NetBooks vs. Other Small Business Management
I've been looking a NetBooks (http://www.netbooks.com/index.html) for my all in one small business management.
I'd like to get some 1st hand info from other users.
The small family business I work for uses an old unix based software made in the 80's. We currently do not have an ecommerce site, but might. We do manufacture some of our products, and our vendor and customer list is in the low 1000's.
Netbooks seem to have the desire to actually be apart of the the small business market, yet offer the robust services of an enterprise solution.
I have yet to convince the owners to askew a bit from their old ways and move up to a more useful and productive management software. I believe this is mostly to fact that the entire business would reside on a server 'out there' somewhere.
I know they are pretty new and lack some ecommerce integration, but otherwise I'm quite impressed.
Should not use internet based software?
"Maybe for very small-small businesses it's OK, but Medium size or larger businesses SHOULD NOT use any Internet based software because SOONER OR LATER it will cause money loss."
I don't believe that this is fully logical. Very large corporations and small ones and all in between use web based applications. In fact, considering the depth and complexity of programming that goes behind todays web languages, most people are running web-based applications, whether they know it or not.
It is a model has worked very well for my company, and I see no evidence that it would cause money loss. The only scenario that would cause such losses would be if the web itself went down or became significantly disabled - in which case, a great deal of commerce as we now know it will grind to a nasty halt.
Considerations for SaaS vs. Traditional Software
Here are a few of the things I would consider upfront when looking at a 100% online solution:
1. Startup Costs: Hardware costs are eliminated, but if regularly upgrade hardware anyway to keep your users running smoothly, it may not be as much of a savings as it appears to be initially, especially with continually decreasing prices.
2. Support: This is one of the most critical pieces as you want to make sure you're able to get help when you need it. Are they responsive and what methods of communcation are available to you and at what cost? This is truly the part that will make or break your experience.
3. How easy is data migration? Do they give you your data in a relational database like SQL Server so you can switch programs in the future if you want to, or is the data all blended together upon export, making it a much bigger job to try and switch programs later.
4. Is subscription pricing guaranteed for a certain period and if it does go up, are there any caps? We all understand inflation, but most businesses would not want to see a steep price increase every year.
Just my .02, HTH.