As reported yesterday, HP (http://www.hp.com/) has announced their intent to exit the personal computer Business.  This move comes as the company struggles to stay relevant in the ever dynamic consumer products marketplace.

For years, HP has attempted to build upon its successful printer business by acquiring other consumer product companies such as Compaq and (most recently) Palm.  The move to now exit those businesses is a win for Apple computer with its hugely successful iPhone and iPad products which have been competing with HP’s Palm Pre and the just released HP TouchPad.  Another big winner is Dell who is already the leading PC manufacturer.  Based on HP’s exit, Dell can only expect to continue to  gain market share. Read the rest of this entry

Educating your employees on how to effectively use the computer software and hardware tools you provide for them should be important to all business owners… especially small business owners.  However, it often goes overlooked.  Not because of the cost of classroom education, but because of the labor costs associated with having your employees out of the office for dedicated study.  In a typical classroom setting, there are students of different skill levels who all learn differently with individual rates of absorption.  From my experience, when employers invest in classroom training, the students only retain about 20% of the material covered.  Worse yet, they completely forget the material they don’t immediately apply.  Additionally, take into account that classes are designed to cover a narrow scope of concepts so that they appeal to a broad audience.  All things considered, the opportunity cost of an employee out of the office becomes a much higher expense than the class itself. Read the rest of this entry