Smallbiztechnology.com: Tech Insight and News for Small Businesses

January 7, 2009

When Collaboration Gets Too Messy for Word: There Is A Solution

Fourth Annual Small Business Summit (http://www.smallbiztechsummit.com) - Feb 3, 2009

Do you ever get the feeling of sorrow when you see someone in pain.

Raise your head a bit and look over the cubicle at that colleague of yours, at about 6:30pm in the evening trying to put together comments received on a document from 3 different people. You'll see pain.

Sure the document could have been sent from one person to the next so that Microsoft Word's track changes could easily be used. But if the same document is edited by different people, they'll just email back the changes in different documents.

Not all the time can you use a hosted version of the document such as Google Docs, which makes collaboration easier, sometimes you need the full functionality of Word.

One solution, that appears to work quite well, is by Swedish company, TextFlow. This tool lets you drag and drop changed documents into it. It then puts all the changes into ONE document, with colors for the changes - just as if everyone had used track changes on ONE document.

Try TextFlow out for yourself or first check out the video.

Although hosted applications, wireless computing and other technologies are all useful - they really are - small applications that enhance productivity are VERY important.

Another neat tool is Texter, which is distributed by LifeHacker. This free tool lets you type in abbreviations and expand them to anything. You can type DOG and once configured Texter will expand it to reach Dig Old Gears - or whatever.

One more so useful tool that I use dozens of times per day is Anaagram. This applet lets you easily capture information and dump it into Outlook or other applications. If you often copy and past information, like addresses, into Outlook, Anagram will save you so much time.

As your business grows, do look at the big picture. But always remember that the little things in life are also important and help boost productivity even more.

tags: collaboration, textflow, world | 0 comments

January 7, 2009

Saving Money Inside Your Wiring Closet

By David Strom

Here is a brief exercise in how to save some money for your company, and make yourself a hero at the same time. Do a quick census of the gear inside all of your wiring closets. You don't have to be too anal here: just quickly estimate the number of ports, regardless of whether or not they are in use. Now use some fudge factors for the number of watts per port - if you have this information, fine, otherwise for the purposes of this tally, use 50 watts for unpowered Ethernet and 500 watts for powered ports, and add in the power consumption figures for anything else that is plugged into an electrical outlet.

Now add up the kilowatt hours and multiply by the cost of electricity in your area. If you don't know, say 15 cents per kwh. Surprised at how big this is? Now here is where the hero part comes into play: suggest that you replace some of this gear with switches that can turn themselves off during off-hours.

Read the rest of the story

tags: David Strom, green | 0 comments

January 7, 2009

Sales Leads: Are You Mining for Gold or Throwing Money Down a Hole?

In a perfect world, customers would simply knock on our doors, ready to buy. In the real world, it takes a combination of sales and marketing tactics to find those customers.

If you've ever considered purchasing a list of leads, you know that there are lots of sources out there, and it it's not always easy to differentiate between their offerings. Simply buying a huge number of contacts for a low(er) price does not necessarily translate into the best bang for your buck.

So how do you find the best source of purchased leads for your particular needs? Many of the more sophisticated vendors like D&B's Hoover's, Sales Genie and ZoomInfo offer detailed search features that let you drill down to specific criteria like company size, location, industry, sales, etc. and give you access to a searchable database rather than a single-use mailing list.

We asked ZoomInfo's Chip Terry, VP and GM of Enterprise Products to give us some tips on what to look for when buying leads, and to share a some details about how ZoomInfo is different.

In the wake of LinkedIn and other tools like Facebook and Plaxo, are services like ZoomInfo and D&B needed less?

ZoomInfo’s products and services are in more demand than ever by small business executives, marketers, recruiters and sales executives. Social media tools such as those listed above offer a means to connect to specific individuals and stay in contact with people you already know, but not identify and target large groups of potential prospects across a specific criteria of characteristics.

Read the rest of the story

tags: sales leads, zoominfo | 0 comments

January 6, 2009

Web Access - New Study: There Are Dangers But Protect Yourself

Web access is wonderful. In fact after sliced bread, butter and jelly, you would think Web access was next.

As wireless access abounds and we become more mobile, web access, storing files online, remote computing and using hosted applications is going to increase.

However, there are dangers you should be aware of.

InternetNews.com writes that The security problem is partly due to the outdated enterprise approach to Web security and partly due to Web 2.0 technologies, Paul Judge, chief technology officer at PureWire, told InternetNews.com.

"The Web and Web applications pose a serious conundrum - the productivity gains and cost savings from the use of these tools can be significant and will become more important given the pressures resulting from the current economic crisis, but these tools create enormous risk for organizations of any size," the survey concluded.

What can you do to protect yourself?

1. Ensure you have the latest software (anti-virus, anti-malware, software firewall) to protect you as you work online.

2. Make sure you regularly update your operating system, especially security updates

3. Do not click on links you receive by email. Instead type the URL in your web browser - in particular banking information

4. Ensure, for confidential data, like banking, that your web browser and the remote server should be securely communicate.

The advantages of web access over traditional software far outweigh the potential security risks, as long as you are careful. Crossing a busy street is dangerous, but if you are careful, aware of your surroundings and follow the signs you'll do just fine.

tags: hosted applications, internet, saas, software as a service | 1 comments

January 6, 2009

Sales Compensation: It's Not Something You Can Learn In School (Let Software Help)

Knowing what to pay your sales team is not easy. There are so many variables and so many ways to compensate for a sale.

According to Liz Cobb, CEO of Makana Solutions, "No one goes to college for sales compensation. As a result, business leaders struggle with a myriad of legacy plans, spreadsheets, and other details to design and manage sales compensation, rarely achieving optimal results and often experiencing unintended consequences such as overpayment, less-than-adequate business results, and teams that work against each other."

Technology might help. In the same way we use an accounting program to assist with financial management, business planning software to help develop or evolve a business plan and a hammer to fix a broken desk drawer, there are software tools you might want to consider to help you develop a sales compensation strategy.

Writing about sales compensation, Adrian Miller writes in an issue of the New York Enterprise Report It is critical to remember that sales reps are generally unhappy about having their sales compensation plan changed without ample notice and participation. Ask for input and, if possible, make this a group process. Your sales reps should also have easy access to their sales data so that they know where they stand. Your new plan should help you recruit and motivate well-qualified reps, decrease sales staff attrition and continuously improve your company’s competitiveness.

At the end of the day, once you do all you can to manually (interviews, gut, past experience, etc) figure out how to compensate your sales staff, using software to help calculate the best sales compensation for your sales staff could assist and ensure you are on the right track.

One tool you could consider is Makana Motivator Pro Sales Compensation which helps you in three areas:

Sales compensation planning

Sales compensation payment

Graphical reports for easy to read feed-back

“Our research has found that sales compensation is hampered by spreadsheets, email and scattered information that contribute to a decline of sales productivity,” said Mark Smith, CEO and executive vice president of research, Ventana Research.

Although most of us use a variety of tools to help manage and grow our businesses, as much as we can use less tools that are specialized for particular tasks, especially tasks (like sales compensation) of key importance to our business.

If your business relies on a sales team to grow your business, it's important that they are paid correctly (pay too little and you wont' have a happy sales team, pay too much and you'll be out of business). Consider using software to help or at least be a "second opinion" to your existing sales compensation framework.

tags: sales compensation, software | 0 comments

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