Minimizing the Total Cost of Technical Support for Enterprise Applications Many organizations don’t follow formalized processes for technical support evaluation. However, technical support is a vital component of any enterprise software solution. The fact is, poor technical support can have a severe impact on a solution’s total cost of ownership.
January 23, 2008
The Demo Crime Files! This article is part of the continuing education all software demonstrators need to ensure their fundamental skills remain sharp. It points out three common “crimes” made in demonstrations, how to recognize them, and suggests alternative approaches.
January 21, 2008
Software Selection: A Third Alternative
Part One: The Buyer’s Perspective
There are two prevailing approaches for selecting enterprise-wide software: the functions and features approach and the business processes approach. Yet a third alternative does exist—one that takes the best aspects of these two to provide the assurances needed by the buyer and the efficiency desired by the vendor.
January 17, 2008
Human Resources for Small to Medium Businesses When small to medium businesses shop around for a human resources (HR) solution, their main considerations are whether to go for a hosted or non-hosted solution, or to simply outsource HR functions altogether. It’s important to know the advantages and disadvantages of each before making a selection.
January 16, 2008
Your Reference Guide to SMB Accounting Software Features This reference guide provides insight into the accounting features and functions currently available on today’s market for small to medium businesses (SMBs). It will help you determine which features your organization needs—and doesn’t need.
January 11, 2008
Are You Adequately Protecting Your IT Infrastructure Components Inside the Firewall? Components such as applications, databases, web servers, directories, and operating systems rely mostly on built-in security features. But passwords and privileges are hardly enough, considering that many users have elevated privileges and fail to follow established corporate procedures.
January 7, 2008
Squeeze Play in the Supply Chain Management Market Changing business requirements have forced supply chain execution (SCE) vendors to expand via add-on modules. Seeing this upward push from the SCE vendors, enterprise resource planning vendors are now pushing downward and including SCE modules within their solutions.
January 4, 2008
Audit Your Message Strategy by Answering Three Questions Most companies create a new marketing plan every 12 months. At the same time, they should audit their message strategy to stay on top of competitors’ marketing and to have confidence that they are delivering the right message to their market.
January 2, 2008
Software Selection Processes—Accelerating Vendor Identification Software selection is complex and time-consuming. Taking shortcuts or skipping steps in the process increases the risk of making the wrong choice. But attending a virtual trade show can accelerate the selection process, increase vendor interaction, and reduce this risk.