Dear Dan: What are some of the best new Web-based tools and technologies you’ve seen lately for small business? – Keeping Up
Dear Keeping Up: So far, 2008 has produced a bumper crop of new and interesting Web-based tools, technologies and solutions for small business. Here are several of the best recent product and service launches:
• Self-Serve Appointment Scheduling: No personal assistant? No worries. TimeDriver (www.timedriver.com) is a new Web-based service that calls itself an online personal appointment scheduler. The idea is to create an online space where sales, service and other professionals – as well as customers and prospects – can quickly book appointments through a single e-mail or Web site visit. TimeDriver aims to eliminate the aggravation of back-and-forth schedule hunting by helping it happen in one place at one time. It also has features that encourage people to book your time or services.
• Online Event Management: For business purposes, most online invitation sites lack a certain savoir-faire. Newly-launched Pingg.com is changing that. Choose how your event communications are sent to each guest – via e-mail, SMS/texting, online, print (Pingg will print and mail your invites), or posted to Facebook. Design branded invites by uploading logos, product shots, ad campaigns, etc., and pick fonts and colors to match your business brand. With Pingg, you get to customize, create, schedule and track from a single event management page that can also include your biz videos.
• Identity Theft Rule Compliance: CompliancePal.com offers easy online tools to help businesses satisfy new federal rules on protecting customers against identity theft. Starting Nov. 1, any business that takes a credit application must comply with the new “Identity Theft Red Flags Rule.” This includes, for example, auto, motorcycle or RV dealers, property management firms/landlords, as well as mortgage lenders, banks and other credit-granting entities. Rules require that you conduct a risk assessment, identify all accounts, develop a written identity theft prevention plan, train appropriate staff and more.
• Managing Tech Overload: When it comes to managing communications, PC networks, security, hosted applications and sundry IT goodies, many small businesses run on overload. One answer is to outsource the whole mess. Evolve IP (www.evolveIP.net) joins a new breed of “managed technology providers” jumping in to help. Evolve bundles all the e-mail, telephone, back-end networking, security and data applications a company needs into a single package that’s managed and hosted remotely. •
Daniel Kehrer can be reached at
editor@business.com.
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