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Buying software online can be tricky, especially if you are new to shopping via the internet. Whether you are upgrading an existing software package or looking for a specific program to install, the process will be a lot less complicated if you know what to look for.

Software Buying Tip # 1

Read customer reviews. Many popular online stores, such as Amazon, allow users to leave their comments about a particular product. Reading other customer reviews may help to make your decision easier because it gives you an idea of others who have experienced the product firsthand.

Software Buying Tip # 2

When considering any type of software, make sure that it is compatible with your computer. Most software requires a specific processor type, such as Pentium or Celeron, and a certain amount of free hard drive space. The reason is because, in order for software to function properly at quickly, the computer must be able to handle the application. By being familiar with your computer’s configuration, you will be able to select the right software.

Software Buying Tip # 3

Become familiar with the software by reading it’s description and capabilities. Before purchasing any type of software, you should make sure that it is exactly what you want or will enjoy learning. Often times, after software is opened, there is no refund policy for buyer’s remorse.

Software Buying Tip # 4

Purchase software from a reputable company. This will ensure customer service, reliability, quality products and timely shipment. By purchasing software from a reliable source, you will also ensure that the title is authentic and not an illegal copy. The best way to check out a business’s reputation is through the Better Business Bureau.

Software Buying Tip # 5

The best part of shopping for software online is the competition. Because there are so many retailers, prices are more competitive than if only one store had the software that you want. Shop around and compare prices before making a final decision.

Software Buying Tip # 6

When making a purchase online, consider using a credit card. Most credit card companies provide a dispute resolution process, which is beneficial if the product is not delivered, is not as advertised or is damaged and the company will not stand behind the transaction.

Software Buying Tip # 7

If purchasing from another individual, such as often the case with online auctions, confirm that the software has all manuals and/or product keys to ensure proper installation.

Software Buying Tip # 8

Learn about the company’s return, refund and/or exchange policy. In many cases, especially with software, the company may refuse to accept the product back for a refund. However, there is always the possibility that a program is damaged or doesn’t function properly, in which case the store should honor the purchase with an exchange for the same title. When buying software online, it’s best to purchase from a store that is reasonable when it comes to exchanges if not refunds.

Software Buying Tip # 9

When purchasing software online, take a moment to look at the company’s shipping costs, methods and availability of a way to track the package following shipment.

Software Buying Tip # 10

Common payment methods include credit cards, checks and/or money orders. If you want to purchase software online, you will need to do so from a company that accepts a convenient payment method. If you do not have a credit card, most companies will accept a mailed payment. Most companies, however, recommend not sending cash.

In today’s high-tech world, there are thousands of computer viruses lurking, waiting to infect YOUR computer. If your computer is not protected, any of these malicious viruses can sneak into your computer and do some serious damage. Viruses have been known to replicate and clog email systems, slow a computer or network down significantly, erase data, and stop a computer from working all together.

If you don’t already have an antivirus program running on your computer, how would you know what programs are available in the market and which one is the best for you? A good place to start discovering this information is PCWorld.com, a leading computer information source on the internet. Specifically, visit their Top-10 antivirus comparison study at http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,124475,00.asp , where they list the 10 most popular and effective antivirus programs available to individual users. This list should help you a great deal.

From personal experience, my first choice would be McAfee VirusScan 2006 because it is easy to use, virus definition updates occur very often, meaning you get up-to-date protection, and the performance is solid. My second choice would be Symantec Norton Antivirus 2006, which is also solid. I’ve never had a problem with it. My third choice is Trend Micro PC-cillin. In my opinion, the free programs in the market provide some protection, but they do not provide adequate protection because they have basic virus scanning capabilities and their virus definition updates occur less often than their counterparts. No matter which one you ultimately choose to use, make sure you install an antivirus program on your computer. Some protection is also better than no protection at all!

The requirements for business network are different from the requirements for a personal computer at home. If you run a business that has a company network with multiple computers and need antivirus protection, consult a network security expert about choosing the right protection for your company. A business network that is infected by viruses can be disastrous. Make sure you have the right protection.

Information technology has transformed the way we live and the way we do business. ERP, or Enterprise Resource Planning, is one of most widely implemented business software systems in a wide variety of industries and organizations. In this short article, we’ll try to concisely explain the basic yet important concepts relevant to ERP.

What is ERP - ERP is the acronym of Enterprise Resource Planning. ERP definition refers to both ERP software and business strategies that implement ERP systems. ERP implementation utilizes various ERP software applications to improve the performance of organizations for 1) resource planning, 2) management control and 3) operational control. ERP software consists of multiple software modules that integrates activities across functional departments - from product planning, parts purchasing, inventory control, product distribution, to order tracking. Most ERP software systems include application modules to support common business activities - finance, accounting and human resources.

ERP Systems - ERP is much more than a piece of computer software. A ERP System includes ERP Software, Business Processes, Users and Hardware that run the ERP software. An ERP system is more than the sum of its parts or components. Those components interact together to achieve a common goal - streamline and improve organizations' business processes.

History of ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the evolution of Manufacturing Requirements Planning (MRP) II in 1980s, while MRP is the evolution of Inventory Management & Control conceived in 1960s. ERP has expanded from coordination of manufacturing processes to the integration of enterprise-wide backend processes. In terms of technology, ERP has evolved from legacy implementation to more flexible tiered client-server architecture.

Benefits of ERP - ERP software attempts to integrate business processes across departments onto a single enterprise-wide information system. The major benefits of ERP are improved coordination across functional departments and increased efficiencies of doing business. The implementation of ERP systems help facilitate day-to-day management as well. ERP software systems is originally and ambitiously designed to support resource planning portion of strategic planning. In reality, resource planning has been the weakest link in ERP practice due to the complexity of strategic planning and lack of adequate integration of ERP with Decision Support Systems (DSS).

ERP Failures - We couldn’t conclude our brief guide to ERP without mentioning ERP failures. The failure of multi-million dollar ERP projects are reported once in a while even after 20 years of ERP implementation. We have identified the four components of an ERP System - 1) ERP software, 2) Business Processes that ERP software supports, 3) Users of ERP systems, and 4) Hardware and Operating Systems that run ERP applications. The failures in one or more of those four components could cause the failure of an ERP project.

Does any Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system equals any other ERP system? And if not, where are all those differences? First what is ERP? Or at least what are some main differences to make a first rough selection?

• Enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) are management information systems (MISs) that integrate and automate many of the business practices associated with the operations or production and distribution aspects of a company engaged in manufacturing products or services. (www.wikipedia.org)

There are too many differences, but many of them are small. Different packages have their main focus on some sector segment. And the definition of Wiki hits an essential point (of difference).

There are different kind of companies that require the overall management of their resources. Production companies are the most obvious ones, but a (distribution) company like DHL or FEDEX are happy to control their resources. The interesting thing about these distribution companies is that they do not really produce themselves their main focus is to deliver what has been produced by others.

Where a production company (Boeing, Philips, etc) need to control the resources in order to manufacture a product, a distribution company needs to control the resources that are to be transported. Information about this transport is often a critical factor. For example if you travel and your flight schedule has changed, it is important to know where you luggage is located.

The ERP systems that are designed and built are often owned by companies that have a specific origin. Some of those companies have been outsourced, and started to produce for others. The question then is, what type of company was the mother organization; a producer or a distributor.

A ERP Supplier focused on production will most of the time also deliver logistical modules, but their expertise is production. The third type of ERP is again quite different than the previous ones. Both the production and the logistics focus of an ERP supplier share the fact that they concentrate on primary business processes.

The third type of an ERP system excels not in production, nor in logistics, but in finance. Finance is the area where both logistics and manufacturing meets, but it is not part of the primary process. According to the profile of your organization you should set your focus on one of these three ERP characteristics.

Are you having trouble deleting the QuickStatement from the Online Banking Center in QuickBooks? This is an issue for some clients that Intuit is not actively resolving. Here are a few tips and suggestions that will hopefully resolve the issue for you.

First, in the QuickStatement make certain that all matchable transactions have been matched. Then, at the main Online Banking Center page, make sure the QuickStatement is highlighted yellow, then click the Delete button in the lower right corner of the screen. If this does not delete the QuickStatement, here are a few options to consider:

1. Press Control--Delete. Instead of simply pressing the Delete button, press Control--Delete. This may do the trick.

2. Newest Release? Make certain you are running the most current release of your software. For 2004 and 2005 versions of QuickBooks, from the File menu, select Update QuickBooks and follow the instructions. For the 2006 version of QuickBooks, from the Help menu, select Update QuickBooks and follow the instructions.

3. Run the Verify Data utility. From the File menu, select Utilities, then select Verify Data. This may find a glitch in the data file causing your QuickStatement to remain undeleted. If one is found, run the Rebuild Data utility. Please refer to QuickBooks' internal help before running the Rebuild Data utility, especially if you are using QuickBooks on a network.

4. Restore a backup. If you made a backup immediately prior to your online banking session, AND the backup did not contain any of the unmatchable transactions, you may restore it. However, any work you did during your online banking session will be lost. You need to weigh whether or not this will be a good approach to solving the problem. And of course, it does not solve the problem if the unmatchable transactions were downloaded before you made the backup.

If none of these methods work, you may either contact Intuit directly, contact your QuickBooks professional who can then contact Intuit on your behalf, or you may try this work-around. Be advised that this work-around somewhat complex. Please read through these instructions carefully and make certain you understand all of them before you begin.

Add, disable, reverse, check, reconcile, re-enable. Using this method, you will add the transactions to the register, disable the account for online access, reverse the entries you added, check your work, reconcile the account, and re-enable the account for online access. Here is how to do it:

• Add each transaction. Click the Add to Register button to enter them into the register. Open the Account field, and scroll up to create an Other Current Liability account called, "QuickStatement Use Only." Enter all unmatchable transactions using this Other Current Liability account. The QuickStatement must be empty before you proceed; however, do not close the QuickStatement when you are finished entering transactions.
• Disable Online Access. Go to the Chart of Accounts and locate the account you were just working in. Highlight it, right click it, and select Edit. In the Edit Account screen, select the tab that says Online Info. Uncheck the box that says Online Account Access. Since the QuickStatement is still open, QuickBooks may or may not allow you to disable the account for online access. If it does not:

  a. Go back and close the QuickStatement. Then try again to disable the account for online access. Hopefully it will let you.

  b. If it does, great! Proceed as follows.

• Reverse the entries you just entered. There are at least three ways to do this. Only one is shown here:

  Go to the Chart of Accounts and locate the Other Current Liability account you just created ("QuickStatement Use Only"). Highlight it, right-click it, then select Use Register. Go through the register, and using today’s date, record a new and opposite entry for each entry here. In other words, if an entry appears in the Increase column, record an entry in the Decrease column of the same amount. Or if an entry appears in the Decrease column, record an entry Increase column of the same amount. You are not altering, in any way, the previously entered transactions—-you are adding new ones that cancel out the entered transactions. In both instances make sure you use either the bank account or credit card account you used during your online banking session, and that the dollar amount is exactly the same as the entry you are reversing. Go through the register and do this for all entries that appear there.

• Check your work. When you are finished, the balance at the bottom right corner of the "QuickStatement Use Only" register should be zero. Also, go through the bank or credit card register and make sure that the corresponding entries you just made show up there but in the opposite column of the downloaded transaction. If needed, comb through your work and make certain you recorded each entry correctly.
• Reconcile. Next time you reconcile the account for which you could not delete the QuickStatement, in the reconciliation screen you will see all of these entries you just made, both the entries from the QuickStatement, and the reversal entries. Be sure to check these off, as you do not want them to appear in any subsequent reconciliations.
• Re-enable Online Access. Go back to the Online Banking Center and re-enable the account for online banking.

Using online banking with QuickBooks is a huge time saver, but not if there are problems with it. One common source of problems is downloaded transactions that cannot be matched.

When transactions are downloaded from the bank or credit card company, QuickBooks assigns each a “Matched” or an “Unmatched” status, then places all of them into the Online Banking Center’s QuickStatement. The “Matched” status means only one thing: you previously entered the transaction into QuickBooks, then when the transaction cleared the bank and was downloaded, QuickBooks “Matched” the downloaded transaction with the transaction already entered.

The “Unmatched” status is where problems occur. The “Unmatched” status actually means one of four things:

1. It’s brand new. The transaction was not previously entered into QuickBooks. If this is the case, enter the transaction now. QuickBooks will assign it the “Matched” status.

2. It’s different. The transaction was previously entered into QuickBooks, but in a different amount than how it cleared the bank. If you are sure you already entered the transaction into QuickBooks, scroll through the bank register to find it. Once you do, change the amount to the downloaded amount. QuickBooks will automatically match it.

3. It’s already downloaded. Sometimes clients accidentally overlap download dates, meaning that they download the same transaction more than once. If there are entries in the register that have a small lightening bolt in the Cleared column, these have been downloaded already. QuickBooks will not match them to transactions in the QuickStatement, even if they are the same transaction.

4. It’s reconciled. This is similiar to #3, but instead of being previously downloaded, the transaction is reconciled. To verify if this is the case, scroll through the register and look for transactions with a checkmark in the Cleared column. Again, QuickBooks will not match them to entries in the QuickStatement, even if they are the same transaction.

Notice that once the first two situations are resolved, QuickBooks automatically matches them. But in the last two situations, QuickBooks will not match the transactions; they are unmatchable. If you determine that some downloaded transactions are unmatchable:

• Make sure that all matchable transactions are matched. You are going to delete the QuickStatement, and if you accidentally delete matchable transactions, you may later have to enter them manually.
• Once all matchable transactions are matched, click Done.
• QuickBooks will ask if you are sure you want to finish. Click Yes. You are now at the Online Banking Center main page.
• Delete the QuickStatement by clicking the Delete button located near the lower right corner.

That’s it. Your unmatched problems are over, and you now understand the process better. This will help you circumvent future problems when using online banking with QuickBooks.

Color is everywhere and conveys a message even if we don’t realize it. While this message can vary by culture it pays to know what colors “say” in your own corner of the universe, and even what color means to your target market.

If you don’t think that color speaks just complete this sentence, “red means ---- and green means –“ even a child will know what red means stop and green means go. If such simple ideas work for all of a given culture or market what could it mean to the graphic design of your website, brochure, or product if you know some of this information.

First let’s start with the basics. The color wheel. We’ve all seen it. The color wheel shows the basic colors, each wheel is different in how many shades of each color is shown, but they are essentially the same.

Color harmony, colors that go together well. These will be colors that are next door to each other on the color wheel. Such as blue and green. In reference to clothes these colors match each other. Instinctively most of us know which colors go together when we dress ourselves every morning.

Color complements, colors that set each other off, they complement each other. These are colors that are opposite on the color wheel. Such as blue and orange.

Color depth, colors can recede or jump forward. Remember that some colors seem to fall back such as blue, black, dark green, and brown. Other colors will seem to step forward such as white, yellow, red, and orange. This is why if you have a bright orange background it may seem to fight with any text or images that you place on it. The orange will always seem to move forward.

Now you have the basics so let’s go further. Just because to colors go together or complement each other doesn’t mean that yo necessarily want to use them on your project. I opened this article with the meaning of colors now here is an example, keep in mind this is one example from western culture.

Color Survey: what respondents said colors mean to them.

Happy = Yellow Inexpensive = Brown

Pure = White Powerful = Red (tomato)

Good Luck = green Dependable = Blue

Good tasting = Red (tomato) High Quality = Black

Dignity = Purple Nausea = Green

Technology = Silver Deity = White

Sexiness = Red (tomato) Bad Luck = Black

Mourning = Black Favorite color = Blue

Expensive = Gold Least favorite color = Orange

So in designing your project it’s important to know what colors mean. You can now see why a black back ground with green type would be bad, beyond being nearly impossible to read, if your target market thinks that black represents mourning and green makes them sick. There are exceptions to every rule of course.

So you may want to include some research in what colors mean to your target market. Colors that would get the attention of a teen would probably annoy an older person and the colors that appeal to the older person wouldn’t get a second look from a young person.

Color may be one of the most overlooked aspects of web design.

Google launched Google Finance this week. Competitors yawned. Bloggers scratched their heads. And finally, Wall Street analysts grinned.

While Google Finance offers such features as stock charts tagged with news events, an Ajax interface, and, of course, impressive search capabilities, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and others have been producing financial-news-and-data services for nearly a decade.

"We've faced one competitor after another over the years," Peggy White, Yahoo Finance General Manager, told internetnews.com. "We've been doing this for 10 years. We do it very well."

White has reason to be confident; Nielsen//NetRatings lists Yahoo as the top online financial news and information destination for February 2006.

Besides, Yahoo is more than just a search engine and financial-news-and-data service. It's a portal, said White.

"We are really focused on creating an experience that keeps [users] not just engaged with Yahoo Finance, but other parts of Yahoo, too."

But after the launch of GoogleTalk, Gmail and, now, Google Finance, many Web watchers think Google is intent on both emulating Yahoo and cutting into its rival market share by becoming a portal itself.

"Finance areas are a staple of portals, one of the first features they all introduced to help attract and keep searchers," Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of "Search Engine Watch," wrote on his site.

"This move definitely gives Google another portal feature to notch on its belt buckle -- and a feature that may help keep searchers sticking with it."

But White isn't worried about a Google portal. She uses a metric called engagement to measure the amount of time users spend on what pages, and her numbers say Yahoo is way ahead of the competition.

"Our users spend more than double the time with us than any other financial space."

Numbers like that make it seem like Google isn't even in this portal competition. And according to Google, it's not.

"We actually don't track how long a user stays on our site," Katie Jacobs Stanton, Google Finance product manager, told internetnews.com. "We want to be a switchboard."

But John Battelle wrote on his Searchblog that Google is getting into publishing whether or not it wants to admit it.

"I love John Batelle. I think he's awesome," Stanton said, "but we don't create any of our content. What we've done is crawled and extracted data from the Web and then we link off to those sites to send users to a place that goes really deep."

So is Google trying to become or portal or not? With Gmail, users visit Google like a portal. With GoogleTalk, Google talks like a portal. And now, with Google Finance, Google users will use Google like a portal.

Analyst Bruce Temkin of Forrester Research doesn't care. He just thinks creating Google Finance makes good money sense for the company.

"I think it's a good first move for them," he told internetnews.com.

According to Temkin, Google users -- the kind who may or may not be using a portal when they use Google -- are what he would call "target investors, the group that investment firms would pay the most to advertise to."

Last Temkin checked, Google's main business was advertising.

"They have a rich core of target users," Temkin said. "It makes sense to take advantage of that."

If, that is, Google is in this whole thing for the money, portal or not.

"We don't build our products because we're like 'Oh we could make a lot of money doing that," Stanton said of her company.

Have you ever come across a site that seemed to take forever to load? Did it only display the background, and minutes later, display the text all at once? By reading this article, you will be able to prevent this common mistake from happening to you.

Many people use tables to create an effective web site. Most do not bother creating new tables, just dividing the cells to place new content in. This may work for you if you have few or no images, but if your site has too many, this is one of the best ways to turn visitors away. If you have a "graphically intense" web site, you should use separate tables to split up your content. There are several reasons for this.

First, you should understand how a browser reads a table. In a regular HTML document, the browser will display text and images as they load. However, in a table, the browser waits for everything to load before the contents is displayed to the browser and the visitor. One large graphic in a table is all it takes to change your page load time from 15 seconds to 1 minute and 15 seconds. Therefore, you should break up your graphic if it is large and put it in separate tables with the border, cell spacing, and cell padding set to 0.

One way to break up your data is to create two tables- one at the top with the logo and any header information, and one at the bottom with the actual content. This will work well, as the visitor can see your logo and some options while waiting for your page to load. Another way is to actually make tables inside tables. The main table will load, displaying its contents while the tables inside it load. This will make your page load considerably faster and give the viewer something to read while the sub-tables are loading.

That is basically it- I strongly recommend using this technique to decrease page load time while increasing visitors. Before I let you on your own, though, let me remind you of one last thing: Do everything possible to avoid having to put a Java, Shockwave, or ActiveX program in a table. Use JavaScript instead, where possible, because it is much faster to load and execute. It's up to you now to build an effective web site. I hope the knowledge you just learned will help you through your journey. Good luck.

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After months of speculation, Internet giant Google released a beta version of Google Calendar.

The free Web-based event planner is another step in Google's pursuit of Microsoft's domination of productivity applications. It also begins the entry of the Internet powerhouse into social-networking.

Integrated with Gmail, the calendar service gives users the ability to easily create, share and discuss multiple calendars and events.

They can create calendars for work, home and play. Events are either entered into the calendar or Gmail will find mention of an event and automatically add the date to your calendar. To find an event, a new search-bar has been added to the e-mail service.

Because each event has its own Web address, sharing calendars with co-workers or friends is painless. Google applies most of the web promotion by many industry experts.

Google's goal was to make the service "drop-dead simple," said Carl Sjogreen, product manager for Google Calendar. "We heard from our users about their frustration with the current tools," explained.

Google wanted to breathe life into the calendar concept through sharing and simplicity, Sjogreen said.

Along with synchronization with Outlook, a goal is enabling users to tag events to share with the world. In addition to e-mail, users can use Apple's iCal standard and the RSS format to exchange calendars.

Vamsi Sistla, a Forrester Research analyst, thinks Google Calendar is just the latest in its "arsenal" against Microsoft.

But Microsoft, which plans to announce an upgrade of Outlook later this year, won't sit still. The company will likely adapt features found in Google Calendar to the software giant's desktop enterprise application, Sistla said.

"Microsoft and RIM will get their ducks in a row," he said.

Still, an audience exists for Google Calendar, Sistla said. Google could offer its calendar application as part of a bundle for low-end computers or phones aimed at teens, which is where the social-networking aspect comes into play.

The same people attracted to the community nature of Myspace.com will be drawn to Google Calendar, said Sistla.

But for the enterprise user, Google gets no cigar, he added. If Google Calendar is integrated with more than Gmail, there could be greater chance of success.

"If they integrate their calendar application into Google Finance, where people who are tracking the stock market would like to save the earnings, splits and other market-related information, that would be highly useful in building up their user base," Sistla said.

Google competitor Yahoo also has a calendar site. In 2005 Yahoo acquired upcoming.com, a Web-based social event tracker.

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