Xero has another API partner, this time ITLink, a provider of mobile sales force tools specifically;
SalesLink Mobile - a mobile order taking solution
SalesLink Surveys - a mobile survey management tool
Stocklink Mobile - A mobile stocktaking tool
As well as some mobile sales reporting tools that all allow mobile automation of the sales process to occur. It’s interesting to remember that, as yet, Xero doesn’t include inventory functionality, possibly limiting the usefulness of the ability to talk to ITLink products - sure the argument would go that the API would allow only financial data to be ported across to Xero, but given the commonness with which inventory and other changes occur, I’m not sure how many takers they’ll have at the moment.
ITLink’s offerings look good - the list of accounting systems they link to is pretty comprehensive - evidence that they’ve done their homework and are focussed on what their customers need.
Below is a diagram of the modules they produce and how they all work together.
Next move I’m picking [for Zoho] is a filling out of the space between the current small business offerings and People, the first larger business offering.
That remark was particularly made to comment on the release of Zoho’s first offering that seemed poised to move them into the enterprise space. Today however we see that Zoho has released Zoho invoice. Check out the slideshow for an intro;
Already hints have been made that this is the first part of a full-featured accounting system - it seems logical - imagine a situation where a SaaS provider had a solution that included office productivity, CRM, accounting and collaboration - it’d make a pretty compelling case (and a strong foil to Google’s stickiness).
I’ve always waxed poetical about SaaS solutions being part of a wider platform play, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to see how Zoho can be stopped from creating an all encompassing platform of their own (OK - that’s a pretty generous statement at the moment but consider the velocity of their development thus far).
A new release for Xero and some moves to overcome the stickiness of MYOB and ease the conversion pain for new users. I’ve always said that SaaS vendors need to think long and hard about inward migration strategies to ensure uptake is facilitated as much as possible. The changes rolled out today go some way to helping with this. The full list of changes is;
You can now edit the invoice number that is automatically generated by Xero.
You can now enter your prior year’s comparative balances for inclusion in your reports.
We now have the Xero Setup Wizard to assist you with the setup of new organisations in Xero.
When setting up your Chart of Accounts for NZ organisations, you can now import your MYOB or Banklink Chart of Accounts into Xero as a .CSV file.
Improvements to the Conversion Balances screen (previously known as Set Starting Balances).
An interesting opinion piece by Michael A. Braun of Intacct, a SaaS ERP/Financial company, looks at traditional installed application suites, claiming that they are “yesterday’s news”.
More interesting is the response it generated. The article is interesting, framed very much as a PR flier, but with some interesting points nonetheless. Commentators have lashed the author for the efficacy of his own product, the hyperbole they claim he uses in the article, and the general poor construct of the case he puts forward.
Looking past all that, his central premise is that;
Today’s Internet-based computing platform and Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model enable customers to choose the superior function of [best of breed] solutions with confidence. Indeed, the suite is “so yesterday.” It was born during the client/server computing era to solve a set of technology integration problems that the Internet and SaaS have rendered obsolete.
I’ve written in the past about the good things that New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, the Government’s enterprise development body, does for New Zealand business. They have a large variety of programmes, all aimed at helping New Zealand business excel on an international level.
I was pretty disappointed to read a post yesterday that told a sad story. Seems that VortexDNA managed to get NZTE funding to cover some development costs - until now all good.
Things turned to custard however when Vortex, in a gesture of appreciation for the good work the developer had done for them, decided to award him some stock.
NZTE decided that this was a breach of their terms and conditions and duly asked for the grant money to be refunded.
I can see why NZTE has these sorts of rules - they don’t want to be seen as a gravy train that funds individuals investments in startups - but a degree of flexibility would be nice -to make matters worse it would seem that Vortex has been placed on a high risk register for any future application.
I’m sitting at Auckland airport waiting for my flight home after an interesting two days at the ICT Outsourcing conference.
My presentation was entitled “The Place of Software as a Service (SaaS) Within An Enterprise”, and I think it went off well. I had a number of responses from attendees who all seemed to “get it” and now realise that SaaS isn’t scary and does indeed make sense for enterprise.
I’ve embedded the slides from my presentation below, I also played a couple of videos and obviously embellished upon what is written in the slides - a couple of people indicated a desire to use the presentation within their organisation and this is something I’d be keen to look at.
I’m really looking forward to the SaaS summit in May which I’m both chairing and presenting at.
An interesting post on RWW this morning asks whether Facebook for business use is really going to happen. Josh correctly points out that Facebook is already being used by business operatives, they’re just using it for their personal networks rather than business ones. Josh went on to point out that the biggest barriers to business use of Facebook are the concerns around productivity drain, and the security issues.
These thoughts (and my attendance at an ICT Outsourcing conference) got me thinking more widely about security in an outsourcing situation.
I heard today an example of an outsourcing situation gone wrong. Seems a hospital in the US outsourced its transcription requirements to a US outsourcing company. That company then sub-contracted the grunt work to an Indian company. When an argument around debt occurred, the sub contractor started to release confidential patient records in order to coerce the customer into paying some money.
It’s a sort of funny/sort of scary example, and points out the fact that enterprise does have some valid concerns around outsourcing in general (and SaaS in particular).
The biggest challenge around SaaS uptake in enterprise (actually there’s a few but one of the biggest) is around risk management and governance. The problem until now has been that SaaS has been seen as a small business solution. Small businesses generally don’t require the same sort of certification and security SLAs that big business requires. For example what real legal agreements are in place between clients and SaaS vendors such as SaaSu, Xero, PlanHQ etc etc?
It’s a big area of challenge for SaaS vendors and possibly one where a third party can offer them some value. In the same way that Apprenda and Force.com are providing development as a service/hosting as a service, perhaps they could also provide some guidance around development of sufficiently robust SLAs and security protocols.
What do you think - is security a real concern or will big business just get more flexible as time goes on?
A great list of “Web 2.0″ definitions from Miraz that we people that live on the Web use all the time but may confuse and intimidate those that don’t know. As Miraz ably demonstrates, most of the words are actually very easy to understand once someone takes the time to explain them:
The Internet is abuzz with a whole new vocabulary: memes and tags, posts and mashups, LOLcats, tweets and RSS. Friends, characters, flag, subscribe and interesting have a whole new meaning. This article helps you find your way in the new Web 2.0 world.
My particular favourites are:
LOLcats - pictures of cats, with humorous captions, written to a certain style. LOL is short for ‘Lots of Laughs’. Example: www.lolcats.com/view/55.
tags - Words that help describe something. A photo might be titled ‘Solace in the wind’, but have tags such as: wellington, waterfront, sculpture, statue, and so on.
Web 2.0 - Websites and services that make it easy for people to connect with one another by rating items, marking favourites, sharing, commenting and so on.
Microformats are small formatting pieces designed to make your data easier to read by both users and software. Although their use is not widespread, it’s important that every web developer becomes familiar with them, as they’re sure to be an integral part of the web’s future. Because of this, there are a number of articles and resources out there devoted to microformats. We’ve compiled more than 100 of the best here.
Includes links for:
Introduction
Implementation
Articles & Presentations
Tools
Tutorials
Cheat Sheets
Code
Information Sources
Further reading about microformats and the “semantic web”:
SalesLink Mobile - a mobile order taking solution
SalesLink Surveys - a mobile survey management tool
Stocklink Mobile - A mobile stocktaking tool
![[Ask]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/ask.png)
![[Bloglines]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[BlogMarks]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/blogmarks.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Faves]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/faves.png)
![[Google]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[PlugIM]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/plugim.png)
![[Slashdot]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/slashdot.png)
![[Sphere]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/sphere.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Email]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Loading ...