President Obama is doing everything he can to assure the public that our economy will rebound. In recent months, major company’s value has plummeted. Many companies, large and small, have been forced to lay off employees and, in the worst cases, close their doors due to their inability to weather these terrible economic times. Many smaller companies, those outside the Fortune 500, have even greater challenges before them.

With the passage of the 2009 stimulus plan, the government is hoping to shore up the largest portion of our economy – the automakers and bankers. This is done all in hopes of the stimulus trickling down to the consumer who will move to reopen their wallets again and begin moving money, products and services throughout our economy. Furthermore, these actions are meant to stimulate the banks into loaning money to businesses and consumers to create the same effect. It is a cycle that needs to be restarted.

While we regenerate our economy, there are high tech companies that deal in virtual products that must develop creative ways to stay afloat. For example, using TFS Workgroup Edition, the smaller high tech companies can take advantage of streamlined, highly efficient project management. For a very low cost, businesses can implement a solution that has proven to cut costs.

Specifically, Visual Studio Team Foundation Server provides the perfect environment for software development. It is a tremendously flexible solution that leverages its ability to serve multiple users in multiple locations – be it across the hall or across the country. One software development project can be collaborated upon and capably managed using the central hub of the Team Foundation Server. All of the programmers can work together on specific tasks or components of a single project. The collaborative nature of the environment helps reduce redundancy and quickly catch errors in coding by subjecting them to multiple reviewers.

Rather than layoffs, there are alternative ways to keep employees on the payroll and harness their skill set. Using TFS Web Access, employees can collaborate on projects via telecommuting or other types of offsite access. Many companies are faced with the need to downsize their physical environment leaving insufficient space for existing employees. This often leads to flat layoffs. Using a web access solution, these employees can be retained as work-from-home employees either full or part time. Not always the ideal situation but it is a step above complete layoffs. Simple solutions such as these help the employee and the economy.