N. Rowan

Spreadsheets are essential to accounting and inventory management, and the most widely used spreadsheet in the world is still Microsoft Excel. Despite increasingly complex technologies, many companies still run their accounting and inventory management on Excel. It provides the essentials for good bookkeeping and financial management, including general ledger, expense management, and inventory

As technological innovations continue to advance, it’s important that IT departments embrace new trends and technologies. Inflexible and outdated ERP systems can determine whether or not a company succeeds. Below are the top ERP trends for 2021 to make sure your company keeps a competitive edge.

If you're a developer, you're probably aware of the schism between developer platforms. European and US-based Typesafe seeks to provide the next generation of developers with the tools to build reactive applications. We spoke with Typesafe CTO and creator of Akka Jonas Bonér to learn how Typesafe sees the future of enterprise development.

Bloomfire knows the value of content. The top community forum software company allows you to build an online community and engage with your colleagues and customers through knowledge sharing. We sat down with Craig Melloy, CEO and co-founder of Bloomfire, to discuss the ins and outs of how companies can get the most out of their content both in-house and externally.

Even CMS provider DotNetNuke admits that “technology is a key enabler of online communities, and yet it cannot alone ensure a successful community.” Online communities can have a high failure rate if they don’t engage anyone, so utilizing this tips and your community forum software to create a valuable, easy to use platform can help ensure a high adoption rate as you build the community you want.

Jitbit is a small company with a big customer base. A Help Desk software provider, Jitbit counts Intel, Chevron, Philips, Siemens, and Vodafone among their 500+ customers. We sat down with founder Alex Yumashev to learn the secret of his success, and to understand how Jitbit can help companies both small and large supercharge their help desk team.

Stride is not your everyday CRM system: rather than doing contact management, the company provides a software solution for deal management, allowing salespeople to more effectively focus on revenue-generating opportunities rather than mindlessly entering contact information. Co-founder Andrew Dumont joined us for a discussion on what sets Stride apart in the increasingly crowded CRM space.

Social ERP - also known as Enterprise 2.0, E2.0, or sERP - has been around for several years, but not widely adopted. There has been talk of social ERP at least since early 2006, when the first industry experts and solution providers started thinking about integrating Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms with ERP. But is it a good idea to merge the open, unstructured nature of social conversations with a tightly-controlled, structured ERP environment?

Manta is an online network where small businesses connect with other businesses as well as potential customers. More than being a Yelp for small businesses, Manta is trying to positively impact small business revenues by providing a freemium ecosystem where content creation and consumption reinforce each other. We spoke with CEO Pam Springer about how Manta manages to impact these elusive small businesses in a meaningful way.

While marketing spend continues to skyrocket, most software providers focus their efforts on solutions for the B2C space. Bizo, however, focuses on helping B2B marketers be more successful. Founded in '08, the company's products are being used by over 600 name brands including American Express, Microsoft, and Verizon. We sat down with VP of Products Chris Mann to discuss the market opportunity and challenges of online advertising as well as the developments marketers need to know about in the coming years.

Last year, Forrester estimated the affiliate marketing industry to grow to an annual spend of $4.5B by 2016. As marketing departments continue to change dramatically, in part due to the continued rise of mobile and social media, Business-Software.com turned to the experts in the field and asked them: What are the top marketing trends to watch in 2013?

The great strengths of social media - how fast it is, how easy it is to reach a large audience, how it sponsors open discussions - are also its biggest flaws when used improperly. The growing popularity of social media in business has led to an increased number of marketing blunders that viral out before the culprits have even noticed their mistake. Here is a list of the four worst social media disasters of 2012 and what you can learn from them in 2013.