I am sure you agree to my statement if I say, “Nothing comes for free in todays world” but still there are a number of tools available in today’s world created by some genius people and companies which help you in doing your business and come for free.
What? You don’t believe me?
Here is the list of 5 tools which can help you to run your business efficiently and effectively and don’t cost anything to the end user and above all they provide an alternative to expensive commercial solutions available in the market.
1. Google Apps 
Our good friends at Google created the world best search engine for us and then they came up with an online version of spreadsheet, word processor and presentation software, called Google Apps. The suite of application is not only available to the home user but it is also available to small businesses with less than 100 users. You can avail of a hosted version of free, spam controlled, hosted email solution GMAIL for your domain name, so you can have [email protected] Along with that you will get Google Apps, GTalk, Google Sites and Google Calender. GMAIL allows POP and IMAP access as well so you can access your emails using Microsoft Outlook©, Thunderbird or on the move using Blackberry or Mobile devices. Using Google Apps you can share documents in your domain or with selected users.
2. Alway Sync
As the businesses are becoming more and more dependent on the electronic data, Data backup is becoming an important task for any business. Believe me you don’t want to face the situation of a lost data.
Alway Sync provides free file and folder synchronisation for Windows. Very useful for data backups and portable drives. The folders can be local drives or network shared drives. It allows the sync software to run in background and synchronise the files/folders on a specified time/date. You can also exclude or include files by type.
3. Firefox
Most of us only know of Internet Explorer as the web browser and Firefox was only for the Geeks in the society but with the release of its 3rd version it is getting more and more popular with users of all levels. Firefox is an open source web browser from Mozilla Application Suite. It is much faster, secure, feature rich and extension rich web browser. It comes with its own spell checker which can check the spellings in any web form you may be typing into, including Gmail’s email editor. Firefox can make your web browsing experience smoother and comfortable and don’t forget to check for the add-ons as there may be one for your requirements.
4. Thunderbird
Microsoft released Office 2007 and but if you would like to buy Office with Outlook, you’ll have to pay nearly the cost of a PC for every license of Office with Outlook. So, if you are a Small Business owner you can’t afford the solution. But once again the solution is available from Mozilla Foundation in the form of Thunderbird. Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster and easier then ever before. It is fully compatible with any POP3/IMAP server. It also works like a charm with Google and with Google’s calender sync add-on available for Thunderbird you can now synchronise between your Google Calender and Thunderbird Calender.
5. Skype 
We are going through a telephony revolution and the old telephony systems seems to be dying out slowly. Skype started with people using it to call their family and friends in other parts of the world as it was free to call them if they are connected to the internet. But, Skype grew itself further to become the largest VoIP service provider in the world. Skype can now provide you a landline phone number in many countries around the globe so that you can develop your business without having your physical presence in that country. You can also travel with the Skype number so carrying your office with you where ever you go. So think about picking up that important call from a customer in Ireland in your hotel room in Dubai.
And here is the bonus…….. (I know I said 5 tools in the begining)
6. OpenOffice.org
I told you about the price of Microsoft Office with Outlook above but even if you are not going to use Outlook you’ll still be paying a lot on your Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. But what if I tell you that you can have all that functionality from an open source product called, OpenOffice.org.
Open Office is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format. Files developed in Office can be opened, edited and saved in Open Office and from MS Office 2007 onwards, Microsoft is now supporting the Open Standard format. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose helping you to run your business cost effectively in difficult economic times.
If you need no cost advice in downloading or installing any of the above applications; send us an email on [email protected] or use the contact us page.
