Work by Remote

Summary:
Remote support technology is one of the most popular service and support automation tools for high-tech companies, with a well understood and easily documented return on investment story. Though basic remote control is available from many sources, including some freeware and shareware options, companies interested in improving both the economics of support and the customer experience should understand the risks involved with lower-end tools, and learn how leveraging a best-of-breed product will accelerate operational improvements and customer satisfaction ratings. In this report, find out 10 critical selection criteria to use when evaluating remote support platforms, and identify how moving beyond homegrown or freeware tools will accelerate the achievement of business goals for your service and support operation.Click here to launch the document.

If you’re dreaming of an easy-to-use project management tool, then Team Effect may just be the one for you.

Read how it works HERE.

Like any other activity or project, we need tools do our tasks well.

Dream CSS shares 11 of Open Source project management tools that will help you achieve both individual or collaborated goals, and share knowledge among team members.

1. Achievo
2. dotProject
3. SimManTools
4. Projectivity
5. BORG Calendar
6. eHour Timesheet Management
7. Task Juggler
8. Chandler
9. XPlanner
10. Memoranda
11. airTODO

Read more about each one HERE.

I’ll probably try Task Juggler. Will let you know what I think about it in a future post.

Applications are here to make your life easier. But some apps are expensive. And so Howard Wen of ComputerWorld shares five apps, four of which are open source.

Check them out!

I started with Netscape then Internet Explorer (IE). I enjoyed using IE until Firefox came along.

I’m still using Firefox even though others has been egging me to try Chrome. I’ve tried Opera, too, at one time. But for me, nothing beats Firefox, just as nothing beats Google for the search engine category.

I know some people have all these browsers in their system. I can understand, if you’re a web developer. A web developer has to check the look and the operation of the site their developing after all.  Often, they encounter problems with IE. The design or codes somehow don’t render well in IE. You have to tweak it further to get the desired look.

With Firefox, everything just looks perfect.  So, why use another?

If you’re still deciding which browser works for you check this out.

In this podcast, Thompson interviews John Todor, managing partner of The Whetstone Edge, about his new book: Get With It! Practical Ways to Use Web 2.0 in Your Business.Tudor shares tips for the a more effective use of Web 2.0 and social media, including using LinkedIn to build a “networked brain trust.”And, he explains why in the down economy, it’s more important than ever to make effective use of social computing.

Listen to it now!

Finally, we have a system that checks on remote employees. The software requires the employee to download it and every time he starts working for the day, he must sign on to it.

Called AGLM, it looks and works like a chat messenger. There is also a message board where the remote employee and the project manager can send each other messages.

What’s interesting about this software is that the project manager can now view the employee activity chart, keystrokes, and the sites he visited while working. In the instance that he stopped working on his project for sometime, his “timer” will also stop.

The program is actually good. I just feel like a voyeur.

Have you also been told to write down your dreams or wishes for them to come true? Well, it’s true. Somehow when you put down all your ideas, see and read them on paper, you get a vision of them and the ideas become doable or achievable.

This is what David Allen, productivity consultant and author of Getting Things Done, meant when he said to use “capture tools” to be more productive. In other words, these capture tools are those things that help you capture your ideas and help you concretize them. Cool isn’t it?

Over at BNET is a video of David Allen talking about how to organize information by using capture tools like digital or paper notes to get it outside your head and onto your to-do list. But, he says, these tools only help if you take the next step in processing that information and checking it off the list.

HERE is the video.

I got a Google surprise when I launched my Firefox yesterday. My iGoogle homepage was wider and I now have more useful choices of applications to add.

Plus the other features that I get to see only when I hit the Home button are also displayed on the left side. I can just point my mouse on any one of them and voila!

They call this “full canvas views.” It’s cool, actually.

Take a look:

1. The iGoogle homepage. As I have said, with this new template, it’s much easier to navigate from one function to another.

2. The Gmail on iGoogle. I don’t like this part much. Because from this page, I need to do one more click (that is “Launch Full Gmail”) to get to view my email and enjoy its full feature. You see, in the old iGoogle, when I clicked on Gmail from the homepage, I’d be directed to the “full Gmail” already. That’s definitely one click less. As a Lean advocate, that means a lot to me.

In the last couple of months, Google has been spinning new interesting services: the Google Chrome and the Google Mapmaker made available in the Philippines.

I have yet to try the two, so until then.

Related story:
iGoogle Gets an Upgrade

Plurk is a new microblogging community that has made Netizen busy these days.

Plurk’s slogan is “your life on the line.” It’s very apt as you will be interacting with your friends, called plurkers on a timeline. It is also like being in a bar, where everyone seems to be talking all the at the same time and you can eavesdrop or join in any conversation.

With that setting, it’s no wonder why I plurk. Here are more reasons why I plurk:

1. the Friendship - you build a community with friends and you get to know them in their most candid. It’s also an effective way of sharing links or interesting websites. It reminds me of the wholesome chat rooms in Yahoo before.

2. the Communication - you can ask questions, post a question, answer questions and get quick responses. Through this, also, you get more ideas for future projects.

3. the Challenge - you are encouraged to plurk every day or every hour because there’s a reward by doing so. The rewards can be in the form of more choices in icons, among the famous ones is the banana dance; customize the look of your plurk; have a plurk display name.

4. the Karma - when you’re up for that challenge, you get more karma. The rewards are computed through karma points. My idea of karma before bordered on the negative, but with plurk’s karma, the term is put on the positive light.

5. the Plurk - It’s fun, it’s hilarious, it’s simply plurk! See let’s catch up at Plurk