About Justin Proctor

http://www.seraphts.com

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CRM Options for Small Business Owners

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is used by businesses to gain a top-down view of their customer and their associated sales efforts.  The SaaS products can track revenue data, customer interactions, and provide insights into which sales people are performing (or under-performing.)  Five years ago CRMs were reserved for your larger organizations due to the license costs; and even the companies who were targeting SMBs didn’t have robust functionality.  But times-are-a-changing…

For the past few years a number of CRM tools have emerged for small businesses.  With price points ranging from free to ~$25 a month, these products would be a great asset to those companies that have a lot of contacts to keep track of, send out email campaigns or a consistent basis, or have trouble identifying areas for improvement with regards to sales.

Have a look at the attached article from CIO.com to read about CRMs which cater to SMBs.  There’s a lot of functionality that comes standard out of the box; but if you don’t see a field or report that you’d like to use the beauty of the platform is it’s customizable (albeit some more than others.)

http://www.cio.com/article/732899/4_Affordable_Small_Business_CRM_Options

No matter which CRM software you choose – Seraph can assist you with the implementation and maintenance.  Feel free to contact us with questions!

Protecting Yourself Against Cyberthreats

In case you haven’t noticed, the threat of online security breaches is real!  And sadly there aren’t enough jails to lock up all the cyber-criminals walking the earth.  We recently worked with a client whose computer became overrun with viruses, causing a loss in work productivity and personal data.  Today’s cyber-bandits come in various forms and can cause serious damage to your personal or professional PC.  We’ve provided an article which outlines some trending threats you should be aware of:

http://alltopstartups.com/2013/10/20/online-threats/

Any machine that you use extensively (whether it be for business or pleasure) needs to have software to protect against cyberthreats.  There are dozens of companies in the PC security space (Norton, AVG and Kaspersky just to name a few) with pros and cons to each.  In a later post we’ll give you our take on the various vendors; but for now just know that you need to pick one and keep the license updated.

Now keep in mind – disaster can strike at any time!  So to protect yourself from losing valuable data, we advise you to invest in a backup solution.  A number of companies (i.e. Dropbox) offer space on their servers for free, and it’s easy to install.   Even if you believe that you’re not on your PC enough to warrant the time and/or expense to invest in a cloud based solution think of it this way:  having your data backed up in the cloud is like having insurance…it’s better to have it and not need it…than to need it and not have it!

Education is key; so be sure to check out the article so you know what you’re up against.   Then contact us if you’d like more information on how to protect your PC against online threats!