Small-Business Technology

Here, I will be providing a collection of technology-related articles that will appeal to those of you who run a shop or other small business. They also will appeal to those of you who are involved in running a non-profit organisation like a house of worship or an advocacy group. Most of you will be the ones who will be deciding what information-technology equipment you purchase for your business and will also be ending up configuring and managing what you buy. So I have focused this site on the technology that you can effectively “own” and manage yourselves.

Articles Of Interest

• Why it’s important to think of value when buying equipment — An article directed mainly at non-profit organisations but important for small businesses regarding “doing your homework” when buying equipment. This is to make sure you buy equipment that will go for the “long haul” without you ending up out of pocket too frequently.
• Moving your closed-circuit TV system to IP technology – Understanding IP-based video surveillance and how to go about upgrading your video-surveillance system to this technology.
• Using QR Codes to help promote your organisation – An article about how the QR code can come in handy with linking your offline promotion to the switched-on mobile generation of customers.
  
• Even Small Businesses Can Benefit From A Standard Operating Environment – The issues that a small business owner or manager may face if they decide to head towards a standard operating environment
• Business Grade Computer Systems Aren’t Just For The Big Business – An article to help SOHO, community organisations and small business know where to get business-grade computer equipment.
• What are the multiple drive layouts available in your NAS –  Understanding the different ways you can set up your multiple-bay network attached storage to make best use of the hard disks installed in it. This focuses especially on the RAID options that these NAS units offer.
• You may not have to pay extra for Internet access at that business hotel – An article about looking over the accommodation packages and the frequent-lodger programs offered by those hotels in order to avoid paying extra for Internet use there. 
• A computer and IT outlet that exists for the non-profit organisations – I am drawing attention to Connecting Up which is an online IT outlet that is focused towards community and non-profit organisations in order to make sure they have technology that is up-to-date and of a similar standard as everyone else.
  I have also engaged in a telephone interview with Mathan Allington who is the Community Engagement Coordinator to ask how they are providing the cheap resources for these organisations and how they are reaching out to them.
• Avoiding a mess-up with your small business’s or community organisation’s IT – How to make sure that you know where you stand when it comes to the software and services that make up your small business’s or community organisation’s IT. This includes making sure that software, Websites and the like are licensed in the name of the your organisation.
• Should we be managing multiple email accounts – If you end up as the chief “cook and bottle-washer” for your small business or community organisation, you nay have to consider the idea of running multiple email addresses if not just to keep your work and private life separate.
• When use of multiple public accounts isn’t appropriate – Making sure you are transparent about operating multiple online personas especially when it comes to the source of online commentary that you put your name behind.

 Your small business’s network and Internet service

• HomePlug powerline networks in the buusiness environment — An article which will give some guidance about implementing HomePlug powerline networking technology in your small business
• How to effectively establish that Wi-Fi-based mobile network – Setting up a mobile network so you can effectively run two or more Wi-Fi-based mobile peripheral devices like wireless network-attached storage devices or Wi-Fi-capable mobile printers at the same time with your smartphones, tablets or laptops.
• Should I buy a laptop with integral mobile-broadband modem – Buying or specifying an integrated mobile-broadband modem as part of your laptop purchase, including what kind of mobile-broadband service to look towards.
• Fibre broadband coming past your business? What it means for you – An article about what the arrival of a next-generation broadband service can mean for you and your small business. As well, it also talks about having your small business’s network ready for the next-generation broadband service when you are ready to sign up.
• Making Sure Your Small Business Is Ready for IPv6 Technology – How to make sure your small business’s network and Internet presence is ready for IPv6 and how to factor it in to your technology upgrade plans.

Cloud-based “..as-a-service” IT solutions

• What small businesses need to be aware of when considering cloud solutions – What small businesses need to consider if they want to head towards cloud-based or “software-as-a-service” business computing services
• Different kinds of cloud IT systems – What to be aware of – Understanding the different kinds of online-focused IT services being offered to small businesses and how they are set up.

Wi-Fi hotspots and public-access computing

• Basic Information About Provisioning Public Wi-Fi Hotspot Service– What you need to know about providing a public-access Wi-Fi hotspot for your customers or guests.
  

  HP Pavilion dm4 Beats Edition laptop at a trendy cafe’s hotspot

• Implementing HP ePrint technology in a public-printer setup – The bonuses and pitfalls of implementing HP’s ePrint driver-free printing technology for a printing service for the benefit of your customers. This includes how to manage your printer if things get out of control.
• Should you set up a Wi-Fi hotspot in your cafe or bar? – An article that raises issues for cafe and bar owners to consider when thinking of that Wi-Fi hotspot idea. This is an invitation to cafe and bar owners to leave comments about this issue.

Printing in the Small Business

• Colour laser printers – Are they a luxury or not? – an article on considering and choosing colour laser printers for your business
• Considering printing on A3 in the office – Using the A3 or Ledger paper size in the small-business office and how to choose equipment that will print on this paper size
• UPDATED Expecting your printer to be the home or small-business printing press? What does it need – An article about putting your home or small-business desktop printer in to service as your business’s only printing press. It also covers whether you should really outsource that job or use the printer.
• Achieving a failover printer setup in the small business – how to go about using secondary printers like multifunctions as a way of making sure that a printer failure doesn’t affect your business workflow and customer service.
• Should I buy a mobile printer for my laptop – an article about whether to purchase a mobile printer for use with your laptop and what these printers can do. This is more about using these printers as secondary printers while on the road.
• Creating “download-to-print” material for a distributed-printing campaign – Gaining best results out of preparing material that is to be downloaded from your Website for printing. This underscores achieving a document that yields best results on most home or office printers including print-shop equipment.

Audio-Video And Presentation Technology In The Small Business

• DLNA And UPnP AV in the business – An article outlining the relevance of UPnP AV / DLNA multimedia network setups in the business
• The best path for turning a PowerPoint presentation to PNG or JPEG files – How you can create high-resolution PNG or JPEG files fit for your Website or today’s high-resolution screens from your PowerPoint presentation. This is important for those of you who create Websites, do image and video editing or want to have the presentation as part of digital signage on today’s smart TVs and video projectors. (SlideShare presentation)
• HDMI for your small organisation’s video display needs – Whoy consider moving your small organisation’s video display setup towards HDMI connection technology rather than staying wiht VGA technology?
• Web page on a big screen – How? – An article about how to “throw” a Web page on to a larger display for activities like training.
• Elementary Video Software Available For Peanuts – NCH Software and Wondershare offer decent easy-to-use video editing and conversion tools that satisfy the video-creation needs of most small businesses and community organisations for a price that fits these users’ budgets easily. This could create a reason to use your DSLR’s video abilities more or invest in a digital camcorder.
• Showing Photos On The Large Screen In Your Dual-Screen Setup – How to quickly go about putting photos or other bitmap images on the large screen such as your projector without needing to create a presentation on PowerPoint or similar software. This is handy if you are reviewing photos you just took or wanting ot show a batch of photos that were previously organised and made ready for showing, (PDF)
• Creating your own electronic signage for your organisation – How to use current computer and video technology as a visual merchandising tool for your small business or community organisation.
• How to look after your video projector properly – A list of tips to make sure that the video projector that you use in your business or other organisation for those presentations or video display will last a long time. (PDF)

Purchasing And Specification Journals

These are articles detailing how I have helped with specifying or purchasing information-technology equipment for a small business or community organisation. They will help you with establishing what is good value for money when you are purchasing technology for your organisation.

• A new playout computer for the church – Specifying and shortlisting a newer up-to-date computer to replace an existing computer used for AV content playout by the church I now worship God at.

Buyers’ Guides

• Buying A Printer For Your Small Business – How to go about buying that next printer for your small business
• Buying A Projector For Your Small Business – What to look for when you buy your first or next video projector for your small business or community organisation.

Product Reviews

Laptops

• Dell Vostro 3550 business laptop – A durable value-priced business laptop that excels on connectivity and expandability.
• Fujitsu Lifebook SH771 business ultraportable – a durable business-class full-function ultraportable that suits frequent air-travellers or road warriors.
• Hewlett-Packard ProBook 4520s laptop – A business-class laptop computer that can work well as a “work-home” computer or a desktop replacement computer.
• Hewlett-Packard Elitebook 2560p notebook – a highly-durable business notebook that has all the security options for handling high-stakes data.
• Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon – A sturdy 14″ Ultrabook that is part of the Lenovo ThinkPad business laptop family and has its case built out of carbon fibre rather than plastic.
• Toshiba Portege R830 ultraportable – A series of 13″ ultraportable notebooks that can be worth considering for business owners and employees who do a lot of frequent air travel.
• Toshiba Tecra R850 business laptop – A series of Sandy-Bridge-powered business laptops which are optimised for durability in the “work-home” business environment.
• Toshiba Tecra R950 business laptop – An Ivy-Bridge business “work-home” laptop which is equipped with the security where-with-all and has the latest connection expectations such as Bluetooth 4.0.
• Toshiba Satellite / Portege Z830 Series  Ultrabooks – I have reviewed the consumer “Satellite” version of this Ultrabook but this represents a unit of its kind that offers connectivity beyond what the typical Ultrabook offers. Think of the Ethernet network; or use with older VGA-connector displays and projectors; or 3 USB connectors.

Tablet computers

• Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet– A 10″ Android tablet that suits technicians and other similar people who need to have material like catalogues or service manuals with them on the road.
• Lenovo ThinkPad Helix 2 – An 11″ Windows tablet that turns in to a laptop once you attach the supplied keyboard.

Keyboards, Mice and other Input Devices

• ZCan+ Scanner Mouse – A wired mouse that you can use for scanning business cards, till receipts and other small documents. Essential for those of you who travel or work out of the back of your vehicle and use a laptop or other portable computer.

Document Scanners

• Brother PDS-6000 High-Speed Document Scanner – A dedicated document scanner that connects to your computer to scan both sides of many pages of a document very quickly.
• Brother ADS-2800W High-Speed Network Document Scanner – A dedicated document scanner that connects to your home or small business network to scan documents to a NAS, server, online storage service or mobile device.
• Brother DSMobile DS-940DW Wi-Fi Mobile Scanner – A highly-portable scanner that can scan to a microSD card, your computer via USB or your computer or mobile devices via Wi-Fi whether as its own network or as part of an existing network.

Business-Grade Network-Attached Storage

• Western Digital Sentinel DS 5100 Windows Server NAS – A small “breadbox-size” network-attached storage that is actually a Windows-Server-based server. This is a “foot in the door” for a small business who is dabbling with client-server computing or a person who is learning the ropes of Windows Server.

Other Office Equipment

• Brother P-Touch PT-2730 Label Writer – A highly-functional thermal labeller that can be connected to your computer for merged labels or custom-designed labels.
• Brother P-Touch PT-D200 Label Writer – An example of an entry-level battery-powered label writer that can be worked as a secondary labeller.
• Brother P-Touch PT-P750W Wireless Label Printer – A label printer that uses an existing Wi-Fi network or its own Wi-Fi network to print labels from your smartphone, tablet or laptop computer.
• Brother P-Touch PT-P900W Wireless Label Printer – An improved office label printer that can work with your Wi-Fi wireless network or its own Wi-Fi wireless access point to print labels from your mobile device or computer. This system is also part of a labelling setup that can work with barcode scanners or weighing scales or even be set up as a label writer.
• Brother P-Touch PT-E550WVP Handheld Label Writer – A heavy-duty handheld labeller that is pitched at electricians, AV / IT technicians, building maintenance and the like. This has the ability to print from your laptop, smartphone or tablet courtesy of a Wi-Fi link facilitated by an existing small Wi-Fi network or its own Wi-FI network that it creates.
• Brother QL-570 thermal label printer– A general purpose thermal printer for turning out labels or visitor badges
  

  Brother QL-570 label printer

• Brother QL-700 high-speed thermal label printer – A heavy-duty high-speed thermal label printer for those online businesses or office mailrooms.
• Brother QL-1110NWB network thermal label printer – A wide-format high-speed thermal label printer able to be connected via your business’s network or via Bluetooth. Good for logistics such as the stockroom, commercial kitchen food management and similar applications
• Brother VM-100VP visitor management software – A software tool that works with the Brother QL-570 thermal printer to allow the reception desk of a small office to manage visitors who are at their premises.
• Brother TD-2020 label / receipt printer – An idiot-proof thermal printer that can print labels using Brother RD label tape or print receipts and tickets on ordinary “till-roll” thermal paper.

General-Office Printers

Inkjet

• Brother MFC-J4710DW Multifunction Colour Inkjet Printer – A multifunction inkjet printer that prints along the length of the A4 page this allowing for high-speed output and a compact printer design.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, Full Duplex)
• Brother MFC-J5720DW Multifunction Colour Inkjet Printer – The second generation of Brother’s landscape-printing technology is represented here in this printer that can also print A3 from the paper drawers and can turn out good-quality colour work.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, Full Duplex)
• Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet 6500 Wireless – A printer-scanner-fax that can connect to a wired or wireless network and offers the essentials for a home office or small business
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, Duplex Print)
• Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet 6700 Premium – A multifunction printer with the essential requirements for a network-capable printer that isn’t costly to run. Supersedes the previous OfficeJet 6500 series of multifunction printers listed above.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, ePrint receive, ePrint apps, Duplex Print)
• Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet Pro 8500a Plus – The fax-enabled multifunction printer at the top of HP’s business-printer stable which provides an alternative to the colour laser printer in the general office
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, ePrint receive, ePrint apps, Full Duplex)
• Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet Pro 8600a Plus – HP’s latest fax-enabled multifunction printer that is a credible alternative to the economy colour laser printer in the general office.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, ePrint receive, ePrint apps, Scan to Network Storage, Full Duplex)

Monochrome Laser

• HP LaserJet P1560 Series Personal Laser Printer– A small laser printer for use at reception desks and similar locations. This is the economy version of the HP LaserJet P1600 Series Laser Printer which has networking and double-side printing.
  (Direct Connect)
• Brother HL-2240D – A small laser printer suitable for reception desks or a private office printer for professionals. This is the economy version of the Brother HL-2250DN with Ethernet networking and the Brother HL-2270DW with Wi-Fi wireless networking.
  (Direct Connect, Duplex Print)
• Hewlett-Packard LaserJet M1210 Series – A network-enabled “all-in-one” laser-printer (or fax-machine replacement) for the small legal office or medical clinic
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax)
• Brother MFC-7360N – An entry-level network-enabled multifunction laser printer that is IPv6 ready. The economy version of the MFC-7460DN which would be a good document-printing workhorse for the legal office.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax)
• Brother MFC-L2713DW – An entry-level network-enabled multifunction laser printer that can print on both sides of a page. Again, another example of a printer that can also serve as a “private” document printer for an office.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, Duplex Print)
• HP LaserJet M1536dnf – A mid-range network-enabled monochrome multifunction laser printer that can print on both sides of the paper. This printer is also equipped for HP’s ePrint “email-to-print” service.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, ePrint receive, Duplex Print)
• Dell 1130n – A small single-side-printing network-enabled monochrome laser printer that can be suitable for tasks like turning out invoices at the typical medical clinic.
  (Print)
• Brother HL-6180DW – A heavy-duty auto-duplex monochrome laser printer that can be used as a print-only primary document workhorse for most small offices and practices. This one is similarly useful for monochrome desktop publishing.
  (Print, Duplex Print)

Colour Laser / LED

• Brother MFC-9840CDW – A colour laser multifunction printer that connects to a wireless network
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, T.37 Fax, Full Duplex)
• Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet CM1415fnw –  A wireless-network-enabled “all-in-onw” colour laser printer which is enabled for HP ePrint services
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, ePrint receive, ePrint apps)
• Brother HL-3075CW Color LED Printer – An entry-level colour LED xerographic printer with print speeds and start-up times that aren’t entry-level in nature
  (Print)
• Brother HL-L3230CDW Colour LED printer– The latest entry-level pure-play colour LED xerographic printer that has the essential features for a network printer
  (Print, Duplex Print)

Portable Printers for tradespeople and similar road-based workers

• Canon PiXMA iP-100 – The successor to Canon’s legendary BJC-80 which defined the battery-operated mobile printer that can be taken on the road and used with a laptop computer
  (Colour Inkjet Print)
• Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet 150 – The first ever battery-powered multifunction printer that can scan and copy while on the road
  (Colour Inkjet Print, Colour Scan)
• Brother PocketJet PJ-773 – The first ever battery-powered mobile printer that can link with a wireless network. It uses direct-thermal printing technology with thermal-printing paper that is miles better than receipt paper or the paper you used to use with fax machines.
  (Monochrome Direct-Thermal Print)

Printers To Help Promote Your Business

A3-capable Inkjet

• Brother MFC-6490CW – One of the first few inkjet multifunction printers that can work with A3 paper
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax)
• Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet 7000 – An A3-capable wide-format inkjet printer for the small business, especially for printing promotional material or large spreadsheets
• Brother MFC-J6910DW – The second-generation A3-capable inkjet multifunction printer that can print both sides on A3 as well as simultaneously scan both sides of an A4 sheet of paper. Of course, this network-capable printer can scan, copy and fax A3 documents.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, A3 Duplex Print, A4 Full Duplex)
• Brother MFC-J5720DW – the second-generation landscape-printing A4 multifunction printer that can print on A3 paper whether from one of the paper drawers in the front or the rear multi-purpose tray. Also has colour quality that approaches that of the HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Series inkjet printers
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, A4 Full Duplex)
• Brother MFC-J6720DW – The third-generation A3-capable inkjet multifunction printer that prints both sides on A3 including turning out four-page A4 booklets on one sheet of A3 paper. Also prints on A4 paper in landscape mode like the Brother MFC-J4710DW printers.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, A3 Duplex Print)
• Brother MFC-J5730DW – The third-generation landscape-printing multifunction printer from Brother that uses improved pigment ink chemistry to mark the paper, raising the stakes for high-quality presentation-grade inkjet printing.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, A4 Full Duplex)
• Brother MFC-J5845DW – A combination of INKVestment high-capacity ink delivery technology and landscape printing leads towards a highly-capable inkjet printer that can work with A3 paper.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, T.37 Fax, A4 Duplex Print)

High-Throughput Colour Laser

• Brother HL-4150CDN – A dedicated colour laser printer that has the ability to become a short-run document workhorse especially with its ability to do double-sided printing with negligable time penalty.
  (Duplex Print)
• Brother MFC-9840CDW – A colour laser multifunction printer that connects to a wireless network
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, T.37 Fax, Full Duplex)
• Brother HL-L8350CDW – Brother’s latest high-throughput colour laser printer that can turn out many documents very quickly
  (Print, Duplex Print)
• Brother MFC-L8850CDW – A colour laser multifunction printer that comes across with a highly intuitive user interface and can become a high-output office workhorse.
  (Print, Scan, Copy, Fax, T.37 Fax, Full Duplex)
• Hewlett-Packard LaserJet Pro 400 Series (M451dn) – A high-speed single-pass colour laser printer with integrated toner-drum print cartridges that can print both sides of the paper.
  (Print, Duplex Print)