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e_Marketing Blog 3 Reasons To Like Google Docs We've just started using Google Docs for collaborating on the writing of articles, blog posts, audio and video scripts, reports, etc. - anything that requires team work. After about a week with the system I am very impressed. I suspect there will be many more reasons to like Docs, but here are the first three... 1. Sharing documents is very easy. Just add someone else's Google login email address and it is done. You can optionally send an email to your collaborators telling them the file is shared. 2. Folder organization works nicely. You can save your text documents in your own folders, then share them with others who can then organize them as they see fit. This accommodates people who have a difficult time with file and folder organization. Believe it or not, everybody does not like the abstract file and folder model used and taken for granted by computer geeks everywhere. With Google Docs you share the specific document, not the document-in-a-particular-location, so Collaborator B does not have to buy into Collaborator A's folder structure. 3. The default formatting used in the basic text "documents" translates nicely into most article submission and blog entry forms. MS Word notoriously adds characters that article and blog entry forms do not like. New AV Electronics Blog We just created a new blog called Audio Video Electronics featuring videos and articles about audio video equipment. Google Docs Could Be Useful We do a lot of collaborative writing and publishing at Linknet - where two or three people get in on writing articles and posts, creating videos, etc., and the people involved are often not on the same internal network. So managing the writing, editing, publishing, reporting and archiving can be a challenge. A shared online repository for content seems like the answer, so over the last few days I've been looking at Google Docs to see if it fits the bill. So far so good. One person creates a document and then shares it with others. The originator of the doc can work on it and then have a collaborator make additional edits to exactly the same document. Take a video script for example. The script writer can write a script and store it in a Google Docs folder. Then give access to that script to the person doing the voice track and the other person doing the actual video production. If changes are made further up the production chain - say by the voice track person - these changes can be made right to the master version stored in Google Docs. So everybody is working from the same script. One potential problem I've seen so far is that you cannot share folders - only individual docs. That means Person A may want to organize the same files in completely different folders from Person B. That sounds like it could be a good thing in some cases, but in others not so good. I can also see this system being good for client communication and reporting. You create a report, say by using the online Spreadsheet utility, then share it with the client so he/she can see what is going on. Other users could even make notations and add stuff like you can with a wiki. I must admit though, that I haven't quite figured out the Google "account" thing yet. If you've got accounts for adwords, adsense, docs, video, analytics, etc. and you signed up for them at different times, there's no telling whether or not they are synchronized. I'm sure there's a way, but I haven't figured it out yet. |
SBO-Linknet.com is the home of the Linknet Publishing Network. This is a growing network of active websites covering various areas of interest from Online Marketing to Golf to Personal Health and Real Estate. Cell Phone Abuse - Tips to Curb Employee AbuseMay 17, 2006 - Linknet Business News May 17, 2006 - Linknet Mobile News >> Mobile Phone Radiation Report - Learn about cell phone radiation. Broadcast Internet radio to every FM radio in your home or office. Antivirus Software - Download Norton Antivirus 2006 >> Cell Phone Abuse - Tips to Curb Employee Abuse Looking for a way to save your enterprise or government organization tens of thousands of dollars a month or more on wireless mobile communication use? First off, it's going to take some discipline and innovative management for your cellular communication services to become more cost efficient and less prone to abuse. Cell phone and handheld usage can bleed a corporation's IT communications funding dry without so much as a turn of the head, or at least until it's too late.They're Everywhere ... It's more common than not for a large organization to have employees carrying company owned devices such as cellular phones, pagers, PDAs, and Blackberry devices. All these wireless devices meant to increase employee productivity are more than likely draining funds and ultimately decreasing actual corporate productivity. It's an ever increasing telecommunications expense on a road to disaster. One is Better ... One way to better manage corporate employee mobile communication cost is to buy ALL cellular services through ONE provider. Buying through one provider gives your organization the chance to receive volume discounts. If you are giving your employees the opportunity to purchase their company wireless device themselves on the corporate account, you are opening the door to higher rates and actually taking away control from the company as a whole. Close To Home ... Secondly, audit not just the usage, but who uses the mobile communications. You need to investigate exactly who is a necessity mobile user and who is not. An office employee who spends most of their time within corporate headquarters and who is not prone to traveling; may very well be responsible for inflated mobile usage. An employee calling friends and even relatives overseas is not entirely uncommon. This kind of abuse has been known to accumulate to a bill well over a ,000.00 in a matter of days with just one employee. Allowance, Not Just For Teens Anymore ... It's important to weed out vanity from necessity. If the hardship of striping cell phones and their usage from employees is too hard to bear, consider revising this strategy. A method that can be effective is allotting an allowance to employees on their usage. In other words, set up a preset amount of acceptable minutes per month per employee type. If any employee goes over their allotted amount of minutes, it is garnished from their paychecks. Many companies have deployed this method to curb abuse with much success. Reward the Good ... In addition to an allowance program, a rewards program could be put in place as well. To sweeten the sour, award the employee with the least amount of minutes a percentage of the company savings. Let it be announced beforehand and you may find employees trying to conserve so they can take home a larger paycheck. To make it more viral, perhaps first, second, and third place winners every month. That will ensure that employees know more than one employee each month will go home with a fatter paycheck. Increasing the odds always helps feed the fever. Works in Vegas, right? Easier Said than Done ... Now, keeping track of who is who and who calls what can equal to a big headache and ultimately take more time and money to manage. Luckily there are some companies out there that make a living from auditing and managing wireless bills or supplying the firmware to do so. While costs associated with such services vary, they are valuable and more importantly; save money. Some of the companies that provide these services include Let's Talk www.letstalk.com, Traq www.traq.com, and Vercuity www.vercuity.com. Carriers Feel Your Pain ... Aside from these companies that audit, track, and manage wireless usage, the mobile communications industry has seen the aches and pains of employee abuse. Many cellular carriers now offer more cost effective wireless options for large employers knowing of employee abuse and the minutes (money sacrificed. In other words, lower rates for the higher volume to curb the cost of abuse whether or not it is taking place. One of the better cell phone providers for corporate services is Nextel. They offer over the phone ordering exclusively for corporate volume clients for all products and services which include some good plans for busy mobile users. You can call them toll free at: 1-866-720-4177 Business Code: 15376 Reference: LL UNLIMITED This article was provided by TopSavings.Net, an online resource for IT professionals seeking communications services and products. Cellular Calling Plans Article Source - Mobile-CellPhone-Guru.info
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