Cisco OnPlus: IT Infrastructure Advisory and Management Services Solution For Small Businesses

Last month, Cisco introduced a new IT Infrastructure advisory and management service solution designed for VARs  to provide to small businesses with less than 100 employees. Delivered via Cisco’s value-added reseller (VAR) channel, Cisco OnPlus enables VARs to offload the mundane, time consuming tasks of managing a network environment from small businesses, and provide them with higher value advisory services.  In addition to monitoring and managing network infrastructure devices, such as switches, wireless access points and routers, OnPlus also monitors devices that are connected to the network (including smartphones and tablets).  VARs can deploy a small OnPlus Network Agent appliance at the customer site, and remotely monitor and manage it through the cloud via a secure web portal or mobile application..

Perspective

 Cisco’s OnPlus IT infrastructure advisory and management service solution is designed to meet the needs of small businesses. SMB Group’s 2011 SMB Routes to Market study indicates that small businesses’ top technology related challenges include: Gaining ‘peace of mind’ that IT is under control (40%), Containing IT costs (38%), Finding/hiring qualified IT staff(35%), Upgrading IT infrastructure(34%), Protecting business from IT related failures(32%), Getting more done with fewer/flat IT resources (26%). As illustrated in Figure 1, Cisco’s OnPlus with Assess, Manage, Advise, Maintain features helps directly address several of these technology challenges.

Several IT infrastructure monitoring and management solutions are available for small and medium businesses (SMBs) ,  but they are often cost-prohibitive for many small businesses. Cisco’s hybrid solution, consisting of an agent embedded in a small network appliance and a secure cloud service, is aimed squarely at VARs that provide managed services to small businesses. These companies often lack dedicated IT staff and tend to depend on part-time IT people or external contractors to manage IT. With scarce resources typically stretched thin, small businesses are often unable to keep up with the demands of routine technology management–let alone support growth goals with new technology solutions.

At the same time, many VARs are looking for ways to quickly and efficiently offer remote management services to their small business customers, and the ability to provide more proactive guidance and management advice.

Figure 1: Cisco OnPlus – Comprehensive IT Infrastructure Management for Small Businesses

Source: SMB Group, January 2012

 Cisco OnPlus gives VARs an efficient way to expand their managed service offerings through remote management and visibility into the customer  network and the devices attached to the network. VARs simply plug the OnPlus Network Agent appliance into a switch or router on the customer’s network, and the OnPlus Agent then transmits information about the customer’s network and all connected devices to a secure data center for access by the VAR (see figure 2). Native apps for Apple and Android mobile devices are available for free from those companies’ app stores. The VARs have the flexibility to define their own business model for using OnPlus.  Some  will add additional fees based on their coverage and response times. Others will use OnPlus to enhance their service capabilities without additional charges to their customers.  In addition, VARs can use OnPlus as a tool to accelerate pre-sale assessments with prospective customers.

Figure 2: Cisco OnPlus Solution Service Data and Communications Flow

Source: Cisco, 2011

Cisco OnPlus appliance discovers Cisco and third-party devices with an IP address connected to the network and displays them in topology and inventory views. Partners can access a real-time view of customer networks from anywhere, through a highly secure portal using a PC, tablet, or mobile device. VARs work with small businesses to define and customize alert thresholds. Through OnPlus, VARs can also provide small businesses with automated reports of all the activity and tasks performed on the network.

Pricing is $250 (approx.  $7 per month, after typical discounts), which includes a three-year OnPlus subscription and the network agent appliance that is installed at the customer site. The OnPlus service from Cisco is available now in U.S. and Canada, with a rollout in Europe and Asia planned for 2012.

Quick Take

Cisco OnPlus delivers cost-efficient scalable IT management and peace of mind that small businesses need without sacrificing the local VAR that many SMBs want to do business with. On the VAR side, it provides a fast, efficient way to onboard customers into a managed service practice, provide more proactive services, and provide more efficient service to more small businesses customers.  With the advantages, Cisco OnPlus should be very attractive to Cisco VARs and enable Cisco to make significant inroads in the small business segment.

That said, Cisco OnPlus can significantly strengthen its story by:

• Offering additional functionality in the areas of IT asset utilization and management (both hardware and software) to support compliance
• Providing additional performance management solutions
• Making it an extensible solution so that VARs can easily add additional value-added solutions like remote backup, Infrastructure on-demand, and business continuity services
• Help VARs position and demonstrate the value of OnPlus as a comprehensive IT infrastructure management solutions vs. a network management solution
• Demand generation marketing to educate small businesses about the benefits of managed services

However, Cisco continues to invest in and develop solutions for small business, and OnPlus provides strong evidence that Cisco understands both small business pain points and how to create solutions that provide clear benefits to its partners. Cisco’s OnPlus should be a big step forward in helping Cisco VARs to move beyond the role of network product suppliers to become more strategic managed service providers.

2012 Top 10 SMB Technology Market Predictions

Here are the SMB Group’s Top 10 SMB Technology Predictions for 2012! A more detailed description of each follows below.

1. Economic Anxiety Lowers SMB Revenue Expectations and Tightens Tech Wallets
2. The SMB Progressive Class Gains Ground
3. The SMB Social Media Divide Grows
4. Cloud Becomes the New Normal
5. Mobile Application Use Extends Beyond Email to Business Applications
6. Increased SMB Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics Investments Are Sparked by the Social-Mobile-Cloud Triumvirate
7. Managed Services Meet Mobile
8. The Accidental Entrepreneur Spikes Demand for No-Employee Small Business Solutions
9. Increased Adoption of Collaboration and Communication Services in Integrated Suites
10. The IT Channel Continues to Shape-Shift

2012 Top 10 SMB Technology Market Predictions in Detail

1. Economic Anxiety Lowers SMB Revenue Expectations and Tightens Tech Wallets. After the Great Recession officially      ended in 2009, the U.S. economy resumed moderate economic growth in 2010—and the SMB outlook for 2011 became fairly bullish. But new economic worries and uncertainties are dampening some SMB outlook. Our 2011 SMB Routes to Market Study indicated that SMBs are less confident about their revenue prospects for 2012: 56%  of small and 63% of medium businesses are forecasting revenue growth for  2012, compared to the 77% of both small and medium businesses that forecasted growth for 2011. And many SMBs are tightening their tech wallets: More are forecasting flat or decreased IT spending for 2012 compared to 2011. To loosen the purse strings, tech vendors must deliver a rock-solid case for how their solutions help address top SMB challenges—which are to attract new customers, grow revenues and maintain profitability. In addition to broadening subscription-based cloud solution options (which offload big upfront investments), more vendors will offer flexible, alternative financing to help ease the financial burden—and gain a leg up on competitors.

2. The SMB Progressive Class Gains Ground. That said, we also see a distinct category of SMBs that we are terming      “Progressive SMBs.” Despite economic uncertainties, Progressive SMBs plan to increase IT spending. These SMBs see technology as a vital tool for business transformation, a mechanism to create market advantage and a way to level the playing field against bigger companies. Although price is still a key factor for Progressive SMBs, they are more likely to rate other factors—such as easier to customize for my business, strong reputation and brand, and ability to provide local service and support—higher than other SMBs when making technology decisions, according to our 2011 SMB Routes to Market Study. Progressive SMBs invest more in technology and see the results in terms of higher revenue expectations. For instance, 73% of medium businesses that are investing more in technology anticipate revenue increases in 2012, compared to just 17% among those decreasing IT spending. Technology      vendors need to develop different marketing campaigns and more sophisticated solutions for Progressive SMBs than for their counterparts to win in this very important segment.

3. The SMB Social Media Divide Grows. SMB use      of social media is rising. According to our 2011 Impact of Social Business in Small and Medium Business Study, about 50% of SMBs already use social media, and another 25% plan to do so within the next 12 months. The study revealed that about half of SMBs take a strategic and structured approach with social media. These      “strategically social” companies use social media for more activities, use more channels and are more satisfied with the business results than the other half of SMBs that are still throwing spaghetti on the Facebook wall.  These more informal, ad hoc users say that they don’t have enough time to use social media effectively; they can’t decide what social media strategies and tools will work best; it’s too difficult to integrate      social media with sales, marketing, service and other business processes; and they are unable to measure value from social media. As new social media tools—from crowd-sourced pricing to video commerce—take shape, SMB      social media “haves” will gain business ground on the “have-nots” in an exponential manner. As the have-nots lose ground, they will clamor for better social media guidance and easier-to-use, better integrated and more affordable social media management solutions.

4. Cloud Becomes the New Normal. Is the      cloud perfect? No. Is it right for every solution and every business? No.  But that said, the rate and pace of technological change are in overdrive, and the need for businesses to harness new technology-based      solutions—social, mobile, analytics, etc.—to maintain a business edge is rising. Our 2011 SMB Routes to Market Study results      reveal that demand for cloud-based solutions is accelerating in almost all solution areas. For instance, in the past 24 months, only 7% of small businesses purchased or upgraded cloud accounting/ERP solutions, compared with 13% that plan to purchase them in the next 12 months. Areas that show the biggest potential for cloud gains in 2012 are marketing automation, business intelligence/analytics, and desktop virtualization solutions and services. Most SMBs simply don’t have the staff, expertise or capital budgets needed for do-it-yourself IT—and they can’t afford the time it takes to get business payback from a solution that they need to vet, buy,  install and deploy in-house. This makes the arguments for cloud computing—reduced capital costs, speed to deploy, and real-time collaboration and visibility—compelling. Demand for anytime, anywhere, any-device mobile access to applications will also accelerate cloud adoption, as many SMBs will want to offload management of mobile applications to a cloud solutions provider too. Enterprise players such as Oracle (with RightNow) and SAP (with SuccessFactors) have already begun their cloud shopping sprees. Look for traditional SMB vendors (Intuit, Microsoft, Sage, etc.) to join in the fun.

5. Mobile Application Use Extends Beyond Email to Business Applications. In a custom study we completed this summer,  SMBs indicated that they plan to significantly increase spending on mobile devices and services in the next 12 months, with the highest jump in the 5-to-49–employee size band. The study revealed that with mobile use of collaboration apps (email, calendar, etc.) now mainstream, SMBs are  mobilizing business applications. Some of the strongest categories for SMB  current and planned mobile app use are mobile payments (52%), time management (59%), field service (59%), and customer information management (69%). This rapid uptake will also include more vertical apps that are a perfect fit for industry-specific needs, especially given the choice of both smart phone and tablet (read: iPad) form factors. Unfortunately, our crystal ball is cloudy when it comes to predicting if another vendor will be able to give Apple a run for its money in the business-use tablet market.

6. Increased SMB Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics Investments Are Sparked by the Social-Mobile-Cloud Triumvirate. According to our 2011 SMB Routes to Market Study, 16% of small and 29% of medium businesses purchased/upgraded a BI solution within the past 24 months, and 16% and 28%, respectively, plan to do so in the next 12 months. The social-mobile-cloud triumvirate will fuel new and increased SMB investments in this area as businesses try to plow through the growing data avalanche to get to the insights they need to grow their businesses. As SMBs try to get a better handle on customers’      and prospects’ opinions and influence networks, interest in sentiment analysis and social graphing solutions will grow. New mobile access capabilities and applications from BI vendors designed to provide SMBs with just the information they need, when and where they need it, will spur interest as well. Finally, our study indicated that roughly a third of SMBs use or plan to use cloud-based BI and analytics solutions. An expanding array of cloud options in this area will make it easier and more affordable for more SMBs to deploy these solutions.

7. Managed Services Meet Mobile. Despite momentum toward the cloud, it will continue to be a hybrid world for a very long time. Many SMBs will continue to use existing on-premises apps  and choose on-premises deployment as security, regulatory or other needs dictate. So most SMBs will continue to grapple with IT infrastructure management—even as new mobile device management and governance challenges  grow. SMB adoption of mobile phones and tablets is now on par with that of traditional landline phones, according to our 2011 SMB Collaboration and Communication Study. With employees more likely to lose a smart phone than a laptop, security issues abound and will only increase. The “bring your own device” (BYOD) phenomenon creates additional concerns, not least of which is to create a firewall between personal and business data. These SMB challenges provide ample opportunity for wireless carriers, networking vendors, MSPs and others that can provide integrated and automated managed services. These are likely to include services that encompass management of cloud-based infrastructure and all end-point devices, from desktop PCs, tablets and smart phones to purpose-built mobile devices; network services to reduce downtime and help optimize the network that mobile access relies on; and support for cloud-based dual-persona solutions on personal mobile      devices.

8. The Accidental Entrepreneur Spikes Demand for No-Employee Small Business Solutions. As unemployment has increased, so has the number of freelancers, contractors, independent consultants and others choosing to go it alone. According to      the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses without a payroll make up more than 70% of America’s 27 million companies, with annual sales of $887 billion. Many entrepreneurs never intended to take this path, but stay solo because they prefer it to going back to the corporate payroll. Others      stick it out due to limited employment options. Either way, more accidental entrepreneurs view what they’re doing as a long-term business venture instead of a short-term stopgap. As a result, they see themselves more as business owners than as freelancers or contractors. But many have no intention or desire to hire employees. This will spike demand for—and growth of—applications and services that help them to achieve their business goals without adding employees. Traditional small business powerhouses (Intuit, Sage, etc.), pioneers in the SOHO space (FreshBooks,      Shoebox, Zoho, etc.), new start-ups and others will increasingly cater to their needs with solutions that make it easier for them to fly solo—whether from a home office or on the go.

9. Increased Adoption of Collaboration and Communication Services in Integrated Suites. As evidenced in our 2011 SMB Collaboration and Communication Study, the SMB pendulum is swinging from point solutions for voice, communications, social media and collaboration solutions to integrated suites. Medium      businesses are leading the charge, with 28% currently using an integrated collaboration suite, and 35% planning to do so in the next 12 months. Small businesses are slower to make this leap, but a transition is under way here too. By moving from disparate point solutions to an integrated offering, SMBs can avoid the hassles of learning to use multiple user interfaces, going to different sites to login and remembering different passwords—in short, things that waste time and frustrate users. They also can lower costs and improve their ability to collaborate effectively. A  growing roster of low-cost (or free), easy-to-use integrated collaboration suites (Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365, IBM LotusLive and HyperOffice, to name a few) are adding fuel to the convergence fire—although vendors will still need to address the obstacle of user resistance to learning  something new.
10. The IT Channel Continues to Shape-Shift. The trend triumvirate—cloud, social and mobile—is also reshaping the IT channel. These trends are moving the goal posts and changing the ways in which channel partners add value. Cloud computing reduces the need for hardware, software and infrastructure deployment skills, and ups the ante for educational guidance, business process transformation and integration skills. Re-imagined channel partner programs from vendors such as Intacct and IBM’s Software Group have blossomed as they shift partner rewards to focus more on value-add and renewals. Meanwhile, non-traditional IT partners, such as creative and marketing agencies, have stepped in to fill a gap by providing social media and digital marketing services for solutions such as Radian6 and HubSpot. In the mobile domain, partners will need to bring more value to help SMBs develop and implement mobile strategies, and offer solutions to manage mobile devices and applications and provide better network performance, reliability and redundancy. As with any significant inflection point, the cloud-social-mobile trend necessitates that older partner models continue to move aside as new, more relevant ones take shape.

Dell KACE M300 Appliance Enables Small Businesses to Take a Proactive Approach to IT Asset Management

Dell KACE recently introduced a new series of System Management Appliances targeted at small businesses with 20-200 employees. The Dell KACE M300 Asset Management Appliance is designed to deliver an affordable, plug-and-play IT asset management solution that reduces the repetitive, time consuming task of managing PC inventory and software licenses. The KACE M300 provides a robust yet easy-to-use asset management solution—saving these businesses time and money, while at the same time addressing their compliance and inventory management issues.

Perspective

Dell’s KACE systems management and deployment appliances are designed to meet systems management needs from initial computer deployment to ongoing management and retirement. Dell acquired KACE, which designs and builds systems management and deployment appliances, in February 2010. KACE solutions are available both as physical appliances (delivered as a pre-packaged hardware and software appliance) and as software-only virtual appliances, which customers can buy and load onto servers they already own.

Higher-end products available from Dell KACE (K1000 and K2000) have been available for some time. Since Dell acquired KACE, sales have spiked considerably year-over-year. However, the existing KACE offerings are designed for companies with 100 to 10,000 employees, and cost more than most small businesses are willing to spend in this area.

With the introduction of the M300, Dell is making a play in the true small business market, targeting customers that want a simple plug-and-play appliance to meet their asset management (both hardware and software) needs. The solution is designed for smaller businesses that often have a part-time IT manager, typically overloaded with installing software and keeping systems and client devices up and running, and frequently unable to keep up with the detail-oriented task of tracking hardware and software assets.

Many small business IT managers are still trying to manage assets and software licenses in a manual manner with spreadsheets. While manual tools provide a point in time snapshot of a network, the information rapidly becomes obsolete as computers are added or additional software is installed on existing computers. IT managers either end up spending too much time trying to keep this up-to-date, or end up with outdated asset inventories. Offloading the labor-intensive minutia involved in this job can free them up to focus on more important things.

Although there are some free and small business oriented solutions in the market, Dell’s strong market footprint in the market and direct relationships with existing small business customers provide it with a significant go-to-market advantage, and the opportunity to educate small businesses about the benefits of investing in IT asset management (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Benefits of IT Asset Management

Strategic Benefits
Reduce over-spending on IT hardware and software assets by increasing asset utilization Reduce IT resources (and time) required to routinely manage and maintain IT hardware and software assets and related annual operational costs Increase useful life of IT assets through ongoing configuration and upgrade monitoring Increase utilization of assets by optimizing performance of IT assets Reduce downtime by optimizing configurations and timely upgrades of assets Reduce break-fix costs by maintaining proper asset warranty information Support audit and compliance requirements and mitigate risk of non-compliance and costly legal/financial risks Records and reports when new devices are connected to the network Detects hazardous software packages across the network
IT Hardware Asset Management Benefits	IT Software Asset Management Benefits
Reduce server and PC procurement, upgrade and ongoing management costs Extend the useful life of these hardware assets Reduce costs by redeploying unused or under-utilized hardware systems Keep track of licenses and upgrades for PCs migrating to Windows7 and identify PCs that are configured adequately for upgrade Easily identify PCs that need replacement or upgrades	Maintain an accurate inventory of installed applications to ensure legality and that software is up to date Maintain a centralized report of license purchases and maintenance to ensure license compliance Reduce operating system, middleware and application procurement, patching, upgrade and ongoing management costs Reduce costs related to un-used or under-utilized middleware and application software licenses (for both on-premise and on-line software) Optimize software assets by redeploying unused software licenses
Source: SMB Group, 2011

In line with small business requirements to keep it simple, the M300—features easy set up. The IT manager plugs the M300 into the network, and the device automatically scans and discovers all the devices on the network, obtaining information like system names, IP addresses, vendor, models numbers, memory and disk space, etc. In addition to the hardware configuration, the M300 keeps track of all the software licenses, what systems the software is installed, version of the software and level of patch updates, etc.

The M300 continuously tracks computers and software, and can report accurate information in real-time and for compliance purposes at a specific point-in-time. The web-based intuitive user interface of the appliance shows real-time information on all of the monitored parameters. It can match the installed software with the number of software licenses purchased and also authorized users who can use the software. It shows online or sends out reports and/or alerts on any of the monitored parameters. For example, an alert will be issued if an unapproved application is downloaded and installed on a monitored PC or if a new PC is connected to the network.

Priced at $2498, the M300 includes a one year warranty and supports a maximum of 200 nodes. Assuming the useful life of the M300 to be 3 years, we estimate the cost to monitor each node (desktops and servers) on the network at approximately $0.49 per month per node in a company with 200 nodes. Figure 2 shows the cost per node in smaller companies (with less than 200 notes?). Given the cost of a full time IT manager to be approximately $75,000 per year, the M300 will pay for itself in about 1 month. In addition, the M300 can relieve the pressure and any additional costs related to non-compliance in terms of number of software licenses, etc.

Figure 2: Tracking Cost Per Node, Per Month with the M300
Source: SMB Group

The M300 is compact–measuring just 1.52 x 5.79 x 5.79 inches, connects to the network via a single gigabit Ethernet port, and is currently available in the U.S. only.

Sales are both direct from Dell and via Dell partners. KACE has added about 100 new certified partners since Dell acquired it and currently has 143 channel partners in North America. KACE is aggressively recruiting new partners to help it expand its footprint and reach Dell’s large customer base in the small business segment.

Dell’s future plans include additional appliances that can be stacked on top of the M300 and will address time consuming IT management functions like OS installs, remote management, mobile devices, service desk, etc. as the systems management needs of these small businesses expand, without the need to rip and replace their current solutions and investments.

Quick Take

Cost-efficiency, productivity benefits, ease of installation and peace of mind benefits—aided by Dell’s strong clout in the market—should enable Dell to make significant inroads with KACE in the lower end of the SMB space. And, Dell’s plans to incrementally build on the current M300 offerings with additional appliances for other repetitive tasks such as installing network operating systems, imaging and data backup make sense. However, Dell can significantly strengthen its story–and sales–by:

• Offering small businesses the option to add at least some new functionality via software upgrades to the M300 appliance. Although the small business KACE appliances have a small form factor, some companies will balk at buying additional boxes (not to mention that Dell wants to move away from its “box-provider” image!)
  
• The M300 is a first in the M-series line of appliances from KACE. The M-series is designed to deliver system management technologies to small businesses that they previously were unable to gain access to due to cost or complexity of solutions.
  
• Incorporating capabilities to manage non windows based clients and networked storage devices.
  
• Enabling remote management features to enable channel partners to offer incremental value-added IT infrastructure management services. This would not only have appeal for customers, who like to have a one-stop shop, but for partners, that can build higher margin services on top of the M300.
  

Looking at the larger picture, the KACE M300 provides further evidence of Dell’s deepening commitment to small businesses. Dell continues to invest in and build innovative yet practical solutions that address real small business pain points without breaking the bank. Small businesses increasingly rely on technology to run their businesses, and Dell’s focus on supplying them with easy-to-use solutions such as the KACE M300 to help manage this technology is on the mark.

Pervasive Puts Its Galaxy Integration Community Into Orbit

–by Sanjeev Aggarwal and Laurie McCabe, SMB Group

Pervasive announced Pervasive Galaxy at its annual Metamorphosis conference earlier this month. Galaxy merges an online integration marketplace and community into a single, streamlined platform. Pervasive has designed Galaxy to make remove boundaries between buyers and sellers and make it easier for end-user customers to understand options, review vendors, figure out what’s best for their needs, and shop for and purchase integration solutions. Galaxy’s built-in community capabilities help vendors connect with customers to gain input, gather feedback, exchange ideas and help crowdsource new solutions.

As we noted in our SMB Group Top Ten 2011 SMB Predictions, better, faster integration is becoming a critical business solutions differentiator. Cloud computing has made business solutions more accessible and affordable for a wider swath of companies, but integrating them can often break the bank. This is especially the case for SMBs, who usually don’t have the money or appetite for complex or time-consuming integrations.

This reality drove IBM to acquire Cast Iron earlier this year, and Dell’s recent purchase of Boomi. Now Pervasive, a long-time leader in the integration space, has sent Galaxy into orbit on the heels of some very big players making significant acquisitions in the integration space.

Here’s a quick synopsis of the announcement, and our take on what it means for the integration market and the stakeholders in it.

The Integration Challenge

Integration is one of the biggest and costly hurdles for companies that need to adopt new applications. Companies need to integrate applications and data sources to maximize productivity, reduce redundancy and inaccuracies, and streamline workflows. Yet integration between and among cloud and on-premise applications, different data sources and existing business workflows can be costly and complicated. This is especially true for SMBs, who don’t have IT staff that can develop integration between applications, or the budgets for solutions that require time and labor services.

How Galaxy Addresses the Integration Challenge

With Galaxy, Pervasive is creating a place where customers can easily identify and access affordable and capable integration solutions and vendors, and also provide vendors with feedback about their integration requirements. Galaxy will offer data integration products, solutions, connectors, plug-ins and templates, and serve as a community platform for customers, developers, integrators and other relevant vendors. Pervasive’s intent is that this convergence will nurture a strong ecosystem that will facilitate more rapid, innovative and accessible integration solutions.

Vendors on Galaxy will offer customers both integration components and turnkey cloud integration services. For instance, integration components available in Galaxy include engines, workflows, connectors, agents and rich data services that can support a range of needs, such as data loading, data matching, profiling, transformation and business analytics. It will also offer ready to run solutions for point-to-point solution integration in a subscription-based SaaS model.

How Galaxy Works for Customers

Galaxy enables community participants to build, preview and test, buy integration solutions. These might include pre-built data integration solutions, connectors, plug-ins or templates that enable faster integration solution development.

Instead of starting with a Google search, or contacting a VAR or consultant, and trying to figure out if there is an existing integration solution that’s right for their needs, customers can go to Galaxy and see if there’s an existing solution that fits the bill. They can also use Galaxy to locate a partner than can customize an available integration to their individual needs, or build a custom solution from scratch.

Building an integration community is Galaxy’s other primary focal point. End users will not only be able to shop for ready-made solutions on Galaxy, but will also be able to view and provide ratings on the templates, connectors, plug-ins and solutions in it. They can use Galaxy to inform developers and integrators about their needs, request new integrations, and link to others with similar needs to share the costs of getting a new integration developed. End-users who build integrations themselves can, if they want, also sell them to others via the Galaxy platform.

How Galaxy Works for Partners

Pervasive Galaxy offers developer and system integrator (SI) partners an integration marketplace platform, development tools, integration store, community collaboration and revenue sharing–basically everything they need to build and sell their integration solutions. There is no charge to build an integration on Galaxy. Once partners build the solution and start selling it on the platform, they keep 70% of the sale and the other 30% goes to Pervasive. Partners retain the intellectual property of the integration, and can offer documentation and the required technical support (possibly for an additional fee).

Partners should be able to use Galaxy to help get their integrations to market more quickly, and make their offerings more accessible to a broader market. For instance, Galaxy’s try and buy program gives developers a way to demonstrate ROI before they buy–giving skittish and/or cash-strapped SMBs a risk-free way to try the integration and see if it pays off before they have to spend money for it.

In addition, partners can take advantage of Galaxy’s community to tap into the integration requirements across a range of businesses. This should enable them to tune their integration solutions more closely to actual requirements and meet market needs in a more repeatable and profitable manner.

What Does Galaxy Do for Pervasive?

Pervasive has initiated, built and will maintain and manage the Galaxy marketplace platform. Galaxy gives Pervasive a centralized mechanism to market and provide access to its growing array of development and testing tools–including Pervasive Data Integrator, Pervasive DataCloud, Pervasive Data Profiler in a more streamlined way to developers and integrators–and build a new revenue stream based on the sales of the integrations that partners build and sell.

As the community grows, Pervasive should also be able to extract a lot of insight about customer and partner integration requirements and demands across different horizontal, vertical and geographic markets, which it can use in its own product planning efforts.

Pervasive and its community members will jointly deveop and participate in demand generation and building visibility for the Galaxy market, vendors and community.

At some point, Galaxy could serve as a launch pad for integration testing and certification, conducted either by Pervasive or possibly by the community, helping to reinforce Pervasive’s position as a leader in the integration space.

Quick Take

The integration challenge is becoming increasingly more complex because of trends such as cloud computing, mobile solutions, social media and the exponential growth of data. These trends will continue to drive the need for companies to integrate more applications and data from an increasingly dizzying array of sources.

These trends are also driving Pervasive and its integration competitors to tear down some of the barriers that have made integration so difficult in the past (see Dell and Boomi: Doubling Down on Integration, for our view on Dell’s approach to this challenge).

With Galaxy, Pervasive has built a streamlined, in-context ecosystem for customers to search for, identify, evaluate and purchase integration solutions. As important, Galaxy gives users a place where they can voice their integration experiences, concerns and requirements. Meanwhile, Galaxy should help partners market their solutions, and gain insight on integration gaps and requirements from a much broader audience, and amortize the costs of developing their integrations over a larger number of customers. The ecosystem approach puts vendors and customers on the same page and fosters the collaboration that should result in a win-win.

However, while Pervasive has built Galaxy, the question remains, will enough users and partners come to make it a true integration destination point? To fuel customer interest, Galaxy needs a strong cadre of actively engaged developers, SIs, and integrations in its ecosystem. Conversely, to attract partners, it needs a lot of customers that partners can sell their services to. Pervasive will need to double down on its social media, marketing, partner engagement and other related activities to ensure Galaxy reaches its goals–especially as it faces strong competition from the big guys–in our opinion, particularly from Dell-Boomi, which appears to be thriving under the Dell umbrella.

But, Pervasive’s smaller, independent status, can also play in its favor, as noted in Top Takeaways from Pervasive’s 2010 IntegratioNext Conference. It can keep a laser-like focus on the integration needs of customers and the business development needs of partners. And its independent status may appeal to prospective partners that may having differing agendas than, or encounter red-tape challenges when working with Pervasive’s larger rivals. If Pervasive can use this agility and focus to its full advantage, and rev up marketing and social media engagement, Galaxy should succeed in it mission to create a vibrant integration marketplace.

Is there a Method to Social Media Madness?

Co-authored by: Sanjeev Aggarwal and Laurie McCabe, SMB Group, and Brent Leary, CRM Essentials  SMB adoption of social media for sales, marketing, product development and customer service is on the rise – but how are SMBs tracking, analyzing and measuring the success of their social media endeavors?

In our joint SMB Group-CRM Essentials “2011 Small and Medium Business Social Business Study,” we surveyed 750 SMB (small business is 1-99 employees; medium business is 100-999 employees) decision-makers about their use and plans for social media for sales, marketing, customer service and support, product development, HR and other business functions.

Featured Study Highlights

To put social media adoption in context, we asked several questions to better understand how SMBs accomplish their business objectives though different channels and mechanisms, including, “How does your currently track, analyze and measure the success of the company’s social media efforts?”

In the medium business segment, 52% of respondents indicate that they currently use social media. Among these respondents, about 19% say they use it in and “ad hoc, informal” way, while 33% indicate they use it in a “structured, strategic” manner. When we take a deeper look at how medium businesses using social media track, analyze and measure success of social media efforts, we see that companies that take a strategic approach are more likely to incorporate a greater number and more actionable metrics to measure social media effectiveness than their informal, ad hoc counterparts (Figure 1).

• For strategic users, actionable, customer-centric metrics such as referrals (14%), click-through rates (12%), and inbound links (11%) top the list. These are followed by social media measurements such as number of followers and friends (9%), and sentiment analysis (9%), along with anecdotal feedback (9%).
  
  
•  Companies that use social media in an ad hoc manner are more likely to rate “softer” measurements, such as anecdotal favorable feedback (6%) and buzz from social media (4%) as top tracking criteria and yardsticks for success.

Not surprisingly, SMBs that take a structured, strategic approach–and use more actionable metrics–are also more satisfied with the results of their social media efforts than those engaging in an ad hoc manner.

This underscores the need for better integration of social media with traditional sales, marketing, and service/support solutions–along with better tools to track and measure results.

Figure 1: Medium Business: Comparison of Strategic and Ad Hoc Users Criteria to Track and Measure Social Media Implementation

 

 

 

 

 

Quick Take

For SMBs to truly evolve into “social businesses,” they need to be able to easily track, measure and tweak the results of their social media investments across a wide range of business activities, from marketing through customer service and product development.

Although the social media drumbeat is loud, SMBs’ enthusiasm will be curbed if they can’t figure out what impact their social media initiatives are having. Whether on their own or via partner solutions, vendors will need to give SMBs the tools they need to integrate and evaluate social media efforts into their larger business strategy and framework.

Because social media engagement does not occur in a vacuum, businesses will want to measure social media efforts in context of broader sales, marketing and customer service or other initiatives. Although collaboration, CRM, marketing automation and other vendors are integrating social media into their existing solutions, few provide the analytics required to track and measure the effectiveness of social media and its different channels in an actionable and streamlined manner.

Social Business: Why Having a Plan Matters

Co-authored by: Laurie McCabe and Sanjeev Aggarwal, SMB Group, and Brent Leary, CRM Essentials

 

Good plans shape good decisions. That’s why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.
Lester R. Bittel, The Nine Master Keys of Management

This seems to be especially true when it comes to getting business value out of social media. We recently wrapped up fielding for our joint SMB Group-CRM Essentials “2011 Small and Medium Business Social Business Study,” in which we surveyed 750 SMB (small business is 1-99 employees; medium business is 100-999 employees) decision-makers regarding their use, plans and perceptions about social media.

Although SMB interest and adoption of social media to assist with a variety of business functions—from generating leads to product development—is sky-rocketing, the question remains of how and where SMBs are actually deriving business value remains. Our study took an in-depth look at the specific activities and functions that SMBs are using social media for.

While Sanjeev Aggarwal, partner Brent Leary of CRM Essentials and I are just beginning to immerse ourselves in this very rich gold mine of data, one thing is clear:  SMBs that use social media in a “strategic and structured way” to interact with customers and prospects are much more likely to be deriving benefit from their social media investments than those who are using social media in an “ad hoc, informal” way.

Today, SMBs are most likely to be actively using social media to help with marketing and sales functions–including generating more web site traffic, generating more leads, connecting with people who aren’t yet customers, improving market awareness for their brand, reputation enhancement and creating more/better interaction with customers.

As shown on Figure 1, survey results show that those that have a more formal and structured strategy are more likely to be satisfied or very satisfied with the outcomes than those that are using social media in an informal, ad hoc way. For instance, among small businesses:

• 39% of respondents using social media are very satisfied/satisfied with the results of using social media to “create more/better interaction with customers/prospects,” as opposed 24% of those using it an ad hoc manner.
  
• 37% of structured users are very satisfied/satisfied with using social media to generate more web site traffic, compared to just 14% of ad hoc users.
  
• 37% of structured users are very satisfied/satisfied with using social media to improve market awareness for the company, in contrast to 16% of ad hoc users.

Figure 1: Comparison of Small Business Satisfaction with Social Media for Business Activities: Structured vs. Ad Hoc Users

 

While we have about 30 other questions and a seemingly endless array of cross-tabs to mull over in terms of the study, one thing is already crystal clear: To get the most business value from your social media investment, you need to pause and plan—in addition to playing with—social media activities.

For more information about this study, click here.

SMBs Open a New Front Door with Mobile Web Sites

Ten years ago, SMBs were just beginning to understand the need for and value of building web sites and storefronts. Today, SMBs are at a similar point when it comes to building mobile web sites and enabling mobile transactions. Why is this important? 4.8 billion users browse the web via a mobile device compared to 1.7 billion users who browse the web via other means, such as a laptop of PC (source: ITU, October 2010).

SMB Adoption and Plans for Mobile Web Sites

Figure 1 – Plans for Mobile Website

Our recently published SMB Group market study, “2010 Small and Medium Business Mobile Solutions Study,” reveals that SMBs understand the importance of mobile friendly websites and plan to invest in a mobile web presence in order to help fuel their growth. In the very small businesses (1-19 employees) segment, only 11% have some mobile web presence, while in companies with more than 500 employees, 44% have created a mobile-friendly site.

With interest and adoption of smartphones, tablets and mobile applications exploding, both small and medium business have very aggressive plans to ramp up activity and functionality on the mobile web site front. These businesses view mobile web sites as a key mechanism to attracting new customers, improving customer service and retention, and growing revenues.

From an industry perspective, financial services/banking and professional services firms are taking the lead in deploying mobile web sites today. Going forward, retail, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and education have very aggressive plans to establish a mobile web presence within the next 12 months. Many startups are choosing to start by developing their web presence through a mobile design paradigm first, from which they can then create a traditional web site.

What Information and Transactions are SMBs Offering and Planning for on Their Mobile Web Sites?

The most common types of information that SMBs with mobile web sites provide today include business contact information, available from 79% of SMBs’ mobile web sites; product and service information, offered on 71% of these sites; operating hours, listed by 65%; location applications, available from 60%.

SMB use of mobile web sites for transactions is more nascent, but is picking up steam. Today, 28% of SMBs with mobile web sites offer customers capabilities to schedule appointments or make reservations; 10% use mobile advertisements; and 8% mobile coupons. SMBs that don’t currently offer these capabilities have very aggressive plans to ramp up these services in 2011–up to 53% for certain functions.

High-growth and market leading SMB companies already have a mobile web-presence or are planning one in the next 12 months. In addition to this, depending on the industry, these SMBs are also very aggressively looking at enabling mobile transactions on their mobile websites. With upwards of 29 million smartphone users and 3 to 4 million tablet users, SMBs see the urgency of having a mobile web presence.

More information and a Table of Contents is available for this study click here: 2010 Small and Medium Business Mobile Solutions Study.

SMB Mobile Spending Trends from SMB Group’s 2010 Mobile Solutions Study

As part of the recently completed SMB Group study “2010 Small and Medium Business Mobile Solutions Study,”
we performed a detailed analysis of U.S. small and medium business (SMB) spending on mobile devices, applications, and services. As explained in this study, SMBs (1-999 employees) spent approximately $26.1B on mobile solutions and services in 2010—an amount forecasted to increase annual at a rate of 17 percent for the next few years, with some segments growing much faster than the others.

As indicated on Figure 1, voice and data services gobble up the biggest part of SMBs’ mobile budgets (69%), followed by mobile application (12%) spending, mobile devices (11%), and mobile device/application management (8%). In the U.S., mobile service providers typically subsidize mobile device costs as part of their two-year mobile service contract subscriptions, resulting in the lower spending for mobile devices–which would cost two to three times more if they weren’t subsidized.

Figure 1 – 2010 SMB Mobile Solutions Spending

Other important takeaways from the survey and our analysis include:

• While SMBs currently spend more on devices than on mobile management, growth in spending for the latter is outpacing spending on the former by roughly 13%. This reflects the reality that as mobile adoption and business dependence on mobile solutions grows, SMBs will need to invest in solutions to more efficiently manage mobile services and solutions.
  

• Although SMBs currently spend more on voice and data services than mobile applications, survey results indicate that spending for mobile applications grow about 30% faster than for voice and data services.
  

• Very small businesses have the highest average spending per employee for mobile services, solutions and devices. Average mobile spending per employee decreases as company size increases. As companies grow, they have more formal mobile policies that encourage mobile plan sharing, and can take advantage of volume discounts to help cut spending. For example:
  

• Very small businesses with 1-19 employees spend about $150 per year per employee on mobile devices, compared to $101 per employee for companies with 50-99 employees.
  
• Expenditures for annual mobile voice and data service plans per employee rage from $1,056 for companies with 1-19 employees to $511 for small businesses with 50-99 employees.
  
• Annual mobile application spending ranges from $416 per employee for companies with 1-19 employees to $292 per employee for companies with 50-99 employees.
  

• The role of the user-management, sales, office manager, information worker, etc.–and the industry are key factors in determining what types of devices are selected.
  For example, Information workers in industries like health care, legal, real estate are adopting smartphones and tablets more rapidly than other types of users in other industries.
  

Mobile spending now accounts for almost 10% of all technology spending for U.S. small and medium businesses and is forecast to grow at a rapid pace for the foreseeable future. This presents very significant opportunities for vendors on several fronts, including:

• Mobile device companies that develop new devices that tailored to specific user roles and industries.
  
• Mobile web and mobile application providers to create innovative new applications that help SMBs perform business functions more easily and flexibly.
  
• Service providers that go beyond voice and data service plans to offer higher value solution bundles.
  

However, the high cost of mobile service plans threatens to stall SMB adoption of smartphones and other devices that enable employees to take advantage of mobile business solutions. This is particularly true in very small businesses (1-19 employees), where 40% cite high voice and data costs as a top barrier to mobile solution adoption. Even when we look at the total small business group (1-99 employees), 37% say these costs are their top obstacle. As a result, 43% of small businesses currently provide voice-text phones and plans only to employees.

Of late, service providers are offering more limited choices for voice-text only phones, which will push some small businesses to invest in data service plans, smartphones and the applications they enable. But, small businesses will need more flexible and affordable data plans to take advantage of the mobile applications that can help their businesses grow. We’ll be watching closely to see what types and which vendors will try to shake up the status quo with new pricing schemes, bundles and incentives to help small businesses take better advantage of the mobile opportunity.

For more information and a Table of Contents is available for this study click here: 2010 Small and Medium Business Mobile Solutions Study.

 

 

Dell Vostro V130 – A Great Fit For Small Business Entrepreneurs, Executives And Mobile Professionals

 

As a entrepreneur and a CEO of a small business who travels frequently, I have been looking for a business-class notebook that is sleek, lightweight, provides good performance and security, and is also affordable. Dell’s Vostro V130 meets these requirements and provides enhanced performance over the previous V13.

 

Figure 1: Mobile Workers (employees that travel more than 20% of their time on business)

Source: Small and Medium Business Mobility Study, SMB Group

Small Businesses Are Becoming More Mobile

Mobility is a key consideration for most small businesses (companies with less than 100
employees) when purchasing technology solutions. Overall, about 81 percent of small
businesses (Figure 1) have mobile workers that travel more than 20% of the time for business related activities.

Breaking this down a bit, we see some other interesting data points:

• The larger a small business becomes, the more important mobility becomes: 86% of companies with 50-99 employees have mobile workers.
  
• A larger percentage of employees travel in companies with fewer employees. In those with 1-19 employees, 22 percent of the employees travel more than 20% of their time on business.
  

Many of the mobile business executives in these small businesses no longer have desktop PCs in their offices. They want an all-purpose, ultra-portable mobile device that they can rely on to run their business applications and most likely their personal applications as well. Key considerations for small business entrepreneurs and C-level management include:

• Ultra portable laptops that can fit in the smallest carry-on bag and weigh almost nothing. They also need to be sturdy to withstand all the beating the laptops encounter during airport security inspections. Successful entrepreneurs–and those that would like to be–also want a sleek and stylish device that helps them put their best foot forward in client meetings.
  
• Although small businesses are using more web-based solutions, most still rely on several tried and true packaged applications, such as Intuit QuickBooks and Microsoft Office, excluding netbooks from consideration.
  
• Data security is a key concern for travelling executives because these systems usually store sensitive company and customer information.
  
• Executives never have time to backup their laptops, they need a secure automated online backup service that works in the background.
  
• Wireless connectivity in the office(Wife) and while travelling (mobile broadband).
  
• Strong battery life for long trips, client meetings and conferences.
  
• Onsite support to provide peace of mind should anything go wrong and the device can’t be fixed remotely.
  
• Affordable pricing because technology and capital purchase budgets continue to be tight.
  

How the Dell Vostro Stacks Up

• Fresh and sturdy design. The Vostro V130 offers CEOs and entrepreneurs sleek and ultra portable functionality. But it’s also tough, built with an anodized aluminum scratch-resistant shell in either Aberdeen Silver or Lucerne Red (Figure 2). Having a full-featured laptop that weighs in at 3.5 pounds, and measures a skinny 0.65 inches a full featured laptop gives the Vostro a touch of the wow factor that will get it noticed.
  
  

Figure 2: Dell Vostro V130

• Strong multimedia capabilities. The V130 features a 2.0-megapixel webcam and microphones for web and video conferencing. HDMI output enables high definition streaming to an HDTV that is very useful for making presentations. In fact, these features are becoming a must have for the executive laptop, and I see myself using most of these as they make for a richer collaboration experience and higher quality presentations.
  
• Affordable pricing. The V130 line up ranges from the Intel Celeron system running Linux and priced at a competitive $499 up to Intel i5 ULV processor running the Windows7 operating system for $849.
  Details on the 3 models include:
  

 

• Intel® Celeron™ Processor ULV U3400: 2M Cache, 1.06GHz, 800 MHz FSB with Linux for $499 and the same system with Windows7 Home Premium for $549.
  
• Intel® Core™ Processor ULV i3-380UM: 3M Cache, 1.33GHz, 800 MHz FSB with 4GB memory and 320GB hard drive and Windows7 Home Premium for $689.
  
• Intel® Core™ Processor ULV i5-470UM : 3M Cache, 1.33GHz, 800 MHz FSB with 4GB memory and 500GB hard drive and Windows7 Home Premium for $849.
  

• Performance. With the latest Intel Core iCULV processor, the Vostro V130 offers up to 40% overall performance improvement over the previous V13 with a duo core processor The performance range between V130 models is significant, as shown in Figure 3. Because I create a lot of PowerPoint presentations and Excel documents, my preference is to go with the best performance processor. Those with less process intensive requirements may not need as much horsepower. Most entrepreneurs will want to add available security, backup and onsite support options to safeguard their data and ensure peace of mind.
  

 

Figure 3: V130 Relative Performance with Different Processors and Windows7 Operating System

Source: SMB Group, November 2010

• Battery life. Since I travel frequently, I like the fact that the
  V130 features a sealed 6-cell 30WHr battery that provides up to 4 hours and 21 minutes of mobile productivity —almost long enough for a cross country U.S. flight.
  
• Mobile Connectivity. Many very small businesses only use a wireless network in the office and home office. The Vostro V130 laptops support a full range of connectivity options, including 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless LAN, Bluetooth 3.0, and mobile broadband. These options make it easy for the mobile executive to connect to the network in the office, while travelling, at clients’ offices or at home.
  
• Data protection. Since I have all of my company’s financial, banking and customer information on my laptop and shudder to think what would happen should it get dropped, lost or stolen. Freefall sensors are standard on the V130. These sensors detect if the laptop is in a state of free fall, and park the head of the disk drive to prevent a head crash and resulting data loss upon impact on the ground.
  
• Data backup. When was the last time you backed-up your laptop? Though many of us are loathe to admit it, most small business executives fail to back up their laptops regularly. Viruses, accidental file deletion, disk crashes, etc. can irreparably compromise data and information that cannot be easily re-created. Dell’s DataSafe online backup is an easy way to ensure mission critical laptop data will get backed up.
  
• Flexible service and support
  options. If a key executive’s laptop is down, the business suffers. Most small businesses lack dedicated internal IT staff, and need to rely on third parties when a problem arises. Dell provides a range of service solutions, from phone support to ProSupport, which includes a dedicated, single point of contact and next day onsite support in most instances. A 3-year ProSupport agreement with next day onsite support is $190 – money well spent to gain peace of mind. Based on my own personal experience with Dell ProSupport service, I would rate it as an industry best and would not hesitate to recommend it for mission critical executive support.
  

 

Summary

The new Dell Vostro V130 is primarily intended for small businesses entrepreneurs and executives that are highly mobile and need a thin, light, full featured notebook–and have a tight technology budget. Having the opportunity to review an early model, I believe that the Vostro V130 will be very appealing choice for mobile professionals looking for a sleek, highly capable and professional looking executive laptop.

Dell’s Lineup of Next Generation Printers for the SMB Market

Printer technology and use patterns have undergone rapid changes in the last few years. As prices have dropped, SMBs and home office workers are replacing inkjets with LED and laser printers.

Figure 1 – Dell’s new SMB Color LED and Laser Printer Lineup

Dell has significant market presence and share in the small and mid-size business (SMB) IT infrastructure market–with many SMBs having some combination of Dell laptops, desktops, notebook or storage products in their organization. However–and despite being in the business for several years now–Dell is not typically regarded as a printer company. At best, Dell printer products have had a reputation as “me too” products, viewed as an add-on to other product sales, and not leading products in their own right.

I attended Dell’s SMB printer announcement and demonstration event on September 29, 2010. At this event I had the opportunity to see Dell’s new line of SMB LED and Laser printers first hand and talk to the product managers of these products. It was very compelling to see the compact size of these printers and also compare some very detailed printouts from Dell’s LED and Laser printers. Also, I had the opportunity to see some printout’s from comparable competitive products.

Dell’s new line of LED and laser printers, launched on September 29^th 2010, provides Dell with the opportunity to change this image and the dynamics of the SMB printer market. The new line-up offers SMBs affordable, high quality, and high performance printers with a compact, modern look and feel at affordable price points. The new line-up should help Dell compete more effectively with higher profile brands such as HP, Brother, Samsung and others.

Dell’s SMB Color LED Laser-Class Printers

LED printers use light-emitting diode arrays to create an image on the print drum or belt as it moves past. The print head flashes light across the whole width of the drum, creating each line of ink dots simultaneously. LED printers are usually more efficient and reliable than conventional laser printers because an LED print head has no moving parts. The use of LED technology makes these printers more energy efficient than laser printers.

As indicated on Figure 2, Dell’s new LED printers are designed for home office workers, very small businesses and small (2-8 users) workgroups or as personal printers in larger SMB companies. At 15.5 by 11.8 by 8.9 inches, the very compact 1250c (starting at $229) prints up to 12 black or 10 color pages per minute (ppm). The printer features a USB 2.0 interface, 150-sheet input tray, and a drum and fuser unit rated for the life of the printer. This means that the only thing small businesses need to replace are the toner cartridges.

The 1350cnw ($329) steps up to 15 black and 12 color pages per minute as well as adding both Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet interfaces for small-office sharing. Its four-in-one siblings the 1355cn ($399) and 1355cnw ($449), available for order November 16 (the other printers in today’s announcement are available immediately), comes with Ethernet and Wi-Fi interfaces for shard printing. The 1355 provides printing, copying, scanning and fax functions.

While LED printers have the rap of not producing as high quality (measured in dpi, or dots per inch) as conventional laser printers, the print quality of Dell’s LED printers appears as crisp as that of a laser printer. Looking at color images printed from several competing printers, the Dell prints appeared sharper and offered better color rendering.

Dell’s SMB Color Laser Printers

Dell’s new 2150cn and 2155cdn network color laser printers are designed for larger workgroups of eight or more users that need higher print performance. They support up to 24 mono or color ppm. The 2155cdn provides dual-sided printing with the duplex printing option, to help businesses save on paper costs and cut down on waste. The 2150cn starts as $349, and the dual-sided 2150cdn starts at $399 offer an up to 40,000 pages per replacement cycle.

Figure 2 – Printer Prices and Print Performance

	LED – Home Office or Very Small Business Direct Connect	LED – Small Work Groups (2-8 users) Network Connect	Laser – Larger Work Groups (8+ users) Network Connect
Single Function (model price) Pages per minute (ppm)	1250c: $229 12 mono/10 color ppm	1350cnw: $329 15 mono/12 color ppm	2150cn: $349 2150cdn: $399 24 mono/24 color ppm
Multi-function 4-in-1 print/copy/scan/fax (model and price) Pages per minute (ppm)		1355cn: $399 1355cnw: $449 15 mono/12 color ppm	2155cn: $549 2155cdn: $649 24 mono/24 color ppm

 

Summary

The average printer’s useful life is between 2-3 years. This means that roughly 38 to 40% of SMBs buy printers every year to replace existing printers or to add new capacity. With approximately 6.5 million commercial SMBs in the U.S. plus millions of home offices, total SMB spending for printers and related supplies in the U.S. is approximately $10 billion annually.

Dell’s new small and mid-size business LED and laser printers are compact, energy efficient, and provide high performance printing at affordable prices. With this new lineup, Dell has an opportunity to gain a bigger share of this turnover and new opportunity by replacing HP and Samsung printers, especially in SMB accounts where Dell is the preferred technology solution provider. At these price points, small businesses can have both laser quality and speed, as well as color printing, at inkjet and black and white pricing–which may hasten the replacement cycle.

The Dell 1250c is one of the most compact and high-performance LED personal color printer that is very competitively priced for the very small business or individual desktops. Dell’s 2150cdn printer is about the same size with higher-performance compared to similar HP printers. In the All-in-one printers, Dell’s (1355cn/w and 2155cdn) are also more space efficient and higher-performance compared to HP and Samsung printers.

However, Dell’s new printers are only available on the Dell.com website, which will prohibit exposure and sales to small businesses that want to physically see and touch products before they buy them. These customers—and there are many of them—are more comfortable shopping at retail stores like Best Buy and Staples–where competitive printers are plentiful. To cast a wider net, and become a leader in the SMB printer market, Dell needs to supplement its direct model with a strong presence for its small business printers at the retail outlets that small business owners and office managers frequent.