Here are several excerpts from an interesting article by Dan Kaplan, of  VentreBeat, Iceburg and the war on the custom exterprise software:

We’ve written about companies like Weebly and SynthaSite which want to give the average Joes the tools to create their own good looking websites without hiring a designer or writing a line of CSS or HTML. But this trend is extending.

Enter a range of startups that offer Do It Yourself software services for businesses including Coghead, LongJump, most recently a just-launched product called Iceberg made by a two-man Irish company called Fractis.

The vision that these companies share is simple: If someone can comprehend a business process, they should be able to turn that logic into a useful software offering without the labor, costs, and limitations of customized code. Building a powerful, custom CRM system (including customizing versions of software-as-a-service market leader Salesforce) is a time-consuming and expensive process that carries a fair amount of risk that the software will not work according to plan. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are several excerpts from an interesting article by Shira Ovide about the anticipated growth of internet display advertising; Do-It-Yourself Display Ads May Reshape Online Marketing. Check out the complete source article for more:

Much of the valuable online-ad real estate is sold the old-fashioned way: through a salesperson. 

But now start-ups and major Internet players such as Facebook Inc. are giving advertisers the option of planning, buying and tracking online-ad campaigns all on their own. Just as the ability to buy plane tickets online steered business away from travel agents, the self-service options promise to shake up the $20 billion online-advertising market.

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Here are some timely and valuable words from the CRM software company Maximizer, Now’s The Time To Get The Most Out Of CRM:

It’s no secret that our economy has been softening, which isn’t all that surprising given the various internal and external pressures that have brought to bear on it in the past few quarters. The economic outlook for the immediate future isn’t looking all that rosy either.

Whether it’s the global credit crunch, rocketing food and fuel prices, power outages, increasing interest rates or political instability, businesses are having to navigate their way through uncertain times. Keeping revenue flowing whilst keeping an eye on ever increasing overheads is the key to survival at times like this and it has become crucial that companies continue to bring in those all-important sales that keep the business afloat. Whether it’s services, goods or time that is being sold, the successful businesses outsmart their competitors and while more advertising will likely bring in more sales there is one often neglected area that really needs to be given attention when times get tough, and that is CRM.

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Here’s a summary of an excellent article by Carmine Gallo that’s part of a BNET Crash Course, How to Present Like Steve Jobs:

Comparing a Steve Jobs presentation to most presentations is impossible — he’s in a league all his own. Apple’s chief executive is arguably the most charismatic pitchman in business today. His presentations are brilliant demonstrations of visual storytelling that turn customers, employees, and the entire computer industry into evangelists.

Wow your audience the next time you take the stage with these four steps…

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Here’s a synopsis of an article about a new book, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, that can help IT leaders decide which social technologies can work for their organizations, Evaluating New Social Networking Technologies. For much more, check out the complete source article:

First, [keep in mind that] Web 2.0 technologies change rapidly. Second, [remember that] the technologies are not the point. The forces at work are.

Here’s the principle for mastering the groundswell: Concentrate on relationships, not technologies. The way people connect with each other—the community that is created — determines how the power shifts. When evaluating a new technology, ask the following questions:

1. Does it enable people to connect with each other in new ways?
2. Is it effortless to sign up?
3. Does it shift power from institutions to people?
4. Does the community generate enough content to sustain itself?
5. Is it an open platform that invites partnerships?

Of course, a lot more goes into analyzing new technologies: Do the privacy policies make people feel secure, for example, or can these technologies get a boost from existing big players like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia or Comcast? But, in general, technologies that get a ‘yes’ on all the questions we described are the ones mostly likely to take off.