September 22, 2011
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Test Your Business Skills
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The flow of business doesn’t stop when you leave the office. When you’re on the road, keeping projects moving forward and staying connected to clients, prospects and your team is critical.
Frequent business travelers accomplish all of this by equipping themselves with the right tools ahead of time. Use these five tips to be more productive when you travel.
1. Bring your own broadband service
You can’t always count on wireless connectivity when traveling; service can be poor or the price prohibitively high. With a mobile broadband card, you can take your wireless hotspot with you wherever you go. Broadband cards can plug into your laptop or tablet and deliver reliable 3G, or better, service almost anywhere: at a conference, in an airport or back at your hotel room. Unlike some public wireless networks, mobile broadband cards have strong security settings that you control. You can also turn many smartphones into a hotspot through a feature called tethering—though carriers may charge a fee for this. Tethering uses the phone’s 3G connection as an Internet source for other devices.
2. Access documents in the cloud
With online data backup, it’s easy to save important information from any location and to retrieve it later from any Web-connected computer. Like many cloud-based services, online data storage is a cost-effective alternative to maintaining a server or other physical storage device. Some backup systems allow employees to create their own project spaces so team members can share files and collaborate with one another or with clients.
3. Protect your data
Basic preparation can save you from a devastating loss of data. That’s why it’s important to take a few minutes and set up file encryption on all portable devices. This helps prevent unauthorized users from reading or accessing any encrypted files on your hard drive without first entering a password. Use a password with a mix of upper- and lowercase characters and numbers.
4. Take advantage of mobile apps
Mobile applications provide a variety of time and productivity resources. For example, customer relationship management apps let you access all of your customer contact details; link calls, e-mails, meetings and other activities to each contact; and track sales reports. With scheduling apps, you can synchronize your smartphone with your desktop to retrieve calendars, tasks and documents to help stay on top of your workflow. Other business-focused apps allow you to track billable time, process payments, complete forms and more.
5. Don’t miss important calls
Keep in touch with important calls and messages through call forwarding. This feature redirects calls made to your home or office number and automatically forwards them to your mobile phone, or to any phone number you choose. With call forwarding, you select the duration and the destination of the service. Phone systems that use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) offer similar locator capabilities so others can reach you wherever you are, no matter what device you use (business, home or smartphone).
With these five tips in mind, you should be ready to conquer the world—or at least make your next business road trip a bit less bumpy. Be more productive on the road with the latest mobile apps. Use AT&T’s interactive SMART tool to see which ones are right for your business.
Check your balance, review recent transactions and pay your bill on the go.
ERIC LENINGTON 7 months ago
While the second point "Access Your Documents in the Cloud" is particularly near and dear to my heart (being the CEO of FaxLogic, a cloud-based fax and document management company), the first point "Bring your Own Broadband" is something that I would have thought unnecessary until a series of recent experiences: I've had a Blackberry since the original email-only device, so I take mobile data for granted. But when I recently got an iPad, I opted for the WiFi only version, thinking that WiFi was prolific enough that I'd be able to get connected no matter where I was. I was wrong. It has actually been surprising how many places I've been lately where WiFi access just hasn't been convenient, making me wish I had opted for the 3G version of the iPad (which may come to pass sooner than later). But in any case, for the time being at least, bringing your own broadband is good advice.