Company Connections - The End of the Traveling Floppy Disk

Company Connections
The End of the Traveling Floppy Disk

by Sandi Price

For anyone who has scurried down the hall at the eleventh hour; floppy disk in hand, to the single laser printer in the company, only to find there is already a line that formed 30 minutes ago ... For those departments who have a piece of the project and seem to be mostly trading disks back and forth in an attempt to figure out what everyone else is doing ... For the project coordinator who spends more time peering over everyone else's shoulder, squinting at a variety of computer screens in an attempt to make sense of the whole picture ... For the poor soul whose data won't fit on a floppy disk and ends up scratching his head in frustration ... Salvation is at hand, and its name is LAN.

LANs (Local Area Networks) come in a variety of configurations like bus, star and ring, and numerous types like Novell or Microsoft NT. There is definitely one that will fit your needs. A network is a network, right? Well, sort of. But there are LANs, Wide Area Networks (WANs), Intranets, Internets, Extranets and more. All of these are networks, and the common denominator between them is they all connect computers together to share resources, whether it's across the room or across the world.

You don't think your company is large enough to support a computer network environment? Why? A network doesn't have to be 50 or 100 computers. It actually only takes two computers to form a network, and you can mix operating systems as well as network software. In one of our locations, we have five computers networked: four PCs using a Microsoft NT4 server, a Novell 4.11 server and two running Windows 95. The fifth computer is a notebook computer running NT4 Workstation. We even have our homes networked to share laser printers and backup devices with as little as two computers.

Forget the technical details, right? Let's get to the interesting part. What can a network do for your company to make it worth its weight in gold? In a word: Share. Remember all the times your mother told you sharing was better? She was right. A network will allow you to share not only the one laser printer without leaving your own computer, but all of the other resources the company has to offer.

Computers attached to a network can send email to other employees, share CDROMs, modems, fax machines, printers, tape backups, etc. that are installed on other computers. And yes, you can send that file you need to be printed via the network instead of trotting down the hall with your floppy. You may still have to wait in line, but your file will join a print queue, while you're free to do other work. Different departments working on the same project can share files simultaneously and have access to project updates whenever needed. With the use of a phone line and a PC with a modem, telecommuters or remote offices can access the company LAN from home or across the country, effectively creating a virtual" LAN.

We've all heard the hype about paper-free offices. While I still find it difficult to believe there will ever be a totally paper-free environment, networks can help reduce the amount of paperwork and offer easier and faster retrieval of company information. Virtually any kind of information can be stored on a computer network, including letters, contracts, photographs, voice messages, faxes, medical X-rays, even videos. Think about all of the general company information that's traditionally stored on paper. How about employee directories, medical benefits information, daily or weekly employee notices, user manuals, product specifications or that price list updated just this morning? Or you can scan years of old orders and records into computer files. You1l be able to find out which piece of equipment a particular customer purchased five years ago and now needs a replacement part number. How about a customer service agent who can access a customer's total history and current order status while the customer is on the phone. The list of uses is endless, limited only by your imagination.

How do you go about installing a network for your company? Begin with the most important criteria and avoid problems with careful planning. Surveys show that companies willing to devote the necessary time with their consultants to identify requirements and plan the project were more satisfied with the end result. Once installed, a network will need regular administration and maintenance. The consultant you hire should also be well rounded in all aspects of training users as well as PC troubleshooting. Typically, once your "computer expert" has spent time on site installing a network and training users, he's fair game for every PC glitch, malfunction or breakdown on site. But that's okay too. Every network is built one PC at a time, and the integrity of the network is only as good as the computers on it.

Sandi Price is the owner of NetTrends, Inc., an Internet Web site design and development company in the Oklahoma City area. For additional tips and ideas on building a Website, visit www.nettrends.com or call (405) 330-0093.