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If ever there was a reason for small businesses to take the Software-as-a-Service plunge, it's to get Microsoft Office functionality at a fraction of the Office cost. If you're a solution provider and you're not looking at the slew of Microsoft Office competitors providing simple, easy to use Office functionality free of application bloat, then you are missing the boat.

The alternatives include Google Apps, Webex Web Office, Zoho, Zimbra and a version of Open Office that runs in a browser from Ulteo. Nay on those that say Office productivity software is a dead-end play. Not so. Building fully functional SaaS environments for small businesses is big business.

Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Here comes the Superman of all wireless standards. It's faster than fast and opens up all kinds of new opportunities for solution providers bringing clients one and all into the 21st century with a wireless standard that actually makes you feel like you're hooked up to your own personal ISDN line.

Vendors like Cisco and Meru are already shipping 802.11n enabled products. We're talking throughput of 100 to 200 Mbits per second and in some configurations up 600 Mbits per second. That's way up from the old school 802.11g throughput of 54 Mbits per second.

All right, it's been hyped to death. But that doesn't mean the cost savings and productivity gains aren't real. Nortel has some bang up technology. Microsoft is pushing hard. And Cisco wants a piece of the action.

What it means is a lot of great products in a burgeoning market. Make a bet or watch yourself be marginalized in the got-to-get-it-done anytime day or night, 24 hours a day, seven days a week world that is business today. Look for enhancements that push that all-important call from your biggest customer to you, above all others, no matter where you are or what time it is. And what about blocking those you don't want to hear from?

The future is finally now for IP videoconferencing. We've heard about it for years. And there is more than one company that bought an expensive videoconferencing solution that was simply never used because of cultural resistance.

Now that the technology is better, save travel time and a fortune on hotels by getting clients with multiple offices to hook up a videoconferencing system. Not everyone needs Cisco's Star Trek beam-me-up-Scotty TelePresence product. There are many options. This is a technology whose time has come.

So you're sick of hearing about nanotechnology and computers the size of a button. Well get over it! x86 processors are being embedded into everyday appliances and products at a frenzied pace. And if you're looking for proof positive, check out the work being done by Via Technologies Inc. which has developed a wide range of x86 processor in the embedded device, mobile and consumer electronics market segments.

For small and medium businesses, the time is right to get enterprise quality solutions for disaster recovery and backup. Disk-based backup appliances with deduplication software are hot, hot, hot. New compression and data deduplication software combined with direct to disk support for backup software applications have created a perfect storm of opportunity for savvy VARs. Check out Exagrid, which is pushing hard and fast into the midmarket with a great product and a super channel program.

Can you run a business with no Microsoft software? It's happening more and more. Besides the tried and true Linux server environment, there is a Linux-based open source application for each and every product category from OpenOffice.org as an office killer to Compiere with an ERP play.

Eric Berridge, co-founder and principal of Bluewolf, one of the premier Software-as-a-Service consultants in the country, says his company relies on Google Apps and is saving a boatload of money without sacrificing productivity gains. "Our e-mail system has all the functionality of Outlook and costs me 50 bucks a user," he said. "And you don't need an Exchange user administrator or have to upgrade or deal with patches."

Improved color performance is coming to LCD and LED displays. Traditional LCDs right now only reproduce about 70 to 80 percent of the NTSC color gamut. Look for all that change in 2008.

For example, all of ViewSonic's LCD displays will feature improved color performance. The display high flyer is set to get the party rolling with a big color splash at CES in January. The company's VP Series of LCD displays, popular with SMBs and enterprises, will feature 110 percent of the NTSC color gamut. If that isn't enough, ViewSonic is set to introduce a number of new LED backlit displays that can produce 118 percent of the NTSC color gamut.

Forget Kinko's and the local print quality publishers. Businesses, particularly price sensitive small and medium businesses, are saving a bundle by taking on all those print jobs themselves with high quality, large format printers from the likes of Hewlett-Packard and others.

HP is upping the ante by bringing solution providers to the table with a supercharged channel effort. And guess what, printer vendors and solution providers are ecstatic because large format printers consume liters of ink. And as we all know, a big portion of the profits from this business are from the consumables. Print. Print. Print. This is just like printing money.