It’s even pain if some clients insists a copy by snail mail. We have come up a simple solution to blending century old book keeping to new technology. Keeping financial record should be easy, fast, simple (and perhaps even fun), but still detailed enough to satisfy your accountant.

We have seen many people / companies are struggling with tools like Word and Excel for invoicing or with QuickBooks which is completely bloated for their needs.

Here an alternative and some relief to those who raises frequent invoices to clients. FreshBooks has made it very simple so that you create and send invoices in seconds. FreshBooks simplifies the billing process, transforms the way entrepreneurs and their customers look at invoicing.

FreshBooks is an easy to use online invoicing service that re-invents how professionals, freelancers and small businesses invoice their clients and helps them save time, get paid faster and look super professional. FreshBooks was built from the ground up to address the highest level invoicing needs/pains of our customers – saving time, getting paid faster and looking super professional. Your data deserves to be safe, secure, and accessible to you.

It also keeps track time and expenses. You can send your invoices by email and even by snail mail depending on your client’s requirement. You can automate the invoices and do a follow-up reminders for those who have not paid. All these are possible and automated too to make your life much easier. You can import and export your data and prepare a report too.

FreshBooks has tie ups with major online payment channels such as Paypal, Authorize.net and many more.

Save time:

If you only send 3 invoices a month, this new service will be a huge help because it will be so easy. No envelopes or stamps to buy. No trips to the mailbox. Sometimes it takes you weeks to get around to actually mailing your invoices. Now there will be no time wasted between when you want to invoice your client and when you do invoice them.

Time spent to do billing has been reduced. On average – 4.5 hours a week / billing cycle. Payment waiting time is cut by 14 days, on an average.

Save Money:

Take a moment and imagine you (or your client) have 5,000 clients that you manually send invoices to every month using the ground postal service. To mail all those invoices probably costs around $2,500/month in postage, plus materials, plus time and effort. The total expense is probably about $50,000/year plus a whole lot of wasted time. Ouch. How do you stop that kind of pain? By helping transition those 5,000 ground mail invoice clients to 5,000 online billing clients and by transitioning them smoothly.

Imagine saving about $50,000, just by sending your invoices by email instead of by post. It really could be that easy. The trick is to get your clients from “snail mail” to email to save that money, and that’s where FreshBooks comes in. That’s what we are going to help you, your clients and their clients do.

Most of the Freelancers, professionals and small businesses make up a massive market place. But they also make up one of the most under-serviced markets because individually they are small. People from 100+ countries are using FreshBooks and then nos are increasing.

You can test it before you become a FreshBooks user. To know about the different pricing options, click here.

Mike McDerment
CEO
FreshBooks

Mike McDerment – A biography

Mike McDerment is the CEO and co-founder of FreshBooks. An entrepreneur with two successful start-ups to his name, Mike talks faster than he writes and can deftly juggle and keep his eye on hundreds of balls at one time. Mike is a founder of the mesh conference, lecturer at Humber College and a frequent speaker at Internet conferences. See what Mike’s up to by reading his blog or catching his latest Twitter updates. Mike loves his work, and would rather be outdoors than inside.

We know billing is a pain. We know you have tried tools like QuickBooks, Excel and Word to create your invoices and manage your books. That’s why we built FreshBooks – because you need something that works well and gets the job of billing your clients done – without the pain. What pain you ask? The QuickBooks pain of having to do 100 steps to get one thing done. The Excel pain of poorly formatted invoices. The Word pain of keeping track of who has paid and how much remains outstanding.

We designed FreshBooks to attack those problems, and to create a solution that made it easy to handle billing and invoices.

According to government statistics, there are over 24 million businesses in the United States with fewer than 500 employees and they are the back bone of American economy. Most of the small business owners doesn’t have a website and don’t have the knowledge of how to market their products and services.

As more and more consumers turn to the internet to find products and services, these small business owners are faced with lot of challenges – online marketing, web presence, advertisement, yellow directories, global reaches, e-commerce, market survey, etc.

In order to meet these business challenges, John Wall’s Innuity has come up a good solution exclusively for small business owners. Innuity offers Software as a Service (SaaS) platform – which designs, acquires and integrates software applications to deliver solutions for small business.

A disparity exists, however, between consumer practice and small business response. While nearly 75% of U.S. consumers use the Internet as a source when shopping for goods and services, less than 10% of advertising dollars are spent online, and fully half of all small businesses don’t even have a website.

Innuity is a Software as a Service (SaaS) company that designs and integrates applications to deliver solutions specifically targeted to small businesses from sole proprietors working from home, to local family doctors, to neighborhood restaurants, and almost everything in between.

The company’s Internet technology is based on an affordable, on-demand model that allows small businesses to interact simply with customers, business partners and vendors and efficiently manage their business. Using Innuity’s on-demand applications, small businesses can grow their revenues, reach and serve customers and run everyday operations.

Innuity currently has two operating divisions, Promotion and Commerce, each of which is focused on a critical business process. The applications and solutions offered by the Promotion division help small businesses market and promote their products and services, while the offerings of the Commerce division can facilitate and improve a small business’ selling processes and transaction processing capabilities.

Innuity delivers its small business information system solutions through its Internet technology platform – Innuity Velocity. The Velocity platform provides small businesses the opportunity to choose applications that are right for their businesses – individually or as an integrated package – with minimum initial start-up costs and maintenance.

With Innuity’s use-based pricing, small businesses pay a monthly subscription fee for the applications or integrated packages that address three major small business life stages: Getting started, growth and profitability.

For years, many small business owners spent much of their advertising dollars on traditional media such as yellow page listings or print advertising in local newspapers. (Some small businesses even choosing outrageous names for the sole purpose of getting ahead of the competition in alphabetic listings.) In the online marketplace, small businesses often lag behind local competition and the bigger e-tailers due to lack of computer know-how and an inability to adapt their messaging and optimize potential to be seen by new customers.

There are dozens of ways for small businesses to distinguish themselves and be seen by online consumers from targeted online advertising campaigns to enhanced search engine optimization.

With Innuity’s LeadConnect, businesses can be found quickly and easily by online consumers searching for applicable local goods and services. The LeadConnect service provides a simple-to-use system to gather key business data from business owners and distribute that information to the major local search engines and yellow page directories, including Google, Yahoo, and MSN, and twenty-seven more.

Innuity’s Promotion division connects businesses with customers who are most likely to buy their particular products and services – helping generate new customers as well as grow existing customer revenue. The division currently includes two business lines: Small Business Online Marketing & Search Engine Marketing.

The Small Business Online Marketing business line provides affordable solutions that comprehensively and immediately promote small businesses online and rapidly build strong customer bases.

With Innuity’s online marketing solutions, current and new customers of small businesses can find small businesses online quickly and easily via local search results and pay-per-click ads; learn about small businesses’ product and service offerings via clear, compelling and easy-to-navigate websites; and purchase a merchant’s products and services online, with ease and efficiency. Small Business Online Marketing features the following core products:

LeadConnect™: Drives top local search rankings for Innuity’s customers in the major search engines. Develops enhanced online local business profiles, places customized business profiles in one centralized location and automatically distributes these business profiles to major search engines and yellow page directories including Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, Citysearch, YP Guides and YellowPages.com.

Business Websites: Design, implementation and delivery of websites to effectively market small businesses online, provide successful customer interaction and help current and prospective customers learn about the business.

eCommerce Websites: Design, implementation and delivery of websites with safe and secure online stores, and creation and maintenance of compelling online storefronts — providing a quick, thorough and efficient way to sell products online.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Identify, analyze and select high-impact keywords; buy sponsored listings, advertising space, in places such as Google for identified keywords and keyword phrases; and rapidly deliver highly qualified leads.

The Search Engine Marketing business line delivers higher-end, interactive marketing agency capabilities for businesses seeking comprehensive online marketing solutions.
 SEM offerings help businesses design and implement in-depth search engine marketing strategies; deliver and convert highly qualified leads to customers; and develop higher natural rankings on search engines for clients’ keywords, transforming keywords and websites into long-term client assets. Search Engine Marketing features the following core products:

• Search Engine Optimization: Designed to deliver high natural search engine results (rankings) for carefully selected, high-impact keywords at a fraction of the cost for premium, paid keyword search engine placement. Continuous optimization efforts transform websites into long-term assets.
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Identify, analyze and select high-impact keywords; buy sponsored listings, advertising space, on search engines for identified keywords and keyword phrases; and quickly deliver highly qualified leads.

Innuity’s Commerce division provides the operational capability for processing, managing and supporting commerce transactions between small businesses, their online and offline customers, vendors and business partners.

The Merchant Services business line’s offerings deliver complete, end-to-end payment and processing solutions for merchants — bringing faster credit capabilities to Innuity’s customers.

Providing all the functionality and support needed to conduct bank card services, Merchant Services offers a thorough merchant solution  including merchant approval software, bank card acquiring and comprehensive merchant life cycle management products; convenient and easy-to-use payment acceptance and processing solutions that are fully functional with multiple payment acceptance methods; and seamless payment engine delivery. The Merchant Services business line delivers three principal offerings – Merchant Life Cycle Management, Bank Card Acquiring and Gateway.

Merchant Life Cycle Management (MLCM) products provide rapid merchant account application processing, real time credit scoring, board automation, contract origination, settlement data, risk management and profitability and residual management. MLCM products take merchant applications from the prospect stage through account set-up and boarding; then advance the merchant process to total terminal set-up, transaction processing and detailed daily reporting. The result is a streamlined, integrated and seamless user experience.

The Bank Card Acquiring (BCA) program provides the ability to accept retail credit cards — collecting payment from consumers’ credit cards or debit cards for goods and services sold. We have partnered with J.P. Morgan Chase &  Co., the nation’s largest merchant processing bank, to provide timely, secure and reliable payment processing capabilities and technology.

The Gateway offerings provide eCommerce, mail order, telephone order and virtual point-of-sale transaction processing. To know more about Gateway, click here.

You can click on these links to get more information on innuity, LeadConnect and YpGuides.

John Wall
CEO
Innuity

John Wall – A biography

John Wall is the CEO of Innuity and is an articulate proponent of American small business as well as an online industry expert.

A well-known technology entrepreneur, John Wall founded and grew his first company, Wall Data, to a $150 million, publicly held company.  During his 17-year leadership and CEO tenure, he transformed a fledging enterprise into a connectivity powerhouse and built dominant enterprise acceptance for his RUMBA product line brand.

John founded Vista.com (now renamed Innuity) in 1999 to reach out again to a vastly underserved market from a technology standpoint — small business. His vision now is to help small businesses 10x their business.
A technologist as well as company builder, John believes in the power of breakthrough technologies, strong teams, clear priorities, and dedication to exceeding customer expectations. Like other committed and long-term entrepreneurs, John is most interested in building a company that has a profound and lasting market impact.

John is a civic leader in his Seattle home town and has been chairman of the Washington Software Alliance and the Digital Blackboard Foundation, and board director for the Corporate Council for the Arts. He is currently on the visiting committee for the University of Washington’s Physics Department. John holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Northern Arizona University.

She feels that some of the causes of low productivity in a small business are as follows:

• Burnout / Stress- According to the American Institute of Stress, 40% of workers reported their job was very or extremely stressful, and 26 percent of those workers said they were “often or very often burned out or stressed by their work.”
• Poor/rigid working conditions
• Management Style
• Employee Motivation

NTM / Sherean counteracts these low productivity triggers by creating an environment that is flexible, supportive, and creative.  NTM understand that businesses have a tremendous impact on their environment. They believe it’s their responsibility to minimize that impact and practice good green policies. Technology also plays a major part…

Environment: creating an environment that is dynamic and flexible to her employees’ lifestyle, but still receptive to the business needs.”   NTM is not any less competitive, and everyone is just as serious about their work as if they were still at their super corporate jobs.  NTM is focused on Work-Life Balance. NTM is a kid friendly environment.

Non-toxic cleaning: They have selected a janitorial services company that uses only non-toxic, green-friendly cleaning supplies.

Creativity- NTM injects creativity into its modus operandi, especially when dealing with employees. It is important to have employees with hybrid skill sets. For example, during slower months such as the summer, the NTM team is always engaged because they all share equal responsibility in a project- they do not operate in a silo.

Flexibility- Employees are a business’ lifeblood.  Creating flexible work options such as Telecommuting and Job Sharing fosters an environment that addresses individual needs/concerns, celebrates team work, increases productivity and even enforces social responsibility.  All of NTM employees telecommute at least part of the time.  They’ve found this to be not just good environmental policy, but good business.  NTM employees are happier and more productive by incorporating telecommuting in their actions.

Recycle/Reduce: In addition to recycling paper, NTM strive to manage all accounts electronically so we don’t use much paper in the first place.  Their book keepings are happening online and the book keeper only comes for meeting.

Commercial Printers: While NTM use a variety of printers, the one they contract with most often uses vegetable-based inks (primarily soy), paper that is produced from 60% recovered paper, and paper that is milled without harmful dioxin.

You can take advantage of today’s technology.  Equip your employees with the right tools.  Webinars and podcasts are excellent for business development and meetings with clients.  Social networking is excellent for recruiting and initiating strategic alliances.  Embrace the new tools created to increase productivity for your industry.

Some example of great tools include:

Social Media Productivity- Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website.  Another productivity tools is Joomla.  Both are Free software packages.

Clearspace- Clearspace is enterprise collaboration software built from the ground up for teams, companies, and communities looking for an easy and productive way to work with each other — without time or location limitations. Eliminate redundant conversations, meetings, emails, and ideas by opening doors to new co-workers, partners, and customers.

Webinars / Podcasts are great for business development and meetings.  Software such as Adobe Connect or Webex make the transition to virtual meetings dynamic and easy to create.

Linkedin- is great for recruiting and networking and building strategic alliances.

GroupHub or Basecamp are excellent tools for project management.  Basecamp is a web-based tool that lets you manage and track projects (or simply ideas) and quickly create client/project extranets.  Basecamp solves this problem by providing tools tailored to improve the communication between people working together on a project.  GroupHub is a creative design community. A collection of individuals and businesses drawn together by a desire to create, design and innovate.

You can plan your meetings and events at  Open Table or Cvent.  OpenTable is the leading supplier of reservation, table management and guest management software for restaurants. This is an ideal place for lunch meetings.  Cvent provides Online Software for Event Management, Web Surveys, Email Marketing, Reservations, listings and ticket sales.

ACT CRM is the #1 selling contact and customer manager that helps you organize contact information, manage daily responsibilities, and communicate more effectively to improve your productivity.  With over 2.7 million users and 41,000 corporate customers, ACT! is renowned for being easy to learn and use, and is an effective solution for anyone who regularly works with contacts.

Constant Contact is an Email marketing software that makes it easy to create professional HTML email campaigns with no tech skills.  Whether you’re looking to send an email newsletter, a high-impact email promotion, an email event invitation, an online survey, or build your email list, try Constant Contact.

Productivity remains at an all time high at NTM.  It’s super-low churn rate

Sherean Malekzadeh Allen
President
New Thought Marketing, Inc

Sherean Malekzadeh Allen -  A biography

Sherean Malekzadeh Allen, internationally recognized advertising, sales and marketing expert, is Founder and President of New Thought Marketing, Inc.  She is one of the early internet marketing pioneers, award-winning writer and television producer. Media and world-class companies including FOX, PC Magazine, CNN International, Jones Lang LaSalle, IBM, CBS and MTV have featured Sherean’s work and continually seek her expertise for real-world solutions to maximize market opportunities; integrate new media and digital marketing strategies.

About New Thought Marketing:

New Thought Marketing was founded as Sherean Malekzadeh’s way of sharing smart people with companies she believes in.

The consultants give clients the marketing and sales tools to grow.  They really love working with second-stage entrepreneurs: successful companies beyond the start up phase who now want more. NTM graduate them to the next level, and then train them to stay on course with their own people.

NTM do it while balancing life and work.  Since founding the company in 2001, Sherean has collected senior level marketing, advertising, sales and creative folks who simply want to adjust their work schedules to make room for family or themselves. So instead of being tied to one company, or out of the workforce entirely, they work for the clients.

Here is a small piece of information shared by Andrew S. Field. Andrew is the President and CEO of Printing for less.com. He feels as a small business owners you can save yourself, your employees and your customers time and money by doing small things. Let us look at one by one.

You can leverage technology in all your dealings. You can buy your supplies online. Some of the administrative support functions such as banking, paying the bills can be automated through online. You can buy your marketing materials such as website, logo design to printing and mailing lists. Printing for less.com is one such company, which provides all these services online. You don’t need to step out on your vehicle and go to the printer to get all the works done. Printing for less.com can do all these work for you online. You can also develop your downline to work smarter. During slow periods, you can take advantage of low-cost online training if relevant. This makes your staff get motivated and do more for you.

You can use technology to make it easy for your customers. You can save their precious time and worries. If you put all your goods and services online, it is available to your customers 24X7 even if you are not there. Some of the things you can put oneline are product information, order tracking, company information, resource links, where it can use freely. Through this online display, you will maximize valuable people –power by automating routine transactions online so your team can focus on providing higher-value-add services. You can also advertise their products and link to other sites. This will help customers where to find you. If they feel that this is an easy way to do business and creating a remarkable experience for customers, you’ll be sure to get people talking and increase referrals this summer for your business.

To boost the summer sales, you can use direct mail services. Summers are the perfect time for a direct mail campaign. You can get the phone ringing with increased communication to prospects / customers. You can also use a print provider that can handle the mailings too. To get the beautiful direct mail designs, take the help of Printing for less.com

Another way is to increase the brand visibility. During the slow summers, you can use a integrated look and feel to re-inforce your company branding and increase top-of-mind-awareness. You can use full-color stationery, which is great for a professional image and branding at every touch point.

For better networking and attending trade shows, you need to use quality and eye-catching business cards and marketing materials are a must. You can re-design new cards.

Why don’t you use an e-commerce printing solution especially over the summer? It’s convenient, affordable and the turnaround will be faster.

There are some online printers who can give you the ability to order print jobs right from your computer. You just need to simply upload your print file (in any format). They will review it and approve your proof and deliver at your door step. It just as a “one stop shops” who can handle your printing and mailing needs effortlessly.

Most local printers can take weeks to handle a job from quote to finish. Online printers can usually turn your project around quickly – usually anywhere from 2-7 days. You can really save lot of time here. E-commerce printers often have lower prices than local print shops. Assume that you are ordering high quantities, you will get it at lower per-piece prices too. Internet gives you the opportunity to develop a great relationship with a printer located across the country.

While selecting your e-commerce / online printing solution, check their service. With an online printer, service is the key to a successful print project. Make sure the representative are available, friendly, and polite while talking to you. Ensure that the representatives are knowledgeable and able to answer your queries. Also, check whether they have received any service awards. Are they flexible? Can you configure a project the way you want or are there limited options?

Is their work 100% guaranteed? Check BBB. Check the fine print to make sure there are no weasel words. Ask for specifics on the guarantee?

Obviously quality matters. Request for samples of printed products before ordering. How about the quality of paper used and the printing equipment? What about testimonials? Do they have printing experience and who are their clients? All these matter when you choose online printing options.

Always, avoid looking for cheapest price. You get what you pay for – it will be usually inferior quality, substandard service and sometime you don’t get technical support too. It’s easy to find affordable printing service that can compete in quality with the big guys.

So, this summer you can do a lot now.

Andrew S. Field
President and CEO
Printing for Less.com

Andrew S. Field – A biography

Andrew S. Field is the President and CEO of Printing for less.com. Andrew Field launched PrintingForLess.com in 1996, and has since led a revolution in the commercial printing industry, tapping the power of the Internet to build one of the country’s fastest-growing companies.

Andrew’s affinity for the printing business began when he learned to run a press in high school and got a job at a local print shop in his home town of San Mateo, California. From there he worked for print shops in Minneapolis and Los Angeles, until switching careers to sales and business management when he moved to Montana in 1989.

He started a successful local automotive service business, then secured a regional distributorship for Wynn Oil Company, a worldwide manufacturer of specialty chemicals. The distributorship won Wynn Oil’s coveted award for #1 in U.S. market penetration five out of six years from 1994 to1999. After founding PFL in 1996, Andrew turned over operations of American Automotive Supply to his wife, Victoria, in 2001 so he could devote his efforts to growing his third startup company.

Andrew was named Montana’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004 for his contributions to the local economy. He was recognized by Winning Workplaces and Fortune Small Business as a winner of the 2005 Best Bosses Award for innovative approaches that have created a high-performance workplace. Through his leadership of the company’s operations and progressive business practices, he has built a dynamic culture that both empowers and inspires his employees for success.

Andrew’s leadership and maverick tendencies first showed in college (Washington University in St. Louis) where he organized a strike to protest the unhealthy dorm food. A competitive swimmer as a youth, he now dabbles in skiing and fly fishing, and enjoys floating the Yellowstone River. Andrew’s devotion to his border collie, Jessie, was the inspiration for PFL’s dog-friendly environment. What inspires him is the fine people he works with and the opportunity his company has created for them to live their dreams in Montana.
About PrintingForLess.com

PrintingForLess.com is the first and leading online commercial printing company in the United States. Located in southwest Montana, PrintingForLess.com provides unmatched technical and customer support and instant online pricing and ordering for full-color printed pieces. Go to www.printingforless.com for affordable marketing materials including: business cards, brochures, postcards, newsletters, letterhead, and more. For additional information, please visit their website.

The services’ small business applications will especially appeal to the country’s more than 5 million small businesses, including small offices and home offices (SOHOs).

It is a great product brought by AT&T for small businesses and consumers to stay in touch when people go on a vacation, to check the elderly parents, kids, pets.  Remote Monitoring is a productivity tool.

For small businesses they can use this remote monitor to check their POS, front door, back door and other store location, etc.  Remote Monitor can do this through a web enabled PC or from your AT&T phone.

Remote Monitor is pretty useful for small business owners to monitor the POS, Cash Counter, Stores, etc.   It can capture the images or videos and records in DVR. You can archive these and view it at ease.  It also automatically send an SMS alert.

Since Remote Monitor is a wireless services, the cameras are on a wired platform. You don’t need to understand technology to install the equipment, it’s pretty simple.  People don’t have to put an extra effort for the installation.   It broadcast the video using AT&T own technology homeplug or powerline adapter that allow the powerline in the building. You don’t need an internet cable or DSL line to transmit video.  It’s cost effective and easy way to set-up the system.

You can watch these videos on your AT&T smart phone (please make sure you have the right model with you). You can get these streaming videos on your handset.  You just need  Java enabled phones such as Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola and Samsung to name a few.  Check out the compatible phone list before you use Remote Monitor.  You can directly control the system from your phone.

Regarding the pricing, it comes with two component – Starter Kit and Service Plans.  The starter starts from $299 to $999 depending on the component you choose.   The Business pack is ideal for small business owners and home users can start the standard pack.   It comes with a system controller, one fixed position IP camera for remote viewing, one door / window sensor / temperature sensor, two PLC adaptor to transmit via powerlines and necessary cables.   The service plan depends on number of location that you choose to monitor.  To know more about these plans, click here.

Since some of the people are going out for vacation in summers, they can carry these phones and do of monitoring activities such temperature control, lighting, power devices and many more things from anywhere.  This would be a handy tool and gives a piece of mind at vacation.   You can also check at AT&T site and have thermostat information for remote programming.

You need to have a good computer system with broadband internet connection and a router.  Ensure that your network router has at least two unused ports. A network hub or switch also can be used to provide more ports, if necessary.  If you don’t have a broadband, call AT&T, so that they can provide one for you.   For more details of pre-requisite, visit system requirements page.

The starter kit comes with the controller and it plug in to the router. You can fix the sensors and camera wherever you need.  With one quick registration, you are ready to use.  If you have any technical problems, always rely on AT&T customer support are willing to help you.

Steven Loop
Director of Business Development
AT&T Remote Monitor

Steven Loop – A biography

Steve Loop is an Executive Director of Business Development at AT&T.  Steve has almost 15 years at AT&T with a diverse background of Technical Sales, Sales Operations, Merger Planning and Integration, Marketing, and Product Development.  His role in Business Development is to find new products and services for mass market and small business customers and then accelerate their availability. AT&T Remote Monitor is a great example of one of those products.

About AT&T:

Wireless from AT&T, formerly Cingular Wireless, is the largest wireless company in the United States, with more than 71 million subscribers who use the nation’s largest digital voice and data network. AT&T is dedicated to providing customers with wireless technology designed to enrich their lives.

Related articles

• The End of the On-Site Security Guard? Think Remote Monitoring (prweb.com)

For those who are still stuck using the buggy and security-problem-plagued Microsoft Internet Explorer, make sure you check out Firefox.  Version 3, which has been in use for years now, provides a much more advanced, secure and faster Internet exploration experience.

Keep an eye out for the latest version, which should be out later this year.

Firefox 4 has simpler design; more privacy control – USATODAY.com.

A new web site has popped up call Setster that allows you to let your clients, partners, employees and even your family co-ordinate their calendar with yours.

• Find a Pro – this service helps small businesses outsource specific parts of their business operations and activities.  Small business owners can be more productive by outsourcing specific tasks, which are mundane or regular in nature to someone and focus on what they love to do. Try Find a Pro service.

• Selling a Business – More business sellers are choosing BizTrader.com because it is the most effective and affordable business selling solution in the world.  BizTrader.com’s massive distribution service lets sellers place one ad that gets distributed to dozens of other websites, keeping your time short (in just 5 mins) and reach wide for marketing a business for sale.

Implement a summer schedule allowing employees to leave early on Fridays to spend time with family or to start the weekend early.   Having a few extra hours to commute to weekend destinations will encourage employees to get some much needed R&R and will contribute to their overall well-being – and keep them more productive in the long run.

Hire a summer intern — Many college students are looking for summer experience to boost their resume and to test out different fields.  This is a great opportunity for your business to hire someone eager to work who can help out with extra tasks, especially the administrative ones, which may often be placed on back burner during vacation season.

You can also offer on-site child care services or discounts so employees do not have to spend as much time and money on summer day-care.

Take advantage of available technology and offer solutions to allow employees to telecommute on days when office presence is not imperative.

On the flip side – make sure employees ARE unplugging as much as possible during vacation time so they can relax and come back to work relaxed and recharged.

Make sure working environment is comfortable for employees, especially if you’re in a hot climate.  Be sure to keep air conditioning in working order and encourage employees to take frequent breaks and to drink plenty of water when outdoors during high heat.

Colby Sambrotto
President and CEO
BizTrader.com

Colby Sambrotto – A biography

Colby Sambrotto founded BizTrader.com in 2007 and is directly responsible for leading the company’s growth and operation.

With a track record of founding, growing, managing and selling a series of successful web-based businesses including ForSaleByOwner.com, the internet’s leading resource for buying and selling real estate without a commission, Colby was inspired to start BizTrader.com to meet the needs of entrepreneurs and investors.

BizTrader.com is a global business resource – it is designed to connect business owners and operators with prospective buyers, lenders and investors.  BizTrader.com is a multilingual one-stop-shop for the small business owner who is looking to expand internationally, get a loan or be acquired.

Since BizTrader.com’s beta launch in 2008, the site has listed tens of thousands of businesses for sale and Colby has successfully brokered business partnerships with companies including Experian, and Microsoft subsidiary Franchise Gator to give the small business owners or investors the tools and resources needed to conduct business in today’s a global marketplace.

Prior to founding BizTrader.com, Colby was chief operating officer of ForSaleByOwner.com for seven years, where he directed the day-to-day operations of the company and was responsible for overseeing all operational aspects of the company including business development, web development, strategic planning and human resources.  Under his strategic leadership, ForSaleByOwner.com was acquired by Tribune Company in 2006.

Colby has provided his views and commentary on a range of business topics in hundreds of media outlets including The Today Show, Wall Street Journal, 20/20 and Businessweek.

Filled with unique tools for both buyers and sellers and led by a seasoned, successful management team, BizTrader is compiling an extensive network of business owners, brokers, and lenders to make this the most comprehensive site for buying and selling a business.

All content on BizTrader.com, including customer postings, articles and software programs, is available in English, Spanish and Mandarin.

If you are business owner and would like to:

• Sell a business, asset, or commercial property
• Value a business
• Coordinate a barter arrangement
• Find a lender, investor or potential buyer
• Multi-lingual translation
• Find a professional – from lawyers and insurance carriers to painters and computer repair

If you are an investor and buyer and would like to :

• Multi-lingual translation
• Check a company’s credit
• Buy a business
• Value a business
• Find a franchise

Now you can buy and read your favorite magazines while you are on the move — at a low, digital price.  You can also download these magazines on your desktop, laptop or on your iPhone and keep up to date with the latest happenings.

Zinio gives you the ultimate magzine platform.  I’ve been using it for the past few months and found that it saves time, gives me a better experience than even the paper magazines and saves me money.  For a nominal subscription fee, Zinio allows you to download magazines of your choice onto your computer when they become available from the publisher.  You can also read them at the zinio library.   Zinio uses its own reader that can be accessed online, through web browser—no software installations or downloads required.  You should be subscriber to download the reader.  By bringing the reading experience online, Zinio is recreating the same great reading experience, and providing users the immediacy and convenience of online.

• We love Dads: A good amount of Zinio’s success can be attributed to “dad’s” who are among our most avid readers and loyal customers.  One of Zinio’s strengths is their robust selection of both business titles and entertainment related titles.  Whether it’s BusinessWeek, or Boating magazine, they provide visitors with the ability to customize their digital reading experience.
• Video and High Fidelity images:  The Zinio reading experience actually takes magazine reading to a whole new level.  You know the difference a high definition TV makes – imagine if your magazine images could look that good?  Or even better, with added video!  Each one of Zinio’s digital magazines are given the utmost care and attention to detail whenever imagery is involved.   The technology allows a reader to zoom in, jotting notes, highlight specific words, or sentences on these magazines.  So quality will not suffer since it is using HD technology.  You can jot your notes is a good features.  Some people have the tendency to write notes at the end of the pages or right side of the pages.
• Mobility:  Many Dad’s we all know and love have a long commute every day, or travel quite a bit. For that reason (and many others) Zinio labs has focused on creating a reading experience you can take with you. With our iPhone, iTouch application, you can browse and read on the go, where-ever, whenever.  And even better you can access any Zinio digital magazine when you are on your computer or laptop, but not on the internet using our downloadable reader.
• Archives: Who doesn’t need to reduce clutter?  Zinio makes this necessary task bear-able by holding over 8 years of magazine archives inside our newsstand.  Now, when you are looking for that old article on Lance Armstrong, or that secret barbeque recipe, you don’t need to page through stacks of magazines, you can open your Zinio library and quickly search through editorial articles and ads within seconds.   Contents can be archived with your notes.  Any note or highlighting is preserved in your library.  You can also search for notes or highlighted words at a later date. So, notes won’t vanish.
• Issues or Subscriptions: For Father’s Day digital subscriptions are often times less expensive than their print counterparts or you don’t need to invest in a full year. With Zinio, you can also choose from any single issues. Imagine how happy Dad will be with 3 issues of Men’s Journal, followed by 3 issues of Car and Driver and then 3 issues The Sporting News, with a few Harvard Business Reviews just to make it look good. Zinio lets you build a custom experience that meets your Dad’s needs.  You can access free business magazines too.

Zinio is continuously developing new applications, which can take care of highlighting, annotations, search inside, and additional printing options.  Zinio is moving toward digital creation and advertisements.  Also have plans to incorporate audio and videos on magazines.

Jeanniey Mullen
Global Executive Vice President
Chief Marketing Officer
Zinio

Jeanniey Mullen – A biography

Jeanniey Mullen is the Global Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Zinio Systems and VIV Magazine. In her role at Zinio and VIV, Jeanniey is charged with reinventing the publishing industry as a digital cornerstone of the consumer’s lifestyle.

She is also the founder and Executive Chair of the Email Experience Council (recently purchased by the DMA).

Prior to her role at Zinio and VIV, Jeanniey was the Senior Partner, and Global Executive Director of the Email Marketing and Digital Dialogue Practice at OgilvyOne Worldwide. In her role at Ogilvy, Jeanniey was responsible for leading the worldwide efforts that use digital dialogues and email to create powerful, meaningful and profitable customer communication strategies for Ogilvy clients, including IBM, American Express and Yahoo!
Prior to her role at Zinio and VIV, Jeanniey was the Senior Partner, and Global Executive Director of the Email Marketing and Digital Dialogue Practice at OgilvyOne Worldwide. In her role at Ogilvy, Jeanniey was responsible for leading the worldwide efforts that use digital dialogues and email to create powerful, meaningful and profitable customer communication strategies for Ogilvy clients, including IBM, American Express and Yahoo!

Jeanniey’s experience spans across B2C and B2B initiatives and many verticals including publishing, entertainment and events.

Prior to joining OgilvyOne, Jeanniey founded and ran her own interactive agency, The Lift Network. Before that, she served as the CMO and EVP at Avalon Digital Marketing Systems, where she helped launch one of the first B2B email platforms that incorporated on-demand video into the email message. Prior to Avalon, Jeanniey was the Global GM and VP of the email marketing department. Before entering the advertising agency world, Jeanniey was the Director of Customer Relations and Marketing Experience for JCPenney’s five key businesses, Store, Catalog, Direct, CreditCard and Insurance, Jeanniey is recognized in the industry as pioneering the first global email marketing practice, and was named one of the top 25 media people to watch while at Grey Direct.

Jeanniey’s expertise in the discipline spans both the B2B and B2C industries. In addition to her board position at the eec, Jeanniey is a columnist for ClickZ, has published numerous white papers and best practice guides, has been appeared in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. She is a frequent keynote speaker on the topics of email and digital marketing for organizations like Media Post, ClickZ, DMA, Shop.org and many others.

About Zinio

Zinio is the global leader for digital publishing products and services. Zinio provides publishers with new circulation and revenue growth opportunities through its comprehensive offerings from marketing programs that include customer acquisition, retention and cross-promotion to seamless production services, a robust e-commerce engine and extensive digital delivery, circulation and fulfillment services.

Major publishing partners include, Bonnier, Hearst, IDG, Gruner + Jahr, Hachette Filipacchi, IPC Media, Mariah Media, McGraw-Hill, The National Magazine Company, Playboy Enterprises, Source Interlink, Rogers Publishing and Ziff Davis. Zinio has offices in San Francisco and New York with several franchisees worldwide. For more information, or to purchase any of the digital magazine-specific titles offered by Zinio, please visit http://www.zinio.com.

With the Autonet Mobile Router, the in-car multimedia experience leaps forward, with wireless connectivity that delivers high speed Internet to passengers in your car. No longer is content (DVDs, CDs, etc.) brought to the car, but instead entertainment is based on social media and interactive engagements (i.e. email, chat, games, Internet video).

With Autonet Mobile, every passenger can now harness the power and entertainment value of the internet within your car:

• Connect Everyone in The Car to the Internet while you’re in motion and at the same time
• Get in the Car, Surf the Web, IM, Chat, E-Mail
• Easy for the Whole Family to use
• No software needed

Sterling Pratz, CEO of Autonet Mobile, speaks about the latest technology available for cars and industry’s push toward Internet, GPS, etc in the car. At CES the company showcased their Autonet Mobile WiFi router which lets multiple passengers enjoy wireless broadband while in motion. They also announced an agreement with Delphi to explore new Internet based telematics and in-car entertainment products.

The Autonet Mobile Service:
The Autonet Mobile Service provides continuous connectivity for every passenger in the car. The Autonet Mobile WiFi router turns the car into a WiFi hotspot and is mounted in the car by the auto dealership – giving passengers immediate access to the Internet.

With the Autonet Mobile Service, the in-car multimedia experience leaps forward, with connectivity that delivers high speed Internet. No longer is content (DVDs, cds, etc.) brought to the car, but instead entertainment is based on social media and interactive engagements (i.e. email, chat, games, Internet video). The service is specifically designed for the in-car experience – users can chat, email, or play games without being dropped from the network, whether the car is on a city street, passing through a detour, in a tunnel, or anywhere else it needs to go.

Any WiFi-enabled laptop, handheld, mobile media player or video game console will work with the Autonet Mobile Service. And more than one device can be used at the same time so that multiple passengers can benefit from the connectivity at once.

How It Works:
The Autonet Mobile Service offers continuous connectivity through its patent-pending TRU Technology. The service has intelligent, dynamic automatic session management between high/low speed networks, which provides an even, reliable user experience. It is similar to a wireless hotspot, only on the go.

How to Buy the Autonet Mobile Service:
Autonet Mobile Service will be available for purchase at the Price Family automotive dealerships in Northern California.

Sterling Pratz
Co-founder and CEO

Sterling Pratz – A biography

With Autonet Mobile, Sterling Pratz has combined two of his passions: cars and technology. As a former professional race car driver he is intimately familiar with cars and the automotive market. His background provides unparalleled technical familiarity with cars, as well as relationships with some of the top car manufacturers, companies and driving clubs in the world. Pratz also held executive level positions with Xerox, INW and Computer Associates. As a co-founder and senior vice president with INW, he oversaw the creation of a branding initiative that launched the company in the U.S. market and contributed to its eventual sale to a large telecommunications company. Pratz holds a B.A. in business psychology from San Francisco State University.

The company identified a need: in-car entertainment systems based on the Internet. And, as a result, it is delivering the first service for the wireless car through the automotive after market. Overcoming technical and physical barriers, the company designed an in-car wireless Internet service that is easy to use, reliable, secure and fast.

Viral Marketing

Marketers are recognizing the effectiveness of viral marketing, and are deploying more and more viral marketing campaigns as part of their online marketing mix. Brand exposure and targeted click-through are the main goals of such campaigns.

VHost Workshop and Karaoke

Oddcast’s VHost Workshop and Karaoke products provide a one stop shop for brands viral marketing campaigns including:

• Enabling users to self express and create content, using their own voice and creativity.
• Enabling users to share their creations via email, mobile and within online community environments such as contents, bulletin boards and gallery pages.
• Enabling site editors to manage the community including:
  • Ongoing editorial direction (editors may change the topic users post about every week, for example)
  • Editorial control (Ability to highlight certain user creations and delete others)
• Provide access to dynamic reports on usage, time spent on site, and viral indicators such as emails sent and opened.

Benefits of Viral Marketing Campaigns

• High brand exposure time! Time spent on site is especially high (averaging 6 – 9 minutes per visit) and attributed to the products’ high interaction, self expression and entertainment value.
• High pass along viral rates: Email open rates average, 70%, and pass-along rates average 35%. There are high chances that a recipient will open an email generated from a friend – a trusted source

Relevant Case Study Highlights

• 7.5 Million unique visitors to the site within 6 months
• 50 Million emails sent
• 6-9 Minutes avg. user session length

User-Generated Content

Give your community a voice by enabling users to communicate through speaking avatars they create. With Oddcast self expression and editorial tools, any community can easily be transformed from a text based to a media based community.

Virtual Sales Agents

Over 90% of computers have speakers and over 85% of users experience media on them every day, yet businesses are selling silently. With Oddcast’s Virtual Salespeople you can provide product information, sales pitches and spoken call for action. VHost virtual salesmen and customer service agents have been proven to increase sales and conversion by 30% to 1000%.

Mobile Avatars

Oddcast mobile avatar solutions allow businesses, brands and publishers to reach users on their mobile phones via MMS or Flash Lite. Oddcast currently supports 2 main types of Mobile deployment:

• Dynamic Informational: Sending Weather, Astrology, news, scores etc to mobile subscribers.
• User Generated / Viral: Marketers can now take viral marketing on the road by allowing consumers to create their own avatar and send them to mobile phones.

Avatars are delivered to phones via MMS or Flash Lite! The solutions include consumer account management.

Telephony

Oddcast telephony solutions enable businesses and publishers to:

• Allow users to record audio to a web site by calling in via any phone.
• Allow users to receive audio to their phones by leaving their phone number.

Oddcast provides advanced APIs to enable 3rd parties to integrate this solution into non avatar applications.

E-Learning and Training

Case studies prove that user comprehension is enhanced by using online avatar based instruction. The VHost avatars are uniquely suited to deliver character online training, content, role play simulations and quizzing.

Rich Media Ads

Nothing beats a spoken call to action! Oddcast VHost talking banners boast industry-leading CPA results. VHost banners are compliant with most rich media ad systems and publishers. Let a VHost personally deliver your message for you!

Blogging & Social Networking

Bloggers worldwide are discovering the power of expressing themselves with a speaking avatar! Oddcast social networking solutions allow online communities to easily enable their members with avatar creation and publishing tools.

Small Business

The VHost SitePal® product line enables small businesses to place customized VHost characters on their web site in minutes.

President & CEO
Adi has over ten years of experience in product development and technology management. Prior to founding Oddcast in 1999, he headed Squeeze, a company that provided Web development services to Fortune 500 companies, including Starbucks and Con Edison. Adi produced more than thirty online games, including HBO’s “Sex in the City”, “The Sopranos”, and Warner Brothers’ “The Matrix” game. In 1996, Adi produced the first animated ads on AOL.

Adi holds an MPS degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and an undergraduate degree from NYU in Film and Television.

There is a wholesale shift to online services and we are seeing a strong need for a new platform to support this explosive demand. It needs to be a simple/transactional model. From a buy-it-now model to rent-on-demand.

Patrick and Craig discussed this a trend across-the-board and why the trend for online tools occurring.

The perceived value from a customer perspective for having all applications online as well as the end-user benefits.

Is SaaS a fad and what new businesses does he see emerging that will dominate this new area.

Does he see Streamload playing a part in this emerging trend and Why?

Patrick Harr
In February, Patrick Harr joined Streamload from Enterprise Partners Venture Capital where he served as entrepreneur-in-residence focusing on content, storage, and media services investments. His prior leadership roles include president and CEO of Preventsys Inc. and Vice President of Enterprise Products at McDATA Corp.

Streamload
Streamload is a leading online storage services provider that enables people to easily access and share their growing digital media collections at home, from the office, or on-the-go.  Its users upload more than 750,000 files per day to the system, which currently stores over 8 billion files.

Small business challenges: According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, over 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first year and 95 percent fail within the first five years.
For many entrepreneurs, the right business and marketing solutions are critical for long-term success.

Growing a small business or association starts with reaching out to the people who already know them – their current customers or members.

For all types of small businesses, associations, and nonprofits, email marketing is an easy and cost effective way to build the relationships that will lead to lasting growth.

Why? Role and Benefits of Email Marketing:  It is easy, affordable, direct, actionable and highly effective. When you add email to your marketing mix, you spend less time, money and resources than with traditional marketing vehicles (e.g. direct mail or print advertising) And, with email marketing, you can communicate more quickly which means your time-sensitive information is disseminated in minutes, not days or weeks – and you can see the results of your efforts instantly.

Email marketing is an affordable way to stretch a tight marketing budget. It can cost as little as fractions of a penny per email! With a response rate five times greater than direct mail and 25 times the response rate of banner ads, email marketing is the most effective way to increase sales, drive traffic and develop loyalty. Unlike direct mail, there is virtually no production, materials or postage expense.

Email marketing enables you to proactively communicate with your existing customers instead of passively waiting for them to return to your Web site, visit your store or office, call you on the phone etc. With email marketing you can solidify existing relationships, initiate new ones and convert your one-time visitors, buyers and members into repeat business and long-term customers or contributors.

Contacts and customers who find what you do interesting or valuable will forward your e-mail message or newsletter to other people, just like word of mouth marketing.

Reward loyal customers, and they’ll reward you: According to global management consulting firm Bain and Co., a 5 percent increase in retention yields profit increases of 25 to 100 percent. Repeat customers spend 67 percent more than new customers.

Stay in touch, and give them something of value in exchange for their time, attention and business, such as: coupons, notice of a special event, helpful insights and advice, or news they can use are all effective. Email marketing can be used in tandem with other web based tools

Driving website traffic with email marketing: Having a website is vital for businesses of all types and sizes – and especially retailers. Having a web site alone is not enough. You need to find ways to drive visitors to your site and keep them coming back. For driving web traffic, search engine marketing (SEM) methods can be very effective, i.e. pay-per-click advertising, search engine keywords and ad words, and/or search engine optimization.  Although SEM can get very expensive, especially for small businesses.  You might also be running a newspaper or yellow pages ad that includes your Web address (URL), in addition to displaying it on all your marketing collateral including signage, brochures, and business cards.

Also important to note that advertising is very expensive for small businesses

Email marketing is another method that can be very effective for driving web traffic.  In fact, email marketing is one of the most effective and proven methods for building customer loyalty, and for getting your customers and prospects to keep coming back to your website or retail store.

Particularly for small businesses, email marketing ROI can’t be beaten.  It costs fractions of a penny per email compared to postal mail costs.  And SEM costs are astronomical and only getting higher.

Email marketing works with search engine marketing strategies: Email marketing complements search engine marketing and optimization efforts by giving businesses the tools to reconnect immediately and directly with new website visitors.
The first step is acquiring an email address on the first very visit.

Once you have that prospect’s email address, a multi-step email marketing communications program lets you…
welcome website visitors into your business worl tell them more about your products and services notify them of your business’s news, promotions, and events increase brand awareness and establish your expertise track buying and behavior patterns and segment mailing lists by audience build valuable customer relationships that turn website visitors into customers, and current customers into repeat sales.

Being found online is a start, but communication is what builds customer relationships and increases sales.

Whether email marketing is a complement to your other online or offline marketing campaigns or it’s the only type of marketing you do, it’s a cost-effective way to reach out to prospects and bring them back into your world.

Web-based tools used by Constant Contact

Online community
Last year Constant Contact launched ConnectUp!, an online community for our customers, small business owners and entrpreneurs to communicate with each other, share tips and help each other with advice for growing their businesses
We launched this for our customers, but in addition to helping us support customer loyalty and retention by creating a community of like-minded individuals who are helping each other, ConnectUp! is also a great brand-building tool for Constant Contact.

Webex
We use Webex for running training sessions and demos for our customers and business partners

Omniture
Omniture is a web analytics tool that helps us track activity on our web site so we can determine which content is engaging our customers and visitors to our site

General Constant Contact Info

With over 100,000 customers, Constant Contact is the leading email marketing service for small businesses, associations, and nonprofits.

Constant Contact is an easy-to-use, customizable, permission-based email marketing tool and service.

Constant Contact enables small businesses – with no technical expertise – to create and send professional newsletters, promotions, and track the results.

Constant Contact is designed to be affordable for small businesses and organizations with mailing lists of all sizes.

Constant Contact offers a 60 day free trial

About Gail Goodman:

Gail Goodman is CEO of Constant Contact, the leading email marketing service for small businesses, associations, and nonprofits. Under Gail’s leadership, Constant Contact has grown to serve over 85,000 customers worldwide. In 2006, Small Business Technology Magazine named Constant Contact’s email marketing service as one of the top 10 winning technology products for small businesses for 2005.
Constant Contact was ranked the sixth fastest growing technology company in New England for 2006 by Deloitte & Touche with a 5 year growth rate of 3,352%.

Gail is an Entrepreneur.com Business Coach, where she writes about how small businesses can market their business and drive growth by building long-term, profitable customer relationships. She has been featured in numerous publications and outlets including Fortune Small Business, Entrepreneur, Small Business Technology Magazine, Inc Magazine, Mass High Tech, Boston Business Journal, CNN, eBay Radio, Small Business Advocate and PM Magazine.

Gail previously held positions in marketing and management consulting with Open Market, Progress Software, Dun & Bradstreet Software and Bain & Co. She is also active in the business community as a Board Member of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, a member of the Leadership Council of the Massachusetts Chapter of the NFIB, and a Steering Committee member of the Email Sender and Provider Coalition.

Gail holds a BA from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth.

They discussed the basic benefits of web-based software and tool deployment and the future of  Web-Based (SaaS) applications replacing installed applications and where Scott sees the web-based software market going in the next few years

They discussed the cost factors for SaaS  versus traditional software deployment because according to Gartner, a global IT research firm, the annual cost to own and manage software applications in-house can be up to four times the cost of an initial purchase.

How application vendors such as @Task are offering viable alternatives that provide end users (SMBs) with Enterprise-Level capabilities they can implement without additional IT infrastructure or staff thereby allowing you to capture greater market share.

They will pose and answer the four major questions every buyer should ask before making an on-demand investment.

BIO:

Scott Johnson, founder and CEO of privately-held Orem, Utah based @task has been involved in enterprise business consulting and solutions development since 1992. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University. Prior to founding @task in 2001, Scott founded Gravity Media Group, an interactive agency. His present company, @task, is a leading provider of Web-based project management software. The company has more than doubled in size in the last two years, all without any outside investment capital. @task’s present client list includes Apple, Walt Disney, Chevron, McDonalds, HBO, Toyota, CBS, Lockheed Martin, UCLA, the U.S. House of Representatives. @task has evolved to deliver scalable and pluggable project management for all size organizations, helping to increase organizational efficiencies, maximize management resources, facilitate team collaboration, and foster individual responsibility and productivity.

Today we operate in an on-demand world that demands your attention. “On-Demand” is everywhere: consumer products, personal banking and finance, music and entertainment, media and internet content, educational courses, literary works, even artwork is being offered on-demand. And nowhere is the on-demand market as white-hot as it is in technology. New on-demand technology solutions are being introduced almost daily from both traditional technology vendors and new players in the Web 2.0 world.

The dominant business model in the on-demand world today is subscription-based; users subscribe to a service for a defined period rather than purchase a traditional perpetual license. The flexible, pay-as-you-go, subscription-based on-demand delivery model is commonly referred to a “SaaS” or Software as a Service.

The on-demand SaaS software model has evolved from the early days of ASPs. Rather than simply hosting traditional applications, vendors now deliver software in a one-to-many or multi-tenant approach, meaning one code base serves all customers. The multi-tenant model makes it easier for the vendor to maintain and enhance their software, lower software delivery costs, and pass savings on to their customers. For the customers, there is no software to purchase, install or maintain and no huge up-front license fees requiring capital expense approval. In fact, many on-demand solutions fit well within operational budgets, making it easy to afford business solutions that were previously priced beyond the reach of most small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).

True on-demand vendors recognize that providing real business value and the highest levels of service are critical in order to reach and maintain profitability. Customer retention is priority one; affordable pay-as-you-go subscription-based contracts only return a profit when customers continue to subscribe over time. On-demand vendors are, therefore, focused on providing a high value service that includes a feature-rich solution, quality delivery and the best possible ongoing customer service.

As you consider technology solutions to meet your business challenges, consider the many benefits of true on-demand solutions. Today’s on-demand market provides a wide variety of solutions in key business categories like CRM, Sales Compensation Management, Compliance and Risk Management and Workforce Management to name just a few. ThinkStrategies’ SaaS Showplace and salesforce.com’s AppExchange are great places to begin your search for solutions that deliver real results on-demand.

About Mike Torto
Michael Torto is the President and Chief Executive Officer at Centive, the leading provider of on-demand strategic sales compensation management. Prior to joining Centive, Torto served as president and CEO of InCert Software, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Previous to his leadership at InCert, Torto served as president and CEO at Swan International Inc., a European-based software provider of application delivery and self-healing software. Torto led the company to a successful IPO on the European EASDAQ in April of 1999. In addition to speaking at various industry conferences, such as the SIIA OnDemand Summit 2006, Mike has been featured as an expert commentator on the CBS Evening News as well as well as MSNBC’s “The Most.” Mike was selected as a featured speaker on sales performance management at the upcoming SaaScon 2007 conference, April 18th in Santa Clara, CA.

About Centive
Hailed in the March issue of CIO Magazine, Centive’s flagship offering, Compel, is the “most widely-used choice for sales compensation management.” Compel goes beyond just calculating accurate sales commission and bonus payments; it also provides strategic value by enabling customers to model and forecast commission expense, optimize plan effectiveness, and drive sales performance and top-line revenue growth. Companies use Centive Compel to accurately model and forecast commission costs, calculate commission and bonus earnings and gain real-time visibility into sales performance metrics. Compel is featured in the Gartner case study “On-Demand Sales Compensation Proves Its Value.” In addition, Compel was awarded the 2006 CODiE award for “Best Financial Software,” the 2006 CRM Excellence award from Customer Interaction Solutions, and is a winner of the 2007 CRM WizKids awards, sponsored by Beagle Research. To learn more about Centive, please visit www.centive.com or call 1-877-CENTIVE.