You're returning from a business trip, and your flight is postponed. No worries. You simply update your out-of-office setting on your Windows Mobile phone, so customers and colleagues get an e-mail that you're running late.
So, you grab a coffee and check your mail. You accept a meeting request for that afternoon, and forward the invitation to a colleague, who should also be in the meeting. You see a mail about an important deal and download the entire message instantly.
Finally you land, and you're heading for the meeting. Curses! You can't find the directions the client sent by e-mail. So you search your Exchange Server mailbox, entering the client's name and “directions” as key words - and voila, the map is downloaded and you are safely on your way. At the meeting, the client is late too, so you have time to check the rest of your mail.
This level of mobility and convenience is fast becoming part of everyday business, even for the smaller businessman. It's what Microsoft South Africa's Small and Medium Business and Partner Solutions lead Mark Reynolds calls the power of the centralised network - the ability to allow the entrepreneur to conduct his business from anywhere with mobile devices.
And it's not going to break the bank, either. Reynolds says products like Windows Small Business Server 2008 offers small and mid-sized businesses (SMEs) the same features used by larger companies - e-mail, Internet connectivity, internal Web sites, remote access, support for mobile devices, file and printer sharing, backup, and restore - at an affordable price.
Hot new technology is not just a nice to have, though. According to a study by Keystone Strategy and the Harvard Business School, companies that neglect their information technology (IT) infrastructure risk falling behind their competitors and damaging their business.
The multi-country study, entitled Information Technology (IT) Drives Growth, found that good IT makes a quantifiable, positive difference to a company's business performance. Businesses using superior software enjoy significantly higher worker productivity, and managers have better insight and control over key levers in their business.
Through its sponsorship of the Enablis Business Plan LaunchPad, Microsoft aims to assist the budding entrepreneurs in the tourism, agricultural, construction, business services, cultural, 'green', manufacturing, marketing, transport and, of course, ICT spaces to use technology in such as way that their businesses can grow faster and more effectively.
Reynolds says small business owners need to really focus on differentiating between what is critical and what is 'nice to have' at this time. “To achieve greater productivity and cost savings, and operate smarter and more strategically, effective business software is far more of an enabler than most people realise. Making the right technology investment can help staff to get their job done more quickly and efficiently, improve online and network security and stay connected when out of the office.”
He encourages businesses - either in the making or needing assistance to grow - to enter into the 2009 FNB Enablis Seda Business LaunchPad competition before 18 September, by entering online at www.launchpad2009.biz.
“Most people enter the competition in order to win funding,” says Reynolds. “However, you need to see the competition as a way to take your business to the next level, financially and non-financially, and not simply as a quick fix or easy money.”
The 20 winners in the start-up and expanding business qualifiers in the 10 categories will, however, each receive a business laptop to boost your mobility and business capacity, as well as a graduate business school mentorship, a free 12-month membership of the Enablis Entrepreneurial Network, media exposure; not to mention Microsoft Office Ultimate software, an X-Box multimedia and gaming console, and finally an online banner ad campaign on the popular MSN portal.
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