Faster, cheaper and easier to use, wireless and broadband connections and other tech tools

The increasingly mobile features of technology are helping small businesses keep valuable employees, widen sales territories, lessen employees' commuting stress and even hire overseas.

Far cry from the early 2000s when telecommunting

A far cry from the early 2000s when telecommunting was limited to e-mail and cellphones, remote working today can make companies forget employees aren't in the office, thanks to broadband and wireless Internet connections, secure networks and advanced telephone systems.

"Everybody today has people remote to their headquarters, or working from their home," said Mike Mullin, vice president of sales and marketing at Integrated Business Systems Inc. in Totowa. Customers looking to enable workers for remote access are on the rise, he said. "As long as you have a good connection to the Internet, most people can perform their jobs from wherever they are."

"It's been almost two years and it's worked out great," said Caryl Bixon-Gordon, president of public relations firm Caryl Communications in Paramus, of an account manager who works from home in eastern Pennsylvania two days a week. "The technology she has allows her to access our internal software system. It's as if she were working right here."

Tina Lyding, owner of Voicecom Plus Inc. in Mahwah, which installs business phone systems, set up a VoIP, or voice over Internet Protocol, system to keep one of her bookkeepers who moved to Myrtle Beach, S.C. VoIP allows remote offices to be on one phone system so all calls come to all sites, said Lyding.

Voice quality on the systems has improved so much over the past five years, said Lyding, she's seeing customers use it with telecommuters rather than open satellite offices. Miller said he's seeing more small businesses using the mobile technology to outsource labor to where it's less expensive overseas.

The increasingly mobile features of technology are helping small businesses keep valuable employees, widen sales territories, lessen employees' commuting stress and even hire overseas.

Far cry from the early 2000s when telecommunting

A far cry from the early 2000s when telecommunting was limited to e-mail and cellphones, remote working today can make companies forget employees aren't in the office, thanks to broadband and wireless Internet connections, secure networks and advanced telephone systems.

"Everybody today has people remote to their headquarters, or working from their home," said Mike Mullin, vice president of sales and marketing at Integrated Business Systems Inc. in Totowa. Customers looking to enable workers for remote access are on the rise, he said. "As long as you have a good connection to the Internet, most people can perform their jobs from wherever they are."

"It's been almost two years and it's worked out great," said Caryl Bixon-Gordon, president of public relations firm Caryl Communications in Paramus, of an account manager who works from home in eastern Pennsylvania two days a week. "The technology she has allows her to access our internal software system. It's as if she were working right here."

Tina Lyding, owner of Voicecom Plus Inc. in Mahwah, which installs business phone systems, set up a VoIP, or voice over Internet Protocol, system to keep one of her bookkeepers who moved to Myrtle Beach, S.C. VoIP allows remote offices to be on one phone system so all calls come to all sites, said Lyding.

Voice quality on the systems has improved so much over the past five years, said Lyding, she's seeing customers use it with telecommuters rather than open satellite offices. Miller said he's seeing more small businesses using the mobile technology to outsource labor to where it's less expensive overseas.