Many business persons find themselves constantly on the move. This has resulted in the adoption of the “mobile office,” namely powerful business tools that can be uploaded to any laptop and carried around. Here’s a quick top ten of the most useful business software tools for the mobile office.

10. Skype
Skype allows for live video and audio teleconferencing without the need for installing lots of fancy equipment. The sound quality is about as good as you’d get from a cell phone and the video is a bit choppy, but it gets the job done.

9. Flickr
Most people use Flickr as a cheap way to share photos with friends, but it’s also good for business. Uploading new designs, blueprints and other images to a company Flickr account means that anyone and everyone can see what you’re up to without you having to e-mail it to each of them.

8. Trillian
Many companies use MSN, Yahoo and AIM instant messengers to communicate with employees. Trillian connects to all three simultaneously, while using less RAM than any one of them.

7. GoToMyPC.com
GoToMyPC.com eliminates this problem of syncing a laptop and a desktop by permitting you to access your computer remotely from anywhere. This also means that if your laptop is stolen, no documents are lost or compromised.

6. LinkedIn.com
Social networking websites aren’t just for college students! LinkedIn permits business persons on the go to keep in touch with their contacts and business partners in real time.

5. Gmail
A lot of people see Gmail as nothing more than a free e-mail service, but it has phenomenal amounts of power. It’s able to check other e-mail accounts and copy the e-mails, it’s readily accessible, and works on just about any machine.

4. WWAN internet
Many companies offer this, but to explain, it’s internet you can access over the cell network. It’s important to shop around for good WWAN services, but they’re a lot more reliable and useful than hotspots.

3. Google Calendar
Writing down everything is essential, and Google Calendar does that. Like most Google products, it’s safe, simple and efficient, and it does it’s job.

2. PortableApps.com
This is a must for people who rely on many, many computers. It carries all the software and settings from one machine to another. This is especially important if you don’t own your laptop and are instead borrowing it from your company.

1. Google Docs
Google Documents are an online, remotely hosted, and powerful. It’s a full office suite you can access anywhere, and everywhere you go your documents are right there. It’s much easier and better than syncing software, and it’s free and easy to use.

Tags: Technology, tools

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.