Laurie McCabe on IT-Director.com

Sage's Rebranding: More than a Name Change

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:30:37 +0100

Love it or hate it, the first results of Sage North America's brand transformation strategy have started rolling out in North America. Sage North America CEO Pascal Houilon announced the... [Read More...]

Making Small Business a Bigger Business: Intuit's Acquisition of Demandforce

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:58:13 +0100

Intuit announced last week that it was acquiring Demandforce, which provides an integrated suite of Web-based social media and marketing tools for small businesses, for $423.5 million in cash.... [Read More...]

Tech Tidbits for SMBs: May 4, 2012

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:03:09 +0100

I'm back to serve up the second edition of Tech Tidbits, with a new sampling of SMB solutions that you might not know about, but could provide just what you're looking for. On the menu... [Read More...]

Dell 2.0: A Progress Report from Dell's 2012 Annual Analyst Conference

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 19:02:57 +0100

I've been tracking and writing about Dell since the late 1990s, when Dell was riding high on its success in essentially reinventing the PC and x86 markets with its direct and efficient supply... [Read More...]

Tech Tidbits for SMBs: AnyMeeting, Desk.com and Xero

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:24:26 +0100

All too often, I don't have the time to write a full-fledged post on many of the SMB solutions that vendors brief and demo for me. Which is a shame, as many of these come from smaller vendors... [Read More...]

Host Analytics' New Twist on an Old Problem: Connecting CPM and BI Data in Midsize Companies

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, Hurwitz and Associates) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:38:56 +0100

Host Analytics, which provides cloud-based corporate performance management software, recently launched Host Analytics Business Analytics, a new business intelligence toolkit designed to give finance... [Read More...]

Top Customer-Facing Mobile Apps for SMBs Today-and the Trajectory for Tomorrow

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:59:05 +0100

How are SMBs using mobile solutions to interact with their customers, suppliers and partners? What are top mobile apps that SMBs offer for their external customers, partners and supplier to use? Just... [Read More...]

The Ying and Yang of Mobile Applications For SMBs

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:15:31 +0100

What are SMBs' top business challenges, and how well do mobile solutions help them meet these challenges? Interestingly, that depends on whether you're asking them about the benefits of having... [Read More...]

YouDazzle: Where Cloud Collaboration Meets Network Marketing

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:46:27 +0100

In SMB Group studies, small business decision-makers consistently put colleagues, friends and family at or near the top of the list as key sources for advice when it comes to selecting technology... [Read More...]

Intuit: From Products to Services, Applications to Platform

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:04:53 +0100

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Intuit's Innovation Gallery Walk in NYC. Intuit uses the Gallery Walk to showcase new solutions that it is bringing to market as well as ones that are... [Read More...]

IBM Smarter Commerce for Midsize Businesses - Future Trends

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:58:17 +0100

To help companies understand IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, the SMB Group and CRM Essentials are working on a series of posts discussing how technology is empowering today's customer,... [Read More...]

Swimming With the Big Fish: Supplier Connection Warms Up the Water for Small Businesses

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:21:14 +0100

Most small businesses covet the opportunity to supply goods and services to the lucrative large enterprise market. But as little fish in a very big pond, many are overwhelmed by the commitment of... [Read More...]

Dell Extends its End-to-End Storage Story for SMBs

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:21:52 +0100

-by Sanjeev Aggarwal and Laurie McCabe, SMB Group Storage is a key requirement for today's small-to-medium business (SMB) and mid-market enterprises. As the amount of data multiplies, and... [Read More...]

Beyond the Hype-What You Need to Know About the Cloud: Recap from Small Business Summit 2012

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:32:56 +0100

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel at the always-enlightening Small Business Summit 2012. This was the seventh annual Summit, a terrific event coordinated by Ramon Ray and... [Read More...]

Is Your Midsize Business Ready to Change Before You Have To? Gearing Up for the New Marketing

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:03:06 +0100

In conjunction with IBM's�Smarter Commerce initiative, the SMB Group and CRM Essentials are working on a series of posts discussing how technology is empowering today's customer, and why... [Read More...]

Going Beyond Free Self-Service Trials: Raising the Bar in Cloud Computing?

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:42:24 +0100

Free trials have been a staple of cloud computing from the beginning. Almost every cloud-aka software-as-a-service-vendor offers free trials. Many vendors also give companies a free pass... [Read More...]

Swimming with the Smarter Customer: The Speedo International Story

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:17:02 +0100

-by Laurie McCabe, SMB Group, in partnership with Brent Leary, CRM Essentials Recently, Brent Leary and I had the opportunity to talk with Gareth Beer, Ecommerce Manager for Speedo... [Read More...]

What Can We Learn From This Year's Holiday Season?

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:30:09 +0100

-by Brent Leary, CRM Essentials In conjunction with IBM's�Smarter Commerce initiative, the SMB Group and CRM Essentials are working on a series of posts discussing how technology is... [Read More...]

More than a Name Change: IBM Rebrands LotusLive as IBM SmartCloud for Social Business

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:45:28 +0100

Attending Lotusphere (or any other big vendor event) is kind of like getting soaked with a fire hose. So instead of providing overall highlights (here's a 60-second video that does this quite... [Read More...]

Closing the Business Intelligence Gap for Small Businesses

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:57:34 +0100

Most small and medium businesses (SMBs) can relate to Albert Einstein's famous quote that� Information is not knowledge.� Many SMBs have plenty of data, but find it challenging to... [Read More...]

Top 10 SMB Technology Predictions for 2012 from the SMB Group

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:02:22 +0100

Last week we published a report card on our last year's top 10 market predictions for 2011. Here are the SMB Group's�Top 10 SMB Technology Predictions for 2012! A more detailed... [Read More...]

Report Card: 2011 Top 10 SMB Technology Market Predictions

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:25:13 +0100

Before developing our 2012 predictions, we wanted to assess how we did on our Top 10 SMB Technology Predictions for 2011. [Read More...]

Highlights from the 2011 SMB Group Collaboration Study

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:28:27 +0100

The SMB Group and CRM Essentials recently completed the 2011 SMB Collaboration and Communications Study. We asked more than 800 SMB (small business is 1-99 employees; medium business is 100-999... [Read More...]

Are Business App Stores Gaining Steam with Small Businesses?

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, Hurwitz and Associates) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:30:30 +0100

I've been reviewing data from our latest survey, the 2011 SMB Routes to Market Study, which zeros in on how SMBs discover, learn about, evaluate and purchase software and service technology... [Read More...]

Smarter Commerce for the Midmarket: An Interview with IBM's Ron Kline

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:46:41 +0100

My Love-Hate Relationship With Twitter

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, Hurwitz and Associates) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:36:31 +0100

If you're in the IT industry, tweeting has probably become a regular part of your day, like brushing your teeth. I know it has for me, as an industry analyst and researcher. But, since joining... [Read More...]

Closing the SMB Business Intelligence Gap

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:00:04 +0100

Most small and medium businesses (SMBs) can relate to Albert Einstein's famous quote that� Information is not knowledge.�Many SMBs have plenty of data, but find it challenging to... [Read More...]

Are You Ready? Transforming Your Business for the Smarter Customer

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:00:39 +0100

In conjunction with IBM's�Smarter Commerce initiative, the SMB Group and CRM Essentials are working on a series of posts discussing how technology is... [Read More...]

Dell Boomi: A Microcosm of Dell's New Virtual Era

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:01:37 +0100

After attending Dell World, Dell's first ever user conference a couple of weeks ago, it's apparent that Dell's progression towards becoming a pivotal vendor in what it terms the... [Read More...]

Becoming a Smarter Customer

rss@it-analysis.com (Laurie McCabe, SMB Group) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:00:10 +0100

I recently bought a new video camera - a Panasonic AG-HMC150. This was a pretty significant purchase for me because it... [Read More...]