Tech: Let Us Serve You

(page 2 of 2)

Browse Issues

Browse the BusinessWeek Archive

Photo-illustration by Stephen Webster

Story Tools

• post a comment
• e-mail this story
• print this story
• order a reprint
• digg this
• save to del.icio.us

As Yared discovered, software services can be a boon to keeping a far-flung staff connected and collaborating with clients, consultants, or investors. The one challenge for business owners is getting reliable mobile Web access. "If you've got a relatively mobile workforce, you need the latest and greatest in mobile connectivity," says Jeff Kaplan, managing director of THINKstrategies, a consulting firm in Wellesley, Mass. That means making sure each employee has an up-to-date laptop with a Wi-Fi connection or a high-speed wireless data service such as those offered by Verizon or Sprint. And bear in mind that most software services don't work if you're not connected to the Internet. If your salespeople clock significant hours on airplanes, make sure your services will let them work on spreadsheets or other documents offline.

Most of the 17 employees of consulting firm Growth Acceleration Partners work from their homes or client sites. When Brett Bachman founded the Austin (Tex.) company in January, 2007, he wanted to keep overhead as low as possible. "We didn't want to invest for two years before we started generating payback," says Bachman. "I didn't want to have to buy a server." Bachman's company spends $39.95 per month for Microsoft Office Live Premium, which includes the tools to design a Web site, free Web hosting, 2 gigabytes of Web site storage space, 50 company-branded e-mail accounts, Web site traffic reports, online workspaces for collaboration, and basic sales force automation. A cost-tracking service from Journyx, which helps Bachman figure out which clients are profitable, costs $50 a month. And a $60-a-month online service from Iron Mountain lets all his scattered employees back up their laptops, a necessity when essential data don't live on your premises.

Even companies that have their own servers find that Web services make them less dependent on the machines. SoluChem, an Austin industrial supply company, set up a file and e-mail server years ago. But the 12-person, $30 million company gradually migrated to Google for e-mail and now relies on Web services such as salesforce.com for customer relationship management, and others for payroll, financials, spreadsheets, and documents. "We kept thinking that we would need to add servers, but we never have," says Ted Hughes, an operations manager for SoluChem. "Everything we're doing is Web-based."

Hughes' favorite is a free software service called Zoho Creator, which helped him create an online database to manage information about a thousand chemical suppliers. He was able to set it up in one night—this after struggling to set up a Microsoft Access database for nearly six months. "It's amazing that I could get it all together in a matter of hours," he says. And when SoluChem's server is ready for the recycling bin, Hughes says the company just might not replace it.

Back to BWSmallBiz December 2007/January 2008 Table of Contents