Apple has primarily remained a hardware company, shifting impressively to consumer devices, and their most potent product is no longer the PC; it is the iPhone. Both companies embraced the then IBM model of lock-in and focused initially on revenue and market expansion, which isn’t unusual in a new company. Both also had an initial concern concerning those that pirated technology, even as they were accused of pirating technology from others.

But just as IBM faced challenges in the early 1990s, causing them to abandon lock-in as a strategy, so Microsoft did with a massive anti-trust loss that began a massive change in that company.  Apple faces one of many anti-trust issues as I write this, but they largely remain the hardware-focused, lock-in vendor that they always have been, which is at least partially to blame for their anti-trust problems.

In no place is this difference more evident than at Microsoft Build this week. The theme is again “developers, developers, developers,” but I doubt any firm can now match with the extra benefit of focus and execution.

Let’s contrast Apple and Microsoft this week.

Apple vs. Microsoft

We begin with the revenue model, which is still essentially hardware-based on Apple’s side but has always been more software-focused and now more cloud-focused on Microsoft’s.

For Apple, developers are a revenue source. With a lock-in strategy, the core vendor is king and everyone else is a potential revenue source, not a partner, not even a customer, just a source of money. Thus Apple focuses on charging as much as possible in their app store, is infamous for mistreating partners like Qualcomm and Intel, and finding new and creative ways to mine its users for more money.

Apple can’t do enterprise because volume discounting and critical platforms like Linux and practices like Open Source are mostly bad jokes to them. But Microsoft embraces the enterprise, has pricing models uniquely designed for them, and treats developers more like partners in terms of executing for the future. While Microsoft had anti-trust issues when they were practicing lock-in, just as Apple does currently, no one seems to consider them as a problem and their developers seem to love the company.

Apple is all about hardware churn and can seem to move faster to new concepts because they don’t care if they obsolesce the hardware still in place.   Microsoft, at Build, bragged you could still run obsolete products like Microsoft Money ’95.  The nice thing about a services model that Microsoft has been rapidly adopting is that churn often only increases costs, not revenue, so it isn’t a core part of decision making while backward compatibility remains critical.

At Microsoft, their Open Source efforts, interoperability, and acceptance of popular developer platforms like Linux make them not only very different from the old Microsoft but massively different from Apple as well. Microsoft seems to now grasp that their success is directly related to the users’ success, companies, and, yes, developers that use their platform, creating a symbiotic relationship with all three showcased at Build this week.

Apple is more focused on getting people to buy the latest Apple gadget and finding ways to monetize those that want to sell to their users.  Apple even argued in court that they should get the same subsidy from game developers that those developers pay to console companies even though, unlike those companies, Apple sells their devices below cost.

Wrapping Up

The difference between Apple and Microsoft is more than skin deep. While both companies started very similarly, focused on growth and excessively focused on revenue and profit, Microsoft fundamentally changed to focus more on services, developers, and the evolution of edge-to-cloud computing. Apple is still primarily focused on those old revenues, profit, and device churn. This lack of change on Apple’s side results in some initial developer revolt and an increased risk of a devastating anti-trust judgment, much like both IBM and Microsoft once endured.

The result is that Microsoft is undoubtedly a less stressful and more fun place to work than Apple is now because they don’t have the regulation and litigation exposure they once had. But, in the fight for the future, Microsoft’s strategy puts them in a more collaborative and less stressful place than Apple’s massive profit focus.

The firm’s fundamental difference is that Apple is still locked into the ugly model that created the company. At the same time, Microsoft has pivoted to the new Open Source, interoperable, and developer-friendly future that the rest of the tech market is headed.

In short, while Tim Cook as good or better a pirate than Steve Jobs ever was, Satya Nadella has moved on, and at Build this week, the Developers appear to prefer Satya’s more collaborative and cooperative vision of the future.

The post Microsoft Build: The Real Difference Between Microsoft And Apple appeared first on eWEEK.

Hosting a virtual event or conference is a great way to create a fun and engaging experience for your customers and clients. However, the platform you use can make all the difference in how smoothly your event runs. 

Here are the virtual event platforms to consider:

Zoom

Back in January, Zoom was being used by about 13 million people and in businesses only. Now it’s morphed into a service used by more than 300 million attendees, and they’re from all over the map. This is mostly because it’s exceedingly easy to download/install and use and can accommodate an unlimited number of users at an event. The audio and visual quality of Zoom also is generally top-notch, depending upon your connection, and the company–founded by Eric Yuan, the former chief developer of Webex–keeps adding features on a regular basis. Right now it’s No. 1, but there is plenty of competition to keep Zoom on its toes.

Cisco Webex

Webex was the first widespread-use video collaboration service, bought by Cisco a few years ago and used mostly by companies. Because it’s well-embedded in corporate communications systems, it has strong roots and is difficult to dislodge for daily use. Generally, it is dependable, although there are those who believe Zoom is simpler to use and is generally of better quality. For most users, however, it’s mostly a tossup. 

ON24

San Francisco-based ON24 markets products and services based upon webcasting and virtual event and environment technology. In 2003, ON24 introduced a web-based video publishing platform that enables users to self-produce live and on-demand webcasts. ON24 Webcast Center has been adopted across the publishing, medical education and enterprise sectors. ON24 launched the Platform 10 communications platform in 2011. Platform 10 now features social media integration and mobile device delivery. All ON24 products are based on the platform, including Webcast Elite, a do-it-yourself webcasting solution which was also launched in 2011. ON24 now integrates with marketing automation partners such as Marketo, Eloqua, Exact Target, Hubspot, Microsoft CRM, NetSuite, Salesforce, Silverpop and Act-On. ON24 now is focusing on providing a webinar-based solution for marketers. 

Accelevents

Accelevents is an affordable, all-in-one virtual event platform. The company was founded in 2014 and is known for its 24/7 phone and email service. It integrates with hundreds of other apps so you’ll be well-prepared on the day of your event. The software is easy to use and navigate but still robust enough to have all the major features you need to host an online event. This includes features like online ticket sales, virtual booths, breakout sessions, AI, gamification and more. If you’re accustomed to attending in-person events, then switching to virtual events can be a tough transition. But Accelevents puts an emphasis on helping your attendees build relationships and have a memorable experience. After the event is over, you’ll have access to detailed analytics. These will help you determine which sections were the most engaging and gauge the overall ROI of your event.

Whova

Whova is a virtual event platform that focuses on making online events highly interactive. It does this through live Q&As, discussion boards, virtual meetups and session feedback. Your guests can attend sessions from any device, but all of your sessions will be streamed and recorded from one place. There’s also a community board and chats to foster deeper connections among event attendees. If you have event sponsors, Whova makes it easy for you to showcase them throughout your event. This ensures that everyone involved gets a great ROI.

6Connex

6Connex has been around since 2009 and recently expanded into the virtual event space. This platform is a good option for anyone who’s looking to host a virtual trade show. The company provides a robust trade room show floor, allowing participants to customize their booths. People can register for the event ahead of time, which makes it easy to communicate with your guests once the event is over. The software also comes with gamification features to increase guest participation. Most importantly, 6Connex provides robust analytics to track the performance of your event once it’s done. This will help you evaluate what went well and spot any areas where you could stand to improve. Participants can visit virtual booths, view demos and participate in interactive live sessions.

SpotMe

SpotMe is a great option if you’re looking to increase engagement at your virtual events. The platform comes with engagement tools like live Q&A, breakout rooms and polls and surveys. Guests can check out different vendors at virtual booths and even exchange business cards with other participants. The software also sends personalized alerts to your audience, so your guests will keep coming back throughout the day. SpotMe will create an event that reflects your company with personalized branding options. And there are templates for different types of events, so you’re never starting completely from scratch.

Communique Conferencing

Communique Conferencing offers a unique 3D experience that your guests will love. Participants can visit virtual booths, view demos and participate in interactive live sessions. The displays are incredibly realistic and mirror what you would experience at an in-person trade show. The software also comes with audience engagement tools like polling and live Q&A’s. All keynote speeches and seminars are delivered in real-time, though you can make them available through a podcast or webinar as well. The company provides 24/7 support so you’ll have everything you need on the day of your event. However, you will have to contact the company to receive a custom pricing quote.

BigMarker

BigMarker is a great option for your next virtual event or conference. The company is known as a leader in the virtual event space and can host single- or multi-day events. The company has worked with well-known brands like Google, McDonald’s and SoFi. The company integrates natively with popular CRMs like Hubspot and Salesforce, so you can utilize the event as part of your broader business goals. The software comes with a ton of features, including marketing tools, automation features and interactive video. And BigMarker receives high marks when it comes to customer satisfaction and support.

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

A portion of this article was originally published in USChamber.com.

The post Nine Virtual Event Platforms for Any Size Enterprise appeared first on eWEEK.

Consumers cannot be too careful when shopping online. This is the time of year when not only many businesses make up for lack of sales earlier in this pandemic-riddled year—thus the “Black Friday” nomenclature—but when bad actors know that their potential victims sometimes buy impulsively and excitedly and aren’t always paying attention to the websites they use.

Always, always check the URL of the site you’re on, and make sure it represents the company you want to patronize. A pair of respected IT security experts offer their advice here in this eWEEK security feature.

Saryu Nayyar, CEO of Gurucul: 

Malicious actors know people are more likely to open emails with timely subject lines, and the COVID-19 pandemic has led them to create new and clever phishing schemes using subjects related to the pandemic, unemployment, stimulus and vaccine trials.  These emails will frequently offer links for more information, such as discount offers or perhaps even to register as a potential vaccine recipient. It’s important not to follow any of the links or open any attachments, as they often contain malware designed to steal your personal, financial or credit information.

1. Avoid online shopping scams by shopping on secure sites. Cyber Monday deals can save consumers lots of money, but they can also scam them out of serious money as well. One of the biggest (and FIRST) indicators of a potential Cyber Monday scam is a website with no SSL certificate. Check the URL, and if it is missing an “s” after the “http,” then the site is not secure and you should shop elsewhere.
2. Check out as a guest. Constantly entering in the details of credit card numbers, shipping and billing addresses, etc., can be tedious, but it will help avoid the headache of having to deal with credit card theft. Consumers should never store credit card information on a website unless they are 100% sure it is secure to do so. And even then, it’s not a guarantee that the merchant can protect customer data from all the bad actors.
3. Avoid online shopping over public WiFi. Checking out the latest Cyber Monday bargains at the airport coffee shop sounds like a great way to kill time before a flight. However, it is strongly advised that consumers avoid using public WiFi when doing online shopping. Hackers use open networks to access devices, so avoid a sneaky WiFi scam by waiting until you’re on a secure network.
4. Monitor bank accounts. This should be a no-brainer, but with the chaos surrounding the holidays, hackers are depending on consumers to forget to monitor their transactions. Many of us depend on our banking institution’s fraud monitoring software to alert us if an unusual transaction is made. However, it’s easy for small transactions for small amounts of money to go unnoticed. Make a note to check your accounts daily for extra fraud protection and financial safety during the holidays.
5. Watch out for malvertising (malicious advertising). When scouring the internet for the best online shopping deals, shoppers are bound to be shown a plethora of advertisements. Cyber-criminals use “malvertisements,” such as bogus pop-ups or alert warnings, to prompt users to click. Once they click or load a bogus web page, they unintentionally install data-stealing malware that infects their system. Consumers can cut their risk by installing an ad-blocking browser plug-in and setting their browser to flag malicious content.

Mounir Hahad, head of Juniper Threat Labs at Juniper Networks:

To protect themselves on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and throughout the holiday shopping season, here are three ways consumers can protect their online security.

1. Don’t register at every website. They don’t need to host your PII or payment data.
2. Think twice about signing on through Google or a social media account. This gives away much more data than many would care to share.
3. It’s difficult at this time of year to remember every website you use, but keep track of those you’re using for the first time or have only infrequently used and monitor your charge card data.

The post Cybersecurity Tips for Online Shoppers During the Holidays appeared first on eWEEK.

These dynamics can similarly impact commercial technologies and products, including personal computers. In a discussion with Tiffany Wallace during the recent Dell Tech World Digital Experience, Sam Burd, president of Dell’s Client Computing organization, discussed how the COVID-19 global pandemic has impacted the company and customers, and is leading to new behaviors and trends driven in large part by Dell’s innovative client solutions and services. This “Renaissance of the PC,” as Burd called it, is helping organizations, including Dell, reinvent themselves and the ways that they do business.

Business tech in a pre- and post-pandemic world

Not surprisingly, most commentaries related to the impact of COVID-19 on business focus on the massive damage that companies, industries, communities and whole economies have sustained. Indeed, it is likely that some sectors and many organizations will either take years to recover or fail along the way.

However, the pandemic has also fundamentally influenced the ways that people and businesses utilize technology tools and solutions. A year ago, mobility was a central focal point for most vendors and many of their customers, leading to ever lighter and smaller form factors. That made sense for businesses whose employees worked wherever they happened to be—in the office, in restaurants and coffee shops, while traveling or at home.

This “user-centric” approach to task enablement evolved organically, allowing workers and their employers to dynamically adapt to utilizing highly portable IT devices, including smart phones and tablets for a wide variety of tasks once relegated to traditional PCs. But changes necessitated by COVID-19 also altered how people mostly working from home (WFH) use technology and what they and their employers need from those devices.

The fact is that WFH is a far more static process than most people expect and requires employees to adopt and employers to support new and different functions and applications. Mobility is certainly still important, but moving a laptop from a home office to a dining room table bears little resemblance to lugging it to a Starbucks or packing it along on a business trip.

Smartphones and small tablets are fine for informal video calls with co-workers, friends and family but are often inadequate for team Zoom calls or large group briefings. In some cases, a desktop-scale display and dedicated camera/microphone offer far better results for business communications. In many situations, companies prefer higher levels of performance and security that standalone or consumer-grade devices can support.

The PC Renaissance

These and other points have led to what Dell and Sam Burd are calling “the Renaissance of the PC.” In many cases, this relates to new and evolving features the company is building into its Latitude, XPS, Precision and other workplace solutions. As Burd noted, these include “notebooks that seamlessly switch between Wi-Fi and 5G” and that feature built-in enterprise-grade security. Burd also pointed out how Dell is using machine learning to “get to know” how users are working with laptop and desktop systems, then use that data to optimize the performance of specific applications and functions.

Burd also described features designed to tame issues and events that are all too common in working from home. “So, who doesn’t have issues with background noise?” he said. “I see it on the calls with my team and with customers—things going on in the background. Sometimes those interruptions are fun, and you discover things about your co-workers or customers that you might not know. But we have audio intelligence capabilities where the system can tune out background noise and make the experience as close to a professional environment as you can have.”

Unifying the workplace

Developing new PC features is just one aspect of Dell’s efforts to smooth the way for companies supporting remote workers. For example, the company’s Unified Workspace portfolio offers companies a wide range of services and solutions companies can use to deploy, secure, manage and support client devices. To simplify deployments, laptops and desktops can be pre-loaded at Dell factories with core applications, shipped directly to employees regardless of location and be ready to use right out of the box.

Users also have access to security applications and solutions from Dell, SecureWorks and VMware/Carbon Black. Dell Client Command Suite and VMware Workspace ONE can be used to simplify endpoint monitoring and application management. Customers also have the choice of Dell’s telemetry driven ProSupport for PCs and ProSupport Plus with SupportAssist for monitoring client devices and ensuring they are in top working order.

“We’re helping customers manage their devices in a really modern way,” Burd said. “That includes making things simpler for organizations that have lots of issues and helping them keep their environments secure. When companies put technologies to right use, they can keep their employees motivated, capable and productive. We’re also offering them payment flexibility so customers can either buy physical systems or buy them as a service on a per-user basis.” These are particularly important issues for small- to medium-sized businesses that have been more severely impacted by the pandemic than larger enterprises.

Enabling new world workplaces

Dell’s strategy and solutions also have larger and longer-ranging implications. “We’re seeing a transformation from work being a location—a physical place you go every day—to becoming an outcome,” Burd said. “All the discussions I have with customers and our ongoing research points to a really different way of operating for companies going forward. If you look at pre-COVID behavior, about 20 percent of the global businesses supported remote work or work from home programs. Post-COVID, something like 50+ percent of the world’s employees will be working remotely or in a hybrid kind of mode.”

Those programs, Burd believes, “will require technology to bring them alive. Building intelligence and capability into those systems. Building collaboration tools that allow people to stay connected better than ever. I think it will be an interesting and new world where, instead of automatically returning to where we were before, we will instead help businesses and people to operate in new and different ways. Whether technology is in your house or your office, it will require continuing innovations like those Dell is developing and enabling.”

Final analysis

Being adaptable is vital when it comes to survival, evolution and success. However, rather than being some innate characteristic, adaptability can be learned and supplemented with access to innovative tools and services. As Sam Burd illustrated, Dell Technologies is helping businesses and their employees survive the current challenges of COVID-19. In addition, Dell will continue working to assist organizations and individuals thrive in a world where work and workplaces change fundamentally but remain productive and profitable.

Charles King is a principal analyst at PUND-IT and a regular contributor to eWEEK.  © 2020 Pund-IT, Inc. All rights reserved.

The post How the COVID Crisis Has Helped Create a Renaissance of the PC appeared first on eWEEK.

Global Workplace Analytics claims that more than half (56%) of the U.S. workforce holds a job that is compatible with remote work. According to GWA President Kate Lister, the best estimate is that 25% to 30% of the workforce will be working from home multiple days a week by the end of 2021. With companies such as Facebook, Google, Capital One, Amazon, Microsoft and Zillow setting the stage for remote work, there will be many other businesses that follow.

With this transition, it also means that B2B buyers are going to behave differently. B2B marketers need to be thinking about how to evolve their ABM strategies when dealing with a remote audience, how to make room for field teams in digital and, internally, how to make sure remote teams have proper access and training to deal with data outside the office.

In this eWEEK Data Points article, Marc Stewart, B2B supervisor at PMG, offers a set of best practices for marketing managers to follow.

Data Point No. 1: No time better than now to revisit your ABM strategy.

The two areas that will be disrupted the most are your target accounts list and the buying behavior. First, you must rethink your approach to your ideal customer profile. This needs to be led by a mindset that the market has been shaken up over the last few months and businesses are trying to keep up. Take a step back and create a target account strategy that prioritizes companies and industries that might be more in need of your software compared with companies that might be dialing back budgets or cutting departments due to the negative impacts of COVID-19.

According to a recent research report from LeadMD, more than 50% of companies are currently considering a purchase for their business, even in the midst of COVID-19.

Data Point No. 2: Consider reproducing live offerings for on-demand usage.

Now more than ever, we need to be putting the customer first in our marketing outreach. Everyone’s life has been drastically altered, and a prospect’s consumption habits are no different. The idea of self-service content and channels will become even more prominent as remote work leads to a schedule that’s not strictly 9-to-5. This might mean reproducing live offerings and demos for on-demand formats so users can control when and where they are consuming content.

Data Point No. 3: Field teams will need to lean on digital to make up for leads lost from in-person events.

In-person events typically make up a large portion of leads for B2B companies. In our current environment, however, teams are going to have to come together and get creative on how to supplement the loss of leads generated from in-person events—not only in terms of the number of leads but also the quality. Digital will become an even more important contributor to reaching your overall goals. A recent survey from McKinsey indicated that companies think digital interactions will be twice as important as they were before. (See image at top; to view a larger version, right-click on it and select “View Image.”)

Data Point No. 4: Virtual events will continue to be prominent.

Virtual events have burst onto the scene since the beginning of the pandemic and, while in-person events will likely return sometime next year, virtual events will maintain some place in B2B marketers’ strategies. Virtual events can provide large quantities of leads as well as more personalized experiences and higher-value conversations that content just can’t.

Data Point No. 5: Digital teams need to be even closer to each other and their data. 

While this has probably been a priority for you and your team over the years, it should now be one of your top priorities by establishing a system that is both informational and accessible to everyone on the team. As you lose your face-to-face meetings, war room gatherings and on-site access to data, the potential for something to fall through the cracks greatly increases. The teams that can over-communicate at each step of the journey and create standardized, replicable, and scalable processes will be the ones that set themselves apart from competitors post-COVID-19.

Data Point No. 6: In summary …

Remember that marketing is an investment in the future, and the work that is being put in now will yield returns in the months and years to come. By revisiting your target accounts, incorporating new content types and virtual events, and becoming even closer to your sales and marketing teams, you will better position yourself for success during and after the pandemic.

If you have a suggestion for an eWEEK Data Points article, email cpreimesberger@eweek.com.

The post Shifting B2B Strategy to Meet New Reality of Remote Audiences appeared first on eWEEK.

However, another vendor—one that you may not yet be familiar with—is challenging these behemoths and making steady headway. Zoho, a privately held, profitable company with more than 9,000 employees, has formally introduced Zoho Workplace, a one-stop shop for cloud-based collaboration, productivity and communications tools.

Not new, but newly integrated

Zoho Workplace offers nine core, tightly integrated productivity and collaboration solutions. Zoho has provided all of these applications for many years but is now pulling them together into a more integrated offering. The new Workplace package includes email, messaging, audio and video conferencing; productivity tools, including word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications; and shared file storage.

Built on the same data model and platform, Zoho has unified these applications with a common search and AI, and dashboard capabilities and deeper integration between applications. These new capabilities help take the friction out of collaboration. For instance, from Zoho Mail, users can make audio or video calls, edit document attachments in Zoho Writer, meet online with contacts, and access all of their email accounts.

Workplace extends integration beyond productivity and collaboration, however. Zoho has built integrations to Zoho’s other 40-plus business applications, and to third-party solutions. Users can also create custom workflows to inject business-related context within its collaboration tools. This streamlines collaboration across different business processes, from invoicing to marketing.

For example, Zoho Meeting connects to Zoho Projects, Bookings, CRM, and other Zoho apps; and  Zoho Connect (a social intranet) connects with HR systems from Zoho and third-party HR vendors. In fact, several Zoho Workplace apps integrate with third-party apps, such as Zoho Show, which integrates with Atlassian, Unsplash, and Humaans.

These integration and workflow capabilities are the reason that some customers are choosing Workplace. According to Anders Boulanger, Founder and CEO at Enagify, which provides sales enablement and training services, “With Zoho, the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts. The tools in Zoho Workplace have given Engagify a powerful hub of communication and collaboration. Since we work to engage and enable digital sales and marketing teams, it’s critical that our own engagement is seamless and Zoho has allowed us to do that and more, scaling to help us grow in a way that no other platform would’ve been able to.”

Privacy is standard

Zoho took a “Privacy Pledge” earlier this year, promising that it will not allow any third-party trackers to monitor user behavior. The vendor does not support any part of its business, including its free products, with ad revenues, and has pledged that it will never sell any data to ad-based companies. Since Zoho runs on its own cloud infrastructure—instead of on public clouds such as AWS or Google, that also have ad-based businesses—they can’t track Zoho user behavior either.

As I discussed here, this is an important differentiator. Most people are well aware that we pay for the “free” applications we use with our data. From Facebook to Google to Pinterest, vendors monetize user data through advertising and by tracking and selling our data to third parties.

But few people realize that many B2B companies allow surveillance companies to track their paying users on their sites. That’s right; even if you spend a small fortune on business software, some of the big names in the industry are trading user data for products and services from companies such as Google, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Disruptive pricing

Many vendors talk about how the cloud democratizes software access by eliminating the need for customers to stand up infrastructure and hire experts to take advantage of very capable, sophisticated applications.

Zoho takes democratization a step more by offering extremely affordable pricing. Workplace pricing starts at $3/user/month for the Standard version and $6/user/month for the Professional versions. Zoho can hold pricing down because it doesn’t invest as much in sales and marketing as its competitors. While Zoho has been expanding its marketing, sales, and influencer initiatives over the last couple of years, it doesn’t come close to the 50% rate top software-as-a-service invest in this area.

Perspective

I’ve been interested in what makes Zoho tick since I was first introduced to the company in the early 2000s. It has always had a different vision of success and taken a different path to market than the software giants it competes with.

However, while many companies are unlikely to consider switching from Microsoft or Google, Zoho Workplace has already made good inroads into the market. According to Zoho, Workplace adoption spiked in the last quarter, and the solution is now deployed by 2 million organizations, with 15 million users across more than 150 countries. The vendor also notes that more than a quarter of new Zoho Workplace customers have switched from G Suite and Microsoft.

Zoho is still a David in relation to the Goliaths. However, Workplace provides some advantages that are serendipitously well-suited to the challenges many businesses face today. In addition to helping companies streamline collaboration and workflow, Zoho’s security and price advantages dovetail with problems that are keeping many businesses up at night—and ones that many startups want to avoid in the first place. These benefits provide Zoho with a path to make an increasingly convincing case to those that are receptive to taking the road less traveled.

Laurie McCabe is a co-founder and analyst at SMB Group, specializing in small-business IT. ©SMB Group 2020

The post Zoho Workplace: Thought-Provoking Alternative for Productivity, Collaboration appeared first on eWEEK.

However, even though you see the writing on the wall, your business may be unprepared or underprepared to take action. In fact, our research also revealed that just 19% of SMBs say they have a well-defined digital business strategy and just 24% are working on initiatives to prepare their businesses for a digital future.

Integration issues hamper innovation

Using technology to work smarter, not harder, is critical to streamline operations, improve productivity, attract new customers and stay ahead of changing trends.

However, it can be difficult to get the value your business needs from technology. Many SMBs lack the time, expertise and money they need to figure out what solutions they need and chart a path that will provide them with the outcomes they desire.

Even more often, SMBs struggle with “difficulty integrating new digital technologies with existing systems.” This isn’t surprising when you consider that 80% currently rely on manual data entry, batch file uploads and/or custom code to meet all or part of their integration needs.

If your business is using disjointed solutions that don’t work together, it’s likely that people are spending too much time manually integrating and reconciling information. This leaves less time to focus on customers and the innovation that’s needed to move the business ahead. Information can easily slip through the cracks, making it all too easy to get blindsided by the unexpected. Trying to streamline workflows, make better decisions or getting a pulse on customer trends can become Herculean tasks.

Intelligent ERP can help solve the integration and innovation problems

Most SMBs recognize the need to solve the integration problem: 43% of SMBs are currently investing to integrate their business applications, and another 33% plan to do so. But integrating disconnected solutions “after the fact” is often difficult and expensive—and is unlikely to provide enough agility required to outflank the competition.

This reality is driving more SMBs to consider pre-integrated, intelligent enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions to remove integration friction, streamline workflows and get real-time insights required to respond quickly to customer, supply chain and operational trends.

Modern, intelligent ERP solutions are built on unified, extensible platforms. They automate business processes across core areas such as financials, order fulfillment, payments, inventory, supply chain, human resources, marketing, sales, service and more.

Applications within an ERP suite are integrated with each other, so business-critical information is updated in real-time across related business processes, such as order to cash. This reduces the need for redundant data entry, speeds up repetitive processes and ensures everyone has the same information to use for decision-making. ERP suites also offer a consistent user interface across applications, making it easier for employees who work in different parts of the business, or for those who need to retrain for a new role.

Although ERP solutions offer a lot of functionality, most allow for a phased approach. You can start by automating key areas, such as financials, payments and supply chain, and add additional capabilities as you need them in an incremental, yet integrated way.

ERP vendors are also building artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI and ML) into their platforms to turbocharge the automation and intelligence that these solutions provide. As a result, you can reap the benefits of these technologies from within the ERP solution—without having to become an AI and ML expert.

Some of the top advantages that an intelligent ERP suite offers include:

• Streamlined business processes with workflow automation. Intelligent, integrated ERP systems are designed to connect the dots between people and processes within and across different business functions. Information flows freely, in real-time to the people that need it to get their jobs done. This slashes the need for repetitive, manual data input and reconciliation tasks; decreases the odds of human error; and speeds up processes. Intelligent ERP systems also provide users with proactive alerts and notifications to help identify potentially risky situations. For example, they can detect when stocks need to be replenished and automatically trigger reorders.

• Better decision making with real-time, comprehensive information. No more dueling spreadsheets or “seat of the pants” decision-making. You enter data just once into the ERP system and it’s updated in real-time across different modules. Users get consistent, accurate information—which improves collaboration and speeds up decision-making. Getting a more holistic view of information can, for instance: help you close the books more quickly; identify and remedy customer service problems before they spiral and determine the qualities that drive employee performance in a given role.

• Next-generation automation through robotic process automation (RPA). RPA uses AI to automate routine and repetitive tasks and processes with bots programmed to replicate how humans would carry out tasks, such as entering information in spreadsheets or transferring data among multiple systems. ERP with RPA capabilities could, for example, help you to automatically determine product attributes by reading and interpreting description text, or predict supply delivery delays and suggest steps to take to minimize production impact.

Flexibility for the future

An open, extensible cloud-based platform approach empowers intelligent ERP vendors—and their partners—to easily add new functionality to their offerings. Vendors can expose platform features and functions via microservices and an abstraction layer. Using “low code” drag-and-drop visual development tools, developers can quickly build add-on applications directly on the platform while a cloud-based ERP offers extensive flexibility for the future.

This means that third-party partners and customer developers can take advantage of security, scalability and other functionality built into the ERP platform. Developers don’t have to reinvent the wheel—and customers automatically reap platform benefits in these third-party apps. As ERP vendors embed additional technologies, such as AI, ML, Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain into their platforms, they can pass these capabilities through to developers as well—enabling a steady stream of innovative new applications.

Perspective

It’s easy to become complacent. After all, change is hard. But as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus noted: “The only constant in life is change.” And, as the rate of change in technology and business accelerates, the ability to detect, manage and stay ahead of change is increasingly linked to business survival and growth.

In fact, the cost of sticking with outdated, disconnected business solutions may be one most SMBs can’t afford.

Intelligent ERP can put your business on solid footing to work smarter—and to adjust, improve and capitalize on the inevitable changes that lie ahead. It’s time to critically examine how well current technology strategy and solutions serve the business today—and assess whether they’ll be able to provide the agility your business needs to thrive in the future.

For more expert advice on Intelligent ERP, read SAP’s executive guide, Adapt, Grow & Thrive with Intelligent ERP.

Editor’s note: There are a number of good ERP cloud and on-premises software providers available, including the following: For enterprise: SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, IFS Applications; for medium-size business: Netsuite, Sage, Infor, Macola; for small business: Deltec, Work(etc), Intacct, Syspro.

Laurie McCabe is a co-founder and analyst at SMB Group, specializing in small-business IT. ©SMB Group 2020

Photo by Artem Beliaikin, Pexels

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Our new follow-up survey study, SMBs: Navigating a Path Forward, explores how SMBs are adapting to the shifting realities of the next normal to get their businesses back on track. In this study, we’ve surveyed decision-makers and influencers in more than 750 SMB (1-1,000 employee) and midmarket (1,000-2,500 employee) businesses. The survey was fielded from mid-June to early July 2020, which is critical to keep in mind, because the trajectory and impact of the virus is constantly changing.

We want to sincerely thank those of you who took the survey for doing so. We’re also grateful to our sponsor partners, Dell Technologies, Mitel, Sage Intacct, Workday and Xero for their support.

We are developing an eBook with key findings and perspectives from the study. If you’d like a free copy when it’s available, please click here and we’ll send you one. 

First Look Findings

In the meantime, we wanted to share a few preliminary results with you below.

The negative fallout from COVID-19 for most SMBs and midmarket companies continues. According to the survey: 

• 78% of SMBs say COVID-19 has negatively impacted their businesses—up slightly from our March survey, in which 75% indicated the virus had negatively impacted their businesses.
• Overall, smaller businesses have suffered more than larger ones.
• 69% or more of respondents in all industries report negative impact, but severity varies greatly by industry. Businesses in the hospitality, education, and retail industries are most likely to report extremely negative impact, while those in construction, utilities, and financial industries are least likely to do so.
• 38% of businesses temporarily closed and have since reopened, while 18% of businesses have closed and have yet to reopen.

Despite these setbacks and challenges, most SMBs and midmarket companies that have survived to date believe that they will be able to keep their businesses afloat.

Many are taking steps to change their business practices and business models to sustain their businesses:

• The top three changes businesses have already made are to replace “in-person” meetings and events with video conferencing; changed layout of physical locations, and tied for number three are: increased use of digital marketing channels, created virtual service offerings, and increased use of digital sales channels.
• The top actions businesses are planning to take are to increase the use of digital sales channels, develop new products and services, and implement scenario planning. 

Cloud solutions continue to prove their value in helping businesses to weather this storm:

• In every category, 83% or more of respondents said cloud applications have been extremely or moderately valuable in helping to weather the COVID-19 crisis.
• 37% said that COVID-19 made them more likely to select a cloud solution for new application investments.
• Among those with work from home programs (WFM), 52% indicated that WFM has had a positive effect on employee productivity, and 61% plan to spend more to better equip work from home employees.
• Customer-facing applications—sales, e-commerce, and customer service as the top three areas that SMBs said they will need to invest in to recover and prepare for growth.

For more information

This is just a small sample of the study’s findings. Sign up here to receive a copy of our free eBook, which will provide further insights into:

• Business impact of COVID-19 on SMBs
• Workforce impact of COVID-19 on SMBs
• Work from home trends
• Technology impact of COVID-19 on SMBs

SMB Group is also offering a comprehensive survey report that provides detailed information about all 42 survey questions, with business size, industry, and attitudinal segmentation. This report is designed for vendors that need and in-depth understanding of the business, workforce, and technology implications of COVID-19 on SMBs. Please contact Lisa Lincoln, Director, Client Services and Business Development, at lisa.lincoln70@smb-gr.com for the table of contents and pricing information.

Laurie McCabe is a co-founder and analyst at SMB Group, specializing in small-business IT. ©SMB Group 2020

Photo by Kaique Rocha of Pexels

The post How SMBs are Dealing with COVID-19 Crisis appeared first on eWEEK.

DaaS helps enterprises save capital costs by taking a typical hardware device, such as a laptop, desktop, tablet, or mobile phone, bundling it with a variety of services and software, and offering it to a customer for a monthly subscription fee. 

As a result of the new alliance announced last week, Intel Endpoint Management Assistant (Intel EMA) now integrates with the Ivanti Neurons hyper-automation platform, which enables IT organizations to self-heal and self-secure with Intel vPro platform-based devices–both inside and outside a corporate firewall.  

“As remote becomes the next normal, auto-healing, securing and servicing endpoints and edge devices becomes a key priority for organizations,” Nayaki Nayyar, Ivanti executive vice president and chief product officer, said in a media advisory. “With Ivanti Neurons, organizations supporting Intel vPro platform-powered devices can gain a 360-degree view of users, devices, and applications and auto-remediate performance, security, configuration issues.” 

With the integration of Intel Endpoint Management Assistant, Neurons provides next-generation remote management for on-premises and cloud-based endpoints. Ivanti Neurons can handle remote actions on Intel vPro platform-based devices, such as powering on a device, restarting a device, setting wake-up times and controlling a system–even during OS failure–and repairing devices at scale. 

This also takes into account security patching and other actions.

For more information, go here.

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Unless it’s brand new and right off various assembly lines, servers, storage and networking inside every IT system can be considered “legacy.” This is because the iteration of both hardware and software products is speeding up all the time. It’s not unusual for an app-maker, for example, to update and/or patch for security purposes an application a few times a month, or even a week. Some apps are updated daily! Hardware moves a little slower, but manufacturing cycles are also speeding up.

These articles describe new-gen industry solutions. The idea is to look at real-world examples of how new-gen IT products and services are making a difference in production each day. Most of them are success stories, but there will also be others about projects that blew up. We’ll have IT integrators, system consultants, analysts and other experts helping us with these as needed.

Today’s Topic: Securing Onsite Premises Before, During the COVID-19 Crisis with Cloud-based Visitor Management Software

Name the problem to be solved: 

With thousands of visitors per day, not to mention employees coming and going in upwards of 10,000, the Brooklyn Navy Yard (BNY) was in search of a visitor management system that could secure its front gates and for its tenants to get customers/visitors in quickly. There was also pressure to create consistent and welcoming experiences for visitors and employees. After all, a big part of the BNY’s mission is in what it describes as “connecting the local community with the economic opportunity and resources of the Yard.” This sense of openness needed to be balanced with control and safety in the sheer numbers of people moving in and around the BNY. 

Naturally, the COVID-19 virus outbreak in March 2020 presented the BNY with additional challenges. 

Describe the strategy that went into finding the solution: 

The BNY had been using an internally hosted web portal to manage its visitor experience for a long time. This came with limitations and concerns about whether or not the platform could handle the projected growth at the BNY and many unexpected costs in maintenance and support. This led Marc Cecere, Director of Applications at Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp., to seek out an alternative—a customizable solution that would meet the BNY’s security needs of today and be able to adapt to subsequent visitor management and security processes tomorrow.

“Our old system was slow and not very user-friendly. So most of our tenants weren’t pre-registering their visitors. This caused long lines and traffic at the security gates,” Cecere said. “Visitor lists weren’t updated in real time because the solution wasn’t hosted on the cloud. Security checks still had to be done manually by checking IDs against a printed watch list, which slowed down the check-in process.” 

List the key components in the solution: 

The BNY chose Proxyclick’s cloud-based visitor management system because:

• Its intuitive user interface also integrates with BNY’s S2 access control system. 
• BNY tenants now can pre-register their visitors in Proxyclick’s platform so those visitors can scan the QR code from their invitation email at the BNY’s entrances.
• Many other security features, such as the use of Proxyclick’s watchlists, work behind the scenes to help security staff flag visitors needing additional screening. The watchlist is automatically updated in Proxyclick, so it’s consistent across all seven of their gates. If someone not on the watchlist tries to enter, Proxyclick automatically notifies the entire BNY security team via text message, in real time. 
• Proxyclick’s integration with S2 also notifies the BNY’s hosts of their visitor’s arrival, keeping everyone in the loop. 

Describe how the deployment went, perhaps how long it took, and if it came off as planned: 

Now more than a year into deployment, Proxyclick manages visitor access for all the BNY’s shuttle buses, drive-through gates and pedestrian scanners. Those visitors who reach the front desks are also granted access using their QR codes to get through turnstiles, providing a consistent experience for all visitors–regardless of their entry point into the BNY.

During the Covid-19 crisis, while the BNY office was mostly closed, the company saw a reduced number of about 1,000 to 2,000 employees and visitors coming onto the premises each day. Only essential workers and visitors, including security staff and sergeants, property managers and union staff were allowed on the BNY. Cecere indicated that BNY shifted to using Proxyclick almost exclusively for new tenants, which helped reduce risk of virus exposure to security staff.

Describe the result, new efficiencies gained, and what was learned from the project: 

The BNY has now achieved the ultimate balance between a convenient check-in process and a high standard of security. Pre-registration of visitors at the BNY is now up more than 30%, and the tenants are happy with the benefits of Proxyclick at their buildings. The integrated visitor experience is not only a hit with the tenants and staff at the BNY but also with the thousands of visitors the Yard welcomes every day. As far as what the future holds, the BNY is expecting to welcome tens of thousands of visitors on a daily basis in the near future. Proxyclick is poised to continue helping them find ways to improve visitor experience and security in the long term.
“Today we are testing an integration between Proxyclick, the access-control system and an automated license plate scanner to help solve an ongoing issue with deliveries,” Cecere said. “Pre-registering delivery drivers was a problem, as we are often not provided with names. Pre-approving their truck plates would speed this process up.”

Finally, the tenants within the BNY have the option to move toward their own iPad experience at their building. This allows them to use Proxyclick at their buildings with their own specific workflows and visitor experience, all while connecting to the BNY’s access control system to provide the same consistent arrival experience.

Soon the BNY will deploy a wayfinding to make their 300 acres easier to navigate for visitors. With Proxyclick orchestrating access, assisting with directions, loading authorized number plates, notifying security if needed and doing it all in real time, the future looks bright in Brooklyn.

Looking ahead

The BNY has shifted to Proxyclick exclusively for new tenants/new staff/volunteers for tenants. They don’t want to put security staff at risk, and this avoids them having to meet them and take their ID and information. This will be the setup at the BNY until further notice. “Proxyclick has been super helpful; I’m not sure what we would have done otherwise if we didn’t have a system that was convenient and easy to use,” said Cecere.

Proxyclick also proved to be an immediate advantage in the Yard’s on-premises management of the COVID-19 virus outbreak.

“BNY does not currently have many touch points for visitors, which put the company at an advantage right off the bat during COVID-19,” Cecere said. “If visitors use local entrance lanes, security officers at guard booths will type into Proxyclick kiosks for guests. This helped a lot during the crisis, as the process has been almost entirely ‘touchless’ for visitors.”

If you have a suggestion for an eWEEK IT Science article, email cpreimesberger@eweek.com.

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