Laurie McCabe’s Blog

Attending Lotusphere (or any other big vendor event) is kind of like getting soaked with a fire hose. So instead of providing overall highlights (here’s a 60-second video that does this quite well, FYI), I’m dialing the nozzle to focus on LotusLive news at Lotusphere 2012, and my perspective on it relative to the SMB [...]

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 [...]

We will be launching a new version of our SMB Social Business Study this spring. In the meantime, we wanted to share some of the highlights from the 2011 study for the small business segment (1-99 employees) to whet your appetite for the 2012 edition!
The 2012 Social Business and Collaboration Study will refresh the 2011 [...]

Ok, just wondering…why???!!!

Al Gottwald
krast.net x
Way99627@ymail.com
108.62.67.207

Submitted on 2011/12/06 at 8:11 am
How do delete wikipedia’s featured article that contains copyright violation?

Highlights from the 2011 SMB Group Collaboration Study
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e.toustrel@apache.edu
64.79.100.90

Submitted on 2011/12/06 at 6:51 am
gulrotkake uten egg og melk
Okay post, but not the best Ive seen exactly. You should step it [...]

–by Laurie McCabe and Sanjeev Aggarwal, SMB Group
 Before developing our 2012 predictions, we wanted to assess how we did on our Top 10 SMB Technology Predictions for 2011.  Here’s our take on how we did–let us know what grades you would have given us!
And stay tuned for our Top 10 SMB Technology Predictions for 2011 [...]

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 [...]

I’ve been reviewing data from our latest survey, the 2011 SMB Routes to Market Study, which zeros in on how SMBs discover, learn about, evaluate and purchase software and service technology solutions.
This study was a refresh of our 2010 SMB Routes to Market Study. In both years, we asked customers, “Do you use/plan to use [...]

In conjunction with IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative, the SMB Group and CRM Essentials are working on a series of posts discussing how technology is empowering today’s customer, and why companies have to change their approach in order to build strong relationships with them. This is the third post in the series, which is a summarize transcript [...]

Here’s an edited transcript of the podcast series that Brent Leary of CRM Essentials and Sanjeev Aggarwal, of SMB Group recorded with Ron Kline, director of marketing for IBM’s midmarket division, about IBM’s Smarter Commerce solutions for SMBs.
If you’d like to listen to the recorded podcast series, select below.
Brent Leary: We’re really excited [...]

If you’re in the IT industry, tweeting has probably become a regular part of your day, like brushing your teeth. I know it has for me, as an industry analyst and researcher.
But, since joining the Twitterverse in 2008, I’ve slowly but surely reconciled myself to the fact that Twitter is my frenemy–because in most cases, [...]

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 [...]

—by Laurie McCabe, SMB Group
In conjunction with IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative, the SMB Group and CRM Essentials are working on a series of posts discussing how technology is empowering today’s customer, and why companies have to change their approach in order to build strong relationships with them. This is the second post in the series. [...]

—by Laurie McCabe, SMB Group

In conjunction with IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative, the SMB Group and CRM Essentials are working on a series of posts discussing how technology is empowering today’s customer, and why companies have to change their approach in order to build strong relationships with them. This is the second post in the series. [...]

After attending Dell World, Dell’s first ever user conference a couple of weeks ago, it’s apparent that Dell’s progression towards becoming a pivotal vendor in what it terms the “virtual era” is well underway. And, last week’s announcement of Dell Boomi’s Fall 2011 release provides a prime example of how Dell is crossing the chasm [...]

—by Brent Leary, CRM Essentials, in partnership with SMB Group
In conjunction with IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative, the SMB Group and CRM Essentials are working on a series of posts discussing how technology is empowering today’s customer, and why companies have to change their approach in order to build strong relationships with them.  This is the first [...]

—by Brent Leary, CRM Essentials, in partnership with SMB Group
I recently bought a new video camera—a Panasonic AG-HMC150. This was a pretty significant purchase for me because it represents a step up into the semi-pro leagues, as I’m planning to do some documentary style programs. I kicked off my buying process with two things: a [...]

–Guest post by Kyle Lagunas, (@KyleLagunas) with good info for SMBs about applicant tracking and recruiting software
Most people know that, although they both work in talent acquisition, third party recruiters and internal recruiters serve very difference functions. As such, it makes sense to assume that each would rely on different technology to manage their own [...]

SMBs comprise nearly 65 percent of global GDP, account for more than 90 percent of all businesses, and employ over 90 percent of the world’s workforce. As such, SMB growth is crucial to the global economic recovery. But, as anyone that’s every run a small business knows, lack of financing often gets in the way [...]

What are top tools that small businesses use for collaboration? As important, which ones are they planning to add in the next 12 months? We asked more than 800 SMB (small business is 1-99 employees; medium business is 100-999 employees) decision-makers and influencers these questions in the recently completed SMB Group and CRM Essentials 2011 [...]

(Originally published October 5, 2011 in Small Business Computing)
What’s changed about cloud computing since 2009, when I wrote What is Cloud Computing, and Why Should You Care? In terms of the basic definition and benefits of cloud computing, not much. But in terms of market trends and adoption, the landscape has changed considerably.
Status Quo: Cloud [...]

How collaborative is your business? Do you tend to favor and reward individual accomplishments or team achievements? And how does your corporate collaboration culture affect your business? These are just a few of many questions we asked in the recently completed SMB Group and CRM Essentials 2011 SMB Collaboration and Communications Study, in which we [...]

As the name implies, SAP TechEd offers technical education, such as hands-on workshops, deep-dive lectures and sessions with SAP technical experts about all things SAP. That said, TechEd isn’t for everyone, and it’s no wonder that most of the 6,500+ attendees at SAP TechEd 2011, held the week of September 12 in Las Vegas, were [...]

Last week at Dreamforce 2011 , Dell announced Dell Cloud Business Applications, a new integrated, single sign-on approach to business solutions aimed at small and medium businesses (SMBs) with 50 to 500 employees.
In the first release, Dell Cloud Business Applications include Salesforce CRM, Boomi technology to integrate Salesforce with financial applications (either on-premise and in [...]

In the post, Is Salesforce Outgrowing SMBs? I discussed Salesforce.com’s new social enterprise vision, and questioned how it will work for SMBs. If you are part of a small or medium business, I’d like your thoughts!

Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff is a great visionary with a big appetite for change. From packaged software to the cloud, from CRM to platform-as-a-service, he’s painted a color by number picture for businesses to emulate. But does his latest work, “the social enterprise” come with an easy enough guide for small businesses to paint it?
The Paint-by-Numbers [...]

This year, Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce event–with a record-setting 45,000 attendees–got me thinking about the early days before the cloud was the cloud, how far its come, and how perfectly poised it is to ride the waves now driving technology adoption–mobile and social solutions.
Traveling in the Way Back Machine
In a galaxy long ago and far away, [...]

Originally published in Small Business Computing, 8-29-11.
Recently, a client asked me for some tips about how to get the maximum mileage out of Twitter event hashtags. Creating Twitter hashtags for your business events is a great way to multiply conversations about what you’re doing, and there are also lots of ways to maximize the impact [...]

Today I had the pleasure of joining David Alston from Radian6 and the legendary Brent Leary of CRM Essentials for a webinar live from CRM Evolution. We had a lively conversation about some of the key social business findings that the SMB Group and CRM Essentials uncovered in the 2011 SMB Social Business Study, which [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I attended Sage Summit 2011, Sage’s first combination partner and customer event. I’ve been attending Sage partner, customer and analyst events for several years, observing and commenting on its ongoing attempts to unify it’s corporate brand across multiple small and medium business (SMB) solutions. Earlier this year, following Sue Swenson’s [...]

(Originally published June 2011 in Laurie McCabe’s SMB Advisor blog on Pervasive Solutions)
SMB Group research surveys indicate that small and medium businesses (SMBs) are often confused when it comes to figuring out what business solutions are best-equipped to help them meet their business challenges and goals. In fact, 32% of respondents in our 2010 SMB [...]

Kevin Casey, intrepid journalist for InformationWeek, rang me up this week for input on his article, “Do Nonsocial SMBs Know Something We Don’t?” In the article, Kevin’s ponders whether SMBs that haven’t bought into social media have good reasons to hold off. Certainly an under-represented angle on this topic, especially when you consider that more [...]

Entrepreneurs are a rare breed. Although start-up activity has been on the upswing, just 0.34 of the adults in the U.S. for example (or 340 out of 100,000) started a new business each month in 2009, according to the Kaufman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. Women entrepreneurs are even more exceptional, accounting for just 29% of [...]

SAP has forged its corporate identity in the large enterprise space, serving the likes of Coca Cola and Dow Chemical. But, while attending SAP’s Sapphire user event last week, I had the opportunity to meet with Andreas Wolfinger, Global Head of Solution Management and Product Management for SAP Business One, and Jennifer Schulze, Director SME [...]

Originally published 4-26-11 as an SMB Group research brief in .pdf format, available here.
When big companies gobble up smaller ones, you always wonder whether the acquired company will get swallowed up into the belly of the beast, derailed or morphed into something unrecognizable.
In November, Dell acquired Boomi, which provides AtomSphere®, a cloud integration service that [...]

By Sanjeev Aggarwal and Laurie McCabe, SMB Group, and Brent Leary, CRM Essentials
SMB adoption of social media for sales, marketing, product development and customer service is on the rise – but how are SMBs tracking, analyzing and measuring the success of their social media endeavors?
In our joint SMB Group/CRM Essentials “2011 Small and Medium Business [...]

(Originally published March 23, 2011 in Small Business Computing)
What is Systems Management?
Systems management is an umbrella term that refers to the centralized management of a company’s information technology assets, and it’s one that encompasses many different tasks required to monitor and manage IT systems and resolve IT problems. Systems management solutions can help [...]

Last week, Intuit and Salesforce.com announced that they would partner to integrate Intuit QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online small business accounting software with Salesforce’s small business CRM editions (Contact Manager, Group and Professional).
Under the terms of the deal, Intuit will resell a pre-integrated version of the Salesforce CRM application via Intuit’s App Center (as well as [...]

Co-authored by: Laurie McCabe and Sanjeev Aggarwal, SMB Group, and Brent Leary, CRM Essentials

How quickly is social media catching on as an engagement channel for SMB customer service and support? It depends on who you ask—and has significant implications for both SMBs and traditional CRM vendors.
In our joint SMB Group-CRM Essentials “2011 Small and [...]

Co-authored by: Laurie McCabe and Sanjeev Aggarwal, SMB Group, and Brent Leary, CRM Essentials
Good plans shape good decisions. That’s why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true. Lester R. Bittel, The Nine Master Keys of Management
This seems to be especially true when it comes to getting business value out of social media. [...]

The SMB Group has followed (and used!) Dimdim, which has provided innovative, easy to use Web conferencing services in a freemium model with very liberal terms of use, for a couple of years. In January, Salesforce.com acquired Dimdim for $31 million.
Immediately after the acquisition, Salesforce announced that while Dimdim would remain “fully operational during the [...]

I’ve been very impressed by HubSpot, which helps small and medium businesses (SMBs) optimize and streamline their inbound marketing programs (see my 2009 interview with HubSpot Marketing VP Mike Volpe) for a while now. Looks like others are impressed too—as evidenced by HubSpot’s announcement that it has raised $32 million in a Series D funding [...]

(Originally published January 30, 2011 in Small Business Computing)
What are Integrated Payments Solutions?
Integrated payment solutions are tools that your business can use to integrate accounting, customer relationship management (CRM) and other business applications with payments processing. By integrating payments processing with business applications, you can save time and money, reduce errors and get a better [...]

We just published our latest SMB Group survey study, “2010 Small and Medium Businesses Mobile Solutions Study,” which reveals that although just a small percentage of U.S. small and medium businesses (SMBs) currently use mobile applications, they are revving up plans to implement mobile business applications to help fuel growth.
Judging from the types of mobile [...]

(Originally published November 30, 2010 in Small Business Computing)
What is a Virtual Desktop?
A virtual desktop means that a user’s desktop environment (the icons, wallpaper, windows, folders, toolbars, widgets, etc.) is stored remotely on a server, rather than on a local PC or other client computing device. Desktop virtualization software separates the desktop operating systems, applications [...]

Here are the SMB Group’s Top 10 SMB Technology Predictions for 2011! A more detailed description of each follows below.

1. Mobile Commerce Lifts Off
2. SMBs Demand that Vendors Bring Order to Social Media Chaos
3. App Stores Become a Key Information Source and Channel for SMBs
4. The Shift to Cloud Computing [...]

Wow the déjà vu is just too strange! In June of this year, I attended Pervasive’s Metamorphosis Partner event–during which IBM announced that it would acquire Cast Iron. Now, in November, during Pervasive’s very well-attended IntegratioNext User Conference, Dell announced plans to buy Boomi.
As I wrote after the Metamorphosis event, IBM’s acquisition of Cast Iron [...]

Zoho, one of the pioneers in cloud computing solutions for small and medium businesses (SMBs), has added a new customer support management application to its line up of 20-plus cloud-based collaboration, communication, business and office productivity solutions.
Zoho Support helps streamline the process to create, capture, process and manage support tickets. Zoho has combined its own [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I was a presenter at Ramon Ray’s Small Business Technology Tour in Cambridge, MA. My presentation focused on top technology trends, and how small businesses can take advantage of them. A few people have asked me to post the presentation, so I’m providing it here.

At the event, I prefaced [...]

(Part 3 of a 3 part blog series “Are You Ready to Move Beyond Email?” which focuses on Online Collaboration Suites for SMBs. Click here for Part 1, which provides an overview of the online collaboration suite area, and here for Part 2,which provides tips for helping you determine if it’s time [...]

(Part 2 of a 3 part blog series “Are You Ready to Move Beyond Email?” which focuses on Online Collaboration Suites for SMBs. Click here for Part 1, which provides an overview of the online collaboration suite area.)
Effective collaboration can make the difference between business success and failure. While point collaboration solutions can help us [...]

(Part 1 of a 3 part blog series “Are You Ready to Move Beyond Email?” which focuses on Online Collaboration Suites for SMBs)
Collaboration is probably the only activity that everyone in every company engages in every day. Whether a CEO or new hire, an accountant or a construction worker, everyone needs to share and manage [...]

(Originally published September 13, 2010 in Small Business Computing)
What is Mobile Commerce?
Mobile commerce (also known as mobile ecommerce, m-commerce and other variations) consists of two primary components. The first is the ability to use a wireless phone or other mobile device to conduct financial transactions and exchange payments over the Internet. The [...]

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to attend my first WITI Women and Technology Summit (#witisummit), held this year in San Jose—and was truly impressed and inspired by this conference. If you’re not familiar with WITI (Women In Technology International), the organization was launched 21 years ago—when the technology industry was very different and [...]

With the recession stubbornly lingering, many small and medium businesses (SMBs) are still pinching pennies and looking to trim expenses. Dimdim, which provides free Web conferencing for up to 20 users, and charges just $25 per month for Dimdim Pro (which supports unlimited meetings for up to 50 users) gives SMBs a way to eliminate [...]

(Originally published on July 30, 2010 in Small Business Computing)
What is Business Intelligence?
Business intelligence (BI) is an umbrella term used to encompass the processes, methods, measurements and systems businesses use to more easily view, analyze and understand information relevant to the history, current performance or future projections for a business.  Other terms that people often [...]

We recently wrapped up the SMB Group’s “2010 Small and Medium Businesses Routes to Market Study”, which uncovered quite a few interesting trends about how SMBs discover, learn about, evaluate and buy technology solutions and services. We are publishing free research briefs on the SMB Group site on some of the key findings, including Social Media: [...]

Dell KACE Secure Browser–A Free Tool to Help Firefox Users Stop Malware Invasions
Anyone that’s ever unwittingly downloaded malware from the Internet knows that it can bring your PC to a virtual stand still. This horrible stuff can infect your computer by exploiting vulnerabilities in your browser, or by opening and taking advantage of security holes [...]

(Originally published on June 30, 2010 in Small Business Computing)
What is an Online Collaboration Suite?
An online collaboration suite provides businesses with an integrated set of tools that span a range of collaboration needs. While not every collaboration suite includes the same capabilities, they often feature tools such as business email, instant messaging, contact management, [...]

This week’s service outage at Intuit is fueling a new round of speculation about the dark side of cloud computing–and whether businesses can depend on cloud-based services to run their businesses. Intuit’s problems come on the heels of other service outages this month at Wordpress and Sage, and as well as service outages earlier this [...]

We are publishing recent vendor highlights on the SMB Group web site. As time permits, we discuss our key take-aways from more interesting briefings. I will try to remember to post them here as well. Here is the most recent one.
Highlights:
In May of this year, IBM acquired Cast Iron Systems (for an undisclosed sum) to help [...]

App stores focused on the needs of small and medium businesses (SMBs) seem to be proliferating quickly as cloud computing takes off. As discussed in “What is an App Store, and Why Should You Care,” a marquee SMB vendor, such as Google or Intuit typically builds the app store and serve as the anchor tenant [...]

Click this link to take the survey: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/303967/routes-to-market-survey
 HubSpot is teaming up with the SMB Group to conduct a new survey to find out more about how small and medium businesses go about making buying decisions for software and service technology solution and the channels used to purchase these solutions. The results from the survey will [...]

(Originally published on June 9, 2010, in Small Business Computing)
What is Hybrid Computing?
A hybrid computing platform lets customers connect the packaged small business software applications that they run on their own internal desktops or servers to applications that run in the cloud.
As discussed in What is Cloud Computing and Why Should You Care?, more software [...]

What Does Cloud Computing Mean for the Channel?

Last week I attended  2010 Sage Insights, Sage Software’s annual partner conference, and had the opportunity to present Perspectives on the Business Model of the Future: What Does Cloud Computing Mean for the Channel? twice at the event.
This was a timely topic for Sage partners, particularly in [...]

Just want to let you know that we are publishing highlights from recent vendor briefings on the SMB Group web site. As time permits, we discuss our takeaways from the more interesting briefings. I’ll try to remember to post them here as well. There are several up there already, here is the most recent one.
4-23-10
Highlights:
Acumatica [...]

Countless technology vendors are targeting the increasingly coveted yet still somewhat elusive small and medium business (SMB) market. We do our share of message testing and market strategy work with them, and attend innumerable briefings from other vendors aiming to make their mark in this crowded space.
All too often, we see some warning signs that [...]

(Originally published on April 8, 2010, in Small Business Computing)
An app store can offer a lot more than just mobile apps. Essentially, it is a Web site that aggregates software solutions for business or personal use. App stores, also known as an applications marketplaces, are typically created and built by a “marquee” vendor, such as [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I attended Dell’s Solutions for a Virtual Era analyst and press event in San Francisco. At the event, Dell unveiled its new strategy to help companies more readily and easily provision computing capabilities to in the ubiquitous anytime, anywhere information era. At the event, Dell introduced several new hardware offerings based [...]

Social media management for small businesses is a very hot area. A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about social media management solutions available to help small businesses manage their online and social presence more efficiently and effectively. While this is still a very nascent area in terms of customer adoption, there has been a bumper [...]

Back in the beautiful Live Free or Die state after attending the 2010 Small Business Summit earlier this week. This is a fantastic event coordinated by Ramon Ray and Marian Banker, and held at the Digital Sandbox in the financial district in New York. Whether due to Ramon and team’s hard work and great marketing, or [...]

I dialed into SAP’s SME (small and medium enterprises) Global Business Update Call a couple of weeks ago. Jeff Stiles, SVP, SME, Volume & Ecosystem Marketing, provided analysts a recap of recent SAP SME highlights, and shared strategic directions for 2010. I’ve been following SAP in the SME market since it acquired TopManage (which later [...]

(Originally published on March 4, 2010, in Small Business Computing)
What is Social Media Management?
As described in the column “What is Social Networking, and Why Should You Care?” Internet-based social media make it easier for people to listen, interact, engage and collaborate with each other. But, as the volume of social media venues and conversations rises, [...]

In a bold move to get traditional value-added resellers(VARs) off the SaaS fence, NetSuite announced its new Solution Provider (SP) 100 Program, which gives business application VARs 100% margin on the first year of license subscriptions they sell. The program requires a 2-year minimum license commitment from the customer, and after the first year, NetSuite [...]

Last April, I participated in Dell’s Managed Services launch for SMBs. At the event, Dell had a couple of customers on hand who were both very satisfied with the service. Later in the year, Dell asked my colleague Sanjeev Aggarwal and I to conduct a Dell-sponsored research study to learn more about how Dell Managed [...]

Last week, former Microsoft VP Dick Brass wrote a very thought-provoking op-ed in the New York Times entitled Microsoft’s Creative Destruction which sparked some interesting commentary from media, industry insiders and observers, and so I thought I’d toss my two cents into the mix as well.
Where should I begin? Since the dotcom boom, people have [...]

(Originally published in Small Business Computing, January 29, 2010)
Technology insiders tend to throw around technical terms and business jargon, assuming people outside the industry understand what it all means. By its nature, technology vocabulary is often confusing and complicated, and insiders often add to the confusion by over-complicating things. To help add a sense of [...]

I still haven’t had time to write about Lotusphere 2010, but in the meantime, you may want to listen to the conversation I had with small business guru and friend Brent Leary. Last week, Brent interviewed me about my take on this year’s Lotus event, announcements and news.
Naturally, our conversation centered on the small business angle, which [...]

As a follow up to my post What Is Green IT and Why Should You Care?, I had the opportunity to talk with Steve Sams, VP for IBM’s Global Site and Facilities Services, along with several other members of IBM’s green team. As part of its Smarter Planet mission, IBM is active on all fronts [...]

As we predicted just a couple of weeks ago in our 2010 Top 10 SMB Technology Predictions, the collaboration battle is heating up! VMware just announced that has entered into a definitive agreement with Yahoo! to acquire Zimbra, which provides email and collaboration software.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but under the terms of the agreement, VMware [...]

(Originally published in Small Business Computing, December 29, 2009)
Technology insiders tend to throw around technical terms and business jargon, assuming people outside the industry understand what it all means. By its nature, technology vocabulary is often confusing and complicated, and insiders often add to the confusion by over-complicating things. To help add a sense of [...]

Fellow SMB analyst Sanjeev Aggarwal published our top ten SMB technology related predictions–plus three bonus predictions–here yesterday. But hey, it’s all about the wisdom of crowds–and we want to know what you think. Vote here!

Fellow SMB analyst Sanjeev Aggarwal and I have teamed up to bring you our top ten technology related predictions-plus three bonus predictions–for the SMB (companies with 1-1000 employees) market for 2010. Details for each prediction follow the list below.
Remember to vote for your top prediction here!
2010 Top 10 SMB Technology Market Predictions
1. Pent Up SMB [...]

(Originally published in Small Business Computing, November 30, 2009)
Technology insiders tend to throw around technical terms and business jargon, assuming people outside the industry understand what it all means. By its nature, technology vocabulary is often confusing and complicated, and insiders often add to the confusion by over-complicating things. To help add a sense of [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I attended Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce event–along with about 19,000 other people. Having had a chance to digest the proceedings (as well as Thanksgiving dinner), here’s my commentary on what stood out as the top takeaways from the conference in terms of where Salesforce is headed and what it means for the [...]

Last week, I attended IBM’s General Business (GB) Influencer Summit for analysts covering the mid-market (companies with 100 to 1000 employees and larger enterprises that are not currently spending a lot with IBM, sometimes termed “white space” accounts). I’ve attended this event since IBM began holding them a few years back. IBM recently [...]

Small business adoption of technology-based solutions rarely keeps pace with the expectations of vendors, analysts and pundits. When it comes adoption of digital marketing and social media tools, however, small business adoption is fast and furious.
Recently, we (Hurwitz & Associates) conducted a survey sponsored by email marketing vendor Campaigner. The survey investigates how North American [...]

Yesterday, I was listening to NPR’s Here and Now at lunch time while running a few errands in my car. I tuned into a great story about the “Plain English Campaign”, which was founded in 1979 by now 71-year old Chrissie Maher.  The organization’s mission is to campaign against “gobbledygook, jargon and misleading public information.”
Host [...]

In our industry, vendors spend a lot of time and money developing white papers to educate prospects about new technologies. White papers that are well-researched and clearly written can help explain the value of  new or complex solutions to the audiences that can potentially benefit from them.
Of course, vendors also want to generate qualified sales [...]

In a post earlier this month, I raised the issue that SaaS vendors targeting small businesses need to start experimenting with different pricing options if they want to create a true volume market for their solutions (Prescription for Subscription Fatigue? Time for New SaaS Pricing Models). While per user, per month pricing has become the norm in [...]

Last week, Unit 4 Aggresso, parent company of CODA, announced that it has teamed up with Salesforce.com to launch FinancialForce.com. FinancialForce.com is actually Coda2Go, the cloud based accounting application that CODA built from the ground up on the Force.com platform, and sold through AppExchange. The deal pushes FinancialForce into the spotlight as a poster child [...]

(Originally published in Small Business Computing, September 25, 2009)
Technology insiders tend to throw around technical terms and business jargon, assuming people outside the industry understand what it all means. By its nature, technology vocabulary is often confusing and complicated, and insiders often add to the confusion by over-complicating things. To help add a sense of clarity [...]

As an analyst that’s covered the software-as-service (SaaS) market since 1999, I am briefed by vendors introducing new subscription services into the market on a regular basis. Many of these solutions provide small businesses with real solutions to real problems—whether helping you market your business, keep your books, manage projects or pay your bills (just [...]

(Originally published in Small Business Computing, August 27, 2009)
Technology insiders tend to throw around technical terms and business jargon, assuming people outside the industry understand what it all means. By its nature, technology vocabulary is often confusing and complicated, and insiders often add to the confusion by over-complicating things. To help add a sense of clarity to [...]

(Originally published in Small Business Computing, July 27, 2009)
Technology insiders tend to throw around technical terms and business jargon, assuming people outside the industry understand what it all means. By its nature, technology vocabulary is often confusing and complicated, and insiders often add to the confusion by over-complicating things. To help add a sense of [...]

(Originally published June 18, 2009 in Small Business Computing)
Technology insiders tend to throw around technical terms and business jargon, assuming people outside the industry understand what it all means. By its nature, technology vocabulary is often confusing and complicated, and insiders often add to the confusion by over-complicating things. To help add a sense of clarity [...]

 
 What is Virtualization, and Why Should You Care?
By Laurie McCabe
May 7, 2009
Technology insiders tend to throw around technical terms and business jargon, assuming people outside the industry understand what it all means. By its nature, technology vocabulary is often confusing and complicated, and insiders often add to the confusion by over-complicating things. To help add [...]

(Originally published in Small Business Computing, April 7, 2009)
Technology insiders tend to throw around technical terms and business jargon, assuming people outside the industry understand what it all means. By its nature, technology vocabulary is often confusing and complicated, and insiders often add to the confusion by over-complicating things. To help add a sense of clarity [...]

 
Whais Cloud Computing — and Why Should You Care?
By Laurie McCabe
March 11, 2009
Technology insiders tend to throw around technical terms and business jargon, assuming people outside the industry understand what it all means. By its nature, technology vocabulary is often confusing and complicated, and insiders often add to the confusion by over-complicating things. To help [...]

Over the past few years, the SaaS  subscription model has given small and medium businesses  (SMBs) a much easier, more affordable and manageable route to deploy and use business applications. But integrating these applications isn’t always as easy as deploying them. Although things such as Web services and service-oriented-architecture (SOA) technologies promised to alleviate the [...]

Cloud platforms, or “platforms-as-a-service” (PaaS) are quickly becoming a key channel for application developers. By writing and publishing their applications to integrate with those of a major PaaS provider, such as Salesforce.com or Microsoft, smaller developers can gain instant access to a large installed base of customers.
With so many vendors creating their own clouds, however, [...]

As I mentioned in a blog I posted after Lotusphere 2009, IBM Lotus has been reluctant to go head to head with obvious rivals, particularly Microsoft. At Lotusphere, however, the company came out swinging, declaring intentions “shatter Windows” and “change desktop economics” with Symphony, the free Lotus desktop suite, and compete aggressively against Microsoft Small [...]

Just a couple of years ago, many people were still debating whether digital social networking was just a flash in the pan. With social media growth surging, that that debate is over. People have moved on to try and figure out where social networking is headed—as evidenced when I Googled the “future of social networking” [...]

Last week, I attended Insights, Sage North America’s annual partner event. I’ve attended this event for several years now, watching the company’s attempts to create a cohesive brand and strategy across its many small and medium business (SMB)  solutions. At last year’s Insights, Sage had just hired Sue Swenson as North America CEO, so I was [...]

With market adoption of cloud computing forecast to skyrocket, no one in the tech industry wants to be left on the ground. But, as cloud computing platforms, models and definitions multiply, they’re becoming as numerous and diverse as Mother Nature’s clouds—and just as easy for customers to get lost in.
Last week, Ben Worthen blogged in [...]

What do you get when you combine an industrial-strength managed services platform, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) desktop management solution, and a hardware vendor that transformed the PC and server industries with its direct, Internet sales model?
The answer is Dell’s ProManage Managed Services, which is built on Dell’s Silverback and Everdream acquisitions, web-based technologies, and Dell data [...]

Just last week, I blogged about how some IT pundits and vendors are falling into the trap of turning the cloud into yet another confusing and over-hyped industry buzzword, and the need to bring cloud conversations down to earth for small and medium business (SMB) customers.
A couple of days after I wrote this post, [...]

I know its hard to believe, but industry insiders often make and drink too much of their own Kool-Aid! Unfortunately, this seems to be happening all too frequently with cloud computing, the latest in a long line of our industry’s over-hyped buzzwords. Here’s how to tell if you need to come back down earth [...]

Don’t get me wrong. I think Twitter can be extremely effective as a business social networking tool.  Tweets that raise a thought-provoking question, point to useful information, rally for a cause or introduce a new idea or issue are all good! And it’s fine when people share interesting or funny things that happen to them [...]

Those of you that follow me on Twitter and read some of the reports I’ve written over the years know I’m very interested free software-as-service (SaaS) offerings, and how companies that take this approach plan to monetize their free services.
Last week, I had a briefing with Jerome Ternynck, the CEO of MrTed, which has been [...]

Like most analysts, my schedule is usually chockfull of briefings from vendors. Some of these are boring, some are interesting, and once in a blue moon, a vendor comes along with a solution that everyone should know about.
Demandbase (www.demandbase.com) is one of these solutions. I initially came across the vendor late last fall, when I [...]

Just got back from Small Business Summit 2009—an awesome event put on by Ramon Ray (www.smallbiztechnology.com) and Marian Banker (www.primestrategies.com ) at the Digital Sandbox in New York City. Turn out for the Summit was terrific, and attendees were treated to a great, interactive agenda including speakers, experts, sessions and networking—hosted by Ramon, who is [...]

In 2009, it’s no longer business as usual. The sharp economic decline has led many small companies to slash operating costs and cut staff to the bone. In the wake of small businesses’ initial shock and awe, uncertainty has become the new normal.
With little fat left to trim, small businesses that want to stay [...]

As always. IBM’s Lotusphere has been chock full of announcements about new products, upgrades and partnerships. At Lotusphere, “resonance” was the overarching theme, framing the benefits of having multiple applications work in harmony to amplify the benefits of individual solutions, and create better business outcomes (or something like that, I’m paraphrasing here!).
One level down from [...]

It’s a Small World
Well, it’s about time—I’m taking my first leap into the blogosphere.
It took a good-natured push from my new colleagues at Hurwitz & Associates, who helped overcome my concern that the last thing the world needs is another blog and reassured me that I’ll add something useful to this big bowl of talk [...]