Virus Protection For The Mobile Office

February 18, 2013 by · 2 Comments 

This guest post was submitted to The Anywhere Office by Kaito Mori of TrendMicro.com

For many of us trapped behind the walls of a cubicle for 40 hours a week, having a mobile office just seems like a faraway fantasy, like retiring on a desert island, or decent gas prices. For those of us who do have the luxury to be able to work from home or anywhere else, we know that it’s not all roses relaxation. There are risks inherent to having a mobile office that can be devastating and can result in a loss of time and income or both. The danger paramount to one’s mobile office is the threat of a malicious virus. A successful virus in your system can spell doom to your entire mobile office setup; even your whole company due to identity theft, damage to equipment, or a compromised bank account. Luckily, all of these doomsday scenarios can be prevented through free or inexpensive programs that you can install on all of your mobile devices.

A tenet of modern business psychology is to give your customer a price on your products that they think is more than a good deal.  If the customer thinks that they are getting such a good deal by purchasing your product that they are GLAD to do it, then you are doing a good job as a business. Antivirus software is a prime example of this pricing model. Most antivirus software out there is available for free or close to it, which means that protecting your mobile office easy and economically feasible. You just have to pick the right software. We’ll go over some of the best options available on the market today.

For those of you who include a smartphone or two as part of your “mobile office,” there are some great security and antivirus programs that you can use to keep your devices secure.

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How Virtual Receptionists Can Benefit Virtual Offices

February 11, 2013 by · 6 Comments 

Virtual ReceptionistThis guest post was submitted to The Anywhere Office by Kevin Gillam of Ruby Receptionists

Whether you wear all the hats in your virtual office or you have staff working from remote locations,there’s often one thing missing – a receptionist. A phone answering service for your virtual office is a simple solution that can provide you with the same invaluable benefits enjoyed by businesses withon-site receptionists.

From forwarding calls to your business number to making calls on your behalf, a virtual receptionist service is the glue that helps hold your operations together, no matter where you or your employees are. Just like on-site receptionists, virtual receptionists provide a variety of services, including: Phone answering with a custom greeting and letting you know who’s on the line before transferring, just like a receptionist in a physical office. Taking messages by hand or forwarding calls to voicemail – both of which can be emailed to you. Connecting calls to any phone number of your choice. Making phone calls on your behalf. Relaying messages and information to callers.

The big companies all have someone to answer the phone on behalf of the head honchos and other employees. There is no reason you can’t have someone providing you with the same professional first impression just because you have a virtual office. When you have an attentive virtual receptionist handling your calls, you provide your callers with a top-notch experience.

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7 Tools for Virtual Team Collaboration

January 2, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 

In this informative article technology expert Midori Connolly shares her top picks for tools to improve virtual team productivity. Connolly specializes in providing end-to-end hybrid meeting design, strategic planning, and technological execution. Here she shares some key collaboration and scheduling tools useful for working with distributed teams.

Digital Dish: 7 Tools for Virtual Team Collaboration

How to Prevent Google from Tracking You

December 5, 2012 by · Leave a Comment 

I always get a bit of a creepy feeling when I am on a website I have never visited before and they serve me an advertisement for some completely unrelated product or service I was researching days earlier.

When it continued happening to me AFTER I opt-ed out of Google’s customized advertising I went to, where else, Google to understand why. That is when I found this great article about some methods and tools for protecting your privacy online.

I love this article about methods to protect your privacy online using Network Advertising Initiatives opt-out program. This advice by Dennis O’Reilly is especially useful if, like me, you are a person who uses a lot of Google services.

According the the entropy theory explained by Peter Eckersley on the EFF’s DeepLinks blog, 33 bits of entropy are sufficient to identify a person. According to Eckersley, knowing a person’s birth date and month (not year) and ZIP code gives you 32 bits of entropy. Also knowing the person’s gender (50/50, so one bit of entropy) gets you to the identifiable threshold of 33 bits.

While people are rightly concerned about who is watching and recording their Web activities, at least Google makes it possible to use the company’s services without being too forthcoming with your personal information. ISPs and other Web services do as much tracking as Google–or more–but garner far fewer headlines. 

After all, the true threat to privacy is from the trackers we don’t know about, and who aren’t household names.

via How to prevent Google from tracking you by Dennis O’Reilly for C|net

How Social Media Icon Chris Brogan Would Run Your Virtual Team – Forbes

November 15, 2012 by · Leave a Comment 

It is inspiring to hear the perspective of someone whose brain works like Chris Brogan’s on the topic of virtual team management. Brogan is a social media pro’s pro. His blog is in the Top 5 of Advertising Age’s Power 150, he’s a New York Times bestselling author and he speaks and consults with the world’s premier companies about the intersection of technology, media, and customers acquisition.

In this Forbe’s interview Brogan speaks of maintaining a ‘leadership presence’ and promotes the use of ‘just having video cameras on and open’ while working so that you get that “random banter” element that’s missing in virtual experiences.

I’ve yet to meet a professional who says they prefer virtual leadership. Instead, it’s a part of the job generally endured and managed as best as possible. Death by meeting has been replaced by a long slow soul-crush by global conference call.

But what if, instead of simply coping with virtual management, we were inspired because of it? How could we reach more people, in authentic ways, and build stronger connection?

KH: You talk about the human digital channel. How does that apply to relationships inside an organization?

CB: The human digital channel as I talk about it is a sales channel, but inside organizations, the same premises relate. I talk about needing sustainable, relationship-minded business practices. Internally, this is true as well. We have a paperwork glut. We have a trust deficit. These things could be fixed, if people cared to fix them, and then ALL of business would function better.

Read the rest of this great interview here:

How Social Media Icon Chris Brogan Would Run Your Virtual Team – Forbes.

 

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