Like many of you, I love whiteboards and the collaborative aspect of quickly jotting down ideas on what feels like a large napkin at breakfast. Recently, we moved into a new office and the whiteboard just didn’t look that nice on our new walls. We decided to opt for steel sheets rather then whiteboards.

The Home Depot sells 24 x 36 inch sheets for $7 a piece. They look better then whiteboards and they give you the added benefit of using magnets for posting material in a collaborative space.

Several years ago WebDAV was supposed to be this cool new way to share documents. Due to security holes and differences in implementation it never really took off. I began using WebDAV again once I switched to the Mac and started using iCals for sharing and collaboration rather then the usual Outlook / Exchange server model.

After spending countless hours over the years failing to get a WebDAV server up and running… I decided to look for a simpler option and I found it, iCal Exchange. In less then 5 minutes I was able to remove my iCals from my .Mac account and repost them to iCal Exchange without a hitch.

After a baby and the office moving I’ve finally had sometime to get back to postings. My latest favorite software is Mozy (www.mozy.com), a online backup service for both Windows and OSX. I stumbled on it while searching for a OSX version of Carbonite, the popular Windows online backup service.

The best part about Mozy is they give you 2GB of FREE backups to start with. After the 2GB if you want more space it is unlimited at $5 per month.

I highly recommend it for users that don’t usually backup their files. Mozy runs in the background and can do it’s job without user interaction. My 70 yr old mother has it running on her MacBook backing up family pictures. If she can do it, so can you!

A company’s phone system is usually the first obstacle a potential client is going to jump before speaking with an actual human. So why is it that so many companies put so little time in thinking about the pre-contact phone system?

I understand how large companies reduce expenses by implementing convoluted phone systems, such as Qwest. However, there really isn’t an excuse for small to mid-sized companies which truly value their customers. If I get frustrated by a phone system I’m going to:

1. Be a bit edgy before I even speak to you.
2. Think less of your company.
3. Begin to wonder if you really value your clients.

I’d like to suggest at least a few standards we should aim for:
1. Tell me your hours of operation.
2. Please let “0″ go to an real human!
3. Offer me a directory so I can find the person I wish to speak to.
4. Don’t drop me in a general voicemail box if no one answers.

Just my 2 cents.