Tech Forward:

It’s a digital slap in the face to productivity gurus everywhere.

It knocks conventional thinking on its rear.

After all, didn’t NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg fire a city employee for playing solitaire at work? Yep, that would be affirmative.

Well, now hear this, Mister Bloomberg . . .

A snazzy employee incentive consulting firm, Snowfly Inc., has the answer to Dilbert’s dreams. They’ve “legalized” playing games on company time–and you might just get a promotion in the process. The games look a tad juvenile, but that’s the whole point, right? My word, I’m in the wrong business!

Here’s how it works:

A web-based software program designed by Snowfly allows your employees (with your approval, of course) to earn playing time on games online during work hours–with the goal of raising productivity and morale in their day. Winnings from game play are immediately posted to a Visa debit “game card,” which every player has.

The flagship product, Capstone (Bourne Identity, anyone? Whoops that’s TREADstone . . .), provides random point-yielding games and real-time results to maximize an employer’s ROI. Games can be played from any browser with internet access, desktop, a kiosk in the break room, lunchroom or from home.

Surprisingly, employees lose very little work time. Keep in mind, they are awarded playing time only if they have performed well first. Ahhh, dangling the old carrot. And they spend fewer than 12 minutes per week playing games, redeeming points and logging goal accomplishments.

Loads of REAL companies are using Snowfly as an employee reward system and, whaddaya know, so far it’s working.

People who are allowed to play games as a reward for performance have higher productivity, higher morale and lower turnover. This is particularly true for Gen X & Y employees who grew up with the constant stimulation and immediate gratification of game playing. And 42 percent of employees who earn game tokens in the workplace take the tokens home and play them online with their children in exchange for chores, exercise and homework.

Play on, player!

When my dear friend and blog strategy client, Harry Allen, sent me this link, I thought, “OK, Harry. . . and?”

But, as ever, Harry does things for a reason, so I decided to stop skimming The New York Times article about a credit card-sized projector and really read it.

The article is about the Optoma Pico Projector (about $400) that literally can fit in your shirt pocket. It connects to your cell phone, iPod and smart phone to project whatever’s on the device’s screen (clear that last text from your hubbie first!)

As someone who had had her share of projector madness while trying to deliver my fabulous presentations across the country, I really must say that this is a sight for sore eyes–pun intended.

David Pogue goes into all the nitty-gritty tech details in his article (like battery life, etc.), but I wanted to share this with you to ask the real question:

Now that many previously sizable machines are small, do women (myself included) still need to carry such huge purses?

If you want to keep social networking simple and you don’t want to be bogged down with other social networking sites and tools, it looks like LinkedIn is calling your name.

The folks at LinkedIn understand that today’s busy-ness professional is focused on how to do more with less and squeeze every bit of utility out of one tool. They’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) that it’s best to stick with one thing and master the heck out of it.

For the social networking newbie, you can’t beat LinkedIn to get started.

• It doesn’t require a lot of money–I’ve had a free account for years and have used it to network just fine.
• You create and update your own profile. You control whom you’re linked to and for how long.
• You can build your network as large or as intimate as you like and be a “connector” by introducing people in your network to one another.
• For increased visibility, you can create your own “R&D team” by asking timely, relevant questions and developing a dialogue with those who answer.

And, for all you Twitter-ized FriendFeed‘ers, if you’ve pooh-pooh’ed LinkedIn, its new offerings might be of interest:

• Share your reading list via Amazon.com
• Share files via Box.net (glad they finally got their act together)
• Share travel plans via TripIt.com
• Share your latest blog posts with WordPress and SixApart
• Share your latest PowerPoint presentation with SlideShare (if PPT is your thing)
• And if you’re nosey curious like me? There’s always LinkedIn’s own Company Buzz.

Don’t say I never gave you anything. Get going!

Whether you believe that we’re in a tough economy or not, it’s always good business practice to think about how to streamline processes and make work flow actually flow–even if that means doing more with fewer resources.

I’m pleasantly surprised to see that the folks at PBWiki are addressing areas of concern for today’s businesses.

If you’ve ever wondered about wikis . . . what the heck they are, what they can do for your business and how they can help improve productivity, this webinar is for you.

The shindig goes down on Tuesday, October 21, at 1 p.m. EST–that’s tomorrow–and the best part is, you don’t have to go anywhere: Everything will be available online.  So saddle up your computers and prepare to learn.  Register for free today.

All entrepreneurs want to make sure their employees aren’t joy riding on the internet while on the company clock. That’s a given–and it’s a perfectly reasonable and understandable expectation.

But, to paraphrase Joe Clark, “When you treat people like criminals, they’ll act like criminals.”

And while micromanaging what your employees do online is great for productivity in the short term, in the long term you sacrifice trust, and the flexibility and leeway smart people need to do their jobs.

Two things to wit:

1. There’s no such thing as an “employee problem.” In any organization, its people are never the problem–the processes are. The question isn’t, “What’s wrong with him?” but rather, “How did we hire him?”
2. Time wasters will be time wasters whether you’re clocking their every move or not. If they’re not wasting time online, they’ll be taking 90 smoke breaks or living in the break room.

So, what do you do? You can use software that monitors instead of blocks or filters.

Or you can trust that you’ve hired the right people and that employees who waste time will always be outed by employees who are doing the right thing.

Or some combination thereof. Just don’t sacrifice your relationship with employees in the name of productivity.

Let’s face it, handling the “business” end of small business . . . well . . . stinks.

And, if you’re like me, payroll–along with taxes–is one of the worst “offenders.”

The numbers tell the whole story:

• When it comes to running payroll, making a mistake can be super costly. In fact, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce indicates that one out of three businesses will pay a payroll tax penalty each year (that’s each year, not once).
• The IRS reports that 40 percent of all small businesses pay an average of $845 per year for late or incorrect payroll report filings. Ye-ouch!

So I just heard about this online payroll service that Intuit is offering, and I wasn’t convinced. Don’t get me wrong; the folks at Intuit are a smart group of people–hence the company name–but I didn’t think they’d be able to put a dent in the painful process that masquerades as payroll.

That is, until I looked at Intuit’s online video. Guess I was wrong. (Hey, I can admit it!) So now I’m sharing it with you.

Note: Close the little pop-up window and click the big blue “See How It Works” button (they should re-label that button “Video Guide” or something). Warning . . . there might be another annoying pop-up later. You’d think the Intuit folks would know pop-ups ruin the experience, especially when watching online video. But hey, they can’t be experts in everything, right?

The only way I can describe the new Snap Communicator (watch the quick video on this site), created by the folks at Toucan Global, is to say it’s extraordinary–adorable, even. It truly does take VoIP technology and stands it on its ear. And I’ll say it again: I’m not easily impressed.

The folks at Toucan sent me a pair of Snaps to connect with anyone I choose–eight anyones, to be exact. At first I’ll admit that I didn’t see what the fuss is about. . . . I wasn’t even going to write about the Snap (I don’t care how many samples a company sends me; if I don’t like the product, you’ll never hear a word about it from me). At least, that is, before I became a Snap addict! A Snap-a-holic, even.

I had a chat earlier this week with Toucan’s president, John Willenborg, about the Snap Communicator, what it is exactly and some of its cool features. Listen in and I’ll let him tell you.  . . . (13:25)

I sent the other one to one of our developers who has moved out of the country–and now, time zones aside, it’s much easier to communicate with him. Sorry, folks, the trusty Snap can’t make time zones disappear (that feature is coming in a later version, right John?

There’s nothing worse than having some clueless person clog up your inbox with a multi-MB file attachment.

If you ever need to send a large file to someone and FTP’ing is not an option, burning a CD and sending it overnight just seems like a huge waste of resources, and you don’t want to create an account with some clunky online file sharing website, you might want to do what I do and send the file via YouSendIt.

What I like about YouSendIt is that you don’t even have to create an account to send a file.

1. Just fill in the recipient’s e-mail address.
2. Fill in your e-mail address.
3. Add an optional small note (100 characters or less).
4. Attach the file and hit “send.”

The recipient gets an email from YouSendIt (not from you) that he or she has a file waiting and can click the handly link in the e-mail to download the file. Recipients have seven days to download the file; otherwise it’s toast. It’s virus free and totally secure.

With the free account, you can send files up to 100MB, and if you want to pay YouSendIt has convenient monthly plans that will allow you to increase your file size permissions.

I’ll be the first to admit that e-mail communication doesn’t always do a good job of getting your point across.

E-mail is great for sending files and communicating simple ideas, but e-mail unfortunately doesn’t afford the recipient the benefit of tone and inflection, and sometimes no amount of emoticons will do it.

Here’s when to pick up the phone and speak to a person live:

• You have something of a sensitive nature to discuss with someone. I remember when a guy broke up with Carrie on Sex in the City via a Post-it note. Such poor form that she avoided getting arrested for smoking pot on a public street in NYC. Well, that’s never happened to me, but a client with whom I had not only had a close working relationship but also a close personal relationship ended our working relationship via e-mail. She said she just wanted to let me know as soon as possible, but it said volumes about her inability to have hard conversations.
• You and the recipient have tried to communicate your points via email at least three times, it’s two days later and you’re still not on the same page. Sometimes e-mail can make even the simplest things so complicated. If you’re not getting what the other person is saying–or vice versa–simply pick up the phone. Many times leaving a simple voice mail for the person has worked to clear up confusion. Again, it’s all in the tone of voice.
• You’re thanking them. People don’t say thank you nowadays. Perhaps I’m old fashioned or just haven’t gotten with the times, but a handwritten thank you sent by snail mail is always best. Barring that, a sincere telephone conversation can convey what an e-mail never can. Once, a company wanted me to write about it on this blog. I thought it had a cool concept, but there wasn’t a fit and it didn’t feel authentic, so I didn’t write about it right away. Then one day, there was a fit and I did. I sent the CEO a link to let him know that I finally wrote about his company. No response ever. No comment on the blog post. No quick voice mail. Nada. So very not cool.

So, just pick up the phone, will ya?

That was the subject line of a piece of unwanted e-mail (i.e., spam) that I received recently. Although the subject line was a bit nutty, even I have to admit that it was creative.

And that’s what I’m noticing . . . that spammers and phishers are getting more and more creative in their subject lines and targeting. Thousands of people fall prey to these e-mails every day. They enter their sensitive information on what appears to be a legitimate website–even some confusingly similar to their own banking institutions–and, before you know it, someone either tries to remove money from their bank accounts or, worse yet, assume their identity.

It’s getting bad out there. Really bad.

Here’s how we help stem spam at xynoMedia. I hope it will give you a few ideas:

1. Don’t use filters. Filters give too many false positives. How many times have you sent an e-mail to someone who tells you he or she didn’t receive it, only to have that person find your e-mail crowded among obscene enlargement and international dating offers?

2. Use challenge-response systems instead. You’ve seen this system at work, I’m sure. You send an e-mail to someone and, right away, that person’s system e-mails you back asking you to click a link to confirm that a real person with good intentions sent the e-mail.

The idea is that many of the robots used to send spam out won’t have enough “sense” to open the e-mail and click the link. What’s more, many of the reply e-mail addresses for spam are non-operational anyway, so the challenge e-mail won’t even be received.

Many people think this puts a barrier between you and someone who is trying to communicate with you. Not so. Many people are used to these systems by now, and since you only have to click once, it’s not really a bother. The reality is, people who really want to be in touch with you will take the time to click a link; those who don’t, won’t. Simple.

An example of a good challenge-response e-mail service is Spam Arrest. (BIG Hint: If you’re not a technical person, have someone walk you through the setup. The software is great, but setup is not exactly intuitive and the e-mail support stinks. You can purchase priority support for 10 bucks . . . which puts you at the front of the e-mail queue. Yes, I’m serious.)

3) Use first name-initial, full surname e-mail address conventions. It’s much easier to spot spam that’s addressed to “Dear LWest” than it is to “Dear Lena.” So rather than using lena.west@somecompany.com as your e-mail address convention, use LWest@somecompany.com and whenever you receive e-mail addressed to LWest, you know you can toss it because people who know you–or even people who don’t–would never refer to a real person that way . . . they would use your first name.

4) Never, ever, ever reply to spam. Not even to bail off their list(s). One reason for those seemingly genuine unsubscribe links is to get you to reply or click. The spammers then know that your e-mail address is a “live” e-mail account (meaning actually working, because they really don’t know whether an account is operational when they send the e-mail). They then take your name and e-mail address, move it to a “live” e-mail address list and sell your information to other, more advanced spammers for money. Sick, I know.

And . . .

5) If you’re ever unsure about a link, type it yourself. If you think that your bank has sent you an e-mail, take the time to pick up the phone and call to ask or open a new browser window and type in the website address yourself to log into your account to see if there’s a problem. Never click a link contained in an e-mail you don’t know. Not only can it lead you to a phishing website, but it can also possibly invisibly launch/install viruses and trojans onto your system. Not a good look.

Remember, spam is a business designed to put you out of business. You and your employees are your company’s best defense.

Sometimes you just gotta go with counterculture brands.

And in the game of social media, the counterculture brand du jour would be NOSO. Although not for long. This anti-social social media movement is quietly becoming all the rage.

The intro video, in a Hal-ish voiceover, explains NOSO as a “. . . real-world platform for temporary disengagement from your social networking environment . . .”

And, though I love social media and all that it offers, I must admit that the whole concept is very attractive. No agenda, no texting, no Twit’ing . . . just existing and navel gazing. What’s not to like about that?

However, I’m one of the fortunate ones. Although I write for several blogs and have a monthly column at WomenEntrepreneur.com, blogging and social networking activities have not taken over my life. That is due, in large part, to how I manage my schedule. I really do like writing, so it would be pretty easy for me to get caught up in the rapture of needing to post pithy blog post after pithy blog post. I avoid that by dedicating one day for writing blog content and a portion of two other days to blog management and social media/networking activities (i.e. reviewing friend requests on Facebook, responding to LinkedIn requests, making sure my blog has my most recent speaking schedule, etc.)

I know that not everyone has the same work style or approach that I do. Many people don’t know when enough is enough. They blog and blog and blog until they have nothing left–their content is all spent, then they suffer from burnout and die. Those types need a virtual chill pill. Permission and a means to disconnect momentarily–and NOSO offers that.

NOSO is not right for everyone. Ask your doctor if NOSO is right for you.

People are overloaded and completely innundated with e-mail. I’m one of those people, and I’m getting to the point where I’m seeking out solutions to the madness.

One of the things I’m trying is a new product called Email Center Pro, from the good folks at Palo Alto Software.

They say it’s supposed to be great for companies that have multiple e-mail accounts to check, but I’m finding that it’s great for any super-busy person.

It lets you delegate e-mail, add notes to each e-mail and do other stuff that you’ve always wanted to be able to do with e-mail. The interface is easy to use, so the learning curve is looooow.

If you want to try it with me for 90 days for free, I’ve only got 30 invites. First come, first served. Click here to try it. The form should automatically add “LenaMedia” in the promo code section.

Drop back to comment and let me know what you think…