The business workplace is changing. More and more business professionals are working from home and the workplace has transformed into a mobile reality. Broadband has been the catalyst and Internet Service Providers have become big players in the marketplace as a consequence.

If this is true, why do these same companies enforce their customers (us) to use their outgoing mail servers?

If you don’t know what I mean, then I’ll try to explain. If I am using a mail client such as Microsoft Outlook to send mail, my outgoing mail server is set as mail.pctechnix.ie. Eircom for example, has no problem with this. Slap yourself on the back Eircom.

Other Irish Broadband Providers are not so straightforward. Irish Broadband will only allow you to use smtp.irishbroadband.ie and NTL enforce smtp.upcmail.ie. Perlico also have a confusing list of ones you can use. There are more providers that can be added to the guilty list but I’d like to stick to my main point.

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When starting out in Business there are lots of things you must choose for your Business that if decided upon hastily can end up causing undue pain in the long run. Your company name, its logo, branding, colours, slogan, etc are all examples of choices that will follow you around for a long time in business (provided you make it that far).

The Accounting Software you opt for is also one area where you should give serious consideration to. There are many different applications available. In most cases, your accountant will advise you on which one is best. They’re not always right!  Read the rest of this entry »