Blog of a Long Distance Worker Tech

The blog about mobile tech

Tag Archives: Workflow

Web Workflow

A long important requirement for me has been the ability to have the perfect web working environment on whatever machine I happen to be using – the netbook, the ultralight laptop and the clunky desktop replacement at home. I have long been using Mozilla Firefox with initially Google Bookmarks, but have since moved on to a combination of Xmarks and the Delicious extension for Firefox. Fairly recently however I have been moving away from Firefox for no other reason than to have a little spice… in fact I have been using Internet Explorer because of some corporate reasons, and Google Chrome because my main hosting provider for services has become Google, and for some reason Google likes to require Google Chrome for some of the nicer features.

A big problem for me has been getting all my extensions and saved passwords securely on all of these browser instances and I have had reasonable success with both Firefox and Internet Explorer, and in the last few days with Google Chrome. Safe to say, I believe I can now use whatever browser on all of my machines with complete access to all of my bookmarks and other browser stored data.

What is a problem however is making sure that all of my extensions for these browsers is on all of my machines. This has been a manual process but now comes this news: Google Chrome Working on Extension Syncing Feature | Webmonkey | Wired.com.

Now if this sees the light of day, this could start the push for me to change my default browser to Google Chrome. After all, Google Chrome seems way faster than anything else I have…

Document Workflow

We all have to deal with paper. Not everything comes into the email inbox, so we work out workflows of how to deal with all that paper… moving from envelope tray to inbox, to work-in-progress, to completed and for file. However there is the new way of dealing with this that many larger/medium size companies have been using for several years using relatively expensive hardware/software combinations for scanning on entry and then using expensive groupware/workflow software to move around to required processor. Now however this can be done cheaply and on a budget with the right process.HP5610ScannerPrinter

How complex you make it depends on scale, as the single person operation can get away with a looser workflow than the 20+ person operation. The most important piece is getting the paperwork scanned into the machine and this can now be done using a simple all-in-one printer/scanner or standalone scanner available for less than £50. HP (and I am sure many others) offer the F4272 Printer/Scanner/Copier which comes with their own Solution Center software which can be simply configured to scan multi-page documents into PDF/Searchable PDF files, for less than £40. This is a quick and effective solution for the very small office, or you can go up a gear and obtain a device with an autosheet feeder such as the HP Officejet 5610 Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax for £54. Once you have the document in PDF form, then the whole document handling and filing process becomes oh so much simpler.

After the hardware/software solution, all that is really required is the central document storage location and/or email distribution tied to a simple filing system (how about Year Folder/Month Folder) and a fixed file naming convention (such as YYYY-MM-DD Subject Matter.pdf).

I have found this a very effective method of dealing with incoming paperwork for many years, although I have not had the benefit of the low cost of entry that today we have. So what is the mobile aspect of this? Having access to all of your company documents online in PDF form from wherever you happen to be, and with the use of the modern USB powered Scanner such as those from Canon, you can make use of the same ingest process ending up with PDF files of all your documents wherever you are, as those scanners are really small and light.

Online/Small Business Leave Management

Whos Off Leave

Whos Off Leave

This sounds like a diversion from the main point of this blog but it really is not. If you are a small business owner or a consultant/contractor who needs to manage a number of other people then you can be left out in the cold in terms of managing sickness and leave. What I have used in the past and do recommend is the service provided by Whosoff. Whosoff provides a basic free service that gives you a basic workflow for managing the time off that the people you work with do have/need. The major advantage of the system is that this is web and email based, available to all, with a good selection of resources for managing leave entitlement.

It does not have full Outlook or iCal integration but that just has to be a matter of time.

Obviously you do need to ensure that you handle the Dataprotection issues that apply, but this is a very effective system.