HOT NEWS IN THIS REPORT:

1. Microsoft's new "Digital Dashboard"
2. Technomates: Integrating computers and cell phones
3. Your Assets are calling: Satellite-based Asset Management
4. Cool Tool: Voice Mail Selling
5. Cool Tool: Hot Off the Web
6. Domain Name Trickery - Caveat Emptor

Executive Technology Briefing (ETB)
Editor/Publisher: Jordan Ayan

Please feel free to forward this issue to other executives who may be interested in learning about these new technology developments!

Questions? Feedback? Suggestions for future topics? Please contact us at: etb@create-it.com

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STRATEGY: MICROSOFT'S "DIGITAL DASHBOARD" http://www.microsoft.com/DigitalNervousSystem/km/DDoverview.htm

If you figure out how to leverage knowledge, your company wins in the Digital Economy. What's missing is an integrated tool that can help knowledge workers actually capitalize on this compelling vision.

In the last few years, "netpreneurs" have developed a variety of groupware tools to help manage projects, teams and "Information Overload." Still, the critical business information that knowledge workers need is often scattered in personal files, on the corporate network, in proprietary databases and on the Web. And they must use a variety of software tools to access these "silos" of information. The result? What we call Information Pain - knowledge workers drowning in information, but unable to leverage it effectively.

Microsoft's recently introduced "Digital Dashboard" aims to solve this problem. It consolidates personal, team, corporate and external information within the popular Outlook 2000 software interface. This tool is like an information "portal" on the desktop.

Corporate MIS departments can customize the software to provide knowledge workers with a convenient, consolidated view of the critical information needed to make decisions and manage projects.

Microsoft may have a winner with this "Digital Dashboard" concept. Just as the dashboard on your car consolidates critical operating information into a convenient "interface", the "Digital Dashboard" could do the same thing for your knowledge workers. A tool like this could help your employees to:

-- Manage projects more effectively -- especially those that involve team members in multiple locations and time zones,

-- Combat information overload,

-- Make faster, better-informed decisions, and

-- Spot problems and identify opportunities faster.

If your company already uses Microsoft Outlook, the Digital Dashboard may be especially attractive because it's an add-on to Outlook. If your employees are already familiar with Outlook's interface and capabilities, very little training is needed to help them become proficient and begin leveraging internal and external knowledge resources faster.

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TECHNOMATES: INTEGRATING COMPUTERS AND CELL PHONES

http://www.paragonsoftware.com/products/fonesync.html
http://www.mot.com/GSS/CSG/Products/cliponorganizer/feature.html

Recently, several cell phone and software suppliers have introduced products that provide easy integration between your PIM and your cell phone -- giving you convenient access to this information when and where you need it.

One software product we are very enthusiastic about is FoneSync from Paragon Software. This product is compatible with Nokia and Ericsson GSM digital cellular telephones and allows you to transfer contact names and phone numbers from your PC to your cell phone. FoneSync not only supports popular PIMs such as Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Organizer, but also leading contact management programs such as Gold Mine and Act!

We believe this makes it an ideal tool for salespeople, who could use FoneSync to download prospect and customer records within a sales territory before they visit it, which could significantly increase their productivity. Other potential applications include field service and repair people, real estate agents and delivery services.

When I recently replaced my Nokia cell phone, I used FoneSync to transfer all the numbers to the new phone in seconds - a process that previously required meticulous entries using the cumbersome keypad.

Motorola recently introduced a "Clip-On Organizer" module for its popular StarTAC phones that provides similar capabilities and convenience. This product is based on the popular REX organizer, which I use and like tremendously. Like FoneSync, it uses a software program to transfer the contact information you specify to your phone, but the data is stored in this rectangular module, which snaps onto the back of the StarTAC phone.

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YOUR ASSETS ARE CALLING: SATELLITE-BASED ASSET MANAGEMENT

http://www.orbcomm.com

Orbcomm has launched a low-Earth orbit data communications network that is enabling companies in a variety of industries to monitor and track their mobile assets - and it's operational NOW!

The Orbcomm network consists of 28 low-Earth orbit satellites, which are optimized for handling short bursts or "packets" of digital data, such as machine performance parameters and GPS location coordinates. Think of it as a text-based paging network, only the communications infrastructure is 150 miles up, instead of a network of Earth-based radio towers.

A "subscriber communicator" box about the size of a brick gathers data from the machine it's attached to, and relays this data at pre-programmed intervals to a satellite as it passes overhead. The satellite transmits this data to an Earth receiving station, where it is analyzed and stored. The Orbcomm system can even be programmed to generate "alarm" messages if a particular machine's data is outside of normal operating parameters.

Applications of this new tracking and monitoring network include:
- Tracking preventive maintenance intervals
- Dispatching and fleet logistics
- Security/theft prevention
- Automatic notification if an asset needs repairs

Orbcomm and its network of resellers are already selling this unique system to a number of major industries where customers need to track fleets of equipment or other high-value assets, including:
- Trailer tracking for the trucking industry
- Portable generator sets (standby power)
- Construction and mining equipment
- Rail car tracking
- Hard to read commercial utility meters

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COLD CALL PRODUCTIVITY BOOSTER - VOICE MAIL SELLING

http://www.amo-es.com/SR1.html

One recent study indicated that the average caller is headed to voice mail about 75% of the time. What if you could use this to your advantage? What if your salespeople could use voice mail to actually IMPROVE the productivity of cold calls? It sounds like an oxymoron, but it's not. A new device plugs into your telephone and enables a new form of what the inventor calls "direct voice mail marketing."

Here's how it works: First, an assistant dials a prospect's phone number and asks to leave a message in his or her voice mailbox. At that point, the assistant pushes a button on this little black box, which plays a recorded message of your salesperson's voice - a generic version of the message that the salesperson would leave if he had called the prospect himself. When the prospect listens to the messages, it sounds as if your salesperson left the message. If the prospect is interested, they simply call your salesperson.

This innovative tool has several benefits: it allows you to utilize a less skilled, lower paid employee to do outbound cold calls -- quickly and cost-effectively. And it allows your salespeople to focus more time on closing qualified buyers. With the cost of the average sales call skyrocketing, this little tool can be a real time and money saver for your company.

We evaluated this product, and were quite impressed with its simple but ingenious design, high quality audio reproduction, ease of use, and especially its creative use of simple technology!

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COOL TOOL: HOT OFF THE WEB

http://www.hotofftheweb.com

Hot Off the Web is a cool software tool you can use to save interesting Web pages on your computer, and annotate them with your comments and ideas -- using tools like pop-up notes, text highlighters and mark-up pens. You can save these annotated pages in a "scrapbook" for future reference or share them with others. Hot Off the Web can automatically save an annotated page as a self-extracting zip file, and insert it as an attachment into an e-mail message, making it easy to circulate your comments to others.

This inexpensive program ($29.95) is a boon to Web marketers, who need to gather feedback on existing and prototype site designs or for market research and competitive analyses.

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DOMAIN NAME TRICKERY - CAVEAT EMPTOR

Earlier this month what looked like an invoice from Network Solutions (the company that registers Internet domain names) arrived in our office. This $100 invoice was for our domain name -- except instead of ending in .com, it ended in .cc. Upon close inspection, the invoice indicated that domains ending in ".cc" are a new alternative to the .com top-level Internet domain favored by most companies.

The .cc address will work like a .com address, but to a certain extent you are investing in offshore real estate. The .cc domain actually is the Internet country extension for the Cocos - Keeling Islands, a territory of Australia. It's doubtful that the .cc domain will ever have the popularity and common usage of .com addresses, but that hasn't fazed some "netreprenuers," from trying to figure out how to cash in on the .cc domain, since good .com addresses are hard to come by. File this one under caveat emptor (buyer beware)!

That's all for now! I welcome your comments and feedback on the Executive Technology Briefing, which will help me to focus it even more closely on your needs.

Jordan Ayan
President
Create-it!