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

Communicating and reaching to customers is important to any business and that part is played by establishing connection through social media platforms. It is important to have a sound social media strategy for improving business. Jessica Oaks (Editor, Freshly Techy), writes in her article about some tips for stepping up your social media strategy to improve overall business. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/jessoaks11/2015-09-04/5-tips-strong-social-media-strategy

Marketers must focus on demand generation to increase revenue. This will in turn lead to more sales. Demand generation can re position your product or service. Shannon Prager (a valued contributor to Business 2 Community) writes in her article about some points that will help in demand generation. They are: Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Retargeting, Marketing Automation and Personalizing Message. To know more, follow:  http://www.business2community.com/strategy/5-components-of-a-successful-demand-generation-strategy-01318399

Content marketing is in in the marketing world, but, custom content is making headlines nowadays. According to a recent research, it was found that 78% of chief marketing officers see custom content as the future of marketing. Custom content will give local businesses the kind of reach and engagement they need. On the other hand, native advertising is making headlines nowadays. Native advertising is the pay-to-play way to get custom content to your target audience. Columnist Will Scott writes in his article about three reasons why native advertising can put custom content to good use. To know more, follow: http://marketingland.com/powerful-new-tool-local-business-toolbox-content-marketing-going-native-advertising-140694

Retailers must capitalize on how their customers discover them. According to a research, it was found that digital interactions are expected to influence 64 cents of every dollar spent in retail stores by the end of 2015. Online-to-offline commerce, or O2O, refers to a business model that utilizes online marketing efforts that affect a shopper’s interaction with a physical store. Retailers must incorporate an O2O strategy to measure their effectiveness. There are different O2O models according to columnist Adam Weiss. They are: Printable & Mobile Coupons, Local Offers, Card-Linked Offers, Location-Based Rewards and CRM matching. Read more at: http://marketingland.com/capitalizing-digital-trail-offline-purchase-2-141008

In a recent research it was found that cloud-based CRM solutions account for 47% of deployments due to their price accessibility, ease of deployment, and integration with other cloud-based applications. If your CRM doesn’t work properly, most of the departments will find difficult to operate. A thorough service level agreement (SLA) is a necessary part of protecting your business operations. There are a few key areas you need covered. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/5-sla-areas-you-cant-skip-with-a-cloudbased-crm-69747

Michele Goetz of Forrester says, "Seems that the expectations that CRM systems could provide a single trusted view of the customer was starting to hit a reality check." Data quality issues affect 91% of businesses according to a research. There are a few ways to improve your data quality in CRM records. They are: Data Deduplication, Standardize Data Collected, Examine Data Collection Process, and Run Data Quality Initiatives Frequently. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/how-to-improve-the-data-quality-of-crm-records-69748

According to a research, it was found that, personalized marketing has an influence over 59 % of shoppers, with one-third of consumers indicating a preference for customization in the content offered to them. CRM solution contains significant data for creating a targeted experience for customers. They are: Audience Segmentation, Email Personalization, Post-Sales Customized Messaging, One-on-One Communication, and Relevant Up-sells and Cross-Sales. Read more at:  http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/5-ways-to-use-crm-applications-to-spice-up-your-sales-69746

Columnist Rebecca Lieb, writes in her article about some content marketing trends. The first trend is about content strategy and user experience. Second trend is all about machine generated content. The third trend is about contextual content. The fourth one is about paid search, native advertising, recommendation engines, asking users to share, paid promotion on social networks and last but not the least is the ad Spend vs. content investment. Read more at: http://marketingland.com/5-content-trends-watch-140102

Keeping accounts is important to every business, including small and medium business also. Bookkeeping is the first step in keeping records of financial transactions which includes records kept in a journal, ledger, accounts receivable and payable, etc. Bookkeeping is important as it keeps track of the company’s money, show how the company performs on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, and help to prepare the company’s income tax return. Bethany Wesch (writes about blogging, branding and online marketing), writes in her article about different general accounting systems that all small businesses are expected to have. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/finance/important-accounting-systems-all-small-businesses-should-have-in-place-0324326

85% of millennials have been disappointed by a company’s service and support in the past year, and nearly 50% of those respondents have had a disappointing experience in the past 30 days, according to a new survey of over 1,000 millennials. So, it’s time for companies to look beyond stereotypes, and start to learn more about how millennials prefer to communicate with brands. Jason Wesbecher (CMO of Mattersight), writes in his article about what millennials expect from customer service. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/lost-connection-millennials-left-wanting-customer-service-01315504

CRM software is different for different organizations. Peer reviews & recommendations are important while choosing a CRM software. But, the most important thing during initial research is that it needs to pass a technical evaluation which includes factors unique to your business, such as your infrastructure, workflow, end-user capability and business mobility. A thorough evaluation process is necessary to avoid deploying a CRM which is not suited to your business. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/what-to-look-for-when-youre-testing-a-crm-solution-69709

CRM can be powerful if we understand its features & functionality correctly.  This article link will tell us about some tips for success that have nothing to do with the platform you choose, but it depends on how you use CRM in your organization. They are: Understand your customer experience from the customer's point of view; be prepared to be flexible; and training. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/winning-with-a-crm-69708