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What You Can Do With a Server Might Surprise You

By running a small business server you can host your own intranet, and e-mail system, access office data from home – or even from remote devices such as a Smartphone.

What's the advantage of adding a small business server to your workplace?

For most businesses, the benefit comes from creating a central place to hold critical business data. Consolidating your business data in one place ensures that employees know where to find and access the information they need to stay productive. It also means your data is easier to back up and protect than when it is spread over a number of individual PCs.

Yet providing centralized, well-organized data storage is just one benefit of operating a small business server in your workplace.

• Access data at home or branch office: By adding a server to your workplace you can provide access to documents, spreadsheets, e-mail and other information employees who work from home or at branch offices need to use. Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 has smartly simplified remote access with a feature called Remote Web Workplace. Remote Web Workplace is a website that you can create with Windows Small Business Server that provides a simple entry point to your business network for any employee authorized to use it. All your employees need to do is log on to the site to access their e-mail, documents and even their own office PC.
• Host an intranet: An intranet is an internal company website where you can provide information that only your workers should access. Windows Small Business Server 2003 includes Windows SharePoint Services, which enables a server to host a preconfigured internal website. Your employees can use the site to post and collaborate on documents. You can also use the site to post announcements, events, calendars and links to important company resources.
• Host your own e-mail: You can set up a server to handle your e-mail. This means your employees' mailboxes will reside on your server, not on a server operated by an internet service provider. Many businesses find that operating their own e-mail services gives them greater control over their business e-mail. Windows Small Business Server comes with Exchange Server 2003, e-mail server software that provides a messaging solution for internet and intranet e-mail. Exchange integrates with Outlook 2003 for scheduling meetings and online conferences. Exchange also enables businesses to use a web-based e-mail program called Outlook Web Access. Outlook Web Access provides users with remote web access to e-mail, scheduling and contacts when Exchange is used in your business network.
• Access data from a mobile device: Servers can also make data available to cell phones or other portable devices that connect to the internet. For example, you can use Exchange 2003 to automatically synchronize your data by connecting directly to your business server. Employees using Smartphone or Pocket PC Phone Edition devices can access and update e-mail, contacts and calendars throughout the day, as if they were sitting at their desktop computer.
• Use database-dependent business programs: By adding a server to your business, you can use special business programs designed to work with a database. For example, Microsoft CRM is a business application designed to help businesses manage customer relationships. By locating the CRM database on a server, all those in your organisation who use the data—sales representatives, marketing managers, customer service staff—can access and work with the data there. Windows Small Business Server 2003 includes the database software required to effectively run business applications. Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine is a component of both the standard and premium editions. More advanced database software — Microsoft SQL Server 2000 — comes with the premium edition of Windows Small Business Server.
• Send and receive faxes: Sending and receiving faxes remains a day-to-day activity in many businesses. Yet faxing can tie up your phone lines. Windows Small Business Server comes with Microsoft Shared Fax Services to enable you to fax from your desktop PC, and receive faxes through your e-mail, office printer or Windows SharePoint Services intranet site.

  With versatile server software like Windows Small Business Server 2003 now available in the marketplace, business owners will have a hard time finding reasons not to move their offices to server-based systems.

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