Earlier this year, while in attendance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I found some particularly useful business tools amidst all the consumer gadgets that you can use to increase your competitive advantage in business. You’ll be able to read about them here and, through the wonders of technology, watch some videos of them as well — but more on that later.

DYMO File to Organize Your Office

If your office is like that of most small businesses, you probably have a lot of paper that needs to be organized. Even with the much-touted “paperless office” talk of years ago, we still have lots of paper; keeping it organized is the challenge. DYMO has a product called the DYMO File which provides you the ability to bar code each project or paper and have it filed in a specific place for later retrieval when needed.

Here’s how it can work for you: Let’s say you have a collection of papers all related to one client. With DYMO File, you enter some basic information about the client, the papers, the projects of whatever you need. The product then produces a bar code label, which can be printed on their DYMO labeler or on your regular desktop printer. You then attach the bar code label to the first page in the stack of papers.

These papers are scanned and stored on your computer. Once scanned, the system takes over and helps you keep track of where they are on your computer, on your company server or elsewhere. This eliminates that, “Where are those darned papers for the Jones account?” drama that can happen in a small business office.

In the video, (which you can watch at snipurl.com/dymofile), you’ll see how this product works, from bar code production to scanning. The practical benefit is that you’ll be able to locate information which relates to a client or project on your computer. This means salespeople in the field can access it from the company server. It can be located by others wherever they happen to be.

This can effectively eliminate lost documents in your office. Your people (and you) will be able to locate the right document at the right time. Particular benefits can accrue to those in fields such as legal, medical, real estate, sales and more.

For additional information, visit global.dymo.com.

Phonecasting vs. Podcasting

Podcasting is a way to communicate your messages across the Internet as an audio file, much like radio stations do. It is a great way to reach a large audience.

In the past, it has been rather complicated to produce. Now with a service called phonecasting, you can pick up the phone, call a number for producing a phonecast and create a file that can be heard over the Internet by one or one million people. And the best part about it is that it is free (at least for now).

I had the chance to interview Michael Sharp, the CEO of Phonecasting, and he shared with me how this tool can help businesses get their message out to the world. You can use it for discussing what buyers should know before they purchase items in your field. You can share current trends. For best results, keep the information relevant and powerfully compelling, not a sales pitch.

For additional information, visit phonecasting.com or watch a video at snipurl.com/phonecasting.

Solid State Drives — Changing the Way You Hard Drive

A technology has emerged and is growing rapidly for storage on laptop computers, camcorders, cameras and more devices. It is called a Sold State Drive or SSD and is basically a hard drive with no moving parts. What this means to you, as a mobile professional, is that you won’t have to worry about dropping the hard drive and losing all its contents. It is a Flash Drive, much like those wonderful USB drives we see — just much larger in storage capacity.

SSD provides longer life because it doesn’t wear down parts. It also uses less battery power. This means that it will not only be green-friendly (popular in today’s world) but it gives you more power for a longer time on your computer equipment.

Samsung is leading the way in this with their new 128GB drive which will be available later this year. Because it can fit in either the traditional 1.8” or 2.5” hard drives, it means that form factor is irrelevant with SSD. You will have more storage ability than ever. Michael Yang, director of SSD development at Samsung, explained that they are increasing the amount of storage available by a factor of 100 percent each year. This provides enormous opportunities for mobile professionals to carry more information with less risk. Today the costs are higher for SSD than the traditional hard drives by about 30-40 percent. However, that cost is expected to decline as demand increases and production gears up stronger.

Keep an eye out for this drive as you shop for your next computer. It could be the solution you need to save energy, extend hard drive life and be more productive. And here’s a video link if you’d like to learn more about it. Visit snipurl.com/samsungssd.

Using technology, like the items I’ve mentioned here, helps build relationships and keeps them growing. Embrace new technology to help your customers achieve their goals.