SME business improvement strategies

Telstra to sell Microsoft products
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/The-Briefing/20081105-Telstra-to-sell-Microsoft-products.html?source=cmailer
Telstra and Microsoft today announced a strategic alliance that will bring together the companies’ business software applications, mobile services and devices and integrated computer and telephone services over Telstra’s Next IP and Next G networks.

Telstra group managing director of product management, Holly Kramer, says the alliance will combine telephony, email, mobility, conferencing, collaboration and tools, and the first products will be introduced into the market by mid 2009.

“Our customers are seeing convergence between networks and applications and between fixed and mobile services. We are turning this convergence into meaningful products,” she says.
The alliance also intends to provide small and medium businesses with access to products and services that were formerly only available to larger companies, says Tracey Fellows, Microsoft Australia’s managing director.

Fellows says the alliance will also benefit thousands of Australian IT businesses, consultants and partners who resell or distribute Microsoft and Telstra products.

It is proposed that services under the alliance will include:

Hosted business applications: Through Telstra’s T Suite portal, businesses would be able to access Microsoft business software hosted by Microsoft in the cloud and delivered as a subscription service.
Mobile services and devices: An all-in-one mobile email, calendar, contacts, web browser, business software and phone solution including security features, automatic software upgrades, support and data plan.
Unified communications: Integrating Telstra’s hosted IP telephony service (TIPT) with Microsoft Office applications.

SmartCompany blogger and PC Rescue principal Paul Wallbank says the alliance may encounter some problems. He points out that the market share of Windows mobile has been in decline since the launch of the popular iPhone. “There is no iPhone support and apparently they have no intention of providing any as there is only support for phones running on Windows mobile,” he says.

Another weakness is there is no support for office applications such as PowerPoint or Excel, which puts it as a major disadvantage to Google Apps.

While Microsoft dominates the SME marketplace in software, it is looking at Telstra to reach the many SMEs that it does not deal with directly.

But Wallbank predicts that Telstra will have trouble selling these web applications through the Telstra network and shops. “Mobile phone people don’t care or understand about web services. It is a different selling model,” he says.

New Google Australia executive plans push into SME market
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/The-Briefing/20081030-New-Google-Australia-executive-plans-push-into-SME-market.html?source=cmailer
Google Australia’s new head of online, Julian Persaud, is planning a big push into the SME sector, despite fears that online advertising is set to fall.

Persaud says Google is confident of convincing small businesses to advertise through Google, pointing to figures that show 40% of small businesses owners have websites and a further 20% are building a site.

“We’re in a shift towards people going online. The consumers are there, and we’re seeing an increasing number of businesses wanting to be there as well. We’re focusing on small business as a big growing area for the industry. It creates a level playing field,” he says.

But Persaud dismisses claims that online advertising growth rates will plunge as a result of the economic slowdown. “It’s not going to be on the decline; most studies show that it will grow very strongly… online businesses are growing, it’s the fastest growing area in advertising.”

But IT and technology consultant and SmartCompany blogger Paul Wallbank says some SMEs are hesitant to enter online marketing because of its complexity.

“It’s a difficult field – it’s so complex; you’ve got to get the right words, etc. There’s all manner of components to it,” he says.

Wallbank also emphasises the fact Google AdWords, a staple of the group’s advertising offerings, is extremely competitive.

“For a lot of smaller businesses, particularly when you’ve got common AdWords such as ‘computer services’, there’d be a zillion businesses bidding for those search terms. They’re very complex for the typical small business.”

But another SmartCompany contributor, online advertising and revenue consultant Denise Shrivell, says online marketing is definitely growing strongly. She argues while display banner advertising will fall, SMEs need to tap into performance and pay-per-click advertising.

“If you look at the total pie of online advertising, that is display advertisements versus search advertisements like AdWords, display advertisements have a small part, and are declining.
“The next 12 months will be difficult for display advertisements, as advertisers use the internet more for advertisements like Google and Facebook are able to offer. That level of targeting… is pretty irresistible in a tough market.”

Google Apps for SMEs (in Learn to Use Google Apps with ‘The Missing Manual’)http://blogs.bnet.com/businesstips/?p=1584&tag=nl.e713
From Gmail to Calendar to Google Docs, Google Apps offers small businesses a wealth of communication and productivity tools. But figuring out how to use them all can be tricky, especially if you’re more accustomed to traditional software. Enter O’Reilly’s Google Apps: The Missing Manual, a new book that teaches you the service from top to bottom.The tome covers not only the individual apps (including GTalk and Google Sites), but also topics like managing users and domains and leveraging the Marketplace. You can get a content preview of each section of each chapter by clicking the above link.

How to increase net profit by 50%
http://www.insideretailing.com.au/articles-page.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&articleId=2961Extracts: The formula is: 2 – 1 – 2 = 50. Let me explain.I am workshopping with some of the top newsagents all over the state at the moment, and the structure of our discussion is: how to create a compelling retail proposition. In the first instance, we have to get the ‘offer’ right. Everybody defines offer differently, but for the sake of simplicity, I define offer as: Product + Price. We then workshop pricing (as many of them have traditionally operated under a fixed margin model) and discuss the mechanics and the strategies. These workshops have reinforced that the SME retailers are often far too reactive and effectively allow suppliers to run their business.