SME Blog

Behind the Cloud - The SME Perspective

Behind the Cloud is a book written by Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com that provides advice to help entrepreneurs become more successful.

You can hear what Mark Benioff says of the book in the video below, but for the typical SME is it worth the read? 

For the most part the book is a success.  The book is a very easy read and keeps the content to short sections of advice divided up into 111 "plays".  Much of it is very sensible for SMEs such as:

Play #9: Listen to Your Prospective Customers

Play #18: Differentiate, Differentiate, Differentiate

Play #95: Build a First-Class Financial Team

Some advice needs to be taken in light of Salesforce.com's position rather than, say, a small one man micro consultancy business.  For example, Play #94: Measure a Fast-Growing Company on Revenue, Not Profitability is not likely to apply if your company is a one man consultancy business.

Particularly fascinating are some comments that go against perceived old rules, but have worked well for Salesforce.com.  Play #56 Embrace Transparency and Build Trust tells of the company's experience on actively opening up to customers, prospects and journalists rather than remaining silent when faced with problems.  Even for a company as forward thinking as Salesforce.com this was "a big leap of faith".  However, with the rise of digital publication and blogging in retrospect it was no surprise that engaging with the individuals in this arena would be more successful than shutting them out.

Overall, a good read for any entrepreneur.  Keep the above in mind and while the book will undoubtedly help, there is still much hard work required by any entrepreneur to bring the areas described in the book together to create a successful business.

10 London based business iPhone apps

The iPhone has proved very popular at work after replacing the Blackberrrys.  With Android in the market the mobile tech sector will be even stronger in the new decade.

Here are my current top 10 business apps:

iThoughts

Mind mapping tool that highlights the benefits of using touchscreen technology. An excellent tool for those that like the mind mapping approach.

Quickoffice

Excel and Word functionality for the iPhone.

WorkSnug

Locate a nearby wireless network (and cafe). Uses the augumented reality approach also found on Nearest Tube.

BusinessWeek

Quality content with good small business and management channels.

National Rail

Obtain the latest train information.

Tube Exits

Shortest journey calculator for the tube. 

Weather Pro

High precision weather forecast. Very good.

Business Card Reader

Import contact information from business cards directly to your iPhone contacts.

Twittelator

Discover Twitter for yourself and join the growing business users.  Alternatively, there is the LinkedIn app.

Xero

Access the Xero accounting system on your iPhone.  Demonstrates how future business systems will integrate with mobile technology.

Spotting the trends

Google Trends is a fascinating free tracking tool.  The EEE PC is currently getting a lot of attention in the UK so I will use that for our first example.  Google Trends gives the first graph below.  This shows the searches for a chosen term relative to the total number of Google searches as displayed over a period of time.   If we look at the graph Google Trends creates then we can see that the EEE PC is currently a hot topic.

Now let us look at the Google Trend data, but this time compare three different topics.  I'm going to pick up on Microsoft's current interest in Yahoo and use Microsoft, Yahoo and Google as my search topics to give the second graph below.

One look at this graph reveals why Microsoft are so interested in joining of forces with Yahoo.  Of course Google Trends could be viewed as a toy and Google do give some disclaimers on it, but it does show a side of online technology that I believe will come more to the fore in future.  The politicians at the very least will always want to track the trends.  Try it for yourself at www.google.com/trends.

MYOB and 21st century business thinking

MYOB are fascinating example of a business thinking in the 21^st century rather than the last. MYOB are traditionally seen as a provider of business software with strong sector strength in the accounting profession. In the accounting profession they occupy a position of trust. Their name and their products are extremely well known.

Technology has done a great deal to remove geographical restrictions with routine tasks being outsourced away from the UK where costs are far lower. The benefit to the company outsourcing should be reduced cost, the ability to deal with peaks and the ability to specialise in higher level areas. For this to work you need to trust the provider that they can deliver and provide work of high enough quality. MYOB have obviously given this some serious thought because they now not only supply business software they also provide an outsourcing service to their clients.

In short they have:

I recently met MYOB's David Clough who is leading the charge. David is very knowledgeable and a quick preview indicates that much thought and time has been given to making the service work well for their clients.

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New media

Media and technology make for an exhilarating mix.  The new media has allowed companies and organisations to engage with their customers in new ways.  Business sectors known to be traditionally conservative now have blogs and podcasts.

The technology used does not replace the age old media requirement for good content.  A good demonstration of the importance of content can be found by considering the BBC.  The BBC uses technology as the tool with which to deliver its content.  The BBC website provides more than just news it also provides online radio, video and podcasts.  Recently it was given the green light to put television content online by the Trustees. The BBC has an awesome archive of content and the potential revenue streams that could be generated in the future from this new media property are enormous.   

The SME doesn’t have the BBC’s content (or web hits), but it still needs good content to attract its  target audience of customers and potential customers.  That may sound obvious, but how many website projects concentrate on graphics, layout and the technicalities of how to load content without much thought to the content itself?  Very often the content is the customer’s job.  Unfortunately, it turns out that the customer may be an excellent distributor (say), but is not such a wonderful writer.

Writing good content is hard work even with professional help.  Why bother?  Isn’t the cost of writing the content greater than the benefit?  Absolutely not!  Writing good content for SME’s is about finding out what customers value and care about.  Anytime spent understanding your customer and demonstrating the fact is always going to be time well spent.

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Technology vs staff cost

Occasionally, as part of work, I get out to the odd awards ceremony.  The last one was the Financial Sector Technology awards in Park Lane.  This is very much an event for large companies.  Big IT teams.  Projects with budgets of £100m are quite possible. Normally, not my kind of event, but we were nominated this year.  RBS won, but the event was worthwhile as I got to meet fellow SME nominee Paul Turner from Advantage Finance.

That's Paul in the picture (right) with comedian Fred MacAulay. Paul's a lovely guy who deserves a lot of credit for saving his SME some serious manpower time - three people full time.  He helped turn a largely manual process into an automated one by the use of a redesigned website; reducing manual processing and unnecessary duplication.

Paul's SME is not the only one that can benefit by the use of technology to save costs. In the past this type of technology was only cost effective for large companies, but costs have fallen dramatically.  Staff cost (especially in the UK) is now often more expensive than the technology.

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Wiki event

I don’t think anyone was expecting such a good turn out at last week's Wiki Wednesday technology event organized by David Terrar at GJ.  Normally, you get drop out.  I was expecting about 25.  We got drop in and around 40 people came.  If nothing else it demonstrates the interest in wiki’s.  Rightly so in my opinion, this is no brainier technology that is breaking down geographic restrictions on how people interact.

What is a wiki?  A wiki is a website that is as simple to edit as it is to read.  This makes a wiki a perfect online collaboration tool.  A wiki can be a complete repository of knowledge that evolves as a business grows.  Just think of all the emails that get lost in space, especially when the team changes over time.  The benefit of a wiki is that it can capture all the vital information to benefit new team members as they join. 

Clearly, it is not only businesses that can benefit.  A wiki can benefit any type of social interaction not least as a tool to raise awareness of social issues.

You can find out more details on the event and the next one at Microsoft on the events very own wiki.

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Philip Woodgate

Multi touch screen

The Jeff Han's multi touch screen has certainly moved on since SME Blog last looked at it back in November.  The video really says it all: 

Thanks to David Terrar for pointing it out.  Imagine if all Vista machines came with this?   

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Philip Woodgate

SME future technology

In many ways technology is a marvel.  It is deployed by relief operations in the event of natural disasters to assist in tracking individuals and coordinating efforts.  It is changing how people live; one in eight couples who got married in the US last year met online.  People are interacting in new ways using blogs, Myspace, Skype and YouTube.  The problem is I'm increasing wanting more from technology and that's where the problems start.

Let's take a SME business to business service company.  Wouldn't it be great if:

A client rings the service company and on picking up the phone the service company employee sees a screen with ALL the client details. When I say ALL I really do mean ALL and include:

• All correspondence in electronic format to and from the client
• All other electronic documents found by an easy search facility
• All emails from ANYONE from the service company to the client company and vice-versa
• All details of client employees and booked client meetings
• All meeting notes for past meetings
• Debt outstanding and WIP
• Current stage of the business process on any services being provided
• Quick drill down opening up desktop client specific work in any software instantly e.g. a current spreadsheet, document, artwork etc...
• Quick drill down opening up shared internet applications e.g. online accounting system
• Latest internet news/references about the client

Okay, so that would not all fit on one screen, but with drilldowns and drop down boxes it would.  Perhaps it would resemble something like a website, but just with one client's information.

Of course anything can be done, but for it to really work for the average SME it needs to come pretty much straight out of the box.  The software has to fit together like pieces of lego (ideally the really big variety my 2 year old twins use).  The last thing the SME needs is the IT equivalent of complex plumbing in a 16th century mansion. 

Any guesses on the time frame on this?  Remember the software must fit together like lego (the really big kind). Come on give it a go (year and month).  I'm sure at least the enterprise irregulars could have a good stab at this.  I'll track it for the future and when I see it for the first time in a SME I'll send out a bottle of champagne to the person who guessed closest.  It should be a happy day for both of us.

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Philip Woodgate

Computer interfaces

Business and technology are fusing together and how we interact with the technology is becoming increasingly important. The current mouse and keyboard approach will no doubt appear rudimentary in years to come.  Jeff Han provides another answer through his video at TED.  It is quite extraordinary.

Thanks to Will Swayne and David Koopmans for providing the link. 

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Philip Woodgate

YouTube and a glimpse into the future

You are probably aware that YouTube the 70 employee strong SME has agree to sell to Google for $1.65 billion in a stock for stock deal.  It's undoubtedly the SME success story of the year.  YouTube created this success by differentiating themselves from the competition in how they combined technology with social interaction.

If the YouTube deal gives us a glimpse into the future then the Museum of Media History takes this glimpse and pushes it further to 2015.  This popular future vision movie (8 mins) can be found by clicking here and then clicking on the Epic 2015 link to start the movie.  As the movie says, "The press as you know it has ceased to exist".

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Philip Woodgate

Time for a change

Dennis Howlett at Accman Pro has a great blog.  He is always open to new ideas.  Dennis took a whole new approach to a job advert of mine and re-wrote it and put it on his blog (ably supported by David and Jason).  For example:

The original advert:

You will be very computer literate and have good technical accounting knowledge.  You will possess strong communication skills, have the ability to manage others and to work independently.  Strong practical experience of accounting systems and Excel is essential.  Knowledge of Crystal Reports an advantage.

Dennis’ version:

Technical skills:

Strong practical accounting skills are assumed with an emphasis on assisting business managers rather than preaching the numbers. In addition, candidates will need to demonstrate a genuine passion for technology. The geekier the better but not to the point of speaking in Java or PHP. You need to be an Excel Wizard and if you have Crystal skills, that’s a bonus. You need to have solid communications skills - written and oral.

Social abilities:

Team player? Good. Able to work unsupervised without goofing off or panicking? Ideal. Flexible? Goes without saying.

In fact it was so good Malcolm McLelland  showed it to about 100 intermediate financial accounting students at Purdue University.  9 out of 10 preferred Dennis’ ad when compared to a typical ad.   

I would like to see more ads like the one Dennis created, but I don’t expect I will (in the near future at least).  Changing from the normal and expected to something new and unexpected is often unsettling.  People generally don’t like change; with change comes risk and with risk comes potential failure.  It’s easier to play safe and stay with the status quo.

Let’s look at the downside if I created an ad in the informal style used by Dennis then where could I go wrong?  I can think of the following:

•    Add inadvertently appears ageist, sexist or raciest due to adopting an untested approach
•    Job criteria appears too woolly and a rejected candidate challenges the selection process
•    Lawyers involved fighting a case brought on by the wording of the ad

Let’s now consider the advantages:

•    Differentiates the company making it stand out from the crowd
•    Gives the candidate a clearer idea of the company and the position
•    The company appears a more attractive place to work

With change comes risk.  The trick is to properly consider and minimize the risk;   managing the downside, whilst delivering on the upside.  For example, the HR specialists can check the ad wording before release and remove any potential problems.  The ad still needs to be well written and touch the right spot to deliver the upside, but the downside risk is controlled.

If risk can be managed then what are the other barriers to change?  The biggest, in my opinion, is the extra effort involved.  It’s hard work to change and make change successful.  Attempting the new is always hard work, at least initially.  It’s easier to stick with the tried and tested. 

In business the phrase cost v’s benefit is common.  To take this phrase in the context of the above raises a question.  Is the cost and risk of change worth the effort?    That’s a question of judgement and it’s your call, but don’t forget that we are all living in a technology revolution and revolutions cause change.

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Philip Woodgate

Revolution

"During certain periods in history, innovations in technology have grown at such a rapid pace that they have produced what have become known as industrial revolutions." (Source: Bergen)

About 200 years ago an industrial revolution was in place whereby machinery and steam power changed the world in a short period of time. 200 years later we are living in yet another revolution.

Technology is changing the way people live and interact.  Newlyweds meet online (est 12% in USA),  workers connect to the office from home and niche small businesses can now market and sell globally.

The use of technology will become increasingly important to help give SME's a competitive edge. Kevin Reed makes reference to this in his article in What PC. He discusses small accountancy practices, but the general points of how technology can help a small business operate and improve its service applies to all sectors.

One example he gives is online accounting products like Twinfield (which we use at work to power our GJ Online offering).  Using online products allow the business team to truly collaborate.  It opens doors that were previously closed to small businesses and available only to large companies. 

We are in a technology revolution and the reality is that we are nowhere near its end. 

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SME Online

Not one, not two, but three articles this week all on the same topic.  Our topic of the moment is SME's and the internet. 

Why should SME's be interested in the internet?  Well if IMRG research group are to be believed then online retailing is expected to double in the next 5 years and it's not just the large companies that can get a slice of the action.   SME's generate approximately 52% of the total UK business turnover, but large companies still dominate the online retail market.

SME's have much to gain by entering this market.  For example, specialist or niche suppliers using the internet can launch a worldwide marketing campaign for relatively little cost. 

If you are serious about your SME getting a strong online presence then you'll need a great website and that website must be found easily on the internet.  To do this requires the black magic of search engine optimisation.  You'll know when the magic has worked as your site will appear on the first page of a Google search.  The good news is that there are some great small companies out there that can help set up and search engine optimise your website.

One thing is for sure, whatever you decide to do, the internet is not going away.  Why not see what it can really do for your business today before your competitor does?

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Ride the currents

"Companies that ride the currents succeed;  those that swim against them usually struggle."

It's a good statement.  It's simple, easy to understand and provides some good advice.  Why then is it that time and time again we see both SME's and large companies fall foul of it?  I think the reason is that sometimes companies keep on swimming through habit without actually realising that they are actually heading in the wrong direction.  The trick is to keep an eye out for future trends and understand how they can help your company to ride the currents.

The above statement comes from the McKinsey Quarterly and I'm grateful to Egils Milbergs for making me aware of it.  It's a cracking report on future trends. There is little jargon, it's to the point and raises some thought provoking issues.

On technology the report states that:

"Technological connectivity will transform the way people live and interact.  The technology revolution has been just that.  Yet we are at the early, not mature, stage of this revolution."

and

"We are forming communities and relationships in new ways (indeed, 12 percent of US newlyweds last year met online)...

....For perhaps the first time in history, geography is not the primary constraint on the limits of social and economic organization"

On the global economy:

"Centers of economic activity will shift profoundly, not just globally, but also regionally...

....the world has embarked on a massive realignment of economic activity.

On access to information and knowledge particularly via the internet:

"Companies will need to learn how to leverage this new knowledge universe - or risk drowning in a flood of too much information"

So what's all this mean to the SME?  It reinforces the current view that the use of technology will become increasingly important to help give SME's a competitive edge.  The use of the internet for marketing and trading purposes will be particularly useful for niche SME's.  In addition, there will be a demand for customers and suppliers to collaborate, particularly coming from large companies and internet savy customers.  One example of this will be system to system exchange of accounting information such as orders and sales invoices.

Traditional views of where business is conducted will change.  We are already seeing this with home working and call centres in India, but the change will become more pronounced.  There will be video conferencing on huge screens with better IT to share and categorize all the documents and files we use.  It therefore will become less and less important to the SME that everyone is in the same office.  For example, just moving part of the workforce out of a large city whilst retaining a central city presence could reduce costs without changing the nature of the service or product supplied.

These will be the first wave changes of a much larger global reorganization.

Finally, we are all going to have to find ways to deal with the information overload.  Let me know when you have crack this one.

Philip Woodgate

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Phenomenon

There is an article in the New York Times that is well worth a read on technology and SME's.  It's based on a phenomenon that is being discussed in various media sources, but Steve Lohr in his article has done a good job in removing the jargon and providing real life examples. 

The phenomenon is based on the emerging second-generation Internet technologies and Steve Lohr explains it as follows:

The phenomenon is a big step in the democratization of information technology. Its imprint is evident well beyond business, in the social and cultural impact of everything from blogs to online role-playing games. Still, it seems that small businesses, and the marketplace they represent, will be affected the most in the overall economy. Long-held assumptions are suddenly under assault.

The potential is that the future will see technology working for the SME's making it easier for them to compete.  This is particularly evident in two areas:

1. Using the web as a marketing tool to get to far-flung customers that are interested in a company's products.  This works particularly well for specialist or niche suppliers and allows a worldwide marketing campaign to be created for relatively little cost. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
2. Renting web based software monthly instead of paying upfront capital costs.  The SME takes little risk and if the software does not deliver stops using and renting the software.  The software supplier takes away the risk of upfront capital costs and support contracts from the SME.  Obviously, the software supplier can also benefit greatly. If it delivers an attractive service then, using a web based approach, it can achieve dynamic growth. 

If you are involved with a SME and reading this article then I expect you are already ahead of the game when it comes to technology.  I'll tell you what why don't we just keep this as our secret.

Philip Woodgate

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Giant company blues

And now for something a bit different.  This one goes out to Dennis Howlett and David Terrar and provides a disturbing insight into the mindset of a giant company.

For those not in the know there is something of a battle going on in the software industry.  salesforce.com has seen spectacular growth with its totally web browser based software.  It's has gained an impressive client list including AOL, Cisco, Nokia and Merrill Lynch.  This has not gone unnoticed by the giant company Oracle.  Oracle have a history of buying rivals (Peoplesoft, Siebel etc).  However, according to a recent BBC article salesforce.com will not be the target of takeover.  The reason as the president of Oracle explains is:

"In this case, I think it would be more fun to crush them"

Oracle is a $11,000m+ company and the official message from the top is it's fun to crush our rivals.  I find that very poor and disappointing.  Large corporations should act responsibly, not sound like the school bully.  These large corporations have a massive impact on our lives both locally and globally.  I believe it's going to be vital for the future that these companies are forced to behave both ethically and environmentally.  What kind of message is being sent out to Oracle's employees?

I wish salesforce.com well in their David and Goliath battle.

Philip Woodgate

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Working seamlessly

The definitions of High Availability of IT services and Disaster Recovery have evolved over time to mean different things.

It is obvious, both statistically and logically, that a total failure of a critical server or application for whatever reason is more likely to happen in the normal day-to-day working environment than the occurrence of a disaster that destroys the office. So it would be reasonable to assume that providing protection to critical servers or applications would focus first on the higher, more common risk of HA. Yet in practice, the opposite is true. Most SME’s have formal DR plans for their IT systems (even if it is just the off-site copy of a daily backup) while few have any HA plans.

The purpose of both the HA and the DR plan is to get users working as quickly as possible after a failure, with the minimal loss of data. Yet more often than not, the method of achieving this goal is to focus all the attention and the budget on an electronic copy of the data, leaving the complex process of re-building the IT systems to provide access to that data until after the disaster has occurred.

Therefore the objective of SME’s is:

To keep the users seamlessly connected to a working application and data irrespective of the nature of failure, with very low costs, minimal disruption and minimal risk.

HA and DR have been seen as two different components of protection. HA addresses the day-to-day issues (and the likelihood that critical systems will fail) while DR is a commercial necessity to protect against a much less likely threat of disaster, usually associated with “loss of site”.

What has changed is the level of criticality of a growing number of IT systems means that any downtime is a disaster and therefore a disaster can occur without the “loss of site”.

The result is that a comprehensive HA and DR solution should be one of the same thing. The only question is how it is deployed.

Daren Oliver

Small Business IT

Cisco Systems has just produced a report on the buying habits of UK small businesses.  The report surveyed 400 UK small businesses.

It's major findings were:

1.  The majority of small businesses (42%) feel left in the lurch after purchasing technology, due to insufficient post-sales support or training

2.  41% of the respondents felt that enterprise scale technology was imposed on them, as opposed to products tailored to their size

This can be put more simply as they didn't get the product they really wanted and the after sales support was poor.  It's pretty grim findings given the size of the percentages. 

The problem is that the risk on a normal IT spend is with the customer and not the supplier.  The customer often has large up front capital cost.  For a small business this is bad news.  Budgets are tight and once the capital cost has been incurred then there becomes a point of no turning back.  If you have a good service provider and choosen your product well then it's not a problem, but the findings show that this is not the case for a sizeable proportion of small businesses.

Fortunately, we have now seen the emergence of software as a service (or SaaS for short).  The software is rented monthly with no up front capital costs.  It's helpful for cashflow and if you don't like the software, you just stop renting it.  Good examples of SaaS can be found with online accounting and CRM's. 

My favourite example of SaaS is Twinfield online accounting.  It's great software and it is especially ideal for the small business.

Philip Woodgate

Conference Calls

Recently I had first hand experience of yet another example of technology working for us rather than against.  Normally, my conference calls seem to revolve around using the speaker on the phone.  We all huddle around the phone on our side talking loudly into the phone.  The sound quality coming back is reminiscent of an old gramophone from the 1920's (without the fun). 

The conference call I recently had was with four different people in different offices and countries.  We all got an email invitation with a telephone number and pin code.  At the appointed time you dial the number and enter the pin code.  You are then put through to the conference call and can listen to any of the party speak.  It's easy and the sound quality is crystal clear. 

Philip Woodgate

What's a webinar

I was asked today what is a webinar.  It's a good question, although I can't help thinking that within a year the term will be well known.  Like all new technology the boys (or girls) with toys start using them first and then (if they are any good) they become a household name.  Think ipod, cd, internet and you will understand what I mean. Anyway, what is a webinar?  According to webopedia it is:

Short for Web-based seminar, a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the web.

A key feature of a Webinar is its interactive elements -- the ability to give, receive and discuss information. Contrast with webcast, in which the data transmission is one way and does not allow interaction between the presenter and the audience.

In practical terms it often works like this:

1. I subscribe to a webinar provider (say GoToMeeting)

2. I send you an email invitation to my webinar

3. You accept and follow some simple instructions and download a small software programme to your PC

4. We speak over the telephone, the webinar starts and you see my screen

5. I can then show you anything my PC holds e.g. Powerpoint presentation, accounting system, excel spreadsheet etc..

6. You can then take over the mouse and work with my PC

7. The webinar ends

It's simple and hassle free.  Another example of how the internet is removing geographical restrictions.

Philip Woodgate

It's been a long time coming...

It’s been a long time coming, but finally it looks like the internet is going to deliver to business what it promised 5 or 6 years ago.  Technology such as webinars, online accounting and blogs are all actually really useful.  They are not just techie toys and best of all they actually now work.

On the turn of the millennium we all heard the outlandish claims of what the internet would be.  Companies worth millions (but with no actual assets) proclaimed how great their internet offerings were. Unfortunately, for the vast majority, like the Emperor’s new clothes there was actually nothing there.  All that has now changed and we are not just talking about downloading tracks from iTunes to your ipod.  No a much bigger change has happened that has far reaching consequences; the internet has broken down geographical restrictions.

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It’s really very easy now for most people to get their email from any computer anywhere, say with a hotmail account.  It’s also very easy to get internet banking and now we are also seeing the emergence of online accounting.  All these things give the same benefit of complete flexibility. As long as you can get to a PC with an internet connection then you can make bank payments, send emails and update or review the business accounts.  You could be in an internet cafe in London, Manchester or Kathmandu for all it matters. We control it and it works.

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Philip Woodgate