Salesforce Starter is Salesforce’s new solution designed to help businesses more easily try, buy, and get value from Salesforce’s CRM solutions. While the first iteration of Salesforce Starter has been available since August 2022, the Summer release, announced on August 2, adds new marketing capabilities to the solution—and makes Starter a much more formidable contender […]

Resiliency is an essential quality in the ever-changing technology industry. Since its inception in 1984, Dell has proved its resiliency many times, reshaping its strategy and offerings to stay ahead of the technology curve. Last month, I had the opportunity to attend Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas. This year’s event coincided with the latest […]

By SMB Group’s Kelly Teal, Contributing Analyst, and Laurie McCabe, Co-founder It’s not every day that someone quite literally reinvents the wheel. But that’s just what David Patrick and Zack Fleishman did about 10 years ago. Now, after a decade of prototyping, testing, and strategizing, their efforts are paying off. Their company, Shark Wheel, has […]

What are the key trends and challenges that SMB financial professionals are facing, and how are they impacting business and financial management practices? These are the questions we explore in this new report, 2023 State of Finance Automation: SMB Financial Management Insights & Trends. The insights in the report are based on BILL’s State of […]

As the name implies, the theme of Workday’s AI and ML Innovation Summit 2023 for industry analysts (held March 13-15 at beautiful Cavallo Point in Sausalito, CA) was artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). While other ground was covered, AI and ML topics were the centerpiece of most of the presentations and discussions. Co-CEOs […]

By SMB Group’s Kelly Teal, Contributing Analyst, and Laurie McCabe, Co-founder Sometimes you just want to enjoy a few cocktails with friends. Then, before you know it, your hobby turns into a business. At least, that’s the case for Timothy Felkner, CEO of Uncle Tim’s Cocktails, a Denver-based company that sells boutique-grade, ready-made alcoholic drinks, […]

2022 was a turbulent year for SMBs—and this turbulence is continuing into 2023. Even as many challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic recede, others, including inflation and recession, have become top SMB concerns. Amidst this ongoing uncertainty, SMB Group examines U.S. SMBs’ challenges and priorities for 2023 in our SMB Business and Technology Priorities for […]

Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed the holidays, and are looking forward to a happy and healthy 2023. Here at SMB Group, we are ringing in the new year by sharing our annual SMB Group Top 10 SMB Technology Trends, required reading both for SMBs (small and medium businesses), and for the vendors that serve […]

Small and medium businesses (SMBs) and mid-market businesses are always cost-conscious. So, it’s not surprising that in uncertain economic conditions, they rank controlling and reducing costs as their top business concern for 2023. However, while they need to rein in costs, SMBs must also invest in growth. Customer-related challenges—attracting new business, improving satisfaction and retention, […]

Below is a lightly edited transcript of my November 23, 2022 video interview with Siva Iswaran, Global Head of Zoho Finance and Operations Suite. LAURIE: Today we’re going to be talking about Zoho, and specifically, its Zoho Finance Plus platform. I’m excited to have Siva Iswaran joining me today. Siva is the global head of […]