AOL and Google have made it easier for AIM and Google Talk users to communicate. There is now “complete interoperability” among AIM, Gmail and Google Talk, says Ben Parr at Mashable. Although Google no longer lets users sign in via AIM, they do let you add AIM contacts to Gmail. They also provide an import tool to ease the process. AIM users can send messages to their Google contacts and vice versa. And this works no matter what chat client they use. READ MORE
Facebook is now providing “gentle reminders” to help users maintain their relationships. ReadWriteWeb’s Mike Melanson reports that Facebook has begun targeting fickle users—the ones who begin but never complete certain actions like status updates—by auto-suggesting friends to include in status updates and comments. According to Melanson, for some users, the process can be particularly angst-inducing. READ MORE
If your company uses Windows, you’ve probably been irked more than once by the smugness with which Mac users brag that they don’t have to worry about viruses or other malware. Same goes for Linux users. Turns out they’re both wrong. The Danish security firm CSIS has discovered a new do-it-yourself malware kit targeted specifically at Mac OSX being sold quietly in underground forums under the name Weyland-Yutani BOT. READ MORE
Cloud printing is another service on the Web that makes sense for small businesses. The idea is that you can print from your phone or laptop from anywhere, store the printed pages temporarily in the cloud, and then retrieve the prints — usually at your home or office printer. You can also change the output destination. IN some cases, you can even direct your prints to a cloud printing service. Now, Google has announced a new cloud print offering. CRN has the scoop: “Google (NSDQ:GOOG) this week officially launched Google Cloud Print into beta, a cloud printing offering that lets users print popular document formats and Google Gmail e-mail messages from any device, regardless of operating systems, with no connection required.” Google Cloud Print Battles Apple AirPrint In Cloud Printing Duel [CRN]
Cloud printing is another service on the Web that makes sense for small businesses. The idea is that you can print from your phone or laptop from anywhere, store the printed pages temporarily in the cloud, and then retrieve the prints — usually at your home or office printer. You can also change the output destination. IN some cases, you can even direct your prints to a cloud printing service. Now, Google has announced a new cloud print offering. CRN has the scoop: “Google (NSDQ:GOOG) this week officially launched Google Cloud Print into beta, a cloud printing offering that lets users print popular document formats and Google Gmail e-mail messages from any device, regardless of operating systems, with no connection required.” Google Cloud Print Battles Apple AirPrint In Cloud Printing Duel [CRN]
Cloud printing is another service on the Web that makes sense for small businesses. The idea is that you can print from your phone or laptop from anywhere, store the printed pages temporarily in the cloud, and then retrieve the prints — usually at your home or office printer. You can also change the output destination. IN some cases, you can even direct your prints to a cloud printing service. Now, Google has announced a new cloud print offering. CRN has the scoop: “Google (NSDQ:GOOG) this week officially launched Google Cloud Print into beta, a cloud printing offering that lets users print popular document formats and Google Gmail e-mail messages from any device, regardless of operating systems, with no connection required.” Google Cloud Print Battles Apple AirPrint In Cloud Printing Duel [CRN]
I work in one town but our main office is in another town. I had to figure out how to make sure our employees can use the software we use. Here is what I do to make it all work. We manage about 3,000 clients and have three offices 45 miles from each other, along with a number of our employees who work from home one or more days a week. We don’t have server farms or a bona fide IT department. Other than a fast internet connection, a Netgear gigabit router and a Cisco switch, we use the cloud and other free tools to manage our systems because we live on a budget. I am a sales person, first and foremost. If I’m not selling, we’re not making money. I don’t have time to spend on the road outside of client meetings and sales presentations. The question has always been, how can I get software and minor hardware issues handled without having to drive an hour just to fix a very simple problem? We started off by using a Web-based management system called AMS360 (www.ams360.com). Any associate can work with a client from their office or while the agency principal is lounging by the pool in Fort Myers Beach. This has completely changed the way we do business. We got rid of the file cabinets and now have all documents, client notes, and expenses for future client contacts in one place. In the millisecond world we live in, clients believe that quotes and changes need to be handled within the minute, not the hour. Because of this access, I am able to complete tasks from the client’s office and provide them with a confirmation email before ever leaving the meeting. As a management team we can review associate interactions with clients by reviewing activities created for each client in the management system. This allows us to change our methods or identify potential problems with the sales structure before it turns into a problem. Tech support is another major issue. Over the years, I have had to deal with fixing simple issues over the phone, explaining something to an associate who doesn’t even know where to find the Windows control panel or how to set the properties on their multi-screen workstation. One of my new favorite applications for doing tech support is called LogMeIn.com. I first install the LogMeIn client on every one of our remote machines. Then I can easily make any software change without leaving the office. If the computer boots up and has Internet access, I can control it. I use the free version that allows me to see all computers, monitor computer use, and just about anything else except play sounds or transfer files. I have even used my laptop to show a presentation on a workstation connected to a projector within the same conference room. Transferring files between our offices was always a big question mark. It’s now a breeze. I found a free Web app called Dropbox. This is a form of online storage, but the idea is you can share files and folders with anyone who has a Dropbox account (such as our own employees). I simply install an app on my PC, then drag and drop files into folders within my Dropbox account for others to access. I have created folders to share with the office staff and other colleagues. Each folder is shared only with a defined group or individual. I even placed the article I am writing now in my Dropbox for later review and retrieval. It replaces having to email a file — one that was probably too large for the 5MB email limit on the mail server and also does not give my colleagues access to the original source file. Another area of irritation for us has to do with managing virus protection on remote computers. We use a product called Sunbelt Vipre (www.vipreantivirus.com). We can update virus definitions automatically or make changes to our remotely defined groups, such as sales staff, customer support workstations, laptops, and other groups I have created. It allows me to filter websites for content by keyword and monitor use without using an onsite firewall, which means less PC maintenance for me. One of the best parts of Vipre is the ability to generate custom reports about everything from individual computer use to spyware or virus threats. Our fourth area is the life blood of office communications: email. For that, we use a combination of Microsoft Outlook and Gmail.com. We do not have an Microsoft Exchange Server within our organization, so we use Gmail to control the flow of email to our smart phones. Setting up our Charter hosted email to forward a copy of every email to our individual Gmail accounts saved us thousands of dollars since we would have spent that on an Microsoft Exchange server. Basically, I send a copy to my laptop and one to my Gmail account. This syncs seamlessly with my BlackBerry Bold 9650. Outgoing email looks and feels like I am sitting at my desk when, in reality, I am probably powering through lunch and trying to catch up on the morning’s email. I manage the email with the BlackBerry’s option to delete e-mail on the mailbox and on my phone. Ok, you are probably asking: why do that? Isn’t it better to save e-mails on the server? After a few months of deleting emails accidently from the phone and the mailbox, I found that I wanted copies to remain in Outlook on my laptop so I could add them to the management system with client notes and the files that just don’t work on a phone. So I didn’t want to keep e-mails on the server; I wanted to force myself to keep them. Let’s face it: software vendors go out of their way to integrate with Outlook. It’s true that I have to delete something twice, but Outlook routes email to folders easily to save them. Time is money and I am not making money unless I am selling something. I don’t have the time to spend on the road when I can do most of my tech support from my own office. It just makes sense to utilize all the tools available to manage information and systems remotely.
Over the past 12-18 months, major customer relationship management (CRM) players like Salesforce.com, Sage, SAP and others have been adding “social” abilities to traditional CRM applications — like viewing social profile information from Twitter and Facebook. Additionally, newer services such as BatchBook, BantamLive, and others are creating CRM applications on a social foundation aimed at the small and mid-sized business market. And with every passing day, social technologies are merging with traditional CRM functionality, giving companies more efficient ways of transforming clicks into valuable customer relationships. A little over two years ago I wrote about the Three A’s of Social CRM. Back then most people were focused on social media, but not so much on its impact on customer relationship management tools and strategies. Even a year ago when I compared traditional CRM with Social CRM the interest was pretty much limited to industry insiders. That’s not the case today, as the topic of Social CRM has become the focus of many in business. Having focused on CRM for almost two decades — as an application developer, early Salesforce.com certified implementation partner, and finally as an industry watcher — this may be the most important development I’ve seen. I say this because technology has amplified the voice of the customer, and given them greater control over who they engage with, when they do, and how they do so. This in turn is forcing those charged with engaging them to change their approach: in order to connect with customers who Tweet to thousands of followers, watch videos on mobile phones, and form their own online communities. This also is forcing CRM vendors to provide services that do more than just store customer information and track activities. But there’s one company that looks to be creating a platform small businesses can use to turn a variety of online interactions into stronger customer relationships — and it’s not even a CRM company, in the traditional sense. Keeping with the AAA theme from a couple of years back, below are a few reasons why Google is becoming the onramp to Social CRM success for small and mid-sized businesses. Apps — Internal Even with Facebook hitting the 500 million member mark — with billions of interactions taking place weekly — the majority of people in business-to-business (B2B) organizations I’ve come across say no more than 15-20 percent of their total interactions on Facebook are business related. Conversely, about 80-90 percent of e-mail interactions these same folks have are business related, and with much higher frequency. And in many cases, the e-mail exchanges are more intimate in nature, from a business perspective. This may be because the conversations are more direct and focused, and the people engaged in the conversations are more focused on each other — not the overall community — during these interaction. So even today, a large percentage of customer relationship building takes place in our inboxes. Just as Microsoft Outlook was (and still is) key to increasing CRM user adoption over the past decade, Gmail is looking to be that key in the Social Age. More small companies are using Google’s low-cost e-mail hosting services — making Gmail the fastest growing of the big online e-mail providers, closing in on 180 million accounts. But the choice to use Gmail goes well beyond price. Google has turned the inbox into a relationship-building platform enabling multiple points of contact, and increased opportunities for meaningful interactions. When you exchange e-mails with other Gmail users, Google can (based on your security settings) connect you with them if you both use Google Reader — giving you the ability to see what kind of information they are interested in, and start feeding them more of it. And when you go to YouTube, Google lists the YouTube channels of those you interact with via Gmail at the top of the page — giving you a chance to subscribe to them. So Google is building an interaction-based platform on the bedrock of Gmail. And as you exchange emails, you can grow the relationship wider by engaging across apps like Reader and Youtube. You can also deepen the engagement with real-time collaborative interactions via Google Docs, Sheets and Sites. Apps – External Not only has Google created a business interaction-based platform with their dizzying array of applications, but they’ve invited third-party application developers to extend that foundation through the Google Apps Marketplace. And according to a recent post on the Official Google Apps blog, the top search term for installable apps in the marketplace is CRM. Of the thirteen CRM apps in the marketplace, five of them are under the Social CRM umbrella, including Gist, BatchBook, and BantamLive. Vendors like Zoho and Tactile add more traditional CRM functionality to Google’s interaction platform. These and a growing group of application developers will continue building the CRM functionality Google doesn’t build itself. Android While everyone has been captivated by the developments surrounding the iPhone4 release, worldwide sales of phones with Google’s Android operating system crossed over the five million unit mark, according to Gartner. Google recently announced that 160,000 Android units get activated every day, and it expects Android to eventually be a $10 billion business. No doubt the same apps being used on Web browsers are also driving up Android activations, as people are able to work from wherever they need to. But Android tablet devices haven’t even hit the market yet. And with multiple vendors like Cisco, LG, and others committing to running Android on their upcoming tablets, Google will effectively be extending their business interaction platform to new areas. Cisco’s tablet — The Cius — is a key piece in the company’s push to enable the social enterprise. The device will be optimized for collaboration via video chat, Webex meetings, and conference calls. So the device will be optimized for video interactions, while other vendors may optimize their devices for different kinds of interactions. But the bottom line is Android will be extended to cover more ground, while still offering Apps people can run across vendor-specific tablet devices. Analytics Google Analytics has become of staple of many businesses to track their Web traffic. And Google’s ability to turn text into context to serve up ads when we do searches and read emails has driven targeted traffic via Google Adwords. And with this ability to analyze text for ads, Google should also be able to analyze text for sentiment. Just imagine if Google (or a third party developer) could analyze the interactions we’ve had with someone across all the Google channels we engage them over so we can know what’s on their mind, and also what is their state of mind — and how they feel about us. Or even being able to take a group of people we communicate with on Google channels, say VP’s of marketing in the retail industry, to find out what those interactions can reveal. This could lead to more targeted, efficient and meaningful interactions with those we’re trying to create relationships with — based on a business interaction lifecycle taking place across Google’s services. Social CRM is about meaningful interaction as well as information management. And while business interactions are taking place all over, Google — with search, e-mail, Web traffic, and collaborations via Docs, Sheets, etc. — has created an inexpensive platform for building relationships with customers in the Social Age. Through Apps (including third party apps), Android, and Analytics, Google is as much a Social CRM player as anyone else. And for small businesses it may be the most important player. Brent Leary is a small-business technology analyst, adviser, and award-winning blogger. He is the co-author of Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business. His blog can be found at http://brentleary.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/brentleary .
For the small and mid-sized business, the “cloud” is already a familiar friend. Small businesses have increasingly found ways to reduce capital expenditures and operating costs through cloud computing, in which computing is provided by shared resources and software on the Internet on an on-demand model. As a result, they continue to move many business functions from on-site servers to the Web. However, few businesses truly have a cloud “migration” strategy and even fewer have successfully leveraged the cloud in vendor relations. Cloud-based outsourcing Maybe you’ve ditched the Microsoft Exchange server in favor of Google Apps. That was easy. It’s just like your Gmail account, but for work. Or perhaps all of your files are securely backed up — not on a bulky external hard drive, but on Box.net. And they’re accessible from any Internet browser on any computer.Whether you realize it or not, your business has already begun an important migration. But few small businesses have thoughtfully managed this transition and even fewer are fully taking advantage of business in the cloud. Using the cloud as a cost reduction tool is increasingly common — reducing paperwork, lowering transaction costs, and investing in less hardware (and with fewer resources to manage it) can yield immediate impact in accelerating your growth. Less understood, however, is how to use the cloud as a business enabler. On this front, companies like Salesforce.com and SuccessFators continue to push forward. Without installing any software, vendors can manage the entire customer lifecycle or HR processes with greater data detail and accuracy than ever before. No longer do you need a file cabinet of paperwork or indecipherable database for these important business processes. Outsourced to the cloud, your data becomes globally accessible and more secure and redundant — all while saving you real money. But as the cloud becomes more pervasive, maximizing the value for your business means going beyond Salesforce.com and Gmail. What if the cloud could help you keep your business on the cutting edge? Start thinking about the cloud as more than just a tool you use — anyone you do business with should be in the cloud as well. The cloud can level the playing field Small and mid-sized businesses have long missed out because of their size: they don’t have the budget to buy hardware and don’t have the scale to show up on the radar of innovative software vendors. The cloud is leveling this playing field. As an executive, your number-one job is to sell your product — and there are hundreds of hardware and software solutions that could potentially help you achieve that goal. If only it was easy to decide which one to choose. It’s not. You are inundated with calls, e-mails, and advertisements from countless vendors and, if you’re like me, ignore most of them. Or, you select a few to try and next thing you know, your team has invested days or weeks evaluating products. But here too, the cloud can help. There is a new cloud model for software sales that is enabled by what we call IT as a Service (ITaS). ITaS changes the economics of product demos and evaluations significantly — instead of days, they take minutes to set up. Using ITaS , software vendors can provide actual, hands-on IT (such as fully functional product demos) to multiple end-users in minutes without any on-site presence. In the end, it’s you (the buyer) who benefits most because you can test each product without the tribulations of costly and time-consuming on-site evaluations and ensure that ultimately you receive the best product for you. Some of the largest software vendors in the world have embraced this vision of using the cloud to optimize and speed sales cycles (Cisco, SAP, and McAfee are early adopters). This is where the cloud is going. Imagine if, instead of having to endure countless marketing pitches, you can get your hands on any IT product you are interested in and try it within minutes — without delay or download. This is yet another way the cloud can save you time and, as a result, money. Products that enable ITaS are by no means the first non-traditional uses of the cloud to make your life easier. Salesforce, Google, Ooyala, Discus, and Cordys for instance all deliver relevant cloud services to the small business market. Your business’s size is no longer a limiting factor. As we see more SaaS and ITaS, even a two-person company can buy from the big boys — the Ferrari’s of enterprise software — and test-drive before they buy. The cloud can help you gain access to new solutions and ensure they match your business needs — all without wasting your valuable time. SIDEBAR: Tips for proactively managing your Cloud migration If you can hold it, question it. Physical assets cost you money. In many instances, there is no longer a reason to have hardware. Wave goodbye to external hard drives, e-mail/Web servers and filing cabinets. Your business will be lower¬-cost in the cloud. Do what you do best. You have limited hours — spend them wisely. Why waste time with tedious CRM or HR processes — it’s not what you like to do OR what you are best at. Outsource those tasks — Saleforce.com and SuccessFactors would be happy to do it for you — and focus on your core business instead. Don’t just save money — make money. Be proactive. Don’t get caught up treating the cloud as merely a vehicle for cost reduction. Executing core functions in the cloud can make your company more agile and more effective. Expect others to move to the cloud. To fully capitalize on the cloud, you should ensure that your business partners are leveraging the cloud in their interactions with you. Expect instantaneous demos of software you are considering buying. (Zvi Guterman, is CEO and co-founder of CloudShare, a cloud computing service provider. Previously, Guterman co-founded and served as CTO of Safend, an endpoint security company. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Hebrew University.)
Times are tough, but you can save your company some cash by taking advantage of many free applications and services to help you remain lean and competitive. This includes many downloadable programs for your BlackBerry, iPhone, or Android smartphone as well as tools for PC productivity, such as online back-up options, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) software, and no-cost office suites. Free apps are sought-after downloads today in business. It’s not just because it makes sense to those watching their bottom line, but the apps are getting a lot more robust instead of simply covering the basics, says Scott Steinberg, publisher of Digital Trends. “You’d be surprise what you can find today when it comes to free applications — and there’s plenty of free apps to choose from for your smartphone, PC, or a cloud-computing solution that bridges the two,” adds Steinberg. Steinberg says he’s most excited about the explosion in downloadable apps for smartphones. “The apps transform phones into notebook replacements, audio recorders, GPS navigation devices, note-taking devices, and even gaming getaways for those in need of an entertainment fix while traveling for business.” Speaking of travel, Chris Silva, an analyst at the Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester, the technology research company, says many of these free productivity tools have an inherent benefit compared to traditional desktop software: “On-the-go businesspersons want to be able to access their content wherever and whenever, and on any device — and while Microsoft recently unveiled a ‘cloud’ component to [Microsoft] Office, we’re finding people are turning to Google’s established and free Gmail for e-mail, file storage, document sharing, and so on.” Caveat emptor There’s little dispute that cost-cutting measures are critical — especially given the current state of the economy — but there are a few things about free software that businesses should be aware of. Silva reminds businesses that these free apps are still not as full-featured as paid versions. “Productivity suites might not have the 500-plus menus and tools built into Microsoft Office, for example, but most people don’t venture outside of ‘create, format, print and share’ anyway,” he says. “Many companies, especially small to mid-sized businesses, are finding these free alternatives to be good enough for their needs.” Silva also warns of two other possible downsides to free apps. “It’s no secret there are occasional Gmail outages, which means you can’t access your e-mail, or Skype congestion that can affect call quality, along with other issues associated with Internet-based solutions,” he says. “Plus, there are always increased security risks in allowing your employees to use any kind of software they want. You’ll need to take steps to educate employees about risks, about some company information that shouldn’t be shared with Gmail or IM, and mitigate these with policies.” Best bets for free apps If you’re looking for completely free apps for your smartphone or PC, consider the following recommendations: Skype – Available for PCs and select smartphones (iPhone and Windows Mobile), Skype lets you make free phone calls to any other Skype user on the Internet via VoIP technology. PC users can also chat using video, swap files, or pay a few cents a minute for “Skype Out” calls to landlines and cell phones. Gmail – Google’s free Web-based e-mail solution reliably keeps you in touch with others, regardless of the platform you’re using it on. Benefits include loads of storage, little spam, contact and calendar management, and support for Google Talk between multiple devices. OpenOffice.org – Sun Microsystems’s free Microsoft Office alternative offers a suite of productivity tools, including word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, and graphics. It supports multiple operating systems and has a portable version that runs off a USB key. Documents To Go – With a free version included on newer BlackBerry devices, this clever app suite allows for viewing and editing of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. It’s usually bundled with PDF To Go, as well, supporting Adobe’s popular Portable Document Format. Zoho – Free for individuals, Zoho’s range of productivity and collaboration apps include Zoho Mail, Zoho Chat, Zoho CRM, Zoho Writer, Zoho Discussions, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Meeting, Zoho Show, Zoho Creator, Zoho Docs, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Notebook, Zoho Projects, Zoho Wiki, Zoho Reports, and others. Windows Live SkyDrive – Microsoft is offering up to 25GB of free online storage. Only a Windows ID is required (such as a Hotmail e-mail address) and this password-protected virtual drive can be accessed for virtually any online computer in the world. Some folders can be set up for sharing, while other are for your eyes only. Remote Desktop Lite – Use your iPhone or iPod touch to securely access a Windows XP Professional computer, anywhere on the planet. This software provides full access to your PC — via Wi-Fi or EDGE — as if you were in front of the machine you’re accessing. At the time of writing this, Remote Desktop Lite is the no. 1 free business app at Apple’s App Store. Call Time Tracker by momentum – As the name suggests, Redwood Technologies’ free app for Blackberry helps business professionals account for their time in order to bill hours and recover expenses. Ideal for lawyers, consultants, salespeople, realtors and IT professionals, this app pops up at the end of calls and you can easily mark it as billable time. Nice Office – BlackBerry users can manage their e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks from this one free suite of tools. Nice Office securely also grants access to forms and documents, lets you record sales activity while on the go and automatically logs device activity, and provides a detailed report on mobile interactions with your contacts, including calls, messages, and appointments. Google Maps – While it doesn’t provide audio-based turn-by-turn commands, Google Maps is a completely free and powerful tool for your smartphone that can help you find nearby establishments (such as restaurants, gas stations, or hotels), show overhead street views (even with satellite imagery), and give you accurate directions to a destination. It works via GPS or even cellular technology (though the latter isn’t as accurate).
