Acknowledgement matters
In face to face interactions we are programmed to recognise the importance of feedback. As we move many previously physical interactions online, are we in danger of forgetting just how important it is? When you walk into a shop and buy something, a plethora of tangible and intangible signals reassure you that all is proceeding […]
StitchLabs–Solving SMBs Inventory Woes
Many readers know that outside of technology, I own a business that manufactures apparel and other products and sells them both online and through retail outlets. Having been involved in that business for 17 or so years, I’ve had first-hand experience of just how difficult it is to run a tightly integrated operation with e-commerce, […]
Churn and SaaS
SaaS companies are faced with copious amounts of advice about pricing, monetization, funnel management and all the different things used to describe the processes involved in attracting, gaining and maintaining customers. One of the big areas that companies think about is that of churn – or how many customers “drop off” and stop using the […]
Wave Updates UI, Rolls out Broad SMB Financial Portfolio
I’ve been following Wave since its founding back in November 2010. The company has an interesting approach to the traditionally conservative accounting software space – it’s product is provided to the user at no cost who, in return, receive personalized “Business Savings”, or special deals offered by businesses that pay Wave Accounting revenue each time […]
Google+ Hangouts On Air and SMBs
Yesterday Google unwrapped the Google+ Hangouts on Air to general public with relatively little fanfare. This is part of Google’s social strategy but the product has the potential to disrupt many startups in the space, especially the ones targeting consumers and SMBs. Google could flex their Youtube muscle to literally shove them away. Google+ hangouts […]
FreeAgent Acquires 60mo–Plans US Expansion
Big news in the SaaS accounting space this morning as FreeAgent announces that it has acquired US accounting provider 60mo and will be using the company as its vehicle for a US expansion. 60mo is a small SaaS provider that has quietly been going about building a small following for its financial forecasting tool. They’ve […]
Can Small Companies Benefit from Collaboration?
Many of the examples and case studies we are seeing today around emergent collaboration involve companies with thousands of employees around the world. But, this doesn’t mean emergent collaboration tools and strategies are only for the enterprise. In fact, nothing could be father from the truth. Collaboration can benefit any company of any size. Chess […]
CRM Idol Finals – Vote Now!
Wow, these six months flew by fast. Paul Greenberg, widely recognized as Godfather of CRM launched his ambitious project, CRM Idol in April. Companies with revenues under $12M were allowed to enter, and the contents has proven very popular, the 40 Americas and 20 EMEA slots filled up fast. Paul estimates the total value of […]
Salesforce for Quickbooks for Salesforce for Quickbooks….
Owning and running a bunch of small businesses, I have a real appreciation for just how important it is for SMBs to have a handle on their customers and deal flow – CRM, a concept foreign to many SMBs only a few years ago has become, with the growing importance of social media, a critical […]
Sage in the Cloud, but is it too little too late?
Last week Sage, the UK’s biggest accountancy software supplier, finally released their first real online accounting solution. It looks like a proper SaaS or Cloud offering, unlike the hosted Online 50 product sold through a few resellers from 6 years ago, or their previous failed attempt of SageLive in 2009. I would argue that because […]
Zoho Rounds Out Small Business Suite with Accounting App–Zoho Books
This morning Zoho, known for SMB focused SaaS offerings in the areas of productivity, collaboration, business processes launched an Accounting app: Zoho Books. I typically don’t do detailed product reviews, when I see the first good ones, will link to them – just a few points here and then let’s discuss how it rounds out […]
Best meeting ever with a banker and it was still no sale
Sometimes you decide that you really do want to continue to grow your company beyond cash flow so you decide you want to go talk to a banker and see what all they would be interested in loaning money and providing deeper banking services than you have now. I did not want a traditional bank […]
SAP Business ByDesign Video – Plain and Simple, Making Fun of …Wow, ERP!
We’re just having an intense internal debate in the Enterprise Irregulars group whether SAP’s Business ByDesign (ByD) is late to the market and what it all means, when hot off the press here’s a promotional video, that’s not so much ByD advertising but a SMB / SME SaaS 101, and a very good one at […]
B2B Integration, Available to the Little Guys at Last. Acquisition, funding and bootstrapping
Lots of interesting happenings in the B2B integration space – some funding, an acquisition and a little battle aiming to bootstrap its way to stardom. Recently IBM announced its acquisition of Sterling Commerce – Colleague Ray Wang does an, as-always, excellent job of giving a quick perspective. Some key points from Ray’s post: On May […]
On Bootstrapping. And Big Bucks. And Organic Growth
Recently there have been a few posts about growth through funding and growth through organic means. Tony Hsieh from Zappos told his tale of woe about the expectations of VC’s in terms of good exits. On the other hand, Sridhar Vembu, Founder of Zoho (disclosure – Zoho is exclusive sponsor of CloudAve) wrote an excellent […]
