The essence of effective business communication is to be there when your customer wants you there. It has always been a challenge to physically be there with your customers when they want to see you.

With the Internet you can achieve the benefits of being with them when they want through a system available from Astound. This is the company that produces Astound Presentation, a competitor to Microsoft PowerPoint. That means they know about making presentations and how to effectively communicate.

Astound Conference Center is a Web-based application that you use and can pay for on an as-needed basis. Let's say you have to schedule a demo of a new product for your geographically-dispersed sales force or customers. The old way would be to demo it in person or through videotape. With Astound Conference Center you would be able to schedule the meeting, show your new product or strategy to your people around the world and get their immediate feedback and collaboration.

The product allows busy marketers, managers and CEOs to leverage technology to get more customer and staff contact. Because it follows the model of an Application Service Provider (ASP) the process is easier for cash-strapped businesses.

Another benefit is the ability to show applications in real time on the Web. A manager could show an Excel spreadsheet or a PowerPoint slide show for all involved. This is immensely easier than the old fashioned way of distributing disks and even asking others to download specific files to load into their own computers.

The program allows for anonymous polling. You can get the opinions of several people without them revealing their identities. This would be great in consensus decision-making. You can also do a survey and find out what people think about a given topic. Surveys would retain the information of who provided the response.

Video conferencing is available. In my tests I was able to see videoconferencing live in a window on the screen. There was a delay in the sound due to the nature of streaming media, not Astound Conference Center. This can be a powerful tool for making company announcements or to let clients see you as you talk with them. Those conferences can then be archived for later viewing by any you wish to see it.

Pricing will vary depending on the number of users you have in your session and what tools you use from on-screen demos to audio to video. You can start with "up to three for free" by using collaboration for up to 3 participants.

Astound Conference Center shows the direction of the Web for the future. It also is a powerful tool when used for employee collaboration and customer contact which can increase your bottom line.

(Astound Conference Center, Astound, www.astound.com, 416-207-0605, price varies depending on number of people involved and service used.)

A Picture Worth 1,000 Websites

Dealing with images and pictures translates to communicating better with customers. One handy, versatile tool recently released is CaptureEze Pro. The package is a professional capture utility and more.

You can capture and print multiple images from 1-6 per page. This would be handy for making copies of materials for presentations.

The Pro version supports high resolution cameras and scanners. When you use your digital camera this utility can make touching up those photos easy. The program also provides benefits for intelligent sizing for web graphics and PowerPoint images. This way you'll be able to get more on your website at a faster load rate for slower computers.

Printing a catalog of products or images is possible. Your small business can take pictures of various products or various pictures of you and print them in a professional manner.

You can also capture entire web pages as they scroll. This is far superior to using the Print Screen button alone on your computer. You can then demonstrate competitors' websites and show advantages of your products.

The website offers a free 45-day trial version. Yet, with a price of $39.95 it is almost a no-brainer to use this for a serious small business that is interested in growth and increasing sales.

(CaputreEze Pro, Application Techniques, $39.95, www.screencapture.com, 978.433.5201)

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