business

Lenovo ThinkPad USB PorTaBLe SecUre drive Lockable, Portable Hard Drive

Drive security is getting to be a hot-button issue; witness the recent story about a lost MP3 player with military data on it being resold in a pawn shop. The problem with so-called “secure” hard drives has traditionally been that they have too many limitations. This Lenovo external drive transcends those limitations by internalizing its security—it looks just like a plain old hard drive to Windows or Mac OS X. It’s hardware-encrypted (with 128-bit AES) and easy to use—what more could you ask for? At first glance, the 0.5-by-3.5-by-4.5-inch (HWD), 320GB Secure Drive looks like a USB numeric keypad. An LED indicator tells you the drive’s status, and the casing is clad in the same rubberized coating that gives Lenovo’s ThinkPad notebooks their distinctive and sturdy feel. You can add up to ten users (in addition to the administrator), each with a unique access code. That way, the drive can be passed from person to person while remaining secure, with each user having access to all the data on it. In testing, the Secure Drive scored very well on PCMark05, turning in 3,126—exceptional for an external storage drive. It was also fast in simple dragand-drop copying, taking only 52 seconds to transfer our 1.2GB test folder. To be sure, FireWire and

The CG222W is not your typical 22-inch desktop monitor, nor does it claim to be. Instead, this display is aimed at photographers, graphics artists, and designers who demand consistent and accurate performance and are willing to pay a premium for it. The CG222W uses a 22-inch, wide-gamut S-PVA (Super Patterned Vertical Alignment) panel with a maximum resolution of 1,680-by-1,050 and a 16millisecond pixel response rate (black-to-white). In testing, the display delivered as promised. Color swatches from our DisplayMate tests were vivid and bright and appeared uniform across the color scale. Unfortunately, this monitor does not offer HDMI connectivity, but you do get dual DVI-I ports, as well as three USB ports. I was also very impressed with the CG222W’s viewing-angle prowess. Images remained clear and bright from all sides (horizontally and vertically) out to around 175 degrees. The main difference between the CG222W and mainstream displays has to do with color calibration. This monitor uses the more accurate (and more costly) ColorEdge technology, which calibrates by programming the monitor’s internal circuitry to change the way colors are reproduced on the screen. To take advantage of this, however, you’ll need EIZO’s proprietary Color Navigator software and a colorimeter. Although expensive, the CG222W is a boon to imaging professionals.—John R. Delaney

eSATA drives have the potential to be faster, but the Secure Drive pays no performance penalties for its security. At about $0.68/GB, the drive is a bit pricey. You can get a nonprotected 500GB drive for the same total price as the Secure Drive (about $0.44/ GB). But for its target audience, the extra security is worth the money. If you’re a businessperson who needs to pass sensitive data physically from one computer to another, or if you want to back up your files with another layer of security, the Secure Drive is a perfect choice.—Joel Santo Domingo

Lenovo ThinkPad USB Portable Secure Drive (320GB)

$319 list

L lllh Pros deadsimple security. Supports up to ten users. no software install needed. Mac compatible. nice keypad feel. Permanently attached USB cable. intelligently designed carrying pouch. Cons Pricey on a dollarper-GB basis. no software included. needs included USB auxiliary power cable for heavy write sessions. Some security experts may consider its numerical code system too simplistic.

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eiZo coLoredGe cG222W A 22-inch Display for Imaging Pros

EIZO ColorEdge CG222W

$1,499 list

l llhm Pros very good color quality. Great light grayscale reproduction. color calibration capabilities. Fully adjustable stand. Cons Lacks hdMi input. expensive. does not support auto-rotation. dark grayscale performance could be better.

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Quicken Home & Business 2009 Easier to Use than Ever

When Intuit’s Quicken was first introduced, it was built around a familiar graphical paradigm: the checkbook. You can still find checkbook imagery built into Quicken Home & Business 2009, but now it’s just a small part of what has grown to be a comprehensive financial management program. Although the company has worked hard to bump up the ease of use on this version, Quicken still isn’t for everyone. Those without a home business to worry about will do better to choose Quicken Starter Edition, Quicken Deluxe, or Quicken Online. But to track personal finances as well as those of your home or small business, you can’t beat this edition. You see the changes to the new Quicken right away, thanks to a new Setup tab. Other new features include improvements to the Add Account workflow and to bill management and reminders. More significant, though, is a new sidebar that provides access to the Quicken online community and to tools—your to-do list, add-on services, and more. Intuit has also organized Quicken’s primary tasks into tabbed sections: Bills, My Pages, Banking, Business, Investing, Net Worth, Planning, Tax, and Quicken Picks. One tab that you’re sure to spend a lot of time on is Banking. Income and expenses from other parts

intacct for small Business fall 2008 edition What’s After QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is an exceptional small-business accounting program, but it can be stretched only so far. Before you reach that limit, you’d better think about taking the next logical step—moving to a midrange accounting product, such as Intacct for Small Business. Like QuickBooks, Intacct is an accounting program—but it's one of a very different sort. The base program contains many of the features QuickBooks offers, such as Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable, but it’s not an out-of-the-box solution. You’ll most likely need to work with Intacct to find a reseller who can help you with, at the very least, setup and implementation, if not training. And, as you’d expect with a growing business, the accounting expense will be commensurate with a system that can handle more sophisticated needs—Intacct estimates that a typical installation will cost roughly $10,000 a year. But attempting to get along with an underpowered solution will be far more expensive. Because it’s Web-based, Intacct has an immediate advantage over QuickBooks: Employees can work with the accounting system anywhere—a boon for mobile workers. Intacct’s base modules are Accounts of the program automatically flow into here, so you see simple, effective windows that display totals for money coming in, money going out, and what’s left. You can create and track numerous types of accounts, including checking and savings, credit card, investing/retirement, and loans. Individual bills are handled capably under Quicken’s Bills tab. You can also set up a portfolio and download stock market information. In short, Quicken is well worth your dollars if you want money management that takes in all aspects of your small business and personal financial life, including your taxes, your portfolio, and your plan for the future.—Kathy Yakal

Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash Management, Company, General Ledger, Customization Services, Employee Expenses, Inventory Control, Order Entry, and Purchase Orders. Like QuickBooks, Intacct has a dashboard feature, but where QuickBooks has just one dashboard—the Company Snapshot—Intacct lets you build an unlimited number. This package also provides other features that go beyond QuickBooks Pro, including automated billing and collections management, as well as the ability to allocate and analyze cash in real time. Moving to Intacct represents a huge step. I’d recommend Intacct for businesses that are currently using QuickBooks but need to expand, and for midsize and complex small businesses.—KY

Quicken Home & Business 2009

$79.99 direct

L lllh Pros covers all major elements of personal finance. interface simplifies use. Helps prepare for taxes. manages home-based businesses. downloads financial data. Cons too big for basic users. Bill section can be confusing.

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Intacct for Small Business Fall 2008 Edition

$400 direct and up

L lllm Pros unlimited dashboards. clean, understandable interface. Graphical navigational flow charts. comprehensive records and transactions. strong integration and customization. excellent help files. Cons requires considerable time to learn.

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Bill.com

$25 per month for one user; first ten payments per month are free, $0.99 per payment thereafter; $10 per user per month for 2 to 11 users; $5 per month for each additional user.

L lllm Pros clean, simple interface. Saves money and time. Reduces paper and paperwork. integrates with QuickBooks and intacct.com. Audit trail. Cons Takes some time to understand the workflow. could use more reports.

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Bill.com Bill Tracking Made Easy

Small-business accounting packages have matured tremendously, but there are still gaps in SMB procedures for enterprising software designers to fill. Bill.com successfully exploits one of those gaps with a Web site that expands on the accounts payable functions of your accounting application—assuming you have one. Bill.com can serve either as a standalone application or as an integrated add-on to QuickBooks. The service tracks and stores vendor

QuickBASE (FAll 2008) Database in the Cloud

QuickBase puts your company’s database applications online, so anyone in your organization can get customized, secure Web access to anything from inventory to contact lists to product management. You probably won’t want to use it as an enterprisescale database, but for almost anything else, it’s an impressive Web-based substitute for a server in your office. QuickBase is not cheap, but those who can afford it have access to a surprisingly simple and elegant application. This simplicity becomes clear within your first few minutes of using the app. The straightforward, no-clutter Web-based interface has helpful prompts and explanations everywhere. I found it easy to get started either by using one of more than 300 prebuilt database templates—many contributed by real-world users—or by building a simple database from scratch. From there I found it simple to perform all the sorts of tasks the average user will want from an online database, including adding multiple tables, setting up tabular and graphic reports, and fine-tuning access permissions for users. What I like most about QuickBase is its clear interface, obviously the result of years of experience with consumer-level products like Intuit’s QuickBooks. The document library app is impressive, bills due, routes your vendor payments through the approval process, and dispatches checks to your payees. It does so through a combination of faxes, e-mail, and electronic data storage, using a simple Web site with a clean design. If you’re using QuickBooks or Intacct, you can integrate Bill.com data with either service. If you follow the simple directions, syncing the two products—moving your chart of accounts, vendors, and classes—should go without a hitch. Once you’ve got Bill.com set up, the life of a typical bill goes like this: A vendor mails you a bill. It goes to your A/P clerk, who faxes it to your Bill.com fax number. Once the bill is in the system (Bill.com handles the OCR), you can add approvers, and once they’ve approved, you can pay bills in full or partially, online (using the bank account you’ve set up) or off-line. Bill.com’s two most noteworthy features are the audit trail (in which every entry into the system is tracked and recorded) and the home page, which displays a monthly calendar with scheduled payments on the appropriate days. For security, the site uses the same encryption scheme that your bank does. In short, I haven’t seen a Web-based application in this price range that carves out this exact niche and implements it as well as Bill.com.—Kathy Yakal

thanks to a built-in revision-tracking feature that can store multiple versions of the same document. One limitation to keep in mind when using the document-storage system is that QuickBase doesn’t work like “live” Web services, in which you can open an attached file in the browser and save it again directly to the Web. When you open a file attached to a database and make revisions, you have to save it locally first before uploading the new version to QuickBase. For serious, business-class database needs with the convenience of online access, QuickBase is the service we recommend. In fact, it is the database app we use here at PCMag. — Edward Mendelson

QuickBase (Fall 2008)

Free 30-day trial; subscription, $250 direct per month and up

L lllm Pros Powerful, fast, reliable online database. Extremely easy to use, but with elaborate options for user permissions, document storage, automated e-mail notifications, multiple tables, customized reports, and charting. Rich selection of prebuilt applications. Cons Attached document files can be exported only one by one. charting can’t handle some complex data.

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