LOUISVILLE, KY (October 13, 2010) – GlowTouch Technologies, a Louisville, KY-based IT services company, has been named a 2010 Hot Dozen company by Greater Louisville Inc.’s ENTERPRISECORP. The Hot Dozen is an annual celebration of 12 locally-owned companies who have benefited from Louisville’s entrepreneurial atmosphere and continue to thrive in our region.  The companies represent innovation and entrepreneurship in Louisville’s business community.

“We are honored to be named to the 2010 Hot Dozen company list,” said Vidya Ravichandran, President of GlowTouch Technologies. “Our incredibly talented team continues to provide invaluable service to our customers and we hope to continue our upward growth trend in the coming years.” GlowTouch has expanded rapidly in 2009 and 2010 by adding employees at the company’s Louisville headquarters. The company also recently received a second consecutive Inc. 500 award from Inc. magazine. The 2010 award ranks GlowTouch at #244 on the list of the nation’s fasting growing private companies.

Hot Dozen companies are selected because they exemplify Louisville as a place to start and grow a company. Honoring them is part of ENTERPRISECORP’s mission to create a new culture of entrepreneurship and dramatically increase the number and quality of fast-growth, entrepreneurial companies headquartered in our region.

“Hot Dozen companies are the kind of businesses people want to watch, as they’re likely to be the source of much of Louisville’s entrepreneurship and growth over the next decade and beyond,” said Mark Crane, Executive Director of ENTERPRISECORP.

Founded in 2004, GlowTouch provides application development, e-commerce, Web design, business process outsourcing, and IT infrastructure services.

About GlowTouch Technologies

GlowTouch is a well diversified technology resource company with offices in Louisville, KY, Nashville, TN, Palo Alto, CA, and a development center in Mangalore, India. The firm provides turnkey IT outsourcing solutions to small, medium, and enterprise-sized companies nationwide. For more information, visit www.glowtouch.com.

About ENTERPRISECORP

ENTERPRISECORP is the enterprise development arm of Greater Louisville Inc. (GLI). Its mission is to dramatically increase the number and quality of fast-growth companies headquartered in the region – companies that create the vast majority of new wealth, new revenue and new jobs. Client portfolio ranges from technology start-ups to mature businesses in traditional industries.  For more information, visit www.ENTERPRISECORP.com.

Dropbox is a free online storage service and much more. It allows you to share files with others easily. It also, allows you to sync files on all the computers you use (home, work, laptop, etc). In reviewing this product I used its free service which allows you 2GB of free online storage space.

First, let me give you some details of how dropbox works. You download the dropbox software on all of the computers that you want to share information on. This adds a dropbox folder to your computer and anytime you save anything to the dropbox folder it automatically updates that files and folders across all of the computers you have downloaded the dropbox software on.

Dropbox also allows you to share files with others. The way this works is you right click on the file you want to share and then it ask you to put in an email address for the person you want to share the file with. Once you put in their email it sends them an invitation telling them that you want to share a file and tells them to view it they can download the dropbox software. So once you share the file with another person anytime you update that file it is automatically updated on the other persons computer. I have used this extensively when outsourcing work to others. It makes it very easy for everyone collaborate and be on the same page and up to date. I find using dropbox is much easier than using Google Docs and many of the other services out there for this type of business collaboration. Many others use this more for personal use and share pictures, movies, etc. with their friends and family.

By Author:  S. Stone

Until recently if you mentioned making free calls over the internet, the first name which came to mind was Skype. This is because they came out strong and fast against all of the smaller companies offering similar services. They even managed to make sure that morning shows like Today started using their service in order to connect with callers via video to answer questions.

Even with all of the press that they received over the years, they could not get the kind of attention Google received when they announced that they would start offering a VoIP system which would include video capabilities. This has led Skype to push even harder to get a foothold in the VoIP business phone system market. Until recently this service has been in Beta mode which is a big turn off for many of those looking to use a product.

Recently, the Beta tag has been wiped clean from the site and the product has now entered the phase where it is usable with existing PBX systems. This allows customers to use VoIP phones to connect with their clients around the world and across town. They are set up to allow you to work with VoIP companies like Avaya, ShoreTel, Cisco, SIPfoundry and more. This allows you to make and receive phone calls from the service that you already have while still being able to receive the rates which Skype has been known for over the years.

In fact, those looking to connect with other Skype members will still be able to do it at the touch of a button through the Skype interface. This will allow you to make phone calls through the PBX or UC system as they have grown accustomed to. While this is restricted to calls made in between those who are members of the Skype network, it offers a bit of familiarity for those entering into the brave new world of VoIP.

The only thing people are waiting for now is to hear about the IPO from Skype. This will surely allow the company to elevate to even loftier heights but many are curious to see how the SMB market will handle the news.

Hot on the heels of Skype is Google Voice with a business offering of its own. While there is still nothing available in the Google Apps section, it seems only a matter of time before they too are vying for your business and offering great rates which will be highly competitive to businesses looking for quality VoIP service. Until that time is reached, people will likely continue to turn to Skype for their business calling needs. This is because while Google Voice has a lot to offer businesses, many have complaints about having to be logged in and online every time someone wants to call them. Additional complaints about dropped calls have plagued the service which is currently available from Google. There will have to be improvements made if they want to compete.

By:  Shannon Suetos