• Create a News Desk – Before you speak with any industry consultant or software representative, you can enhance your bottom line by educating yourself on the industry, terms, market leaders/choices such that when you do speak with any representative, they will understand you are an informed lead and will need their best efforts before you become a customer! An easy way to create a news desk is to deploy an aggregate reader such as Feed Demon, Blogpulse, or Google Reader. (If you’re not familiar with these terms…a quick search engine query will quickly fill in the gaps) Searching for terms like business automation software, automation software vendors, automation software industry, small business automation software, etc will provide both a current and continuous market education. Additionally, you can use either Yahoo or Google alerts… (email updates of the latest relevant Google or Yahoo results from the web, news, etc based on your choice of query or topic) Lastly, we can use search engine queries for your subject FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) for ex. business automation software vendors + FAQ.

• Perform a Simple Needs Assessment – Itemize your present business needs which are not being met consistently. This list will begin to shed light on both the type and level of systems needed.

• Use The Following Business Resources - The following sources can serve as powerful tools in your quest to meet your software/business needs. Capterra.com, Work.com, Business.com, Thomasnet.com, Yahoo Finance, and Hoovers.com. You will obviously have many questions along the way and these resources will help to answer a good number of them. For example, both work.com and business.com allow you to use their search engines for your topics and also provide SME (subject matter experts) along with the results! Yahoo Finance, Capterra, and Hoovers will provide in depth company information. Additionally, your social media contacts from Stumbleupon to Twitter to Facebook can add additional insight regarding customer reviews from those contacts you trust.

• Determine Your Software Integration Needs – Once you understand that no system will be perfect nor all encompassing, you will start to think about the software you install integrating with your established software for example, your accounting software integrating with your newly installed business crm (customer relationship manager) software, or your business pos (point of sale) software integrating with your new business database software. The point is your focus (small business applications) should be straight-forward and simple which normally equates to affordable. When you need help with integration or any other matter, the previously mentioned resources above can provide a great deal of expert sources.

• Profile Your Vendor’s List – One of your goals is to create a list of between five to ten vendors you would be interested in doing business with. Your vendor profile should include such items as: Years in business, Price, Headquarters address, Public or Private, (if public…their stock symbol), software key features, website address, point of contact, business email address, customer list (often times provided on their website), what if any contracts are involved?, once data is loaded on the new software will it remain your data? and is there a software demo available? Take advantage of the demo before you buy (Make sure the person or persons who will use the software get to demo the software…their insights will be invaluable.

• Determine Your Expected Response Level, Support Level, and any Needed Customization – Prior to any software purchase we need to know what hours of the day is support available, will there be phone or email, or some combination? Where is your support staff located…within the U.S. or offshore or some combination? How quickly may we expect our support inquiries to be answered? Will any customization be needed for your setup? ( We’re looking for a no answer…far less cost) What if any additional costs will there be for support particularly after hours, on weekends and holidays. Again, we’re looking for straight-forward and simple.

Your ultimate goal with the task list is to develop a short list of preferred vendors who offer the best list of user-friendly features you would like to use and purchase at an affordable price. You’re also looking for the best levels of support and responsiveness most convenient to your needs with very little to none customization needed. Completing these tasks will greatly reduce or eliminate most after-purchase surprises  while simultaneously increasing both your efficiency and market potential.

• Power Assure Raises $2.5 Million for Data Center – News – Clean … – Power Assure develops and delivers business automation software that reportedly reduces energy use and carbon emissions by an average of 50% in commercial, corporate, and government data centers. The company says that, unlike other …
• More of you to go around – Michael K Houser’s Blog – How often do you wake up feeling overwhelmed? Twice a week? Four times a week? Every day? As awful as it sounds, that’s really not uncommon for a small business owner. But, rather than finding a way to relieve their stress, most small business owners simply dive into their work hoping one day they’ll surface. If that’s what you’re doing STOP! Manual operations are a thing of the past.