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HP has launched two new dual quad-core workstations aimed at businesses that need the highest performance from their desktop systems. HP unveiled its first quad-core workstations over a year ago now and claims that customers have been experiencing performance increases of up to 400 percent, with double-digit gains in productivity and faster return on investment.
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Linksys has brought out two affordable but very capable and easy to setup IP cameras, specifically designed for smaller firms. The Wireless-G Business Internet Video Camera with Audio (WVC2300) and Business Internet Video Camera with Audio and PoE (PVC2300), can be used to set up a simple surveillance system.
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Netgear has released a new firewall that should meet just about all the requirements of any small- or medium-sized business that takes its digital security seriously. The snappily-named ProSafe Dual WAN Gigabit SSL VPN Firewall (FVS336G), is packed with features and provides versatile network security, remote access and Internet connectivity capabilities.
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VMware, which is widely regarded as the world leader in the growing area of software virtualisation, has released the latest version of its free virtualisation product, which enables users to partition up a single physical server so that it looks like two or more systems to the network operating system.
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Cisco says that it is demonstrating its firm commitment to meeting the needs of small- and medium-sized business with its latest round of networking and communications solutions. The Cisco Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) has been extended, tripling the number of users it will support for unified communications to 48 and adding four new Ethernet switches.
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Buffalo Technology has launched a 1 Tb (one terabyte) NAS device designed for small office or home office use. At around �215, the LinkStation Pro Duo is pretty costeffective for anyone that needs a higher level of storage than you�ll currently find on standard hard disk drives.
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Women are actively leaving their jobs and moving into self employment, according to the latest research from the UK enterprise support body Prowess. Since 1990, the number of women moving from employment to self-employment increased from 22.2 per cent to 32.6 per cent. Whilst the same figures for men show a drop from 77.8 per cent in 1990 to today�s figure of 67.4 per cent.
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A worldwide survey conducted by Harris Research for the Financial Times, says that the UK is still seen as a good place to start up a new business, in spite of a perception that bureaucracy and red tape still make life difficult for entrepreneurs.
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Small businesses are leading the revolution in mobile working and driving both the demand and the supply of innovative technology that is transforming the traditional workplace, according to a report into the UK mobile technology market from software provider, eSAY Mobile.
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YouGov survey of over 700 UK SME owner-managers has revealed a gaping chasm between the perception and realities of what it is like to set up and run a small business.
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Employees are increasingly aware of environmental issues and showing that you are doing something positive about the issue can have a positive effect on motivation, according to a piece of research by recruitment consultancy Badenoch and Clark.
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Small businesses are being urged to consider turning to factoring as a way of solving the worsening problem of late payments by online credit checking and financial management service providers e-bcm.
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The UK�s major mobile phone providers have all switched on a system that will enable customers to use their mobile to pay for small purchases of a value up to �10.
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Research from HP suggests that whilst over one in three men considers themselves to be a techie the opposite seems to be true, with over half the respondents admitting their last tech-related task took over an hour to complete if at all.
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Encouraging employees to take more exercise on a regular basis could be good for business according to research into the fitness habits of office workers in the UK. Almost two thirds of business people admit to not doing enough exercise and put the blame on their busy schedule and hectic lifestyles.
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Social networking sites such as Facebook are becoming so popular that they are now posing a threat to the productivity of workers and could be costing UK businesses as much as �132 million a day in lost time.
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Small firms are being urged to be more choosy when it comes to selecting their bank and to shop around for the best deal, following the Competition Commission�s decision to lift price controls that established a minimum quality of service from the big four.
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UK manufacturing firms are maintaining a healthy pace of growth and are becoming more optimistic about the future than they have been for some time, according to research published by manufacturers� organisation, the EEF, and financial advisers Grant Thornton.
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The death of the desktop PC has been much exaggerated according to the world�s leading PC manufacturer, HP, which is predicting a renaissance for fixed-location personal systems. The company says that, although sales of mobiles are now exceeding those of desktop PCs, the latter is undergoing a transformation which will see its fortunes revive in the coming years.
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The changing face of the UK�s SME community and the UK economy�s dependency on small firms has been highlighted by the most recent statistics to be published by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).
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Almost half of SMEs think they are too small to be targeted by cyber criminals and are failing to take the issue seriously enough, according to research carried out by Internet security firm McAfee.
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Many of the UK�s small businesses are still holding back from adopting remote working and more environmentally-friendly policies because they are stuck in their ways.
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Asurvey conducted by one of the country�s leading credit reference agencies has indicated that small firms need to be more stringent on payment terms they receive from large customers.
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The small garage where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard began what would later become tech giant HP has been added to the US National Register of Historic Places.
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Small companies depend on their accountants for more than just advice about their bookkeeping according to a survey by Venture Finance with many also turning to them for advice about other financial matters.
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There seems to be no danger of the steady stream of business start-ups abating in the near future, according to research by the UK branch of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO London) which shows that half of all adults in the UK have considered starting their own business.
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The Wi-Fi Alliance, the global industry organisation that promotes wireless networking, has launched a new logo that manufacturers will be able to use to show their products comply to the new 802.11n draft 2.0 standard.
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Email users should be more discerning about the amount of time they spend reading and sending messages, according to a study which found that almost one third of all messages are irrelevant.
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McAfee has published a white paper on the subject of image-based spam emails, which are more difficult to detect than text-spam, and is making available free to small firms eager to guard against its dangers.
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Not being able to access information during periods of �deadtime�, combined with rising customer expectations that are forcing a 'want it now' culture, is costing businesses an average of �60,000 per year.
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Many UK businesses are wasting more than 20 hours a month on frustrating IT issues and are spending up to �5,000 a year trying to solve them, according to a survey sponsored by BT Business.
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Microsoft and the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has delivered a set of recommendations outlining how they believe the Information Technology needs of small and growing businesses could be better supported by the current Business Link advisor system.
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Research conducted by specialist IT research company IDC for McAfee and MessageLabs, has found that while some 80% of small firms fear a security threat, only 8% have made improvements to IT security one of their business priorities.
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Small companies need stronger government incentives if they are to adopt more environmentally-friendly practices says the entrepreneur think tank, Tenon Forum.
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The robust performance of SMEs in the third quarter of 2006 was almost replicated in the final quarter of the year and the expectation is that this will continue throughout 2007 helping to boost the country�s overall economic growth. The IMF recently revised its growth expectations for UK economic growth up from the previous 2.75% per cent, to 2.9%.
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Small business owners in the UK have made fundamental shifts in the way they use computers, yet many are still missing out on the full potential of IT, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by the British Chambers of Commerce and Microsoft.
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Businesses should ensure they secure information stored on laptops if they do not want to fall foul of the increasing regulation governing the management and confidentiality of data.
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A web site that enables you to rent out equipment, property or other resources that you are not using has been launched by Bath-based computer services company Systanet.
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More than half of UK businesses have lost money because of fraud, yet nearly a third of firms admit they have no mechanisms in place to spot when they are being swindled. In fact, one in 20 companies say they have lost over £1 million a year due to fraud.
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High street banks must take a more understanding approach to small firms if they want to maintain the healthy profits they currently enjoy according to the on-line credit checking firm, e-bcm.
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HP StorageWorks All-in-One Storage Systems are radically simple, integrated, and affordable network storage solutions that enable small and mid-size companies to easily manage, grow, and protect their data.
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Relationships in the workplace are often characterised by poor communication, trust issues, people taken for granted and general dissatisfaction, leaving staff feeling like �neglected spouses�, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
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A new company, e-Business Credit Manager Limited (e-bcm), has been launched to help the UK�s small businesses reduce bad debt by giving them easy and affordable on-line access to credit checking facilities and professional debt management services.
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More than 60% of small businesses have given the thumbs-down to the level of support provided for start-ups and initial trading periods by the government and fewer than 16% believe they get enough support to get up and running.
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Small businesses across the UK confounded many economic predictions with almost 40% reporting increased sales in the third quarter of 2006 and taking an optimistic view of the months ahead.
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The prevention of data theft is not �even on the radar� in half of the UK�s small firms and six out of ten staff who leave a company consider taking data with them, according to research conducted by an IT security specialist.
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A new company claims to have hit on an innovative way to help businesses cut the enormous costs of back pain, repetitive strain injuries (RSI) and other musculoskeletal disorders amongst staff who use computers.
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Small firms need more help if they are to develop workable policies for �corporate social responsibility� (CSR), and want experts and advisers to use less corporate-speak and more SME-like language when they address areas such as employee development, environmental management and community projects.
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Many of Britain's small firms could be losing out to their competitors because they are not making the most of networking opportunities, such as business clubs, exhibitions, conferences and seminars.
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An ever increasing number of SMEs in the UK are experiencing problems with late payments according to automated payments company, BACS Payment Schemes. The organisation says that the number of small firms that experienced problems with delayed customer or supplier payments has almost doubled in the past two years.
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Investment in IT is increasing in London�s small businesses faster than in any other area of spending, according to a survey by the London Development Agency and Business Link for London.
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The Business Software Alliance (BSA), an industry lobby group that campaigns against illegal use and pirating of software, has called on the UK government to impose stiff financial penalties on companies that break licensing rules.
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The UK�s retail outlets saw the strongest rise in sales in 18 months during August but on-line sales look to be growing even faster and are threatening to stymie further retail sales growth in the future.
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A range of tools that small businesses can �rent� to take care of functions like business planning, human resource management and financial forecasting has been launched.
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Leading financial and business advisor Grant Thornton has warned small businesses that they will need to do as much as large firms to stay on the right side of new age discrimination laws that came into force at the beginning of October.
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A smart advertising display that monitors Bluetooth gadgets in its vicinity and then sends only the most appropriate adverts to the handset and minimises repeats to prevent recipients being put off.
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The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) has criticised the support provided to small companies and called on the government to axe its Small Business Service.
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Virgin�s Sir Richard Branson is the person most people would like to have as their manager according to a British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) survey of UK workers.
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Plans to make the small business rate relief system easier to understand and implement are due to come into force shortly, enabling firms whose circumstances remain unchanged year to year to apply only once over a five year period.
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The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) have joined forces to warn the government that the current burden on small firms from red tape and gold plating is holding back small business growth.
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Most female employees still feel that their employers favour their male colleagues according to a survey of 2,000 female workers by law firm Peninsula.
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SME manufacturers have seen their export orders grow for the first time in over a decade, and are expected to continue rising, according to projections from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
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Firms with fewer than 10 employees are seven times less likely than larger SMEs to receive an adequate level of financial support from their banks and subsequently have problems in financing their debts according to information from the Small Business Research Trust (SBRT).
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We want to make LIVING IT as useful as it possibly can be for you and to find out more about what you�d like to see in the magazine, and understand your needs better, we�re planning to host a series of round table events with a cross section of our readers.
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The manufacturing sector is making a tentative recovery with exports up and confidence at the highest level for a year, the CBI�s industrial trends survey for June suggests.
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The government has launched a consultation to cut three pieces of competition law it deems outdated, in the latest attempt to scale back the amount of red tape faced by small businesses.
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Half of businesses with 10 or fewer staff prefer the old methods of paper and pen to computers when keeping their books, according to research from software company Kashflow.
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Hackers pose a high risk for the majority of companies as firms have major vulnerabilities in their internet connections, a survey suggests. A report by NTA Monitor has discovered that 61% of companies have a �flaw� in their internet systems, which would allow a hacker to gain control of their computers.
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 Research undertaken for the Tenon Forum shows that UK businesses are more confident about the future than they have been for some time, with the company�s index showing a 5% increase in confidence in the first six months of 2006.
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More than 10,000 suppliers have signed up to a new government-sponsored service aimed at making lower-value public sector contracts more open to small businesses.
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Many small companies are failing to get the most out of technology and find it hard to keep pace with the latest developments in IT, a survey by Lloyds TSB and the Open University has revealed.
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Small companies with up to �10,000 in their business bank accounts are being hit by banks slashing interest rates, a survey by Business Money-facts magazine has suggested.
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UK workers want mobility to let them work more often at home or out of the office and 73% say that they have seen an improvement in their work/life balance as a result of using mobile technologies.
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Fun to use and free, but with a serious purpose in mind, the new ms-iq.com website from leading training organisation Wise Owl provides an independent assessment of a user's knowledge of Microsoft applications.
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What�s the right mobile technology for your business?
With laptops, PDAs and smart phones all widely available now, selecting the right technology or combination of technologies for mobile working is not easy and what suits one business may not suit another. Our Q&A; guide answers all the difficult questions.
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