Not long ago, Frances Altman agreed to present a talk to some of her colleagues. Everyone arrived on time. Unfortunately, at least from her point of view, so did their laptop computers.

"Several people came in and started working on their laptops right through my talk," recalls Altman, public relations specialist at Virginia Commonwealth University. "It was very discourteous -- they could hardly be taking notes or listening to you. Next time, I'll request both phones and computers off."

Altman's experience isn't singular. Laptops (and Tablet PCs) are as much an element of business meetings today as any piece of equipment. But rules and protocols for using them are often lacking.

Here, then, are seven suggested guidelines to ensure that laptops contribute to productive meetings rather than to distract and annoy participants.

►Just for Laughs
 

Every small business owner knows that new technology can be pricey. But technology can also pay in the form of significant savings-particularly over the long haul.

Savings from technology isn't just a matter of plugging in a new gizmo and watching the cash roll in. You have to evaluate your priorities and choose the right technology that meets your operating and budgetary requirements.

With that approach in mind, here are seven ways that technology can save your small business money.

We live in a world that constantly forces us to “do more with less”. Employees are expected to be more efficient. Multi-function devices are becoming the standard on many desktops. We multi-task by answering email, talking on the phone and reviewing a spreadsheet – all at the same time.

We shouldn’t be surprised then that IT departments are asking the same of their fileservers. When server utilization gets measured, we find that many servers have much more capacity than they actually use for the majority of the time. With so much excess capacity – why not run more than one server on a single machine? That’s what virtualization is all about -- one physical machine running more than one server operating system.

Virtualization is a “hot” technology right now and here are some of the reasons why:

• Cost Savings – virtualization may allow you to consolidate multiple servers down to one. Not every server is a candidate to be virtualized but many can make the move successfully.

• Ease of Deployment – An IT person can build a “standard” server in a virtual environment. Any time a new server is needed, a copy of the standard server can be deployed in minutes rather than hours.

• Test Bench – If you are not sure if your existing software will run in a new operating system, why not use a virtual server for testing?

• Disaster Recovery – When the unthinkable happens, recovery of a virtual machine may speed your time back to operations.

VMWare has been the leader in virtualization technology. Last year, Microsoft introduced Server 2008, which offers a wealth of virtualization features that will raise the bar. You’re sure to hear more about this exploding technology in the months to come. If you’re interested, contact your account rep for more information.

But some key questions usually go unanswered. Why is so much private data allowed to be on laptops to begin with? What do people do all day that compels them to tote around records on, say, 26 million Americans, the staggering number seen in the recent Veterans Affairs case?

"It's pure laziness. There's actually no excuse for it," said Avivah Litan, a security analyst for Gartner Inc. "There's no good business reason for it."

Litan advocates a few simple steps: Organizations should keep sensitive information only on secure, centralized servers. Workers can access the data from PCs in the office or over private Internet connections, but can't store the records on their own machines to fiddle with them offline.

Many companies give storage-rich laptops to employees whether they really need them or not. If they absolutely need to analyze data out of the office, the employees should run programs that replace live credit card or Social Security numbers with random "dummy" figures whenever possible, since the actual numbers aren't always relevant.

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