Compass Intelligence

The overall housing crisis is expected to hit the IT market to some extent either through tighter lending practices to businesses or consumers slowing spending on gadgets and services.  At this point, it is expected to affect consumer spending more so than business.  I wanted to share a few interesting tidbits and facts about the current housing and banking market pulled from Financial press releases, Bloomberg Data, and RealtyTrac:

• Citigroup and Washington Mutual have recently reported losses, while Wells Fargo reported profits
• Countrywide Financial Corp. and IndyMac Bancorp have closed down, Bank of America purchased Countrywide becoming the largest lender
• Citigroup is the largest bank in the U.S., is expected to disclose earnings tomorrow
• More than 100 businesses/banks have closed, been sold, or halted operations due to the subprime lending practices
• California ranked Second amoung U.S. states in June for foreclosures (According to RealtyTrac Inc.)
• Foreclusures nationwide increased 53 percent in June compared to June of 2007
• More than $400 billion of losses and writedowns have been liked to the U.S. housing slump, according to Bloomberg data

I hope everyone enjoyed the July 4th weekend and festivities!  Well, it is that time of year to start our marketing and strategic planning for next year.  As we do this, I think it is important to understand what the decision-makers are thinking about.  In this case, let's talk about the greatest challenges they are faced with when it comes to IT and technology solutions.  We recently surveyed 1382 IT decision-makers and asked them "Which, if any, in your opinion represent the key IT challenges facing your firm in 2008?"

The answers are below.  As you can see in the chart, the top challenges facing these IT decision-makers include increasing the productivity of workers, lowering operating costs associated with IT systems, and improving their websites.  This being said, these are all good factors that can help guide your marketing messages, sales tactics, and strategic plans regarding your customers in late 2008 and 2009.  Others that topped the list include upgrading computers and managing customer relationships using the Internet.  What do you think about these challenges?  Will they be useful for your planning?  Please let me know if you have any ideas about this or other data we are collecting from decision-makers. 

IT Decision-Maker Challenges, 2008-2009

 Source: Compass Intelligence 04/08

There are so many cool online tools and Web 2.0 (FREE) applications popping up on the Internet!  So today, I just want to talk about a few and share some of the links I think can be quite useful for the SOHO (Small Office Home Office) and Small Business.  Below are a list and links to a few that are interesting:

• www.dovico.com - Tracking and Timesheet Management Software.  They have a free 30-day trial for the hosted ASP solution.
• www.zoho.com - This is the coolest and most popular in my opinion.  This has numerous FREE and paid for solutions for the SOHO business.  Includes solutions such as a word processor (Like MS Word), Spreadsheet creator (Like Excel), Presentation creator (like Powerpoint), project management, CRM, and many other online tools. 
• www.google.com/analytics - Free monitoring of your website traffic
• www.google.com - Other free software on Google includes Google Earth for maps and views of the earth, Picasa for editing photos, StarOffice (word processing and more), and many others.  Those specific to productivity include Blogger, Calendar, Docs, Sketchup, and GooglePack...a collection of free software for your PC.
• www.openoffice.org - Rivals MS Office and its Free, this is an opensource free download that allows users to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, diagrams, and databases, as well as HTML and XML documents
• NetNote Client - Free software that allows you to create notes on your desktop and send to others. It has network capabilities (send and receive notes, Instant Messaging), text notes, audio attachments, alarms and models (templates).  http://www.download.com/NetNote-Client/3000-2347_4-10001853.html
• www.carbonite.com - Perfect for the SOHO or small business needing to back up their files remotely...all files are backed up online...so if you crash you can login later and restore all files or just the ones you want.  We actually use it at Compass Intelligence and it is great!
• www.skype.com - of course many of know about Skype, but did you know it is great for chatting, video phone calls, and more...this is great for the virtual office and staying connected to colleagues

 Of course you can always go to sites such as CNET and ZDNet to see a large list of free software, but just be careful where you look and be aware of those 30-day trials that ask for credit card information.

Essentially, there is a growing list of free software and free online tools (Web 2.0) that are popping up everywhere across the web. I will keep my eyes and ears open for any new ones and send an update next quarter on the latest cool tools on the web.  If you have any others you would like to add, please send me a note or comment, as I am sure others would like to know.  Until next time....

Stephanie

Hello everyone, I just want to introduce you to my new blog!  Yes, everyone is doing it, but this one will be fun and insightful at the same time AND I will talk about topics that you want me to.  Feel free to send me feedback on any topics of interest and we will be sure to discuss them soon. 

Anyways, I am looking out my large open window at the ranch I live on...yes it is a ranch...no horses, but we do have cattle and exotic game (deer, antelope) and am SUPER glad I work from home.  A little fact...All Compass Intelligence workers work from home, so we are a TRUE virtual company and in fact we have workers and contractors in 4 countries and in 4 U.S. states.

Virtual companies are a growing trend and in fact more small, growing businesses are doing this more, while large enterprises are finally starting to accept the fact that some workers are even MORE productive working from home.  The next blog I write I will talk a little bit about the remote and mobile workforce.

 For now, I will share with you a few pictures of my office location....awww the beauty of working from home!

 Stephanie Atkinson