Strategy + Solutions

Freshbooks

FreshBooks is an exciting online invoicing and time tracking software as a service company based in Toronto, Canada.  FreshBooks is a company to watch as it launches a new service offering called Report Cards that appears set to disrupt established players serving the small business market in the research and reporting arenas like Forrester, Hoover's and Dunn & Bradstreet. 

This new free business benchmarking service offered to FreshBooks customers provides small businesses the ability to compare their business metrics against businesses just like their own.  Report Cards provides essential market data for immediate industry specific best practices related to invoicing.  Reports include average monthly revenue, average size of invoices, average time to get paid, and percentage of customers who pay online versus mail. 

FreshBooks is a great tool to consider if you are seeking ways to enhance the way you manage your books and do business.  This invoicing and time-tracking service is a winner for the under served small business market because it appears to be a productivity powerhouse that can potentially enable you to save time, improve cash flow, enhance client billing communications, and streamline your business processes.

 

Strategy+Solutions Book List

People often ask what strategy books we read and recommend at Strategy+Solutions.  While we are no New York Times, we still took time to compile a list of our favorites for the Strategy+Solutions community.  Most are oldies but good for the strategic soul.  The following books made the inaugural Strategy+Solutions Recommended Reading List:

1. The Hidden Power of Social Networks, Rob Crossand Andrew Parker, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004

2. Contemporary Strategy Analysis, Robert M. Grant, New York: Blackwell, 2005

3. The Future of Competition, C.K. Prahald & Venkat Ramaswamy, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004

4. Confronting Reality, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, New York: Crown Business, 2002

5. Democratizing Innovation, Eric Von Hippel, Boston: The MIT Press, 2005

6. Deep Smarts, Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2005

7. Seeing What's Next & The Medici Effect, Frans Johansson, Boston: Harvard Businesss School Press, 2004

8. Making Strategy Work, Lawrence G. Hrebiniak, New Jersey: Wharton School Publishing, 2005

9. The Innovator's Solution, Clayton M. Christensen,

10. Enterprise Architecture As Strategy, Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, David C. Robertson: Harvard Business School Press, 2006

Of course, if you are new to reading books about strategy you must start with anything by the great Michael E. Porter.  If you have any books you feel we should include please add your thoughts.  Enjoy reading!

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates View on the Future of IT

Check out this article from Reuters about his view on the future of IT.  What are your thoughts about his views and what trends do you think will appear in the next 5 years?

ThinkFree

There is yet another exciting Web 2.0 product coming to a browser near you.  ThinkFree just announced that WordPress is offering its new Viewer Plugin enabling WordPress bloggers to embed MS Office docs, spreadsheets, and presentations allowing visitors to view them without the need for Office or Acrobat.

The other big news is that ThinkFree is openly offering its Viewer APIs for Web Services companies to mashup Viewer into new and cool applications. APIs are also available to Web designers to integrate Viewer.  Imagine integrating the ability to view .doc, .xls, or .ppt files directly within a service, regardless of OS, installed apps, etc.  Viewer APIs enable anyone to see the original file, in its original format, instantly. 

And here’s the clincher. All files will automatically be uploaded to the upcoming ThinkFree Docs – which is “flickr” for Office files, enabling content creators to share, get feedback, read, and source office documents.  This service will be launching in beta shortly.  Check out the ThinkFree blog too!  This is an exciting company well worth the watch.

Jott

If you are an extremely busy professional or an extraordinary idea generator who usually scribbles notes on the back of napkins and yellow sticky notes you might have stumbled upon a sophisticated productivity solution called Jott.

Jott is a new tool that enables you to make a note to yourself even when you don't have a pen and paper handy. You call Jott on your cell phone, record a message, and Jott will run the message through a voice-to-text application that e-mail you the results.  How amazing is that!

Most people use a small digital recording device or their own voice mail to create this type or  organization and productivity but Jott provides you with a mailbox just for those messages to yourself.
Jott e-mails transcribed messages to your personal or corporate e-mail address depending on the one you give it when you sign up. It stores the messages in a "JottBox." The best part is that it enables you to "JottCast" messages to other people by creating a contact list.  The service is currently in beta, and it's free.

I could have used this service over the past week and weekend at The Master's. By the end of the tournament, I had a plethora of ideas and blog posts, but I also needed to follow Tiger and the eventual winner Zach Johnson without my cell phone.  The Master's doesn't allow any cameras, cell phones, or technology devices of any type.  What they did have was a bank of phones with free local and long distance sponsored by AT&T. If I'd known about Jott, I could have used those phones and been productive instead of eating too many pimento and cheese sandwiches.

Web 2.0 Expo

This a friendly reminder to our readers to check out the Web 2.0 Expo.  This event should be a fantastic gathering for anyone who needs to learn more about Web 2.0 and how this technology can be leveraged to enhance small and medium business performance.  The following is a brief write up about this exciting event:

Web 2.0 Expo is an annual gathering of technical, design, marketing, and business professionals who are building the next generation web. Web 2.0 Expo features the most innovative and successful Internet industry figures and companies providing attendees with examples of business models, development paradigms, and design strategies to enable mainstream businesses and new arrivals to the Web 2.0 world to take advantage of this new generation of services and opportunities. The Web 2.0 Expo is co-presented by CMP Technology and O'Reilly Media.

The Web continues to be an engine of economic growth, fueled by a host of new business models, development models, and design patterns that collectively fall under the umbrella of Web 2.0, a term coined at the birth of the Web 2.0 Conference, a joint venture between O’Reilly Media and CMP Technology.

To meet the increasing demand for Web 2.0 comprehension and skills, and to build a broader Web 2.0 community, O'Reilly Media and CMP Technology have launched the first Web 2.0 Expo on April 15-18, 2007 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Web 2.0 Expo, a companion event to the Web 2.0 Conference (recently renamed Web 2.0 Summit), is the first conference and tradeshow for the rapidly growing ranks of designers and developers, product managers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketers, and business strategists who are embracing the opportunities created by Web 2.0 technologies. "

Web 2.0 Discussion at Davos World Economic Forum

A lively discussion about Web 2.0 occurred at the World Economic Forum.  If you are interested in learning more about how thought leaders like Bill Gates and others view Web 2.0 and its impact on the future you must check out this feed.