Just to reiterate on a comment made in Dan’s recent post “the past few weeks have been typically eventful and interesting in the life of our little start-up Woosabi” - It sure has! Our great little product is now in Public Beta which effectively means its in the hands of ‘real people’.

My biggest concern as a designer is not the expected “Don’t break it!”, some may be surprised to learn that a good creative education teaches you not to be sentimental about your work. Great product design be it software or hardwrae is not about carving into a static block but about shaping a moving object. (If it helps just think how many generations of iPod we’ve seen, and still to come) And this is why we need this Public Beta so we can properly test and scale all aspect of the product so we get it as perfect as possible for each stage of it’s development.

“yeeHa!”

The largest hurdle for us as now is making sure our product is accessible to users with out asking them to migrate from their prefered web browser or install anything new. In a perfect world, yes, we’d all be using one browser and said browser would work with all the sites that we browse. The real world, however, is diametrically opposed to the perfect world. Divergent Web standards create compatibility problems with many site/browser combinations and it’s utterly frustrating to say the least.

We built Woosabi to work with what we consider to be one of the safest and more functional browsers; Firefox. However we don’t want to dictate anything to our users, it’s just not how we want to do things. So, we’re busy trying to make sure ‘browser preference’ doesn’t get in the way of you getting to experience and help shape Woosabi.

We’re not going to make a big ’song and dance’ about supporting a new browser but what we would “love” is forpeople to signup for their FREE Woosabi account and just tell us how they are getting on using their account with their chosen browser.

Yep! It’s exactly what you think! We’ve spent a few quid and got some T shirts printed for the team. We’ve been working hard over the winter months. Summer is here so why not do a little “unconventional marketing” while we’re sat in the beer garden celebrating our upcoming second phase of Beta trials.

So, if you spot us out and about, please come over and say ‘Hi’… and just incase you’re feeling extra nice, mine’s a ‘Brains SA’!

Guess what! We’re even thinking of getting some T’s in for our friends. So if you fancy ‘being our friend’, drop a line to hello(at)woosabi.com or even sign-up to our Beta user list. Limited number of spots available.

Nice detail from an article in www.startups.co.uk

Selling is easy summary in a few Key Words: Empathy, Enthusiasm, Belief, Communication

Anybody can sell, it’s just a matter of finding a way that suits you. You just need enthusiasm for what your business is offering, and the ability to communicate that belief in your product to potential customers. Working out what your customers need and being able to provide it for them is the foundation of any small business.

Yet another interesting article from Forrester.com

http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,44115,00.html

In summary - my view - acceptable, workable, usable CRM systems a must!! for Business users; CRM must……….

be easy on the eye but different (nice design problem for you designer crew out there!)

be understandable immediately - what goes where, what does what and how

be fit for purpose - just get the job done

be flexible enough for New Start Ups to grow and develop to multi-user CRM

We surveyed 74 business and technology decision-makers and influencers to discover their strengths and weaknesses compared to 15 customer relationship management (CRM) technology infrastructure best practices. We found that adopting best practices is a major challenge for many organizations. About one-third say their customer-facing applications lack an intuitive look and feel and easy navigation. Nearly 40% give a similar poor evaluation to their customer-facing applications not being highly configurable. And more than 40% evaluate their applications as poor/below average in terms of strong workflow capability. Robust customer-facing processes are impossible to design and implement without a sound technology infrastructure.

I needed to pick a new graphics card and take Emilia (now 7 weeks old) out so I nipped into PC world. Turns out their graphics cards are literally 100% more expensive than they are online - though they have a new Mac section with internet connections so I could compare the price instore & online

Anyway, as I was wondering around I noticed a point of sale featuring the mugshot of Peter Jones along with 3 different versions of his ‘online business builder’ - each version is really a different subscription amount, 1, 3 and 12 months. The DVD case I assume contains a subscription code to be entered online. Which is how Woosabi would be sold via VARs.

What’s interesting is that the product ‘looks’ like it’s competiting with Woosabi but on closer inspection it seems it’s an online ’support’ system with some payroll and business plan makers. Here’s the website

There are two things that struck me:

Firstly, considering how much of a bully Peter Jones is on TV with regard to people ‘not having thought things through’ and how he’s constantly reminding us that he’s got a team of techies that can build websites and apps, his website’s presentation is terrible; absolutely awful. He might be ‘good TV’ but if he signed off on that site and box art I wouldn’t let him near Woosabi in a million years.

Secondly, it’s reminded me that there is great scope to provide a ‘Professional Services’ module via Woosabi to allow startups to access local accountants, legal help and HR advice.

Thirdly, we are going to release something very special that will be very big. Really!

As we always want to share “what’s occuring” (Gavin & Stacey inside joke) here at camp woosabi. All you Facebook fanatics (you know who you are!) will be pleased to hear that you can now join the official Woosabi Group on facebook and get all the new and insider goss.

Head over there now to join up and get involved with our discussion boards. This weeks topic is: ‘If you could to start your own dream business on Monday, what would it be?’.

RESEARCH from Barclays shows that nearly half (48%) of SMEs in Wales experience problems with late payment.

The research also reveals one in five admitted the impact of customers or suppliers failing to pay on time threatened the day to day survival of their business. Nearly half (48%) of those surveyed felt they wasted valuable resources chasing debts, while four in ten of Welsh bosses are currently using their own money to keep their business afloat while they wait on outstanding payments.

Allan Griffiths, Barclays local business regional director said, “A regular and reliable cashflow is essential to the smooth day-to-day running of a business - particularly a smaller one - and the majority of SMEs cannot afford to wait on money they are owed without feeling the impact on their bottom line.

Chasing up late payments is a massive drain on small organisations, which can be particularly damaging in a challenging economic environment.”

On average, at any given point during the year, SMEs are owed more than £1,000 from suppliers or customers who have failed to pay during the standard 30 day invoicing period. Welsh entrepreneurs typically have to wait around 10 days after the invoice due date before they get paid.

As a result, approximately 42,000 SMEs in Wales have an employee dedicated to chasing overdue payments equating to yet more costs. In those organisations that don’t have someone specifically responsible for the job, owner managers typically have to pursue outstanding payments personally; distracting them from the day to day running of their business.

Mr Griffiths said, “Owners of small businesses are no strangers to multi-tasking and already spend vast amounts of time juggling a wide range of responsibilities. Chasing late payments is an extra burden which they can well do without. Winning new business, driving sales, and fulfilling customer demands are ultimately what should make or break an organisation - clearly a manager’s time is better spent on these tasks, rather than making endless phone calls to late payers.”

Sourced from: clwb

This weekend (5th + 6th April 2008) sees a potentially great time for Welsh Sport in 2008 (not to mention Welsh Rugby’s National Team - 6 Nations!!). Saturday, Swansea AFC go for the divisional title, Cardiff City AFC steam towards FA Cup success once again (hadda mention 1927 agin din I..sorry you Swans!) and Sunday The Ospreys and The Blues take on the might of England and France respectively in rugby’s Heineken Cup.

Now, I realise there’s already enough pressure on the teams…but just remember, success on the field can mean massive rewards off it by keeping your customers (Fans) satisfied - a form of good Customer Relationship Management (CRM); and you know what they say about good CRM? It’s good for business and can lead to increased sales and profits!

No pressure then boys……………….the best of luck

http://www.ireland.com/search/?rm=listresults&filter=datedesc&keywords=crm

(…) at last SageCRM.com, the software-as-a-service version of the popular customer relationship management software, is now available in Ireland. Although built and managed by the Sage Global team in Dublin (…) p

Published: Fri 01 February 2008 - The Irish Times - Finance

Athough based in Wales, UK - with a name like O’Sullivan, I still have a “soft spot” for the Emerald Isle! But I think anyone who takes the stereo typical “soft spot” view of Ireland and of its people and economy is definitely looking through “sentimental, rose-tinted glasses”.

The investment by SageCRM.com in Ireland not only shows the Irish awareness of the importance of ICT (esp CRM) to its economy, it also demonstrates that the Irish Govt (http://www.entemp.ie/enterprise/stateaid/regional.htm) encourages ICT investment in a way, it could be argued, that is more positively aggressive and enticing for potential and new SMEs (covering most, if not all, of the bases required by new start ups) than most political regional development programmes based in the UK. Is it any wonder that the Irish are leading the way in ICT and CRM (saas)…vive la Celtic Tiger!!

woosabi.com is officially “clean”….www.woosabi.com currently appears on SCA-Tork Hygiene site

http://www.tork.co.uk/september8