Small-Business:
Services
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Small-Business
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CenterBeam
Here's
an interesting use of the Web: You're
building a business, but you don't know
how to build a LAN and you can't afford
to hire an IT manager. Why not outsource
absolutely everything? For a cost as low
as $169.95 per user per month, CenterBeam
will ship you preconfigured PCs and servers
(including software) and then troubleshoot
and manage them remotely. If a system
goes down and CenterBeam can't get it
working from afar, it will simply send
another PC for you to plug in the next
day. Yes, notebooks are available too.
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eFax.com
Time
to say so long to your clunky fax machine?
A free service, eFax has already given
over 500,000 people their own private
fax numbers. When someone sends you a
fax, you receive it via e-mail, which
means you'll never miss a fax or suffer
with a malfunctioning machine again. Fee-based
premium services let you send faxes via
e-mail, forward faxes, and perform character
recognition. We think eFax is yet another
great example of how you can use the Web
to make your life just a little easier
and more streamlined.
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myTalk
The
myTalk service lets you call a toll-free
number, hear and respond to your forwarded
e-mail using voice commands, and make
local and long-distance calls within the
U.S. of up to 2 minutes. Recently, voice
mail features have been added. That means
people can call your myTalk number, enter
your PIN, leave you a message, and give
you their phone numbers. And after listening
to the message, you can simply say, "Call
him back," and away you go on a free
2-minute call. The service is free; you
have to endure short commercials as you
use it, though. Nevertheless, with more
than 100,000 users already, General Magic
doesn't seem to be having trouble attracting
new users to the service.
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Stamps.com
A
software-only solution, Stamps.com delivers
on-demand purchasing and printing of First
Class, Priority, and Express Mail postage
for U.S. addresses. Most laser and ink
jet printers can be used to print postage
and addresses directly onto labels and
envelopes. Stamps.com users receive free
software and pay a monthly charge for
postage purchases, plus a monthly usage
fee that ranges from $1.99 to $19.99.
Visit the site to see whether the pricing
policies make sense for you. By saving
time and hassle, Stamps.com provides tangible
productivity gains for consumers and small
businesses, and the company's recent purchase
of iShip.com for coordinating all your
shipping means that this is a true one-stop
postal solution.
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Zkey.com
This
service has a number of features that
can help small businesses. Most useful
is the Zkey, an online identity containing
as much public or private information
as you choose to list. When you update
it, it's automatically updated for anyone
who knows you by your Zkey ID. Zkey.com
also includes lots of well-integrated
PIM applications, 30MB of storage space
for files, and private conferencing for
virtual workgroups. All services are free.
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