Newsletter

Keeping up with the constant stream of technology innovations and sorting out the winners from the losers is a mind-boggling challenge for any busy small business owner. It's a real help when someone else does the time-consuming task of researching and viewing technology demos to pinpoint some of the best products. This spring, companies unveiled some amazing ideas and impressive applications for small businesses or single practitioners. Here are a few of the top picks announced at the 2010 Small Business Summit after reviewing products recently launched at the Spring DEMO show,- a technology forum featuring specially selected up-and-coming companies and a showplace for the best of the latest business apps.

• If you'd like to improve your return on time invested in sales and marketing, you might want to explore ProfilerX from Broadlook (broadlook.com/products/profilerx). ProfilerX brings together information from a multitude of sources, including tapping Internet information, news groups, traditional business data banks and social networking sites like LinkdIn. Users can target companies, competing businesses or prospective clients. In response, ProfilerX mines thousands of sources to deliver real-time, in-depth company and contact information. It can quickly identify key targets and influencers and help qualify leads quickly. A boon to profitability and productivity, this product puts accurate information at your fingertips, delivering detailed intelligence that normally would take many hours to gather and organize.
• If you feel your new business efforts are hobbled because you don't have the big budgets and flashy marketing tools of larger companies, you now have an affordable option. Pixability Business Video (pixability.com) will take video footage of your business and turn it into a polished professional video for clients or visitors to your website. The company walks its clients through the entire process and will provide creative and marketing input if clients request it. Absolutely no filming or editing experience is needed on the client end, and Pixability will help tech neophytes to login and send video material to them via the Internet. Apart from business needs, Pixability also can transform old home videos into a visual tribute to older generations and a special heirloom for future generations.
• A reliable, workhorse printer is a vital piece of equipment in any small business office. The Lexmark Pinnacle Pro90 (lexmark.com) is a new-generation smart printer with features that support productivity and cost efficiency without sacrificing quality. The 4.3-inch LCD touch screen makes it easy to use this all-in-one with fax. With one touch of the myTouch screen, users may select their choice of applications, copy, scan, fax and email,ÂÂÃ?â?? and customize the application for each task without wasting supplies like ink and paper. The printer has a 150-page input capacity and a 50-page document feeder, eliminating the need to spend time watching over the process,- a real boon for a single practitioner or for businesses with few employees. The Lexmark Pinnacle Pro90 also offers an optional second paper tray to allow users to print on multiple types of media. It boasts extra-large ink cartridges that offer some of the lowest ink costs available (about 1 cent a page), and print technology that provides sharp text and vibrant images. As a further plus, the technology works with Windows products to allow users to scan and save information from business cards. Up to eight cards may be scanned at once, and the information is then synchronized with the appropriate address book software.