Organizing the Office with Technology

While the regular office has changed rapidly over the years, the adaptation of some time improving products has not kept pace.

Wide Screen Monitors
Computers have definitely become a necessity in the office over time and the peripherals have begrudging followed. On computers, monitors have become an important feature with screen size and resolution potentially improving productivity by a significant amount according to at least one study. In addition, more people are using notebook computers as their primary computer, so an additional monitor would essentially double their workspace leading to increased output and the possibility of reaching end goals faster.

For instance, let's say you're starting a new project to launch a web site and the first order of business is creating a budget. If you work on a smaller screen, comparing line items from previous quarters may require scrolling between the two budgets. Also, if you want to compare several different project budgets, you may have to open additional windows. If those windows cannot fit side by side with the current window, you will be forced to switch between the windows to get the complete picture. Scrolling and window toggling may seem like minor annoyances but throughout the day it adds minutes to each project which throughout the course of the year may account for hours of unproductive work time. The solution – a bigger monitor

Scanner
Another common office item is the printer. The latest trend is an all-in-one device that does any combination of printing, scanning, faxing, and copying. An underrated feature is the scanning functionality. By scanning important documents, you can save them to your central hard drive which has several advantages.

The first advantage is minimizing storage space. Space costs money, right? Well a 500GB hard drive may cost $200 but can hold and organize tens of thousands of documents. There is no need to waste money and space buying file cabinets, manila folders and tabs when you can keep the original and store it on the hard drive until you need to verify the color of ink used for the signature.

Quick access is another nice benefit. With a networked hard drive you can find documents with relative ease. No longer do you have to walk down the hall to the file cabinet and spend countless hours searching through files, because access would be at your fingertips.

The last and biggest advantage is you can send the file electronically. So when the customer or business partner needs a copy, you can e-mail it to them (or make it available through your website). This saves you paper as well as copier ink. Let them bear the cost of print it out.

Using the web site project example, you would be able to use the scanner to save project estimates or screenshots from bidding vendors or any other paperwork they send you. Then in the following months, you could access the bids and compare them with your latest project to help you quickly get a complete picture of cost and time. Comparing past projects, estimates, etc. help you make informed decisions leading to better results.

External Hard Drive
The next piece of technology you should purchase is an external hard drive. The primary benefit of an external hard drive is that it allows you to centralize your documents and data, as well as giving you the ability to backup your important data saved on the primary computer. Centralized storage provides the advantage of accessibility. If your partner brings in his notebook, with the right credentials, they can access the centralized files through the network.

Continuing with the web site project illustration, an external hard drive would allow you to start saving design proposals from bidding vendors on the central drive. Now your business partners could review each proposal while you're off securing some venture capital. You and the partners can discuss the proposals and reach a decision faster even while you travel.

All three of these components can keep your productivity at a high level, saving you time and money and allowing the products in your office to keep pace with the constant changes in your office.

Here's a list of items and prices to give you an idea of how much it costs to improve your office:

Dell 22-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor - $284 (Dell)
Western Digital 320 GB MyBook Essential 2.0 External Hard Drive - $100 (Amazon)
Canon Office All-In-One Printer/ Copier/ Scanner/ Fax - $100 (Best Buy)

Tre Everette - Clandestine Web (edited by Terence Henderson)