The Shortlist

Friday September 24, 2010

Business on the move

These days it's increasingly common for business to be conducted outside the office.  With a smartphone in your pocket and a laptop (or netbook) with wireless broadband in your bag, the modern worker is more connected than ever, regardless of actual physical location. As a result, it's common for work to be done on the train, in cafes, at home, or at any office desk that happens to be free.

This transformation from "going to work" to "work on the go" has massive implications for businesses of all sizes. Whether you're a big enterprise worried about the potential security issues, a small business wondering if you even need an office at all, or an individual worker trying to juggle the opportunities and challenges of 24/7 connectivity, it's clear that you need to re-think some of your assumptions about work and business. 

Today we're pleased to bring you an exclusive interview with Rhianna Collier from the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) in which we explore some of the critical business issues of mobile business. Plus, we've also got a free pass to the SIIA's upcoming ISV conference, All About Mobile, to give away. So make sure you check out that interview below.

Also in today's edition of the Shortlist:

• Why software-as-a-service can be a better way to access business applications
• An excerpt from our upcoming review pack on hosted CRM software
• Thoughts on software for professional service firms from our recent webinar

In our next edition, we look forward to bringing you insights from our soon-to-be-published reviews of online CRM software and of learning management systems (LMS). 

Until then, may your software be good software...

The Software Shortlist team

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Mobile Business: Q&A with the SIIA

There’s a lot of buzz right now about mobile business. Today we have the chance to ask Rhianna Collier, Director of the SIIA Software Division, a few questions about how enterprises are using mobile technologies and where it’s all heading.

Q. Let’s start with the basics. What is mobile business? Can you paint a picture for us of what it means for people within a company: how does it affect their day-to-day lives?

Mobile business today is the ability to carry out all aspects of your business regardless of your location. Individuals have access to all needed services and information via a mobile device, whether it be email, CRM, workflow management, online collaboration, or even financial transactions, just to name a few. As a remote worker myself, it is imperative that I have access to the necessary applications 24/7. It allows me to be in constant touch with our members and ultimately better serve their needs.

Q. To what extent are companies taking advantage of the possibilities offered by “anywhere, anytime” access to business applications and services? How fast is it growing?

We see more and more companies supporting increased mobile device usage with business applications. Most companies have some type of mobile based business accessibility today. We are seeing the depth and bread of services available expand within the enterprise and will continue to expand. Mobile Office is still probably the most commonly used mobile business application suite. With IT departments now being able to customize mobile devices to run their business/industry specific software I believe we will see mobile business increasing at a faster rate than we have ever seen.

Q. What do you think is driving this uptake of mobile business?

The growing virtualized workforce who travel and work from home is a prominent driver in the adoption of mobile business. Having all of your business applications on your smartphone allows employees to maintain business while not in their primary workspace. The flexibility of having business access on mobile devices increases user productivity and customer contact and satisfaction (because you are readily available to your customer base). As more and more enterprises are mobilizing their workforces it has become a critical component to staying competitive in the industry. A secondary trend that will accelerate uptake is the native adoption of mobile as the platform of choice among students and new entrants into the workforce.

Q. What are some of the concerns and challenges facing ISVs when selling mobile business applications to enterprises? How can they overcome these?

The biggest ongoing concern from the enterprise perspective is security. Any cloud or mobile application is still seen as a giant security risk for enterprise IT. There is a fear of data leaks, what if the mobile devices are stolen or lost? There is also user misuse of the device. A lot of the security concerns could be alleviated within the enterprise themselves by governance and employee training; policy development, enforcing things like device timeouts, using passcodes, and device locking. ISVs selling mobile business applications to the enterprises need to understand the security concerns of enterprise IT and make sure the implementation and integration processes are seamless.

Q. And lastly, what sort of impact is mobile business having on the performance of companies that embrace it? Are they seeing a clear ROI from investing in mobile applications?

Mobile business improves communication within a company and allows for real-time access to information. Anytime, anywhere increases profitability by allowing real-time business decisions. Mobile business reduces costs, boosts user productivity, and increases customer service, which, ultimately, leads to profit. That in itself is clear ROI for the movement towards mobile business adoption.

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The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is hosting a major ISV conference, All About Mobile, in San Jose on November 16-17.

WIN A FREE PASS: Here at Software Shortlist, we have one (1) complimentary pass to the conference to give away. For you chance to win, leave a comment on our blog (or send us an email) and share some of your thoughts about how mobile applications will change the way we do business. The comment we consider most interesting and insightful will win its author a free pass.
 

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A Better Way to Access Business Software

For many years now, there has been a general trend in business to focusing on what you do best – that is, your core competencies - and engaging third parties to provide other equipment, people, expertise, and services. Typically specialist providers can do those other things better, cheaper, faster and with greater flexibility… which frees you up to focus on growing your business.

So why do we keep purchasing software (and expensive upgrades) despite renting other business tools? Until recently, the standard software licensing approach prevented us from doing anything else – thankfully, this has changed and businesses like yours can now rent all types of software on an ‘as needed’ basis from solution providers.

Read the full article here

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Hosted CRM software

By Bill Noonan - an excerpt from the CRM Software Review Pack soon to be published by Software Shortlist.

The CRM software industry has matured over the past thirty years from an expensive, custom programmed in-house sales and marketing tool to today’s highly affordable on-line hosted offerings. For the past ten years, the online or hosted CRM market has grown steadily and for SMB applications, has begun to dominate the market over installed software models. For good reasons: the scope, features and capabilities of even these basic hosted programs put feature rich and cost effective CRM tools in the reach of every business and any budget.

Although these programs all share the same ‘CRM’ nomenclature, our analysis shows is that these online CRM programs are not created equal by any stretch of the imagination. Some address the basic bread and butter sales force automation tools; others specialize in marketing, social media, and back office accounting, ordering and billing integration for a total enterprise wide management system.

Our analytical focus on the sales process management indicated that all the hosted CRM programs pretty much do the same things. However, our analysis looks at how they do it and how it gets you there varies greatly from cost, presentation and functionality perspectives. All the major CRM software vendors have extensive online program offerings. Couple this with the explosion of innovative new comers, the playing field has been leveled to provide SMB’s with safe, secure, reliable and fully customizable CRM options with extremely high capability and at relatively low costs.

Our analysis categorized the CRM vendors into three types:

• Basic: No frills CRM that provides the basic CRM features and components to manage contacts, sales opportunities and activities. This category is very competitive offering incredible value and solid feature sets that are applicable to small to mid-size applications.
• Advanced: These providers offer a broad spectrum of CRM tools that include web and marketing tools, document and template controls, integration with back office programs and more. A lot more in most cases where these programs offer hundreds of tools that can complicate the implementation and user training/adoption. All are very scalable.
• Advanced+ ERP: This vendor category integrates CRM and financial, billing, operations, inventory, human resources and advanced marketing and sales programs. Contrary to the vendor ‘ease of use’ hype, all of these require sophisticated and extra cost implementation expertise.

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To find out more about online CRM, see the following resources on www.softwareshortlist.com

• CRM Software Directory
• Online CRM Software Review Pack (to be published in the next few weeks)

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Software for professional service firms

In a recent webinar, Software Shortlist explored key factors that make Professional Service Firms unique. What distinguishes service firms from any other business? What is unique about professional services? And what software is really critical for an owner of a service firm?

Out of this analysis came a concise presentation that business owners are able to use as a 'guide to navigating the landscape of software options for service firms'.

For more, read the article on our website and see the webinar powerpoint slides

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