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Cloud Solutions for Small Business

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No matter your role in an organization, you've probably been frustrated trying to use technology to get your job done. Collabrax promises to promote growth, scability, and cost savings so that you can get back to what you do best, running a succesful and profitable business.

7 Benefits of Cloud Computing for Small Businesses

Cloud Solutions for Your BusinessAs a small business owner, you might be hearing a lot of buzz about cloud computing. It’s the name given to a number of business tools you access online via your laptop, desktop or mobile phone. From email programs to time-tracking software to bookkeeping solutions, the cloud computing world is full of online tools for startups and small businesses. It’s like self-service for the Internet—you use what you need and pay as you go.

This setup has the potential to change the way your start-up or smaller company does business. Consider these seven benefits:

  1. Save Money – Cloud solutions are all about choices. You select the program and options you want, and pay a one-time fee or purchase services on a subscription basis. You save money because you don’t have to buy software packages with a lot of bulk your business will never use.
  2. Storage Options that Grow with You – Small businesses just don’t need terabytes of storage. So, get access to extra space as you grow into it. For example, Dropbox is a storage solution that gives you access to your files from anywhere. You can get up to 2GB of storage for free. If you need more, 50GB and 100GB options are available for purchase.
  3. Skilled Technical Support – If you are a little leery of getting started because you’re not a technical whiz, you needn’t be. Cloud computing companies offer customer support. It’s cheaper than hiring your own IT guy, and you get help from someone who specializes in the product instead of one person trying to keep up with the entire technology industry.
  4. Nothing to Update – You don’t have to buy updated versions and waste time installing the upgrade yourself. As new products and enhancements are rolled out, you gain immediate access the next time you log on.
  5. Access from Anywhere – Perhaps one of the most convenient features of cloud computing is that you and your employees can access your files, email, calendars, and programs via a secure login from anywhere you have an Internet connection. Desktop, laptop, and mobile devices are supported for most cloud computing programs.
  6. Reduce Your Carbon Footprint – An added bonus of cloud computing is that it can reduce your carbon footprint when compared to traditional services.
  7. Do Business Like the Big Guys – With professional bookkeeping, invoicing, calendar, time-tracking, and many other tools, you have all the resources the big guys do from the start. You can operate a profitable, professional business without ever looking like a fledgling start-up.

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13.Feb.11 Cloud Computing Comment (1)

7 Benefits of Google Apps for Small Business

Google Apps for Small BusinessAs a small business owner, you should get to know Google. More specifically, Google Apps.

There are some benefits that Google Apps can offer a small business owner that not many people are aware of. When you use Google Apps instead of the traditional IT software most businesses use, you’re basically placing your data and workflow information in the internet cloud. Meaning, everything you need is accessible wherever you are as long as you have an internet connection.

Here’s are 7 benefits of Google Apps for your small business:

  1. Proven cost savings
    Google’s web-based messaging and collaboration apps require no hardware or software and need minimal administration, creating tremendous time and cost savings for businesses.
  2. 50 times more storage than the industry average
    Each employee gets 25 GB for email storage, so they can keep important messages and find them instantly with built-in Google search.
  3. Mobile email, calendar and IM access
    With several options for accessing their information while on the go, employees can be productive with Google Apps even when they’re not at their desks.
  4. 99.9% uptime reliability guarantee
    Google guarantees that Google Apps will be available at least 99.9% of the time, so your employees are more productive and so you can worry less about system downtime.
  5. Information security and compliance
    When you trust your company’s information to Google, you can be confident that your critical information is safe and secure.
  6. Full administrative and data control
    Administrators can deeply customize Google Apps to meet their technical, branding and business requirements.
  7. Helpful 24/7 customer support
    Google Apps is highly reliable and easy to operate, but support is available for administrators should you need it.

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13.Feb.11 Google Comments (0)

Big News for Small Business: WordPress and Salesforce Team Up

WordPressThings just got a little bit easier for small business owners everywhere, especially those in need of a new or updated website. Recently, Salesforce for small business unveiled two free WordPress themes for small businesses.

The new themes are designed with all the bells and whistles, helping businesses attract more customers. You can use them to highlight your business information and easily update web copy. Plus, when it comes to blogging, you also have the ability to publish entries directly to your site’s home page or via a subfolder in your site’s navigation.

WordPress Benefits for Small Business

First of all, it’s free! Although your site may look similar in layout to the sites of other small business owners, there are still plenty of opportunities for customization. Because the sites are built on WordPress, they are also easy to set up and manage.

When it comes to site operation, flexibility and ease of use are two of the biggest benefits that come with the Salesforce WordPress themes. You’ll be able to build your site’s ranking through the search engine optimization (SEO) tools inherent in the WordPress platform. When search engines bring in more traffic to your site, you get more leads and more customers.

WordPress has been the go-to platform for individual bloggers for years because it is so easy to use. You can see just how easy it is to get going by watching these demo videos for the Turnkey and Green Stimulus themes:

WordPress can also help you with customer relationship management. More than 50% of consumer use search engines to find what they need. Since your website is the first point of contact for many of your company’s leads, finding a low-cost, professionally designed site that is visually pleasing is win-win for your business.

Advantages over Traditional Webmaster or Host Provider

Small businesses are notorious for being short on two things: money and time. Having a well-coded site used to mean paying a webmaster to make updates each time you needed to upload an employee photo or make changes to your web copy.

The new WordPress themes offered by Salesforce change all that, allowing you to install the theme and make content changes yourself through a user-friendly interface. There is no need to know developer coding. In fact, most domain hosts are set up to make WordPress installs on you site super easy. Fatastico De Luxe is a widely-used application that lets you setup WordPress and other scripts in just a few clicks.

But Wait! There’s More: Salesforce Plugin

If your small business is using Salesforce to power customer relationship management, you can install the WordPress-to-Lead (similar to Salesforce Web-to-Lead feature) plugin on your WordPress-powered site. People who visit your site will be able to contact you directly through your website, and the lead information is automatically entered in your Salesforce CRM. That means you no longer have to copy and paste lead information into your account.

Whether you use Salesforce to manage customer relations or not, this announcement is sure to make your life much simpler.

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12.Feb.11 CRM, Salesforce.com Comments (2)



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