Innovations to Boost Your Productivity on the Road
Jon Kirchner, vice president of international business development for Digital Theater Systems in Los Angeles, was relaxing over the Pacific on a flight to Tokyo when he had one of those sinking feelings. He had forgotten to tell a key person back at the office the password to gain computer access to an important report he had just finished.
“It was 3 in the morning in Los Angeles,” Kirchner said. “I had to get the information there.” Fortunately for Kirchner, the plane he was on happened to have faxing capabilities. He faxed the password in time for his boss to read the report the next day.
The in-flight fax is the kind of niche service a growing number of companies are going after, creating tools to make working on the road less of a hassle.
The options increase as more people take computers and cellular phones with them on trips.
Companies are trying to find ways to make communicating using those tools even easier. Here is a sampling of some of the latest productivity innovations for business travelers.
Easy E-Mail: BPSI Internet Services of Minneapolis has launched a new service called 1-800 eMail. The service was designed to make it easier for people to send e-mail messages when they’re traveling.
One of the hassles business people encounter when using e-mail on the road is finding local Internet access numbers, said Dave Duccini, chief executive of BPSI and creator of the service.
“I do a lot of traveling myself,” Duccini said. “If you have to find a local phone number for access, it makes it difficult to try and stay connected with your office.” Or sometimes you have to make a long-distance call to find a local number. The 1-800 eMail software eliminates having to dial an Internet access number to link you to your e-mail. Instead, you dial a toll-free number, which also eliminates paying long-distance charges to get on the Internet, he said.
Duccini says he designed the product so people can compose their messages on their own time and only need to be online for the length of time it takes to send the message or documents. (With some e-mail services, you have to compose the message online.)
The software retails for about $30, and there is a monthly service charge of $6.95 for 30 minutes’ worth of time online. After that, it’s 15 cents a minute. The system is also set up so you can have your e-mail messages sent to a fax machine and printed out. For more information, call (800) 486-5347.)
The Traveler’s Phone: The Follow Me Phone from Canoga Park-based Global Cell Corp. is a digital cellular phone that travelers rent and take with them to use in lieu of phones in hotels or other offices or pay phones. The advantage is that you are assigned one phone number that’s good no matter what country you’re in, eliminating the hassles of dealing with country codes. Having your own phone also means you don’t have to pay the surcharges or higher rates sometimes charged by hotels, especially internationally.
The phone rents for $9.95 a day and you’re charged by the minute of use. It also has fax and modem capabilities and comes with voicemail, call waiting and security features. For more information, call (818) 884-6795.
Virtual Fax: Another new twist in communications comes from New York-based JFax Personal Telecom. JFax is a universal in-box that lets users deliver both voice messages and faxes to their e-mail addresses.
When you sign up with JFax, you get a phone/fax number that costs $12.50 a month and entitles you to receive as many as 100 voice messages or fax pages. The messages left at the number are then automatically digitized, compressed and sent over the Internet to a designated e-mail box. In essence, JFax is a virtual fax machine. For more information, call (888) 274-7994.
