Everything is moving to the cloud, including phone systems. Today, RingCentral.com is launching new features for its completely cloud-based small-business phone system called Cloud Presence. The new system keeps track of where you are, even if you connect using multiple devices such as a mobile phone, tablet and laptop.
If you are feeling a bit of a credit crunch around this time of year, it might be a good idea to check out the reviews of business credit cards on NextAdvisor.com here. The reviews site is trying to bulk up its business offerings, and now covers business VOIP services, some basic recommendations on cloud computing, online meeting providers and Web hosting services, in addition to its consumer offerings that it cut its teeth on such as best dating sites and diet programs.
We last wrote about them earlier this fall, looking at their reviews of online backup service providers. They add oodles of content each week, and their comparison charts are very well done, giving you the implications of features and pricing options for each service covered. All the content is free and well organized.
There are dozens, if not more, vendors offering Web conferencing services. They mostly fall into two price tiers: $50 or more per month, with various fees, and next to nothing that offer few features. The higher-priced spread is great on features but requires some setup, the low end can be quick to use but not very robust.
That middle ground is where YourOfficeAnywhere.com is trying to claim, and while I haven't used it for very long, it has some promise. For $10 per user per month, you get a combination of three separate services:
Today, Intuit announced the availability of a connector between QuickBooks and Salesforce. It seems like a marriage made in Heaven. (We previously reported on the partnership back in April here.)
The idea is to share your QB financial data with your sales team in the cloud, so that you can better follow sales leads and be able to understand your customer interactions. The service is available starting today and the pricing plan makes it a great starting place for those of you whom have never tried Salesforce. You can get a price break on existing Salesforce contracts too.
Many small businesses don't have much depth when it comes to IT support, and Symantec's Norton division is here to help with its first 24/7 online help desk.
What can you call them about? A lot of different problems: virus infections, of course, but also solving network connection issues, general PC tuneups, hooking up a printer or a scanner, and general consultative help. Yes, there are lots of local VARs that offer this service, but the Norton name carries a certain cachet. (For those of you too young to remember, Peter Norton pictured above, was an early utility software pioneer, and is now a patron of the arts.)
Businesses operating online can have hundreds or thousands of customers navigating their Website in a given day, in most cases slipping by without the business owner acknowledging them or necessarily even knowing anything about them.
A web app called Intercom is the latest in a growing selection of customer relationship management and engagement products that aims to change that, for better or worse.
Recognizing what a true pain setting up an eCommerce solution can be for small businesses, a number of startups have launched products that aim to simplify the process. PintPay, Chargify, Recurly and CheddarGetter are a few of the that enable sites to accept payments without having to deal with merchant accounts, complex fees and hiring developers for implementation.
Another option for accepting payments online is WePay, which recently launched a basic online shopping cart tool called. It comes in two flavors: WePay Stores, a fully hosted storefront and Embeddable Stores, which offers the same functionality but allows you to embed it directly into your company's site for a more seamless user experience.
For small and medium-sized businesses, there's no shortage of Web-based software out there designed to help them collaborate, market themselves and get things done. In fact, the selection can be a little overwhelming. This comparison chart on Wikipedia, for example, breaks down 132 project management software options for businesses. And that's just project management.
Recognizing that smaller operations seldom have the time or patience to sift through hundreds of options, serial entrepreneur Rachel Blankstein launched Comparz, a site that combines expert and user reviews for an variety of Web-based tools for SMBs.
For small businesses, setting up social media profiles, blogs and any other online presence is a trivial matter that takes mere minutes to complete. But how does one effectively pull it all together into one centralized hub?
Central.ly is a tool for creating one-page business profiles that can include a number of third party "apps" linking to sites like Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and, of course, a company's own Website. Think of it like About.me or Flavors.me, but for businesses rather than individuals. Indeed, the back-end interface will look very familiar to users of About.me.
Alfred Poor has written a very lively and informative little book with a lousy title. Called Power Marketing for Small Business, it is chock full of tips and suggestions on how anyone can get started marketing their small business by using online videos. This is a more big-picture kind of effort, but the steps are so clearly laid out that anyone can leverage Poor's experience and get started.
Poor runs his own freelance consulting practice. For 20 years he wrote articles for PC Magazine and many other tech pubs and now runs HDTVprofessor.com, a resource site for buying and learning more about HDTV.