Better Connections
Courtesy of accountant / technologist extraordinaire RICH OPPENHEIM
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The mobile professional needs all the help they can get. They have a need to stay in touch with support facilities, colleagues near and far, clients/customers near and far, news and events of all sizes. Devices, such as Blackberry and Windows mobile PDAs, have provided a start in this direction. Today everyone is mobile and can be easily disconnected from their sources of information.
One company, eAgency, has spent a lot of years developing a very usable application that integrates
web sites, broadband, wireless connectivity, hand-held devices, and people. The application is called NiceOffice. It enables the SMB, SOHO based enterprise to play like the big companies. On the surface, NiceOffice is a customer relationship management (CRM) system on steroids. In addition to providing contact information, the system provides direct links from the company web site pages with the user’s hand-held device. So, let’s say a client checks a box on a web page requesting help with a tax question. The request, complete with the client’s contact information is delivered in a usable form the hand-held device.
NiceOffice has lots of other features, such as importing from Outlook and other contact management programs. Users can access the website from their laptop so they can make entries, create reports, and do editing with a full sized keyboard and screen. Pricing has 3 tiers:
1 -NiceOffice Personal - only the website application on a computer – FREE
2 -NiceOffice Wireless – connecting through mobile wireless device - $19.95/mo/person
3 -NiceOffice Small Business – more features for increased connectivity - $29.95/mo/person
Large companies are deploying this feature rich capability using expensive custom developed applications. With NiceOffice small firms can participate in this technology for not a lot of money. The initial investment is for the Blackberry or PDA devices. After that, the cost is a monthly fee and the time it takes to learn how to use the new features. NiceOffice is targeted at the SMB world. CPAs who are constantly moving now have a connecting product that enables heavyweight applications for a lightweight price.
Hand-held devices are getting better with vastly improved functionality. When the road warrior is mobile, one full featured hand-held could replace the combination of laptop, cell phone, pager, and PDA in the device bag. Trading one lightweight device for four different units is OK with me.
