posted on Thursday, January 06, 2005 7:57 PM
by
bradley
Hey you! You there! Mr. or Ms. Small Business person!
Yes, you know I'm talking to you!
You need a centralized place in your firm. A meeting place the represents the meeting of the minds of the employees in your office.
You need a place to share data. None of this mamby pamby peer to peer stuff. YOU need a real network.
You need a way to share calendars ...to backup your mail database.
YOU NEED A SERVER.
I use at home a mail client [Thunderbird] just because I don't want to pull into Exchange my truly gunky, icky, junk mail filled Pacbell account but I count on at least once a year that I orphan email and have to start over. The standalone pst/pop kind of email just does not work. Not for business. You need Exchange.
You are a business. Remember that. And as a business owner, you need to get guidance and advice from someone who understands your needs, your wants and has guided businesses just like yours into setting up THEIR first servers.
[Okay so I know I'm preaching to the choir but I was reminded after a post to Joe Wilcox about how US small businesses still don't adopt servers as fast as other countries do, and that's a real shame. I would guess that more technology is sold via word of mouth on golf courses than anyplace else. Maybe it's because the computer stores don't showcase this? Maybe there needs to be Saturday morning demos at Costco or something like there is at Lowe's? Or maybe the USA marketplace is too filled with wacko DIYers like me? Not sure, but I sure know that having a network means that small businesses are just way more flexible and agile because they have ALL [and then some] of the tools that their big brother businesses have]