Taking Stock – Eloqua, HostingCon, ClickSoftware, Meridian Associates

August 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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SMB Research is overdue in producing another one of our occasional, but irregular, “round-the-horn” Taking Stock pieces.   The waiting is over, and the summer be damned: there is stuff going on.  We can’t bring ourselves to watch the Red Sox every night, or Olympics ‘ synchronized diving or synchronized swimming any night.  It’s raining too much to go to the beach.  So SMB Research is out of excuses. Read, enjoy, and comment.   This Taking Stock talks about Eloqua , HostingCon , SoftLayer , ClickSoftware , Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce ‘s 2012 Small Business of the Year, and New England Network Associates. For a Taking Stock primer, see “ SMB Research debuts…’Taking Stock’ ”
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Filed Under: Events , Small-to-Medium Business (SMB / SME) , Software , Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

SMB Research’s Watch List for Oracle OpenWorld 2011

October 3, 2011 By 1 Comment
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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.

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Filed Under: Events , Small-to-Medium Business (SMB / SME) , Software , Technology Tagged With: , , , ,

SMB Research – Taking Stock: Interprise Solutions, LogicBay, Partner Relationship Management, Kiva, Jobscope

July 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Interprise Solutions has announced its 2011 Event for August 23-26 at the Mirage Hotel, Las Vegas.  This promises to be, we would think, one of the more exciting Interprise events in recent history with release of its 6.0. (We’re working on an overdue review of this solution which Gary Harrison has kindly taken the covers off for us.)

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SMB Research – Taking Stock: NetSuite, Internet Retailer Conference (IRCE), Enterprise 2.0

June 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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SMB Research provides another wrap-up of news big and small – or simply epiphanies for us -  that we think you may want to know about.  On deck this week are: Events, events, and more events. – oh, and also NetSuite , Waterloo Manufacturing , Plex Systems , and Tribute, Inc .

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Everest Software and Versata – Software Vendors or Portfolio Companies?

June 8, 2011 By 4 Comments
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SMB Research has been hearing some interesting things from the Everest Software end-user community.  So we decided it was time to take a closer look.  What we find is a software company that seems to like to do things its own way – and perhaps a bit differently than some of the software and technology companies you are more familiar with.  Everest Software has been around for quite a long time, and continues to make an impression on customers – either quite positive or very negative.

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Filed Under: Small-to-Medium Business (SMB / SME) , Software Tagged With: , , , , ,

SMB Research – Taking Stock: Microsoft SharePoint, Plex Systems, Salesorder.com

June 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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SMB Research attended SPTechCon Boston 2011 this week, and the highlight (as you might infer if you are keeping up the SMB Research Blog) were the exhibitors.  We diligently trolled the booths looking for SMB and midmarket stories, and vendors and service providers servicing same.

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SMB Research – Taking Stock: SYSPRO, Lawson Software, Interprise Solutions

May 27, 2011 By 1 Comment
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SYSPRO , the long-time private ERP vendor will be presenting on June 8, 2011 in New York City at the Atlantic Design and Manufacturing Show .   SYSPRO has been around for more than 30 years, and continually showing up on the evaluation lists of midsize companies, particularly in the food, medical devices, electronics, machinery/equipment and distribution industries, looking for a cost-effective full-featured system. [Read more...]

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Infor Global Solutions Acquires Lawson Software

April 30, 2011 By 1 Comment
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Lawson Software ‘s signing, in the past few days, of the definitive agreement to be acquired by Golden Gate Capital and Infor Global Solutions promises to vault the combined entity to the #3 slot of ERP vendors. This is a notable achievement for Infor. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Small-to-Medium Business (SMB / SME) , Software Tagged With: , , ,

SMB Research – Taking Stock – April 20, 2011

April 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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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...]

Filed Under: Small-to-Medium Business (SMB / SME) , Software Tagged With: , , , , ,

Epicor Software and Activant Solutions to be Acquired and Merged into….Epicor Software

April 7, 2011 By 1 Comment
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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 .

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Filed Under: Business , Information Technology , Small-to-Medium Business (SMB / SME) , Software Tagged With: , , ,

5 Ways SMBs Can Better Influence Technology Vendors

February 24, 2011 By 1 Comment
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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...]

Filed Under: Best Practices , Information Technology , Small-to-Medium Business (SMB / SME) , Software Tagged With: , , , ,

SMB Research’s Top 20 Favorite Reads of 2010

January 4, 2011 By 5 Comments
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What was the best SMB or technology-related piece you read this past year?

When we at SMB Research started talking a few weeks ago about what we thought were some of the most interesting and valuable articles from 2010, we realized that once again this year there has been a great deal of very good (however you define this) research and writing.  If you struggle to find the time to read to read everything that deserves your attention, we share your pain.

To help you out, SMB Research decided to take a look back at some of what has been written and published this past year, and to identify some of our favorite reads.

SMB Research’s Top 20 Favorite Reads, 2010:
(in chronological order)

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Filed Under: Best Practices , Business , Information Technology , Small-to-Medium Business (SMB / SME) , SMB Research , Social media , Software , Supply Chain , Technology Tagged With: , , , , ,

2010 IT Planning for Small-to-Medium Business

April 23, 2010 By 3 Comments
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SMB Research just completed a survey for 2010 IT Planning for Small-to-Medium Businesses (SMBs).

Filed Under: Best Practices , Information Technology , Small-to-Medium Business (SMB / SME) , Software Tagged With: , , , , ,

SMBs: Get Influence Working With Large Vendors; 7 Guidelines to Ease the Process

December 14, 2009 By 2 Comments
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We find it amazing how often large vendors in either  ERP, Supply Chain, or some other category of software, come in to a deal and do not offer the prospect the best information to help make a decision.   References are not provided or slowly given, prices are kept at a premium, and in some cases the prospect is mislead on the functionality of the software.   While vendors do need to use their references wisely, users do need to know where to turn when they are not getting answers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Best Practices , Small-to-Medium Business (SMB / SME) , Software , Technology Tagged With: , , ,