What SaaS means to SMBs

SaaS has been around for a few years now and SMBs are taking notice in a big way. It was only 12mths ago we where being asked by our potential customers everything about SaaS , because they had little or no understanding. Now it seems they have all done their Masters on the subject and seem to know everything there is too. How did this change so rapidly? Well for one, the recession has really help advertise the finical benefits of SaaS to the SMB’s, but how do they know all the additional details of SaaS.

The answer is, SMB’s are now becoming more self-educated and following the hype/discussions through Blogs, Forums, Twitter ect. This is really great news for SaaS venders\suppliers because customers are in a more education position to sign up without direct contact by phone or email. This gives venders time back to focus on research and development, new features, and integration with other applications, which in turn benefits the customers.

There are really 3 main reasons we find SMBs love SaaS.

1. Capital – (Cash is KING) SaaS helps maintain capital while giving business owners manageable monthly costs, which can be easily justified.

2. Availability – Managing your business from anywhere, anytime

3. No Contracts – Try, buy, and Cancel. No longer are SMBs locked into length contracts and expensive consultant services.

Sure there are many more benefits to SaaS, but we believe these 3 reasons are what really matters to SMB’s.

Let us know what matters to you most?

Tips for SMBs during the quiet periods

As we come into the Christmas break most companies usually slow down or close all together.

This gives owners time to reflect on the year, and plan for the next.

So here are a few tips what you can do during your quiet time.

Improve Your Business

Look at your current business flow. Think to yourself, how can I improve my productivity, and decrease double handling. To give you some examples;

Are you still using Microsoft Excel, or Outloook to manage your customer’s information?

Look into using a CRMs (Client Relationship Managers)

CRMs can greatly improve the way you interact and target your customers. Set up sales processes, and track against your marketing and sales goals to see which are working for you, and which are not. Keep all the communication between you and your customers like, emails, phone calls, proposals/quotes even birthdays…

There are many different CRMs on offer. If you looking for a more advanced CRM look at; sugerCRM or Salesforce. If you require a simple to use, low cost CRM, look into at using Connect2Field, it helps you manage all your customer details and provides you with an account history of all your customers. Which ever you choose you will improve the relationships with your current, and prospect customers.

Is your accounting system working for you, or are you working for your accounting system?

The days are over of accounting systems designed just for accountants. Sure a few that still exist, however so many new accounting apps have been created in the recent years which a perfectly suited for SMBs, and some come with an SMB price ;).

Make sure your current account package is best suited to you. Don’t be afraid of change. It’s not difficult to switch from one system to another with the export and import features built into most accounting packages. Connect2Field directly integrations with the following,; Saasu, Kashflow, Xero and Quickbooks, and moving to an online accounting system can have huge benefits for your company.

Make your business found in Google

Have you heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) before?

SEO helps your potential customers find you easily through surfing the web on search engins like Google. It really can help you increase the traffice to your website.

Here are a few tips to help build your SEO.

Firstly, build your website to be SEO friendly.

Once you have optimized your website, create a blog and talk about what’s going on in your business, and industry. This helps you build and online audience, and in return increase your SEO. This does take some time but the results are well worth it.

Find website listing relevant for your company IE http://www.plumbers.uk.com/ some are free, some charge based on how many customers click on your Ad. Either way these greatly help your SEO.

Additional tools to help you connect with your customer like snapengage assit in converting website visitors to customers. These guys offer an excellent service in connecting to your customers with a live website chat, this will really help increase your website sales.

We hope the tips give you some ideas on things to look at for 2011. The Connect2Field team wishes you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Traditional Install VS SaaS

I thought this discussion could spark up an interesting debate. Traditional Install Vs SaaS? Let’s look at some of the benefits and drawbacks for both.

Traditional Installation Advantages

Software that is installed on the client’s own server entails a great deal of user buy-in and commitment. Once the client-installed software is deployed, users experience many advantages such as:

Configurability. Software installed on the premises provides users with greater ability to tailor functionality to their unique business needs. However, customisation costs usally occur.

Standardization of business practices. A traditional software installation encourages companies to re-evaluate their existing processes to enforce consistency enterprise-wide.

Ownership and control. The client is in charge of ensuring their system requirements and technology is up to par and can manage their application as they see fit.

Traditional Installation Challenges

Before committing to software installed on the premises, users should be aware of the following challenges:

Time intensive. A traditional installation is more complex than aSaaS solution and may take several weeks or months to implement.

Requires team of dedicated resources. As the software is kept on the client’s own system, IT specialists must manage their own upgrades and ongoing maintenance.

More costly/requires larger budget. The complexity of a clientinstalled system means that more resources and time are invested driving up costs.

SaaS Challenges

As Software as a Service is a newer option, many people are reluctant to diverge from client-installed software. According to a 2007 survey conducted by the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM) about the benefits and challenges of SaaS, a few negative perceptions about SaaS include:

Loss of control. Many people (76%) believe that they relinquish control when dealing with a SaaS vendor—this is unfounded. While the vendor takes care of the system requirements, customers are free to leave if they are unsatisfied in any way with the SaaS provider; this encourages the provider to work harder to keep users happy.

Weak data protection. About 60% of respondents are worried about weak security measures. Connect 2 Field uses the latest technology along with 128 SSL data encryption to ensure sensitive data is protected.

Unreliability. A common misconception is that SaaS provides intermittent service. In reality,  Connect 2 Field servers have 99.9% uptime through extensive network redundancy.

SaaS Advantages

Software as a Service (SaaS) is delivered as a service over the internet; as such there are several benefits users enjoy with this method including:

No start-up costs. The SaaS provider bears the costs of the hardware, maintenance and technology.

Quick deployment and accessibility. Users can begin using the application almost immediately since there is no software or hardware to install. The application can be accessed remotely so long as there is an internet connection and web browser.

Quick return on investment (ROI). According to the Aberdeen Group, SaaS users benefit from a ROI that is 2-4 times quicker than traditionally installed software.

IT budget and resources are freed up. With less money required on the software, money can be invested in other projects.

Little to no commitment. Since SaaS is available on a subscription basis, customers can choose to renew or cancel their terms without major repercussions.

With less risk and flexibility to move, I believe every company should move all core applications to a SaaS platform, whether in a private cloud or public.

Feel free to add you own opinion below.

Snow…Ash…. What’s next for Europe?

As we have all heard, Europe is a no fly zone because of Eyjafjallajokull constantly erupting. Even more worrying is the fact that the last time it erupted, it did so for 2 years nonstop. The one good thing from this experience, is that more and more business are seeing the value of having the core application in the cloud.(Not the ash cloud). With cloud computing, we enable businesses to keep functioning, regardless of the weather, or Natural disaster in this case. We saw this before with the UK snow storms. Operation managers, Financial staff, sales people where all stuck at home. Some UK companies where asking employees,, to make up their time off by working extra hours when the weather had cleared. All of this can be averted with SaaS applications like Connect 2 Field, Xero, Saasu Capsule ect. If indeed this eruption last for 2yrs, what is UKs contingency plan on transit, deliveries, mail. Is it time to bring back the titanic’s to keep businesses running, or can everyone still work where ever they are. ..? Hmmm.