Our Marketing Manager has moved to Dubai. The rest of us are on the road or work from home so often that her move was the last straw to break the camel's back. With so many of us based offsite so much of the time, nFold has now become a virtual global company.
Doing things the virtual wayWe have our weekly meetings online using IP telephony and web meeting software. We support our customers remotely and meet them online. We even host virtual events with virtual people. And I am now able to share files in our local office network wherever I am, in whatever timezone - as long as I have an Internet connection. During my recent visit to the US, this meant I could keep in touch over the hotel's free wireless connection with anyone who happened to be awake at 4 in the morning when the jet-lag kicked in.
Free. Borrowed. Rented. Bought.
Nor has it cost us an arm and a leg. Sure it's doubled our IT costs, but then we doubled our customer base and our turnover last year, so it's time for our infrastructure to catch up with us. A wise friend taught me that as an entrepreneur, the order of priority is first to use what's free, then borrow, and only part with money as a last resort. Fortunately, there are loads of tools out there to help a young company like nFold keep up the pace.
Check it out!
Free voice conversations: www.skype.com
Free VPN software for creating a secure wide area network over the Internet: https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/list.asp
Free CRM software for managing sales and marketing, email campaigns, contacts database and building relationships with customers: www.sugarcrm.org or http://vtiger.org
Free office software: www.openoffice.org
Free tracking of roving IP number of your ADSL connection: www.dyndns.com
Free email, web calendar sharing with meeting cancellations and reminders on sms or email: www.google.com
Free offsite backups (for less than 5GB): www.xdrive.com
Rented MS Exchange for outlook calendar sharing and email/meeting delivery to mobile phone: www.is.co.za
Rented web hosting and mailboxes: www.your-site.com
Bought internet bandwidth: www.cybersmart.co.za or www.is.co.za or www.telksomsa.net Bought 3G or HSDPA bandwidth: www.vodacom.co.za or www.mtn.co.za
Bought web meeting and support software: www.netviewer.com
Keeping the home fires burning
It's another rainy day in Jozie. Telkom has no outages in store today, and the lights are on - for now. Meanwhile, in Dubai it's a warm winter day while Theresa is arranging our next guerilla marketing campaign. And I am enjoying some tea and deleting new emails at the local coffee shop between meetings. Eskom decides to do load shedding and our office lights go out. The UPS keeps our server, network and switchboard going until the generator is turned on. And peace reigns while the pitter-patter of raindrops continues without stopping, just like virtual life continues at nFold.
