1/09/06

Holidays stop, winter work drudgery commences. So goes the calendar.

The top story on the right gives warning to small businesses that more states now demand a variety of new compliance hoops to jump through. Lawmakers love making noise to convince us they’re addressing the problem, even if the big companies continue to leak data (and real privacy reforms remain on the back burner).

At the state level, however, the focus shifts downstream and smaller companies get probed. If you’re a Fortune 1000 company, data leak consequences amount to little. Small businesses, however, have neither leverage to bargain nor in-house lawyers to fight in the courts. For this reason, you can’t ignore Sarbanes Oxley and HIPAA, even if you’re still a private company. Small companies doing business with large ones must comply with many of these rules, so get ready. If your state hasn’t made new laws, they will.

In my continuing quest to find Microsoft Office software replacements to keep at least a little money in my pocket, I came across information about the new Microsoft Works suite in PCWorld here. Pricing from $75-$104 sounds much better than $350-$500, doesn’t it?

Now that CES is over, expect some new products to finally arrive this summer. Stay tuned in here and I’ll tell you when new products for small and medium businesses appear.

James