How far has the simplicity of delivering a simple message come? Following on from Eds blog re Riding the Bucking Browser Bronco………….boy oh boy, what complications there are today regarding the WWW (what to use - Fire Fox, flock, ie6, ie7 etc etc depends on the message being sent and on quality of receipt of message ) when all we want is carefree, simple and interchangeable communication….Maybe, just maybe, the www fraternity can learn from history…

> Mobile Phone (multitude of suppliers - all interchangeable) > Fax (BT, AT&T etc - all interchangeable) >  Land Line Phones (BT, AT&T etc ..all interchangeable) > Telegraph (hundreds of suppliers in different countries…guess what..all worked fine + well together) > Letters - Mail (Royal Mail, Poste Italia, Pony Express and 100s more in different countries…all worked fine + well together) > Egyptian-style hieroglyphics (gets a bit more iffy here, but as most people didn’t travel too far from their own areas - worked well - as long as you had a chisel + mallet) > Caveman Drawings - possibly the start of the boy/girl chat up line “would you like to see my etchings?”…drawings understood by cave dwellers (biggish assumption made here, dear Reader)…however, slight drawback with our Cave People - they couldn’t communicate all that well verbally (occasional Uggh and so on) so, when one not-so-enlightened cave dweller, asks of the cave artist, when pointing to a cave drawing, (have to imagine this) uggh, ugh, aahh, ugg? (what’s the weight and wing span of the terradactyl my dear artist?) …the cave artist responds in cavelingo “can’t give you the exact detail until someone invents the www….when all information access and communication systems will be really simple!”

source: Western Mail 24th June 2008 - Business in Wales section -Sion Barry (artcile on Barclay’s Bank ResearchQ1 2008)

S Barry writes- “Despite the economic gloom - 4,300 new businesses launched Q1 2008 in Wales and 98,200 for UK in total.”

In S Barry’s article, the figures show that Wales differs from the UK in New Start Up (NSU) business types: with 21% of Welsh NSUs in Business and financial services versus 27% for the UK in total. Using Q1 08 figures, it shows that once again, the number of NSUs for 2008 in Wales should be around 17,000 and for the UK about 400,000

Woosabi’s focus of NSUs continues, while not ignoring established small and medium businesses (SMEs). In my “humble and very unbiased!!???” opinion, Woosabi is ideal for SMEs and essential for NSUs.

So the past few weeks have been typically eventful and interesting in the life of our little start-up Woosabi. We’ve reluctantly said no to some Angel funding from two really nice guys; hopefully we might connect with them again, sadly the timing’s not right for us or them really. Strange how saying no is quite hard, but made easier when you know it’s the right thing to do for the long term benefit of the organisation.

And also on the subject of saying ‘No’ we also turned down the incredibly generous offer of some ‘free’ office space from Matt Burge of Communications Direct (http://www.commsdirect.net/). Great guy, great location and great space but it was too noisy for our precious developer ears (yep, we’re total princesses!). Seriously though, it was a very tough offer to turn down but we’re at such an important phase in our development - we’re now beta testing with 25 clients and we need total control over our space and environment.

Which is why I decided to convert my garage to the new Woosabi HQ!

Here’s some pics of the work in progress:

Outside

inside pre-whitewash (the more observant of you might notice the Woosabi entertainment system)

inside post-whitewash

Walking over for a coffee this morning I spotted an opportunity to stake out the first Smart fortwo BRABUS. Not only is this car green with its micro hybrid drive (mhd) but it also packs a mighty 98bhp.

I’m a big fan of the Fiat 500 but it struck me how cool the Woosabi brand would look pasted on the side of a crystal white painted fortwo, and while you’re testing out the performance of 98bhp from the lights, those left in your dust trail would read “mind your own business” printed on the rear

Woosabi has something in common with the fortwo… small but mighty, simple to use and designed to get the job done with ease and fun.

So I’m here in San Francisco, not slept in 27 hours, and only feeling slightly tired Actually, that’s a lie, I’m going to pass out. But here’s some pics I’ve take so far!

The Car! (yuk!)

outside

inside

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2901611,flstry-1.cms

Interesting article from The Times of India - Small’s big biz: Microsoft’s new goal 9 Feb 2008, 1041 hrs IST,TNN

A couple of extracts below, it could be argued, demonstrate that Bill G + Microsoft still do not see as their priority or focus the majority of UK SMEs (and the world’s SMEs??) who employ 10 employees or less. Thank goodness there are CRM products, including Woosabi.com, that offer SMEs affordable CRM and Business Management Systems that specifically aim at helping the vast majority of SMEs.

Extracts:

“Bill Gates stepped on the stage to flag off the IT giant’s biggest ever mid-market drive aimed at prizing open the new and yet unexplored markets of small and medium businesses for Microsoft’s new products.”

“Mr Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect, took the floor…….his CEO, Steve Ballmer, minced no words when he told the ‘Business Summit’ that the company was “looking at huge revenue growth from the mid-market customers.” All those who employed 50 to 1,000 employees and spent anything from $20,000 to $1m a year on IT were the company’s targets.

It’s been 81 years since the FA Cup (the leading Football (ie Soccer - for you US guys + gals) trophy) has been won by a team from outside England - the last time, 1927, it was Cardiff City Football Club (aka The Bluebirds) from Wales…..speed forward 81 years (to Saturday 17th May 2008) and…..????…….Yes you guessed…it’s The Bluebirds again taking on Portsmouth….Com’ on You Bluebirds (also best of luck Pompey aka Portsmouth)…Cymru am Byth

Blogs are buzzing after the Google launch of Apps Engine Platform was overshadowed by an accusation of ‘copy cat’ by 37Signals.

All the excitment is focused on ’HuddleChat’, an application released as an example of what is possible with Google App Engine, and is ’accused’ of being a dead ringer for the 37Signals chat offering, Campfire.

Let PR Tennis begin… 

Worried that it would be seen as a Big Bully, Google decided to pull the application, leaving only this message.

37Signals CEO Jason Fried used HuddleChat as a PR opportunity, telling Read Write Web:

“We’re flattered Google thinks Campfire is a great product, we’re just disappointed that they stooped so low to basically copy it feature for feature, layout for layout…We thought that would be beneath Google, but maybe its time to reevaluate what they stand for.”

As far as i can see, all 37Signals have achieved here is a clean ’shot in the foot’. 37signals is a company that adheres to the spirit of sharing and thanking folks who inspire them… but not if you’re a Goliath like Google, obviously! (Hmm, you’re face doesn’t fit so you’re not getting in.)

They may look like a victory over the ‘big boys’, but I cant help but feel they’ve tarnished their own brand values and associated it to a bad precedent of web censorship. At the end of the day web based chat clients have been available for years and they all look about the same.

Google should have kept HuddleChat and left users to make their own judgment, thanking 37Signals for their inspired thinking and positive outlook. In turn 37Signlas should stop listening to their own hype, get back to work, and add unique features to make sure Campfire is always a step ahead.

When all is said and done this episode should serve as a reminder for the web 2.0 startup community at large, that Google is in this to make money just like 37Signals and everyone else.

An interesting survey from Forrester Consultancy.

Summary? Purely my view -

CRM is a growing priority for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

A business can spend loadsa dosh on a CRM system - but what a waste if the CRM is not “right” for the business

CRM must fit with business needs - this survey prioritizes the needs of 260 companies as an example (no surprises for the Woo Team)

http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,44179,00.html

January 10, 2008
CRM Best Practices Adoption
by William Band
with Sharyn C. Leaver, Mary Ann Rogan

Organizations continue to spend heavily on customer relationship management (CRM) — $11 billion annually by 2010 — to grow the top line, improve the customer experience, and boost the productivity of customer-facing workers. To better understand how enterprises can get the most value from this investment, we surveyed 260 business and technology decision-makers and influencers to discover their strengths and weaknesses in adopting 11 sets of CRM capabilities consisting of 150 best practices. We found that adopting CRM best practices is a big challenge for many organizations. A significant percentage of the executives surveyed evaluate their capabilities to be poor/below average for all categories: 1) marketing — 37%; 2) customer analytics — 36%; 3) customer service — 35%; 4) indirect sales — 33%; 5) customer data management — 31%; 6) eCommerce — 30%; 7) customer strategy — 25%; technology infrastructure — 23%; 9) field service — 22%; 10) people management — 20%; and 11) direct sales — 17%. Disappointment with CRM is usually the result of poorly conceived strategies that lack a laser focus on improving a specific set of business capabilities to increase revenues or reduce costs.