Adapting small business practices to running charter yachts with Windows Small Business Server 2008

Many charter yachts are essentially small businesses wanting to do more and respond better to their clients and business partners but are scared of the investment both in time and money that they believe it will take to have the benefits that larger companies already enjoy.

The cost factor has practically been removed for small businesses to implement technologies that make them appear and operate at the same levels as enterprise-class businesses. Windows Small Business Server (SBS) offers numerous benefits to the small business owner such as centralising information, a business email application, a centralised calendar, a company intranet and one of the greatest benefits, a remote connection which allows business owners and employees to work from anywhere.

 

Implementing the infrastructure to support working remotely is already a necessity for many businesses. Think about the times you cannot be at your boat for whatever the reason, and you have to run back to check an email. Small businesses are providing this flexibility to their staff keeping them productive and connected while away from their office. It isn’t unusual these days to equip your yacht to do the same, as it is essentially a small business in port or at sea, the only problem being that sometimes you are never away from your office.

Windows Small Business Server was designed with the small business audience in mind. SBS comes with several applications built in. The single purchase of any one of these applications would cost more than purchasing SBS itself, so that is great value right away. The benefit of having business emails alone is worth the investment in SBS many times over, just ask any small business owner who has had a successful implementation of SBS.  

Think about having the benefit of a centralised calendar for your crew and agents, so that everyone knows when someone will be on shift or not, along with booking schedules, when a provisioning delivery is coming up or when other important company and industry events are going to happen. Smartphones (BlackBerry and Windows-based mobile devices) that provide the benefit of synchronising with your Outlook for your emails, calendar and contacts are considered standard tools for many business owners. SBS provides the platform to implement these technologies either using the native push email feature already built in or by implementing the BlackBerry solution.

Already many small businesses are benefiting from a proper implementation of SBS, even those companies with as few as two users.

Using Windows Small Business Server to give your boat business a boost through improved productivity and responsiveness whether you are in the office, out of the office, at home or at sea can make the hectic lifestyle of running a boat and crew just a little bit easier.