· Chip and board manufacturer Intel has announced a new auditing service for small businesses that might be having trouble keeping track of all of their IT. It will audit all of a company's technology including desktop systems, servers and software, and is suited to small companies because it requires no special equipment - an internet connection should do the trick. It should help companies ensure all their software is properly licensed and will track which version they are using: people can be unaware that they are entitled to free updates.

· UK businesses can see the importance of the software they use but are failing to measure whether it's any good - so says some new research from Microsoft. The software giant has published research that suggests 90% of companies recognise that desktop software and the quality of it is vital to their business's performance; three-quarters said it was key to their business imperatives, such as customer service, but 70% didn't bother measuring the cost of computer downtime.

· The BBC is to make its skills in designing websites available to small businesses in the shape of a series of new media courses. The corporation believes that since it attracts around 35% of the UK's adult internet surfing population every month it must have something intelligent to say on the subject; and it has found fundamental errors on a lot of the pages businesses are already writing. These mistakes include poor writing of the first page and putting site links in the wrong places so that up to 25% of customers end up in the wrong place. The training courses will take place at the BBC's London HQ.

· NTL has sliced £20 off the price of its most basic broadband package for its small business customers. Companies can opt for a 500kb or a 1Mb connection and these will cost £70 and £105 per month respectively. The new pricing will apply to both old and new customers, although new customers still face the £220 or £260 connection charge. Other packages are available from NTL for people with more substantial communications needs.

· The European Union looks poised to backtrack on a piece of legislation controlling the use of "cookies" - small pieces of code left on people's computers by websites they visit, which enable the websites to identify them the next time they visit. Initially the European Council had been pushing for a tough approach in which companies would need to explain they were sending cookies to a customer's computer in advance; the committee's latest statement, however, suggests that simply allowing customers the chance to turn cookies down if they wished would be sufficient. Numerous online retailers had protested at the previous ruling.

· Wireless systems will be flavour of the summer this year if a new survey from consultancy CMG is to be believed, which says 54% of UK businesses are planning to opt for an absence of cables in their network this year, not only to avoid tripping over the things but to communicate better with their offsite workers. The companies are intending to buy into the Bluetooth and GPRS networking standards, which will largely replace current communications taking place over ordinary mobile phone and telephone networks.

· Totem Communications has launched a new "record on demand" service for small companies needing to prove that phone calls actually took place; so the claim that the "cheque is in the post" could become a thing of the past. The system sits within the telephone network: the user can start it by pressing the hash key. The law says people must be informed that they are being recorded, but the system can be started in the middle of a call, so statements such as: "I'm going to record this; you say you're going to pay this Friday?" will cover any customers needing to use it.

· Business people may have been warned by their mothers always to wear clean underwear, but a new survey from Continental Research on behalf of Vodafone UK says they're more afraid of leaving home without their mobile phones: 48% of respondents said their phone was the single item without which they couldn't cope; 32% of them had to travel regularly for work; 23% missed the office network and systems. By contrast, a measly 27% said they couldn't cope without personal hygiene products.