Remote Working with a Virtual Desktop

Many people don’t know about a rather new technology called "Virtual Desktops" which gives SMEs access to enterprise class technology, allowing staff to work from anywhere, as if they were in the office.

How do Virtual Desktops work?

With the traditional model you have a PC on your desk and all of your programs and data are stored in this PC – you could call this a physical desktop. With a Virtual Desktop programs and data are stored centrally and you access this “Virtual” desktop remotely using the internet with a connection device such as a laptop, another PC or a mobile device.

It doesn't matter where you are, if you can access the internet you can access your hosted desktop – and work.

How much does this level of IT cost?

Actually, virtual desktops can save your business costs. Plus it is a per user, per month package. With this type of outsourcing your company can scale easily, and only pay for what you need.

What are you waiting for?

Virtual Desktops are cheaper, more reliable and more secure and, you can use the same desktop in the office, at home, in a hotel or on holiday. Contact Head Office to find out more!

Author: The Away PA

The Away PA provides an "on demand" secretarial and business support service in conjunction with it's online office "Head Office". To find out more about how you can take advantage of a fully supported office, anywhere, any time, visit the Head Office website or The Away PA Website or email info.headoffice@theawaypa.eu
or telephone 08450 527565.

Why collaborate with a Virtual PA?

• Collaborating with a Virtual PA brings value to you, your business and your clients.
• Collaborating with a Virtual PA gives you all the benefits of working with a partner without giving up ownership of your business.
• Collaborating with a Virtual PA brings another point of view, another opinion and another mind to the table.
• Collaborating with a Virtual PA allows you to keep an eye on the whole of your business whilst being able to focus on those areas of your business that needs your particular expertise.
• Collaborating with a Virtual PA gives you the freedom to delegate those areas of your business where your particular expertise isn't needed and to just one just individual rather than a host of individuals.
• Collaborating with a Virtual PA expands your personal productivity, giving you more opportunity to grow your business.
• Collaborating with a Virtual PA saves you money - not because working with a VPA is cheaper than hiring an employee (which it is), but principally because a VPA saves you money tackling the work that doesn’t require your expertise, at a cost effective rate.
  
• Collaborating with a Virtual PA enhances your image with your clients as well as with your business.

If yours is a small business and your uppermost concern is cost, it might be "penny wise and pound foolish" to ignore the value a Virtual Personal Assistant can bring to your business.

Author: The Away PA
http://www.theawaypa.eu/services.htm

The Away PA provides an "on demand" secretarial and business support service in conjunction with it's online office "Head Office". To find out more about how you can take advantage of a fully supported office, anywhere, any time, visit the Head Office website or The Away PA Website or email info.headoffice@theawaypa.eu
or telephone 08450 527565.

Ceate Effective Sales Presentations

Do you often need to make sales presentations, but usually don’t have the time to create outstanding sales presentations? Have you considered hiring a Virtual Assistant or freelance PA to help you? A Virtual Assistant can help you prepare your sales presentation and include materials for hand-outs to help you make a good impression with clients and customers.

Preparing a good sales presentation complete with a visual aids and hand-outs can take a lot of time. If you are a “solopreneur” running your business on your own, creating a good Powerpoint presentation may be something you simply don’t have the time for - sometimes you’re just too swamped to put all your good ideas into action. It is important that a presentation is clear and compelling. With a competent Virtual Assistant, who specialises in Powerpoint presentations, you can have your ideas fleshed out in video or Powerpoint without having to spend precious hours on it.

All you need to do is discuss your ideas with your Virtual Assistant, provide the necessary information and let your VA do all the work! Having your Virtual Assistant create a presentation for you means that the presentation will be professionally-done and will be able to convey the message that you want to express. Outstanding presentations can help you build a good image with customers.

Don’t struggle with finding the time to put together an outstanding sales presentation- simply hire a good administrative assistant to take care of the details of presentations, brochures, hand-outs and other sales materials for you!

Author: The Away PA
http://www.theawaypa.eu

The Away PA provides an "on demand" secretarial and business support service in conjunction with it's online office "Head Office". To find out more about how you can take advantage of a fully supported office, anywhere, any time, visit the Head Office website or The Away PA Website or email info.headoffice@theawaypa.eu
or telephone 08450 527565.

Want to cut operations costs? Then maybe you should think about moving away from Microsoft Office

Being a Microsoft Office Trainer, I guess maybe I shouldnt' be advocating a move away from Microsoft Office, but to be honest, busnesses today may need to think who really needs Micrcosoft office and who could benefit just as well with any one of a number of other free offerings in order to reduce costs.

For years Office used the menu/toolbar, metaphor that so many of us have grown up using. There's nothing wrong with change per se, but when Microsoft moved to the ribbon metaphor a couple of years ago, they changed the way people interact with the software completely. That meant the new version required companies to train their users to find the things they had previously understood instinctively - at a cost.

Even before the release of Office 2007, there were numerous options such as Google Docs and Zoho to name just a couple of online alternatives and OpenOffice, the open source office suite. Google has a low-cost enterprise version of Docs available and Zoho is a full-blown, low-cost suite of business tools. OpenOffice offers all of the tools you most need in your office suite: word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program, FOR NOTHING!

The downside of these tools is you have various degrees of compatibility with Microsoft Office users (and when 80 percent of the market is still using MS Office, that's an important factor), but if you keep it simple without advanced formatting options (such as animations in presentations), exchanging documents between various products works fine most of the time.

Let's face it, most users keep it very simple and for them, you could choose one of the free or low-cost alternatives. You don't have to give up Microsoft Office completely, just reduce the number of licenses. You can still have MS Office licenses for users in your accounting department, for example, who absolutely need Excel and its advanced features, but you can move everyone who really only need, say, simple wordprocessing tasks and an occasional presentation to the alternative.

Microsoft Office isn't going anywhere any time soon, but if you're looking for ways to cut your operations costs, it makes a lot of sense to look at moving those employees who don't really need every bell and whistle under the sun to an alternative package, while providing a limited number of of Microsoft Office licenses for those users that absolutely need it. It's a smart approach and it could save your business of money.

Author: The Away PA
http://www.theawaypa.eu

The Away PA provides an "on demand" secretarial and business support service in conjunction with it's online office "Head Office". To find out more about how you can take advantage of a fully supported office, anywhere, any time, visit the Head Office website or The Away PA Website or email info.headoffice@theawaypa.eu
or telephone 08450 527565.

Intelligent Help on Hand

http://www.theawaypa.eu
email: info@theawaypa.eu
Tel: 08450 527565

The Away PA provides an "on demand" secretarial and business support service in conjunction with it's online office "Head Office". To find out more about how you can take advantage of a fully supported office, anywhere, any time, visit the Head Office website or The Away PA Website or email info.headoffice@theawaypa.eu
or telephone 08450 527565.

The Perfect PA is Flexible, Hard-Working and Invisible!

As PCs make us all more self-sufficient, few small businesses seem to need the full-time help of a Personal Assistant or administrator. But what happens at those times when there's just too much work, or a special project requires dedicated help? - A virtual PA or remote assistant is what is needed!

Virtual PAs can work outside regular office hours, provide fast turn-arounds and when time is short, it's possible to have a whole team of people working on a project. The team at The Away PA offers an impressive and broad range of business skills: database management, internet research, editing and proof-reading, mail merge, general secretarial support, travel planning, and more. We can also assist with multimedia presentations (see our own fun promotional presentation on YouTube) , desktop publishing, web page design, and design for print work, and even the development of a full corporate identity.

A virtual PA is especially useful in times of need but it's also possible, of course, to employ one on a regular basis to deal with mundane administrative tasks that might otherwise waste valuable business time. Regular mailings, database management, web maintenance, invoicing - any of the dull, repetitive tasks that eat into workaday productivity can be safely outsourced.

To find out more visit: http://www.theawaypa.eu or email: info@theawaypa.eu or telephone 08450 527565

The Away PA provides an "on demand" secretarial and business support service in conjunction with it's online office "Head Office". To find out more about how you can take advantage of a fully supported office, anywhere, any time, visit the Head Office website or The Away PA Website or email info.headoffice@theawaypa.eu
or telephone 08450 527565.

Engage a Virtual Assistant / Off Site PA

You probably are a sole trader or an entrepreneur who started a small business sometime back. However, being on top of your game you have been growing consistently and growing fast. A typical problem that arises in such situations is that your focus now gets divided. In the initial stages, due to limited exposure and work, you could handle all the functions single-handedly or in-house. With the business expanding, the non-core functions start sapping away a lot of your time and energy distracting you from expanding your business - which should always be your prime objective.

The dilemma that many small and medium businesses face at this point is whether to employ an administrative assistant or secretary. You may not have the financial resources to afford one, especially given that as a full time employee you will have to pay a salary plus taxes, etc., but at the same time, you know that you cannot carry on without some help to deal with your administrative work. In such cases a Virtual Assistant, or off site PA is your best option.

Virtual assistants are resources that you can exploit online and who can help you with a lot of your routine work. They can be a substitute for an on site personal secretary. Virtual assistants are equipped to handle your appointments, schedule meetings, manage your calendar, sort your emails, filter out spams, send out notices, advertisements, brochures, and deal with general correspondence. In short, they can handle all the less important jobs on your behalf professionally and leave you to take care of the important ones. Imagine the time that you can save with such services and the time and energy you can dedicate to your core business.

Another excellent advantage with VAs is the payments. You can either hire a VA on a monthly subscription plan or pay for a one-off project by the hour - the key is you only pay for actual time spent, and VAs will utilise specialised software to record this time and can provide detailed time log summaries to support their charges.

Lastly, VAs are highly professional and organised, who usually have worked for some years at senior level in their career and specialise in providing such services. Reputable and highly rated VAs would have a track record of successful client engagements and good knowledge of their duties. They would also employ the best practices in the business giving you the optimum service. So what are you waiting for? Go look for a VA, and save hours from outsourcing your trivial work!

For more information about VA services, visit: http://www.theawaypa.eu or email: info@theawaypa.eu, or telephone 08450 527565.

The Away PA provides an "on demand" secretarial and business support service in conjunction with it's online office "Head Office". To find out more about how you can take advantage of a fully supported office, anywhere, any time, visit the Head Office website or The Away PA Website or email info.headoffice@theawaypa.eu
or telephone 08450 527565.