Why Microsoft will win the war Small Business cloud

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We've been reading about the war of the cloud. We've seen how big companies like Google and Apple and IBM are offering their services and applications online, changing the way people use technology. We've watched how smaller companies, like Salesforce.com and Facebook and Groupon have turned themselves into giants by (literally) starting new cloud based industries. We barf every time we watch those idiots on the Microsoft commercial who forgot to program their TV and are able to do it from the airport by going "to the cloud."

And yet...you know who's going to win the small business war of the cloud? Microsoft. Want proof? All you have to do is visit Paducah, Kentucky.

Paducah (population approximately 30,000) is located about two hours from Nashville and three hours from Memphis, St. Louis and Louisville. The city was founded in 1815, occupied by Union forces throughout most of the Civil War and had a major flood in 1937. The town is known for its annual telethon (Betty White appeared there in 1959) and is one of only two cities named in the famous song "Hooray for Hollywood". Former MLB player Terry Shumpert was born there. Dippin' Dots, the candy maker, is headquartered there. And so is Bradshaw & Weil.

That's where Jared Morgan works. His family bought the 144 year old insurance agency in 1994 and Jared began working there after college. And, other than a two year stint in a youth ministry, that's where Jared's always worked. And the Paducah area is where he's always lived. He married his high school girlfriend.

Bradshaw & Weill has eight employees, each averaging about twenty five years of experience. One employee has been with the agency over fifty years. Jared, at 29, is the youngster. The company is "light years behind in technology," he says. "The smallest of changes can make things very difficult for our people."

Jared's being humble. His company isn't light years behind in technology. In fact, little Bradshaw & Weil, compared to most other small businesses from San Francisco to New York, is a technology leader. For the past few years they've been using Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite, or BPOS, for their email and document sharing. In Paducah, Kentucky for God's sake!

Quietly, Microsoft is adding more and more of its key applications to the cloud. If you visit their online productivity site you'll find a bunch of their products offered, like Exchange Online for email and calendaring, SharePoint Online for portals and document sharing, Office Communications Online for communications, Live Meeting for web and video conferencing, Dynamics CRM for customer relationship management and Windows InTune for PC management.

The cost is pretty low. For example, just renting Exchange costs $5.00 per month per user. Or if you prefer to host your SharePoint system that costs $5.25 per month per user. However, the biggest value is to sign up for BPOS. That costs a total of $10.00 per month per user and includes Exchange, SharePoint plus Office Communications and Live Meeting too.

Of course something's still missing here. BPOS doesn't include any of the standard Microsoft Office products we're used to using every day like Word, Excel, Outlook, Access and Powerpoint. Those applications will be available online, according to Microsoft, in 2011 when the company releases its Office 365 hosted services which is currently still in beta. That's going to be another thing I'll write about when the time comes.

BPOS contains the features you'd expect to find in any 2011 cloud based offering. The security, the uptime, the storage, the quick deployment and the online and mobile accessibility. This is what the cloud's all about.

And it's not like there isn't good competition out there. Google offers its own email hosting, document sharing and voice/communication services (but not meetings). Zoho offers a great suite of hosted small business applications. Box.net is an excellent alternative to SharePoint. Citrix Online has products for hosting meetings and webinars. But let's get back to Paducah. And Jared.

Jared appreciated the benefits of going to the cloud. He saw the potential time and cost savings of using someone else's servers to host his applications rather than do it himself. Being in his 20's he was more comfortable with technology than others in the firm and had the confidence to move things to the cloud with little argument from senior management.

And he tried other cloud services, particular a few offered by Google, who currently hosts the company's website. But he ultimately decided on BPOS - particularly Exchange and SharePoint. Was it for the features? He says he loves the way Outlook works so easily with Exchange. And, with SharePoint, he's helped others create shared files that document the firm's processes for servicing certain clients, scheduling reminders and following up on renewals. But I'm not convinced that Jared is doing anything with Microsoft's BPOS that he couldn't be doing with other cloud based services.

Which is why Microsoft is going to win the war of the cloud. Look, I'm not the world's biggest Microsoft fan. Yes, my company sells one of their products. But I've been brought to tears too many times to mention by Windows freeze-ups. I've watched my nails grow in front of my eyes while waiting for my computer to startup (or shutdown). I show advanced symptoms of Parkinson's every time I have to pay for an Office upgrade.

The cloud up until now was mostly about consumers. Cool apps for their mobile devices. Neat new ways to schedule parties and share pictures. Great websites for storing videos, talking to your friends and finding that perfect new car.

But now the story is changing. Microsoft is moving into the cloud. In a big way. And the company, along with its thousands of partners, will bring with it hundreds of millions of users at its small and medium sized business customers. Like Bradshaw & Weill. And this is why Microsoft is going to win the cloud war.

Because the battle won't be won over products and features and cool apps and gizmos. People, especially small business people, are going to be asked to make a choice very soon. The choice will be about companies and services and who we're going to trust with our data and our business applications. Small business people are nervous about this. Our data is our livelihood and losing it can put us out of business. We're not going to trust it to just anyone.

Whatever people say about Microsoft, we know them and for the most part we trust them. We've been using their applications for decades. We're comfortable with the look and feel of their products. Most of the small businesses around today have survived and prospered in part because of the technology they've used that runs on Microsoft platforms. And even new entrepreneurs are going to have a close look at their offerings. Sure, we've been frustrated with technical issues and problems with their products. But we know that these problems are more technology related, not company related. We know that products from Google, Apple and others like them also come with their technical headaches.

Of course, Microsoft could screw it up. They could make lousy products. They could fall down on support. They could fall behind in the technology. And just because they have a history of getting into the market late and then crushing their competitors (like WordPerfect, Lotus, Netscape) it doesn't mean their current management will be able to do that again.

But they do have a clear advantage: their products are used and liked by millions of small business people around the world. We don't want to change. We don't want to learn new products to do the same things we're already doing. We just want to do things quicker and better. As long as Microsoft makes it easy for us to adapt to the cloud we'll go along with them.

And as long as Microsoft keeps winning over companies from towns like Paducah Kentucky they're going to win the small business cloud war.

Gene Marks, CPA, is the owner of the Marks Group, which sells customer relationship, service, and financial management tools to small and midsize businesses. Marks is the author of four best-selling small business books and writes the popular "Penny Pincher's Almanac" syndicated column. He frequently speaks to business groups on penny-pinching topics. More penny-pinching advice from Marks can be found at http://www.quickerbetterwiser.com/. Follow Gene on Twitter at @genemarks on and Facebook at http://facebook.com/quickerbetterwiser

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Cloud based CRM Small Business need it?

I ran into a woman who had done business with a while back, who heads a successful interior design company, which manages both the residential and accounts. He has been a faithful reader of the blog and told me that, but he has learned a lot about cloud computing, he does not believe that they needed more than they were in force and that the cost and time for the implementation of cloud services should the expected benefits. At first I thought the odd comment he was already use some cloud applications, and he is not one of the shy away from technology. He explains that when his staff was introduced yet another time saving tool for learning was much further than what could have been expected and far too often, quickly rejected. He said it was just easier to use, what they were in place.

Was still curious and asked him what the email and they were using their account management CRM program. His company uses Gmail, Microsoft Excel uses to manage their contacts and schedules planning project management program, which manages the purchasing side of their business, and with the product.

This company has 10 employees and for any single project can contain multiple vendors employ. How web-based CRM program can benefit their business?

Liz, it for you.

Customer relationship management (CRM) has been around since the beginning of time. Shopkeeper, a door-to-door seller and repairman 133-135, it automatically serve clients in One-to-one relationships, and performing on the fly. CRM does not return to the then very complicated.

Today, small businesses typically fall into two categories, each of which carries out its own challenge: some of the many clients maintain relations with the hajautuneet is a serious problem, others rely on their small business customers in the swimming pool. The structure of the company, in fact, most service companies belong to the latter category, Although both would benefit from the implementation of CRM tools.

What is strictly necessary, small enterprises, in particular, when they grow to 10 or more employees must, except for the ability to manage centralized customer information, but you want to share and work with information about your organization and on the road. The company may be small, but its service to customers across the country and abroad, or remotely access centralized information is essential. Yet, even in the company of two to four people will realize that it is essential to the operation of the project and the partners and available. An investment firm, and the project leaders from the installers even if the job, the updated client communication and change requests will be updated and distributed them to occur and the Manager can get a clear understanding of individual customers, special GSP to analyze customers and market developments and to build an effective sales strategies to build on its activities to use in the design of this apocryphal information. There are a lot of expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain existing conservation requires excellent customer service, but at all levels of interaction and even afterwards.

In writing, of the Harvard Business Review, management consultants, Frederick Reichheld and Earl Sasser estimate that "companies are able to contribute to the profits of almost 100% by retaining just 5% more of their customers," whether you are the Big six ACCOUNTING firm, Microsoft, or Olga's parlor Blintz and Borscht.

The most effective sales technique became the "would you like fries with." This simple question became the Foundation for a new generation of upselling. Based on the cloud CRM service small business takes this whole new level, targeted a specific opportunities for service to existing customers and understanding these trends, the new look.

Remember this structure, the company's Director said that the new programmes for the implementation of the commitments of his reluctant angsten, learning a new program. This objection of my answer is simple, and location. Cloud-based services do not require the installation of the hardware and the browser and computer are agnostic (they operate on a MAC or PC, and work with your browser). Our sales manager was particularly proud of the recent implementation of the entire project to the customer: 10 minutes, and which are included in all directions.

Offer Claudio Marcus, Research Director, Gartner: "CRM is not part of the company's strategy; CRM is a business strategy ", regardless of the size of the company. Small companies cannot stand yet technologically. We cannot imagine our conducting business using only landlines and we should not be reluctant to bring cloud-based services, because of our experience and frustrations, the desktop software.

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