IT Support

“IT Support” or Information technology support refers to those things related to computer software, computer hardware, database management, networks, internet, websites, email, mobile phones, etc. The “term technical” support is a much broader term which can include the same things as IT Support.  Think of anything to do with engineering, machinery, electrical, electronic, consumer appliances, etc, these will involve “technical support”.  Visit the websites of HP, Lenovo, Dell and the rest, and you will find a particular section labelled ‘technical support” for their particular products and services.

Hi Stuart,

I completely agree with the three points you made above - in particular, the last two.  The third point really leads into the second point.  It is often a really good idea for a small business to obtain input into what quality infrastructure and setup is best for their business.  If they obtain advice on this and have an IT contractor/external business/internal support person setting that up, then if there are problems these people are knowledgable about the systems and the solutions should be quick - or at least a lot quicker than calling in someone not familiar with their system.

I agree that technology is vitally important and we are now going to more seriously look into offering support services to small businesses around us here in Brisbane.  

I really think a good answer to this kind of question requires a "wish list" of the features/processes you would like in an ideal system. Otherwise, all you're likely to get are lots of different opinions from people about systems they like, that may be perfect for their situations, but not so for yours.

And then, if there are none out there that people can recommend, or any that meet all your requirements, you can talk to someone like me to help put something together that will meet every single one of your specific needs.

There are two angles to your question regarding an "editable" PDF.

Interactive PDF

The situation you describe is requires an interactive PDF where the page includes form elements. Users can enter data into the page and then send it to you. The extent and nature of the interaction in PDFs is broad and includes programmable actions like conditional visibility and so on. The methods of sending the data to you vary. you can choose a communication mode that suits the technology best for the situation e.g. email, form post, etc). this is a great way to collect info quickly and easily. I believe this is what you need at the moment. As Jef says the Adobe software has this covered, but so do many other products that are far less costly and in many cases far easier to use. My favourite for creating interactive forms is PagePlus by Serif. I won't go on about it except to say that it will do what you want(and lots more) and will not cost you a lot of money to acquire or a lot of time to learn.

PDF Editing

Another spin on your question is actually editing PDFs. Sometimes this can be very handy and if you are using PDFs extensively in your business documentation then the time will soon come when directly editing PDFs is going to be very useful. There's a product called TurboPDF that provide very high value in PDF creation and editing. Not only can you edit content in PDFs, you can deconstruct, edit, add and reconstruct PDFs from PDFs and almost any other document source to make new versions and even manage multiple versions. I believe that most of this functionality is available with various Adobe tools, but the cost is high in both price and time to learn. TurboPDF is low cost and although it has a learning curve, commonly used tasks are very quickly mastered. While this kind of tool is very handy when you are stitching PDFs together for your own purposes it does provide an insight into PDF security. There is none. But security has now passed as one of the strengths of the format. Portability, versatility and platform independence are its strengths today.

Are you sure it was automatic or client error ? If automatic how do others safeguard from this from happening? Many things break and issues occur when upgrading operating systems, particularly if your business is dependent on older more specialised Windows software.

I'm a very small operation (in fact it is just me), however when I need to conduct phone calls or meetings I use a variety of services / tools below:

• Skype
• Google Hangouts
• Twilio (SMS and Voice Calls)
• Sideline app (get a 2nd phone number without having a second phone)

Other interesting tools

• Zeetings
• Join Me
• Oovoo

Again, for me, I use multiple platforms based on the nature of the call or conversation as well as what the client or customer is already familiar with using.