IncTechnology.com > Operating Systems

Browser Wars: Does IE8 Change the Game?

Marc Saltzman — 2009-10-28T10:26:07-05:00

Built into Windows 7 or available as a free download for other operating systems, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) offers a number of improvements and new features to go up against the likes of competing browsers such as Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari, and Opera.

IE8 delivers Internet users stepped up security against cross-site scripting attacks, downloads of malicious code, phishing, and other security risks. At the same time, the new browsing platform provides businesses with tools to centrally manage and configure group policies for the office, streamlined browser management, built-in developer tools to help save your developers time, and backwards compatibility with the earlier browser version, IE7.

The question for businesses now is whether IE8 is a game-changer in the battle of the browsers and whether your organization should standardize on IE8 -- or any of its well-regarded rivals.

Browsing issues to consider

There are several ways small and mid-sized businesses use Web browsers. Employees often use browsers to look for information about customers, competitors, or products on the Internet. At the same time, a growing number of companies are using and/or developing Web applications that need to be compatible with Web browsers.

Deciding which browser is best for a small business "is like asking an Italian and a Frenchman which country has the best food," jokes Steve Hilton, vice president of small and mid-sized business research at the Boston-based Yankee Group.

The advice may depend on which computing platform your business uses, PC-based or Mac. "My advice for picking a browser is simple: Internet Explorer 8 is your default, but if you feel like experimenting consider Firefox or Chrome and you might find one particularly appealing from a user-interface point-of-view," says Hilton. This isn't the case for a Mac user, though, he adds. "Apple-heads should just stick with Safari."

So, does it really matter which browser you go with? Not really, say some experts. "For most companies it's the path of least resistance, so whatever is the default on the operating system -- Internet Explorer for Windows or Safari for the Mac OS -- is the first one to try," advises Michael Gartenberg, vice president at Interpret LLC, a market research firm based in New York and Los Angeles.

The launch of IE8 provides businesses with a safe bet for standardization -- sort of. "At the end of the day, you won't have an issue if you go with IE8 as it's secure and stable," Gartenberg says. "Microsoft has done an excellent job to move the product forward over the years, but honestly, any modern browser is going to work pretty well for you."

That said, Gartenberg says Microsoft's dominance of market share in the browser space means some applications might favor IE8 over others in the compatibility department.

A company involved in writing Web apps should also take a browser-agnostic approach, both Hilton and Gartenberg say. "Web builders need to optimize sites for all of these browsers, but at least make sure IE and Firefox work, and then pick-up the Apple-centric products," Hilton advises.

"If you're writing Web-compliant apps, you shouldn't play favorites," adds Gartenberg.

Windows 7's relevance

Gartenberg says IE8, which is bundled in every copy of Windows 7, gives Microsoft a "home court advantage" in the browser wars. But it's not without merit: "IE8 does work better in Windows 7, so the combo helps Microsoft -- and ultimately, its users, too."

But that doesn't mean there isn't room for competition. "While I have not tested all browser and operating system combinations, I can't imagine Microsoft would do anything intentional to impede the use of competing browsers in Window 7," says Hilton.

Referencing antitrust issues, Hilton adds "surely Microsoft, and their legal department, would follow that old adage, 'once bitten, twice shy,' when it comes to their operating system and browser issues."

Quick pros and cons

While some technology analysts take laissez faire approach to deciding which browser is best for your business, there are still some advantages and shortcomings to each of the big players. Here they are:

Internet Explorer 8

Pros: Most websites and plugs-ins work well with IE. Faster speeds and handy time-saving tools. Compatibility View helps see older websites easier. Available in multiple languages. Built into Windows.
Cons: Security holes still found. Market share leader means more susceptible to attacks. Some crashing.

Mozilla Firefox

Pros: Newest version is roughly three times faster than Firefox 3.0. Tabbed browsing works well. Convenient features, including location-aware browsing. Vibrant and passionate development community.
Cons: Some bugs and security issues that requires "patching."

Opera

Pros: Lean and fast. Secure. Mouse gestures and other extra features in Opera (including Opera Unite) are handy additions.
Cons: Doesn't fare as well on heavy multimedia sites. Not as much plug-in support than IE and Firefox.

Apple Safari

Pros: Good looking. Fast. Reliable. Minimalist design.
Cons: Close button on left side. Not much mouse functionality (e.g. middle button). No status bar. Not all plug-ins supported. Built into Macs.

Google Chrome

Pros: Clean and fast. Some nice features like shortcuts. Available in 50 languages.
Cons: Lack of add-ons; not all websites/plug-ins are supported. No support for Macs.

Windows 7: Should You Upgrade?

Marc Saltzman — 2009-08-24T17:00:45-05:00

Windows 7, Microsoft's next computer operating system (OS), is looking to win over skeptics disappointed with the much-hyped but often-maligned Windows Vista.

While it's not available until Oct. 22, the early buzz is uniformly positive -- "Microsoft's mojo is back" seems to be the general consensus -- but does this mean your business should upgrade to Windows 7 at launch, if at all?

First, a look at a few new features and improvements over past operating systems.

Benefits to upgrading

A key focus to Windows 7 is speed and compatibility. From faster start-up times to quicker program launches to overall performance, Windows 7 addresses many of the speed issues found lacking in its predecessor. This is true even for underpowered netbooks and older PCs. And when it comes to hardware and software compatibility, Windows 7 will work with more accessories and programs, which wasn't the case when Windows Vista debuted in early 2007.

"It's no secret Vista had a rough start -- the ecosystem just wasn't ready for it -- and as a result it frustrated many users," says Michael Silver, research vice president and analyst for client computing at Gartner, Inc., a Stamford, Conn.-based research and consulting group. "Windows 7 will address many of these concerns."

"In all fairness, though, Vista wasn't as bad as its reputation. Plus, Microsoft made many improvements to that OS over the past three years," adds Silver. "So Windows 7 will build on these Vista tweaks, and add better memory management, a more intuitive user interface, and many networking enhancements, too."

Windows 7's streamlined interface includes a cleaner desktop and task bar, which now lies along the bottom of the screen, and a preview of what's inside by simply hovering your mouse above the icons.

Carmi Levy, an independent technology analyst based in London, Ontario, agrees with Silver. "The user interface is also light years ahead of Windows XP and Vista -- and finally gives Windows users something to brag about when they meet Mac users at parties."

For the sizable number of companies out there still running Windows XP, Windows 7 should offer much of what they like about XP, adds Levy. "This includes relatively snappy performance on older or trailing-edge hardware, excellent driver availability, and industry support -- plus improved security and desktop administration."

Levy says Windows 7's "touch" support will also be compelling to some users. "Windows 7 will have built-in support for multi-touch gestures, handwriting, and voice, for those computers built to support alternative input options."

Timing your upgrade

Benefits aside, Silver believes a small or mid-sized business must assess how old their computers are before considering an OS upgrade. "Generally, we don't recommend an organization upgrade all PCs at once to a new OS, spending money on something that might not bring you a discernable return of investment. But if the computers are relatively new you might already be eligible for a free Windows 7 upgrade." If not, says Silver, a company might want to wait until the PCs need replacing and "skipping Windows 7 won't be an option at that point." He predicts: "This version is going to be very popular."

Levy agrees that businesses using Windows XP will be pleased with Windows 7, but what about businesses currently running Vista? "Although Windows 7 can conceivably deliver faster performance on equivalent hardware, upgrading operating systems on existing desktops and laptops is not an insignificant undertaking," she says.

"Software has to be tested on a new operating system, as does all related hardware that the machine connects to on the corporate network" Levy adds. "Similarly, no matter whether you're running Vista, XP, or even something older like Windows 2000, you never want to be the first company on your block to adopt a new OS."

Levy says companies interested in upgrading might consider working with it in a test or pilot environment, "and then implement them on all PCs after Microsoft has had a chance to work through the inevitable set of bugs that will affect any new operating system."

Tech Talk: PR Firm Succeeds with Dashboard

Elizabeth Wasserman — 2009-05-01T15:15:31-05:00

Tech Image, a Chicago-area public relations business that launched in 1993, wanted to show clients that their PR campaigns were producing results. Mike Nikolich, president and CEO, tells IncTechnology.com that deploying a business intelligence dashboard enabled clients to access data that shows key performance indicators for media coverage, impact, quality, content and budget to measure the success of PR campaigns.

Elizabeth Wasserman: What problems in your company did you want to resolve with business intelligence?

Mike Nikolich: In public relations, one of the biggest things PR people are trying to justify is net worth of their campaigns. Are they working? What metrics can you put in place to show they're working? A lot of the metrics out there are fuzzy, they measure ad equivalency, count up placements, and assign ad value to results. It's black magic and voodoo. And when you get into tight economic periods, fuzzy metrics don't cut the mustard. We were looking for a way that would prove that if you had to cut the PR budget, the company would feel the pain. We wanted to prove that you can measure the effectiveness of PR campaigns.

Our philosophy is to try to align PR with sales. Most of our companies range in size from $25 million in annual sales up to several billion in annual sales. Typically these companies have very small marketing PR departments. If they have PR professionals on staff, maybe they have just one. Many times we're viewed as an adjunct to these companies. We figured out after the first economic downturn in 2001 that the companies that really valued what we were providing kept their budget intact and we tried to figure out how do we measure this?

Wasserman: What seemed like the best technology solution?

Nikolich: Everything we looked at was so expensive we couldn't justify it, in terms of commercial off-the-shelf solutions that had a big, 360-degree focus. Our clients could not justify making a six-figure annual investment to justify a budget that was maybe twice as large as that. Our typical budgets are $100,000 to a quarter of a million dollars. We knew they would love a solution, but the question was whether they would pay for it.

What happened is we were pitching a prospect, iDashboards, a technology company offering a business intelligence dashboard solution tied more to sales professionals and manufacturing. When we went through due diligence on this company and dug into this dashboard solution, we realized that we could probably adapt this to our PR framework. What's been interesting is that we've become one of their best case studies, although they're not a client of ours.

Wasserman: How did you make this fit your business?

Nikolich: We had to adapt it to our business. This is a dashboard solution that's intended to integrate sophisticated databases, CRM, manufacturing solutions. We had to dumb down the technology and make it work for our needs. What we did was figure out from clients what was going to be important to them. That was sort of like going to a buffet table and picking out a little of this and a little of that. In our attempt to measure the effectiveness of these programs, it was a really interesting, organic learning process. We put a team together, attended seminars, read books, and talked to sales people. We put a prototype together for clients. Once we had this up and running and showed it to clients, all of a sudden they wanted it. They had to see how they could actually use the data first.

Wasserman: What have the results been?

Nikolich: We currently have 15 different clients running dashboards. Every client is a little different. Some of the key performance indicators we put together compare coverage, maybe to a competitor or the previous year. We might want to take a look at the type of coverage we’re getting. For some of our clients, product reviews are essential. You can make or break a product with a positive or negative review. We have clients for whom 90 percent of what we do is manage the product review process. You can look at coverage by story theme or key messages getting out there. You can look at the impact of those things, are these campaigns generating meaningful Web traffic? Are leads getting generated from this? Is the client repurposing the articles? If you can mine the data and apply it back to these dashboards, and have incredibly talented people who can use the measurement tools to spot trends, you have the opportunity to see what's working and what's not. If you're doing a crummy job, it's going to show it. But if your campaign is effective, it's also going to show it.

Tech Talk: Deaf Provider Scales with Platform

Elizabeth Wasserman — 2009-05-01T15:11:18-05:00

Viable, a Rockville, Md. provider of next-generation video relay and videoconferencing services and products for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, upgraded to a new enterprise platform, which enabled the business to add a new call center every month and provide remote management across worldwide locations. Jason Yeh, vice president of technology, tells IncTechnology.com that the business was outgrowing its previous technology solution and needed a more scalable platform to support expansion.

Elizabeth Wasserman: Tell us about your business.

Jason Yeh: Viable is a community video-relay service provider, a company that provides interpreting communications services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, enables the deaf to make video phone relay calls through an interpreter and through videoconferencing solutions, and provide hardware and software video phone equipment that enable people to communicate through our video relay services. We have more than 250 employees and we were founded in 2005. Most of our executive team and management are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Because we are the market, we understand who the target market is and understand the value and importance of communication.

Wasserman: How quickly was your company growing and what did that do to your technology needs?

Yeh: We're only four years old. We're a very young company that started to grow incredibly fast and we encountered a lot of computer management and growth issues and challenges. One was call center expansion across the United States. We needed to have the capability of establishing a functional call center in a short amount of time. So after we decide on a location, we had a very short time in order to get it up and running and functional. That presented a challenge to our IT team, in terms of setting up the network infrastructure and all the IT side. One of the challenges was setting up all the equipment, workstations, etc. to ensure that everything was operationally stable. The installation of all our applications in all the call centers took so much time and manpower and support for troubleshooting small detail items to get the call center up and running.

Another issue we faced was that as we grew out infrastructure and data centers had more capability and that meant we needed more hardware, server equipment, and so on to handle a lot of data with streaming video. We now have more than five data centers around the U.S. and that required more server set up, more travel and higher expenses.

Wasserman: What made you decide to change your enterprise platform?

Yeh: Our business was growing so fast. Just in the last couple of years from 2007-08, we've tripled in size. We needed to have an enterprise system capable of providing us a faster recovery, quicker set up, and to ensure our set up time was as short as possible to aid us in getting us in getting call centers up and running. We were able to set up an imaging system where we replicate the installation and integrate our platform and it would help us go much faster. What we have is ZENworks Configuration Manager from Novell. That's helped us deal with patch management, deployment, systems installation, and the set up and remote management of more than 100 workstations. Moving to an enterprise solution has allowed us to reduce our setup time in call centers by 80 percent and it saved us costs as well -- well over 50 percent of the transportation and labor costs. Before, we did not have an enterprise system. We were just running business operations on several different home-grown applications that fit specific needs.

Wasserman: When did you upgrade and what results have you seen?

Yeh: In September 2008 was when we did the initial move to the enterprise solution. It allowed us to reduce our set up time in call centers by 50 percent and it saved us costs as well -- well over 50 percent of the costs. That's because we don't have to constantly send our technicians all over the country to set up the infrastructure anymore. We can do a lot of the work remotely. All the installations and set up for each of the work stations we can do remotely. This really allows us a lot of scalability and the ability to deploy new call centers more rapidly. As you can imagine, that allows us to scale our new business at the same rate or faster into the next few years.

Software: Is Now the Right Time to Negotiate?

Kim Boatman — 2009-05-01T10:54:39-05:00

At a time when many small to mid-sized businesses are looking for ways to hold down costs, Locum Leaders, an Alpharetta, Ga., temporary medical staffing company, is looking toward future growth.

The company renegotiated with its software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider, reducing annual and per user costs but also committing to paying upfront on an annual basis. In this economy, paying upfront might seem like a leap of faith for a company that previously operated on a month-to-month basis with its software provider. However, Alex Gramling, vice president of marketing for Locum Leaders, says it was a well-researched, calculated move.

“As we looked at the trajectory growth of our business, it made sense. The more people you have [using the software], the higher your bill is,’’ says Gramling. “We wanted to cut that cost. In exchange for a cost reduction of close to 50 percent, we agreed to pay up front on an annual basis.

“Everything is negotiable in this economy, and now is the time to make investments in growth.”

The time might be right to negotiate

Because software vendors are also facing tough economic times, they’re more likely to offer concessions on upgrades and bundles. “If your business is stable and you have capital dollars to spend, you are probably in a very good position to extract some very good deals out of vendors today,’’ says Jeffrey Gordon, a professional negotiator and author of the book and blog“The Software Licensing Handbook.”

Gordon says the climate to make a deal might be right if your business meets one of these criteria:

Your business has planned for growth. If you’re adding new users or a new software product that expands your footprint with a vendor, you can likely ask for some consideration in return.
Your software contract allows for annual renegotiation or adjustments based on the current state of the economy.
You don’t yet have a contract in place with a software vendor.

Concessions to consider

A bit of creativity can help when it comes to asking for concessions, say the experts.

For instance, the slow economy can work in your favor when it comes to personnel, says Bob Corrigan of IFS North America, an enterprise software vendor. “Right now,

enterprise software vendors like IFS might be in a position to price more aggressively on hourly rates for services staff involved in the upgrade process because backlogs are not where they were a year ago,’’ Corrigan says.

It’s also likely that your own critical personnel will have the time to implement upgrades because of the economic slowdown, Corrigan points out.

Other possible concessions include:

Asking a vendor to renegotiate mid-contract in exchange for extending the contract.
Asking for a break on annual maintenance fees or on the escalation of annual maintenance fees.
Changing the nature of your arrangement with a vendor, as Locum Leaders did. Offering to pay upfront on an annual basis brought significant savings to the company. However, Gordon cautions that businesses should evaluate carefully whether investing that much capital is a wise choice. If a discount isn’t substantial or your company’s outlook is unsure, you might be better off simply investing the capital, he says.

The two-way nature of negotiation

Locum Leaders brought research to the table in its negotiations, showing the vendor projected growth and offering cost comparisons to comparable vendors. “We told our vendor, ‘Let’s try to bring costs in line with these other vendors,’’’ says Gramling. “The thesis goal is not about just nickel and diming someone to get a better value for something you’re not going to use. It’s understanding their pain points as well as your own.’’

In some cases, large vendors are unlikely to offer concessions to small and mid-size business, says Gordon, the professional negotiator. That’s why several experts say now likely isn’t the time to upgrade to Microsoft Vista. Waiting for Windows 7 is a better option for small businesses, says Jay S. Hemmady, a veteran CIO of mid-level businesses. The improvements Vista offers over XP aren’t substantial enough to warrant an upgrade right now, Hemmady says.

It’s most important to remember that it’s not a deal if you don’t need the upgrade or the service, says Gordon. “Just because the economics have changed doesn’t necessarily make your needs change. Buying for a hazy future, an unsure future, just because you think something may happen is too risky. You have to make some very strategic decisions.”

A Windows 7 Sneak Peek

Michelle V. Rafter — 2008-11-26T15:30:49-05:00

Ralph Musgrove has had a glimpse of Windows 7 and he likes what he sees.

Musgrove is executive vice president at Concord Technologies, a 40-person Seattle, Wash., developer of Internet-based fax services for mid-sized and large companies. As a Microsoft technology partner, Musgrove has previewed some features of Windows 7, the program that will eventually replace the often maligned Vista operating system software.

Microsoft officials took the wraps off Vista’s successor at an October 2008 developers’ conference and has meted out additional details in the months that followed. Exactly when a finished version of Windows 7 will debut hasn’t been announced. Microsoft officials have publicly stated they expected to release a beta version of the software sometime in 2009 and a formal launch might come the following year.

Musgrove can’t reveal everything he knows about Windows 7 due to non-disclosure agreements he has with Microsoft. But he can say that if the current pre-beta version of the operating system doesn’t change dramatically, current Vista users should be pleased with at least some of the upgrades, including a new taskbar and improved user interface. The new program should also appeal to people who access the Internet on devices that aren’t traditional computers, Musgrove says. As with many other established software programs, upgrades to the operating system is “more about usability than (changing) the plumbing in the background,” he says.

No more security alarms

For starters, a lot of the security features that Vista users found so annoying have been minimized. “You used to get a lot of ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ messages, which was great for my friends who don’t know much about computers but were a nuisance for people like me,” Musgrove says. Anti-virus programs “wouldn’t run without them so you couldn’t turn them off. In Windows 7, it’s dramatically smoother.”

Windows devotees will also notice other improvements to the program’s user interface that account for more people logging on from something other than a desktop PC with a keyboard and mouse, Musgrove says. For example, Windows 7’s voice recognition features are better, he says, “and by the time it gets to beta it should be way more apparent.”

Underneath the interface, some components and subroutines will change but many will remain the same, Musgrove says. A lot of Vista’s existing core application programming interfaces, or APIs, will be ported over to Windows 7 “simply to make the product compatible,” Musgrove says. “You can’t expect the entire universe to change their software just because you changed the plumbing.”

According to Microsoft spokesman Joel Steinfeld , other Windows 7 highlights, include:

Touch screen support that lets people zoom in or out by moving their fingers together or apart, and touch-sensitive controls for the Start menu, taskbar and Internet Explorer.
A new taskbar with bigger icons that are easier to open on a touch screen, as well as open windows that appear as graphic thumbnail and expand to a full-screen preview when a user hovers their mouse over them.
Jump lists that make it easier to find frequently used files
Controls that automatically identify and connect devices on a small office or home network that are running on the operating system
A feature called Device Stage that lets users of smart phones, MP3 players, cameras and other portable devices see the status of the gadgets and run common tasks from a single window.

SIDEBAR: Windows 7 Resources

To keep up with Windows 7 developments, check in with these Windows 7 blogs and resources:

The official Microsoft Windows 7 Website

Windows Developer Center -- Everything there is to know about developing for Windows, including video tutorials, downloads, and whitepapers.

Windows 7 developers blog -- More Windows 7 code talk.

Springboard Series: The Resource for Windows Desktop IT Professionals -- A Microsoft-sponsored blog for developers that has podcasts and other regular features.

Webtop OS: What's on Your Desktop?

Bill Pfleging — 2008-09-03T13:27:30-05:00

The cost of maintaining IT in the business world is not cheap, and sometimes can even be astronomical. Large companies with in-house IT staff must hire specialized employees, and spend large portions of their budget on computer maintenance. There are updates, downloads, upgrades, IT staff overtime and perhaps even company downtime. Small and mid-sized businesses that outsource these services can save some money, but still can spend a big chunk of the company budget getting the job done.

But there may be a solution already available, in fact one that's been around for ages and whose time has finally come.

“Webtops make absolute sense for a … [small or mid-sized business] that's looking for an easy and inexpensive way to maintain its system and afford to hire more workers,” says Chris Pirillo, podcast tech guru and former host of TechTV program Call for Help. “It's less of a power drain, and a much lower cost in IT expenses for multiple people.”

What a webtop is

The webtop -- sometimes less accurately called a WebOS, or Web operating system -- represents a return to the old client/server model of mainframe computing. The term "webtop" -- short for web desktop -- was coined as early as 1996 to characterize the migration of desktop applications to the browser. Webtops provide an environment similar to that of Windows, Mac, or a similar graphical user interface on Unix and Linux systems. They are virtual desktops running in a Web browser. In a webtop, the applications, data, files, configuration, settings, and access privileges reside remotely over the network. Much of the computing takes place remotely. The browser is primarily the window used to access the remote desktop software.

To be called a webtop, it must have four things:

Able to be launched automatically from a browser (i.e., no manual download, installation, or update process on local machine).
Tight integrated between the user's native browser and all the Webtop applications.
Communicate seamlessly with a central server using HTTP.
Use a graphic user interface (Windows-like environment).

Back in 2000, Gartner Research released a prediction that “Webtops will become mainstream by 2002, and users will be free from relying on laptops to access the applications and information they need.” While that hasn't come true, what's held it back is not any lack of technology, but just the lack of Internet speed and computing power to manage this long-distance functionality. The world of Web 2.0 is changing that deficiency, and some companies are paying attention.

Businesses revising desktop strategies

Many large companies, including DaimlerChrysler, Sabre, BMW, Amadeus, and Deutsche Bank, are revising some of their desktop strategies to take advantage of webtops. And small and mid-sized businesses can likewise benefit. In contrast to the usual IT money pit, companies offering webtops handle the majority of maintenance remotely with limited client interaction required, with the company left to handle only a fraction of the costs. This distribution of computing power can not only dramatically decrease IT costs, but can also significantly improve a team's performance through integrated data sharing and closer communications within the webtop platform.

The webtop is an inevitability in this age of Web 2.0. With the growth in sheer numbers of Web-based applications, combined with the ubiquity of high speed Internet the capability for a completely portable operating system has arrived. The kind of functionalities you'll find in a webtop includes file hosting, applications like word processor, spreadsheet, graphics and video programs, games, e-mail and contact management, desktop widgets, and almost anything you’d expect from the operating system existing on your desktop.

While the general opinions of webtop reviewers make it sound like everyone should embrace the concept, not everyone sings their praises. There's been plenty of resistance to the use of webtops -- a large portion of the industry of software makers, for instance. The use of remote shared software applications -- much of it open source -- means far less commercial software will need to be installed on each workstation, meaning fewer software licenses sold.

“If the webtop became a reality, Microsoft has the most to lose,” says Gene Phifer, managing vice president and analyst at Gartner, “because right now Microsoft owns the eyeballs of corporate Earth.”

A work in progress

Keep in mind webtops are still a work in progress, and as you'll see when you test them, they are still finding the occasional bug to squash. Response lag time is still an issue at times, for one thing. Coming advances in new technologies, like the soon-to-be-released Adobe Flash 10 (currently in beta), may increase their functionality and speed the response time, but only time will tell.

“I've tried several of them over the years,” said Pirillo, “and haven't found any that are quite ready to handle the business world -- yet. It may be a few years before webtops will be considered a business tool. But I have no doubt that it's coming.”

Webtops are a major strategic shift for many small businesses, especially those who have resisted outsourcing any IT services. Given the advances in reliability, security, and redundant backup protection that hosted services provide, however, it's much more cost effective to focus on your core business than to dedicate resources to IT. Once webtops achieve a standardized level of functionality, and all of a company's applications, data, and e-mails can be brought to individual users with lightning speed through any mainstream browser from a secure, managed data center, then the change will come.

A webtop might be useful for your company needs, but before you spend a cent, run a few tests to see if the concept fits your business model.

SIDEBAR: Webtops to Get You Started

This Mashable page also has a much more comprehensive list of 45 webtops. Here's a short list of a few of the better webtops to look consider:

Glide -- Has full suite of usual desktop applications, including word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, etc. Also handles video, audio, and digital pics, with graphics editing built in as well. Includes integration with and support for almost any cell phone or handheld, including BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and iPhone. Looks and works great on the iPod Touch as well. Just point your handheld or cell phone browser at Glidemobile.com and you'll see what I mean. Offers 5 GB storage free, 15 GB is 4.95/mo. Also has a kids' version, KidsGlide.com.
G.ho.st (Global Hosted Operating SysTem) -- As their slogan says, “G.ho.st provides a free Web-based Virtual Computer to every human being.” In alpha testing so far, but nice set up. Won a number of awards, including a Red Herring 100 Europe award. First joint Palestinian-Israeli technology start-up, operates in the Palestinian territories. Integrates with Zoho for office software. Well thought out, one to watch.
Cloudo -- Founded in 2006 in Stockholm, the company is privately held. Offers standard fare in terms of a webtop, including file hosting, virtual desktop widgets, applications, e-mail and contact management, and a full suite of programs you’d expect from a regular desktop OS. Visually appealing standard layout, but Cloudo offers a big range of themes, and can even mimic other operating systems including various flavors of Windows, Mac, and Linux so you can feel right at home. Currently in private developer alpha as of February 2008, Cloudo is an Ajax based virtual desktop application.
Desktoptwo -- Based in Mexico, built and hosted by Sapotek.com. Desktoptwo includes 1GB of free space, and includes a fully-featured OpenOffice.org suite, converted into a Java applet. Also offers RSS reader, mp3 player, IM, blog, mail and more.

Drive Business with a Software Dashboard

Anita Campbell — 2008-07-31T08:31:12-05:00

A business dashboard has been defined by some experts as “a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance.”

Business dashboards usually consist of a screen showing you tables and/or graphs pointing out key indicators about your business. You can check your dashboard several times a day, once a day, once a week -- however frequently you need to manage your business.

Dashboards can be as big-picture or as detailed as you need -- ranging from showing you the financial health of the business as a whole, all the way down to detailed slices of an individual activity or department.

In this article I’d like to share four low-cost dashboards available for small businesses, some of which you may already be using (even if you don’t realize it):

Accounting software dashboards

One of the beauties of accounting software today is that most packages come equipped with the ability to run reports. Increasingly they come with built-in dashboard views, to allow business owners and managers to manage the business easily.

QuickBooks, which is used by millions of small businesses, has a simple dashboard view, which you can see here.

Other accounting/ERP packages, such as NetSuite, have extensive dashboard views. For instance, you can tour the NetSuite dashboard views here.

MyBizHomepage.com

MyBizHomepage.com is a free Web-based application that includes a dashboard that works together with your QuickBooks data, called MyBizDashboard.

Once you import your QuickBooks data, it will display key parts of the data critical to the business owner on your screen when you log in. For instance, MyBizDashboard also displays the age of outstanding Accounts Payables and Accounts Receivables, two metrics crucial to the health of your business.

“Seeing” this information laid out prominently on your screen is designed to help prevent receivables from going unpaid too long or getting behind in paying your bills.

MyBizHomepage also provides email alerts to notify you if payables or receivables have gone past a predetermined age, and for other key metrics. It has a private messaging feature built right in so that you can discuss any of the metrics with others on your team. A new version of MyBizHomepage was recently rolled out with expanded features such as RSS feeds.

SaaS administration screens

The explosive growth of online business applications -- software-as-a-service (SaaS) -- has given business owners access to a range of “mini-dashboards.” What I mean is that most SaaS applications have some kind of administration panel. Those admin panels or screens often are filled with important data, including tables and graphs.

Each of these administration screens is in effect a dashboard. Chances are you are already using several of these dashboards.

Administration panels are chock full of goodies that can help you understand some slice of your business better and manage it with foresight. For instance, Google provides extensive information in its Google AdSense admin screens to help you see the status of your AdSense earnings. Google Analytics provides multiple dashboard views of website traffic data, based on your role (executive, marketing, technical, etc.)

The downside to these administration panels is that they are scattered across the Web, and it’s hard to compare data from different applications.

That leads me to my fourth type of “dashboard” -- the Web’s free start pages.

Start pages

One way to organize data from multiple SaaS administration screens so you can access it in one place is to use one of the free consumer start pages: iGoogle, Netvibes, Pageflakes -- to name a few.

I have cobbled together a rudimentary dashboard to run portions of my business, using Netvibes. In this example, I have used Netvibes to manage intelligence culled from some of the many online applications I use, via embedding widgets into a Netvibes page:

The free start pages let you build a “master dashboard” that’s admittedly limited. They won’t support much customization. But for a cheap (i.e., free) solution that you can put together in a couple of hours without technical help, they allow you to organize your access to important information in SaaS applications and at least let you look at some of the information from one screen.

Aside from these four inexpensive solutions, you can also purchase dashboard applications and port your business data into them, or you can hire a software programmer to create one specifically for your business.

Anita Campbell is a writer, speaker and radio talk show host who closely follows trends in the small business market at her site, Small Business Trends.

Putting a Price on Software "Savings"

Minda Zetlin — 2008-07-28T16:37:03-05:00

Can a switch to Windows Vista really create $316 in labor savings per user? That's what one Microsoft partner claims -- although not all small businesses Vista customers would agree.

That kind of claim is hardly unusual. Any business owner or IT exec who's shopped for software in the last few years has encountered similar vendor statements about the ROI to be had by installing the latest version of some new operating system or application. Some claim their apps "pay for themselves" in a year, or even a few months. But the details on exactly how this repayment happens rarely stand up to much scrutiny.

"When you see a software vendor provide an ROI claim, just ignore it," advises Victor Cheng, president of Bookmercial Productions which produces books as marketing tools for client companies. In a previous job at a software company, Cheng used to create those claims himself. "It's not that they're deliberately misleading," he explains. "The problem is these claims are theoretical, and not specific to your situation. The only way to determine the ROI for your company (not some mythical typical company) is to look at what would happen if you used the software you're considering."

According to Forrester Vice President Ray Wang, who specializes in software ROI, a new investment in software makes sense if it does one of the following:

Provides efficiency gains that reduce overhead or allow you to do more without adding resources;
Puts you in compliance with legal or contractual requirements, decreases security risk or makes your technology compatible with that of your clients or customers;
Supports a new strategic initiative (such as a customer loyalty program);
Provides increased capacity or functionality to allow your business to grow.

Unless the new software helps at least one of these objectives, Wang notes, it's probably not worth it. "Technology should be an enabler," he says.

Avoiding small business errors

But even when new software would bring solid business benefits, it's easy for small companies to make common mistakes when deciding whether or not to make a purchase. To avoid these errors, make sure to ask:

What is the software's full cost? As Wang points out the initial purchase price may be only the beginning of your software investment. "We look at costs for licensing fees, maintenance, implementation, staffing and training," he says. For instance, software maintenance and support contracts may cost as much as 20 percent of the initial license. "In five years, you'll have paid for the software all over again," he notes. "In ten years, you'll have paid for it twice." Advocates of Web-hosted software, or software-as-a-service (SaaS), praise this option for its low upfront costs. Over the long term, however, hosted software can cost more than licensed software purchased and installed on site, so you should consider other business factors (for instance, how well the software fits your specific business needs) when choosing between licensed and hosted software.
Who will manage the software? "Small businesses don't have an army of IT people to support a product," Wang notes. "So you want software that is easy to adjust, where users themselves can make changes."
What features will we actually use? Too many small businesses start by letting a vendor tell them what they need, or sell them on the benefits of new features, rather than first considering their business needs and then asking how software will fill those, Wang says. "In the best case scenario, most businesses use only 10 percent of the features in Microsoft Word, for instance," says Ilya Bogorad, principal of Bizvortex Consulting Group, Inc., a technology consulting firm. "So it's important not to get carried away by wonderful features."
Are we confusing capacity with savings? "In one business case I reviewed recently, the company said: 'The person doing this work makes $20 an hour. This software will free two hours of his time every day, for a savings of $40 a day or more than $800 a month.'" The problem, he says, is that freeing someone's time does not necessarily translate directly into economic benefit. A lot depends on what new tasks will replace the old ones. If the newly freed employee spends that extra time making sales pitches for the company's product, it may well gain more than $800 a month in benefit. If he spends it performing make-work that doesn't affect the bottom line, it will gain much less.

At the same time, Bogorad notes, it's important to consider opportunity costs that may come with using new software. "If I pay an accountant $1,200 a year to do our taxes, and then I buy a $200 piece of software so that I can do them myself, the jury is out as to whether that's really the best use of my time and money. You have to take those things into account."

Ultimately, the best way to judge whether your company would benefit economically from a new piece of software is to ask others who've used it. "You can do that by talking to colleagues in trade associations for instance," Wang says. As well as finding out about the software, make sure to ask if the vendor was easy to work with, and what is required to maintain the software over time, he advises. "Most companies are open about sharing that kind of information."

How to Recycle Your Software

Jodi Mardesich — 2008-07-28T16:26:15-05:00

Software recycling doesn't involve taking the discs or shrink-wrapped packages to the local landfill. In this case, it means reusing software code, modules, or other components to keep in-house software development costs down and produce applications more quickly. For years, software developers have used software building blocks to construct applications. Now, with the popularity of the service oriented architecture (SOA) model, developers are building applications not just with chunks of code, but with services, and rely on providers like Amazon.com, with its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) to host the software more economically than buying servers and building a hosting infrastructure themselves.

Last November, PayGo, a retail point-of-sale software provider, started a project to re-tool its product from an on-premise solution into a software-as-a-service kind of solution -- hosted offsite, and accessed through a rich Internet application.

By using tools from Servoy USA of Thousand Oaks, Calif. PayGo finished its new “pay as you go” version of the software in April. “We think that it would have taken twice as long to get where we got” using traditional programming tools, says Chris Peterson, co-founder and CEO of PayGo. Rather than hard-coding each function, developers were able to leverage already-built components of code, speeding the development process. And by hosting the application on Amazon’s EC2 -- utilizing “cloud computing” -- PayGo could take its service live paying less than $1,000 per month, rather than spending tens of thousands of dollars up front to buy servers, plus pay for their ongoing maintenance. “It would have been a significant capital expenditure to get our servers ready to go,” Peterson says. “It lets us as a company do what we do best -- create a solution for the customers we sell to.”

Reusing software code and services is a strategy that can help organizations of all sizes to create rich Internet applications more quickly and economically. “The whole concept of reuse sounds logical -- why wouldn’t you want to?” says Mike Gualtieri, senior analyst with Forrester. However, to be successful with reuse, take these steps: make a business case for reusing software, avoid writing your own software if you can, and consider adopting an SOA model to take advantage of already-created services as well.

Make a business case for re-use

Gualtieri advises making a business case for reuse of software or services, both in terms of money and time. Is it going to cost more money to make the code reusable? What is the actual business benefit for the undertaking? Don’t just reuse code because it sounds like a good idea. Companies make “quite an investment in reuse,” he says. “It’s not free.”

Designing for reuse requires more up front time for designing, as well as additional coding and testing. Make sure there’s a business case for the code. “Don’t make it a gamble,” Gualtieri says. “Think this through, from a business case standpoint and technology implementation standpoint.”

Avoid writing your own code

Software reuse often makes sense, but you don’t have to write your own code for reuse, especially if your company is on the smaller side. Depending on your company size, it may make more sense to search for already-written code you can reuse, rather than write your own. “Don’t develop code if you don’t have to,” Gualtieri says.

Writing for re-use can add to the cost of developing code if you don’t plan well enough up front. If you spend 18 months developing code that can be shared, and plans change, making the code obsolete or no longer necessary, you have added to the cost of the project instead of saving time and money. “Buy it, find it, or use open source code,” he says. “Open source code is one of the most successful examples of software asset reuse.”

Adopting a service oriented architecture

Beyond reusing software code, developers can take advantage of already-created services in their applications. “Now you go out and look for services that provide this function,” Gualtieri says. “You’re not just reusing code, you’re reusing functionality of these services.”

Paygo utilized Amazon’s services to take its application to the next level, where customers run the point of sale software in a browser, and access the application running on the Amazon “cloud.” They provide the backend power of an enterprise company, at a fraction of the cost,” Peterson says. “We’re doing software as a service, and utilizing hardware as a service to our situation. For me it seems obvious that this is how software should go -- it’s much easier on the customer,” Peterson says.

Reusing software and services saves time and can bring applications to market more quickly. It also enables people who are not “hard coders” to get into the application development process. “You can get people that are closer to understanding the business process,“ Peterson says, “and create much more intuitive products.”