Is it Web 2.0? Is it SaaS? Who Knows ... But Watch Out! It's Coming Like a Freight Train.
by Nancy Rathbun Scott
Published in ANLAToday, February 2008

Traditional computer use demands a desktop machine and various software applications. Even when desktops became laptops, most of us were still tied to our desktop machines for serious work, because that's where all our big applications were stored. Not anymore. Today, anybody who can get onto the Internet can work from any device, anywhere, any time.

This practice of working on applications hosted on the Internet has many names.
Ryan Martens, founder and chief technology officer of Rally Software Development
Corp., based in Boulder, Colorado, says, "Some people call this approach 'Web 2.0'; some call it 'mash-ups'; some call it 'composite applications.'" Freelance business journalist Mathew Schwartz and others call working online "SaaS" (Software as a Service).

Whatever they're calling it - and Cloud Computing is another nomer --they're all talking about the growing bag of tricks available to Internet users on the fly.

How Soon Is SaaS Coming?
In December 2007, writing for bMighty.com, Schwartz asked this question: "Is
Software as a Service (SaaS) Ready to Kill Microsoft Office? . . . Analysts say many organizations are studying hosted, browser-based office and collaboration offerings such as Adobe Buzzword, Google Docs (a component of Google Apps), ThinkFree, and the Zoho suite. Are these online applications full-fledged enough to truly meet [business] users' needs, and if not now, when might small and midsize businesses adopt them in earnest?"
Jeffrey M. Kaplan, managing director of THINKstrategies, predicts that SaaS will be considered mainstream by 2008 and "even laggards will be on board by 2010."
The trend is building steam because many businesspeople are tired of the expense and frustration of software upgrades, the inability to work from home or on the road, and the annoyance of having projects grind to a halt because somebody is "out of the office."

SaaS Has Attracted Wholly Credible Providers
To gauge the credibility of SaaS, look no further than Google. This Web behemoth is on the Web 2.0 case in a huge way via Google Apps [www.google.com/a].
Already popular Google tools include Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, and Google Docs (by the time you read this, two months from the writing, more applications will probably be available; it's happening that fast). But that's just the beginning. Google hopes to lure businesspeople to begin their Internet experience on Google's Start Page, signing in to access their email inboxes, personal or business calendars, documents, company information, and search engines -- all from one place. In short, Google is packaging all the business tools you'll ever need in one spot, all accessible from any computer, anywhere. Google Apps Premier Edition also includes policy management and message recovery via Postini, an online service that was Googled-up in December 2007.

Google isn't the only provider with business in its sights. Zoho Suite
[http://zoho.com] has every conceivable business application ready to go. Just look at this list: Zoho Writer (word processing compatible with MS Word, HTML, RTF, JPG, GIF, PNG files); Zoho Sheet (spreadsheets compatible with Excel); Zoho Show (PowerPoint-compatible presentation software); Zoho Meeting (online meetings); Zoho Planner (to-do lists, reminders, files, and images); Zoho Projects (tasks and milestones, calendar, reports, time tracking, file sharing), Zoho CRM (sales and marketing, inventory management, customer support and services, reports and dashboards, Outlook Plug-in); Zoho Creator (online database application that converts spreadsheet to online database
applications; Web forms embedded in your website or blog); Zoho Wiki (online
encyclopedia); Zoho Chat; Zoho Mail; Zoho Challenge (candidate evaluation); Zoho
Viewer (view and share documents online); and Zoho Polls (online surveys).
And then there's Zoho Business (in private beta-test at the time of this writing). Zoho says, "This powerful new offering for small and medium-sized businesses takes working online to the next level of productivity. Zoho Business combines user management and an integrated suite of applications and services with Zoho's hallmark ease-of-use and affordability. The result is a secure, business-ready solution that enables organizations to thrive in increasingly competitive times. When released to the public, Zoho Business will offer:

• Single sign-on across applications,
• Company-level administration console,
• Multiple levels of security,
• Telephone support,
• Remote back-up,
• Document and data storage management self-service, and,
• Co-branding.

Taking it One Step At A Time
For those who are reluctant to jump into Web 2.0 full tilt, the following Web. 2.0 tools -- all tested, all popular, all free or inexpensive -- give a taste of doing business "out there, in the clouds."

Where Am I Booked?
• Box.net [www.box.net] allows online file sharing, and remote and mobile access to both files and document editing. Outlook and ical calendars can be automatically posted to Box.net, where approved subscribers can have the information "pushed" into their desktop calendars. Box.net also allows users to upload and send files to any computer, anywhere.

Let Me Show You What I've Got
• Webinar [www.GoToWebinar.com] allows users to make presentations in real time to hundreds of customers, prospects, and employees, no matter where they are located.

Let's Get Together
• GoTo Meeting [www.GoToMeeting.com] hosts online meetings for businesses and
individuals. Meetings can be planned or on-the-fly; participants can perform live demonstrations and collaborate on documents in real time. Fortunately, clients and co-workers don't need to have common applications to view files.

Have You Seen My Pics?
• Flickr [www.flickr.com] provides online photograph management and sharing. The
application provides uploading, organizing, sharing, mapping, and production tools to users, and it helps businesses compile and share event photographs with clients.

Who Am I?
• Facebook [www.facebook.com] is no longer just for students. Increasingly, businesses are utilizing Facebook's wide member base to interact with clients. Facebook offers the following features to businesses:
Facebook Social Ads and Insight. You can create your own advertisement, and
Facebook will deliver it to target members' Ad Space and News Feed bars as they
navigate Facebook. While the ad is running, Facebook Insights gives you performance measurements, data on who's engaging with your ad, and suggestions on how to optimize your ad.
Facebook Pages. You can connect with your clients on Facebook in the same way that they connect with their friends. Your clients can express their support by adding themselves as fans, writing on your Wall, uploading photos, and joining other fans in discussion groups. With this feature, you can also send business updates to your friends regularly.
Facebook Beacon. By using the successful concept of word-of-mouth promotion, your clients promote your business without moving their lips. With users' permission, Facebook will publish news of your clients' interactions with your website (as well as a link to it) in their profiles.
Facebook Platform. With this tool, you can create an application (or use one of the thousands of existing applications) to engage even more with your users. Facebook Platform makes it easy to connect with your customers.

Facebook Polls. Do you want to know more about your clients' thoughts and
attitudes? With this feature, you can run a survey targeted to the demographic you define, and get feedback before you make business decisions. Facebook provides you with real-time streaming results of your polls.

It's Who You Know
LinkedIn [www.linkedin.com] is a professional network that gives you the opportunity to market your professional capabilities, reconnect with old colleagues, stay in touch with current clients and industry members, find job postings, and get advice from industry leaders in your network. LinkedIn already has 16 million professional members and is growing quickly.

What Are You Doing?
Twitter [www.twitter.com] is a free service that allows people to communicate through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? The service allows users to send "updates" (text messages up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, where the messages are displayed on the user's profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends, though delivery to everyone is the default.
Innovators are finding lots of use for Twitter messages, which can be delivered to mobile phones and hand-held devices. Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, text messages, RSS feeds, email, or through software applications.
Serious users include the American Red Cross, which has its own Twitter channel managed by the Disaster Public Affairs Department. Wendy Harman, senior associate of New Media Integration at the American Red Cross, retrieves Twitter messages from both her computer and her cell phone. "The Red Cross Twitter channel is used exclusively for disaster information, so the Disaster Public Affairs Department is in control of it," she explains. During the late October wildfires in San Diego, Wendy used Twitter to track mentions of the Red Cross. "It's proved an invaluable tool for us."

Read My News
For those who don't want to fuss with the hassles associated with newsletter campaigns and email publication and delivery, an email and newsletter service can be invaluable. Mark Brownlow, publisher of the Email Marketing Reports website and blog [http://www.email-marketing-reports.com] says it's difficult to go wrong with any of the usual choices among the low-end email marketing service providers (ESP's). One that seems to garner a great deal of word-of-mouth and loyal customers is Campaign Monitor [http://www.campaignmonitor.com]. Another one with vocal and loyal customers is Vertical Response [http://www.verticalresponse.com].
Mark suggests that "You're safe with those or any of the following: Constant Contact [http://www.constantcontact.com]; iContact [http://www.icontact.com]; Campaigner [http://campaigner.com]; Mailchimp [http://www.mailchimp.com]; AWeber [http://www.aweber.com]; Emma[http://www.myemma.com]; StreamSend [www.streamsend.com]; or MailerMailer [http://www.mailermailer.com]."
If you're looking to do complex things with your email campaigns, Mark notes that Campaigner may be a solid option, since they have a souped-up enterprise version as well (Campaigner Pro). "Just check to make sure the ESP has the basic features you're looking for. Most have a trial option, so you can play with them. When you're sending out relatively unsophisticated newsletters (like me), your biggest issue is probably your comfort with the style, tone, mechanics of the service."
Mark offers another pointer. "If you're not a big, sophisticated sender, then it's relatively easy to switch services. Which makes decision-making a little easier if you know you can always change your mind later."

Tell Me What You Know
Survey Monkey [www.surveymoney.com]. Online survey software helps businesses and
individuals create intelligent surveys from which they can collect responses and analyze results. Online survey options like Survey Monkey (which is billed as "intelligent survey software for primates of all species") do the planning for you. You just type in your survey questions (multiple choice, rating scales, drop-down menus, etc.), change the look of your survey with color, size and style of any elements, load your email list, and gather results online. For this issue of ANLAToday, ANLA used Survey Monkey to poll members on their use of the Internet.

Who's Talking About You?
Google Alerts [www.google.com/alerts] tracks citations and mentions of words or
phrases on the Internet. After you enter your search term(s), Google emails you instant daily or weekly mentions of your term from the news, blogs, the Web, video, and groups (or all of the above). Caroline Melberg, president and CEO of Organization Mavericks [www.SmallBusinessMavericks.com], recommends that every business employ online reputation management tools to monitor mentions of their company, information related to their competition, and information about their industry.

Who's Blogging About You?
Technorati [www.technorati.com] Many companies have found out the hard way that
customers have trashed them online. In the old adage that an angry customer will talk to an average of 10 people about their bad experience, you can now multiply that number exponentially. Some larger companies use services such as Technorati to monitor the chatter.
But do you really want to know what people are writing about you? Does it really matter? Stephen Marino, senior vice president and head of Interactive at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, says "Reading blogs exposes your company to venomous attitudes and gives you the chance to resolve problems. You can build greater trust [in the marketplace] by not running away from the issues."

What Did You Find Out?
The delicious service [www.delicious.com] stores your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from
anywhere. You also can share your bookmark favorites with friends, family, coworkers, and the delicious community. Everything on delicious is someone's favorite -- they've already done the work of finding it. As a result, delicious is chock full of bookmarks about technology, entertainment, useful information, and more. Explore and enjoy. Writing an article? Researching an industry? Use delicious to keep track of all the source materials and commentary that you find online.

Let's Keep In Touch
SalesForce [www.salesforce.com] is a leader among companies providing on-demand
customer relationship management. The company's applications help businesses conduct activities like email marketing, sales analysis, customer service, and financial management, as well as share and manage business information with SalesForces' award-winning technology.

Work With Me
Adobe says its impending acquisition of Buzzword [http://www.adobe.com/special/buzzword/faq.html], an online word processor, will
change the way people collaborate on documents. The application delivers a rich
authoring and collaboration environment that allows users to store files online.
Buzzword, which will integrate with Adobe's existing document services, imports and exports Rich Text Format (RTF) files, Microsoft Word DOC files, and Word 2003 XML files. Over time, Adobe plans to add support for standard open file formats such as PDF, Open Document Format (ODF), and others.

Let's Do This Together
ThinkFree [www.thinkfree.com] is a free online office suite that allows users to create, edit, and access files from anywhere over the Web, with any Internet-connected device. With 1 GB of free online storage, free online document collaboration, and no installation required, ThinkFree products work on Windows, Macintosh, Unix and Linux systems.