Inc Sourcebook: Annual Product Directory
Upward Trends
Small and mid-sized businesses are powering the economic recovery here in the United States, and technology vendors are well aware of the importance of this market to their future growth. As a result, an increasing number of manufacturers and resellers are developing products and services specifically to address the needs of this key group of companies.
According to recent surveys by AMI and IDC, small- to mid-size businesses (SMBs) spend tens of billions of dollars more on information technology than large corporations, and their expenditures on key business software solutions are growing at a rate of more than 45% a year. The wide range of new tools with features tailored for smaller companies include: business financial systems that integrate sales, accounting, and manufacturing functions; remote access Virtual Private Network routers that require no tech support; high-quality multipurpose machines that scan, copy, print, and even fax in color; portable hard-disk cartridge systems with modular interfaces, large flat-panel LCD displays for desktop and small group presentations, and even color laser printers for less than $1,000.
Targeted Products
Resellers and system integrators are also devoting more serious attention to the needs of SMBs. Expanets, the nation's largest PBX and IT integrator focusing on the needs of growing companies, recently created a powerful new call-center system specifically for use by SMBs. CDW has beefed up its already strong presales tech support to help smaller businesses make more effective choices from among the many components and applications needed to create a productive business computer system.
Over the past year, we've looked at hundreds of business technology and multimedia products. We were particularly interested in those that had features designed to benefit growing businesses, and manufacturers who have made a serious commitment to supporting the needs of this market. To help you select the right tools for your company, here are our picks of the most useful hardware and software introduced this year.
Technology makes small firms look big
Technology can level the playing field, giving small companies the opportunity to be competitive and look big. One company big in technology products is CDW. From networking to notebooks, CDW is a one-stop, full-service resource for all your IT product and service needs.
Contact a CDW account manager today at 888-784-4239. Or visit CDW online at www.cdw.com.
Business Software
The Year's Best Business Software
Good business software, from the new generation of smart accounting programs to powerful contact and project management solutions can help you run your company in a more productive and profitable manner.
3-2-1 Contact
Franklin Covey's PlanPlus turns MS Outlook into a powerful, goal-focused organizer and makes it easier to plan activities based on your priorities and long-term "mission." The $79 program also works with Microsoft's group scheduling and Exchange Server and synchs with both Palm and PocketPC-based PDAs. Act! 6.0 is the latest offering from Interact Software. The popular sales and contact manager has added sophisticated MS Office integration, reporting, forecasting, and data mining features. A new e-mail engine also lets you create and send HTML newsletters and proposals. Act! 6.0 sells for less than $200, with upgrades priced under $100. FrontRange recently introduced GoldMine CustomerIQ. Built with Microsoft's .net programming architecture, CustomerIQ extends the power of its well regarded customer management products into a full featured XML-based CRM system. Definitely worth a look, especially for mid-sized companies in the financial services and manufacturing sectors, Surado Smart Contact Manager (SCM) is an economical (less than $150 per user), powerful, and very flexible basic CRM system that facilitates smooth coordination between sales, customer service, marketing, and other functions.
A Taste for Accounting
Next to good relations with customers and suppliers, the most important business relationship for company owners is the bond with their accountant. This may be why MYOB provides a free copy of AccountEdge for Mac or MYOB Plus for Windows to the accountant of new purchasers of these popular small-business accounting and management applications. The cross-platform file capability of these programs is particularly important for companies with mixed-OS environments. In addition to a full range of normal accounting capabilities, AccountEdge and MYOB Plus both include such useful features as flexible item pricing, intelligent links to MS Word and Excel, and the ability to e-mail forms and reports in the ubiquitous Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
Projecting Success
Our favorite cross-platform (Win, Mac, Palm) project management program has been made even more flexible, visual, and easy to use with the introduction of FastTrack Schedule 8 (less than $130). New features include Continual Summary Bar Display for intuitive evaluations (even when outline levels are expanded), and an enhanced Exchange Wizard for easier transfer of info with MS Project. The Mac OS X version adds extensive QuickTime support, enabling the use of powerful visuals, and publishing of schedules and reports in a variety of accessible formats.
Widely dispersed workgroups and virtual enterprises are among those who might benefit from a Web-based project management system. onProject is one of the best of these, offering the usual project management functions, plus secure online threaded discussions, assignable access levels for team members, automatic e-mail alerts to keep everyone on track, and MS Project file import and export. A 30-day free trial is offered, and the service costs $10 per month, per user, with a one-time setup fee of less than $500.
Industry standard Microsoft Project 2002 is now easier to use, thanks to the new Project Guide, an interactive tool that helps new users to jump right into the world of projects, resources, and reports. This powerful program, which is available for less than $600, also features a raft of new views, templates, and wizards to provide almost infinite flexibility for professional project managers.
MYOB FirstEdge
for the Mac is a basic accounting package that integrates sales, banking, expenses, and customers for freelancers, clubs, sports organizations, or very small businesses for whom less is more.
MYOB Plus and MYOB AccountEdge
Basic features: general ledger, checkbooks, banking, sales and purchases, time billing, inventory, payroll, and contact management.
Advanced features: multiple currency accounting, item pricingflexibility, e-mail reports and forms, and links to MS Word and Excel. Cross-platform compatible and multiuser ready.For more information, visit www.myob.com/us
Storage Solutions
Discs at Work and Play
Low cost, portability, and speed are three big advantages offered by this year's best storage devices. There is a range of cost-effective solutions for every user and application, from high-speed CD-RW to high-capacity portable hard drives.
Optical Profusion
CD-R and CD-RW (rewritable) drives offer the lowest storage cost -- under a tenth of a cent per megabyte for a 650MB CD-R disc, and drives cost from $100 to $250, depending on speed and interface. One of the best new internal CD-RW drives is Yamaha's fast CRW-F1($180), which even burns readable labels directly onto the disc. Iomega's sleek Predator portable/desktop CD-RW is a great external drive for home and office use. This versatile $229 unit works with either USB 1.1 or USB 2.0, writes at a speedy 40X, and is bundled with easy-to-use HotBurn CD creation software. If you need a top performing internal CD-RW drive that also reads DVDs and plays movies, check out the Plextor PlexCombo, for around $200.
Big Zipper
Zip disks are still a top choice for presenters and others who have a lot of data to access and modify in a hurry. These units offer high-speed access and rewriting of data, and due to removable media provide virtually infinitely expandable capacity. Iomega's new Zip 750MB drive sells for less than $200 and triples the amount of data that can be stored on a single low cost cartridge (around $15). The drive is available with either USB 2.0 or FireWire interfaces and is bundled with Iomega's Automatic Backup software.
Little Big Drives
Portable hard drives are ideal for instant access to volumes of information while on the road, and are a lot easier to shuttle from office to home than a laptop computer. The updated PocketDrive from LaCie packs up to 60GB and a USB 2.0 interface into a 0.6" x 3.5" x 5.75" unit for around $570. The equally tiny and light-weight (8 oz.) Iomega HDD Portable Hard Drive delivers 20MB of superfast, reliable storage for less than $200. For even more capacity in a portable drive, the Iomega HDD External Hard Drive delivers 120GB capacity, measures only 1.25" x 4.5" x 7.25", and boasts a speed of 7200RPM for video and other demanding applications. This unit is available with either a USB 2.0 or FireWire interface at prices ranging from $340 to $370. The biggest little monster drive is currently the 5400RPM, 160GB Kanguru QuickSilver FireWire HD, for about $450.
Pocket Flash
The new miniature USB-based flash storage devices are a superlight way to carry PowerPoint presentations and other critical data from point-to-point. Storage capacities range from 16MB to 1GB and prices from $30 to $750 or more. Models differ in speed, security functions, and drivers, so be sure to select one that works with your operating system and includes the features most important to you. JMTek's USBDrive Professional, for example, can be set up to function as an e-mail client that lets you pickup or send e-mail from almost any computer. EasyDisk offers password protection and some of the best prices, Sony's easy-to-use Micro Vault cpu units are the most stylish, and JetFlash by Transcend works with most Macs and PCs without the need for disc-based drivers.
Get Backup and Recovery with Iomega's HDD
Iomega HDD External Hard Drive is a complete solution to back up your entire hard drive. It features Iomega Automatic Backup and Symantec's Norton Ghost 2003 disaster recovery software to help protect your files. It is preformatted, so setup is a snap. PC and Mac compatibility makes switching between USB2.0 and FireWire easy.
For more information, visit www.iomega.com.
Presentation Technologies
Your Best Foot Forward
The effective use of leading-edge presentation technologies can increase the probability that important business decisions will go your way. Powerful, easy-to-use software, a great projector, and the right peripherals are three key elements in this process.
Smart Software
For creating high-impact graphics and audio, assembling your presentation, and distributing it rapidly, here are some top-notch tools.
The motto for Presentation Librarian is "Information is valuable only if you can find it." This slick program helps you to organize, search for, and easily access presentations, slides, and graphics. Personal, workgroup, enterprise, and ASP versions of Presentation Librarian are available, starting at $199.
PresentationPro is another valuable resource for PowerPoint users. In addition to supplying creative assistance, templates, file converters, and other useful tools, the company runs a hosting service that lets you post presentations on the Web or embed them in e-mails. PresentationPro then notifies you every time a viewer accesses your slide show.
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 11 ($399), available for both Mac OS X and Windows XP, includes a number of powerful new tools for creating Web elements and vector animations, and editing photos and images for presentation use.
Sounding Good
To create a soundtrack that adds energy and depth to your show, you'll probably need better tools than those included with your presentation software. If you possess moderate musical skills, Screenblast Creation Suite from Sony ($149 Win) will let you record and edit a slick professional soundtrack and video clips to import into your show. For those with less time or musical resources, SmartSound SonicFire Pro ($349 Win/Mac) automatically edits music tracks from its extensive library (or your own) to fit the mood and timing of your video-based presentation.
DVD Picture Show is a new, inexpensive ($34.95) tool from the ingenious folks at Ulead. It lets you create simple slide shows, and burn copies with an ordinary CD-R drive that will play on most consumer DVD players.
Image This
This year's crop of digital cameras and camcorders offer some great solutions to the challenge of creating the right image for your business presentations.
The Canon Optura 200MC is a versatile hybrid camcorder. The sub-$1,700, palm-sized unit incorporates both a high-quality miniDV camcorder and 1.33-megapixel digital still camera capabilities. For road warriors, our top camcorder pick is the diminutive Sony DCR-PC101. This unit's video quality is superior to that of many larger units -- it also takes megapixel still shots and at only 2 1/4" x 4 1/4" x 4" in size, the $1,299 marvel can easily fit in a jacket pocket or the accessory compartment of a laptop case. For more serious video production, such as the development of training materials or cable-TV commercials, you should take a look at a 3-CCD camcorder, such as the Sony DCR-VX2000 or Canon's GL2, both less than $3,000.
For presentation-quality still photos, look for a digital camera with at least 3-megapixel resolution and a 3X optical zoom. Among our current favorites are the Epson 3100Z, the Canon PowerShot S30, and the Olympus Camedia C-3020 -- each priced at less than $600. For more extreme imaging needs, check out the versatile new 5-megapixel Nikon 5700 with its 8X optical zoom (under $1,200), or Sony's infrared-capable 5-megapixel DSC-F717 ($999).
Project a Stunning Image with Sony's New Projector
Sony's new VPL-CX5 SuperLite (TM) portable projector is designed with a full range of performance and convenience functions for everyday business applications. It automatically performs picture adjustment, keystone correction, leg adjustment, lens cover retraction and input search. It also includes a Memory Stick (R) slot for PC-less presentations, and true XGA resolution with 2000 ANSI lumens brightness for brilliant images even with the lights on. For more information on the VPL-CX5 and current promotions, call 1-800-472-SONY ext. CS5, or visit www.sony.com/projectors
Power Projection
Projection technology has improved rapidly over the past two years, and today's best of breed projectors are brighter, lighter, less expensive, and easier to use.
New DLP projection technology from Texas Instruments has set the pace -- and LCD manufacturers have responded with aggressive product development -- creating a buyers' market filled with powerful, cost-effective machines. In addition to recognizable names such as 3M, Boxlight, and HP, several new brands, including Luxeon and BenQ (Acer), offer projectors using the latest DLP technology. NEC, InFocus and Sony manufacture both DLP- and LCD-based projectors, offering customers a choice based on price and application.
Projectors are also getting smarter and more responsive to the needs of today's wired business environment. NEC's new DLP models -- including the sub-$2,400 LT220, which weighs 6.5 lbs. and offers 2000 ANSI lumens of brightness -- offer users wired or wireless networking options for real-time image transmission from a laptop to the screen.
The industry workhorse is the 3-LCD projector from companies including Sony, Epson, NEC, and Mitsubishi. These projectors, too, are available with new features that enhance ease of use. Sony's 2000-ANSI-lumen, portable, 3-LCD, VPL-CX5, for example, is equipped with a memory stick slot and software that enables presentations without a PC. This model weighs less than 6 lbs., sports native XGA resolution, and sells for less than $3,500. Another standout in the power-portable class of projectors is the new Canon LV-7345 ($4,700). This 3-LCD, native XGA unit produces more than 2100 ANSI lumens of picture power and weighs less than 9 lbs.
Recent designs of larger 3-LCD models intended for installation in boardrooms and training centers incorporate functions to improve flexibility and reduce cost-of-use. Sony's impressive new model, VPL-PX32, projects a superbright 3000 ANSI lumens of crisp native XGA image and is HDTV (1080i) compatible. It is equipped with a 3-way stereo speaker system, and sells for less than $9,600. The popular NEC GT-1150 ($10,495) can be seen in new boardrooms and classrooms around the world. This impressive model delivers 3000 ANSI lumens of crisp native XGA picture, offers LAN-based diagnostics, and (like the Sony PX32), features an "eco" mode to substantially increase the life expectancy of expensive projection lamps.
Big and Interactive
Pioneer, Sony, and NEC-Mitsubishi are among the leading manufacturers of plasma devices that are ideal for making a dramatic impression in a boardroom or conference room. Some models can even be converted into interactive devices with an upgrade kit from PolyVision For example, NEC's PlasmaSync 42MP2 can be combined with Polyvision's 9042-NA for interactivity.
Take it Away
Handouts are an important aspect of presentations that often get short shrift. To ensure that a presentation keeps working for you long after the curtain comes down, try selecting your next printer with color handouts in mind. Color laser printers can reduce the cost-per-page for color graphics. Oki's impressive C9000, for example, prints color pages with 50% coverage for less than 20 cents each. If this fast, sub-$6,000, unit is outside your price range, check out the new Minolta QMS magicolor 2300 DL. With a street price of less than $800, it is probably the least expensive color laser yet.
Multipurpose machines (MPMs) that include a printer, scanner, copier, and fax in a single compact unit are great for home and branch offices where space is at a premium. But until recently, the speed and quality of their output was only marginally acceptable for presentation handouts. This has changed with the latest generation of MPMs from HP, Canon, and others. The new Canon MultiPASS F80, for example, features a bubble-jet printer that delivers crisp, saturated, 2400 x 1200 dpi color prints at a rated speed of 13 pages per minute. Canon's sub-$400 unit features four separate color ink tanks for economy, and its fax-function will even transmit color faxes at fast G3 speeds.
Go Wired or Wireless with NEC
The LT260 features XGA native resolution and a built-in presentation viewer that lets users download presentations onto a CompactFlash' for computer-free presentation. It weighs 6.5 lbs. and delivers a brightness of 2100 ANSI lumens and a contrast ratio of 1300:1.
For more information, call 1-800-NEC-INFO or visit www.necvisualsystems.com
Display Devices
Desktop Views
This year's crop of LCD monitors delivers the best-ever selection of cost-effective solutions for desktop computing and video display. From economically priced models that rival CRTs to high-end panels suitable for demanding professional graphics and presentation needs, LCD panels are challenging conventional monitors in every area of desktop display.
Low-Cost Units
Economies of scale in production have made LCD displays cost-effective for virtually every office application. They also have a smaller footprint and lower power consumption, and produce less waste heat than CRTs of comparable size. All these factors combine to increase productivity and reduce the long-term cost of ownership to a very attractive level.
The actual display area of a typical 15" LCD is close to that of a 17" CRT, and hence is quite suitable for the average office worker. Among the 15"-screen-size, lower-price models available, the NEC MultiSync 1550V offers a sharp, bright image that is easy on the eyes. Weighing in at 8.4 lbs. (under $400), the unit is lighter than many comparable displays and is a solid piece of equipment that delivers 1024 x 768 resolution with a crisp contrast ratio of 300:1. Another winner in the ranks of cost-effective LCD displays is the KDS Rad-5. Also available for less than $400, this basic 15" flat-panel monitor is a dependable performer. Other companies with good basic LCDs in this price range include ViewSonic, BenQ, and Samsung.
When bargain hunting for LCD monitors, look for a smooth display of full motion video, solid construction, and at least a 3-year warranty.
Premium Units
If you can up your budget, it is worth considering a 15" LCD flat panel with some panache or a larger screen. Featuring both digital and conventional inputs, flexible controls, and sleek appearance, several new models are equally at home on a CEO's desk or on a busy trading floor. Among the smaller screens in this class, Sony offers the stylish SDM-X52. This 15" screen with 1024 x 768 resolution sells for less than $550. For a busy desktop, deluxe 17" or 19" digital displays, such as the NEC MultiSync LCD1700NX or LCD1920NX, may be just the ticket. These big, bright, thin-bezel LCD monitors adjust automatically to support a variety of computer display resolutions up to 1280 x 1024, and boast an exceptionally wide viewing angle of 170°. The MultiSync LCD1700NX costs around $600 and the LCD1920NX lists for approximately $1,000.
Special Purpose
For graphic professionals, architects, and others who require the biggest and best flat-panel desktop displays, the choices are limited only by imagination and budget. For a little less than $5,000 you can be the proud owner of a Samsung 240T. This spectacular 24" (diagonal) LCD screen offers a resolution of 1920 x 1440 pixels, DVI, RGB and S-Video inputs, and PIP (Picture-in-Picture) display, and is less than 9" in depth. Perhaps the most impressive display we saw during a solid year of trade shows and briefings was the NEC LCD2010. This 20.1" screen with 1280 x 1024 pixel resolution flawlessly reproduced a large CAD drawing and made high-resolution digital photos seem almost 3-dimensional. Another winner in this category is Apple's new 23" Cinema HD, a flat-panel digital display that is only 2" thick. It delivers an awesome 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution and its wide-format design allows users to easily view a two-page spread or a complex illustration with ease -- making it the choice of many top editors and graphics pros.
High Performance and Wide Compatibility with NEC Monitors
The 17" NEC MultiSync LCD1700NX, NEC's first 17" digital flat-panel monitor, enhances your visual experience with superior screen performance, advanced technologies and comforting design elements. Digital and analog inputs ensure compatibility today and tomorrow, and XtraView+? technology allows for wide-angle views up to 170°. It is available in both white and black cabinets. For more information, visit www.necmitsubishi.com
