Love ‘em or hate ‘em, conferences are a mainstay of any self-respecting industry, and cloud computing is no exception. 2013 promises some good shows, from the mainstays of Cloud Expo, to relative upstarts like ICNC. We’ve gathered information on nine of these conferences and summarized them below. Have a look, and see you there! International [...]
Tag Archives: Cloud computing
Customer Service, Welcome to the Cloud
In the good ‘ole days… Customer service use to be simple — if you had a problem or a question then you called the designated 800 number. In more advanced systems you had a menu of options to choose from (“Press 1 for sales, Press 2 for technical support, Press 3 for general questions”). Still, [...]
There’s you, there’s your customer, and there’s tech
VM Associates is a New York City cloud computing consulting firm. We help companies transition into newer, better, smarter software. Contact us to talk about your business, the cloud, and how we might help.
3 Reasons Why VARs, Vendors, and Clients Need Waking Up
It’s a tough time to be a Value Added Reseller (VAR). For those who don’t know, VARs are a breed of IT consultant popularized in the 1990’s and still near-ubiquitous in certain channels. They’re hard to miss: Without going into too much detail, the VAR model is one of selling software licenses for the margin, [...]
Why the new Basecamp refresh is a sign of things to come (and why that’s good)
So, the new Basecamp is out, released with much applause (and yes, a few groans). We reviewed it last week and found it super promising. Exciting stuff. What’s more exciting than the sexy new project management tool, though, is how it was released. 37signals, the company behind Basecamp, basically rewrote the rules of software releases. [...]
Old Dog with New Tricks: Our B review of the new Basecamp
*Update: Jason Fried, founder of 37Signals, has informed us that their API will be rolled out soon. Stay tuned folks! Basecamp, the gorilla of web-based project management software, has had a makeover. Originally launched in 2004, the project management giant has rolled out massive updates to their bestselling software, including a sexy new user interface, [...]
Confessions of an Office Worker, or why Google Apps Rules and Outlook Sucks
Having worked in corporate America, I have first hand experience with the misguided corporate obsession with Microsoft products. I also have first hand experience of surpassing my mailbox capacity and having all incoming and outgoing emails bounce. I spent probably 15 mornings in three years waiting for our “IT guys” to give me more storage [...]
CRM Solved: Our A+ Review of Norada’s Solve360
Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a confusing space. On the one hand, there’s been explosive growth of powerful cloud-based CRMs, especially for small businesses. That’s awesome. On the other hand, most CRMs you see are crap: they’re either overly complex, overly simple, or just plain annoying to use. Sorting the wheat from the chaff [...]
We’re teaching a class!
Cloud Computing: What It Really Means for Your Business Monday, December 12, 2011 from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM Buy your tickets here. Having worked for years in the exciting space between business and cloud computing, we’re happy to announce a new class on the subject at New York City’s General Assembly. We’re teaching, meaning [...]
Introducing… the “VM Approved” Award
As regular readers know, we review dozens of SaaS applications every month. Our intent? Finding the best the web has to offer, particularly for small to medium sized businesses. It’s our job to find the real gems, the applications and services that make business better. Hence today’s announcement: “VM Approved,” an award we’re handing [...]