Discover what's in the QBS toolbox...

Every day we use business tools to help improve our productivity. Some times we stumble upon them by chance, other times we are enlightened by a co-worker or find something useable at a conference. Here are some of the tools that help us- and might just be what you are looking for as well.

 

Sendthisfile.com   If you have to send larger files to your clients, this program is great.  It’s much faster than sending anything by regular email and it encrypts it as well, to create a safe alternative. You have the opportunity to send five files at once and your recipient has three days to download the file.  If you want private branding, or your clients need longer to download, there is a paid version as well.

 Roboform This is a program we all use every day at Quicksilver.  It’s very inexpensive and comes in several formats.   This program stores and saves all types of form entries such as user names and passwords.  As you know, you can’t do anything anymore without being asked to create a login. This program saves everything you instruct it to and fills in the information next time you return with one click.   You must create a master password and if you lose this you are just completely out of luck! Not even the company can retrieve this for you and everything is locked down and not reachable thereafter, so make sure it’s something that you can absolutely remember, yet considered strong for security.

 

Logmein.com This is a good way to connect to your client’s computer by remote access. One of the best reasons we use it is because even though we are a windows based environment, we can still connect to a Mac environment and work in their files.  It’s also good if you travel and you need to get information from your computer.  If you upgrade to Pro version you can print at your location from the remote computer as well.  There is an additional download called Hamachi that is for network environments.

Skype This is a great tool if you have business overseas and need to contact others in various countries, as well other states here.  Can be downloaded for free and used for voice and video calls over the internet. It also has conference call capabilities and instant messaging.

Google Gmail with calendar and sync  When you sign up for a Gmail account, a calendar comes with it.  If you have a Smartphone these both can be pushed there. And if you like Microsoft Windows, you can also sync all three so that you can write an entry into your calendar from any of these areas and sync them all within a few minutes. How cool is that!

Pidgin  The VP at our new division introduced us to this free program.  We’ve downloaded this with the option to startup with our computers. What makes this program unique from other instant messengers is the ability to login into multiple accounts such as Yahoo, Gmail and AOL, and access those all in one place. Now that we have two offices, we can get information back and forth within seconds, answer each other’s questions and stay in contact as if we were in one office.  I have to admit, we have even used this when we are just in the next office or down the hall. It’s been a great addition to our toolbox!