Got Apps? GetApp Introduces CloudWork to Integrate Them

Posted on November 12, 2012 by lauriemccabe

Last week, I spoke with Christophe Primault, CEO of GetApp, about GetApp’s new CloudWork platform, which provides a growing catalog of pre-built connectors to integrate cloud-based business and social media apps. Listen to the podcast or read the summary below.      

 

Laurie: Good morning, Christophe. Could you start by describing what GetApp is and what it does?

Christophe: Okay. GetApp helps small businesses be successful with cloud business applications. We started a couple of years ago by building a marketplace where small businesses can discover business applications that are suited for their needs.

Laurie:  Great. I know you got started around 2010, a couple of years ago. About how many apps are available in the app marketplace now?

Christophe: Today we have close to 5000 different applications available, and they are split in about 300 different business categories.

Laurie:  Now, I know that GetApp is a little different type of marketplace than say Google Apps marketplace or Salesforce AppExchange. Can you just describe a little bit about what makes it different?

Christophe: Sure. So what we are trying to do is be independent and inclusive and let small businesses see everything that is available in the market. We are not tied to any particular vendor or systems. We access apps that are integrated with Google Apps or Salesforce or any application, but by coming to GetApp you will be able to see all the applications in each category that can be of interest to you.

Laurie: Okay. So kind of like the Switzerland of small business app marketplaces?

Christophe: Yes. Exactly. It’s like a Swiss Army knife for small businesses looking for business applications.

Laurie: And about how many visitors do you have coming to GetApp these days?

Christophe: This has been ramping up month after month, and today we have close to 150,000 visitors coming to the marketplace every month. Overall 95% of these are small and medium businesses (SMBs).

Laurie: Great. And how do you define an SMB? What size company?

Christophe: We are mostly targeting the low-end of SMBs. It’s companies with between 0 to 100 employees, but we do have also larger companies that are coming to GetApp to find applications for their own departments.

Laurie: I understand that you have a new offering from GetApp called CloudWork. Can you tell us what it is?

Christophe: Absolutely. CloudWork is a new solution that we launched one month ago, and it is a continuation of GetApp. While GetApp is the first step for small businesses looking for business applications to discover what they need, CloudWork really comes in when you start using more than one application in your organization. Let’s say you are using four or five, and you have developed silos of data in each of your applications and you realize that these apps don’t talk to each other. You want to integrate these applications together to increase productivity, so this is what CloudWork is doing. It’s an easy to use platform and you don’t need any technical knowledge to get apps to talk to each other.

Laurie:  Okay. Yes, I think most of us that are small businesses, we can relate to that. We start by using one application to fit a certain need, and then as we need another we add another. Before you know it we have a few different cloud apps, but they don’t necessarily talk to each other. So we’re trying to manually coordinate what’s going on. What was the genesis for deciding that you needed to do this?

Christophe: Yes, that clearly came from our users. We found applications on GetApp or anywhere else, and now we run integral applications, but they don’t talk to each other so we developed processes attached that are repetitive, that are not bringing a lot of value to the organization that could be automated. So, we decided, maybe this is something interesting to do. And then we asked ourselves, as an SMB using over 20 different cloud apps, is it a problem we have?  How could we address this problem and how much value will it bring to us? We realized that we could save a lot of time and be much more productive in doing more value-added tasks in the organization if we had the ability to automate many of the internal processes and tasks. This is how we decided to build the CloudWork platform to do that.

Laurie: So, how would it work for me? Can you walk me through it? Once I go on the CloudWork site, what would I need to do? How much work would it take on my part?

Christophe: I am going to take a very precise use case to tell you how you can use CloudWork. For example, cloud-based CRM is one of the most common applications for an SMB. So, assuming you are using let’s say Zoho CRM, you will come to CloudWork, you will sign up for an account and you will authorize CloudWork to talk to Zoho. You will do that with just a couple of clicks, and then we will show you a list of applications that can integrate with Zoho with the objective of capturing your client’s profile in Zoho all the customers, all the interactions your company had with your customer.

So let’s take an example. You start with Zoho CRM and then you decide that any e-mail that comes in via Gmail to your organization should be logged under your customer profile on Zoho CRM. So you integrate Zoho with Gmail. If you want to see which invoices and payment status of invoices, then you will integrate with Freshbooks. If you want to see when your client has received an e-mail campaign then you will integrate Zoho with MailChimp. If you want to have all your data in Zoho to be backed up on an online storage platform, then you will integrate with Dropbox, and so on.

So, in this specific case,  in just a few clicks you are adding different applications and building a unified view of all your company’s interactions, which of the apps you are using in your company under your customer profile in Zoho. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to set up. No code is needed. You don’t need to have any particular knowledge, and with just a few clicks you can set up your account and then the tasks run in the background.

Laurie: So, at the end of the day you’re saving a lot of time because you don’t have to be manually trying to connect these things. And you’re gaining productivity and cutting down on manual kinds of errors so your information is more accurate.

Christophe: Yes, you’ve covered what are the main objectives of CloudWork. Increasing productivity of your sales people or your customer support people, avoiding making errors when you’re cutting, pasting, or exporting files from one application to another, making sure also that you always back up data outside each of the applications that you’re using. So productivity, saving time, more security are the main benefits of CloudWork.

Laurie: If someone wants to try CloudWork, how can they try it? Is there a free trial?

Christophe: Yes, absolutely. It’s very easy. You go wwwcloudwork.com. You get started. There is a free trial. In fact, the product is currently free for all to use. There will always be a free version of the product. Most companies they will be able to use CloudWork for free. For very heavy users that will be automating a lot of tasks during the month it will be a paid version, but today it is free. We integrate with 15 very popular applications, and we are adding new different applications every week.

Laurie:  So with GetApp, you addressed that discovery challenge, how do I find applications that I might need to run my business. I know people will also find there is a lot of guidance in terms of reviews, and evaluations, and discussions that small businesses can look at to get information about the apps as well as just getting the apps. So, you’ve addressed that discovery, with CloudWork you’re addressing a lot of the integration issues, what’s next? What’s the longer term vision for GetApp and CloudWork?

Christophe: You’re absolutely right. We are not going to stop there. Our plan is to be what we call a cloud operation center for small businesses. Really the idea is you start with GetApp where you discover applications. You also get a lot of education material on how to get started with cloud applications, what are the pros and cons, which ones you should keep for your business, and then as you start to be a heavier user of applications you will have integration needs. This is one of the first services we offer in CloudWork, but in the future you will be able to access different applications with a single password as an example, or you will be able to have a better view of who is using which kind of application in your organization. So, basically we are going to add additional services to CloudWork so it becomes a single place in your organization where you can manage all your cloud services.

Laurie: That sounds fantastic. For small businesses, if you have not been to the GetApp.com site, I would advise you to check it out because there are a lot of great applications and advice on there. Thank you so much for your time today, Christophe, and for talking to me and sharing this information with us.

Christophe: Thanks a lot Laurie. It’s been a pleasure talking to you and sharing with your listeners the benefits they can get out of GetApp and CloudWork. Thanks a lot.

Filed under: Small Business Software, SMB | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Tech Tidbits for SMBs: What’s Behind Xero’s Online Accounting Discount for Non-Profits

Posted on August 29, 2012 by lauriemccabe

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to speak with Jamie Sutherland, U.S. President of Operations for Xero, which provides an online accounting solution for small businesses. Jamie discussed what makes non-profits tick, Xero’s latest announcement, which is a 25% discount for non-profits, and other Xero news.

Laurie: Jamie, can you start by giving us a little bit of background about what Xero is and what it does?

Jamie: Definitely! Xero is beautiful online accounting software designed specifically for small businesses. At the very outset, when we built the application, we went around to a number of small businesses around the world, and uncovered their workflows and the way they do business. We set out to solve key processes for them in an easy to use fashion. What was born was Xero as an application. Ever since we’ve been expanding rapidly with customers in over 100 countries now, and doubling our customer base and revenue every year. So it’s quite exciting.

Laurie: How do you define small businesses?

Jamie: Our definition is between 0 and 100 employee businesses, with a specific effort around the lower end of that spectrum. Now businesses take many shapes and sizes, and one distinction is around services-based businesses versus those that carry inventory or are involved with manufacturing or wholesale. So we’re more focused on the services-based businesses.

Laurie: So Xero announced this week that it is offering 25% off to all nonprofits?

Jamie: Yes. We know that non-profits are essentially small businesses, and are experiencing the same types of challenges other small businesses have. With the slow rebound of the economy, non-profits also have challenges around fund-raising and managing their finances. We did a panel and discussed this with a number of non-profits. We learned that managing their funds is one of their biggest challenges. So we want to make it easier for them to manage their finances.

But what we also know is that not every non-profit has an accountant or bookkeeper on staff—they typically use a volunteer to staff this position. The volunteer may not be as adept as an accredited accountant or bookkeeper. So we want to make it very, very easy for non-profits to do finances. Again, Xero is built in a very user-friendly fashion, which is helpful for the non-profit sector.

Laurie: So how does the 25% discount for non-profits work?

Jamie: Xero has 3 pricing plans. We have a $19/month, a $29/month, and a $39/month plan. All three plans include unlimited users. So no matter how many people are working in the business or non-profit, this one monthly fee covers everything, there are no additional charges. That’s unlike many of our competitors. That 25% discount is right off the monthly plan price.

Laurie: What are the differences between the three plans?

Jamie: The $19/month plan is our entry-level plan, which allows you to send up to 5 invoices a month and a certain number of bank reconciliations. For $29/month, you get the full feature set of Xero minus the multi-currency capability. The $39/month plan includes multi-currency. The majority of our customers are on the $29/month plan.

Laurie: When we do our SMB surveys, we always include non-profits, because we also see a lot of similarities with small businesses. So I’m just wondering, in what ways did you find that non-profit needs differ from those of commercial small businesses?

Jamie: We did research across the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. We found that non-profits’ needs don’t differ that much from small businesses. They focus on cash flow to make sure that cash coming in can cover expenses. Like small businesses, they have issues with employee turnover, complying with rules and regulations, etc.

But non-profits are unique in that they typically have a volunteer workforce. Whether small or large, this is very different from the typical small business.  The other big difference is that people running non-profits tend to understand finances less than the average small business owner. So something like Xero accounting, which makes it really easy to understand your finances, can help out.

Laurie: Are there some tips or best practices that came out of the panel that you can share?

Jamie: Budgeting is a big thing. There’s a budgeting tool in Xero to budget and forecast. It’s important to any business. You can import and export from Excel, and track what’s going on. So if you have a lot of volunteer turnover for accounting or bookkeeper roles, you can still have consistency around your financial and monthly reporting. With an online solution like Xero, you have real-time access to info anytime, anywhere in the world. This is helpful to anyone doing accounting or bookkeeping.

Laurie: Before we wrap up, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask if there is anything else on tap for Xero that you can fill me in on?

Jamie: Yes. It’s been a busy 6 weeks or so. We recently announced 100,000 paying customers across the globe. It took us 5 years to get to 50,000 and then we added the next 50,000 in 10 months. So we’re starting to see much more rapid growth and adoption.

We also announced  payroll integration with ADP, the world’s leading provider of HR and outsourced solutions. The payroll integration we developed with them lets you do your payroll online with ADP and seamlessly sync with Xero. This alleviates the need for duplicate entry between the two applications, which is also exciting.

We’ve also put together a partner advisory council in the U.S., the Xero Partner Advisory Council. The council will look at the things we’re doing in the market, the products and our strategy and help us really try to cater to the needs of small businesses and make everybody better off.

Filed under: cloud computing, Small Business Software, Software as a Service | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

The Progressive SMB: Customer Stories are Worth 1,000 Analyst Words

Posted on July 18, 2012 by lauriemccabe

I attended SAP’s SAPPHIRE NOW 2012 several weeks ago and am finally getting a chance to share my thoughts on the customer meetings I had with Big Byte Corporation and KEEN Footwear at the event. These two customers are very “real” SMBs. BigByte has 52 employees; KEEN has 130. Neither is a Silicon Valley venture capital startup, which let’s face it, is a very different breed. Why did they choose SAP, which, after all, is best known for its footprint in large companies? Their perspectives about this are quite interesting because they personify what we at the SMB Group call “Progressive SMBs.”

The Progressive SMB Class–What is it, and Why is it Important?

Our 2011 SMB Routes to Market Study indicated that many SMBs are tightening their tech wallets for 2012 as compared to 2011 (Figure 1). But the study also showed a distinct segment of SMBs that we call “Progressive SMBs.” Despite economic uncertainties, Progressive SMBs plan to increase IT investments. They see IT as a tool for business transformation, and a way to create market advantage and level the playing field against bigger companies. Although while price is a factor, they rate other criteria–such as the ability to customize solutions, strong vendor reputation, and local support and service–higher than other SMBs when making technology purchase decisions. Figure 1: SMB IT Spending Plans and Revenue Expectations More important, Progressive SMBs have higher revenues expectations than their peers. For instance, 75% of the Progressive medium businesses (who are increasing technology spending) anticipate revenue gains in 2012, compared to just 17% of medium businesses that plan to decrease IT spending. BigByte and KEEN Footwear have both adopted a Progressive strategy. They illuminate how Progressive SMBs think about IT, and how their businesses have benefitted by making a bigger investment in IT than most of their SMB peers.

BigByte’s SAP Story

Founded twenty years ago, BigByte provides annual global warranty services, after-sales tech support, product repair and refurbishment and reverse logistics services to large companies such as Apple, Cisco and Panasonic. BigByte had used a combination of entry-level financials, homegrown apps, spreadsheets and manual processes for a long time. But keeping track of the significant inventory on consignment from its customers became more challenging over time. And, since every manufacturer has its own, unique set of processes to handle warranty service, BigByte was struggling to accommodate each company’s individual workflow. By 2009, BigByte’s resources were stretched thin. It didn’t have the inventory controls it needed, and was spending too much time pulling data together for reports. At the same time, the company’s owner wanted to prepare the business for growth and/or acquisition. He realized that to accomplish this, the business had to become more efficient. Michael Franklin, who I spoke with at SAPPHIRE NOW, was hired as COO to fix the problem. Initially, Mike hadn’t considered SAP; he had a couple of other ERP solutions he was vetting for the job. But the company’s owner spotted an SAP ad in Golf Magazine, and thought, why not get information? Mike went to SAP’s web site and was connected to Softengine, an SAP Business One partner. Why did BigByte decide to buy SAP Business One? The other solutions Mike was looking at promised many of the same things, such as a unified management for core business functions and embedded analytics. What sold the company on SAP Business One echoes what we heard in our survey about what Progressive SMBs are looking for:

  • Good value and no pricing surprises. Soft Engine offered a fixed price for implementation, and fixed monthly price per user, per month pricing for everything else (hosting management, 24×7 support, upgrades, etc.).
  • Fast time to value. As part of the fixed scope implementation BigByte got the software and 21 users up and running in less than 6 months via Softengine’s hosting program for Business One.
  • The ability to customize. BigByte needed to tailor return authorization functionality tailored for each of its customers–and be able to customize for future ones too.
  • Trust in and credibility. Softengine had a strong mix of SAP credentials and competencies, along with managed services and cloud infrastructure design and deployment.

Interestingly, although debating what isn’t and isn’t really a “true” cloud solution has become the most popular past time for many of us in the industry, this was not an issue for BigByte. Mike wanted the best ERP solution for BigByte, but didn’t want to manage the IT infrastructure needed to support it. Two years later, Mike says that Business One has given the company what it needs: automated processes and efficiencies; reliable, unified and real-time data; dashboards, tools and reporting for better decision-making. BigByte also uses Business One mobile apps for things such as approving purchase orders. Net-net, Mike estimates the company cut labor costs by about 15%, and cut IT costs by about 80%, because it now outsources hardware maintenance. IT now helps power the business, instead of just supporting it. BigByte can adjust to different customers’ processes and requirements, giving the company the agility to replace shrinking customer demand in the optical disk drive sector with the new customers in the growing LCD market. And, with its business processes in order, BigByte is also much more credible to potential buyers.

KEEN Footwear

If you’re an outdoor enthusiast, you know (and probably love) KEEN Footwear, a Portland, Oregon-based footwear designer and distributor. KEEN’s founders went into business to invent sandals that protect the toes with a signature protective “toe bumper.” Today the company offers shoes, bags and socks for many outdoor activities and for casual wear. I had the opportunity to talk to David Boeschenstein, KEEN’s COO about their SAP story. When Dave came to KEEN from Adidas in 2008, the company had outgrown its ERP system. Dave’s charge was to select a scalable solution that could adapt as the company continues to grow. He looked at a few options–including SAP Business All-in-One (BAiO) for apparel and footwear, which is used by several others in the outdoor and specialty footwear sectors. After extensive evaluation involving multiple users from each department, KEEN decided SAP BAiO–along with SAP Business Objects and Business Warehouse–would be the best fit for the company. Now remember, KEEN has only just over 130 employees! But they are another prime example of a Progressive SMB. KEEN views IT as an essential enabler to drive business growth, and wanted solutions that will scale to support the initiatives they have planned for the next 5 years and beyond. According to Dave, Keen’s motivation for installing SAP solutions was “to ensure we provide our customers with excellent service. Our business operations mandate is to make it easy for customers to do business with KEEN wherever in the world they interact with our products and our fans.”. SAP partner Gravity Pro helped KEEN deploy BAiO (using Rapid Deployment Solutions, or RDS), Business Objects and Business Warehouse in July 2011. KEEN is now live in the U.S., Canada, and The Netherlands.

Customer Stories are Worth 1,000 Analyst Words (or more!)

Much has already been written about the details of the new products, strategies and solutions that SAP announced at Sapphire, and this is, of course, very valuable to understand. But sometimes not enough is discussed from the customer’s point of view–and some of the most important things–namely the business outcomes from technology–can get lost in translation. The BigByte and KEEN experiences help put the SAP into perspective for SMBs, and illustrate how Progressive SMBs are making their decisions about business solutions. They also highlight why it is so important to be–or become–a Progressive SMB.

Filed under: Small Business Software, SMB, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

SAP Business One, Chapter Two: Raising the Small Business Bar

Posted on June 29, 2012 by lauriemccabe

In the world of SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for small and medium businesses (SMBs), SAP Business One is sometimes overshadowed by SAP Business All-in-One (BAiO), which has SAP’s large enterprise ERP at its core, and by and SAP Business ByDesign, which is SAP’s first software-as-a-service (SaaS) ERP entry.

But Business One, which is designed from the ground up to meet the needs of small businesses with fewer than 100 employees, has quietly kept growing both its capabilities and in new customer acquisition. During the past year or so, SAP has also made some significant new investments in three key areas: mobile, on demand and big data.

Taken together, these developments could open a new chapter for Business One–and for small businesses that want to use IT to transform their businesses.

Chapter One–A Brief History

Business One has its roots in SAP’s acquisition of TopManage Financial Systems in 2002. SAP made the acquisition to provide small businesses (and subsidiaries in larger companies) with an affordable way to move up from entry-level accounting solutions to a single, integrated business management offering.

The solution is designed for small businesses that have little or no IT resources. It provides a unified suite of financials, sales, customer relationship management, inventory and operations capabilities, along with embedded analytics and reporting capabilities.

Over the years, SAP has continued to invest in Business One to keep pace with changing market requirements and global demands. Business One is now available in 27 languages and 40 localizations. To help partners more easily extend solution functionality, SAP built an integration platform for Business One that has since attracted over 550 add-on solutions. Today, Business One has over 35,000 customers in over 80 countries. At its current pace, SAP estimates that it is on track to add about 5,000 new customers per year.

Chapter Two–Mobile, On Demand and Big Data

Fast forward to today. SAP is infusing Business One with the new mobile, on demand and big data capabilities it needs to take the solution to the next level.

On the mobile front, SAP launched Version 1.5 of its Business One mobile app in February 2012. The mobile app gives customers access to key Business One functionality, such as alerts and approvals, real-time Crystal Reports, customer and supplier data and inventory information via mobile devices. The app is available for the iPhone and iPad via SAP, and for Android devices through its partners. Looking ahead, SAP plans to add new mobile functionality for as sales document creation so that sales reps can do more on the go. SAP is also updating the user interface (UI) so that mobile users can have multiple windows open the same time so they can more easily view the information they need.

In March, SAP introduced Business One OnDemand to offer Business One in a cloud-based, subscription model. The OnDemand version has and will maintain the same functionality and interface as the on premise version. SAP is certifying partners to host the solution to ensure that they meet security, performance and quality standards. In most cases, these hosting partners provide the back-end infrastructure, and team with SAP VARs who sell and implement the solution. SAP has also created a Cloud Control Center that supplies partners with automated tools to manage Business One OnDemand throughout the solution lifecycle.

Some pundits have claimed that Business One OnDemand is not a true, multi-tenant, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution. So I asked SAP for clarification on some of the technicalities and learned that users do need a remote desktop solution (such as those from Citrix or Microsoft) to access Business One OnDemand. And, while the solution is multi-tenant in that users share the same instance of the application and SQL server, each user has its own database schema.

Since Business One OnDemand requires a remote desktop solution and customers don’t share a database schema, cloud purists are likely to discount it. However, these details are much less likely to create issues issue for actual small business customers–and may work in SAP’s favor.

The fact that SAP’s on premise and on demand versions share the same interface and database structure means that existing customers can move to the cloud without complex data conversions or additional user training. Meanwhile, SAP Business One can now get into consideration among prospects that are only considering a cloud solution. And, some of these prospects may prefer to have their own dedicated database schema, along with access to the 550+ partner apps that are in Business One arsenal. Finally, NetSuite, arguably the leading SaaS ERP vendor, has been moving away from its original small business focus to concentrate more on the mid-market and departments of large enterprises, ironically paving the way for SAP to make inroads here.

SAP also announced Analytics powered by SAP HANA for SAP Business One, which will be generally available in late 2012. HANA is SAP’s “big data” solution. It’s a column-based, in-memory database that allows applications to zip through calculations for millions of records in just fractions of a second. SAP HANA for SAP Business One is scaled for the needs of small companies. It combines the SAP HANA-based application with SAP Crystal Reports software so small businesses can get the benefits of speedy data crunching and use the tools that they are already comfortable with to analyze this data. The solution includes a set of predefined, ready-to-run dashboards and reports.

While some small businesses may not require this added horsepower, the offering is relevant for those that need to more effectively analyze more and more complex content–including audio, video, and text–to compete effectively in their markets. These customers will be able to create interactive reports and run ad-hoc analysis much faster than they could before; navigate through various business objects from one screen; and use free-style search to access information more quickly.

The Rest of the Story

SAP Business One isn’t for all small businesses. After all, although the price tag is low compared to other SAP offerings, Business One still represents a significant expenditure compared to the typical small business accounting solutions.

But, even amidst–or maybe because of–economic uncertainties, our SMB Group 2011 Small and Medium Businesses Routes to Market Study indicates that there is sizeable segment of the small business market that plans to increase IT investments. These “progressive” small businesses see IT as a means to create market advantage and achieve their business goals. While price is a factor, they rate other criteria–such as the ability to customize solutions, strong vendor reputation and local support and service–higher than other SMBs when making technology purchase decisions. Business One hits the mark on these criteria, and consequently, is likely to enjoy continued good growth in this segment.

However, this progressive segment is demanding and will expect SAP to stay ahead of the curve. To do so, SAP will need to address a couple of additional areas in this new chapter, including:

  • Collaboration and social. One of the biggest trends in social-collaboration space is to connect collaborative activities with business processes. SAP has already merged its Streamwork team with its newly acquired SuccessFactors’ Jam team, and the combined entity is hammering out SAP’s future direction in this area. SAP needs to add social and collaboration capabilities to Business One sooner, rather than later, to ensure that Business One customers can take advantage of integrating collaborative and business processes.
  • Mobile applications for external users. Business One has a solid solution and game plan for internal (employee) mobile apps, but what’s the plan to extend access to selected functions to external customers, partners and suppliers? The SMB Group’s 2012 SMB Mobile Solutions Study indicates strong plans among small businesses to provide mobile apps for external users for activities such as appointment scheduling, payments, marketing offers and service. Over the long-term, partners should probably be responsible for developing most of these apps, but SAP needs to seed the area to jump-start partner app development.

Overall however, SAP Business One, Chapter Two is off to a good start. The mobile app has already been downloaded more than 34,700 times; about 60 partners are preparing to come on board to offer Business One OnDemand; and over 30 customers are in ramp up with Analytics powered by SAP HANA for SAP Business One.

In addition, while large enterprise solutions will continue to dominate SAP news, SAP’s commitment to and investment in small business solutions is growing. For instance, the vendor recently announced that it is sponsoring a global competition with Ashoka Changemakers, The Power of Small: Entrepreneurs Strengthening Local Economies.  The contest is designed to identify innovative strategies that can help small businesses grow and thrive in underserved communities.

The bottom line? SAP clearly takes small business seriously–and small businesses that are ready to move up from stand-alone accounting solutions should take SAP Business One seriously too.

Filed under: cloud computing, collaboration, mobile solutions, Small Business Software, SMB, Social Business | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Sage’s Rebranding: More than a Name Change

Posted on May 21, 2012 by lauriemccabe

Love it or hate it, the first results of Sage North America’s brand transformation strategy have started rolling out in North America. Sage North America CEO Pascal Houilon announced the rebranding initiative last year, which aims to strengthen Sage’s brand–especially in North America. The initiative is designed to address the fact that while many individual Sage products (think ACT!, Peachtree, etc.) enjoy strong brand recognition, the overall Sage brand must be stronger to optimize cross-sell, upsell and connected services opportunities between its products.

Sage reasons that a stronger Sage brand will both increase the odds that existing Sage customers will turn first to other Sage products when they need new solutions, and elevate consideration among small and medium businesses (SMBs) who don’t currently use Sage products. Under Sage’s new naming convention, most products will have a number and descriptor (as Sage has been doing in Europe for a while). So for instance, Peachtree is becoming Sage 50 Accounting–U.S. Edition.

When initially announced, many derided the strategy on the grounds that the numbers were boring, Sage would lose much of the hard-won equity of the individual brands, and partners would need to shell out to support the rebranding. Last but not least, would the rebranding go beyond name changes to encompass significant product and services transformation as well?

This past week, Sage launched its new website for its North American business, www.na.sage.com, and kicked off a new integrated ad campaign to highlight how it can deliver value to small and medium businesses. The campaign will run on national print, radio and online outlets (including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Business Journals, BusinessWeek, Inc., Entrepreneur, Fortune and others) and will expand to television (CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg Television and others) in the summer.

Along with this, we can also see some initial results of the transformation in the new Sage 50 Accounting (aka Peachtree) and Sage One, a new offering. Prior to the launch, Sage provided us with briefings and demos of both. Here are my first impressions of how Sage’s strategy is playing out in the early going.

Peachtree Becomes Sage 50 Accounting, the New Era of Peachtree (add photo)

Although Peachtree, with its 34 year history, has been one of the biggest brands in Sage’s portfolio, it has also led the rebranding charge in North America, so it’s tempting to view it as a bellwether for how well Sage can execute on it’s transformational strategy.

Sage has given the product a fresh new look and added “the New Era of Peachtree” to the Sage 50 Accounting label to help preserve Peachtree equity. The little American flag on the box denotes that this is Sage 50 Accounting for the U.S. (Sage Simply Accounting, its Canadian counterpart, will also get the new Sage 50 Accounting handle, but the Canadian maple leaf will fly on its box instead). Sage is messaging the change to current customers through its newsletter, resources in the product, its channel partners and social media.

There’s ample evidence that the change is more than skin deep. In addition to doing a painstaking review of in-product taxonomy and labeling, Sage has put the new version through its paces in its usability labs, and made some significant changes to make it easier to use and get value from, including:

  • Sage Advisor Technology. Sage continues to improve this service, which provides real-time, in-context guidance within the solution. For instance, if you’re working in Sage 50 Accounting, and you manually enter your banking information several times, a message will pop up and offer you advice for an automated feed. You can choose to look at the advice or save it for later, and see a historical list of all the messages you’ve gotten when you have time, and change the rules determining when you get these messages. According to Sage, the service has a very high opt-in rate, and Sage can also use it to inform customers when a Sage Connected Service–such as Sage Payments–may be of interest.
  • Sage 50 Business Intelligence (BI). Sage had been partnering with Alchemex to provide customers with a connected cloud BI service. Sage liked it so much they bought the company. Sage 50 BI is integrated into Sage 50 Accounting, giving customers the ability to run what-if scenarios, standard and custom reports. The solution is Excel-based, so it has the familiar look and feel that bookkeepers and accountants love. But once you create your report template, you can re-run and update reports with new information from Sage 50 Accounting with the click of a button.
  • Connected Services Strategy. Sage says that most of its customers aren’t ready to put accounting in the cloud. This jives with SMB Group data, which indicates that while plans for cloud-based accounting are rising, this area is moving much more slowly than areas like sales, marketing and customer service (Figure 1). Sage’s Connected Services for Sage 50 Accounting include direct deposit, 401K administration, payment services, tax filing, document management and online backup, and with this release, Sage is adding integrated e-marketing via partner Swift Page (who has been offering this as a connected service for Sage ACT! for a couple of years).

Figure 1: The Cloud Becomes the New Normal–But Accounting, ERP Lag

  • Sage Business Care. This provides customers with upgrades, updates, unlimited support, a dedicated account manager, online training, and an HR resource center. Up until now, this had been a premium service except for top-of-the-line Peachtree Quantum customers. But with Net Promoter scores for Business Care customers are 3 times higher than for those not using the service, Sage has decided to bundle it into all Sage 50 Accounting offerings.

Sage One

Sage One U.S. Edition, is Sage’s new online business management system designed to help the smallest of small businesses (less than 10 employees) manage money, time and projects. Many of these businesses currently manage their businesses with shoeboxes, pencil and paper and/or a jumble of personal productivity tools.

As part of product development, Sage spent a lot of time watching micro-businesses work and getting their feedback. The Sage team went to their sites, brought them into Sage’s usability lab to test prototypes, and ran focus groups for input. Not surprisingly, it found that most entrepreneurs and sole proprietors don’t get into business to do accounting–they want to teach karate, style hair, or install lighting–basically to do more of whatever it is they love and that makes them money.

Sage also found that these customers want workflow consistency–the ability to create proposals, track projects, assign and mange work, create and send invoices, record payments, and manage expenses. In a nutshell, they want to simplify business management and streamline collaboration. But they have very little time to learn new things: in a Sage survey among businesses with 0 to 9 employees, 66 percent said they use three or more software applications to manage their day-to-day operations–which leads to wasted time, inefficiencies and errors.

Sage One U.S. tackles this problem by bringing money management, invoicing, project tracking, task assignment, messaging and reporting into a single integrated web-based application. Accounting is at the core, and connected to other management functions to reduce data entry time. The solution provides collaboration capabilities to help businesses with distributed teams of employees, contract workers, partners, clients, etc., share and communicate, so no one works in isolation. Automatic notifications, reminders and tracking of in-progress or completed tasks are built-in to keep everyone on the same page. Pricing is $29 per month, which includes two administrative users, unlimited collaborative users (who can share projects, files, etc.), and five gigabytes of storage–as well as online and phone support. Sage is offering a special deal for the Sage One debut–customers can subscribe for just $1 per month for the first three months.

Sage is working with organizations such as the Future of Entrepreneurship and the Community College Association of Entrepreneurship, and plans to also leverage its Sage Accountant Network. These initiatives should help get Sage One onto the radar of very small businesses.

An Early Assessment

The paint is barely dry on these first steps in Sage’s brand transformation, and it’s much too early to tell if Sage will be able to truly reinvigorate its brand and its customers. But the early steps bode well.

With Sage 50, Sage is providing significant new benefits through additional services for BI, and raising the support bar by bundling Sage Business Care across the product line. And, Connected Services give customers a clear path to consume additional connected services in an incremental, yet integrated way (which is how most SMBs need to deploy them). I think that Sage’s existing customers will get over the name change (and eventually, so will partners). But, product differentiation isn’t enough–Sage will need to double down to reach and penetrate more of the non-Sage base in order for Sage 50 to really spread its wings and grow.

Meanwhile, Sage One is a good start at giving micro-businesses an all-in-one solution. The pricing model–which includes unlimited collaborative internal and external users–should appeal to small businesses that need flexibility and are wary of per user, per month pricing. Some of the things that I think it will need to add to really cover the bases for these businesses are email integration, some light document management, and some tools to automate basic marketing functions (such as email marketing and social media marketing). But the solution is built on Ruby on Rails, and should have ample flexibility to evolve–the question will be how quickly.

Finally, Sage’s new ad campaign seems significant and should also help it get on the radar with the new prospects that it needs to reinvigorate growth. However, Sage will also need to make sure that it has a solid social media plan in place so that it can engage with new customers and re-engage with those who have dated perceptions of Sage.

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Making Small Business a Bigger Business: Intuit’s Acquisition of Demandforce

Posted on May 8, 2012 by lauriemccabe

Intuit announced last week that it was acquiring Demandforce, which provides an integrated suite of Web-based social media and marketing tools for small businesses, for $423.5 million in cash. Demandforce automates many of the internet and social media marketing tasks that small businesses increasingly need to do, giving Intuit a proven front office play: Demandforce already has about 15,000 customers, books about $50 million annually in revenue, and is growing at about 80% annually.

This is Intuit’s second biggest acquisition (Digital Insight, which Intuit acquired in 2006, was the largest). What makes Demandforce so attractive to Intuit? Let’s count the ways!

1. Broaden Intuit’s Front-Office Presence

Intuit has a very strong footprint in small business “back-office” applications, such as accounting, payroll and payments solutions. As important as these solutions are to running a businesses, they do little to address small companies’ top challenges–which according to SMB Group studies, are to  attract new customers and grow revenue.

Intuit has made some acquisitions over the past few years to provide customer-facing application to small businesses. The most notable is Homestead, which helps small businesses build web sites and create an online presence.

Demandforce builds on this acquisition, and can help Intuit capitalize on the broader shift to digital marketing that’s being fueled to a large degree by the adoption of social media and mobile solutions. Now, Intuit can provide it’s five million QuickBooks desktop users, and over 400,000 QuickBooks Online customers with Demandforce, which is designed to help services-based businesses grow revenue, retain clients and strengthen their online reputation. Demandforce has already done the integration with QuickBooks and now they can mine the Intuit installed base for service businesses that would benefit most from Demandforce.

And, at roughly $300 per company per month, Demandforce figures to be one of Intuit’s most profitable offerings over time.

2. Gain Industry Solutions and Go-to-Market Expertise

Demandforce’s customers span the true small business service universe–veterinary, pet services, dental care, automotive repair, medical spas, salons, chiropractors, and fitness centers, to name a few.  (The company recently added a solution tailored for accountants–which should turn into a doubly nice move as about 250,000 accountants use QuickBooks).

Demandforce gives these small businesses affordable, easy to use tools similar to those that large enterprises use–and tailored to their industry-specific needs. It’s model is to select an industry, study it, and identify the top industry solutions in that area, such as Henry Schein for dental. Then Demandforce engineering does the integration work, and looks for partners that sell into the relevant industry. The vendor markets through industry trade shows and conventions, and closes sales through telesales and partner feet on the street.

Many vendors say they’re going to target small business vertical markets. But I’m hard-pressed to think of another vendor that has done this type of holistic, industry-by-industry block and tackling. This has paid off for Demandforce, and should reap even bigger rewards with the added muscle and money of Intuit behind it.

3. Flying Higher Into the Cloud

Intuit has been steadily progressing from being a traditional desktop company to an online cloud services provider. This is also where small businesses are moving, as shown in Figure X. The Demandforce acquisition adds to Intuit’s cloud credentials in the very hot marketing automation area.

Figure 1: Small Business Purchase and Plans for Cloud-based Solutions

4. Serving Up SoLoMo to Main Street Businesses

Three big tech trends are reshaping businesses today: social, mobile and local. Demandforce hits all three of these bases for Intuit. On the social front, It brings together many of the social media tools into a unified service, making social media more manageable for small business to manage their interactions across social networks. In terms of mobile, Demandforce makes it easy for small businesses to engage with their customers using mobile devices. So for instance, your salon can send you a text message to remind you about your next appointment, Finally, there’s the local element. With Demandforce, small businesses can invite and collect user reviews and feedback, building up their local reputation. To date, Demandforce has helped its small business customers gather about 1.5 million reviews, which can also be syndicated out to Google, Yelp and other review sites.

Adding it Up

As I discussed in an earlier post, Intuit: From Products to Services, Applications to Platform, Intuit has already made great strides in transforming from a products to a services company. Demandforce gives Intuit the fuel it needs to more fully tap into small businesses’ hunger for solutions that can help them grow their businesses–and in doing so, accelerate its own transformation.

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Intuit: From Products to Services, Applications to Platform

Posted on April 2, 2012 by lauriemccabe

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Intuit’s Innovation Gallery Walk in NYC. Intuit uses the Gallery Walk to showcase new solutions that it is bringing to market as well as ones that are still in R&D.

This year’s Gallery Walk featured simulated storefronts and back offices to help demonstrate how Intuit’s solutions work for consumers and small businesses in the “real world.” It also provided some great insight into Intuit’s strategic direction in the areas of services and partner programs.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to visit every demo at this interesting event! But here are my thoughts on a couple of things I was able to see and learn about–and how they are underscore Intuit’s ongoing transformation from a products to a services company, and from an application vendor to a platform provider.

From Products to Services

My first stop was to see Intuit’s new 401k Plan and Intuit Health Debit Cards. These two services have been in soft-launch mode for the past year or so. Each zeros in on a big pain point for small businesses with 2 to 10 employees–how do I provide benefits for my workers?

The average U.S. worker has less than $10,000 in savings–putting both individuals and the U.S. economy in potentially dire straits. Although small businesses may want to offer 401k plans for their workers, many simply don’t have the time, money or resources to research, set up and administer a 401K for their employees. Intuit’s 401k plan is priced at $75 a month (which is tax-deductible) for businesses and $3 per quarter for employees. The plan gives small businesses a simple, affordable way to offer 401ks to employees. It integrates with Intuit’s Online Payroll solution–and will integrate with QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online soon. I was told that tens of thousands of small businesses have already signed up for this plan.

Given ever-rising healthcare and health insurance costs and all the politics surrounding these issues, Intuit’s Health Debit Card is arguably tackling an even more daunting challenge. Many small businesses simply can’t afford to provide their employees with traditional health insurance plans. Using this program gives, small business employers can set aside pretax dollars in Health Reimbursement Account accounts for their employees. Employees can draw on these funds with a debit card to cover medical costs–doctor visits, prescriptions, glasses, etc. About 1,000 small businesses are currently using this service.

These programs can provide small businesses with options to do more for their employees, helping them to attract and retain the kinds of employees they’ll need to help their businesses grow.

In addition to a broader market launch, more integration to other Intuit solutions, new functionality and options, Intuit is also examining how it might take on a bigger change-agent role in these areas. For instance, the vendor is testing an employee-funded Health Savings Account (HSA) offering, and starting to explore options to offer pooled health insurance small businesses.

These are just two of the areas that highlight how Intuit is transforming into a services vendor in the small business market.

From Applications to Platform

The other area in which I gained a lot of insight into is the ongoing growth of Intuit’s App Center and Intuit Partner platform. I’ve been following this since it launched, and blogged about it in these earlier posts (Intuit Partner Platform: Changing the Rules of Cloud Platforms with Federated Applications and Intuit and Salesforce Partner Up: Who’s the Big Winner?).

Basically, Intuit App Center and Partner Platform help small businesses extend the power of QuickBooks through third-party solutions. At the event, Intuit took the wraps off Intuit Anywhere, which gives developers the ability to reach millions of QuickBooks customers and build data integration directly into their mobile and Web apps. This gives developers the ability to connect their users directly to QuickBooks via a button on their page as easily as connecting to Facebook.

Over the last couple of years, Intuit’s App Center has really taken shape. Over 250 applications are now in the App Center, from big name providers such as Salesforce.com and eBay to a wide range of smaller vendors, including some that might be categorized as Intuit competitors, such as FreshBooks. Through the Intuit Partner Platform, developers get a sales channel, platform services, and a direct route to Intuit’s large installed base.

Data is at the heart of this ecosystem. This means that developer partners not only get access to the two million registered App Center users– they also get a more seamless way to get discovered by potential users. For instance, QuickBooks customers that process a certain number of invoices each month are automatically introduced to partner Bill.com’s billing app. This type of in-context discovery coupled is helping Intuit’s partners convert trials into purchases at a considerably higher rate than standalone free trials.

By connecting more partners and customers into this platform and to each other, Intuit reaps the benefits of the network effect.

Quick Take

As Intuit’s CEO Brad Smith noted in his remarks at the event, Intuit’s mission is to “improve the financial lives of people.” As Smith also remarked, Intuit’s approach to solving for this is to “Get managers out of the way and let people work their magic.”

Judging from the Innovation Gallery Walk, Intuit’s 8,000 employees are working their magic to help Intuit execute on its mission–transforming from a products to a services company, and from an application vendor to a platform provider in the process.


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Closing the Business Intelligence Gap for Small Businesses

Posted on January 27, 2012 by lauriemccabe

Most small and medium businesses (SMBs) can relate to Albert Einstein’s famous quote that  “Information is not knowledge.”  Many SMBs have plenty of data, but find it challenging to get the insights from it that they need to run their businesses more effectively and efficiently.

Businesses have always needed the ability to track and measure critical success metrics in a quantifiable way. The problem is that when there’s too much information, people find it difficult to fully comprehend it and make decisions. In fact, more than one-quarter of SMBs in our 2011 SMB Routes to Market Study indicated that “getting better insights from the data we already have” as a top technology challenge.

And the problem is growing: Scientists report that more than1.2 zettabytes of digital information were created in 2010. What’s a zettabyte, you may wonder? (I know I did.) A zettabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes–yes, that’s 21 zeroes! Online video, social networking sites, digital photography, and smart phone data are all contributing to the data pile-up. If that’s not enough to make your head spin, researchers also predict that the annual rate at which we collectively produce data will soar 44 times over the next decade.

The Gap Between BI Haves and Have-nots

Business intelligence and analytics solutions are designed to help make sense of all of this information. However, many SMBs often view these solutions as too complex and/or expensive. And companies without an accurate, consistent and accessible data source face the additional challenge of aggregating and rationalizing data from different sources.

SMB Group surveys reveal that the smaller the company, the less likely they are to use or plan to use BI solutions (Figure 1).  Our 2011 SMB Routes to Market Study showed that while 33% of midsize businesses currently use and 28% plan to use BI solutions, among small businesses, just 16% currently use and 16 % plan to use BI solutions.

Figure 1: SMB Use and Plans for Business Intelligence Solutions

Source: SMB Group 2011 SMB Routes to Market Study

The danger is that relying on hunches and intuition alone can put you at risk of missing trends and market opportunities or spotting potential problems–all of which can hurt business performance.

Some of the warning signs that your company’s growth may be hampered due to an inadequate ability to analyze data are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Warning Signs That Your Company Has a Data Analysis Problem

Source: SMB Group

Closing the Gap

Adding a BI solution on top of disparate, inconsistent and unreliable data is like putting lipstick on a pig.  So you need to start by establishing a core foundation of common, trustworthy and accessible data that’s shared across core business applications and processes. If you already run your business with an integrated business solution that pulls everything together into “one version of the truth”, you’ve already fulfilled this requirement. If not, you’ll want to integrate or upgrade the core solutions that your business relies on to ensure that you have a consistent and unified data source.

With this foundation in place, BI tools, dashboards and reports can help you to zero in on the insights you need to move your business ahead. The good news for SMBs is that several vendors now provide BI solutions tailored to meet SMB requirements and budget constraints. The bad news is that it can be difficult to figure out which one will be the best fit for your business.

While there is no “one-size fits all” solution that will be right for all companies, you can start by determining the core metrics that your business needs to measure. Many of these are likely to be areas that you need to measure and track long-term. Depending on the type of business you’re in, these could include things such as:

  • The percentage of income you derive from repeat customers vs. new customers
  • Times for order to ship, ship to invoice and receivables overdue
  • Time to respond to and close customer service calls
  • Procurement and spending analysis
  • Employee turnover rate

Given the pace of change in your industry, your business goals and the overall economy, you’ll probably want to make additions and adjustments over time as well, so look for a BI solution that can adapt to your needs as they change.

Figure 3 provides a checklist of additional questions to ask as a starting point to evaluate different BI solutions.

Figure 3: Key Considerations When Evaluating BI Solutions

Source: SMB Group

Getting the insights you need from a rising avalanche of information isn’t easy–but it is a critical business success factor. With the right BI tools in place, you can harness the data you have to get the wisdom you need to grow your business and stay ahead of the competition.

 

Filed under: Small Business Software, SMB, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Cisco OnPlus: IT Infrastructure Advisory and Management Services Solution For Small Businesses

Posted on January 10, 2012 by lauriemccabe

–by Sanjeev Aggarwal and Laurie McCabe, SMB Group

Last month, Cisco introduced a new IT Infrastructure advisory and management service solution designed for VARs to provide to small businesses with less than 100 employees. Delivered via Cisco’s value-added reseller (VAR) channel, Cisco OnPlus enables VARs to offload the mundane, time-consuming tasks of managing a network environment from small businesses, and provide them with higher value advisory services.  In addition to monitoring and managing network infrastructure devices, such as switches, wireless access points and routers, OnPlus also monitors devices that are connected to the network (including smartphones and tablets).  VARs can deploy a small OnPlus Network Agent appliance at the customer site, and remotely monitor and manage it through the cloud via a secure web portal or mobile application.

Perspective

 Cisco’s OnPlus IT infrastructure advisory and management service solution is designed to meet the needs of small businesses. SMB Group’s 2011 SMB Routes to Market study indicates that small businesses’ top technology related challenges include: Gaining ‘peace of mind’ that IT is under control (40%); containing IT costs (38%); finding/hiring qualified IT staff(35%); upgrading IT infrastructure(34%); protecting business from IT related failures(32%); and getting more done with fewer/flat IT resources (26%). As illustrated in Figure 1, Cisco’s OnPlus with Assess, Manage, Advise, Maintain features helps directly address several of these technology challenges.

Figure 1: Cisco OnPlus – Comprehensive IT Infrastructure Management for Small Businesses

Source: SMB Group, January 2012

Several IT infrastructure monitoring and management solutions are available for small and medium businesses (SMBs) ,  but they are often cost-prohibitive for many small businesses. Cisco’s hybrid solution, consisting of an agent embedded in a small network appliance and a secure cloud service, is aimed squarely at VARs that provide managed services to small businesses. These companies often lack dedicated IT staff and tend to depend on part-time IT people or external contractors to manage IT. With scarce resources typically stretched thin, small businesses are often unable to keep up with the demands of routine technology management–let alone support growth goals with new technology solutions.

At the same time, many VARs are looking for ways to quickly and efficiently offer remote management services to their small business customers, and the ability to provide more proactive guidance and management advice.

 Cisco OnPlus gives VARs an efficient way to expand their managed service offerings through remote management and visibility into the customer  network and the devices attached to the network. VARs simply plug the OnPlus Network Agent appliance into a switch or router on the customer’s network, and the OnPlus Agent then transmits information about the customer’s network and all connected devices to a secure data center for access by the VAR (Figure 2). Native apps for Apple and Android mobile devices are available for free from those companies’ app stores. The VARs have the flexibility to define their own business model for using OnPlus.  Some  will add additional fees based on their coverage and response times. Others will use OnPlus to enhance their service capabilities without additional charges to their customers.  In addition, VARs can use OnPlus as a tool to accelerate pre-sale assessments with prospective customers.

Figure 2: Cisco OnPlus Solution Service Data and Communications Flow

Source: Cisco, 2011

Cisco OnPlus appliance discovers Cisco and third-party devices with an IP address connected to the network and displays them in topology and inventory views. Partners can access a real-time view of customer networks from anywhere, through a highly secure portal using a PC, tablet, or mobile device. VARs work with small businesses to define and customize alert thresholds. Through OnPlus, VARs can also provide small businesses with automated reports of all the activity and tasks performed on the network.

Pricing is $250 (approx.  $7 per month, after typical discounts), which includes a three-year OnPlus subscription and the network agent appliance that is installed at the customer site. The OnPlus service from Cisco is available now in U.S. and Canada, with a rollout in Europe and Asia planned for 2012.

Quick Take

Cisco OnPlus delivers cost-efficient scalable IT management and peace of mind that small businesses need without sacrificing the local VAR that many SMBs want to do business with. On the VAR side, it provides a fast, efficient way to onboard customers into a managed service practice, provide more proactive services, and provide more efficient service to more small businesses customers.  With the advantages, Cisco OnPlus should be very attractive to Cisco VARs and enable Cisco to make significant inroads in the small business segment.

That said, Cisco OnPlus can significantly strengthen its story by:

  • Offering additional functionality in the areas of IT asset utilization and management (both hardware and software) to support compliance
  • Providing additional performance management solutions
  • Making it an extensible solution so that VARs can easily add additional value-added solutions like remote backup, Infrastructure on-demand, and business continuity services
  • Help VARs position and demonstrate the value of OnPlus as a comprehensive IT infrastructure management solutions vs. a network management solution
  • Investing in demand generation marketing to educate small businesses about the benefits of managed services

However, Cisco continues to invest in and develop solutions for small business, and OnPlus provides strong evidence that Cisco understands both small business pain points and how to create solutions that provide clear benefits to its partners. Cisco’s OnPlus should be a big step forward in helping Cisco VARs to move beyond the role of network product suppliers to become more strategic managed service providers.

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Highlights from the 2011 SMB Group Collaboration Study

Posted on November 29, 2011 by lauriemccabe

The SMB Group and CRM Essentials recently completed the 2011 SMB Collaboration and Communications Study. We asked more than 800 SMB (small business is 1-99 employees; medium business is 100-999 employees) decision-makers and influencers how they collaborate, what tools they use and what their appetite is for integrated collaboration suites. In this Slideshare presentation, we share some key highlights from the study, including:

  • Top Business Challenges
  • Collaboration Culture
  • How Collaboration Culture Affects Corporate Performance
  • Reliance on and Satisfaction with Collaboration Tools
  • Collaboration Budgets
  • Adoption and Plans for Integrated Collaboration Platforms
  • Top 3 Collaboration Platforms Selected by SMBs
  • Top Reasons to Select a Specific Integrated Collaboration Solution
  • Top Reasons for No Plans to Use an Integrated Collaboration Platform
425px” id=”__ss_10389289″> 12 2011 highlights 2011 smb collaboration study

View more presentations from SMB Group

Click here for more information about the complete study results and how to order.

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