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The Success of Collaboration Software is Largely Dependent on Intranet Content.  Anyone working in a company with a successful Intranet will tout its benefits: it saves time, reduces costs, makes money, simplifies the work process, speeds decision-making, morphs employees into a coordinated, collaborative team, and on and on. After a while, they can't figure out how they got along without it. But for every Intranet success story there is at least one company, and probably far more, whose Intranet is the bane of their existence.

How can you make your Intranet into a user experience that will reap all the potential benefits for your company? It is largely dependant on how easy it is to use, and whether or not the information and tools provided make someone's job easier and more productive.

A good example of incorrect use of the Intranet can often been seen in sales. Managers and others who set up the sales Intranet never forget to include calendars, statistics, tracking for number of calls made and other steps in the sales cycle. Nor do they forget leads, prospect lists, and so on. But they don't necessarily ask the sales people exactly what they need, and make sure they get it.

Here's a list to get your sales Intranet off to a good start:

• Product one-sheets
• Full technical specs
• Case studies and testimonials, cross-indexed for industry type and size
• Charts comparing your product's features, functionality and pricing with those of
• competitor products

• ROI charts, including comparatives with competitors
• Interactive spreadsheets that enable quick pricing for different configurations and number of seats
• Any special pricing deals currently available
• Approved discounts
• Up-to-date reference clients who can be contacted by a potential customer - including a schedule of when the reference is available to take calls. Also cross-indexed for industry type and size.
• Charts covering sales objections and their handlings
• FAQs
• Contact information for anyone who can tag on a sale, including IT
• Product demos

There are sales people all over the world who would kill for that kind of data. Use this as a checklist to improve your sales Intranet usability, and survey your sales people personally to find out what else they need. Yes, it will take a little work but there's a big pot of gold at the end of it: A happier, more efficient, more productive sales team that's making more money for themselves and the company - just by using your collaboration software's Intranet.
Related Posts:  Want to learn more about intranet software?  Join Central Desktop's Director of Sales, Marian Ford Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 10am Pacific for a Free Webinar: How to Use Central Desktop as an Intranet

Tags: Intranet Software Intranet Solution Intranet Success Central Desktop

Collaboration software with full intranet capabilities can close the gap between dreams and reality.

There's an old saying: The gap between theory and practice is greater in practice than it is in theory. In other words: things are easier said than done. This is almost a given in the field of administration, where coordination and collaboration with others is key. No matter what industry you're administering, if the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, confusion reigns. Intranet software is the answer to this age-old problem, but how you use it could be the difference between success and failure.

What should be at the top of the list when setting up intranet software? For someone new to intranet applications, the first task would be personal research and contact with application vendors to find out what can be done. Next, you survey the potential users.
    
Ultimately, you want to enable everyone to do their jobs more easily, more efficiently, more profitably, and more pleasantly. You may have your own ideas about what each person or department needs, nothing takes the place of getting the info directly from the guys doing the job.

While all companies and departments have different priorities and problems that can be solved with intranet software, a study conducted by author, speaker and web content management consultant Gerry McGovern provides some good basics. Nearly 250 intranet users from North America, Europe and Australia/New Zealand were given a list of 58 intranet software features and functions and asked to choose the five most important.

Surprisingly, 'find people' got a whopping 18% of the vote, more than the 35 bottom tasks combined.

Find people - who does what, how do I find them - is accommodated in intranet software with HR files and group calendar functions. HR supplies job descriptions, schedules, email addresses, phone numbers, location of departments and desks, and so on. The group calendar section tells you who's out of town and who's in, who's in meetings and who's out, and when they'll be available. You can also set up meetings with this function - gone are the days when it takes an entire day to find everyone involved and coordinate. Intranet software cuts the legwork down to a few minutes.

Respondents were also asked about their top three desired improvements. 'Better content organization and classification', 'easier to find information', and 'better search' were the winners.

While all company information may be somewhere on your intranet, if it's not easily accessible it's about as useful as a badly-written technical user manual - no one will read it, and everyone will be wasting their own and everyone else's time trying to find info they should be able to access with a few keystrokes.

Intranet software is a subset of collaboration software. Collaboration software has additional features and functionality, but the best applications include full intranet capabilities - just the bare bones of which are described above.

If you want to close the gap between theory and practice and turn your company's dreams into reality, check out the benefits of intranet software. 

Tags: Intranet Software Collaboration Software Central Desktop Group Calendar

 

 

Whether you need social and collaboration software, web content management or crm applications, SaaS saves business enterprises time and money as it opens the door to efficiency and innovation.

In these tough economic times companies large and small are looking for ways to cut costs while increasing operational efficiency and boosting their competitive edge. Not an easy combination in the best of times, and even more difficult when you've just laid off tens or thousands of employees. Nevertheless, that's exactly what companies over the world have to shoot for, and many are doing it with software as a service.

What are the benefits of software as a service (SaaS)? According to top industry analysts you can cut your information system costs by 40%. But that's not all.

You also save time. Some corporate execs estimate it takes six times longer to deploy an on premise application and, once deployment is complete, you still have to support the entire IT infrastructure, rent, staff, utility, licenses, maintaining upgrades, patches, and so on. It's time-consuming.

What else could your IT staff be doing? The possibilities are limited only to one's imagination, and many of those possibilities could be the exact initiatives needed to gain or maintain a competitive edge.

To top it all off, SaaS enables you to gain access to the latest innovations, now. When it comes to the competitive edge, innovation plays a major role. Having the right technology, the latest technology, the technology your competitors are using, is right up there with improving the customer experience and satisfaction ratings.

Many SaaS enterprise solutions have been streamlined to make sure you have all you need. Transmissions and storage is secure so your data is protected, their applications are available on demand, their servers are scalable so they can accommodate a sudden increase in traffic, and setting up a new employee doesn't mean building them a computer in-house application by in-house application - you simply set up their permissions.

Whether you need web content management, customer relations, social and collaboration software, email archiving, or document management, SaaS for the Enterprise could provide just the tools you need for your business to prosper despite the economic climate. To learn more about Why Saas Matters watch a free Saas Enterprise Webinar.

Tags: Software As A Service Saas Collaboration Software Central Desktop

 

 

Many of you may already have a good idea about what a Virtual Assistants work is.  However, to make sure we're all on the same page with a common set of definitions, a Virtual Assistant is someone who's working 'virtually' or remotely.  A Virtual Assistant usually works from home, typically supporting multiple clients with executive grade assistance by managing their schedules, key documents, task lists and other types of important information.  Virtual Assistants work with corporate executives, vice presidents, or with anyone that has a busy schedule or needs assistance in managing their daily activities.  A virtual assistant is a direct replacement for an in office executive assistant and is therefore, a greater value to those utilizing these services because they don't need to maintain an employee in-house.    

Virtual assistants are usually entrepreneurial minded and like to use cutting-edge internet tools to run their business.  The number one important tool for virtual assistants is collaboration software.  Collaboration software really allows VAs to connect with their clients.   It helps them to share information, edit documents and communicate ideas in real time.  Because there's a shared online workspace, communication is centralized and easily navigated. 

What are the benefits and advantages of collaboration software?

•    Gives you a professional edge / brand yourself
•    Special Client & Intranet templates for running your VA Business
•    Allows you to support multiple clients at once
•    Shared Access to Files, Tasks & Project Status w/Clients from anywhere
•    Less email clutter
•    Track amount of time spent on client projects
•    Discussions & document revisions are logged online
•    It's affordable
•    No IT hassle

Collaboration software has simplified the process of efficient and effective client/business management for virtual assistants.  It delivers fast, efficient, reliable and secure services and it's quickly transforming the world of online collaboration. 

Tags: Virtual Assistants Collaboration Software Central Desktop

 

 

Have you ever considered a virtual assistant? With the right software, and the right employee, it could be the most efficient, and most cost effective, move you've ever made.

The trend toward remote employees has been on the rise for years. There are currently millions of people working from out of the office. Analysts predict the number will reach one billion employees worldwide by 2011, a whopping 75% of the global workforce. Although this trend runs the full gamut of industries and job descriptions, there is one position that's really taking off - the virtual assistant: your right-hand man, or woman. Virtual assistants are not only cost effective, they often do the job more efficiently that their in-office counterparts. But to derive the full benefit, you need cutting edge collaboration software.

What does a virtual assistant do? Just about everything except make you coffee. They can take care of your appointment book, schedule your flights, answer your emails, pay bills, transcribe your dictation - all the usual stuff.

But they often offer much more; they are specialists, experts in your industry. And they are usually very tech savvy. They can whip together a relevant spreadsheet, write articles or briefs, handle your social media and other online initiatives - they might even handle your on and offline promotion and marketing.

All it takes for this to be a success, other than finding the right person for the job (and the recruitment industry is catching on to this trend as well, so you'll have some help), is good collaboration software.

Why is collaboration software so important? That's what turns two people (or more) who work in different locations into a team. With collaboration software, you can meet face-to-face, view files on a common screen, coordinate tasks, manage documents, discuss topics, you can even edit the same document simultaneously - and on the fly.

In-office employees can cost a company two to five times their salary - a virtual assistant charges only for the time they're working, and you have virtually (no pun intended) no overhead. In this tough economy, it's a very smart move - but don't forget the collaboration software. 

Tags: Collaboration Software Virtual Assistants Central Desktop

 

Learn how you can lower IT expenses and save workers time by taking a SaaS-based integrated approach to collaboration that leverages Web workspaces, meetings and social tools to manage your business better and more easily.

Collaboration software company Central Desktop will be hosting a free 1 hour webinar on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 pst with guest Mark Levitt, VP of Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0 Strategies from global market intelligence and advisory firm IDC.

Webinar Topic is: Why SaaS Matters - The Benefits of an Integrated Approach to Collaboration and Social Technology in Today’s Tough Business Environment.

Register for this free webinar now.

Tags: Saas Enterprise Collaboration Software Central Desktop Idc

 

Work smart and not hard! Collaboration software helps virtual assistants complete projects on time and more accurately. 

VA Source.Designs provides corporate and personal support services for the business owner or independent professional in need of professional accounting, administrative and concierge services.  From the beginning, VA Source struggled with managing documents, projects and off-site employees.   They realized that in order to stay competitive in the newly popular VA industry, they needed to become more systematic to compete with larger companies who may have more resources at hand.  To overcome these challenges and unify the business, VA Source deployed Central Desktop. Central Desktop stood out among other web based solutions because of low cost and flexibility.

Today, VA Source is able to upload documents to project workspaces, where they are tracked in a central location and viewable to those that need to see them. Central Desktop's document management with version control allows them to see current versions and changes.  VA Source now can easily run project status reports to see, at a quick glance, the status of projects, milestones, and individual tasks.  Congratulations and well done VA Source!

See VA Source's biggest wins using Central Desktop 

Tags: Collaboration Software Central Desktop Virtual Assistants Customer Succe

 

 

Want to learn how to communicate and collaborate easier with clients, resulting in faster decisions and greater client commitment?

Central Desktop is hosting a free one-hour webinar on Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 9am PST - 40 minutes of training followed by 20 minutes of live Q & A. The webinar will teach the best practices for virtual assistants using real case studies from real customers from top agencies.

In just 40 minutes, you'll learn how VAs have:

• Completed projects 50% more accurately
• Saved time revising & sharing documents
• Increased productivity and business process efficiency
• Eliminated email clutter
• And more...

 Register Now

Tags: Collaboration Software Central Desktop Virtual Assistant Customer Networ

FREE WEBINAR - Collaboration Success Best Practices

COLLABORATION...a frequently used word in the workplace, in simple terms means working together to obtain a common goal.  Whether we collaborate on a conference call with a supervisor or on the completion of a project with colleagues, collaboration is essential when you're part of a team.

Today's collaboration software and applications are making it easier for businesses to achieve collaboration success.

Central Desktop's collaboration success webinar will be held this Thursday, January 22, 2009 from 10:00 AM PST to 11:00 AM PST - 40 minutes of training followed by a 20 minute Q & A session.

Get ready to learn how businesses have:

• Doubled profits
• Saved Travel Time
• Managed global staff remotely
• Boosted Employee Productivity
• Deployed Central Desktop as an Intranet or SharePoint alternative in under 15 minutes
• Eliminated Email Overload
• Reduced Training Time for New Employees
  

Register Now - It's Free for all Central Desktop Users.

Tags: Collaboration Software Collaboration Success Central Desktop Customer Ne

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