the Navigation Pane, click Mail. Then on the Tools menu, click Rules and Alerts. You can create a rule to move messages from a user who you know is on a wireless account, or based on keywords such as "Blackberry," to a designated folder.

That way, at least you know when you have to be on your best behavior.

Reprinted from Microsoft Small Business Center (link no longer available)

by David Moorman, President

You already know allowing employees to telecommute can help the environment, reduce traffic congestion, increase your talent pool, and even increase employee satisfaction. So with all these benefits, why isn’t it more widely adopted? Common concerns include loss of control over employees, decreased productivity, or security risks. The good news is advances in technology are calming these fears in addition to making working remotely as seamless as working at the office.

Employers Fear Loss of Control
The word telecommuting can strike fear in the hearts of many managers. How will I keep tabs on my people? How will we stay connected? While telecommuting does require a certain amount of trust and a results oriented management approach rather than an observation based management approach, there are ways to monitor employees that work remotely. Many companies use live chat applications that denote idle versus active status allowing them to peek in on employee activity as well as chat in real time. Other companies may use a web portal to access applications needed for work and monitor employee login and log off records. And for the ultra conscious manager, company computers can be equipped with spyware-like agents for monitoring employee activity. Spyware isn’t just a hacker tool you know. And don’t forget about phone records; many voice over IP phone systems provide detailed call reporting so you know if your team is reaching out to prospects or just hitting the snooze alarm. While you may not be able to pop your head over the cube wall anymore, you can still check up on employees with simple monitoring tools.

Decrease in Productivity
Won’t my employees productivity suffer with extra distractions or inability to access work files as easily? You could make the argument that employees that work at home can easily find other things to do besides work, but isn’t it the same scenario at the office? Employees at the office can waste time just as easily between trading gossip at the water cooler, yacking at the photocopier or changing up their fantasy football players for Sunday night’s game.
On the point of access, advanced software as a service (SaaS) delivery methods deliver the same experience no matter where you are or which device you use. Easy access can even mean employees log on after-hours to finish emails after the kids go to bed, actually increasing productivity. Plus employees that telecommute can work during hours that would otherwise be spent in 400 traffic.

Telecommuting Introduces Security Risks
Some make a valid point when it comes to telecommuting introducing security threats. Wireless Internet cafes can breed wild virus and spyware issues, which is why employee education and security policy is a must. Teaching employees about such threats can mitigate risks while providing secure Internet access through personal air cards or Clear technology can close the gap. Creating web based portals and using cloud technology alleviates the risk of data falling into the wrong hands if a laptop is stolen. These technologies allow data to be saved centrally to the datacenter instead of having copies of sensitive data on local machines, making a stolen laptop a few hundred dollar loss instead of a few hundred thousand dollar loss.

Technologies like cloud computing, SaaS, VoIP, and more are giving employees freedom and management peace of mind. Work no longer has to be somewhere you go but something you do no matter where you happen to be. So what are you waiting for? Your fuzzy slippers are calling your name.