Salesforce’s SMB strategy has evolved steadily over the past three years. The company’s 2025 announcements, including enhancements to Starter Suite and Pro Suite, and the introduction of  Free Suite are the latest stages in a multi-year effort to simplify adoption, embed AI into daily workflows, and create a clearer on-ramp for small and medium businesses […]

I recently attended Dreamforce 2025, where Salesforce showcased its ambitious AI vision for the “agentic enterprise.” This strategy is built on technology embedded in its new Agentforce 360 platform; on Slack as the interface to agentic AI; and on a more flexible agent pricing model to help bring Agentforce to market. The company is clearly […]

I recently attended Workday’s September 2025 Rising conference. At the event, the company celebrated its twentieth anniversary and showcased its AI platform strategy, new consumption model, and expanding ambitions in the SMB market. From its approach to AI governance and open data, to the launch of AI Flex Credits and Workday GO for midmarket and […]

Zoom’s July 2025 Perspectives event showcased its evolution from a video conferencing tool to a comprehensive productivity platform powered by AI. Focused on midmarket and vertical solutions, Zoom aims to enhance workflows and customer interactions through integrated features. Its channel overhaul and innovation strategy aim to foster partner growth and user-centric experiences.

At its 2025 Innovation Summit, Workday celebrated its 20th anniversary and unveiled new executives while detailing its shift toward agentic AI in HCM and Financials platforms. This strategy emphasizes autonomous agents for productivity, aiming for significant ROI. Workday targets medium businesses for growth, focusing on ease of use and measurable outcomes.

“Building the Future of Business, Together” was the theme of this year’s Acumatica Summit in Las Vegas last week. The event was Acumatica’s largest Summit ever, with over 3,500 attendees and 90-plus breakout sessions. CEO John Case and Acumatica executives discussed Acumatica’s strategy for 2025, how its cloud-based ERP platform helps small and medium businesses […]

Whether you’re a fast-growing start-up or a medium enterprise ready to IPO, technology represents a major opportunity for small business owners to close the gap with large corporations. As old tools become obsolete and new tools crowd the marketplace, identifying the right tech solution can be the difference between a successful expansion and a failed […]

At the Zoholics 2024 customer conference held in June, SMB Group sat down with Zoho execs to learn more about news and directions unveiled at the event. Announcements included updates and new products across its CRM and collaboration solutions, enhancements to its security stack, and new developer tools and services. In this video, Aarthi Elizabeth, […]

Zoho held its Zoholics 2024 customer conference last week in beautiful downtown Austin TX. In typical Zoho style, the vendor offered customers, analysts, and press a stellar experience in style and substance, with informative presentations, 1-1 meetings, and plenty of time to socialize. Zoho used its Backstage events solution to bring remote attendees in to […]

The Zoom Perspectives Analyst Conference was held in NYC this year, much to my delight (as someone who is a bit tired of traveling to the West Coast!). As usual, the company showcased its Zoom Events solution to run a great hybrid event. Analyst attendees, presenters, and Zoom staff joined and interacted from both the […]

Workday’s annual Innovation Summit promises to provide IT industry analysts with insights into the vendor’s achievements, current initiatives, and future directions. This year’s Summit, held again at one of my favorite spots—Cavallo Point in Sausalito—lived up to its billing. During a day and a half of sessions, Workday executives discussed why and how Workday is […]

In August 2023, Salesforce launched Salesforce Starter, a new CRM solution tailored for businesses lacking CRM expertise. This platform simplifies the process of trying, buying, and deriving value from Salesforce’s CRM solutions. As discussed in this post, Salesforce Starter is designed for small and medium businesses (SMBs) with limited CRM experience. Since its launch, Starter […]