How to make the most of new technology to survive a recession.

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Released July 2008

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ContentsIntroductionRecession, What Recession?Who’s Feeling the Pinch?How Can Technology Help?Improving EfficiencyMarketing EffectivelyCutting the Costs of CommunicationGlossaryAcknowledgements

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IntroductionIn this guide we have tried to look at a range of issues of relevance to businesses of all sizes; where possible suggesting routes to utilise technology in dealing with them. In each case we have tried to provide links (highlighted in red) to further information, research or tools that might be useful to you or your business.

At the end of this presentation we have included a glossary containing a short excerpt from online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, for each word or phrase. To read the full entry click on the ‘read more’ highlighted in red to be directed to the main site.

At UKNetWeb we specialise in the technical and strategic aspects of working with the internet.

During the planning stages of website builds we have become accustomed to identifying technological routes to improve business efficiency, drive sales and improve marketing. Areas that are extremely important to the bottom line of any business.

With fears of a recession growing and a never ending deluge of stories about rising prices, the credit crunch and low consumer confidence we decided that we should share some of our in-house knowledge; identifying routes for businesses to use technology as a means to drive profitability.

If you would like direct assistance in following any of the advice given within this presentation we can provide consultancy or support in setting up, managing or integration of any of the services listed.

Our unparalleled knowledge of technical programming and emerging digital media means that we are well positioned to maximise your return from these activities.

Our guide is a working document and we envisage that you and other businesses will have your own tips and ideas on how to beat the crunch. If you think we have missed something please get in touch through our blog or our main website and leave a comment for inclusion in future editions of this guide.

Thank you for reading, we hope you find this guide helpful.

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Recession, What Recession?Whatever camp you’re in you can’t fail to notice the increasing talk of recession and ongoing coverage of rising fuel prices, the credit crunch and instability in the housing market.

Even if you haven’t noticed any effect on your business just yet, it is clear that all the talk is having an affect on consumer confidence and eventually the results will be felt by many businesses.

Now is the time to take stock of your business and implement changes to your processes that will lead to increased revenue and higher profitability. After all, the worst that can happen from taking action now will be better profits at the end of the year.

So, assuming that we are heading into rockier times, who will be the first businesses to feel the effects?

Go to the next page to find out some of the areas that can expect a downturn.

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Who’s Feeling the Pinch?House Sales

It isn’t just the estate agents feeling the pinch. There are a number of trades which rely on house sales and each is beginning to feel the problem already. Trades suffering include: Removals, Conveyancing Departments, Property Developers, Building and Construction companies and even garden centres. Take a look at ‘House Drop Should Be Alarm Call’ for Cornish accountancy firm ‘Bishop Fleming’s’ view on it.

High Street Retail

Although May saw record sales growth in the retail sector there is no getting away from the fact that high inflation will eventually drive consumers to cut their spending on non-essential items such as impulse buys, retail therapy purchases, gadgets and beauty treatments. Industries likely to feel the hit include: phone shops, electrical retailers, independent beauty product retailers, clothing stores and accessory stores. Check out this report from the BBC to find out more: ‘Sales Remain Flat on High Street’.

Nights Out and Nights In

In a survey conducted by leading financial gurus, Motley Fool, they found that 89% people were looking at making cutbacks on ‘non-essential items’ with 67% of those people listing ‘Nights Out and

Takeaways’ as the top thing on their list of non-essentials. Bad news for businesses in the pub or food trade including

takeaways, night clubs, restaurants, cinemas and coffee shops . Check out the Motley Fool guide to ‘Cracking the Credit Crunch’ for more information on how consumers are dealing with the credit crunch.

Holidays and Travel

Although the big travel companies are telling us everything is all right in the travel industry, key analysts

are already saying that the big impact won’t be felt until 2009. Whatever side you’re on you can’t fail to ignore that

in the same Motley Fool survey we quoted for ‘Nights Out and Nights In’ 49% of those looking to cut back on their non-

essential spend included ‘Cheaper or Fewer Holidays’ on their list coming in at number 4 overall. To read one business analyst’s view on this check out - ‘Is Holiday Travel Recession-Proof?’ .

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How Can Technology Help?OK, so you’ve accepted that a recession might just be on the way or have realised that preparing your business anyhow can’t do any harm – how can technology really help?

Well there a number of different areas that the use of good technology can bring about benefits to your business and it’s bottom line. To make it simple we have broken down the areas into the following list or sections to be covered within this guide:

• Improving Efficiency• Marketing Effectively• Cutting the Costs of Communication

Each section provides you with our take on how technology could aide your business during troubled times. Where possible we have provided links to more information, advice and tools.

Over the coming days, weeks and months we will continue to build on these areas with information on how to set up any systems referenced, as well as any additional uses for the tools available.

To keep up to date with the latest advice log onto ‘The Engine House’ blog where we will continue to publish the latest guides and information.

Alternatively you can go to the www.uknetweb.com/keepmeposted and sign up for email updates.

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Improving Efficiency 1 of 3In any business you want to make sure that the efforts you are putting in are worthwhile, achieving the maximum return for the effort applied. However, many businesses are guilty of spending just 20% of there time on things that actually deliver effectiveness.

The first stage in solving this imbalance is to sit down and evaluate your internal processes, time spent on various areas and the income generated from each activity. Once you have undertaken these evaluations of your efficiency, consider some of the following as means to further improve efficiency:

Have a plan

Although not directly linked to technology, having a plan is vital to the success of your business and a key to the efficiency of your organisation.

Take time to sit down and evaluate where you are, where you want to get to and what you are going to do to get there. During the process try and establish firm goals for your business such as; increase customer base by 10% or cut costs by 20%.

By having a plan you can ensure that you are on track at any stage of the process. You can set down at the beginning exactly what you are going to do and then ensure that you stick to it, making minor tweaks as appropriate.

Automate Processes

With modern technology there are many ways that businesses can improve efficiency through automation of standard processes. Some processes are more complex than others but by sitting down and thrashing out what is involved in each series of processes, and the standard elements of them, it is often possible to automate parts or all of the process.

If you don’t know where to start consider the ISO 9001 process as a possibility. The process of acquiring ISO 9001 accredited status forces a business to take stock of internal processes, setting down on paper each process for use by anyone in the organisation.

Once you have your processes on paper look at how you could go about automating them. It may be that you could put in place technology to handle the process or processes for you, freeing up valuable time spent doing routine tasks.

At the most simplest end this could be using a mail merge to send out customer invoices, and at the other, it could involve bespoke programming added to the back of your website, handling all supplier and customer relationships.

As an example, one client of UKNetWeb had an e-commerce store with over 25,000 products from 150 different suppliers. They regularly spent six days a week on processing orders and dealing with suppliers. After analysing the processes and developing a custom back-end system we were able to reduce the six days down to one.

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Improving Efficiency 2 of 3Stock Management

If your business deals with the sale or distribution of physical products then implementation of a good stock management system can be a great way to manage stock more efficiently. Most stock management systems offer organisations a structured method of accounting for all the incoming and outgoing stock within their facilities.

These applications can vary in quality with some offering higher levels of integration with other business systems than others. Ensuring that your package can work hand in hand with your website or accounting system can drive efficiency and cut costs.

These systems will alleviate many of the associated costs of carrying out manual stock counts, dealing with administrative errors and time lost from stock outs.

Whether your business is online or not, a good stock management system is an investment for your business that will continue to show a return for many years after its original implementation.

Time Management

If your organisation sells a service rather than a product, chances are that you are already using some form of time management package to track time spent servicing clients. If not, then you really should have!

Time management software does exactly what it says on the tin – help you manage your time. By tracking and recording how time is spent you can see where you are wasting time and more importantly what activities actually benefit your business.

There are numerous packages on the market, from simple one user editions to full enterprise editions running across multiple machines or locations. The one we use here at UKNetWeb tracks time by the minute, has space for adding costs and expenses, has multiple users, has various task and client levels and a good set of wizards for generating reports for a range of factors.

The screenshot on the next page shows the type of system we use, you can find out more about the package here.

If you’re just starting out in business, or act as a freelance consultant, it may be worth looking at some of the free packages available on the web. There are a number of free or low cost services to choose from here.

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Marketing Effectively 1 of 5Marketing and advertising are often the first budgets to be cut when fears start to emerge over the state of the economy. However, as seen with Coke and Nike during the last recession, putting more into these budgets can reap massive rewards.

The key to success in more troubling times is to work hard to attract a larger share of the market followed by aggressive retention strategies to ensure that you retain those new customers.

With the rise of digital marketing, and the growth of online tools such as social media and social networking sites, there are now many opportunities for businesses to promote their business without breaking the bank.

Search Engine Optimisation

Already speculation is emerging that companies are switching from display advertising to more direct response forms of marketing. These forms of marketing focus on tangible return on investment (ROI) with measurable results to assess the value of each activity.

One major area to consider if you have a website, and let’s face it most of us do, is search engine optimisation (SEO).

There are two forms of SEO to consider; natural search listings and pay per click. The first of these is driven by a

number of factors relating to a mysterious algorithm used by major search engine, Google. The second is a pay for service where companies bid for clicks on keywords or phrases associated with their business.

Chances are you have received literally hundreds of spam emails and telesales calls from agencies promising to get you to the top of Google but don’t be fooled! Unless you operate in a niche market, work within a small specified boundary or have a massive advertising budget, getting to the top of Google is not an easy task.

You need to start the process of optimising your site by making a list of all the words and phrases people are likely to associate with your business. Include all the variations you can think of and play around with regional identifiers as well i.e. soap, organic soap, natural soap, beauty products, soap Cornwall, soap UK. If you get stuck try out Google’s Keyword Tool here.

Once you have your list, you need to start working out the competition for each of these words or phrases, after all, the phrase may attract 1,000 hits a day but there could also be 2,000 companies fighting for each and every one. The best way to track the number of searches performed against the competition for each word or phrase is to use a service such as Wordtracker which collates searches and the competition for them.

So now you have the list, what next?

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This list of keywords or phrases now forms the backbone of your SEO strategy. They can be used to target customers through pay per click or written into the content of your site to improve your natural rankings. Further still, they may even affect the structure of your site with you deciding to dedicate whole pages or sections or your site to a particular area highlighted as a good search term.

The benefit of the SEO approach to marketing your business is that it gives you tangible, measurable results to analyse. This will mean having a suitable tracking code installed on your site, such as Google Analytics, which not only tells you how people arrived at your site by keywords or phrases but also how long they spent there, where they went, who referred them and much more.

This section is only an introduction to the subject of SEO. It is a big area on its own and you should take time to study the process in more depth if you plan to carry out the work yourself. Alternatively, you should consider hiring the services of a professional SEO consultant; recognised by Google and carrying the ‘Google Adwords Qualified Company’ mark shown above.

The Rise of the Blog

Although everybody hears the terms ‘blog’, ‘blogging’ and ‘weblogs’ on a regular basis nowadays many businesses are yet to discover the potential of them. They are often mistaken to be the personal diaries of adolescent teens or someone’s ramblings about the weather; however, as a business tool they can be an effective way of communicating with customers or potential customers on a more personal or direct level.

A weblog, or blog for short, is a website with regular posts or entries offering commentary, descriptions of events, advice or other materials on a regular basis. They can work for a business on a number of levels.

Firstly, they provide companies with an area to post regularly updated information as it becomes available in a way that traditional static websites just wouldn’t allow. This can be extremely helpful in building a dialogue with your market and will help optimise your site by proving to Google that you are keeping your site up to date and using lots of those lovely keywords and phrases you identified earlier. What’s more, many blog systems are geared up for anyone to use, thus you won’t need the help of your web developer every time you need to make an update.

Secondly, blogs become a means to open up conversation with your customers or potential customers. Many allow for comments to be made by the people accessing them, enabling them to interact with you and your organisation on a whole new level;

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posing questions, offering up testimonials or adding insight to your post.

If you don’t fancy writing or managing your own blog it maybe worth considering bringing in a professional blog writer, copywriter or marketing agency to help. If you want to have a go yourself why not try Wordpress, a simple, free package available here.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is nothing new but still many businesses prefer to spend large amounts of their budget every year on expensive print runs and mail outs.

Opting to send promotions and information to customers via email is a not only a very cost effective and measurable way of marketing it also helps protect the environment by saving paper and ink.

We wouldn’t recommend spamming (sending bulk unsolicited

emails), but creating a list of people who would like to receive your information should be a top priority for any modern business.

There are a number of methods to start capturing interested people; however, the most popular is to offer newsletter / promotion sign ups on your website.

When it comes to actually sending and tracking your emails you can choose between: a back-end system on your website, an off-the-shelf package or hiring a dedicated email marketing company.

A popular low cost option for sending email communications is Constant Contact. This is a great way to test the opportunity this form of communication can offer and a 60 day free trial is available here.

Remember, don’t forget your existing customers. Retention of the customers you attract during these times is of great importance. Ensure you send regular information and promotions to your existing customer database, after all in many cases these are the people most likely to do business with you again.

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Social Networks

When we first started to hear about Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIN and all the other social networking sites, it was easy to write them off as just another fad that would soon die away. However, just a few months later it seems as though everybody is using them.

Understanding how these networks can be of use to your business is still only just becoming clear, but we’ve done our best to highlight some of the ways the biggest, Facebook, can help you and your business.

Facebook Groups

If you have something to talk about why not set up a group? A group on Facebook is just like a group in the real world; it has officers or organisers, members and events. Setting up a group on Facebook takes just a few seconds and if you have something to share then it makes for an effective means of communicating for free with your audience.

You can publish events and even compile the attendance list for an event easily with the tools built into the

application. You can message all members at the push of a button or post information or links they might want to read.

Facebook Pages

Facebook pages are like profile pages for your business. They allow you to upload company information, including opening times, contact details, links, pictures and logos. Like groups they cost nothing to build and have options to message all your ‘fans’ (the term for anyone who likes your page enough to link to it).

Every person that links to your page displays a neat little icon showing they adore you, what could be better! And, if you want to see just how effective it is, all the data relating to people visiting your page including; gender, ages etc is stored in the system for you to see.

Check out Facebook Pages here. For an example of a working Facebook Page you can visit ours here.

Facebook Advertising

Facebook offers one of the most highly targeted forms of advertising around. Using the details stored on individual member profiles, the Facebook advertising system can target advertising to be displayed for your exact target market alone.

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The system works on a pay per click or pay per impressions basis; with fees charged only when someone clicks on your ad in the first instance or for every display in the second.

Profiling options include: gender, location (right down to town), job title, interests, education status, relationship status and sexuality.

Ads can be used to promote a Facebook page, group or application; or a company website or micro-site.

For more information check out http://www.facebook.com/ads/

Social Networking

Chances are that most business people have undertaken a form of networking at some point or another. This may have involved going for breakfast with members of your local chamber of commerce or BNI, it may have been a speed

networking event organised by a local company – either way networking on Facebook isn’t much different.

The principal behind ‘social networking’ is that through publishing a bit about your social activity you will find shared interests with friends or colleagues, helping foster a closer relationship between you.

This may sound all too frightening for many businesses; however, once you have spent a little time working out just what you want to share (and the bits you might want to keep private) it can prove an effective means of building stronger relationships with potential customers or partners.

Each profile comes with something called a ‘status update’ (see example below), this is a small one line statement detailing what you are doing, thinking about etc at the very moment in time. Using these to publish small sound bites about you or your company can present interesting results. Try experimenting with different statements and watch as people mention them the next time you meet or call.

An example of how a Facebook Ad appears on a member profile page.

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Cutting the Costs of Communication 1 of 3As businesses we are all aware of the costs of communication. These costs come from travelling to meet customers, talking over the phone with staff or customers, briefing and managing teams and many other areas that are essential in running a company.

Over the past few years there has been a revolution in communication with many new ways to cut the costs in these crucial areas. Below we have attempted to summarise some of the tools we think could help you save some money on your communications.

Skype

Skype was founded back in 2003 as a tool to enable people to talk free of charge to other Skype users around the world. Using a variety of voice, instant messaging and video conferencing, Skype offers businesses and individuals infinite possibilities to cut the costs of their communication.

Better still, by adding credit to your account, the Skype system can be used to call ordinary numbers around the world at a fraction of the cost of normal landline service providers.

If you need a number that anyone can call, simply register and pay for a SkypeIn account, allowing you to receive calls to your Skype account from any standard mobile or landline.

As a tool to manage teams across different locations, Skype offers a quick and effective means of discussion and supports sending files across the internet without the need for an email. When you want to speak face to face, plug in a webcam and off you go.

Skype can be downloaded free of charge from their website available here - http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/

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Webex

Webex offers a suite of online applications designed to facilitate meetings over the internet.

The tools within the system are suitable for a range of circumstances including training sessions, seminars, remote support, client meetings and board meetings. The system operates with no additional technology required, running directly from your existing internet browser.

Individual attendees can view other attendees, share files, ask questions, display images or artwork and much more.

For a tour of the different systems available check out - http://www.webex.co.uk/uk/resources/quick-tours.html

Twitter

Twitter is a ‘micro-blogging’ tool designed to allow people or businesses to post small chunks of information to a group of subscribers on a regular basis.

A free of charge service, Twitter allows you to keep customers or other interested parties abreast of information from you with options for them to respond online or via their mobile phone.

This tool can be extremely effective for publishing links, promotions and sound bites to your audience. The system can be integrated to display on your website, blog or other sites adding additional levels of updated content to each.

Within a sales team the Twitter system could be used to communicate with field sales operatives, with the tool allowing secure communications from one account to all subscribers, allowing them to respond directly to each others posts.

A screenshot of Twitter showing some recent updates or posts from 10 Downing Street follows on the next page.

To set up your own Twitter account go to – www.twitter.com

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GlossaryBeboBebo is a popular social networking website, founded in January 2005. It can be used in many countries including Ireland, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. A Polish version was launched recently, which uses a different user database. There are plans for French, German and other versions. Founded by husband and wife Michael and Xochi Birch, Bebo had a major relaunch in July 2005. It was bought by AOL on March 13, 2008 for $850m (£417m).Read More.

Blog / Weblog A blog (an abridgment of the term web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries.Read More.

BNIBusiness Network International (trademarked by its abbreviation BNI) claims to be “the world’s largest referral organization.” BNI was founded in 1985 by Dr. Ivan Misner, a consultant who now lectures and writes on networking and word-of-mouth marketing. Its motto is “Givers Gain”

- members who provide referrals are theoretically more likely to receive them. Chapters allow one person per professional classification, and prospective members must be approved via an application process. Read More.

Display AdvertisingDisplay advertising is a type of advertising that may, and most frequently does, contain graphic information beyond text such as logos, photographs or other pictures, location maps, and similar items. In periodicals it can appear on the same page with, or a page adjacent to, general editorial content; as opposed to classified advertising, which generally appears in a distinct section and was traditionally text-only in a limited selection of typefaces (although the latter distinction is no longer sharp). Read More.

E-commerce Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Read More.

Email Marketing E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. Read More.

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GlossaryDigital Marketing Digital Marketing is the practice of promoting products and services using digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective manner. Whilst digital marketing does include many of the techniques and practices contained within the category of Internet Marketing, it extends beyond this by including other channels with which to reach people that do not require the use of The Internet. As a result of this non-reliance on the Internet, the field of digital marketing includes a whole host of elements such as mobile phones, sms/mms, display / banner ads and digital outdoor. Read More.

FacebookFacebook (branded as “facebook”) is a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004. The free-access website is privately owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves. The website’s name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some American colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus. Read More.

Front End / Back-End System Generally, the terms front-end and back-end refer to

the initial and the end stages of a process. The front-end is responsible for collecting input in various forms from the user and processing it to conform to a specification the back-end can use. The connection of the front-end to the back-end is a kind of interface. Read More.

Google Adwords AdWords is Google’s flagship advertising product and main source of revenue ($16.4 billion in 2007)[1]. AdWords offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads. The AdWords program includes local, national, and international distribution. Google’s text advertisements are short, consisting of one title line and two content text lines. Image ads can be one of several different Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standard sizes. Read More.

Google Analytics Google Analytics (abbreviated GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. Its main highlight is that the product is aimed at Marketers as opposed to webmasters and technologists which is where the industry of web analytics traditionally grew from. Read More.

Instant Messaging Instant messaging (IM) and chat are technologies that create the possibility of real-time text-based communication between two or more participants over the internet or some form of internal

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Glossarynetwork/ intranet. Read More.

ISO 9001 ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality management systems. ISO 9000 is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. Read More.

Keywords / Key-Phrases On the web, a keyword is a reference to the content and/or the type of meta element included in a given web page’s HTML code to aid in the page’s indexing. A keyword meta element may include several comma-separated keywords (or keyword phrases, each of which may contain several individual words) as follows: Read More.

Micro-Blogging Micro-blogging is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually 140 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, MP3 or the web. Read More.

MySpaceMySpace is a popular social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos for teenagers and adults internationally. Its headquarters are

in Beverly Hills, California, USA, where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media; which is owned by News Corporation, which has its headquarters in New York City. Read More.

Search Engine Optimisation Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. Read More.

Skype Skype is software that allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service are free of charge, while calls to landlines and cell phones can be made for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing. Read More.

Social MediaSocial media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning

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Glossaryamong communities, as people share their stories, and understandings. Read More.

Social Networking / Social Network A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services. Social networking has created powerful new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people, and it now seems that social networking will be an enduring part of everyday life. Read More.

Spamming Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam and junk fax transmissions. Read More.

Stock Management Stock management is the function of understanding the stock mix of a company and the different demands on that

stock. The demands are influenced by both external and internal factors and are balanced by the creation of Purchase order requests to keep supplies at a reasonable or prescribed level. Read More.

Time Management Time management is commonly defined as the management of time in order to make the most out of it. Read More.

Twitter Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as tweets) which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Read More.

Video Conferencing A videoconference (also known as a videoteleconference) is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. It has also been called visual collaboration and is a type of groupware. It differs from videophone in that it is designed to serve a conference rather than individuals. Read More.

WebexWebEx Communications Inc. is a Cisco Systems, Inc. company that provides on-demand collaboration, online meeting, web

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Glossaryconferencing and video conferencing applications. Read More.

Wordpress WordPress is a blog publishing system written in PHP. All data is stored in a MySQL database. WordPress is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg.Read More.

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AcknowledgementsIn producing this document we have used images protected under the Creative Commons License which are free for use in Commercial Work.

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