Product Roundup: Digital Productivity
Roll Your Own
It's getting easier than ever to create exciting website content. Animation tools, such as Flash MX from Macromedia enable even nontechnical marketers and creative staff to create eye-catching animations that help to attract and focus customer attention. To ease the task of updating information on your site, Contribute 2, also from Macromedia, lets authorized users add or edit data related to their responsibilities, directly from MS Word or Excel. A marketing manager, for example, could update pricing or product descriptions, and a publicist could post a new press release.
For something really different, check out Vox Proxy from Right Seat Software. It's a cool authoring program for MS PowerPoint that costs about $200, and lets you easily insert one or more talking, 3-D animated characters into your slide shows. Characters can perform dozens of animated actions and speak any text you provide for them. Programming for basic slide shows is easy, with pull-down menus for most functions. Advanced operations are available through a simple, scripting language. Remote viewing is typically accomplished via a free "viewer" application. Camtasia Studio (approx. $350) is a great tool from TechSmith that lets you convert any onscreen process into a Flash or QuickTime file for fast viewing via a web browser. You could, for example, take a Vox Proxy animated PowerPoint presentation and quickly convert it to Flash format for use on your website. Camtasia Studio is also great for creating computer training programs for network or CD delivery.
A Little Help From Your Friends
Growing businesses often need help with the management of networks and the creation of digital content. If you are just beginning to get your business online, a multifaceted service organization like Register.com can provide you with everything from "branded" e-mail for your dispersed employees, to domain registration, and website construction, management and marketing.
Transactional security and customer trust are essential for e-commerce growth. VeriSign and other companies offer online services that secure all phases of e-commerce transmission. VeriSign's services range from ensuring the security of online credit card transactions to such specialized ones as code signing digital IDs, which assures software customers that code hasn't been messed with or infected since it was created.
Network growing pains, including slow network performance, server crashes, spam overload, and virus attacks can be roadblocks to the progress of even the healthiest enterprise. Netasyst Network Analyzer from Network Associates was developed to help small and midsized businesses gain effective control of their wired and wireless networks. Netasyst cost ranges from $2,000 to $6,500, depending on options, and is based on the same Sniffer analyzer technology used by consultants and large-enterprise IT departments. Automatic alarms and scheduled checkups help to maintain safe and efficient operation of business-critical applications. Used in conjunction with optional firewalls, VPNs, and antivirus software, this kind of integrated application helps maintain a secure and efficient network with a small security budget.
Register.com: Launch Your Web Business
Register.com (Nasdaq: RCOM) specializes in helping companies build web businesses to reach the millions of prospective customers in the expanding Internet marketplace. Our industry-leading customer support and intuitive management tools enable our clients without advanced technical skills to create and control their own sites. Register.com can help you find and register your own unique web address (domain name), build and manage your website, set up professional e-mail services, and even find new customers through popular search engines. We offer clear, step-by-step instructions to make it easy to launch your web business, and our expert support technicians are always a toll-free call (or click) away in case you need a hand.
If time or budget constraints have delayed your plans to offer products and services in the online world, please visit www.Register.com today to find out how easy it can be to launch your web business.
