Home work !

Home Working 
Employers are increasingly getting some staff to work from home – at least for part of the time if not full-time, and in some jobs, people have been doing extra work at home anyway for a long time!

Looking to the future, what equipment and software will make working from home more effective?

The kit
What basic equipment is needed? A fixed computer or a portable device? iPad or tablet? Could just a smartphone do what’s required and replace either?

What sort of printer would you recommend? Inkjet or Laser? Assume colour is required.

Operating system? 

Microsoft or Apple or Linux? Which version?

Internet connection

Wireless or wired? Is speed important? Packages available?

Communications

Instead of a simple landline, what alternatives can people use to communicate? Skype, Google Hang‑Outs, Video Conferencing, MS Live, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter

Office software
Microsoft Office Starter 2010 is free. So are Open Office, Libre Office and maybe others. Or should they have the top of the range Microsoft Ultimate?

Storage

How would you recommend files are stored? Local drives, on-line? Typical hard drive sizes and options for using the ‘cloud’

Other devices
Camera, web cam, microphone are likely to be needed from time to time. A smartphone will have these already, and a portable device like a laptop may well have a web cam and microphone. If needed, what products would you recommend for occasional basic quality use. (Obviously a professional photographer or recording artist would want all sorts of features but this is just for the day-to-day use by a ‘normal’ person!

And, to help the day go by, personal use items such as music players, download sites, internet stations, does it have to be iTunes?

Summarise your suggestions.

Hardware and software improvements: Task 1

Your task is to advise one of these small business as to how IT could support or impact upon how their various tasks get done. Read their brief background notes and consider what changes could be made to help meet their needs.

Peter's background notes [Word version here]
Peter is a carpenter, specialising in oak timber construction but also happy to take on a wide range of building jobs.

He works with three or four self-employed colleagues from a small workshop in a converted barn in Astcote, Northamptonshire.

They have access to all modern utilities including internet and landline services. a bit old-fashioned, though, they have only recently thought about having a web site and promoting what they do.

They do their own accounts and designs for customers in a small office. Peter and some of his colleagues have good IT skills but currently use agencies for everything to do with accounts and promotions, keeping paper records of almost all their administrative stuff.

Peter’s laptop is about 5 years old, running Windows XP which seems to suffer from frequent virus problems and is really slow when handling the photos he likes to take of his work on his phone. He uses a wireless internet connection to his parents’ house nearby but thinks he should now have a separate one.

His printer is an HP inkjet model, also about 5 years old.

He has some decent profits this year and is thinking about some new equipment and software and wondering how he might be able to put IT to good use in running and developing his business.

• What would you recommend? Indicate how you feel your recommendations could benefit his business. 
• Where possible, suggest specific products and advise the current costs of them. 

Judy's background notes [Word version here]
Judy used to be a Personal Assistant and is very IT-literate but struggling a bit financially as her new business in hypnosis and alternative therapies is only just getting under way.

She works with three associates who help with clients’ treatments and interviews but she likes to do all her own administrative and promotional design work.

She is very much into using ‘cloud’ (on-line) applications but doesn’t know much about what’s available. She understands, though, that some software will have to be installed on her equipment as ‘the cloud’ can’t do all tasks.

She has a three year old PC, running Windows XP and uses a copy of Microsoft Office 97 still as that has Word, Excel and PowerPoint which are all she tends to use. She did see a price of £468 quoted for a latest version of Microsoft Office so didn’t buy it as that was too much!

Judy wants to do all her administrative work and design leaflets etc. efficiently in her spare time but she understands that she needs modern software. She also wants to be able to make a web site. She tried using Dreamweaver and PhotoShop but they were too hard for her to learn and the trial copies expired anyway. She has hundreds of photos of scenes she wants to edit and use selections from in a gallery for visitors to her premises but needs some software and a quick and easy way to make on-line albums.

• Remembering that she’s not got much money to spare, what IT solutions would you suggest? 
• Low-cost internet deals? 
• What options are there for working with documents on-line? 
• What options are available for photo editing and web design? 
• How much should she pay for Microsoft Office if she does decide to buy a new version? 

Help for the small business update task

Ideas!

Services

• Good new deals available for internet in some areas 
• New wireless routers offer more powerful / wider range for devices 
• Other services that can be useful?

Hardware

• PC / Laptops / Tablets costs not increasing these days and all new ones pretty efficient for most purposes. Laptops and tablets portable advantages but maybe not so happy running all day. 
• Colour laser printers becoming affordable but cartridges may be pricey 
• Other hardware that could be useful?

Software

• Operating system – WinXP – no IE upgrade (stuck in IE8), Win7 seems popular and reliable and being updated. Cost to buy? Which version? 
• Office has many editions available – basic package may be suitable. Cost? Student Edition – may be eligible if kids around. 
• Google Docs free and everything done on-line 
• GMail and GCalendar getting popular – don’t need PC-based Outlook these days 
• Picasa free and simple and very good for photo management 
• Web design simpler with Serif WebPlus (including e-commerce and contact form resources) Cost? Compare with Dreamweaver. 
• Free web site development tools also from Google Sites, Microsoft Small Business, Wix, Weebly and Yola and others – may be all they need. 
• Windows offer free Microsoft Security Essentials and plenty other auto-updating and monitoring options. Any need to pay for Norton or McAfee these days? 

Other useful utilities for protection / system monitoring?