We are in the throes of setting up our business and would like to be able to access various systems such as emails etc, we need to know when tasks have been dealt with etc. This is not just for an office network but when one of us works from home (or the beach if it takes off LOL) can anyone advise as to the best solution?

If you are putting a Small Business Server in place then you have remote access to email, documents etc with ease.

You could also look at things like Google Calendar for sharing calendars between different locations and devices.
Using imap email will also let you have your emails on different devices with ease.

Sites like Logmein.com offer free remote access to PC's from anywhere.

 

The best option really depends on how you want to work remotely and what devices you are planning to use.

 

Hi Tracy,

It does depend on the size of the company, systems your are using and what you are wanting to acheive/access. Will you bee having desktops in the office, or will you be using laptops that can be taken away with any software installed?

If you are wanting to keep upfront costs down  I would  look at Office 365, which would provide you with hosted exchange that would handle the sharing of email, calendar and tasks etc. or alternatively Google apps.

As already mentioned logmein provides a free version of their software to access the desktops if you have them.

If you need to share files then you could look at dropbox or livedrive.

Hope this helps.

Feel free to get in touch with any questions.

 

Jonathan

 

I'd recommend Google Apps, you can get ten user accounts for free, this gives you email, calendars, to do lists and a whole lot more. It will sync easily across your pc, iPad, phone etc. Also works well with Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird, a fantastic free Outlook replacement. To check when things have been done try Basecamp by 37 Signals, a brilliant project management tool. Again this will sync across everything and keep everyone on track. Good luck with your new business. Simon

Hi Tracy, 

As some of the other mentioned it depends on what you want to access remotely, but for general office based stuff recommend Mircosoft Office 365, especially if you are already using the Microsoft Office suite. 

Basically you get the main office applications as well as cloud based e-mail and SharePoint (an online docuement library) this basically enables your employees to use e-mail with full calendars and tasks list, and all share the main types of documents e.g. word, excel, pdf etc from any windows based computer that has an internet connection. 

Once the computer is offline you can continue to work on a document and "check it back in" once you get connected back to the internet.

We have some information about it, including some pricing on our Office 365 site, if you'd like to see it in action we have several test systems set up, 

or we can create a 30 day evalutaion based on what you would need for your business type and working methods. 

Feel free to ask me if you'd like to know more. 

As said above - it depends on the detail of what you want to do.

However, it sounds like hosted Exchange and an online Diary may be all you need to begin with. You can access either of these anywhere and with anyone you wish to share with.

We can help manage appointments in your Diary inexpensively if you're out and about seeing tenants and landlords.

Hi Tracy

Great to see new businesses starting up always very exciting times, you might not get the right solution first time, what I mean is what works for you now may need to be revised as you grow so try to stick with products/services that are well supported and scalable.

Microsoft Office, Exchange Email and a Managed Telephone solution that can work anywhere and integrate into outlook and web browser with remote working, also used on your smart mobile.

Join.me is good for callaboration and screen sharing.

Best of luck with venture and here if you need any support.

CW

Thanks for all your replies, we are going to be a team of 3 possibly 4 and want to access when out and about on laptops. I think what we need is some software for letting agencies (We like the look of landlord manager enterprise but unfortunately this is not web based) that is web based as I think maybe a small business server is a little overkill for such a small team? 

Hi Tracy.

 

As suggested above, a hosted service would give you greater flexibility and scaleability than installing an inhouse server. Office 365 from microsoft would give you the features you're looking for, plus a few more. Benefits would include:

• Hosted email, contacts, calendar and tasks. Accessable and syncronised from multiple ccomputers and portable devices (smartphones, iphones, ipads etc)
• Ability to share email, contacts and calendars between different member of the team.
• Hosted document storage with trackable changes and versioning - making collaboration very easy from multiple remote locations.

Have you also thought about your telecoms side of things? We're helping more an more businesses with new ways of working... providing a flexible working environment by letting members of a team work from any location and still be fully connected to their business data, contact lists, email, telecoms... .and most importantly clients!

We're based in Edinburgh, but work with clients up and down the country. Happy to help and advise if we can. I might try and give you a call for a quick chat to try and help you in the right direction.

 

All the best with the new venture.

Stuart

We specialise in micro businesses and know a fair bit about how to squeeze the most from your equipment, particularly for remote access.

The main thing to know is whether you have a Landlord Manager Enterprise multi user licence.

Gary

Hi Tracy,

Just to chime in with what others have been saying.

Traditionally the model would have been to get a Windows Small Business Server, create some VPN's and remote access licenses.  However that was and is overkill for what you need.

Office 365 will allow you to work from anywhere an "almost" any device, so getting rid of the reliance on hardware.

I wont bang on about it any more, as the others above have covered what it can do.  However if you do want a chat (not a sales call) then by all means give me a call 0845 621 6660 or 07817 002 436.

Also I am just waiting for a call back from some Estate / Letting Agents we have done work with in the past to get some recomendations on web based software for you.

If you would prefer for me to give you a call then send me a message with your number.

 

Take Care and good luck with the business

Hi Tracy,

Here are some cheaper estate agancy and letting software solutions.

http://www.thesaurus.org.uk/html/prod-univlett.htm

www.domus.net

http://www.expertagent.co.uk/estate-agent-software.html

I wouldn't jump in with a small business server at this stage, go with Office 365 it'll provide you with most of the things that you need.

I can send you the pricing if you like.

I'm happy to help out if you have any questions.

Jonathan

No joy with Estate agents I spoke to but am waiting for one other to call me back will let you know.

 

Good luck!

Firstly thank you for all your replies on here and the personal messages, I have quickly logged on this morning to thank you all as I felt terrible that you had all gone to so much trouble to reply and help me, but unfortunately have come down with some chest infection and will reply when I feel better.

Tracy I can recommend Jupix for letting software - http://www.jupix.com/ I have seen a lot of agencies use it and its web based. They are a great company, if you want me to put you in touch with them just send me a PM.