Profit /Personal /

Small-Office Technology


Unfortunately, getting a handle on the appropriate technology for your small or home office is like most other small-business tasks: labor-intensive and without clear signposts. Even large companies that identify SOHO (small office/home office) as a market have been slow to extend a hand. Hewlett-Packard, for example, which sells lots of its integrated OfficeJet products and inkjet printers to SOHO sites, doesn't have a page dedicated to the small business market. To find the information, you have to search from H-P's home page; the best search key to use is home-office. There is material to be found on the Web, but not enough. We were unable to find even a single site that will provide thorough hand-holding for the SOHO owner looking for good advice on cost-effective technology.

The Best

The one sector of the corporate world that has figured out the importance of marketing on the Web to small and home office businesses is local telephone companies. One of the slickest business packages can be found at Bell Atlantic's home page. This Baby Bell, which serves the mid-Atlantic states, is putting together a small business center that showcases its services and products through success stories. This site is still under construction, but Bell Atlantic promises a bulletin board area for small business owners to share experiences, a classified section, and other resources. The page-top graphics are colorful, and if Bell Atlantic delivers on its promises, this will develop into a useful and interesting site that will help small businesses make smart technology choices.

Alvin Rosenbaum writes the Home Office Advisor column for Worth Magazine. Last time we looked, Rosenbaum was writing about his move from a downtown Washington, D.C. office to a telecommuting site at home. (Quite well, thank-you.) Though he may not address your technology concerns directly, his column's worth checking on regularly.

The Home Business Review is a monthly newspaper offering useful articles, and selected articles are available on-line at this site. The August 1995 feature, for example, "Telecommunications for the Home-Based Business," demystifies dealing with a long-distance carrier. Other articles cover accounting software and buying a PC.

Getting help with computer glitches is one of the banes of the small business. That's the value of BugNet, a home page dedicated to computer bugs, glitches, incompatibilities, and ways around them. The chief focus is the Windows world, but there's also information for OS/2 and Mac users.

Gil Gordon Associates offers a nicely put together home page on Telecommuting, Teleworking, and Alternative Officing. Though much of the emphasis here is on empowering office workers to move their work site from the office to home or a remote office, you'll find this page an interesting point of departure for thinking about new ways to work.

The Rest

AT&T at Work has a SOHO page that tells three stories--about a new law partnership, a home-based collection agency, and telecommuting. Each tale is put together like a children's story and illustrates AT&T's products and services. If you're shopping for communications equipment, do take a look, but this graphically uninteresting site won't hold your attention for long. (Another page, AT&T Resources for New Business, offers fee-based guidance on new business issues that include technology.)

Ameritech's Small Business Marketplace, from another of the Baby Bells, offers its products and services here, including phone lines, voice mail, call waiting, 800 numbers, and Centrex systems.

If you decide to be a Microsoft shop, the software giant in Redmond, Washington, will help you plan your migration. Microsoft Business Source offers links to guides and information on incorporating or moving to its products, and, in fine Microsoft tradition, even gives you a Moving Wizard: a program that will help you create a customized moving plan tailored to your hardware and software needs.

The Business Resource Center from Khera Communications is a collection of information to help small businesses function and grow. Make sure to look at Tools That No Small Business Should Be Without. .

Entrepreneur Weekly is the home page for a weekly newsletter for entrepreneurs. Much of it is about marketing, but among the past issues on file are some discussions of using technology for small businesses, with an emphasis on the Internet and marketing tools.

Haworth is an office furniture company with an attitude that places it on the cutting edge of business environments. For a small or home office, for example, Haworth sells Steamer, a completely self-contained ergonomic office that's also portable. Haworth also offers an eminently browsable home page.

Siemens Rolm Communications Inc. offers lots of information about how its products are used in small to mid-sized business environments, but it will take a lot of browsing at this site to find it.

Home Office Mall, a collection of on-line information and services, offers a Computer Reliability Report that's a synopsis of a regular PC World feature that rates a desktop computer's reliability by brand name. You'll also see a link from the Mall to the Smart Valley Telecommuting Initiative, a Silicon Valley report. And at the top of the page, check out The Office, the Electro-entopic Satellite OffiCenter, a self-contained workspace.

The Xerox Small Office/Home Office Home Page provides you with product and supply information on Xerox copiers for small office environments.

SoHo Central is the home page of the Home Office Association of America. Unfortunately, there isn't much here on technology.

by Alan Kay

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Copyright (c) 1995 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company is prohibited. Internet Life and the Internet Life logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company.

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Internet Life Vol.1 No.1 Winter 1995