PRESS: Moneypenny Assistants versus Virtual Assistants

Technologies Used in Virtual Personal Assistance

We’ve mentioned a while ago that communication is crucial not only in the operations of your business but in making sure that you and your VPA are right on schedule and are on track. You are both looking at everything on the same page. But what are the different kinds of technologies that you may depend on when it comes to virtual personal assistance?

There are actually a lot of them, and because they are all web-based, you will not experience any downtime at all, unless, of course, something goes wrong with their system, which hardly happens these days. You need to know the many ways on how you can communicate, so both of you will be able to decide the most convenient form of communication method.

1. Instant Messengers. I can definitely give you a long list of instant messengers that you can possibly use, and all of them are just as efficient when it comes to virtual personal assistance. In all honesty, you don’t need something fancy, though you may like to keep your messengers updated, so you can take advantage of more advanced features. Some popular instant messengers include Yahoo! Messenger, Gtalk, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and AIM. Installation doesn’t take up a lot of time, so within minutes, you can already start talking to your virtual personal assistant. Whenever you need to reach out to them, all you have to do is to “pop” them a message, and then it will be instantly sent at their desktop. Of course, you can always make use of the Buzz feature in calling up their attention. You know, they can sometimes get so busy that they couldn’t catch on your very urgent message.

2. VoIP. This stands for Voice over IP. This revolutionary communication mechanism can allow you to talk to your virtual personal assistant through the Internet. It’s basically like calling someone long distance through the phone. However, the rates are incredibly lower than the standard phone calling rates of mobile and even landline phones. A good example of a VoIP is Skype, which can also function as an instant messenger. All you need to do is to pay for credits, and you’re already good to go.

3. Audio conferencing. A more recent but effective method of communication these days is audio conferencing. This is ideal if you need to include your virtual personal assistant in your scheduled company meetings, just to also give him/her an idea of the current status of the business and how he/she can help with the help of his/her expertise. Audio conferencing is a setup wherein two or more people can be connected through the Internet or phone. The only difference it has with web conferencing is that you don’t have to see each other face to face.

According to Barbara J. Streibel, author of The Manager’s Guide to Effective Meetings, “the primary advantages of an audio conference are that it saves time and money, and it’s relatively simple to set up, and it’s easy for people unfamiliar and/or uncomfortable with newer technology. It’s an effective way to meet when there’s no need to share visual materials or when materials have already been shared through some other means, such as by e-mail, fax, or delivery service.”

There are already several online web conferencing solutions that will allow you to save conversations and later convert them to media files, such as mp3 files or CDs. This way, you can always have time to review the discussion whenever necessary.

4. Web conferencing. This, by far, is the most technological of all modes of communication. There are different ways on how you are going to interpret the term, but for the sake of discussion, we are going to limit this with video conferencing.

With video conferencing, you can connect two or more people who are located in different places. It makes use of other communication tools such as audio, video, and data. Streibel further adds, “Video conferencing brings you the closest to the experience of a conventional meeting. However, because of the technology and because participants may not be familiar or comfortable using it, video conferences require more planning and preparation than other types of meetings.”

Of course there is a wide choice of virtual assistance companies, that Timothy Ferris opened up in his book, the 4 Hour Week. Timothy identified Get Friday in India, as a source, but Perry goes further and beyond, and recognizes Ask Sunday as a rival, but Catch Friday always will be his favorite, will it I wonder be yours too?

I use Catch Friday for secretarial, writing and admin tasks. I also use them for SEO Search Engine Optimization and web design. Sometimes I use them for Quick Books.

We help you Catch Friday on a Monday ie to work less and have more time to do what you want.

We are in Outsourcing, and help you with a difference finding made-to-measure staff for you, that you can choose and even interview. It works well and we have the business references to back it up.

We are able to help you with any project that does not require a physical presence in your office.

From a Virtual PA to Telesales; To Design and Programming; To Autocad: To Copywriting.Press Releases, Blogs and Tweets ; To Data Entry and Database Cleansing ; To Social Media, Twitter and MySpace ;

Of course there is a wide choice of virtual assistance companies, that Timothy Ferris opened up in his book, the 4 Hour Week. Timothy identified Get Friday in India, as a source, but Perry goes further and beyond, and recognizes Ask Sunday as a rival, but Catch Friday always will be his favorite, will it I wonder be yours too?

I use Catch Friday for secretarial, writing and admin tasks. I also use them for SEO Search Engine Optimization and web design. Sometimes I use them for Quick Books.