ITUtility Whitepaper - Putting Share Point to Work in Small Business - 2007-10

7/31/2019 ITUtility Whitepaper - Putting Share Point to Work in Small Business - 2007-10

1/5

An ITUtility.NET Whitepaper

ITUtility.NET Corporation3 rd Floor, Tower A, 555 Legget Drive,

Kanata, Ontario) K2K 2X3(613)-567-4886

www.ITUtility.NET

Putting SharePoint to Work in Small Business

October 2007


2/5

Contents

Contents...............................................2

Introduction ..................... ..... .............. . 2

Problem Statement .................. ..... ....... 2

Previous Options ................................. 2

ITUtility Solution ........................... ....... 3

Implementation ............................. ....... 4

Summary ............................................. . 5

IntroductionMicrosoft SharePoint offers small andmedium businesses the technology to managetheir operations at a level once available onlyto large enterprises.

Unfortunately, because of the perceivedimplementation costs, most small andmedium business owners do not evenconsider SharePoint as an option.

Problem StatementAnybody having extensive contact with smalland medium business owners can attest thatthese owners are willing to toleratesignificant challenges before deciding toimplement technology to alleviate thesituation. They typically cope with very tight

budgets and cash flow is always a limitingfactor in any decision. Given this, one wouldassume that they are perfect candidates for hosted SharePoint and Exchange solutions.

Unfortunately the group that could benefitmost from the power of hosted SharePointand Exchange often never considers them.

When a small or medium business owner does consider a hosted SharePoint solution,the initial customization costs usually deter them, and they consider other options

perceived to be more cost effective.

Previous Options

Based on our canvassing of local small andmedium businesses, 60% continue to use anamalgam of Excel, Word-forms and Access-

based solutions that have resulted fromorganic growth. They use this approach inconjunction with point of presence (POP) e-mail. Although this approach presentssignificant problems and inefficiencies, other

2005-2007 ITUtility.NET Corporation. All rights reserved. Page 2 of 5


3/5

solutions are not considered until they

are forced to meet standards such asInternational Standards Organization(ISO), or they begin conducting

business with larger organizationswhose vendor agreements requireorganized internal systems.

Situations with small and medium businesses being forced to implement provable processes for running their businesses represent approximately

20% of the small and medium business market. Companies with 30or more users sharing 2 or 3Salesforce.com accounts are notuncommon this configurationwould, for example, allow them tohave a traceable helpdesk system for report generating. However, the true

benefits of that solution can only berealized when every user in theworkflow has access to the system.

Sometimes businesses haveimplemented open-sourced Linux,Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP)-

based software bundles such asSugars Customer RelationshipManager (CRM) only to find thatany software savings are quickly off-set by extremely high customizationcosts. This often forces theseorganizations to return to their initial,

problematic systems to try to figureout an inexpensive means of justgetting by. We also frequentlyencounter customers who installed adedicated server only to discover thatgetting it to work on their own hadtoo steep a learning curve, and it wasnever used. They also returned to

their original systems, investing in getting

by.

To meet mandated customer requirements,approximately 12% of businesses have either signed up for a fully hosted solution, such asSalesforce.com, or have invested in a proper CRM installation. With extensive reportingrequirements, typically these customers cannot settle with getting by technology.

Less than 8% of businesses we encounter

have used a Microsoft partner to implement acustomized SharePoint solution.

ITUtility SolutionThe very affordable ITUtility solution

provides the functionality small and medium businesses need to get going. With a lowmonthly price per user, companies are morelikely to include user access for allemployees during sign-up. Channel partnerswill benefit from leveraging deep penetration

into a market that they would not ordinarilyhave access to the 60% of small businessesstill using their problematic solutions. Up-sellopportunities include customization, or anentire upgrade to solutions such as MS CRM.

Lead Management Almost every revenue-generating opportunityfor a company stems from a lead. A lead can

be an idea provided by a motivatedemployee, a list of potential customers, an

up-sell idea from an existing contract, acustomer referral, the outcome of asuccessful cold call, an information requestvia company web site, or a contact made at amarketing event such as a tradeshow.Knowing leads origins and histories isextremely valuable information for acompanys management. Knowing that leads



4/5

are being followed up and well-

managed is a fiduciary duty!

The PortalDesk Lead Manager is asimple repository of all leads. It

provides managers with tremendousinsight into the entire lifecycle of alead, from its creation to either itsclosure or its conversion into anopportunity.

Opportunity Management

Opportunities are leads reaching alevel where there is a reasonableexpectation of revenue for thecompany. For many companies,successfully closing an opportunitycan be a team effort requiring theinvolvement of multiple individuals;managing the process throughout theopportunity lifecycle is essential.

The PortalDesk Opportunity Manager

is a simple repository of allopportunities. Managers in real-timecan see the status of any opportunity

being pursued by the company.

Delivery Management Many companies consider success to

be the conversion of an opportunityinto a signed contract. In actual fact,that is the point when the work should really start. Companies are

usually judged more on how theyfulfill a contract than on how theywon the contract.Whether fulfilling a contract involvesthe simple shipping of a box or amassive project involving

professional services coupled with thedelivery of complex technology-

based products, the PortalDesk Delivery

Manager provides a simple repository of allactivities required to fulfill contracts,including their associated status.

Issue Management Issues are situations where individuals or organizations wish to engage the company ina registered matter. Company servicerepresentatives review issues and direct themto the appropriate individual within thecompany for a response or action. Issues can

include customer complaints, employeesinquiring about health benefits, or evenemployees on a customer site alerting thecompany of a potentially undesirablesituation they see developing.

The PortalDesk Issue Manager is a simplerepository of ongoing issues where managersand issue owners can view and track thestatus of each issue.

Document Center Electronic documents are an integral part of running a business. They can consist of thelatest version of a proposal, a marketing

brochure, or a benefits claim form.

The PortalDesk Document Manager is ahighly-organized repository that manages alldocuments involved in the daily running of the business.

ImplementationThere are two ways to provision customerson this new system either through the self-

provisioning engine, or directly through thereseller.



5/5

Self Provisioning

By providing a credit-card number,customers can sign-up and provisionusers on their own. As a part of thesign-up process, they must select anauthorized ITUtility channel partner from a drop-down menu. The partner is contacted and chooses whether toreceive commissions directly or beinvoiced for the customers use.Either way ITUtility will not acceptorders directly from end-users.

Reseller Provisioning Just like any other ITUtility small

business service, resellers can provision users for these services onthe PortalDesk AdministrativeConsole.

SummaryITUtility offers a variety of small

business services, opening up amarket to ITUtility partnersunavailable to them in the past. It

provides resellers with a tremendousservice upside and opens the door for migration to a hosted MicrosoftDynamics CRM solution.

For more information, visitwww.PortalDesk.NET.


Documents

ITUtility Whitepaper - Putting Share Point to Work in Small Business - 2007-10