Microsoft Courier - An SMB Must?

Thanks to the new Courier tablet from Microsoft, all things tech considered cool have now been bumped up a notch. This double-screen tablet is your day planner digitized. The Courier has yet to be 100% confirmed by Microsoft who says that this is just one of many prototypes in the tablet platform for them. But throw in some rumors of Apple's tablet and Asus' E-reader/netbook and we may be closer to seeing this baby in action than we thought.

Courier appears to be the next wave in personal business devices. What little we know about Courier tells us that this device is a side-by-side dual screen tablet that works like a book. Each screen is 7inches in size and Courier has a built in camera as well as Wi-Fi. Information input varies from multi-touch gestures like pinching and flicking to using a stylus for things like writing and drawing.

Details are sketchy on how Courier will handle things like e-mail or if it comes with things specific for video conferences and VoIP like a microphone. But Courier does look like an outstanding replacement to the traditional pen and paper way of planning your schedule. It takes everything we love about pen and paper planning and combines it with the ease and speed of a computer. Courier has two pages as well as large writing spaces to make it easy for you do work.

With access to the web Courier seems designed specifically for use by businesses, managers, sales people etc... For the first time ever you have a fully digital day planner right at your fingertips. Users can take advantage of data mash-ups like taking your contacts and flicking them onto a map to find their location, which would come in handy to people and businesses that have to go on appointments or make deliveries. Note taking is easy with the reasonable screen size and stylus which makes it a perfect tool to take into meetings or even school and you also have web access at your fingertips. Courier, it seems, will have nothing to do with the Windows 7 or Windows Mobile Operating Systems. Instead it will use an operating system specifically designed for the Courier.

This innovation is the perfect device for any business owner, worker, or anybody that needs to keep their daily plans at the ready. It allows you to get rid of the messy pen and paper which means you will never loose your plans again. This tablet is up against a similar device from Apple. However, the Apple tablet seems to be geared more towards entertainment while Courier is presented more towards the business aspect of life. It is still undetermined whether or not Courier, or even Apple's tablet, will come out but you can bet they both will be popular products if they do.

Health Care Reform: 3 Things for Small Businesses to Watch

Republicans and Democrats have had their political disagreements and fights in the past but none have been such a death match as the fight over health care reform. With the battle growing each day, some small business owners are beginning to worry that their priorities will got lost in the chaos.

Todd McCracken, president of the National Small Business Association states that "Congress hasn't approached health care from a small business owner's standpoint." Whatever the outcome, there are three important health care issues to keep an eye on come this fall.

1.) Is hiring one extra employee worth your business having to pay tens of thousands of dollars in federal fines? According to the legislation before the House, if your business has a payroll as low as $250,000 then you are required to pay a 2% tax if they did not provide health insurance. This tax would raise to 8% as payroll grew to $400,000. In early drafts of Senate legislation, firms that have 25 or more employees would be required to insure them all or face a penalty per-employee. However the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has amended this problem. The bill now excludes a business' first 25 employees and not only the businesses with 25 employees or less which would have resulted in a $750 fee per worker over. So if you add a 26th man to your work force you will only face one $750 fee instead of 26.

2.) Some people want to see the Government put a limit on the value of tax-deductible insurance. In concordance with the current uncapped system, big businesses are allowed to offer premium insurance tax-free which is a good way for them to recruit and keep employees. If you put a tax on this premium insurance, it may generate the funding required for the health care reform. In addition it may also limit plans which cover unnecessary procedures consequently leveling the playing field for small businesses.

3.) It is no surprise that people who own a small business or are self-employed don't have the bargaining prowess that the corporate giants do. But, if Congress allows entrepreneurs the ability to form insurance purchasing pools, all that could change. A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced in 2008 and 2009 SHOP, Small Business Health Options Program, which allowed bills such as this.

We can only sit back and wait for the fall to arrive to see how this health care reform unravels. Needless to say the epic battle between the Republicans and Democrats will rage on until then and no matter the outcome, this will definitely be something to keep tabs on as it affects all Americans.

New Q3 SMB Survey Findings

Even though small and medium businesses (SMBs) are trying to save every penny in the current economic climate, a new survey from Spiceworks, Inc. - a developer of network and systems management software and market research company located in Austin, Texas - shows that a majority of businesses intend to purchase hardware and software within the next six months. The Q3 survey was designed to look at technology purchasing and staffing trends among SMBs all over the world. The survey took place over the months of July and August by Spiceworks' Voice of ITTM market research program. Of the 1,130, the majority were IT professionals that support companies with fewer than 500 employees and with annual technology budgets of about $108,000.

Here are some of the findings from the survey:

• SMBs are letting their desktops, laptops, and servers last them ten more months than normal before purchasing new ones
• 68% of SMBs plan to add new hardware to their networks in the next six months; this includes 56% buying desktops, 55% buying laptops, 45% buying new servers, 31% buying new printers, 27% buying new network devices, and 13% buying notebooks
• The average new order consists of 13 desktops, 10 laptops and two servers
• At 37%, new hardware makes up the largest part of SMB IT budgets
• 51% of businesses are planning to buy new software. 32% of that will go to security and anti-spam solutions software. Of those, about one third plan to buy cloud-based security and anti-spam offerings.
• 44% of SMBs are using virtualization solutions. 21% of SMBs' total server capacity is currently virtuatlized, but over the next six months, 30% plan to expand virtualization in their networks.
• 25% plan to purchase backup and recovery items within the next six months. Of those, 75% plan to store date on-site and the remaining 25% plan to utilize cloud-based storage. 42% of date will be stored on network-attached storage or storage area network devices; 38% will be stored in local and direct-attached storage; 7% will be hosted off-site; and 13% on tape or other media.
• 57% of SMBs currently use a cloud computing service. The three most popular include anti-spam, hosted email, and online back-up.
• As expected, budgets shrank in 2009. 39% cut their budgets (averaging cuts of 22%), 31 kept their budgets the same, and 30% grew their budgets (averaging growths of 27%).
• 60% of SMBs had to cancel at least one planned 2009 project due to the economy
• As far as hiring goes, 22% of SMBs plan to hire additional full and part-time staff. Only 3% plan to reduce their staff size.

In a statement, Jay Hallberg, co-founder and vice president of Marketing for Spiceworks, said it's good to see SMBs showing signs of growth and spending, "Most are clearly ready to buy and it will be interesting to watch how these plans play out among different geographies, industries and company sizes. We will track these and other technology trends of interest in future studies."