Watch out for hidden cost of Open Source software

Many businesses get attrached by OpenSource software to build their corporate applicaitons. It's great if you can manage the software at the source code level. Or else you will have a lot of fustration with "customizing" the software for your business' requirements or getting supports.

To me, OpenSource for business is equal to talents in your company. You have to have the right talents to manage and use the OpenSource software.  Unless you have very low requirement for yoru applications or find a perfect fit, chances are that you will spend a lot of manpower money on managing and customizing OpenSource software.

Therefore, first think about your company before you are attrached by the "free" offer of OpenSource software.

Presentation - Free Resources

PowerPoint Presentation is one of the most used applications. You can find a lot of free resources on the net to spike up your presentation.

A) You don't need to use PowerPoint, Open Office or other "Desktop Software". You can use Gmail's web abased presentation. You' get it for free with a gmail account.  The benefits of puting your presentation on gmail's documents is that you can share it with other people on the net. You can "permit" your presentation to be seen by people you invite or make it public.

If your Microsoft PowerPoint or OpenOffice Powerpoint presenation is not too complicated, you can simple develop your presentation with the desktop software and upload to gmail. Google's document will automatially convert your Powerpoint presentation to Google's format.

B) Free Powerpoint templates. Just go the net and search with key words "Free PowerPoint Templates". You will find a lot of web sites offering free Powerpoint Templates download just to attract your eyes to the online advertisement.

I have found one: www.templateswise.com. It offers more than a hundred PowerPoint Template all for free. I have tested one or two, it seems fine to me. My free personal anti-virus software have not picked up any virus with the couple of downloads. Give it a try. Use this site or try to search your own favourable sites.

Public web-mail often more powerful and flexible than your corporate mail server.

Electronic Mail is the single most powerful application on the net. It's obvious and I'll skip the obvious. Let's talk about an ideal e-mail configuration I am using today. I am using gmail for my business and personal needs with some complicated setup. Here are the special benefits I am getting out of my current "configuration" of using gmail:

1. I use my own domain name "xxxx@stanleysuen.com" (never publish your e-mail address on the net or you'll get a lot of spam mail) but, really, what's behind the fancy domain name is nothing more than a free "gmail" account. (The domain name, however, cost me US$9.95/yr)
   
   
2. Read and write e-mail on PC with a browser 24x7 anywhere on Earth connecting with Internet.
   
   
3. Read and write e-mail on PC with Microsoft Outlook, a traditional desktop software for e-mail, contacts and appointments. However, we can use just about any e-mail client software like Outlook Express, Netscape or Firefox.
   
   
4. Read and write e-mail on Mobile Phone with a browser interface ( I use a Windows Mobile PDA)
   
   
5. Read and write e-mail on Mobile Phone with build-in E-mail application, which is much better than using a browser on Mobile Phone for such a small screen format.
   
   
6. Backup e-mail with Outlook.
   
   
7. I don't use PushMail like BlackBerry but I can potentially set up my mobile with gmail to do push mail if needed. On this note, I believe Microsoft Live (hotmail) is a more "responsive" push mail platform as the Windows Mobile is built to work with Live for PushMail speed. 

You don't need to buy your own domain name, as in point 1 above, to use gmail but it certainly looks better to your business partners and friends. It is also transparent when youj switch e-mail in future.

To set up the gmail for point 2 to 7 on my top list, most IT support guy knows how to set it up. Just let them know your objectives.

You can even setup your gmail to "represent" your corporate e-mail address so you can write, receive and reply e-mail using your corporate e-mail id but on gmail account. In fact your gmail account can "represent" as many e-mail id as possible once you go through the proper authentication exercise. So you can have "one" single e-mail inbox for both business and personal stuff. Not everybody can do this with their company's e-mail policy but it's possible. This is complicated and advance. I don't think everybody needs to do so but I certainly enjoy using it very much.