Top Technology Solution Trends and How They Can Help Your Small Business. October 25, 2010 Laurie McCabe, Partner SMB Group

Transcription

1 Tp Technlgy Slutin Trends and Hw They Can Help Yur Small Business Octber 25, 2010 Laurie McCabe, Partner SMB Grup

2 Tp Technlgy Slutin Trends That Can Help Yur Small Business 1. Scial Media Management 2. Mbile Cmmerce 3. SMB Applicatin Marketplaces 4. On Demand Business Intelligence and Analytics

3 Tp Small Business Challenges Tp business challenges 1. Grwing revenues 36% 2. Attracting new custmers 35% 3. Imprving cash flw 30% Tp technlgy challenges 1. Get better business insights frm existing data 35% 2. Figuring ut hw different slutins can help the business 32% 3. Implementing new slutins and upgrades 32% 4. Integrating scial media with Web site, marketing tls, etc. 24% (Surce: 2010 SMB Grup)

4 1. Scial Media Management Did yu knw??? Mre than 3.5bn pieces f cntent (web links, news stries, blg psts, etc.) are shared each week n Facebk The average number f tweets/day was ver 27.3m in 2009 adding up t 10bn/year 70% f blggers are rganically talking abut brands n their blg. 84% f cnsumers say nline reviews influence purchases Mre than 700,000 lcal businesses have active Pages n Facebk Scial media vlumes and venues are multiplying wrd f muth n sterids!!!

5 Scial Media Management Hw much time d yu spend t t track, cnverse, mnitr and manage yur cmpany s presence and brand??? Create cntent in multiple places, mnitr and scan views, respnd n different sites, etc. Track and analyze nline listings, cmments, ratings, reviews, etc. abut yur business and yur cmpetitrs Scan Twitter fllwers fr cnversatins t jin Check RSS feeds Check Ggle Alerts Create and mnitr relevant cmmunities and tpics Scial Media Management helps yu bring rder t the chas!!!

6 Scial Media Management Scial media management slutins help yu t manage incming and utbund nline interactins mre efficiently Save time by managing and integrating custmer interactins acrss multiple scial media venues and with ther marketing activities (web site, search engine marketing, marketing, etc.) Gain a mre unified view f yur custmers and marketing Drive mre business with scial and nline marketing investments Spt new pprtunities and areas that need imprvement Benchmark yurself with cmpetitrs Scial media management slutins tackle the prblem frm different angles What s mst imprtant fr yur business: Key bjectives fr scial media? Where yu spend the mst time manually scanning, managing, updating and integrating acrss scial media and ther nline marketing? D yu need t integrate with marketing, SEO/SEM, CRM r ther marketing slutins? Lk fr slutins designed specifically fr small businesses

7 Scial Media Management Slutins t check ut BatchBlue scial CRM integrates cntact, sales and scial media feeds. Cntact recrds shw their scial netwrking activity; and yu can search acrss the Internet t see where yur cmpany r prduct is being mentined. HubSpt s inbund marketing helps cmpanies create, ptimize and prmte cntent t get fund, cnvert and clse mre business. It links t cnversatins acrss the the Web related t yur keywrds in ne dashbard. Marchex Reputatin Management cmpiles cntent frm 8,000+ nline surces and prvides analysis n what peple are saying abut yu and yur cmpetitrs..

8 2. Mbile Cmmerce We re ging mbile Mbility market will reach $1 trillin by % f US smart phne users have made a purchase n handsets in last six mnths 19% purchased music 14% bught bks, DVDs r games 12% have purchased mvie tickets 32% f Andrid and 29% f iphne users willing t spend $100+ frm their handsets 65m+ users access Facebk thrugh mbilebased devices up ver 100% in 6 mnths 27% f all cnsumers used mbiles t brwse and research prducts at 4x/12 mnth perid. Fr the age grup, this figure is 41%. In the last 12 mnths, custmers rdered mre than $1bn f prducts frm Amazn using a mbile device Mbile payments market = $170bn s far this year Expected t quadruple By 2014 t $630bn (5% f ttal ecmmerce sales) (Surces: Gartner, ATG, Juniper, ABI, cmscre)

9 Mbile Cmmerce Mbile cmmerce cnsists f tw primary cmpnents: 1. The ability t use a wireless phne r ther mbile device t cnduct financial transactins and exchange payments ver the Internet 2. The ability t deliver infrmatin that can facilitate a transactin frm making it easy fr yur business t be fund via a mbile Web brwser t creating mbile marketing campaigns such as text prmtins and lyalty prgrams With the Internet in ur pcket r purse, it s nly a matter f time befre mbile cmmerce really takes ff.

10 Mbile Cmmerce What mbile cmmerce means fr yu: Being able t take credit card transactins n yur mbile device can help bst sales and repeat business. Yu dn t need t limit yur sales t peple wh can pay by cash r check. Custmers aren t limited by the amunt f cash in their pckets. Yu can easily capture cntact infrmatin and fllw up with ther prmtins Yu can use mbile marketing t send custmers reminders, prmtins, etc. It s still early in the mbile cmmerce era Nw is a great time t develp a mbile cmmerce strategy t help differentiate yur business!

11 Mbile Cmmerce Mbile cmmerce marketing cnsideratins D yu need a mbile Web site? Cnsider building a separate, streamlined site fr mbile users. Services such as mbisitegalre, Mbify and Ruxter help yu t create a mbile-friendly website If yur blg r website is n WrdPress 10 mbile plugins fr Wrdpress t install t make yur website mbile friendly Hw will yu prmte yur business t users? Check ut SMS text messaging services such as Fanminder, Ez Texting and Ruxter Dn t be a pest--make sure custmers pt-in if they want t get yur prmtins via their mbile devices r nt Mbile cmmerce payments cnsideratins Set up yur business t take payments, /text invices n yur mbile device. Sftware, credit card cmpanies and wireless carriers ffer slutins Be sure that it s secure. Verify that the mcmmerce payments vendr is PA-DSS cmpliant and meets PCI security standards (prevents payment apps frm string prhibited data, e.g. magnetic stripe, PIN r CVV2 numbers Think abut integratin. Integrating mcmmerce with accunting and cntact management slutins saves time, bsts efficiency--intuit GPayments, Sage Exchange and Sage Payment Bss integrate with their respective accunting and financial slutins.

12 3. SMB Applicatin Marketplaces Figuring ut hw technlgy slutins can help my business is the #2 technlgy challenge fr SMBs Tday SMBs mst ften turn t search engines, vendr s and websites t help srt thrugh this cnfusin, and keep up with infrmatin abut technlgy slutins It s tugh t srt thrugh different technlgies, geek-speak and marketing hype t figure ut which slutins will prvide the biggest bang fr the buck!

13 SMB Applicatin Marketplaces Applicatin stres r marketplaces can help streamline the discvery, evaluatin and selectin prcess fr small business apps One-stp shp t find, try and buy Help yu find the right app mre quickly and easily Clud based slutins that yu can try fr free User-generated reviews, rankings Expert cmmentary, tips, advice and resurces Find apps that wrk with thse yu already use

14 SMB Applicatin Marketplaces Ggle Apps Marketplace, which ffers Ggle users apps that integrate directly with Ggle Apps Cnstant Cntact Marketplace, which ffers small businesses with applicatins that integrate with Cnstant Cntact s and marketing tls. Intuit s Wrkplace App Center prvides a central lcatin t find and try apps that wrk with QuickBks and each ther. Zh s Marketplace features an area fr users t submit requests fr new apps and features s develpers can build apps in respnse t these requests GetApp.cm is a neutral meta marketplace Find, cmpare and chse frm a wide range f business applicatins, with nline tls, reprts, interviews and user ratings. Vendrs prvide GetApp with landing pages and dcumentatin t verify integratins between their apps and ther apps and marketplaces

15 SMB Applicatin Marketplaces Things t think abut Hw many applicatins are in the marketplace, and hw fast is it grwing? While bigger isn t necessarily better, a vibrant, grwing app stre means mre chices fr yu Hw simple is it t sign up, sign in and test drive new applicatins? Try sme free trials t see hw it wrks fr yu Hw active is the user cmmunity in prviding reviews, cmments and ratings? A mre engaged cmmunity gives yu mre feedback abut specific apps What level f integratin d yu need between yur existing applicatin(s) and new applicatins? Sme app stres require develpers t use a cmmn data mdel, which enables tighter integratin Others take a mre pen apprach Think abut what the types f data yu need t integrate and the level f integratin that yu need

16 4. On Demand Business Intelligence and Analytics 1.2 zettabytes f digital infrmatin will be created in 2010 A zettabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes (that's 21 zeres!) Online vide, scial netwrking sites such as Facebk, digital phtgraphy, cell phne data all cntributing t the data pile-up Annual amunt f bytes we cllectively prduce frecast t sar 44X ver the next decade (Surce: 2010 IDC and EMC study)

17 On Demand Business Intelligence Infrmatin is nt knwledge. Albert Einstein Infrmatin verlad is a term cined by Alvin Tffler refers t the difficulty a persn can have understanding an issue and making decisins that can be caused by the presence f t much infrmatin #1 technlgy challenge fr small businesses: Getting better business insights frm the data we already have Until recently BI. has usually been t cmplex and expensive fr mst small businesses

18 On Demand Business Intelligence and Analytics New n demand/saas BI slutins remve IT infrastructure csts, resurces, skills frm the BI equatin On demand BI and analytics slutins can: Help yu measure and manage the business Interactively slice and dice data fr what-if scenaris t evaluate different curses f actin Streamline data cllectin, analysis and reprting Get everyne n the same page with a real-time, unified view f the data Offer functin-specific/mdular capabilities t zer in n a specific task financial analysis, spend analysis, pipeline management, nline marketing, etc

19 On Demand Business Intelligence and Analytics On demand BI geared fr SMBs Birst Easy Insight PivtLink Zh Reprts Imprtant t analyze n demand analytics slutins based n yur needs! Evaluate requirements what are the things that yu knw yu dn t knw? Take advantage f vendrs free trials Lk fr an easy t use UI t cut dwn n training time and encurage adptin What slutins is it pre-integrated with? Hw easy is it t pull in data frm flat files, spreadsheets, databases, r ther applicatins yu use? Is it a DIY r will yu need external resurces t help yu get the types f analysis and reprting yu need?

20 Q & A Laurie McCabe laurie.mccabe@smb-gr.cm SMB Grup