Samepage and QuickBooks Pro: collaborative and accounting software for small business

Collaborative Software: Groupware

• Type of software

Samepage: Group, sharing: cloud-based software

• List of vendors and products reviewed, from at least three categories

Vendors: Samepage.io

Products: Samepage for desktop; Samepage apps for iOS, Android, Windows,

• Product selected

Samepage Collaboration Software

• Reason the product was selected

Reviews were very positive and the demo and interface appeared very clean and user friendly.

• Brief description of the software, including cost: Discuss the possibility of integrating with other software being recommended

Samepage Pro-is $10 per month and offers unlimited team collaboration with administrative controls, unlimited pages and storage, permissions manager, user and activity insights, external calendar integration and priority support. Integration with other software is not possible although various non-software-based projects can be brought into Samepage; this is a drawback

• Advantages and disadvantages of using the software

The software acts similarly to Dot Loop and allows multiple users to share content and work on a single site instead of having to resort to email and risk someone being left out of the loop. Drawbacks are it does not include a private chat at the time but this drawback has been brought to the attention of Samepage and it may be added in the future

• Information about the vendor:

How long have they been in business? Since 2013

How large are they in terms of number of employees, revenues, and so on? The company is global and has been identified by Aragon Research as a 2015 Hot Vendor. It is currently seeking a Senior Product Designer in San Jose, a Senior UX Designer in the Czech Republic and a Backend Developer in Poland. The company is small but extensive for an up-and-coming. Their revenues are not in the same ballpark as Google or Office 365, both of which have their own collaborative software (Google Docs is one, for example). Is the vendor likely to be around in ten, fifteen years? Possbily not, so that is one reason to not go the way of Samepage and to stick

How long have they been in business?

How large are they in terms of number of employees, revenues, and so on? QuickBooks is used by thousands of companies and small businesses around the world (Biafore, 2015). Quickbooks is part of Intuit which was founded in 1983 and reported over $4 billion in revenue in 2012. It is a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq (INTU) and has over 8000 employees.

What is their reputation? Reputation is very high because of its user friendly products. In other words, you do not have to be a professional accountant to use them.

Marketing and sales software: customer relationship management

• Type of software

Desk.com by Salesforce

• List of vendors and products reviewed, from at least three categories

Vendors: Desk.com

Products: Standard, Pro, All Pro

• Product selected

Pro

• Reason the product was selected

Suitable for small business needs

• Brief description of the software, including cost:

$60 per month, comes will all standard features (multi-channel support, self-service support, agent productivity tools, support performance reporting, knowledge base, workflow and automation, desk.com support, easy integration) and Pro-features: Desk Connect for Salesforce, advanced reporting and analytics, open CTI (telephony), native CSAT scores, multilingual support, and customizable page layouts.

Discuss the possibility of integrating with other software being recommended. The software is integrated with Salesforce so that Desk and Sales work together to bring an enhanced customer service experience to the business

• Advantages and disadvantages of using the software

Like Service Cloud, Desk.com is able to deliver enterprise-level analytics plus an all in one customer support application that is perfect for small but fast growing businesses.

Advantages include an easy to use and easy to access framework that is consistent with our overall strategy as small business owners to acquire tech that is not dependent upon professional level skills but delivers professional level services.

Disadvantages are that the product is relatively costly with a high premium monthly charge in comparison to other products that we are acquiring; however, it is the best product for what we are needing and when interacting with the public and providing consumer service there should be no expense spared so this is really a needed product that can be a very positive addition.

• Information about the vendor:

How long have they been in business? Founded as Assistly, Desk joined Salesforce in 2011 and became Desk.com. It currently serves Yelp, Square, iHeartRadio and many other new and fast growing companies that are making a huge impact on the Internet consumer generation.

How large are they in terms of number of employees, revenues, and so on? Numbers are not known but employees include high profile names like Leyla Seka, SVP and GM, Jonathan Hunt, SVP of Business Operations (former M&A consultant for Deloitte).

What is their reputation? Their reputation is very high and their product is very satisfactory as it delivers exactly what one wants in a customer service application. Best of all is the multilingual assistance that the application offers because in our business this can come in very handy when entering the global network that film companies often have to navigate.

Business intelligence software

• Type of software

BOARD

• List of vendors and products reviewed, from at least three categories

Vendors: Board.com

• Product selected

Board All-in-One Intelligence toolkit

• Reason the product was selected

It is an all in one corporate performance management tool that offers BI software for users to analyze their business and is perfect for users who do not know coding or how to program such analytics themselves. It allows the user to make dashboards, generate reports, plan and simulate processes and has a strong user base.

• Brief description of the software, including cost:

It offers report generating software and multi-dimensional analysis plus excellent dashboarding and gives users the ability to budget, plan, forecast finances and analyze profits as well as consolidate financial reports. A lot of this can be done by QuickBooks so it may be worth discussing whether this product is even needed, especially considering the cost, which is not cheap at $3,000 per year.

Discuss the possibility of integrating with other software being recommended. There is no need to integrate this application with other software as it is all in one and stands alone.

• Advantages and disadvantages of using the software

Advantages: It is the best of the best in terms of Business Intelligence software and offers everything a business needs to be smarter about what it does; plus it is user friendly and fast

Disadvantages: Board is costly and a lot of what it does can be done more or less without its use; QuickBooks for example can give a rough idea of a lot of what Board tells us exactly, so one might wonder if the software is even necessary. A little number crunching at the end of the day without having to pay the cost for Board might be the best way to go if cost is a concern. If cost is not a concern, Board is a very intuitive tool that can be used to help give adequate forecasts about a company's financial situation and direction

• Information about the vendor:

How long have they been in business? Since 1994; headquartered in Switzerland with offices in several different countries.

How large are they in terms of number of employees, revenues, and so on? Over 2,500 customers and operates in 15 countries around the globe, and has international corporations for customers such as NIKE, Puma, NEC, ABB, Best Western and many others. It has 17 offices.

What is their reputation? It is a very reputable service provider as can be seen by its list of high-level performing clients. BI and CPM markets have often listed BOARD in major publications. In 2012, it was listed in the BI Survey 12 on the world's best BI software. In 2010, it won the Microsoft NET Swiss Innovation Award. Thus Board has a lot of potential behind it and a lot of happy clients, showing that it is innovative and in demand.