Tag Archives: mySimon Inc.

About 4735 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Top Sites for Tech Buying

CEO’s Start-Up Toolkit: Best of the Web A panel of entrepreneurs searches for the best spots to shop online Does anybody buy computers in person anymore? If you buy technology today, the odds are pretty good that you make some of the purchases online — or at least choose some items based on information you’ve found online. Your most important choice may therefore be not which product to buy but which site to start with. With our crew of entrepreneurs, we reviewed three of the top multivendor retailers, with an eye to their overall effectiveness as tech-buying sites for Inc. Technology readers. We didn’t evaluate the quality of the products sold there but rather considered whether the site would help readers make quick, productive work of buying computers, peripherals, and/or networking hardware (all from multiple manufacturers) for a small company. (Note, too, that for this trip we ignored the single-source, direct-market sites such as Dell.com and Gateway.com. But, of course, you may want to give those sites a try.) Another buying site not reviewed here but worth checking out is Zones.com, which features a unique set of business-to-business buying tools. But what good is an online technology source without unbiased online technology insight? To accompany our source reviews, we first looked at a selection of “product comparison” research sites, places that promise unbiased reviews, comparisons, specifications, and other data to help you make informed decisions when shopping online. Where to Do Your Research www.zdnet.com What it offers: Oodles of product information and articles; links to buying sites What it’s good for: Locating in-depth articles and analysis Don’t waste your time on: Expecting to navigate the site without getting a migraine; the layout is too busy. What our panel had to say: Our reviewers were un-wowed by ZDNet, although one panelist, the CEO of a consulting and publishing firm, found the site’s “Anti-Virus Guide” very valuable. He also appreciated how much content ZDNet offered from a single access point. Still, he wished the presentation had been better. He recommended an “at a glance” organizational model in which lists of products in a category or resulting from a search are shown with review data on a single page. www.cnet.com What it offers: Lots of good tech information and links to buying sites What it’s good for: Product reviews, articles, “Editors’ Choice” awards Don’t waste your time on: Clicking on the links to “premier sponsor” sellers, which muddy an otherwise unbiased presentation What our panel had to say: CNet.com is broad in the same way that ZDNet.com is, but it’s much better organized and easier on the eyes. The site features not only product information and comparisons but also articles, tech news, tech-job notices, how-to instructions, and even product auctions. In addition to doing broad product searches, visitors can display “Editors’ Choice” picks and lists of the most popular products in various categories. The site presents it all within a happy balance of good design and readability. The combination of product news, reviews, and access to technical products makes CNet an easy stop. Panelists liked CNet. One dubbed it “simple, concise, and focused,” and observed that “there are other comparison-shopping engines, but the combination of news, reviews, and shopping for technical products makes this an easy stop.” www.productopia.com What it offers: A friendly gateway to product information and links to buying sites What it’s good for: Training-wheels-easy tours of product categories Don’t waste your time on: Getting advanced techie-type info; the content is skewed to newbies. What our panel had to say: Productopia is exactly what it sounds like: a consumer-oriented, all-purpose repository of information on all types of products, including cars, appliances, clothing, and more. The pages that deal with computers are adequate though clearly skewed to novices. In the plus column, however, there are “user reviews” and discussion groups that may offer some firsthand insight into products you’re considering buying — although we could find very little information about the items we tried. Both Mac and PC products are available and offered as equivalent choices for the same tasks. For example, computers that were selected as “Style Picks” (apparently for how good they’ll look sitting on your desk) included an Apple iMac as well as PCs from Sony and Quantex. Despite the site’s consumerishness, panelists were impressed with Productopia, which got unanimously high marks for its search function, presentation, and navigability. www.techshopper.com What it offers: A handy way to research and buy from a single site What it’s good for: Research, but not purchasing Don’t waste your time on: Trying to locate customer service; panelists had trouble tracking down that link. What our panel had to say: The reviewers approved of TechShopper, although one wished that the site’s customer service had been made more apparent. Another panelist was surprised and impressed by the amount of Mac information that was available, though he conceded that the site was skewed to the PC market. “If you’re not sure what you want, then this site is great to clarify,” commented one reviewer. “But if you just want to click and buy, too much effort is required to get to the final step.” www.dealtime.com What it offers: One-site searches for a product’s price and availability on multiple other sites What it’s good for: Great searches Don’t waste your time on: Looking for consumer comments to back up your choices. You won’t find any. What our panel had to say: In addition to doling out product information on pet supplies and jewelry along with computer information, DealTime searches online stores, auctions, classifieds, and buying groups and delivers a list of places where shoppers can find what they want at the best price or terms. Great finds: DealTime.com searches for places you can shop for the lowest prices or the best terms. Panelists loved DealTime’s navigability and search function. One entrepreneur especially appreciated the site’s tracking feature, which automatically sends customers updates on products that they have flagged for tracking for up to two months. One panelist would have appreciated some pictures of the products in the initial search-response list. She also would like to have seen comments from other consumers to assist her in making her decision. www.mysimon.com What it offers: One-site convenience for searching for a product’s price and availability on multiple other sites What it’s good for: It’s friendly to very new shoppers. Don’t waste your time on: Navigation. It’s more difficult than it seems at first glance. And the “Simon” cartoon character is annoying. What our panel had to say: Like DealTime, mySimon searches online stores for products in order to help you find the best deals on the Web. The site’s name and personality derive from its mascot and spokesman, a cartoon character you might like only if you also like the Office Assistant character that offers help in Microsoft Office. Panelists drubbed mySimon. “This site is difficult to navigate, it’s nonintuitive, and it presents itself as unbiased when in fact — unless they are just bad at what they do — their search engine fails to find many products I know are available on numerous sites on the Web,” said one entrepreneur. “They have a great idea and an unbiased shopping search engine. However, they sell advertising and present some stores in a biased fashion, so they don’t do what they claim to do.” Another panelist liked mySimon only slightly better but also lamented the small range of products her searches turned up. Where to Buy www.beyond.com What it offers: Lots and lots of software What it’s good for: Software, handhelds, and business discounts available with registration Don’t waste your time on: Looking for desktops and notebooks. Plus, the Recommendation Guide is too simplistic to offer much expert guidance. What our panel had to say: Panelists liked Beyond’s “Top 10″ lists of the most popular products in a category and the links to Top Products by Top Publishers and Top Manufacturers, which provides fast access to the latest and greatest from Microsoft, Symantec, and other heavy hitters. One panelist called Beyond “unique, deep, and competitive.” Another panelist found Beyond of “limited use” because of its dearth of Mac hardware. Our panelists said that Beyond.com goes above and beyond in offering a broad selection of software. www.buycomp.com What it offers: A complete range of computer products, including hardware, software, and networking options What it’s good for: Product searches and special sales Don’t waste your time on: Expecting to find everything you need in one place — or a strong B2B personality What our panel had to say: This site packs all of the useful product-search tools, including keyword and shop-by-brand searches, and it appears to be a good place to check for special discounts and sales. Move quickly, though; sales may be offered on a very limited number of units, in some cases. Wait half an hour, and they might be out of stock. Though the site looks and feels like a substantial warehouse, it’s surprising how limited the selection is at times. And the site makes no real attempt to address the special needs of business buyers. Panelists thought BuyComp was OK but agreed that although “the notion is good, the entire process of business-to-business ordering, tracking, and promoting customer satisfaction is not yet quite there.” This same panelist wanted to find out more about such things as order turnaround time and support contracts. www.cdw.com What it offers: A complete range of computer products, including hardware, software, and networking options What it’s good for: Well-managed business accounts and good search and organizational tools Don’t waste your time on: Looking for product reviews. You’ll find only product specs, not opinions. What our panel had to say: This site appears to be well tailored to the business-technology buyer. From a “My Company” link on the home page, you can set up a customized “CDW@work” extranet for your company. (You can use the extranet to communicate product selections and standards to your purchasing team and also to set up and administer employee purchase programs and to access customized pricing.) Panelists rated CDW about average overall. One offered, “The site is good at delivering the basic information, but nothing special.” He felt that the corporate-account features were easy to set up and use but added little value. Listing product specifications without any accompanying reviews was also cited as a CDW downfall. Ned Snell is a freelance writer based in Arlington, Va. Research Sites Would our CEOs go back? What is the site good for? CEOs’ quick take TechShopper.com www.techshopper.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need Selection; accurate product information “I liked the layout: easy to use, simple, straightforward.” DealTime.com www.dealtime.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need Strong product information for research “For setting up or expanding an office, it would be very useful.” mySimon.com www.mysimon.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need Thoroughness “Not too much different from all the other shopping sites out there.” ZDNet.com www.zdnet.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need New-product announcements; free downloads “Too detailed; very similar to other sites; nothing special about it.” CNet.com www.cnet.com Once a week Usefulness of content; industry-specific information “It allowed me to get the information I needed.” Productopia.com www.productopia.com Once a week Outstanding consumer-goods section “It is a consumer service with limited business applications.” Buying Sites Would our CEOs go back? What is the site good for? CEOs’ quick take CDW.com www.cdw.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need Basic information “They deliver the basic information, but nothing special.” Beyond.com www.beyond.com Once a week Links to top publishers and manufacturers “Unique, deep, and competitive.” BuyComp.com www.buycomp.com Occasionally, if they had a specific need Product quality; accuracy of information “Good concepts, but fuzzy on such things as order turnaround time and support contracts.” Our Reviewers Al Acitelli, CEO, BestInService.com Credit Reporting Jay Graves, president and cofounder, DataMark Inc. Susan Howington, vice-president business development, Lee Hecht Harrison Linda Kellogg, founder and CEO, Start-Up Resources Inc. Beth Marcus, CEO, president and founder, Glow Dog Inc. Dan Maude, president and CEO, Beacon Application Services Corp. Marion McGovern, president, M Squared LLC Debbi Milner, CEO, Jade Systems Corp. James Morel, president, 1-800 Postcards Gerry Philpott, president and CEO, E-Poll.com Eric Schechter, president, GAME: Great American Marketing & Events Al Shariff, owner and president, GlobeTrends Inc. Srikanth Sundararajan, CEO and president, Pretzel Logic Software Inc. Vincent Trantolo, chief operating officer, Annotate.net LLC Maura White, founder and CEO, GoBabies.com Mark Zweig, president and CEO, Zweig White & Associates Inc. For more on the gear you really need to start and grow your small business, see our CEO’s Start-Up Toolkit. Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.

About 4735 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Beauty and the Best

CEO’s Start-Up Toolkit: CEO Profile As she outfits her fast-growing “clicks and bricks” business, this CEO has one cardinal rule: Don’t waste my time Whether she’s buying or selling, whether it’s computers or cosmetics, Marla Malcolm loves brand names. In fact, it was Malcolm’s own frustrating quest to track down her favorite specialty skin-care line that prompted her to launch Bluemercury Inc., a retailer of high-end, hard-to-find beauty products. From July to December 1999, Malcolm and cofounder Barry Jon Beck bought and refurbished two cosmetic boutiques in Washington, D.C., created a mail-order catalog, and launched an online store. In the process Bluemercury’s staff has grown from 2 to 33; it will multiply again as the company opens more stores this year. Malcolm and Beck want to equip their expanding staff with every tool necessary to serve the company’s well-heeled customers. Well, every tool within reason. True, Bluemercury projects revenues of $8 million for this year. And according to its cofounders, the company is already profitable. But with equipment- and software-related expenses approaching $100,000 a year, the tools outlay could well be a torpedo aimed at Bluemercury’s financial health. Inc. Technology asked Malcolm to explain how she equipped her start-up from scratch. And just for fun, we asked her to whip up a money-is-no-object wish list. (See “The Gear She Skipped,” below.) We figured her experiences with outfitting a new, fast-growing company would generate useful lessons for start-ups of every stripe. When buying off-brand products, get two- or three-year warranties and unlimited phone support. Malcolm budgeted about $60,000 to equip her business during its first six months. She and Beck each had a notebook computer that would serve their needs, so that freed up the budget for other things. On her shopping list: desktop computers and laser printers for office staffers and salespeople at each store, an accounting computer, and fax machines for communicating with skin-care advisers and vendors. She also needed to purchase servers that would run the point-of-sale and information systems, manage the Web site, and store an Oracle customer database. Malcolm sums up her tech-buying philosophy succinctly: “We’re supercheap. If a product doesn’t affect the customer, we don’t care about it.” As with her skin-care regimen, she trusts brand names. She wants reliable, easy-to-use products. She expects fast delivery and instant response to complaints. And she doesn’t want to waste time, money, or energy along the way. “That stuff is secondary to our customers,” says Malcolm, gesturing toward the notebook computer and laser printer on her desk at Bluemercury’s headquarters, just off M Street in Washington’s upscale Georgetown neighborhood. The 30-year-old entrepreneur, whose tailored black pantsuit and neatly swept-back blonde hair mirror her quiet, brisk manner, believes that small technology purchases fall into the find-it-fast-and-forget-about-it category. She’d rather focus her energies on the things she considers critical for success: raising money, opening new stores, and choosing merchandise like the Acqua di Parma line of colognes and soaps and Nars cosmetics with names like Orgasm (inexplicably, a peach-toned blush). And she wants her employees to concentrate on serving customers, who spend an average of $400 a year on products like the Nars nail-polish quartet ($45) and the three-piece Shu Uemura cosmetic brush set ($110). Malcolm, whose father was an insurance agent in Oakland, Calif., knew since childhood that she, too, wanted to be her own boss. After receiving an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, she became VP of strategy for a high-powered Washington, D.C., entrepreneur. But she yearned for her own opportunity. Conventional wisdom dictated launching an online business-to-business company, but no b-to-b ideas set her soul afire. She wanted something fun. She kept looking. Short-term gain, long-term pain: Bluemercury saved up front by buying printers for each store. The answer was staring her in the face. She’d long used, but suddenly had trouble finding, high-quality skin-care products from Dermalogica, of Torrance, Calif. Then she discovered Efx (pronounced effects), a two-store chain in Washington, D.C., that specialized in such elusive niche brands. Last year Malcolm and Beck spent less than $1 million of their own money to buy the stores and then raised more money from angel and seed-round investors to build complementary Web and catalog ventures. In October she moved Bluemercury — a name she created because it sounds “calm and strong and fast” — from her dining-room table to an office complex a few blocks from the company’s flagship store in Georgetown. She continued hiring people, buying products, and planning her expansion. Within six months the company was profitable, and Malcolm was closing the deal for her third store and negotiating deals for the fourth and fifth. During her technology shopping, Malcolm hired consultants only when the time came to choose servers — a decision too complex and expensive to make without expert advice. For everything else, she relied on her own research and input from Beck, the company’s chief operating officer. Malcolm depended most on the product reviews, lab tests, and rankings on CNet and ZDNet’s Computer Shopper site (www.computershopper.com). She cut through the deluge of information by defaulting to trusted brands like Hewlett-Packard, Dell, IBM, and Nokia. The next step: deciding where to buy and what to spend. Malcolm tried bargain hunting with the free online shopping robot mySimon but found that it returned too much information, most of it from unknown sources. In fact, her sole deviation from brand-name buying: the company’s Emachines PCs. At $499 each, including the monitor, the Emachines were “the cheapest little desktop computers available,” Malcolm says. Why break the big-name rule? Because, she says, Bluemercury employees use PCs primarily for doing E-mail, word processing, and spreadsheets, functions that don’t require best-of-breed machines. But sharing printers over a network will save a company money in the long run. Ironically, considering her company’s presence in the cutthroat Web cosmetics marketplace, Malcolm made no technology purchases online. Except for the Dell servers, which she ordered by phone, Malcolm has so far bought most of her gear at her neighborhood Staples. “You can look at the stuff and develop a relationship with the local store,” she says, adding that deliveries and returns have been fast and painless. The Bluemercury folks have fumbled a few times in their shopping. To save money and space, they initially picked an all-in-one machine — printer, fax, and copier. The machine was slow, unreliable, and produced unreadable faxes. Lesson learned: “No more multifunction machines,” Malcolm says. “We only buy machines that do the one thing that they’re designed to do.” Problem solved? Not yet. They goofed once again, applying Malcolm’s cheaper-is-better philosophy and buying a fax machine that cost less than $90. They saved about $60 by passing up a fax in the next-higher price tier, but they ultimately paid a steep price in frustration — the machine kept breaking down under the incoming fax load. Eventually, the company invested in heavy-duty workhorses from Hewlett-Packard — which was, of course, a name they knew. Anne Stuart is a senior writer at Inc. Technology. The Gear She Picked SERVERS: Malcolm chose machines from Dell because the build-to-order computer manufacturer offers unmatched customer service. Final Choice: Two Dell PowerEdge 1300 servers and one PowerEdge 2300 machine, approximately $5,000 each FAX MACHINES: Bluemercury currently has four heavy-duty fax machines, two at its headquarters and one in each store. Malcolm also uses the eFax.com online service to get faxes by E-mail while traveling. Final Choice: High-speed Hewlett-Packard 920s, $250 each; the eFax service is free DESKTOP COMPUTERS: Bluemercury employees aren’t power users; they need only a few basic functions, such as word processing, E-mail, and spreadsheets. Malcolm’s pick: #2 on CNet’s list of top-five inexpensive PCs. It provides those basic functions at a bargain price. Final Choice: Nine Emachines PCs, all 400 MHz with 32MB of RAM and 4.3GB hard drives, $499 each ACCOUNTING COMPUTER: For the company’s accounting tasks, Malcolm wanted a computer that would never crash and wouldn’t take up a lot of space. Her selection received high marks from CNet for its reliability and slim, space-saving design. Final Choice: Compaq Presario 3550 (500MHz, 64MB of RAM, and an 8GB hard drive), about $2,000 NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS: Malcolm and Beck each brought their own notebooks to the business. (Malcolm uses an IBM ThinkPad 600; Beck has a Dell Inspiron 7000.) They’re not in the market for new machines, but if they were, they would both upgrade to the 4.9-pound ThinkPad 600X, which at 650 MHz, 64MB of RAM, and with a 12GB hard drive, is much faster and more robust than Malcolm’s current machine and lighter than Beck’s 9-pound Dell model. Final Choice: IBM ThinkPad 600X, about $4,000 LASER PRINTERS: Bluemercury wanted black-and-white laser printers that would spit out at least eight pages a minute. The company bought one printer for each of the seven administrative employees and one for each store. (It went that route because initially it didn’t network its computers, although it plans to do so soon.) In a pinch, it can buy a snap-on accessory, also from HP, for low-volume scanning or copying. Final Choice: Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1100, $399 each; accessory, $149 CELL PHONES: The office staff uses basic Nokia cell phones from AT&T Wireless Services. The phones weren’t the cheapest available, but Malcolm likes them because they allow staffers to get E-mail. Final Choice: Nokia 6160, about $200, plus monthly service fee and call charges The Gear She Skipped DIGITAL CAMERA: Bluemercury pays a professional photographer to produce images for its Web site. But if Malcolm were to succumb to temptation and buy a camera, she’d purchase the Kodak DC215, just to keep a digital camera handy. “It’s one of the cheapest, it’s Kodak, and it’s in the top-five ranking of bargain cameras on CNet.” Saved: about $299 SCANNER: Malcolm lusts for a flatbed scanner to use for promotional materials, but adds, sighing, that the expense seems like a luxury. And besides, Bluemercury already owns a cheaper scanner that she’s never used. Saved: about $300 For more on the gear you really need to start and grow your small business, see our CEO’s Start-Up Toolkit. Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.