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About 1906 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

In Defense of the Business PC

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There’s little argument that today’s small business emplooyees are increasingly mobile ones, whether it’s your star salesperson flying to see clients in another state or your R&D rep jet-setting overseas to seek new manufacturing opportunities. While laptops and smartphones can help employees remain productive while on the move, desktop PCs are becoming less appealing to office dwellers, too. “Desktops aren’t dead, but the market is certainly declining in favor of notebook computers,” confirms Bob O’Donnell, program vice president for clients and displays at IDC, Framingham, Mass.-based market research firm. “Notebooks sales have already eclipsed desktop sales, and we don’t see any sign of that changing anytime soon.” O’Donnell says this surge in popularity is likely due to a few variables, including an increase in laptop power, integrated wireless connectivity, and strong competition from manufacturers which translates to relatively low prices. “Now we’re talking about a $799 laptop or less that might be as powerful as your desktop and you have the added benefit of Wi-Fi so you can leverage free hotspots and get more done if you want to leave the office,” says O’Donnell. Gary Chen, senior analyst for small and medium enterprise IT infrastructure and applications at the Boston, Mass.-based Yankee Group consulting firm, reaffirms a laptop’s appeal boils down to mobility. “Work lifestyles are changing rapidly [as] we’re no longer tied to our desk 9-to-5, so a laptop really is crucial to many workers,” says Chen. “Laptops continue to improve in terms of affordability, weight, battery life, wireless networking, and performance, making them very attractive alternatives to desktop PCs.” Desktop benefits Despite the laptop’s surge in popularity among consumers and businesses, stationary desktop PCs have their share of advantages for a small or mid-sized business. “Desktops are cheaper and more reliable [than laptops], although reliability for all PC types is pretty good these days,” explains Chen. “But anytime you’re cramming a lot of components in a small space and that chassis is going to be jostled and bumped around while carrying it, you just have more chances for something breaking.” Many ergonomists also believe a desktop PC — with its adjustable full-sized keyboard and external mouse — is easier on your wrists than a laptop’s keyboard and touchpad, which could result in less repetitive stress issues. It’s all in the apps What kind of computer you need may also be related to the type of work you’re using it for. O’Donnell says an accountant, for example, who stares at spreadsheets all day, would rather look at a large 22-inch monitor, compared to a laptop’s 13- to 17-inch display. “Cost conscious small and mid-sized businesses also know the price of big-screen monitors have dropped considerably, which is good news.” Chen says high-end graphics work is also more ideal on a desktop than a laptop. “For certain applications, you can’t beat a desktop still for raw performance,” Chen says, “since these systems run hotter, and are loaded with advances graphics cards and such that just aren’t available in a mobile form factor.” Security, privacy concerns Another problem with laptops, says O’Donnell, is security, which should be a high-priority for a small or mid-sized businesses. “Hopefully you’re backing up data regularly but if you lose your notebook your whole company might be on this thing,” says O’Donnell. “Even if it’s not completely catastrophic, there are serious concerns if a notebook is lost or stolen — therefore depending on the nature of your business, sensitive data and privacy concerns might mean you stick with desktops.” Chen agrees: “In a mobile space you can’t control the environment and network that the computer is being used on — while desktops stay in one place and operate in a controlled network.”

About 1906 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Business Uses for Cell Phones You Didn’€™t Know

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If you’re only using your mobile phone to place calls, check e-mail or surf the Web, you’re not taking advantage of all it can do for you and your growing business. Yep, just as it’s estimated we only use about 10 percent of our brains, you’re probably overlooking many — if not most — of your phone’s handy hidden features. Here we explore a few business-related uses of your cell phone that you might not know about, or use. Tethered modem Can’t find a coffee shop to log online with your laptop while on the road? Rather than using Wi-Fi, many people are connecting their phone to their notebook computer to use it as a modem — even while in the back of a taxi. “Most newer phones offer this feature — connecting it to your laptop with USB or Bluetooth so you can log online — but not many people are doing it yet,” says Erez Zevulunov, director of MIT Consulting, a Toronto-based technology solutions firm. “And now with cell phone bandwidth rivaling broadband modems, such as with 3G phones, speed isn’t an issue anymore.” Be sure to check with your carrier first to make sure your data plan covers this feature, and find out what the roaming charges are when out of town. Backup data Speaking of connecting your phone to a computer, you can carry around many if not all of your contacts and calendar appointments with you — software is often provided by the phone manufacturer. Furthermore, it’s also a convenient way of protecting your PC files in case something happens to the machine, such as damage caused by fire, flood, theft, virus, or power surge. Many phones today also offer expandable memory, such as a 2GB MicroSD card, which is enough to store thousands of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Make sure, however, to compress all of these files into a password-protected .zip or .rar file — just in case you lose your phone. “Productivity features usually depend on how ‘smart’ the phone is, such as those with an open operating system, but many basic, conventional phones have data back-up services to protect against information loss,” says Nathan Dyer, senior analyst for enterprise mobility at the Boston, Mass.-based Yankee Group. Memo taking Many entrepreneurs and small and mid-sized business owners come up with a great idea while on the go, but don’t have a quick way to document it before the epiphany is lost. Guess what — your phone likely has recording functionality buried in one of those option menus. “I know lawyers who have stand-alone digital recorders and I ask them ‘why bother?’” says Zevulunov. “You can easily dictate for an hour or more, especially with expandable memory cards, which you can then download to your PC to archive.” Mobile phones are also ideal for recording boardroom meetings and important conversations. Also consider the free Jott voice memo service. When you’re out and about and need to send a message to someone (or “jott” a note to yourself), simply call a toll-free number, say your message clearly, and your speech will be converted into text and then e-mailed and text-messaged to the recipient. GPS navigation “More and more phones have embedded GPS capabilities that are extremely useful for turn-by-turn directions and locating addresses,” says Dyer. As an example of the latter, if the important client you’re taking out for lunch has a yen for Japanese food, you can quickly find the nearest one with a couple of button presses. In fact, cell phones with integrated GPS will likely be as common as a built-in camera. Increasingly popular services include TeleNav, which costs about $10 a month, and don’t forget phones like the iPhone offer Google Maps with satellite imagery. “Even if your phone doesn’t have built-in GPS it probably has Bluetooth so you can pick up an inexpensive receiver to keep on your dashboard,” says Zevulunov.

About 1906 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Touch Screen Takes over the Cell Phone

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Just because a form factor is trendy doesn’t mean that it’s right for your business. Naturally, we’re referring to touch-based mobile phones, today’s fashionable way to interface with your digital life while on the go. Thanks to the iPhone, and now a slew of other handsets, finger-swiping is in and buttons are out. You know the drill: you can use your fingertip to navigate through all your phone’s content, be it flicking your way through e-mails in your inbox, documents, or calendar entries or using gestures such as a tap to zoom in on a website or drawing a half-circle to rotate photos. “This is where everything is going,” says Erez Zevulunov, director of MIT Consulting, a Toronto-based technology solutions firm. “Star Trek is here — keyboards have been replaced with your finger and for good reason: touch phones are easy to learn, easy to navigate, and they offer a richer graphical experience.” Nathan Dyer, senior analyst for enterprise mobility at the Yankee Group, a Boston, Mass.-headquartered research firm, says “touch”-based handsets, such as the iPhone, have done a great job at reducing user frustration. “Mobile devices are being crammed with so many features that it’s difficult as a user to navigate and find what you’re looking for. The iPhone has done a phenomenal job using touch-based screens to remove this user frustration,” Dyer says. “What used to take four awkward clicks on a keypad to access the calendar application can now be done with one or two ‘touches,’” Dyer adds. “People generally have short attention spans, so it’s critical for device manufacturers to maximize the navigation speeds.” Existing and future challenges A “soft” keyboard, however, isn’t ideal for every situation, such as for those who need to type a lengthy e-mail message. “Touch screens are not perfect,” says Dyer. “As we see with the iPhone, typing on a virtual keyboard is rather cumbersome and takes a while to get used to, [therefore] the iPhone isn’t designed for heavy e-mail composers.” Some users claim they don’t like the lack of tactile feedback when pressing the on-screen keys, although some handsets, such as the LG Voyager, offer a small vibration sensation when the “soft” keys are pressed to confirm the button press was registered. “Power users still want a button-based QWERTY keyboard, as with most BlackBerrys, but for everyone else it’s easy to see why ‘touch’ is the next big thing,” concludes Zevulunov. SIDEBAR: Touch me, hold me Here’s a quick look at a few new non-iPhone touch-based phones. The LG Voyager smartphone features a high-resolution touch-screen on its surface, but if you prefer to type a lengthy e-mail or instant message with real buttons the handset opens up like a book to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard (and second screen) inside. Pull out the tiny antenna to watch live TV, or download music, video or podcasts. The new HTC Touch Cruise builds upon its popular predecessors by offering a high-quality 2.8-inch LCD screen and 3-D interface (called TouchFLO) to give you one-touch access to all your communication, entertainment and information. Powered by Windows Mobile 6 professional, the Cruise also includes integrated HSDPA, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3-megapixel camera and FM radio. The Neonode N2 is a little-known, gesture-based smartphone that’s considerably smaller than the others at just 3-inches tall (and sporting a 2-inch screen), which can easily be toted to and from meetings. But this sleek black smartphone also offers a few impressive consumer features, such as the ability to record Internet radio streams (stored on expandable MiniSD memory up to 32GB), 2-megapixel still camera (with video recording functionality), and stereo Bluetooth.

About 1935 days ago Business Software

Accounting and More: New Financial Software

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Thanks to its new pumped-up software, business at Menomonee Falls, Wis.-Holland Bulb Farms is … well, blooming.  After years of using a combination of Intuit’s QuickBooks and Microsoft’s Excel to track accounting, inventory and expenses, the 32-person company, which sells specialty flower bulbs, boutique fruit and vegetable plants, and seeds, decided it needed more expansive software to support its first foray into the world of e-commerce. So three years ago, Holland Bulb Farms purchased Everest Software’s Advanced, an integrated accounting, inventory, point-of-sale and e-commerce package. In addition to handling accounting and payroll, the system tracks every aspect of what the company sells, ships, and needs to order, sending internal email notification to the appropriate departments. It also offers customer relationship management (CRM) features that allow the company to notify customers of special offers and promotions, or greet them on birthdays or special occasions. Holland Bulb installed the Everest system just before going live with its website, explains Erik Thomas, the company’s director of e-commerce, at a cost of between $1,500-$1,800 per year. “I’d say we had a 300 percent return on investment in the first month of the site going live,” he says. Buying the On-Premise version as opposed to the hosted On-Demand version, Thomas said, is giving the company more flexibility to customize the product. Everest’s new tutorials, he adds, make it much easier to train new employees on the system. Integrated software a growing trend Integrated financial software for smaller businesses is part of a growing trend, notes Gary Chen, a senior analyst specializing in small and mid-sized businesses at Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm. “There’s definitely a trend…as the Internet and technology changes, you have traditional accounting packages expanding. It’s definitely a good place to start, because every business needs accounting,” he notes. Companies like Dulles, Va.-based Everest and Rohnert Park, Calif.,-basedNetBooks, whose CEO, Ridgely Evers, founded QuickBooks while with Intuit, thinks providing a complete business management model to smaller businesses just makes sense. “If accounting is all you need, you can’t get better than QuickBooks,” Evers says. “But QuickBooks is designed for transactions. NetBooks is designed for interactions,” he adds.   NetBooks offers a web-based service for $200/month for five users, documenting everything from incoming orders to outgoing shipments, CRM, and payroll and accounting, too. NetBooks even offers access to a marketing coach through partner Duct Tape Marketing. Evers notes that NetBooks is tailor-made for small businesses without IT departments: “companies where I-T still spells it,” he quips. Intuit in the act, too Even QuickBooks’ maker, Intuit, would seem to agree with the wisdom of building on basic accounting apps, notes Chen, who notes that Intuit recently purchased Homestead, a build-your-own-website software package with CRM features. QuickBooks’ 2008 version also includes more flexibility, such as breaking out data in ways that can be used for sales and customer service. While the newer offerings are more integrated at present, stealing market share away from QuickBooks will be difficult, says Chen. “It’s pretty difficult to knock Intuit off its pedestal,” he says. In the end, “the accounting department has to be comfortable using whatever software is being used, and a lot of accountants are comfortable with QuickBooks.” SIDEBAR: Integrated Business Software: Who’s Got It? Intuit, which offers both QuickBooks and now Homestead, a build-your-own website package. NetBooks, offering marketing, sales, inventory and finances in one software-as-a-service system. Everest Software Inc.’s Advanced, winner of SIIA’s Best Business Software Product in 2004, is offered as On-Premise or On-Demand, calls itself an all-in-one business operating system, offering accounting, e-commerce, point-of-sale, inventory, shipping, and CRM.

About 1997 days ago Business Software

Leopard Has Landed: Assessing Mac’s New OS

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While the Windows operating system continues to dominate in the corporate world, small and mid-sized businesses have been slow to adopt Microsoft’s latest operating system, Vista, according to reports. Perhaps companies are waiting for the kinks to be worked out or better compatibility with existing productivity software. Or perhaps the upgrade cost is a big pill to swallow. But now it’s Apple’s turn. After delaying its release, the new Mac OS X version 10.5 — a.k.a. Leopard — has hit the market with much fanfare. With its advertized 300+ new features, Leopard is touted as the most significant upgrade over its predecessors, at a relatively inexpensive price point of $129. Better browsing and file sharing This sixth major release of the Mac OS platform offers many new bells and whistles over its predecessors including: a redesigned Finder to better browse and share files between multiple Macs Time Machine, a simplified way of backing up data a new 3-D Dock with Stacks that lets you better organize and access your files on your desktop Quick Look, an efficient way to instantly see files without having to open an applications Spaces, used to create groups of apps and easily switch between them enhanced mail and chat applications and integrated Boot Camp to run Windows on Intel-based Macs. So what do the experts advise about whether upgrading is in the best interest of small businesses that rely on the Mac platform? Or are there compelling reasons to switch platforms if your business has become a frustrated Windows user environment? Whether to upgrade or not “Right now most of the apps are Windows-based, so I think the new Mac OS is a hard sell to businesses,” says Gary Chen, senior analyst for Small and Medium Enterprise IT Infrastructure and Applications at the Boston, Mass.-based Yankee Group. “This is the biggest hurdle for the Mac — even though the hardware and OS are great — but the apps are really what is most important” to the small and mid-sized business user. Not every analyst agreed. Some advised looking at other compelling features to switch your business to the new Mac OS. “The first thing you need to ask yourself is if a Mac is right for your business, and many will say ‘yes’ because of overall stability and security, not having to deal with viruses and malware,” says Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at the New York-based Jupiter Research. As for the upgrade to Leopard, it’s a “no brainer,” says Gartenberg: “Basically, for $129 you’re getting a new Mac, which offers many enhancements and new features.” Gartenberg says he likes the simplified back-up utility called Time Machine, better e-mail, and the ability to run Boot Camp natively, giving users “best of both worlds.” Chen concedes Windows might not have much of an edge over Mac for much longer as the world moves to Web-based software applications. “Plus, I have seen Apple pick up ground lately” among small and mid-sized businesses, Chen says. He credits that “mostly due to the halo effect of their other consumer successes,” such as the iPod and iPhone. Regarding Leopard’s adoption, Gartenberg says so far it has been “well received” among its core Apple install base: “Put it this way, you’re not going to see businesses ask to be downgraded to an older operating system as we saw with Vista owners.”

About 1997 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

The Case for Tablet PCs

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Thanks to falling prices, increased selection, and many more applications targeted at small and mid-sized businesses, it might seem like the right time to consider picking up a tablet PC — or several for your staff. For the uninitiated, these small and lightweight handheld computers let you comfortably write on the screen using a stylus pen. Bundled optical character recognition (OCR) software can also transcribe your chicken scratch into text, making it easy to search or insert into documents, presentations, or e-mails. With built-in wireless functionality, such as 802.11 (Wi-Fi), tablet PCs are also online-ready. Microsoft has an entire operating system devoted to these computers — Windows XP Tablet PC. The software giant has also spent considerable marketing dollars to promote OneNote, a tablet PC-centric note-taking and information-management program for Microsoft Office. OneNote allows you to effortlessly record, organize, search, and share digital notes. Computer makers offering more tablet PCs Many laptops available today also offer tablet PC functionality. Aptly named “convertibles,” these computers feature LCD screens that can swivel around and lay flat — so the user can hold it like a clipboard and write instead of type. It’s no wonder many computer manufacturers have jumped onboard, including the likes of Acer, HP, Lenovo, Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. It might seem as if the tablet computer was the latest rage. But, truth be told, the tablet PCs are hardly flying off the shelves. So, why aren’t they selling? According to a recent IDC report, the market is relatively tiny. Convertible tablet PC shipments, for example, will reach barely one million units this year and more than four million by 2010, IDC estimates. Compare this to approximately 72.6 million laptop PCs sold during the same period. “Tablets are still a pretty niche market and I don’t see that changing anytime soon,” says Gary Chen, senior analyst for Small and Medium Enterprise IT Infrastructure and Applications at the Yankee Group. “They’re good for certain vertical applications, but for the mainstream I don’t see it ever becoming the primary form factor.” Determine whether you need tablet functionality Other analysts are more optimistic about the tablet PC’s potential in the small and mid-sized business market. Michael Gartenberg, Jupiter Research’s vice president and research director, says that businesses need to assess whether they can utilize the additional mobility and functionality that the tablet PC has to offer. “The technology has matured — in both the hardware and software — but the big question is ‘do you need it?’” Gartenberg says. For many businesses, the answer may be, “Yes.” Gartenberg suggests that IT decision makers at small and mid-sized businesses consider whether staff members in their business have certain requirements that may be appropriate for tablet PC usage. Tablet computers can provide benefits when used in the following scenarios: When employees are in meetings and want to use their computer as a white board to best demonstrate a product or concept by using a diagram or pictorial representation. In mobile environments, such as health care, where workers need to record information while standing or in other situations where a keyboard isn’t appropriate. In businesses that can cut out a data entry step by enabling field workers to use a stylus to take notes or record observations, which can then be ported into a text file with a few clicks. Another selling point of the tablet PC is that there is no longer a considerable difference in quality between tablets and other laptops. “A few years ago, there was a clear sacrifice in quality of screen, battery life, and power,” Gartenberg says. “But now you’re not trading any functionality.” Chen concedes the price for tablet PCs isn’t much of a barrier of entry any longer for a small or mid-sized business. “Cost was initially a big factor,” he says, “and they’ve definitely come down in price.” That said, Chen maintains most users are “pretty happy with a standard laptop and don’t really see a need to be able to write on the screen.” “I just haven’t seen large demand from users for tablet PCs,” he adds. Time will tell whether the additional development of tablet PC technology by computer and software makers gives businesses a reason to switch to the tablet computer.

About 2027 days ago Tools on Managing Technology

The Great IT Outsourcing Debate: How to Decide

Outsourcing can allow even the smallest company to go after big game. Just ask Jack Sands. The chief executive officer of Intrep Auto Club Renewals, a Columbus, Ohio-based telemarketer, Sands has outsourced his firm’s website design, logo design, software design, and phone system design. His 75 employees, all of whom work from home, are paid through an outsourced payroll system. Even the company’s telemarketing software is outsourced. Piece by piece, Sands has outsourced to technology service providers in India, China, Turkey, Russia, and the U.S. In seven years, his business has grown to the $5 million to $10 million range. “It’s allowed me to portray an image of being a very large company when I wasn’t one, and at a very low cost,” Sands says. Sands then landed the American Automobile Association (AAA) as a client. “Most small firms couldn’t get a client this big,” he notes.  Reasons technology outsourcing is on the rise A growing trend among larger firms for decades, even the smallest businesses are now turning to technology outsourcing as a way to improve efficiency and boost their bottom line. According to Yankee Group, 61 percent of firms with 20-99 employees use a contractor or business partner for IT services alone. In addition to IT, firms are outsourcing marketing, Web design, human resources, accounting, and administrative functions like data entry or customer service. And firms are just as likely to find their needs met by a North American firm found on Craig’s List as by a call center in Southeast Asia, industry watchers note. For many small firms, outsourcing just makes sense, explains Gary Chen, senior analyst and specialist in small business IT issues at Yankee Group. Many small and mid-size businesses “just don’t have someone to do these jobs, or they only have enough of a certain type of work to justify a one-fourth-time position,” says Chen. “You can’t hire someone to a one-fourth-time position.” Outsourcing can also give a company more flexibility. Intrep’s Sands outsourced his payroll operations to Rochester, N.Y.-based Paychex because his work-from-home employees are spread out across the country. “I couldn’t keep track of the different workers comp laws and tax rules,” he says. Outsourcing this allows him to hire the best telemarketers he could regardless of their location. Challenges of outsourcing One of the biggest challenges to outsourcing is losing local control over technology functions. If something isn’t working, you have to learn to rely on your outsourcer to fix it. Business leaders need to determine whether they are comfortable with leaving something to a company in India, Russia, or even in another part of the United States. There’s something to be said about being able to walk down the hall to the IT department and asking someone to fix a problem. When outsourcing, businesses also need to appoint someone to oversee the outsourcing relationship. Problems often arise and you need to make sure that your contract with the service provider allows the flexibility to make adjustments in your service, if need be. Lastly, leaving certain vital business services in the hands of another company can mean you are at their mercy if their service goes offline for any amount of time. You may need to have contingency plans. You may also need to read the fine print in your contract to make sure that you don’t have to pay for services that you don’t receive. Few outsource providers offer to compensate you for the business you lose when their service goes down. How to decide whether to outsource IT So, what should companies consider before they take the outsourcing plunge? Here is a checklist to help your business through the decision-making process: Cost. “Cost should be the first consideration,” says Chen. “It should be cheaper to outsource: that’s the bottom line.” To determine this, companies may need to do a little homework—checking into the potential cost of outsourcing, but also taking a hard look at how much the company is losing by trying to do certain tasks itself, says Chen. Can someone else do it better? “Do what you do best, and outsource the rest,” advises Fabio Rosati, chief executive officer of Elance, a Web-based firm that plays matchmaker between companies seeking to outsource and skilled service providers and freelancers. “You need to acknowledge that you can’t do everything well,” and that sometimes your company will need help, Rosati says. Will you lose control over your business? Are you comfortable with loosening the reigns and leaving control over certain functions to someone else? What will you do if there’s a problem? Businesses need to ensure in their service-level agreements with outsourcing firms that the firm will be responsive and will fix problems within a certain time frame. You also need the flexibility in your contract to do some fine tuning, especially if this is the first time you are outsourcing payroll or customer service. Will this help your business? Ultimately, you need to weigh whether outsourcing certain technology functions will help you focus on your business and improve profit margins. If the cost, time-saved, and expertise doesn’t result in business benefits, then you may need to think twice about outsourcing. Conclusion Outsourcing technology functions must be made after a review of your business. Some businesses, such as Sands’ company, have found that they are able to better focus on what they do best and leave the technical matters involving telecommunications and software to someone else. “We didn’t have anyone to do this stuff for us,” says Sands. “This way, we were able to find the best in breed for every task.” SIDEBAR: Improving Your Odds for Success If you’ve decided to look into outsourcing, where do you look? And how can you ensure success? Check online job-hunter sites. Sands used Elance to find many of his service providers, but settled on Paychex and Saleforce.com separately. Other providers include Careerbuilder, Monster.com, and other sites that specialize in freelancers or per-project workers for specific fields. Check skills, references. Exposing your business to newcomers can be risky. Approach choosing a service provider like you would hiring a new employee. Does the firm have the best match of skills, quality and price for your business? If across many time zones, is their location an issue? Do they have good references? Best not to rely simply on eBay-style rating systems provided by some sites. Articulate your needs. This may sound basic, but Elance’s Rosati says that firms need to be a specific as possible about what they want to get the best product and the best price. Develop a relationship. If you find good providers, treat them well so they’ll want to work for you again, say Sands. “Don’t cheat them on price,” he says. “You need them, and want them to put your needs first.”

About 2058 days ago Business Software

ERP for Small Business: The Time is Ripe

The time is ripe for small and mid-size businesses to adopt enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, according to leading industry analysts. There are more options than ever among the crowded ERP-vendor field targeting the small and mid-size business sector. Those options are, in turn, growing more affordable. In addition, many small and mid-size businesses are in desperate need of an upgrade to sophisticated software that was once the purview of only larger corporations. “Many small businesses have not upgraded their infrastructure since the Y2K cycle,” says Albert Pang, research director of enterprise applications research for Framingham-Mass.-based IDC. “Many of their systems need to be replaced.” Companies looking to update their financial, human resources, project management, and procurement applications will find that their needs will be met by ERP offerings, Pang says. A field crowded with vendors The good news is that there are many new choices among ERP programs available to small and mid-size businesses, Pang says, with over 30 vendors in the field.  And those vendors are looking to small and mid-size businesses as their primary growth market. An August 2007 Forrester Research report forecast that the small business sector will be “the most dynamic and innovative growth area” for ERP sales over the next three to five years. If comparison shopping a 30-plus market of vendors seems overwhelming, consider that many vendors offer specialty products to certain sectors or verticals. For example, Activant Solutions specializes in offerings to distributors, Constellation Software Inc. services club-membership-type businesses, and Deltek Inc.’s products target professional services providers. But ERP’s largest players — SAP, Sage Software, Oracle, and Microsoft — have more generic offerings that are increasingly tailored to smaller businesses. For example, Oracle is offering fixed-scope products, such as E-Business Suite and JDEdwards Enterprise One. These can be up and running in days to weeks, not months to years like previous, enterprise-focused ERP applications, says Pang. That timetable is crucial for small businesses, which want and need to see a quick return on their technology investments. And while costs can vary widely according to a company’s specific needs, the costs for more sophisticated software have really come down. “In the past, many of these products would cost seven figures, but now, they are available for under $100,000,” says Pang. Stiff competition and the emergency of on-demand products available over the Web have contributed to this trend, he says. Custom, on-demand solutions Another option for smaller firms is to purchase generic solutions and customize them with help from a value-added reseller or consultant, explains Gary Chen, senior analyst and small and mid-size business specialist at Boston, Mass-based Yankee Group. A wide range of add-on modules is available to develop the perfect custom application for every company. Still another option is ERP on-demand products for smaller businesses, such as those offered by NetSuite and SAP Business ByDesign. SAP’s product features a unique flat price: $149 per user per month, according to its website. With all these options, it’s a good time for smaller firms to go ERP shopping, says Chen. “There is so much more available now,” he says. “There’s never been a better time.”

About 2088 days ago Online Marketing

The Push to “Pull” in Online Marketing

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Consumers are being bombarded with so much advertising today, from TV commercials to e-mails to logos on coffee cups and pizza boxes. People are kind of overwhelmed. So when they want information, they go out and get it themselves — “pulling” it. “I don’t think push marketing is going away,” says Gary Chen, an analyst for the Yankee Group, of Boston, who specializes in the small and mid-sized business market, “but you’re going to see a lot more pull.” Rather than accepting what’s being pitched to them, consumers are going out and finding information themselves. They’ll go out and look for comparative information on other products and services. A recent report, the second installment of the Intuit Future of Small Business Report, sponsored by Intuit and authored by the Institute for the Future, argues that technology will transform the small business sector. Key for customer acquisition will be the online presence. Here’s what you need to know to make your company’s presence online work for you: Join the conversation Accountants have done this for years, says Brad Smith, senior vice president and general manger of Intuit’s Small Business Division, taking their expertise on the road, offering advice with the goal of people being so impressed that they hire them. Take a page from their book and go to the (virtual) communities where these conversations are happening. Show up and give advice for free. Say someone has a question about a particular topic that’s in your field, go on there, and say, “I have a small business that does that. Here is what you need to know…” If all goes well, the group will consider you an expert in your field. And, of course that impression will extend past the particular group, thanks to search engines and connectedness of the Internet. Forrester Research has deemed this such an important form of marketing for businesses that they produced a report aptly titled, “Marketing’s New Key Metric: Engagement.” Author and analyst Brian Haven writes, “Once engagement takes hold of marketing, marketing messages will become conversations, and dollars will shift from media buying to customer understanding.” Enter a virtual world Virtual world sites, like There.com and Second Life are great places for small business owners. “It’s a good place to find out what’s resonating,” Smith says. You can get on there and, through trial and error, determine the right pricing for items and test new products. People in the virtual worlds, also have lives in the physical world where they may remember your business and spend real money. You’ve got a reputation to protect Just like in high school, reputation is everything. “It’s the number one way that people select a small business,” says Smith. People are talking around you whether you know it not. Better to know what they’re thinking. Go to chat rooms and find out what customers are saying and figure out what it is that you have to improve. In short, as the “Intuit Future of Small Business Report,” succinctly puts it: “It’s all about providing customers and prospects with the right information in the right context at the right time.”

About 2088 days ago Business Software

Host Everything: The On-Demand Dashboard

One of the biggest problems for small businesses is that there is a mess of data out there that’s hard to make the best use of — for a price that isn’t astronomical. Companies often collect a lot of information that just sits there. The problem is that “data is collected and stored in multiple systems, requiring users to access different systems to get the information they need. Worse, often it is difficult to see relationships between activities that may be occurring in one department that affect another,” according to a report by Steve Schneider, co-founder of OnDemandIQ, a hosted business intelligence solution. Increasingly, to solve the problem, small businesses are turning to business intelligence tools, specifically hosting of all its business applications using software as a service (SaaS). (The term SaaS is often used interchangeably with ‘hosted’ services and also ‘on demand’ services.) For small businesses, one of the applications rising in popularity is the hosted software dashboard, which takes the data from separate systems and puts it all in one place, organizing it in an easily understood way. Experts liken this to a car’s dashboard, in how it neatly puts everything in its place and emphasizes what’s important at the time. The price to untangle your mess Small businesses are finding that to get traditional business intelligence (BI) tools to solve their problems can zap resources in terms of both of time and money when it comes to development and maintenance.   BI software can cost you thousands of dollars up front, not including consulting services and the hardware — so expensive that typically small businesses didn’t even go there. But with the hosted model, you subscribe to the software and pay the hosting company on a monthly or quarterly basis. Costs are about one-tenth of what they would be otherwise. The way hosted business intelligence works is that companies provide pre-build solutions to handle data collected from different sources, such as Excel files, sales transactions, account information, and activity data. What dashboards, in particular, do is allow small businesses to reap the same benefits for data integration from multiple sources, get customized views, and automated reporting, just as the big Fortune 500 firms do. Some more sophisticated dashboards can be programmed to show information relevant to each user. How to best use A lot of the success with SaaS is in sales organizations, considering that a lot of sales people are incentivized based on how they perform. If they can understand every day and every week, how performance compares with business goals, or how it matches up to the same period in a prior quarter or year, they can change tactics and strategy if need be. With a dashboard, a CEO, for example, doesn’t have to spend hours on the phone each week with investors getting them up to speed on the latest company numbers. He can connect them to the dashboard and they’ll be able to pull up the same metrics he has. CEOs have a tendency to spend way too much time managing upwards and this can be a tremendous timesaving device. Don’t try to do too much with a dashboard. Schneider says that a lot of solutions like this fail because they try to do too much. Keep it simple and stick to only a few metrics that the employees want to use. Otherwise, if there is too much on the dashboard, then no one will want to use it. Some caveats Businesses with very customized and specific requirements may not be the best SaaS customers because the hosted solutions typically meet the needs of about 80 percent of their customers. Some small businesses have a fear of data leaving the house, says David Hatch, the business intelligence research director at the Aberdeen Group, a technology research company. The key is to make sure your data is hosted securely, using a recognized provider. To that end make sure your provider offers secure data center along with encryption technology. No matter what, there will be some challenges. “You’ll have to go to multiple providers as there is not one provider for every single application,” warns Yankee Group analyst Gary Chen, “and there will be some hurdles in the integration, getting all these to talk to each other.”