Nowadays, small businesses compete against larger companies by utilizing cloud-based business systems. Cloud-based business services are becoming more advanced.  Professionals must understand the cloud technology. There are different cloud servers to assist a business, but some are more vital than others. They are: Cloud Storage and Email; Cloud BI Solutions; Cloud Security; and Cloud Based Accounting. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/cloud-computing/the-advantages-of-using-cloud-business-services-01323254

Global smartphone penetration is increasing. So, people are now depending on mobile applications and more people spend time with their smartphone. But, does that mean mobile apps are becoming important for small business. But, first we must know  little about a mobile app. A mobile app is now one of the most effective tools for reaching out to and interacting with customers. Nowadays, most companies have realized the effectiveness of mobile app and capitalizing this trend. Developing a mobile app is the call of the hour for any business because in any business, creating a blog, publishing a newsletter, building social media followers, and other common strategies might not be enough to build relationships with potential and existing customers. Abass Toriola (freelancer writer) writes in his article about how to develop a mobile app. To know more about this, follow: http://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/step-step-guide-create-app-small-business-01322223

Email was invented four decades ago and it is still the most popular communication technologies. A Reuter’s poll conducted in 2012 showed that nearly 85% of people around the world use email to stay connected as compared to 62% that connect on social media. Nowadays, more than 71% of marketers use email as a medium to connect with customers and email marketing tools make it easy to set up a newsletter campaign. Marketers must understand why spam filters behave the way they do & is crucial in strategizing email marketing techniques. To know more about email marketing techniques, follow:  http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/it-small-business/understanding-the-technology-behind-email-marketing-69797

There are many flash storages and each range is giving competition to each other. Each range offers certain advantages, but each also comes with flaws. This makes the decision-making process very difficult, and customers have to think about the right selection. In order to make the right choice, you must know your exact purpose of buying a flash storage. Jared Jaureguy (Consultant) writes in his article about some important points that a flash storage buyer should consider before buying. Some of these are: Buyer should consider processing speed, data integrity, high performance, cost effective, stability, and must have more capacity. To know more, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/byod-cloud/what-type-of-flash-storage-buyer-are-you-69811

Websites are important for any business. But, in today’s world, there are many website hosting options. The best option depends on the budget and as well as the complexity of the site. There are many options available. They are: Free Hosting; Shared Hosting; Cloud Hosting; Reseller Hosting; Dedicated Hosting; Managed Hosting; and Collocated Hosting. To know more about website hosting options, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/hosting-facts/different-types-of-website-hosting-69802

Lack of knowledge sharing and transparency are the challenges faced by organizations nowadays. It was found in a research that 86% of the employees and managers blame workplace failures on a lack of collaboration, and 97% believe that information flow within a team directly affects project outcomes. Here ERP solutions come to the rescue. It is critical for small & medium sized business. ERP solutions helps in lowering and improving customer retention. Organizations can benefit from the implementation of the right ERP which include improved collaboration, transparency, employee satisfaction, and team outcomes. To know about key ERP benefits, follow:  : http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/inside-erp/simplify-employee-collaboration-in-smbs-with-erp-69798

In cloud based CRM, vendor handles everything from hardware maintenance to software upgrades. But, when the vendor overhauls their system which in turn forces your business to change the whole system. So, a change management plan is necessary. Business must have alternative plans in place for other CRM systems. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/how-to-handle-change-management-when-your-cloudbased-crm-gets-overhauled-69801

Forensic accounting firm deals with many complex financial issues that require a full understanding of the situation and for this an expert is needed to handle the situation. Investigative accounting and litigation support firms require efficient business processes to discover the necessary data. Here, enterprise resource planning solution can help. An enterprise resource planning solution can give you a boost in productivity and operational efficiency. To know more, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/inside-erp/how-your-forensic-accounting-firm-can-benefit-from-erp-69778

Marketers nowadays want more audience segmentation and have more data at their end. But, they are forgetting to connect with real people. This can be done by delivering the message to the particular person in a timely manner. So, marketers need to use technology in the right manner. Columnist James Green in his article link, explains why marketers need technology which can help them to connect with more individuals at a personal level. Read more at:  http://marketingland.com/human-side-data-opportunities-marketers-141168

According to a research, it was found that email marketing and social media marketing are the two mediums which is most likely to see an increase in investment in 2015. Most businesses don’t integrate these two mediums. It was also found that by integrating email and social strategies together, organizations can improve their brand’s reach while adding leads to the sales pipeline. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/irfan-ahmad/2015-09-10/why-email-marketing-and-social-media-marketing-work-better-together

Without effective social media strategy, a company may suffer from low social media engagement, low email conversation rates, and little to no ROI. A business must create a good working team for this. Beth Romelus (contributor to Business 2 Community), writes in his article about some content strategy that can be easily practiced. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/5-steps-to-building-an-awesome-content-strategy-01322070

Earlier we have seen that CRM required manual input to fill in notes from sales activities and collect information about prospect behavior. But, nowadays, this is done with the help of technology and machine learning is one such technology. Machine learning is helping sales teams to fill in the notes. But, first we must know what machine learning is. It refers to a computerized data analysis where algorithms learn from new information and quickly decide what the next best action is. Web search results, credit scoring and email spam filtering are powered by machine learning algorithms nowadays. Such technologies are extending to CRM also. To know more, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/machine-learning-your-way-to-better-crm-69781

Customer relationship management or CRM technology improves workflow, automates repetitive tasks and improves their productivity in a small business. It was also found that if a small business adopts CRM technology, revenue increases by 41%. CRM tools provide assistance in many aspects of the sales process, but only if is implemented in the right way. To know more about how to effectively adopt CRM technology for your small business, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-ways-to-effectively-adopt-a-crm-for-your-small-business-69782

According to Gartner, CRM has a global market of $23 billion. So, there is an opportunity for industry specific CRM. A general CRM has many features that control your sales pipeline, but may not fit into your sales process. So, there is a need to have an industry specific CRM. The following article link gives details about this: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/do-you-need-an-industryspecific-crm-69783

Customer relationship management tools can be valuable if it is not overloaded with plenty of data. Many CRMs allow business to customize dashboard so that you can identify critical data at a glance, such as meetings with prospects, potential value of your deals, total value of your sales pipeline and other information. So, to know the most important data points you should configure in your CRM, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/the-most-important-ataglance-data-points-for-your-crm-69784

It is predicted that Voice over IP and unified communications is a massive market will reach $88 billion in 2018. But, first we need to know what is VoIP and unified communications. VoIP is technology that takes voice data and moves it along your Internet network and unified communications (UC) refers to the integration of multiple types of business communication used, such as instant messaging, email and video conferencing. UC and VoIP solutions offer a way to communicate with customers, but UC offers a broader approach. VoIP and UC can be integrated. This article writes details about integration of these two methods. To know more, follow:  http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/voip-news/the-relationship-between-unified-communications-and-voip-and-what-it-means-for-your-small-business-69769

Wearable technology, the big trend in mobile devices has arrived. This is a positive development, but, businesses are looking at the surge in wearable as a potential problem. People are buying wearable products and taking them to offices which is creating security problems in offices. Organizations are faced with some tough decisions, such as banning personal devices completely, or regulating which devices could be used, or simply embracing BYOD by setting up a security policy. Read more at:  http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/byod-cloud/byod-helping-companies-prepare-for-wearable-security-69753

According to a research, it was found that 75% of your customers think phone support is convenient. Customers always want a quick response, and waiting for hours for a social media response or 24 hours for an email reply adds to a poor customer experience. Voice over IP technology is the answer to eliminate waiting for a response, and improves customer experience in several ways. Nowadays, cloud-based VoIP solutions are well suited for mobile and remote environments, which allows businesses to expand support hours. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/voip-news/the-impact-of-voip-on-your-customer-experience-69770

Both Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, offer a wide range of database services. But, when choosing between Azure and AWS for a data management platform, a business needs to be clear about their requirement. Organizations can ask several questions like: Will your enterprise use the database for analytics or transaction processing applications? Do you need a relational or NoSQL database? Does your enterprise prefer a database as a service (DBaaS) option over managing its own instance? To know more about these, follow: http://searchaws.techtarget.com/tip/Azure-or-AWS-A-cloud-database-comparison?utm_medium=EM&asrc=EM_NLN_47247618&utm_campaign=20150907_The%20public%20vs.%20private%20cloud%20cost%20debate_fchurchville&utm_source=NLN&track=NL-1839&ad=902777&src=902777

Mobile devices are good for cloud back ends. Amazon Web Services accepted this opportunity in mobile backend as a service and has built a portfolio of mobile services that includes  AWS Lambda, push notifications with Simple Notification Service, database and storage from products like DynamoDB and Simple Storage Service, API management through the API Gateway, data streaming with Kinesis, Mobile Analytics and user identity and data synchronization via AWS Cognito. Read more at:  http://searchaws.techtarget.com/tip/AWS-Cognito-makes-a-mark-in-mobile-app-development?utm_medium=EM&asrc=EM_NLN_47247828&utm_campaign=20150907_Get%20answers%20to%20your%20AWS%20container,%20EC2%20Container%20Service%20questions_dcarty&utm_source=NLN&track=NL-1841&ad=902783&src=902783