Strategy + Solutions

Spiceworks Network Monitoring Software for Network Management

Spiceworks, based in our corporate HQ town of Austin, TX, is a home run category killer solution for Small and Medium businesses (SMB's).  This tool will clearly create a rumble in the IT enterprise management market since it could displace or disrupt Computer Associates, HP and IBM's plans within the SMB space.  The Spiceworks IT Desktop, written using the open-source Ruby on Rails web application framework, performs network inventory and monitoring.  The package includes an integrated helpdesk system that can be installed in 5 minutes!  The home run is that it has most of the necessary features needed to manage the IT needs of a medium sized business.  It can report on and monitor desktop systems and installed software automatically without the need to install agents on each individual machine.  It appears the system can support firm with between 20 and 250 employees.  The only limitation of Spiceworks for a  larger enterprise is that it can't be used to manage systems over WAN links.  Check out this SMB category killer today for your SMB.

iContact Email Platform Ideal for SMB's

iContact, a great new technology service recently raised $5.35 MM and closed on their series A with Updata.  Check out this new service for your small or medium business today and reap the benefits!

Vyew Introduces Exciting New Tool for SMB's

Vyew Syncs Live Web Conferencing and Asynchronous Collaboration for Creating, Managing, and Interacting with All Forms of Content

Vyew bridges asynchronous and synchronous workflows and also adds portability to finalized content for posting on blogs, social networks, and other online pages

BERKELEY, Calif. -- June 8, 2007 -- Vyew, which recently emerged out of Beta, introduces version 2.5, one of the first online applications to fuse both live meeting and asynchronous collaboration capabilities to improve content collaboration, online meetings, and workflow. It is ideal for a wide range of users, from independent professionals to small businesses and workgroups.

With Vyew 2.5, people can create VyewBooks to share, present, and interact with other people around all forms of content such as Microsoft Office files, pictures, audio and video. Tools to create new presentations are also included within the suite. Participants can also share their desktop view for live sharing of files, images, and Web sites. The new version also enables people to print VyewBooks.

VyewBooks are now also portable in 2.5 with the addition of an embeddable Vyewlet generator. Vyewlets are read-only VyewBooks which can be posted outside of Vyew -directly in blog posts, Web sites, social networks, and any online page - to create dynamic, multimedia presentations to engage viewers. If and when a Vyewlet needs to be updated, it can be done so inside Vyew with changes pushed live to the Vyewlet via an RSS-like mechanism.

Vyew is business-ready, allowing companies to customize the browser-based application to reflect their corporate branding and ID.  Vyew is also introducing Multi-Language support for Asian, Cyrilic, and Arabic keyboard characters. This broadens Vyew’s functionality for globally dispersed teams.

“Software’s migration to an online platform is facilitating new relationships between people and content,” said Henry Hon, CEO. “Vyew isn’t just another WebEx or GotoMeeting where information is communicated in a canned one-to-many format. Vyew is an enterprise-class social computing platform where people can also create, share, and participate with rich content in a many-to-many relationship, both in real-time and asynchronously over time.”

Vyew is available for free and is supported by light advertising. Businesses can enjoy ad-free, customizable versions of the service, with subscription prices starting as low as $6.95 per month.

Vyew allows unlimited sessions. Vyew also gives subscribers unique flexibility with Overflow Participants, an industry first, which allows extra real-time participant expansion for live conferences – at no additional charge. Subscribers can also choose to set-up a Custom Room ID for quick, easy-to-remember access to their sessions: For example, www.vyew.com/username.

Related information:

Vyew – http://www.vyew.com

Vyew 2.5 - http://tinyurl.com/2w7pn9

Vyewlet introducing 2.5 - http://tinyurl.com/2s66h7

About Vyew

Vyew is a browser-based collaboration and conferencing platform that enables Web users to share and create together in real-time and over time. Within seconds, Vyew users can access a shared workspace where they can upload and annotate files (.ppt, .doc, .xls, .pdf, .jpg, .mp3, .flv, etc.), take screen captures, white-board, and use a library of plug-ins to create content for sharing and collaborating on. Content in Vyew can be saved, accessed on-demand, left ‘always-on’ for reference or to add to over time, printed, and published anywhere on the web. During live conferencing sessions, users can also communicate via Vyew’s free teleconferencing service, instant text chat, and stream live what’s showing on their desktop.

Carbonite

If you are a professional service provider, small or even a medium business you can't go without a solution to back-up your data on your PC's so that it is recoverable in case of a hard disk failure, theft, fire, etc. 

After reviewing several Strategy+Solutions likes Carbonite.  It comes with a free 15 day trial and backs up your data on the internet while it works in the background without interruption.  The quality of the service appears to be a very good value considering its price and they claim that the amount of data for back-up is unlimited.

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.

 

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.

Highrise

This is a home run solution for professional service firms and small and medium businesses.

Highrise "helps you track communication and conversations with leads, employees, clients, colleagues, vendors, or anyone else that matters to your business."

Check out this great new technology tool and see how you can leverage it to help you increase your productivity, communication and sales effectiveness.

Criteria for Evaluating Innovative Solutions

If you are trying to evaluate an investment in a new Web 2.0 solution for your business you might consider using the list below to guide your decision making process.

Peter Drucker's book Innovation and Entrepreneurship really does a great job of distilling criteria for any new venture or business idea you are considering but it also does a great job of helping you evaluate any technology solution you are considering implementing within your business.  The following ideas represent solid ways to evaluate whether or not a solution will help your business meet its needs:

1. It creates new utility for you the customer

2. Price is related to the value not the cost to produce

3. The product/service responds to your unmet realities/needs or problems

4. Delivers attributes not products

5. Reasonable speed to market is possible (How long will it take to implement?)

6. Simple and focused- does one thing, satisfies one need

7. Obtains a leadership position in the market or niche quickly (Important that the company is built to last so that you can count on solid customer service and a long term relationship with the vendor.)

8. Not too clever for market or too far ahead of market

9. Consistent with your organization's strengths, customer focused and not too diverse.  (Bottom line: Does the vendor's solution enable you to improve your business and productivity and care enough to be there for you when something isn't working with the technology and help you fix it?)

Yugma- Online Meeting Solution

If you are in need of an online meeting solution check out Yugma.  I haven't had a chance to take a demo tour of the company but it appears to be a great solution to evaluate for your business.

Yugma (pronounced "yoog-ma"; Sanskrit word meaning "together") is a next generation real-time web conferencing and desktop sharing service that is free forever. Users can use the service as often as they wish and invite up to 10 other people to each web session.

Yugma enables users to share their desktop real-time, annotate, whiteboard and change presenters – with Mac and/or Windows (Linux coming soon).