Danny Kolke, President and CEO, Etelos, Inc.
Moderator: Tony Perkins, Creator & Editor in chief, AlwaysOn
Michael Arrington, Editor, TechCrunch
Dave Ferguson, Engineering Director, Google
Raju Vegesna, Evangelist, Zoho
It’s the small business that drives the growth of our economy and with millions of businesses up for grabs, how will Web 2.0 play out for this marketplace? Who has what it takes to succeed? What is it going to take? What are Microsoft and Google really up to and what opportunities still exist? Who will win the battle for Web 2.0 and the small and mid-size business marketplace? Are we ready for a major software revolution or is this all hype?
The panelists will give real answers about the future of SMB Applications and who really owns the electronic solutions available to SMBs today.
Small and Medium Business market is very big, and disputed. Highly fragmented. Entreprenuers.
The Business Problem
* Customer Savvy Meets Small business - small bank vs. large bank, for example.
* Small Business Market is dramatically Underserved - need low cost solutions
* Custom Solutions are Expensive
* SaaS - Software as a Service
Yet Another Problem
* AJAX - cleans toilets
* SaaS - kids do this
* MashUp - is a car wreck
* Web 2.0 - nobody knows what it is
A Confusing Ecosystem
Small Business needs all the benefits of Software as a Service.
* Choice in Apps
* Easy of Customization
* Flexible Hosting
Revolution?
The power of the web is yet to hit the average business.
Tony Perkins - AlwaysOn
Richard McAniff - MS Office
Seems like the time is right for big businesses to help their small business customers (BNSF -> Shippers, Truckers).
50% of the market is not on the Web. Adoption will come not because of the technology but to solve the pain.
Safety of your data on the Web.
Adobe guy: create PDF on-line has seen great increase in use.
Google guy: Google Web Toolkit. Trying to be as open as possible. Data is owned by user; trying as much as possible to let customers move that data as possible.
Zoho guy [
Zoho QuickRead View Office files available online directly using Zoho QuickRead (formats supported: doc, xls, ppt, odt, rtf, sxw, sxc, sxi, pps)]...
MS guy: Web 2.0 is teaching us that things need to be kept simple. SMBs are risk averse. They want security but they don't want to get locked in.
Summary so far: 50% of business are not on the web. SaaS allows targeting of these companies. Power of innovation. They are not using CRM, email marketing, etc.
Etelos wrote an programming language in plain English to provide open source, on-demand Web 2.0 applications on the hosting environment that you choose. Etelos appears to be an open-sources marketplace (?).
Next wave is to put providers and users together.
Key metrics to evaluate SaaS are needed to help the SMB determine value.
Emerging technologies are adopted as trusted sources promote/teach about them.
Adobe guy: Software companies need to help. SaaS model has helped with adoption. Consider Hotmail, Gmail, etc.
SMB guy: likes utility services, esp. simplicity and portability. CRM - Sales Force.
Doctors don't reply to email because it's free advice. Body shop.
See
Restaurant Manager Beta at Etelos.
Features of the Restaurant Manager:
* Website Management Tols
* Email Coupons
* Online Ordering and Reservations
* Customizable contact management
* Automated follow-up Email campaigns
* Automated email reports and task lists
* Easily manage calling lists, prospect lists, campaign lists and more
* Search and list contacts by first name last name company and more
* Viewed date-sorted contact calling lists
* Import and export contacts in CSV format
* Productivity management tools (integrated tasks, appointments, call logs, resources)
* Sales reporting
* Collaboration Tools
* Built on Etelos, where you can customize anything!
Consider MySQL - 5,000,000 developers strong -> now 15,000 customers. Giving away your application and allowing an ecosystem to grow up around it -- does it make sense?
The value comes from the collaboration rather than the online spreadsheet (or whatever application).