The Small Business Technology Tour, hosted by the energetic and engaging Ramon Ray came to Boston this week, and SMB Research had an opportunity to sit in to hear what the experts and small businesses are talking about. This Boston event was the 3rd of 5 stops for the 2011 tour, and, like the agendas in the other tour stops (with some minor variations) the Small Business Technology Tour focuses on addressing how small businesses can strategically use technology to grow their businesses. There are technology references and insights mixed in, but the primary focus is on strategies and best practices in the establishing an on-site presence, and then leveraging that with the right marketing, sales and content strategies. Ramon Ray and Laura Leites of Smallbiztechnology.com brought an engaging mix of speakers who in general provided some valuable insights to the enthusiastic audience.
Day 2 at Interop New York 2011
Another day at Interop under our belts, and more opportunities to wander through the exhibit floor and talk to quite a few vendors. This Interop conference has been, perhaps not surprisingly, all about the data center, cloud computing, network management and security, desktop and server virtualization, unified communications, and wireless / mobile strategy, with more minor focuses on WANs and WAN optimization, social media, voice and video, backup and storage. This diversity is seen on the exhibit floor as well, and is both Interop’s attraction as well as a challenge.
Day “1″ of Interop New York 2011
On our Day 1 at Interop New York 2011 (actually the 3rd day of the conference), SMB Research arrived to find the event well in swing, with a lot of enthusiastic attendees, and the exhibit hall of more than 150 exhibitors very full, and very busy.
SMB Research’s Watch List for Oracle OpenWorld 2011
SMB Research is monitoring developments from Oracle OpenWorld 2011 with great interest. Are you a Mid-market or SMB headed to Oracle OpenWorld? Are you evaluating Oracle for the first time, or further integrating an Oracle solution or technology into your enterprise? Let us know what you think of Oracle’s strategy and technology and what questions/concerns you have. Here below are a few of the things we are watching, with plans to refresh our assessment of Oracle for you in the near future.
How Serious is Oracle about the Mid-Market and SMB?
Oracle’s Application strategy, and Fusion Apps
Oracle Accelerate, and Oracle Business Accelerators
Oracle channel chief Judson Althoff’s channel strategy
Oracle Database Appliance
Oracle’s Cloud strategy and Cloud Lifecycle management
Oracle Exalytics Business Intelligence Machine
If you are at Oracle OpenWorld, these are things that we would recommend you pay some attention to. What else is on your To Do list? We are ready to take it on with you.
SMB Research – Taking Stock: Interop, TIBCO, HP, Facebook, Thomson Reuters
TIBCO‘s TUCON® 2011 which started this morning in Las Vegas should be fun to watch. TIBCO likes to call itself the platform for events, with a value proposition is all around mining data with an event-driven approach, to enable a company to “do the exact right thing at the exact right moment in time”. In its 3rd quarter results call (transcript courtesy of Seeking Alpha) TIBCO is reporting their 7th consecutive quarter of revenue growth of more than 20%, and earnings per share growth exceeding 30% – and are reporting a 60-70% increase in attendance at this year’s TUCON event.
What Did You Take Away From WebInno31?
SMB Research stopped in at the WebInno (Web Innovators Group) event this week. We cannot speak to the previous 30 WebInno’s (or even whether there have been 30 previous WebInno’s), but WebInno31 was a bit of a hoot.
Sustainability Strategies for the SMB / SME
Mango Networks‘ Lisa Lillelund provided a timely and engaging presentation at the North Shore Technology Council‘s (NSTC) 
first Wednesday of the month Sustainability Forum at the Cleantech InnoVenture Center in Lynn. Mango Networks describes itself as “a Sustainability, Clean Energy, and Environmental Communications Company..[who] advises companies, universities, schools, clean tech start-ups, and resorts…[and advocates] for environmentally friendlier business and living practices through our consulting projects, articles, 
presentations, and educational events.’ Ms. Lillelund’s message to the assembled audience reflected Mango’s mission to educate on what sustainability is, and what we can all be doing about sustainability in our businesses and our lives.
Vuuch, an Enterprise Social System for Product Development
SMB Research had a conversation with Vuuch at the recent Enterprise 2.0 Boston show. While we struggled briefly to know how to characterize this company and solution properly, CEO Chris Williams quickly helped out, explaining that Vuuch is an “enterprise social system for product development….sitting between enterprise social software (things like Jive and Yammer) and PLM [product lifecycle management].” 
This really piqued our interest, and so SMB Research visited nearby Sudbury, MA-based Vuuch last week. What did we learn? If you are involved with product development, and find yourself wondering if there is an easier way to manage the email traffic and other project-related team interactions, then Vuuch may be worth a look.