Opening our own business, need tech help !

[Dianne]

We are going to open a local secretarial service, working from computers at home. Does anyone know what kind of euipment or software we will need so that those business people using our services can dictate their correspondence, reports, etc. submit to us electronically in a variety of formats; so we can type it for them and electronically submit back to them?

 

[bunklocoempire]

Not sure what your exact needs are (volume & such) but my wife and her business partners throughout Hawaii and the mainland use the Rackspace/Cloud systems and are pretty satisfied with it. Satisfied to the point of wanting to go 'paperless' and thinking it'll work with this system.

Occasionaly there are some issues, but for the most part, once everything got tuned (internet etc., pc's on the same page, etc.) it seems to be doing well.

My wife's small business is an accounting firm that employs about 15 or so people specializing in non-profit auditing. Lots of field work and working from home/home offices.

I am by no means qualified to even be talking about this.

http://www.rackspace.com/cloud

Best of luck to you!!

 

[Dianne]

That is great, and I will research it. I guess it needs to be a program that can read media files like mp3, wavs, etc.

I found this link, but don't know what they are talking about. Guess I need to learn fast !!

http://www.nch.com.au/software/linux.html

 

[swirling_vortex]

Hello, entry-level IT person here.

It depends on how you want to receive your data. Is it simply a matter of storing documents? Then any online storage system will do, even an FTP setup will suffice. If you want something more elaborate, then you'll have to do a little digging. I'd really have to see an overview of your business plan and a small example in order to get a better idea.

 

[fisharmor]

An open-ended question.

If you're just starting, I think what you need to do is get some infrastructure in your home.
You need PCs that can handle double or triple what you're thinking you're going to throw at it. If you're on a time constraint, the spinning hourglass isn't going to help you meet a deadline.
You need an internal network with a file server.
You need that file server preferably using some kind of RAID array and you need a data backup plan.
You need a real internet connection - some lower-end broadband would probably be ok but you need to check with your provider if they're going to cut you off for abnormally high usage. You want to know if that's gonna happen before it does, and you want to pay them the money they want for that not to happen, up front.

As far as file transfer, customers are going to be funny about that. They are probably going to dictate to you what to do.
You need to learn how to use FTP clients, and potentially everything down to low-level dialing over modems. (Oh yeah, it won't hurt to have a modem.)
If your customers aren't concerned about security, then this may be all you need.
If they are, things get more complicated.
If you're going over the broadband connection, there are more than a few ways that the client can ask you to create a VPN with them or some other kind of over-internet secure tunnel. I can't go over all of them because I don't know all of them.
But you're probably going to have to be quick on your feet about it.
If it's a bigger company, you may receive a call from a typical IT guy who has no time to tell you how to get connected and will have no patience with you asking what he perceives to be stupid questions and what you perceive to be vital to you understanding WTF is happening.

You may want to find someone to keep on retainer for this sort of thing.

Oh, and keep in mind that anything relating to linux is going to be irrelevant.
Shut up, fanboys, I'm one of you. Reality is this: no secretary in the world is doing anything with linux.

 

[newbitech]

We are going to open a local secretarial service, working from computers at home. Does anyone know what kind of euipment or software we will need so that those business people using our services can dictate their correspondence, reports, etc. submit to us electronically in a variety of formats; so we can type it for them and electronically submit back to them?

I'd get a cheap 1-200 desktop PC off of craigslist. Set up WAMP and install a php script like phpGroupWare. That should get you going on the cheap and professional.

You'll have a little bit of a learning curve for setting up your webserver hosted off your probably dynamic IP address, but it's free. You can spend a measly 10 bucks and get a domain name registered.

You'll also have a bit of a learning curve getting used to a full featured yet open sourced collaborative business suite like eGroupWare, but again, it's free. I'd even consult with you for less than the cost that it would take to set this whole system up, including training and maybe some small bits of customization.

You could easily have this going with $500 or less.

Gah, edit to add the free software, eGroupWare is paid. .

 

[Dianne]

I'd get a cheap 1-200 desktop PC off of craigslist. Set up WAMP and install a php script like phpGroupWare. That should get you going on the cheap and professional.

You'll have a little bit of a learning curve for setting up your webserver hosted off your probably dynamic IP address, but it's free. You can spend a measly 10 bucks and get a domain name registered.

You'll also have a bit of a learning curve getting used to a full featured yet open sourced collaborative business suite like eGroupWare, but again, it's free. I'd even consult with you for less than the cost that it would take to set this whole system up, including training and maybe some small bits of customization.

You could easily have this going with $500 or less.

Gah, edit to add the free software, eGroupWare is paid. .

That is great information !! Thank you so much.

 

[Mark37snj]

You must listen to this guy, he is one of the best business analyst out there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyQY8e33yfg