It was great to get an update this week from Lawson Software (there’s a lot to be said for a briefing after a conference, btw). More to come!…. [Read more...]
Epicor Software and Activant Solutions to be Acquired and Merged into….Epicor Software
April 7, 2011 by · 1 Comment
In an announcement following by barely 3 weeks the disclosure that Lawson Software had received an unsolicited bid from Infor Global Solutions, private equity firm Apax Partners has announced plans to acquire and merge Activant Solutions and Epicor Software into a new privately-held company, to be called Epicor Software. The new entity will have some 30,000 customers and $825M in revenues. This clearly indicates continuing interest by the investment community in the lucrative ERP marketplace, and an opportunity for larger players in the marketplace other than the two giants, SAP and Oracle.
5 Ways SMBs Can Better Influence Technology Vendors
February 24, 2011 by · 1 Comment
It has been a year since SMB Research posted “SMBs: Get Influence Working with Large Vendors; 7 Guidelines to Ease the Process”. As we have been working with a number of end users in 2010 and in early 2011, we are updating and refreshing this with some new insights and recommendations.
While it is undoubtedly true that small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) cannot avail themselves of all of the price breaks and other advantages of larger enterprises who have bigger IT and capex budgets, there are steps you can take to “look” big and be treated with the respect and amount of attention that you deserve: [Read more...]
10 Best Practices For a Better Website
February 14, 2011 by · 5 Comments
Have you read enough pieces yet on what makes a great website?
You have probably seen quite a few articles and posts addressing this. We here at SMB Research know we have seen a lot of material. (SMB Research includes at least one fairly good article on SMB Research’s Top 20 Favorite Reads of 2010.)
Many of these articles seem to take a cookie-cutter approach: it should go without saying at this point that a website needs to have good navigation, and that a website needs a “Call to Action”.
We think there are a number of other critical website features and best practices that get too little attention.
Around the Horn with IBM Cognos Express, and Business Intelligence
February 4, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
There were several pieces of interesting news this week in the Business Intelligence world:
- Tableau seemed to take some delight in announcing their revenues for 2010, and claiming that their growth rate outpaced that of a close competitor
- SAP announced some renaming of its BusinessObjects solutions.
- IBM announced release of Cognos Express v9.5.
SMB Research listened in closely to IBM this past week on their announcement of IBM’s Cognos Express v9.5.
EMC for Small-to-Medium Business
June 14, 2010 by · 1 Comment
When a company over $14B focuses on a market, even if this represents a smaller percentage of their total revenue such as 5% to 10% , that could represents nearly a $1B business. That can probably be said about EMC‘s Small-to-Medium (SMB) focus. [Read more...]
2010 IT Planning for Small-to-Medium Business
April 23, 2010 by · 3 Comments
CRM for Small-to-Medium Business: A Selection in Process
January 31, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
SMB Research has a great interest in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). After all, we focus on the technology research needs of Small-to-Medium business. Features that allow companies to know their customers better is what drives Small and Medium business to be able to grow and thrive. Competition can be fierce for Small-to-Medium Businesses (SMB’s) and having the ability better know ones customer is essential. So how does CRM allow companies to know their customer better? [Read more...]
Sizing up Small-to-Medium Business (SMB) – A Follow-up
January 29, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
In the process of writing my blog post, “Sizing up Small-to-Medium Business (SMB)“, I initiated a lively discussion on LinkedIn’s SMB IT Forum.
My thanks to the following people for participating in one of the longer discussions I have seen or been involved in on LinkedIn:
- Amy Babinchak, IT Business Owner, Author, Advisor, Professor, and blogger at ThirdTier.net and at Small Business Tech Notes
- Jere Terrill, Owner, My Computer Mechanic, Inc.
- Leon McCaskill, Owner, InfiNet Inc.
- Peter Brown, Managing Director of Pensive; Board Chairman and President of OASIS
- Rebecca Edgerton Wright, PWEA Lead Developer/Architect at IBM PartnerWorld
- Sanjeev Aggarwal, Founder & Partner, SMB Group, Inc.
- Scott Wilson, Principal Consultant at Indigo Moon Systems
Here are some take-aways from this discussion: [Read more...]