The Business Software Advisor

You ask the questions, and our resident software guru shares her wisdom.

This week’s question: My company’s business travel expenses are out of control. What can I do to reduce costs?

A: These days, travel isn’t cheap. Facing the climbing costs of sending employees out into the field, companies are tightening the reigns, placing restrictions on all business activities that impact travel budgets. Yet, travel is a necessity in today’s dynamic marketplace, and severe restrictions can hinder critical business operations.

What’s the solution? Many companies are finding that Web conferencing is the answer. According to a market study done in April by Scottsdale-based In-Stat, about 20 percent of U.S. businesses use Web conferencing to some extent, and 13 percent plan to add it in 2008. Small and medium-sized businesses are especially gravitating towards the new technology: Frost & Sullivan, a leading research firm, reports that 64% of SMB’s use Web conferencing regularly in their business. Read more »

Are you looking to streamline your human resources and talent management processes? Today’s human capital management and talent management systems offer advanced software solutions to fit your company’s unique needs. To help you in your purchasing decision, the editors at Business-Software.com have compiled a list of the best vendors in the industry. Just released, the Top 10 Human Capital Management Vendors and Top 10 Talent Management Vendors reports are designed to help you build your short list and make an informed purchasing decision. Read more »

An Interview with Entellium CEO, Paul “PJ” Johnston
By: Mandy Kemp

Q: How does Entellium endeavor to better meet the needs of salespersons with the new Rave CRM solutions suite?

  Our goal with Rave CRM is to provide smaller businesses a suite of products that help their sales teams spend more time and be more successful doing what they love – selling!

With Rave, we’ve built in a variety of features – such as pre-built activity sets and sales processes, and ‘leader board’ dashboards that give salespeople instant insight into the activities that will help them close the most business. We’ve also taken an innovative approach to the user interface by giving salespeople the ability to radically personalize Rave so that information is presented in a style that works best for them. Read more »

Salesforce.com’s success in offering on-demand, SaaS applications changed expectations for software delivery. ERP buyers find many aspects of SaaS attractive – low startup costs, fast deployment, and predictable monthly fees. To address this market several new ERP SaaS offerings have emerged. Learn more about ERP SaaS below. Read more »