Pluggd.in is a blog about startups, entrepreneurship and tech in the Indian sector. Sahil recently contributed a guest post on common SaaS myths and ways to overcome them.

Using online software to increase productivity and grow your business is a no brainer. I can’t imagine why any small business would not readily adopt SaaS. What’s holding them back (besides poor bandwidth penetration in some areas) when they can pay a monthly subscription, not have to worry about installation, upgrades and have access to the same tools that their competitors have? This is close to having ’software utopia’ for the small business!

Lets go back in time….

- People might not have been prepared to put their money with other people’s money when banking was established. Banking and online banking is mainstream now.

- People were probably afraid to get on an aircraft which weighed a few tones and promised to soar like a bird. Today, air travel is a given.

Back to the present.

Currently, we are witnessing one of the biggest shifts in enterprise software (software used for business) and as everything else, it comes with it’s own set of myths, mindsets and confusion. Here are a few I have experienced over the last few years from people who are still not ready to adopt online software for their business.

“My data is more secure with me than putting it on someone else’s server”

Your data is more secure at your vendor’s data center than your own internal network. Security is more than just about taking daily backups, maintaining uptime and setting up a firewall. It’s about password policies, encryption, intrusion detection, offsite backups, secure transmission, software updates, patching etc. If hosting or maintaining servers is not your core business then you are better off renting out software from a reputed vendor who understands all these things. This will ensure peace of mind in the long run.

Read More.

You need to be a sponge that absorbs new things, a glass that is not filled right to the top and you need to create that little bit of spare time in the day where you probably are not caught up in the details. This is where we think creativity is born. New ideas takes place. Innovation happens. Ultimately, you make yourself more relevant!

Currently one of the best positioned (price, support, features) in the small business online project collaboration market worldwide. DeskAway combines a mix of simplicity, feature-richness and affordability into its project collaboration service with a focus on key social features in the SMB project 2.0 space

They have also interviewed Sahil, DeskAway’s founder and CEO. Read More.

Thanks Shibi and Technofirst team!

For the search term ‘Team software adoption‘ our blog post 4 tips on team software adoption is the first result while the same blog post update on Facebook is the 3rd result.

For the search term ‘software adoption team‘ our blog does not find a place at all (checked the first few pages) but our Facebook entry is on the 4th place of the first page!

IMO, channeling information via social channels gets a lot of traction from Google since Google considers these channels an important medium to drive traffic and results.

Trying to do everything is like going to a buffet where your senses go ballistic and you start eating everything. In the end you not only feel like a big potato but feel a sense of dissatisfaction and wish you had tried some of that dessert or had eaten this instead of that.  Compare this to ordering a la carte where you know how much you can eat and you order just about enough to leave the restaurant feeling satisfied.

Managing and completing small tasks is much like ordering from an a la carte menu. Know what you want to eat, order and feel satisfied.

Know What You Want to Eat

Every morning make a list of the things you want to get done by the end of the day. You might list around 8-12 items .  Write these down anywhere. I normally use the Stickies on my mac.

Order

Go over the items and ask yourself - What is the minimum I need to accomplish so that I  will be satisfied and happy at the end of the day? Do I have time to get these done? On days that you have meetings or are out for some reason plan less.

Over-ordering (even by looking at so much food on the table) can kill your appetite or leave you feeling sick.

Satisfaction

Enjoy the process of getting tasks completed and delegate when necessary. I like checking-off tasks that I complete to give me some pleasure of achievement and help me to move forward.

It’s important to feel satisfied, happy and positive when leaving work in the evening and keeping the above points in mind might just achieve that.

Bon Appetite!

and a couple of heads up from friends when we were migrating our servers,

Thank you for your support and love!

Open Task Lists

DeskAway’s permission-based task system is great but when you want to open up your tasks to every team member within your project it could became a bit confusing. Though, you could easily assign the task to ‘Anyone’ but then there would not be a person responsible for that task. Or you could assign the task to Mr. X and then cc the same task to all your team members. Painful if there are a lot of team members. Hence,

http://getsatisfaction.com/deskaway/topics/allow_limited_users_to_access_all_tasks_by_checking_this_box

http://getsatisfaction.com/deskaway/topics/only_some_tasks_are_visible_to_other_users

Today, we have added (in addition to the permission-based system that a lot of people love) a new concept called ‘Open Task List’. By making a Task List open, all tasks under only that particular Task List becomes visible/accessible to all your team members (Super, Regular & Limited) of that project. Anyone would be able to track, close, add time, comment and upload files to an Open Task List task.

So, if you have a bunch of tasks that you want to assign to A and B but have everyone in the team know about and track their progress, go ahead and create an Open Task List and add those tasks within it.

3 more Options for Recurring Tasks

Earlier you could set the following options for recurring tasks:

Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Yearly

Today, we give you 3 more requested option:

Fortnightly
Quarterly
Half Yearly

Team View Filters

To make it easy to sort through you team members (some DeskAway users have more than 100 team members) we have added a new filter on the team page. This should make it easy to view team members by Company or by their type - Super, Regular or Limited.

File Folder & Subfolder Differentiation

A tiny usability change to the user interface of the Files section. You can now easily differentiate between Folder (in Bold now) & Subfolder names.

Revamped Timezone Dropdown

To make your life easier we have added a new time zone drop down while signing up and adding a new team member. This one shows the +/- GMT and even has most of the popular cities of the world so you should not spend time finding your correct time zone!

Hope you like these features. Do let us know what you think!

Afterwards we watched a video by Dave McClure on Startup metrics and measurability. If you are a startup or have a web app then you should check this video out.

Start-up Metrics that Matter by Dave McClure from Carsonified on Vimeo.

Well maintained, the hedges are carved into different shapes of animals. It is a good place to spot butterflies, moths, birds and insects.

Dianne

Your Tango
Thanks ya’ll!