Social Media: How Does Your Small Business Stack Up?

May 17th, 2011

Social media offers small businesses an inexpensive, relatively friction-free way to accomplish different business functions, from generating new leads to getting input for new product development. Consequently, it’s not surprising that small businesses are rapidly moving to take advantage of … Continue reading

The New Dell and What it Means for SMBs: Takeaways from Dell’s 2011 Solutions for a Virtual Era Event

May 11th, 2011

Twenty-seven years ago, Michael Dell launched Dell with $1,000 and a streamlined sales and manufacturing model that revolutionized the PC industry. Sticking with this playbook, Dell achieved similar success in the server market, once again disrupting the status quo. However, … Continue reading

Dell and Boomi: Doubling Down on Integration

May 3rd, 2011

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 … Continue reading

Intuit and Salesforce Partner Up: Who’s the Big Winner?

April 4th, 2011

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 … Continue reading

HubSpot: From Breakthrough to Breakout

March 9th, 2011

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 … Continue reading

SMB Group Top Ten 2011 SMB Technology Predictions

December 7th, 2010

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 … Continue reading

Zoho Support: Big Business Customer Service for Small Business Budgets

November 11th, 2010

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 … Continue reading

Are You Ready to Move Beyond Email? Warning Signs and Key Considerations

September 30th, 2010

(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 … Continue reading

Are You Ready to Move Beyond Email? Assessing Online Collaboration Suites for SMBs

September 24th, 2010

(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 … Continue reading

Dimdim–A Bright Light In the Web Conferencing Market

August 11th, 2010

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 … Continue reading