· Microsoft has launched the new version of Office, which will focus on increased connectivity between users and includes a new application called OneNote for brainstorming and note taking. It also uses XML technology so that documents can "talk" to each other (so a document can re-format itself according to the whim of the user while making sure any data included remains unaltered). Disadvantages include an increased amount of programs which won't be to everyone's liking (pricing will still discourage people from buying the individual components as standalone products) and total dependency on Windows XP - if you haven't got it and if you're not connected to a network the whole time you might as well forget it.

· Small businesses without much in the way of marketing facilities may be interested in www.new2marketing.com, a service that allows you to select marketing services you want from a menu and build your own portfolio (and tot up your own price) as you go. It also includes a return on investment calculator so managers will be able to see how much revenue their investment should be getting them, all other things being equal. Services include logo design at £199 and a four-page website for £475. Search engine placing and other services are also available.

· Baffled by broadband? Brunel University is developing a piece of software to explain the benefits. As yet unnamed, it will be aimed at small companies and will sit on their computers, note what they're doing and explain how much time they would have saved if they had been using a broadband connection. The announcement of the product was prompted by a survey by research company Intellect, which suggested a third of small businesses had no plans to take up broadband as they didn't see a business case.

· Sun has launched what it is pushing as the first realistic alternative to the traditional desktop computer. Called the Sun Java Desktop System it includes the company's Star Office suite for office productivity and will work with current files and environments as well as devices similar to itself. At $100 per desktop it is much cheaper to purchase than a standard PC and Sun believes it will lower desktop management costs as well. Whether it will knock its more expensive competition off the top spot remains to be seen.

· Techland is launching new voice over IP switches. In plainer English these are switches that let you place telephone calls through your internet connection instead of through your telephone system, so you bypass all that dull payment of telephone bills business. The technology has been shortlisted in two categories by the Channel Network Awards 2003 and its unique point is that you don't need an expensive handset to make it work. To see what you could save, go to www.techland.co.uk/indexvoip_roi_calculator.

· So, how healthy is your network in terms of reliability and security? Organisations with an IT manager will probably know: there will be others taking advice from outside and hoping for the best. To help these organisations, Computer Associates is launching its "Acid Test" product, a free self-assessment tool you can use on the web. Located at www.ca.com/acidtest, it's simply a questionnaire you fill in and then it gives you a recommended course of action (if any is necessary) to bring your systems up to speed. Larger companies who are on the "medium" side of small to medium enterprise should look into Watchguard Auditscan, a product powered by systems audit specialist Qualys that will look into network vulnerabilities.

· Easynet is to try and take the initiative on getting rural areas hooked up to broadband. Its new scheme, called Easynet Exchange Enable (E3), will take aggregated public sector demand for broadband to demonstrate the much-trumpeted "trigger levels" for broadband have been reached in areas in which BT believes they haven't. The business is urging public sector organisations as yet unable to connect to broadband to register as broadband champions at www.uk.easynet.net/exchange-enable.

· Not exactly news, but since numerous reports suggest that businesses large and small are increasing their IT spend it's reasonable to guess there will be increasing amounts of redundant computers around the place. It's worth mentioning that Computer Aid International (www.computer-aid.org) welcomes donations of computers with a spec of Pentium II and above so it can send them to the third world to try to reduce the perceived digital divide. Given that 2.5m computers currently end up in landfill sites per annum it's got to be worth considering.