Sentinel Tech Talks Blog

Cutting Costs and Improving Productivity: Into to Internet Tools Every Small Business Should Know About

tmckinley — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:58:16 +0000

As promised HERE are the slides from the presentation on Feb 7, 2012 at the New Wilmington Borough Building.

Higher Ground 2012.1: Cutting Cost and Improving Productivity: Internet Tools Every Small Business Should Be Using

admin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:00:41 +0000

Higher Ground SOHO Series 2012.1: Small Office, Home Office Helpers

Tuesday, February 7th, 7pm-8:30pm
@ the New Wilmington Borough Building (134 High Street, New Wilmington)
Sponsored by The New Wilmington Area Chamber of Commerce
Free to Chamber Members, $5 donation for non-members

Please join the New Wilmington Area Chamber of Commerce as we kick off the 2012 “Higher Ground” series with another information-packed session presented by Tom McKinley of Sentinel Technology.

The topic “Cutting Cost and Improving Productivity: Internet Tools Every Small Business Should Be Using” will be explored with a strong bias towards ‘cloud-based’ tools, tools that you get to via your web browser. You should look at your web browser, be it Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, or even Opera, as the lid on an essentially bottomless toolbox, a toolbox that holds a tool for nearly any business problem, process, or need. Many tools are free, or even More-Than-Free, and others are very affordable.

Tom will explore a couple must-have tools, and discuss ways to continue filling your toolbox with the appropriate tools for your business. You will take away new ideas and tools to explore and implement in your office. And if time permits Tom will discuss what is up with Social Media for your business or any other tech areas you might wish to explore.

Tom started tinkering with computers in 7th grade, and hasn’t stopped since. His background ranges from product development, testing, support and robotics manufacturing at Apple Computer in California and Texas to software, support and wireless product development at Motorola’s Entrepreneurial Greenhouse (Motorola New Enterprises in Chicago.) Tom and his crew help local businesses identify, deploy, and effectively use new technologies in their businesses, both traditional and home-based, and also develops new technology to solve new problems or opportunities as they arise.

4 Free Internet Tools that Will Save Your Biz Big Money!

tmckinley — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:50:47 +0000

About 30 folks attended our first Tech Talk which was held at the New Wilmington Borough building on Feb 23rd at 7pm. This presentation kicked off the 2010 season of the New Wilmington Area Chamber of Commerce’s Higher Ground series, which is their educational seminar series. The slides from this presentation are available as a PDF download HERE.

Overview:

Topics discussed included 2 free ip-based ip-phone applications that can save you a lot of money: Skype and Google Voice. While Skype is freely available and well established, gVoice is still in beta, and is available by invitation only. But you can request an invitation and you should get one within a few days. Once you DO get one you also will have 5 more invites which you can give out to others. gVoice’s main claim to money-saving fame is that you can make as many wireless phone calls (within the US anyway) as you want and only use free minutes from your Verizon phone plan – all thanks to their wireless “friends and family” plan.

We also covered free alternatives to buying copies of Microsoft Office for everyone in your office: Google Docs and the open source Open Office 3 office suite. And as a bouns I reviewed my all-time favorite online app: Airset.

In addition, the concept of having your children buy the software you use on your PC’s might just be the ticket. Many online stores have huge student discounts waiting to be had – all you need to do is have a student in your household, get some proof from the school to send to the eTailer, and you are all set.

Links to sites mentioned are here:
www.google.com/voice
www.skype.com
www.google.com/docs
www.openoffice.org
www.academicsuperstore.com
www.journeyed.com
www.gradware.com
www.airset.com