Flash back to the early to mid-1990s. Clients were using Windows 95 and DOS home computers in their businesses. Their biggest challenge: how to connect computers together, share files and use a new tool called e-mail to communicate. I remember the days of early World Wide Web adoption where customers just wanted one Web page to use as an online brochure. Connectivity brought new opportunities—network infrastructure components such as switches, servers (remember NT?) and for the elite few, a fractional T1 service that cost a fortune. With these components, small businesses were able to start functioning like their large business counterparts.
Flash forward to the 21st century. Our clients have business-class computer operating systems, tons of storage, firewalls, DSL and T1 connections, remote access, e-mail and more. With today's technology, they can work from anywhere. The connectivity challenges that we faced in the 1990s have been solved. What's next?
In the past 10 years, clients have accumulated data. It's in e-mail, files, accounting systems and CRM systems. Clients can access all this information, but from disparate places. How many of your clients can open their accounting system and, in the same place, view customer service and perhaps even sales information? How many different "systems" do your clients use today?
Large companies have been using ERP applications for years. Products from SAP, PeopleSoft and Oracle are used in large companies to streamline operations. Small businesses today face the same challenges of having data in disparate systems, but on a much smaller scale. They have not been able to afford to buy software from the major ERP vendors or implement it properly. But now, a new breed of applications that help small businesses "connect the dots" is available.
Microsoft spent several years and many millions of dollars acquiring companies to form its new Dynamics line of products. Sage Software has a suite of products such as Sage Abra HRMS, Accpac ERP and its MAS line of accounting products. SAP purchased TopManage Financial Solutions and rebranded it to SAP Business One, which it is marketing as an ERP package for small business, although it is a high-end package. NetSuite offers an online software-as-a-service portal that integrates accounting, CRM and e-commerce. It consolidates all information relevant for business owners and managers into a dashboard. Salesforce.com offers excellent CRM features, and its AppExchange portal can extend base CRM functions to include ERP.
For full-service IT solution providers, helping SMB clients automate their business processes may be the new customer-centric focus. Customers now want to use their infrastructures to grow their businesses and stay competitive. It's up to us to help them do it.
Alex Zaltsman is co-founder and maging partner of IT consulting firm Exigent Technologies, Morristown, N.J., and a member of the CRNtech advisory board.
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