Mind Your Business On a Mac: CRM Continued

Welcome back to MYBOAM, where I cover business on a Mac. We're going to continue outlining some CRM options for your business on a Mac. If you missed the first post, check it out, but be sure to stop back to get the continuation.

Zoho CRM

What I like: For companies of 3 users or less this solution is complete FREE. That’s right kids, Zoho CRM is completely free for up to 3 users. This solution is also web based so you can access your Zoho CRM from any computer connected to the web. Zoho is fully featured from contact and lead management to email marketing campaigns, you can do it all with Zoho CRM. Zoho also provides reporting to help you gauge how your business is performing.

What could be better: Free doesn’t mean unlimited. Zoho caps your free usage at 100MB of data. I’m unsure how far 100MB of database get you, but should you need more Zoho is happy to oblige for a $5/month fee. Internet dependancy makes getting to your database difficult if your internet goes down.

Price: FREE for up to 3 users, $12/month for unlimited users.

Salesforce.com

What I like: Another web based solution only requiring an internet connection. What’s even better is that Salesforce.com offers a offline version of your database should your internet connection go down. Salesforce.com also offers a 30 day free trial to see what you’re getting. Salesforce.com fully integrates with Google Apps to power your email and collaborate on documents and is fully customizable for your business. I also like the built in analytics to gauge how you’re doing. Reporting is also fully customizable.

What could be better: Pricing. The smallest package is for 5 users and is fairly costly (See below).

Price: Group edition $1200/yr for 5 users.

The bottom line on CRM: There are many different options with varying integration with your current apps and your current budget. You should think about scalability when selecting your CRM software so think about where you'll be in 5 years as the cost of switching might be steep. I like Zoho for it's robustness and pricing.

Video reviews of all iPod games now available

If you've been reading the blog for awhile, you know from time to time we'll post a new review of an iPod game. Well, at long last, and after many hours of fun (but also frustrating) gameplay, we have reviewed every single currently available game for the iPod. So, no need to buy a game to find out it's a dud, or wade through the hundreds of comments on the iTunes store. No, we've got everything you need, in reviews of 60 seconds or less.

Just head to theGames Page to check out the reviews. Or, if you just have a passing interest in the games, Here's our list, grouping the games into handy categories, with links to the reviews:

Great:
Zuma - Addictive fun, controls that work great... The only game that truly feels like it was made for the iPod. Zuma shows just what can be done on a mobile gaming platform.

Good:
Peggle - Falls just short of the "great" rating, simply because it's a little too easy to win. Otherwise it shares a lot of the same gameplay qualities.

Brain Challenge - It may or may not make you smarter, but you'll enjoy your commute a little better playing it.

Scrabble - Double word score for this version of scrabble. The board is surprisingly easy to navigate.

Bubble Bash - Kinda like Peggle for those with a shorter attention span. Longer levels would make it better.

Yahtzee - Yahtzee by yourself isn't much fun anywhere, but this is about as good as it'll get. There's a pass 'n play mode to play with a friend, which is much more fun.

Cubis 2 - Take Bejeweled and make it 3-d. Sequences of colored blocks just can't catch a break in this world...

Block Breaker - Imagine Breakout with lasers. And fur coats/bling. Oh, and cheesy dialog between levels.

Phase - Guitar Hero for the road. Fun, but it might be a little abusive on the iPod buttons.

Sudoku - If you can't get enough Sudoku, here you go. But you might find the puzzles a little easier than expected.

Ok:
Ms. PAC MAN - Get it for the nostalgia, and not the gameplay. The controls are frustratingly unresponsive.

Sims Pool - Imagine playing pool on a table smaller than a postage stamp.

Mahjong - Small tiles, and not much of a challenge.

Mini Golf - The gameplay is fine, but the cutscreens, music, and transitions are dull. Again, a tiny golf ball on a tiny screen,
going into a tiny cup.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Aegir's Fire - Ripoff of an old PC game, only made duller.

Naval Battle - You sunk my battleship! Some games just aren't made for one player.

Bejeweled - Controls are less intuitive than they should be on such a well-known game.

Chess - Chess is a lot better when you can easily make out the pieces. When the pieces are behind each other, it becomes a chore in this version.

PAC MAN - See Ms. PAC MAN above...

Texas Hold 'Em - Fun, but the computer opponents just don't seem that good. Raise the pot, and watch 'em fold.

Sonic The Hedgehog - Great game, brought down by tough combo moves with the control scheme.

Bad:

Sims Bowling - Maybe the Wii has spoiled us, but this feels like you're far too removed from actually bowling.

Bomberman - We just weren't feelin' the premise, graphics, and gameplay on this one.

Tetris - How do you screw up Tetris: Making the controls as counter-intuitive as possible is a great start.

Awful:
Pole Position Remix - Remixed to awful. Drive, drive, drive, all alone, group of cars, pass them, drive, drive, drive.

(Dis)Honorable Mention: Lost - Lost is the worst game made for the iPod. Fortunately, it's no longer available, so we won't subject you to a video review. Let's just say unless walking in a line, and reading a lot of pointless dialog is your thing, this game is a bust. Maybe it's all a DHARMA experiment...

Again, you can find all of our iPod game reviews on the Games page.

Mind Your Business On a Mac: CRM

Episode 1: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

In this first installment of Mind Your Business On a Mac (MYBOAM) we take a look at CRM solutions. Great businesses are obsessed with their customers and CRM software is your way of keeping everything straight. CRM has evolved to become more than just a glorified address book and calendaring program. CRM now can manage your marketing campaigns, keep track of finances and produce detailed and customizable reporting. I’m going to highlight some of the best CRM solutions for the Mac. I won’t insult your intelligence and spit back what’s on the fact sheets. I’d rather tell you what I like about the offering and what could be better.

Marketcircle Daylite 3
What I like: The great part of Daylite 3 is the level of integration with native OS X applications such as Mail, Address Book, iCal, and iSync. This means that you don’t need to spend valuable time recreating information that may already exist on your machine. I also like the 30 day full featured FREE Trial available on the Marketcircle website.

What could be better: This solution is installed on your Mac which means you need to have your mac with you to access the information. I’d like to see a web portal to your information so no matter where you are, you can access your information from any location.

Price: $149

File Maker Pro
What I like: You might not think of File Maker as CRM software. It doesn’t have an address book, calendar, and it doesn’t integrate with Mail or any other Apple native applications. What you do get is a fully customized database platform. That means you can create a CRM solution based on your companies needs. File Maker also scales with your business and offers a server version so many users can access the same database.

What could be better: The database requires a level of customization that may require hiring a File Maker consultant to develop your database. This can be costly. File Maker doesn’t offer a web portal or sync features so your not going to be able to take your database with you or have access to it from a different computer.

Price: $299-$499 OR $999-$2499 (for server version)

Bento
What I like: Based on the powerful File Maker platform, Bento offers up a slimmed down version that syncs with native OS X applications. Bento comes with ready to use templates right out of the box so setup time is minimal. Should you not like the layout, customization is as easy as drag and drop.

What could be better: Bento is not a sharing platform so if you have several employees or partners don’t plan on sharing the database on your network. While Bento does sync with iPhone and other PDAs (does anyone use a PDA anymore??), it does not have a web portal to the database.

Price: $49.95 (1 license) OR $99.95 (5 license)

This concludes the first segment on CRM solutions for your business. Check back for my continued review including some web based options. If you have questions about the above offerings feel free to leave a comment.

Our shortest product review ever...

It's a Friday, and here at The Digital Lifestyle, we can feel the weekend creeping in. And so, we humbly present our shortest video product review ever: the Grantwood Technology Nike Plus sensor Shoe Pouch. Enjoy!

Nice Guys Finish Last: Safari Use Triples On The PC

In a further confirmation that nice guys finish last, do you remember the concerns some raised about the PC iTunes updater that presented Safari as a software update? Some people cried foul, others said it was only right to fight fire with fire. Well, it turns out the software update escapade got results. As reported by AppleInsider, Safari's PC marketshare tripled. Now granted we're talking about moving from .07% to .21% of the market, but still, it's a significant increase.

However, if Apple's serious about making Safari a competitive browser, there's something they could do that would change the browser landscape overnight. Are you sitting down? Advertise for Safari. Yes, that's right, a full media push for Safari. Not since the heyday of Netscape has someone turned on the TV and saw and ad for a browser, or even free software, for that matter. With roughly $20 Billion in cash, devoting just 1/500th of that money to a Safari campaign could yield incredible results. It doesn't matter if the browser is the greatest in the world (Firefox is dang good) if people aren't first in the mindset to change browsers. When do you think the average PC user last thought about trying a different browser? Anyone who's even considered it has moved to Firefox. iPod and iPhone, and iTunes marketing has reached a saturation point. If a PC user doesn't know about an iPod by now, they never will. Safari, on the other hand, is something new. And the price is right. So rather than spend precious engineer hours pushing Safari through an iTunes update, why not spend the effort and resources on results that will make .21% pale in comparison.

True, unlike iPod marketing, there's not an immediate financial gain from a Safari ad campaign, but imagine a world in which Firefox and Safari comprise more than 50% of the browser market. Imagine what Apple could do in promoting QuickTime (which is somewhat dead in the water outside of iTunes lately) as the default media player on the web (again.) All those frustrating sites that use Windows Media 10 DRM, and therefore don't play nice with the Mac could re-consider if Apple could give them a more dominant solution.

If marketshare continues to rise .14% per month, it will take a LONG time to reach Internet Explorer numbers. Go for it, Apple. Spend the money, or don't even bother with Safari for Windows.