Ten applications to connect your home office with the world
With flights grounded and international travel on hold, serviced office company Regus, is expecting a rush of people to its centres from where they will video-conference and tele-commute with the world. Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation offers a top ten listing of applications so you can do the same from the comfort of your home office.
Nice to virtually meet you
You may not be able to reach them by air but it is possible to speak with customers and partners through the airwaves. Here’s my top listing of applications that won’t cost you the earth.
Attend meetings
Say ‘hello’ and talk business with counterparts by utilising these online tools and services:
• Dimdim – allows you to attend live meetings, demonstrations and webinars
www.dimdim.com• Ketchup – enables you to share and record meeting notes
www.useketchup.com• Pow Wow Now - free conference calling at ‘Open Access’ level. Priced packages also available
www.powwownow.co.uk• Skype - free and easy to use conference calls for Skype users
www.skype.com/allfeatures/conferencecall• Tinychat - group video conferencing, for free at
www.tinychat.com
• GoToWebinar – host a meeting of many and present to potential customers by inviting them to join you for an interactive webinar
www.gotowebinar.com Manage projects
Stay on top of projects and in touch with partners via one of these project management tools:
• Basecamp - allows you to create projects, invite people to view them, upload files and make comments. It’s effective online project management that can be accessed from anywhere
www.basecamphq.com
• GoogleDocs - share documents via Google with GoogleDocs. You can edit on the move, choose who accesses documents and share changes in real-time
docs.google.com• Glasscubes - this tool offers project management, collaboration and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) all in one package
www.glasscubes.com• Huddle - offers simple and secure online workspaces. Huddle is hosted so there’s no software to download and it’s free to get started
www.huddle.netEmma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation [www.enterprisenation.com] the home business website and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’ Her next book ‘Working 5 to 9 – how to start a business in your spare time’ will be published in May 2010.