One of the most important aspects to being in business, especially a service industry like I am is staying in touch with clients, whether it be their contact information, meetings, birthdays, account information, etc. Recently I have had a couple of friends that are in business ask me how I manage my Calendar, Email, Contacts, Notes, etc., so I figured I would post an entry here for their benefit, hopefully it will help others as well. It has taken me a while to arrive at the solutions I use to stay in touch with my business and as you will see below it’s a process that’s evolving around my Pleth Premium Email Solutions Account and it’s seamless integration into other tools..
My Desktop Application
I am a Microsoft Outlook power-user, have been for a long time now, I guess since the 90’s. I use Microsoft Outlook to read email, manage my calendar, contacts, meetings, tasks, notes, and journal. I run Outlook from the desktop of my primary development machine and it stays open all day long as I interact with clients and work from my tasklist that I build each morning first thing from the messages in my inbox. I do this routine each day religiously. I know that there are critics out there that either don’t use Outlook or have another system in place that they rely on, and that’s fine w/ me as long as they have something that they are comfortable with and it helps them maximize their work day that’s fine with me, I do however recommend Outlook as an email client when asked by friends, clients, and family members. I know it’s not cheap and doesn’t come bundled on a lot of the systems shipped today but for me it’s the best money spent.
When I am going to be out of the office…
If I know I am going to be out of the office for a daytrip I will usually carry my laptop with me and connect to my email via Gmail. I have setup Gmail to download my Pleth Premium Email Account’s messages, (yes, Pleth Premium Email Solutions will even work with Gmail’s interface if you are interested, drop me a note and I can fill you in on this), this typically keeps me in the loop with client communications. If I need to create a task or calendar entry I just key that info into my Treo Smartphone or I will login to my pleth premium email account interface and add it there.
My Mobile / Wireless Email Solution:
For my wireless solution I run Pleth Premium Email solutions on my Palm Treo using Cingular (AT&T). I have it set to check for new messages every 2 minutes or so and it keeps me very attached to my clients no matter where I am at (with the exception of meetings, church, etc.). When I return home from my trip I will simply synchronize my Treo with my Outlook and magically everything is up to date. Rarely have I ever seen this process fail.
Emerging Technology in the Pleth Premium Email Interface:
I have been beta-testing some emerging technology that we are just about ready to roll out to our clients that does something very cool. This technology runs on your primary desktop machine that runs your primary Microsoft Outlook installation that you typically work from. What this software does is it works behind the scenes to synchronize your Calendar, Tasks and Notes with your Pleth Premium Email account’s web interface… That’s right…
Let’s say I am on my way out of the office and I need to jump in and add a task to my workload in Outlook. I simply add the task to outlook and jump in the car and head to my destination. Upon arrival at my destination I simply log into my Pleth Premium Account interface and the task I just added before leaving is already in my tasklist. It’s the coolest thing I have seen in a while and a feature that I know our clients are excited about having.
Stay tuned to my blog for news and information about this cool feature and it’s upcoming release as an add-on to your existing Pleth Premium Email Account. For information on Wireless and Desktop Solutions running our Premium Email Solution, visit our website: Pleth | Plethware Desktop & Wireless Support Documentation
Questions or Comments?