Attract, Retain and Delight More Customers
Close more deals in less time, track your sales activities and access customer data from your mobile device. Grow your business with Zoho CRM.
Sign up now for a free 15-day trial.

Bizness CRM Homes In on SMB Prospects October 05, 2012 There are countless of CRM apps for small businesses, Bizness Apps CEO Andrew Gazdecki readily admits. But CRM apps aimed at companies that sell to small businesses? Not so much. Enter Bizness Apps, which has launched Bizness CRM, a Web-based app, as well as native iPhone app, that is aimed precisely at this constituency.

IBM Taps Middleman to Reach Mid-Market September 27, 2012 IBM launched a major initiative on Wednesday with the goal of targeting middle-market companies via their managed service providers. Increasingly, middle market companies are turning to companies that deliver technology solutions on a pay-as-you-go-model, said Mike McClurg, IBM's VP of global mid-market sales.

Groupon Gets Its Mobile Payments Groove On September 20, 2012 Groupon is entering the mobile payments space with its own offering, Groupon Payments. The service, which facilitates credit card transactions, is available to any small business in the U.S.; however, it's offered to Groupon merchants at cheaper rates. Groupon is positioning the service as easier and less expensive for small businesses to use than traditional payment systems.

Sage Act Hones Social, Mobile Tools for Small-Biz Marketers September 10, 2012 Sage North America has rolled out Sage Act 2013, a new iteration of its flagship application that has been enhanced with mobile, social and email marketing capabilities, as well as new smart task automation functionality. The focus is on contemporary trends of interest to SMBs, said Brandon Balsley, director of Sage Act product management.

Better Billing Means Happier Customers September 06, 2012 The billing function conjures up many images, few of them positive. Essential to success of your business, yet often a burden for most organizations independent of size or market, billing is seen as a necessary evil to collect cash and enable organizations to stay alive.

Blackbaud Offers Nonprofits Sharper Prospecting Tools August 31, 2012 Blackbaud has enhanced its CRM app for nonprofits with completely redesigned prospect and research capabilities. It is the company's second major release this year, said Tiffany Crumpton, senior marketing manager for CRM solutions. "This release was long in the works."

Time Warner Pours $25M Into NYC Fiber Project August 29, 2012 Time Warner Cable is investing $25 million in its fiber-optic network in certain parts of New York City. The goal is to provide faster Internet access, similar to Google's project in Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan. Unlike Google, though, Time Warner Cable is primarily interested in targeting a specific constituency: business users that are heavy consumers of data.

Making Business Sites Work Hand in Glove With Social Media August 22, 2012 It's not enough to have just a website, or just social media profiles. Businesses need to have both, and the traffic needs to flow seamlessly between them. Numerica Credit Union was looking for a way to offer customers a useful tool on its Facebook page while driving traffic from Facebook to its site. When Shastic offered it a chance to test drive Calcubot, the credit union jumped on the opportunity.

VerticalResponse Coupons, Clipper Help SMBs Get More Social August 20, 2012 VerticalResponse recently launched its social platform with two new features: Coupons and Clipper. Coupons lets businesses generate custom coupons that can be published as a Facebook tab on their Facebook page or as a standalone Web page. Clipper is a browser button that lets users save interesting Web pages to their VerticalResponse Social account.

Injecting That Personal Touch Into SMB Communications August 18, 2012 In today's economy, there are many tools designed for sustaining small and mid-sized businesses. Web conferencing is a tool that an increasing number of companies find very useful. Over the last few years, Web conferencing and online meetings software have taken off as communication tools with several benefits, like reducing cost of travel and enabling long-distance meetings.

Yardi CRM for Real Estate: Integration, Integration, Integration July 27, 2012 When Yardi CRM launched in the fall of 2010, it was targeting what it saw as a lack of industry-specific CRM within the commercial real estate broker industry. While standalone CRM applications -- even lightweight ones that reside in the cloud -- can work wonders for small and medium-sized businesses, it is pointless for this particular industry to have CRM functionality.

Fiitfu Puts Follow-Up Front and Center July 24, 2012 When Mary-Jane Mehlenbacher left the corporate world to have her daughter, she didn't realize she would be leaving behind network marketing software that worked. Mehlenbacher had decided to form her own home-based network marketing company but couldn't find an appropriate CRM software application that fit her needs and single-proprietor company size. So she decided to build her own application.

Avaya Beefs Up BYOD Support in Unified Communications July 19, 2012 New mobility and security features are among the areas of focus in Avaya's latest iteration of Avaya IP Office 8.1, its unified communications platform for small and mid-sized enterprises. The company also built out the scale of the application; it is now able to serve 1,000 users in a single location, up from its previous support level of 384.

Microsoft Remodels Office July 17, 2012 Microsoft unveiled the new versions of its Office suite and and Office 365 subscription-based service on Monday. The updated Office has an intuitive design that makes it touch- and stylus-compatible, and usable across a variety of devices running Windows, including tablets and smartphones.

Finding a Billing Model to Fit Your Startup July 07, 2012 Picture this: You're a young entrepreneur who's had that a-ha! moment that most only ever dream of. You've found your niche, built your offering, compiled an impressive team of engineers and salespeople that checkbook-wielding VCs are drooling over -- you're nearly ready to take the world by storm.

5 Signs Your Small Biz Is Ready for CRM June 07, 2012 There's a lot of opportunity for CRM vendors seeking to reach small businesses. While there are 15 million seats of CRM in action today, there are a lot more than 15 million customer-facing workers out there, and the vast majority of them are in small businesses. That's a big opportunity for CRM vendors -- but what does it mean for potential CRM users?

Facebook Fiasco a Bigger Lesson for IPOs Than Early-Stage Startups June 05, 2012 The fallout from Facebook's May IPO continued Tuesday as venture capitalist Paul Graham of Y Combinator warned Silicon Valley startups that they may be in for a stretch of hard times. In a letter, Graham states that a prominent investor he knows seems sure that the bad performance of the Facebook IPO will hurt the funding market for early-stage startups.

Integration Benefits for Developers: Choosing the Appropriate App Option June 02, 2012 There is no debating that integrations with small business platforms are a great way for app developers to gain increased exposure and, ultimately, additional sales for their tool or service. Many established software providers in the space are opening their doors through APIs to make it easier for new app developers to access their functionality and potentially access their installed customer base.

Customers See Red as QuickBooks Online Flounders June 01, 2012 Many customers of Intuit's QuickBooks Online are reporting problems with accessing the service for reasons that remain unclear. "I had a problem when I was uploading data from the desktop to QuickBooks Online," Claudia Bolding, owner of accounting software and bookkeeping services company Detailed Office Services, told TechNewsWorld. "It took me three days," she added.

Seamless, Smart, Successful Social Marketing June 01, 2012 Engaging the customer has always been fundamental to doing good business. It's just that now that engagement often starts in digital, social media realms. The trick is to figure out how to make one's content as interesting as all the other content that shows up in the newsfeed, and this is where social media marketing companies come in.