It's time for year-end reviews. It is time to move your business to the next level. Many businesses today are realizing that they have to get back to basics and focus on what they do best, hiring others to handle the rest.

One tool that is now on the market lets you and your office do that comfortably. It is called Orchestrate (www.orchestrate.com) from Atlanta-based voicecom, a division of Ptek Holdings. It is a unified communications and personal information service.

This service combines the functionality of personal information manager software and unified messaging. That means you can keep contact information on line as well as calendars and daily tasks.

Orchestrate also handles communication duties. It can handle voice communications reducing your long distance costs. Calls are available at a rate of 4.9 cents/minute through a local number and 6.9 cents/minute through a toll-free number. The service also provides web conferencing making those connections easier than ever. The Web Call and Conference Center can help you boost your productivity by setting up several calls at once on your computer. The calls can be to individuals or to a group of select people.

Another feature the product provides with messaging is the Web Message Center. This is a single web inbox with icons that differentiate between fax, e-mail and voice messages. You can then access these messages from your computer or while on the road through a touch tone phone.

If you are a mobile professional you might find the message reply handy. If you're out on a sales call and need to check e-mail then respond and you don't have your laptop with you, you can still communicate. Orchestrate lets you listen to your e-mail messages as they are translated from text to speech, then you can reply via voice. Your response is sent as an audio attachment so your colleagues can hear your message as an audio attachment to e-mail. Careful with this if you're responding to someone who only has dial up connections as it can be a slow process. Text will always be faster but this is a nice feature to have if you and your caller are aware of the potential.

The Web Tasks and Calendar are not compatible with Outlook or your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) as of this writing. However, that feature should be available in the future. You can coordinate meetings for a group of people this way to get a lot accomplished.

Pricing will vary depending on the path you select. You can access a limited array of services under their free plan. For $9.95 you get unified voice mail and fax mail along with web tasks and calendar and a personal web page. For $14.95/month you the other services in addition to e-mail by phone, web content by phone and a personal assistant. The personal assistant will locate you where you are, screen and reroute calls and send calls to multiple parties.

For a small business with a tight budget that needs to get a lot done, Orchestrate is a service that is reasonably priced and packs a lot of powerful features. It is worth examining as you begin the New Year.

(www.orchestrate.com, pricing varies, 404-262-8464)

Images are a part of your business. You use the web, create brochures and deal with images regularly. There are software programs that do a great job and are used by professionals to work with graphics. However, they are rather expensive not only in the initial price of the package but more in the price of your time that it takes to master the packages.

Paint Shop Pro is a package that I have used for years to get work done that needs to be done with digital photos, web design, business brochures and more. Their latest version, Pain Shop Pro 7 makes a great product even better. They now include a program called Animation Shop so you can animate graphics for a clever website. It is from Minneapolis-based Jasc Software.

If you are a small business that needs solid business graphics support in an inexpensive package that is easy to learn, this is a package to consider.

One of the features that is particularly useful with digital cameras is the automatic correction tool. You can automate the color balance, check saturation enhancement and use the red eye removal tool to make pictures more natural.

The program will do about 90% of what you'd expect in a higher-end package but costs about 10% of what those higher-end packages cost. This means you can use the benefits of the package for your small business and get the job done.

It is a good tool to consider for your New Year tool chest.

(Paint Shop Pro 7, www.jasc.com, $109 in box, $99 download, 612-930-9171)

May you and yours have a peaceful, productive and profitable New Year. As we enter 2001 and the real start of the 21st Century, it is my wish that you'll have the best year of your life in all those areas that count most to you.

Terry Brock is an internationally recognized professional speaker, consultant and author in the fields of business productivity, technology and marketing. He is a syndicated columnist for Business Journals across America and can be reached at 407-363-0505 or by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com.