42% of UK Small Businesses feel left in the lurch after purchasing technology,

Cisco has just published a report that has surveyed 400 UK small businesss and found:

1. ..the majority of small businesses (42%) feel left in the lurch after purchasing technology, due to insufficient post-sales support or training
2. …41% of the respondents felt that enterprise scale technology was imposed on them, as opposed to products tailored to their size.

I think both of the above can be caused by the standard VAR (value added reseller) model, whereby the emphasis (and majority of the income and therefore profit) is centred on the initial sale with less attention given to the post sales period which is traditionally less profitable.

The Software as a Service (SaaS) model should help to rectify this by having an income model which is interested in the long term for ongoing revenues (and less based on the initial income) which should ensure a better post sale and support experience.

Squidoo

I am currenly looking at squidoo (see also squidoo guide) and have entered a couple based on Open Source Accounting Software and Open Source CRM. These are hust a brief Outline at the moment but I will add more detail.

Ebdex

THe week I met Manoj Ranaweera Manageing Director of Ebdex. Ebdex are developing electronic document exchange for Accounts and ERP software, With the slow take up of XML and EDI still being in the minority electronic data exchange is still the holy grail for accounting software. The move to a near paperless office and more importantly the avoidance of data entry of information that is held elsewhere (usually with your supplier) still seems a long way off.

Linux a Buyers Guide for SME’s

Comprehensive guide for using Linux for Small Businesses avavilable from ZDNET available here

Accman Blog

My blog subscriptions, controlled by bloglines (one my favourite sites), is getting out of control and I need to trim it down a little but one blog that never ceases to impress is Accmanpro a blog by Dennis Howlett.

His overwhelming passion and knowledge on many issues affecting modern accountancy always keeps me coming back to his blog especially as you know there will always be something interesting to read as not a day goes by without multiple posts.

One of his areas of passion and knowledge is software as a service. I have put a link on my blogroll and will link to his blog where relevant.

AccountsVision

Last night at a Beermat networking meeting I met Steve Checkley from AccountsVision. They have just developed an accounts working papers and final accounts package aimed at small accounting practices and larger businesses (who would prepare their own accounts). The system look like and tastes like (Steve’s words) Excel so is certainly worth a look if you are coming from preparing accounts in a spreadsheet and are not looking for a major shift to completely integrated practice software

Microsoft Plans to Focus on Small Business Software

In an article from crm buyer, titled as above, Zach Nelson, chief executive officer of NetSuite, said:

“Taking products designed for large companies and then retrofitting them to work for smaller businesses is a recipe for failure. It would be like a bus manufacturer changing the color of the bus from yellow to black, and then calling it a car.”