The collection of companies offering digital tools to small businesses either directly or via resellers is better described as a collection of galaxies than as an interconnected ecosystem. Such is the conclusion of Lorren Elkins, an executive with the software company Camilyo who is his spare time has amassed an impressive database of companies serving…
Cloud software provider Zoho rolled out two product releases and one update today that advance its strategy of being a one-stop resource for businesses to run their operations entirely in the cloud. Today the company rolled out ZohoFlow, a drag and drop application that allows businesses to create workflows between business applications, which enables businesses to eliminate manual tasked from…
Companies selling digital solutions to small-businesses have long chased the notion that SMBs want sellers to “make it easy for them” and wrap up the media products they need into one turnkey solution. One payment and one dashboard where they can see how it’s all working. Ostensibly this is a win-win proposition. The seller gets a bigger sale…
Many companies selling tech to small businesses target larger and more established merchants. Not GoDaddy. The hosting and domain provider sees “nascent” businesses as its big opportunity. These “nascents” are the businesses that may only exist as a freelancing side hustle for a graphic designer with a day job, for example, or perhaps is just a business…
Do small businesses really want all in one solutions for their small business apps? Or is this concept more for the benefit of SMB sellers looking to boost margins and reduce churn? Will AI/machine learning be the catalysts for development of a self-service sales platform that small businesses will actually use. Are Internet service providers like Comcast going…
A new study on SMB adoption of marketing automation tools, commissioned by marketing automation firm ActiveCampaign, describes the progress from using email marketing (a requirement to participate in the survey) through CRM to marketing automation. The report of the survey’s findings asserts that marketing automation is the next area where SMBs will invest in marketing technology, based on…
In preparation for last week’s SMB Cloud Adoption Summit in San Francisco, we interviewed a handful of small-businesses owners to ask them about their use of cloud software to run their businesses. The idea was to provide an SMB voice to the event, as well as to bring to life some of the themes uncovered…
“If you don’t have a Machine Learning and AI slide in your investor deck, you are not getting funded,” SurePath Capital’s Mark McLeod told the SMB Cloud Summit audience last week, slightly tongue-in-cheek. Earlier in the day there was a discussion of how machine learning and AI would potentially impact the SMB marketing ecosystem. The…
Last week Kris Barton, Chief Product Officer for USA Today Networks and ReachLocal (a wholly owned subsidiary of Gannett), shared lessons learned at LSA’s 2017 SMB Cloud Summit regarding the SMB view of SaaS, media tactics, and other observations in serving a 15,000 plus SMB customer base. Looking at the SMB market’s evolution from a…
At the 2017 SMB Cloud Summit, GoDaddy’s SVP of Productivity, Irana Wasti, had an insightful conversation with Local Search Association’s VP of Strategy and Insights, Greg Sterling about the small business ecosystem. Specifically, they talked about the impact of mobile productivity applications on the SMB market and what GoDaddy is doing in this area. GoDaddy continues…
