Social networking - Business uses for Facebook apps

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how the UK’s political parties were using Facebook applications (apps) to help party supporters spread the word.

These apps were custom-written. But there are also an increasing number of apps that are available off the shelf. Many are aimed at individuals, but there’s also an increasing number devoted to businesses.

This article on business apps lists out a number of those available. It suggests “With the right combination of apps you could pretty much run your business from your Facebook profile”. Whilst this is unlikely to be practical for medium and large businesses, there’s none the less a number of apps that would be useful to these businesses.

The article sets out a number of headings, and I’ve picked out a few examples of potentially valuable apps:

Blog Promotion

• Display your blog in your personal or business's profile
• Put title and link into the feed

Business / Self Promotion

• Testimonials
• Widget to help others promote your business

Communication

• Telephone calls
• Free conference calls

Networking

• Introductions
• Business contact management

Collaboration

• Share documents
• Share tasks and projects

Audio/Visual

• Share product demos and commercials
• Share slide presentations

Miscellaneous

• Memorable page addresses
• Location map

Mindful of Facebook’s history of changing privacy permissions with little warning, I suggest caution with some of these, and in particular before you confirm an application link. Caution is also worthwhile for Facebook generally. But it’s here, it’s “hip and happening”, and there are ways to leverage it

Do feedback any experience with these apps as comments.

Escaping "Excel Hell" – how can Excel be enhanced?

Excel is in widespread usage, especially for budgeting and reporting. I was reminded the other day that as a result "Most users prefer Excel".


Whilst there’s always a place for specialist software, there are various ways that Excel can continue to be used, including

1. Linking to a database such as Access, MS SQL or a myriad of others
2. Budgeting and BI tools that use Excel as the principal user interface
3. Other Excel add-ins and add-ons

If anyone has hands-on experience of any of these tools, good or painful, please comment. Likewise if any vendors would like to mention their Excel-based solution, you’re welcome.

KPIs – what do they all mean?

Talking to businesses of all sizes, the term “KPIs” means different things to different people.

Yes the letters stand for “Key Performance Indicators”.

But some people just think of them as revenue, profit and other measures of performance. Is that all?

The real power comes when you consider what factors drive business performance, and how these can be measured. These can be both financial and non-financial.

Indeed it’s worth splitting KPis into two camps:

1. KRMs - Key Results Metrics
2. KPDs – Key Performance Drivers (the true KP “Indicators”)

I published a series of articles previously, which explore this distinction and the issues around them in greater detail. If you are interested, the articles can be found here

Cloud Computing - There’s more to the cloud than SaaS

Who remembers learning about the various types of cloud? Cumulus, altostratus and the rest. Ugh!

In cloud computing the services can be grouped into just three camps:

1. SaaS (Software as a Service): Any packaged software that is offered on a hosted basis across the internet, which users access through a web browser. This includes eBay, GoogleMail, salesforce.com and offerings in a host of areas such as accounting.
2. PaaS (Platform as a Service): This provides development tools to allow organisations and software developers to develop and deploy custom applications on a hosted platform, leaving the host to look after the system and basic administration
3. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): Here the host provides raw computing power – processing power, storage and/or network – whilst giving the user control over aspects such as firewalls

So if you see me saying “SaaS cloud”, it’s to distinguish this type from the others.

News Review - iPad / Office 2010

Here are some of the topics in last week’s news that will be of interest to mid-sized businesses:


Apple iPad Update

Further to last weeks’ article on "Apple iPad – fashion fad or business workhorse?", it was interesting to see Jake Humphrey using an iPad whilst presenting the Monaco Grand Prix (instead of his customary clipboard and mobile phone). Not sure if the screen was bright enough in the sunlight. We’ll see if it appears again in Turkey.

Orange, Vodafone and O2 have fully announced pricing for data plans for the iPad (if you buy the version with the 3G micro-SIM slot). But none of these are offering monthly plans that include an iPad, so it has to be bought separately. Apple are taking pre-orders for the iPad, for delivery in the UK later this month

If anyone has thoughts on the use of the iPad for business, please add a comment.

Microsoft Office 2010 and GoogleApps

Talking of pre-orders, Microsoft has just released Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 to key partners, and are taking pre-orders of Office 2010 in the UK from the public.

Microsoft will also be offering free cut-down versions of Office 2010 on-line called “Office Web“ from 15 June. The on-line version of SharePoint 2010 is getting mixed reviews, as to whether it is “cloud ready”.

Google has waded in to promote their own on-line GoogleApps, with a thinly-veiled dig at Office