Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Xobni for Email Management

Bill Gates called Xobni, "The next generation of social networking."

I have read about Xobni, inbox spelled backwards, in a variety of product reviews but never had the chance to download it and give it a try. There are just too many cool applications to try but with enough word of mouth, I finally decided to try Xobni.

Sooo impressive!

It was a super easy download process with a quick MSFT Outlook reboot. (Just an Outlook plug-in.) Xobni then automatically indexed my email folders. From the Xobni side bar, I access my email analytics. Very slick!

Xobni creates a profile for every person that emails you. Within the profile contains information like relationship stats, contact info, social connections, threaded conversations and shared attachments. So if I can't remember the name of a document but remember who sent it to me, I simply pull up the person's profile in the Xobni side bar and locate the document in the "Files Exchanged" section. The same is true for email exchanges. If I can remember either the person I had the email exchange with or can remember keywords of the conversation, Xobni will do a comprehensive email search to help find the threaded email communication. (The Xobni search piece works like Google Desktop and very effective.)

Another interesting email analytic that Xobni provides is the time of day when you are most
productive with inbound/outbound emails, what these ratios are, as well as, how responsive people are and when they tend to reply back to your emails. I can also see when my emails peak during a given day, week or month and who sends me the most emails in that timeframe.

Xobni is also integrated with Linkedin.com, Facebook, Yahoo email, Hoovers and Skype. This is where the social networking aspect of Xobni comes into play. I can promote updates on my Linkedin profile, allow people to see new pictures I added to Facebook, look up company information from Hoovers all from the Xobni Profile that was created. I can also quickly check to see if the person has a profile on any of these sites and if they do, quickly add them as a connection.

Overall, Xobni is a great application to have. If you have issues with email management, want to capture back countless hours of searching for information that you never end up finding, download Xobni now!

Xobni Video Intro:http://www.xobni.com/learnmore/

Interesting Xobni Stats:
· 232.5B corporate emails sent and received daily, 72% are spam
· 133 emails sent and received per day by corporate users
· 701M corporate mailboxes worldwide
· MSFT Exchange has 59% market share in corporate email
· Next four years companies will spend $17B in email software
· Enterprise email costs an average of $435.85 per user per year

* There is no financial compensation for this blog.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Google's Top 10 Products. What are they?

Back in 1999, I use to play pick up soccer in Mountain View, CA at a park called Eagle Park. I remember playing against a bunch of people who wore shirts that said "Google" on them. I had no idea what Google was at the time and I was working for a e-commerce company...who is still a publically-traded company and doing well today but to go back to 1999 and work for Google, WOW!!!

Nonetheless, I am always amazed at all Google products. Everything they come out with is easy, intuitive, and catches on with the public so fast! I remember 3 years ago the first time a friend of mine showed me Google Earth and zoomed in on the streets of Manhattan and then quickly took me to Rome in a matter of seconds. Just amazing technology!

In terms of Google's most popular products, Google Search holds the #1 spot with an estimated 136.6 million unique visitors in the U.S, Google Maps with 36 million is #2, Image Search with 31.7 million is #3, and Gmail with 10.5 million is #4.

Source: Quantcast

1. Google Search
2. Google Maps
3. Google Image Search
4. Gmail
5. Google Book Search
6. Google News
7. Google Video Search
8. Picasa
9. Google Earth
10. Google Groups

Source: ComScore

1. Google Search
2. Google Image Search
3. Google Maps
4. Gmail
5. Google News Search
6. Google Video Search
7. Google Product Search
8. Google Book Search
9. Picasa
10. Google Earth

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Expensive Software Audits

A few months ago I read an interesting article by a news writer, Zach Church. I don't remember where I saw the article or what the exact title was. I presume is was something around "software audits," since that article is the motivation of this blog.

In summary, Zach's article was about a CIO from Austin, TX that got slapped with a $10,000 fine on his Microsoft Exchange licenses and a $100,000 fine in non compliant licenses with Autodesk!!! OUCH!!!

From what I have seen, many surveys state that 65% - 87% of IT executives are not prepared for software audits and do not actively manage software licenses, mostly because the task is very time consuming and manual. Most also know that they should invest money into technologies that automate compliance and provide a snapshot of the overall status of IT but consider these technologies as "nice to have" in today's tough economic times. Many also state that they just don't think they will get audited either by the vendor or by a 3rd party software auditing agency like the Business Software Alliance...that they are just playing the odds of, "It won't happen to me."

Simple solution: To avoid software license penalties, INVEST in systems management-related technologies that provide visibility across the entire enterprise with modules, such as, asset management, asset discovery, patch management, and software distribution. Rather than pay hefty fines, which are sunk costs, why not invest the money in preventative technologies and capture a return year after year.

Of the modules listed above, asset management is the most critical as it allows for significant cost savings in direct expenditure on software and related process and infrastructure costs. Asset management enables strategic infrastructure planning, prevents over-licensing and under-licensing and identifies over-deployment of hardware and its associated costs. EX: A company has 300 licenses of Adobe Acrobat but only 100 employees use Adobe Acrobat. Asset management can identify the software under-utilization and make appropriate changes when it comes time to renew the Adobe Acrobat licenses. The flip side can also occur where a company is using 400 licenses but only signed up for 300. With over-utilization, the company would simply buy more licenses to stay in compliance and ultimately avoid software fines.

Asset management also allows the IT department to control exactly what software an employee can access and significantly reduces the opportunity for users to introduce unlicensed software on to networks.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Product Knowledge Again?

How many times have you heard people tell you, "You just need more product knowledge, then you'll start to close more business." All I ever hear is how important product knowledge is. Yes, product knowledge is important but how about teaching me how to use the product knowledge to close business. Most companies do not focus enough on fundamental sales training and development. Sad but true.

For now, forget about the product knowledge brain dump, the speeds and feeds pitch that you normally do with your prospects. The reality is that if you're doing this, 1) you are talking to the wrong person, typically a non-decision maker who has zero access to money, 2) you are talking about you and your product when you should be focused on the prospect, 3) you are boring your prospect.

Rule #1: Always start your prospecting/qualification calls with questions about THEM. Don't talk about you or your product. Break the ice and establish rapport by getting them to talk about something they are familiar and comfortable talking about, THEMSELVES!

Rule #2: Provide concrete example of how your product will impact their business. Will it improve productivity, performance? Will it streamline processes? Most importantly, how will they PROFIT by using your product?

Rule #3: Storytime. You need to tell stories. People remember stories. Provide examples or testimonials of how other customers have profited. Customer testimonials are never used enough! Get them to visualize how they could benefit by using your product. "Mr. Prospect, imagine if..."

Rule #4: Understand THEIR "perceived value," not yours, THEIRS. We already know they need it. We already know they should buy it. Get them to talk about how they would benefit, profit, etc. Make perceived value realized value and you got yourself a sale.

The reason why sales reps resort to product knowledge during sales engagement is because it's what they were taught to do. We are simply relying on what we already know and are comfortable talking about. Heard this before from a sales manager? "Just tell your prospect that we can do all these things and they will automatically buy." Product knowledge and product capabilities often gets overused because they are the easiest things to mention for differentiation purposes.

The very best sales reps know that they can change the "playing field" in a variety of different ways. The very best sales reps can create differentiation that are multi-dimensional compared to one-dimensional, IE, product knowledge/product capabilities. Everyone already does this! Be different!

A few things that are critical to your sales success:

1. Profit: Companies want to make money, not save money. Show them how they can make more money and you got a deal.
2. Perceived value: What matters is what they think about you and your product. Your opinion does not matter. Again, your opinion does not matter.
3. Proof: Back up your statements with customer testimonials, success stories in PDF, references. Show a video testimonial!
4. Service: Are you reactive, proactive, responsive? Are you fostering customer satisfaction or customer loyalty via your service? Satisfaction is just that, just enough to get by and in most cases, it's never enough. If you get customer loyalty, you have a partner and someone that will want you to succeed as much as you have helped them succeed.
5. Engagement: No engagement = no interest = no deal. If you have not broken the ice and established rapport in 15 seconds, you've lost your window of opportunity.
6. Likability and Credibility: The first sale in any sale is yourself. If they won't buy you, they won't buy your product. Are you perceived as an expert, do you sound like you know what you are talking about? Are you likable and credible?

So we have come full circle. Yes, product knowledge is important. Yes, you need to know your product to sell your product, however, the lesson here is to focus on your customer and to demonstrate creative ways they can profit by leveraging your product. Don't be one-dimensional. Move outside your comfort zone and become multi-dimensional.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

"Do more than is expected of you."

"Do more than is expected of you."
"Do more than is expected of you."
"Do more than is expected of you."

This is one of my favorite quotes from Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich," so I thought I would type it out three times to be dramatic. I've read the book multiple times and each time I read it, it's just as inspiring as the first time.

Some truths are just timeless, this is one of them. "Do more than is expected of you." Simple, to the point and oh so true.

Sales is not an easy job and it's not for everyone. Many people get lured into sales because it can be lucrative and prestigious. Most people growing up don't say, "When I grow up I want to be a sales rep!" It just doesn't happen. Like anything else, sales is an occupation that follows the standard Bell Curve. A majority of the sales reps are average. Then there are a handful of exceptional sales reps to the right of the curve and of course a handful of sales reps that probably shouldn't be in sales to the left of the curve.

What's the difference between these three categories of sales reps? The best sales reps have that burning desire to succeed with hard work. They will do whatever it takes. They do more than what is expected of them. Some many disagree and say that factors like experience, business acumen, salesmanship are the real main differences. I contend that these things can be learned over time.

A strong, solid work ethic and the burning desire to succeed is not taught or learned. It only comes from within and when it's unleashed it cannot be denied.

Michael Phelps did not win 8 Gold Medal because he started swimming at an early age (experience) or knew the mechanics of the perfect stoke (knowledge) or had the best coach. He won 8 Gold Medals because he was willing to do anything to get those 8 Gold Medals, even if it meant spending up to eight hours per day in the pool. If other swimmers trained 8 hours a day, I suspect Michael Phelps would have trained 12-14 hours per day. "Do more than is expected of you."

Every sales rep wants to be the best. Wanting to be the best and wanting to succeed is far different than doing whatever it takes and doing more than what's expected to be the best. Saying, "I want to be the best," is easy. Backing it up with hard work is what separates the best sales reps from everyone else.

Ask yourself if you truly have that undeniable burning desire to be successful. Are you one that goes above and beyond? Do you do more than what is expected because you want get recognition for your efforts or do you do this because you know that there are no shortcuts and that the greatest rewards are always the ones you worked the hardest for? Be honest with yourself.

The good news is that if you are a top rep, an average sales rep or a not so great sales rep, you and you alone have the option to change you mindset, step up your game and get better with strong, consistent hard work.

"Do more than is expected of you."
"Do more than is expected of you."
"Do more than is expected of you."

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Citrix Buys a Phone Company

Citrix ventures into the audio conferencing business with their acquisition of Vapps, based in New Jersey, for $26.6M. With the economy where it's at, the acquisition isn't that bad of an idea since there are many small business out there with cash-flow problems which an acquisition like this would solve. Citrix also benefits with a discounted purchase price. (Vapps has about 15 employees and does about $2M in sales revenue.)

Vapps' main focus is on VoIP, something that Citrix has been trying to get right on their own with their Total Audio Package but have been unable to overcome the ongoing issues with audio echos and degradation.

It will be interesting to see what comes from the Vapps acquisition and if there will be integration with the Citrix solutions.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Citrix Downplays Need for Video at SMB Level

As I mentioned in a blog in October...that Telepresence would enter the SMB and consumer markets, John Chambers: CEO of Cisco, has predicted that Telepresence will be in homes in less than a year. http://davidchao.typepad.com/webconferencingexpert/2008/10/telepresence-ma.html

Brett Caine, President of Citrix, sees things differently. Brett Caine sees little need or demand for video at the SMB level. He has also stated that there is little demand for instant messaging, video chat, and teleconferencing...though Citrix just acquired audio provider Vapps based in New Jersey. (It should be noted that Citrix does not have instant messaging or video capabilities today and perhaps why they the perception is that these solutions are of "little need or demand.")

The only potential obstacle that I can see with consumer-based Telepresence is internet bandwidth. Not every home has a broadband connection as some homes are still using solutions like NetZero. It will be the consumers who pay more for broadband that will see the benefit of Telepresence and want to pay for it, not the NetZero type users.

Telepresence Providers:

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Friday, January 02, 2009

IBM Sametime Unyte 8.2

Earlier this month, IBM introduced its newest cloud-based service for web conferencing, Lotus Sametime Unyte 8.2 It should be noted that the cloud-based portion of this "new" offering comes from IBM's acquisition of WebDialogs in August 2007.

Not many would have imagined the big players like IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP move toward cloud-based offerings but it's clear that they need to to compete at the SMB level and even in some case at the enterprise level. EX: Biotech powerhouse, Genentech, is putting a large stake in cloud-based computing as the company has opted to leverage applications from Google for email, calendaring, word processing, and spreadsheets...relieving it's dependence on the likes of IBM and Microsoft. (Genentech still licenses Microsoft Office.) With an estimated $800K investment into the Google application suite, time will tell if the cloud-based model is the future for Genentech.

The obvious challenges for IBM Unyte is that IBM is a laggard in the cloud-based computing arena and WebDialogs was never successful in capturing market share. Cloud computing has already swelled into an estimated $36 billion (USD) market this year, representing roughly 13% of global software sales so I can understand the temptation of IBM going after this market. Perhaps my thinking is too simplistic...no competitive advantage, zero experience with cloud computing, no experienced or proven sales model that knows how to position cloud computing...why compete?

New Enhancements which I have not been able to test:

  • Language localization in 9 languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian, Portuguese, and English
  • Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime integration with Unyte
  • Participant waiting room
  • Firefox 3.0 support
  • Share PDF's, ODF files, PPT, DOC, and XLS files

Sametime Unyte Pricing:

  • $48 per month, 25 attendee capacity
  • $75 per month, 50 attendee capacity
  • $99 per month, 999 attendee capacity


Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert


Top Social Media Websites

Interesting stats from Comscore...

Top Social Media Sites (ranked by unique worldwide visitors November, 2008; ComScore)

  1. Blogger (222 million)
  2. Facebook (200 million)
  3. MySpace (126 million)
  4. Wordpress (114 million)
  5. Windows Live Spaces (87 million)
  6. Yahoo Geocities (69 million)
  7. Flickr (64 million)
  8. hi5 (58 million)
  9. Orkut (46 million)
  10. Six Apart (46 million)
  11. Baidu Space (40 million)
  12. Friendster (31 million)
  13. 56.com (29 million)
  14. Webs.com (24 million)
  15. Bebo (24 million)
  16. Scribd (23 million)
  17. Lycos Tripod (23 million)
  18. Tagged (22 million)
  19. imeem (22 million)
  20. Netlog (21 million)

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Google's Top 10 Products. What are they?

Back in 1999, I use to play pick up soccer in Mountain View, CA at a park called Eagle Park. I remember playing against a bunch of people who wore shirts that said "Google" on them. I had no idea what Google was at the time and I was working for a e-commerce company at the time...who is still a publically-traded company and doing well but to go back to 1999 and work for Google, WOW!!!

Nonetheless, I am always amazed at all the Google products. Everything they come out with is easy, intuitive, and catches on with the public so fast! I remember 3 years ago the first time a friend of mine showed me Google Earth and zoomed in on the streets of Manhattan and then quickly took me to Rome in a matter of seconds. Just amazing technology!

In terms of Google's most popular products, Google Search holds the #1 spot with an estimated 136.6 million unique visitors in the U.S, Google Maps with 36 million is #2, Image Search with 31.7 million is #3, and Gmail with 10.5 million is #4.

Source: Quantcast

1. Google Search
2. Google Maps
3. Google Image Search
4. Gmail
5. Google Book Search
6. Google News
7. Google Video Search
8. Picasa
9. Google Earth
10. Google Groups

Source: ComScore

1. Google Search
2. Google Image Search
3. Google Maps
4. Gmail
5. Google News Search
6. Google Video Search
7. Google Product Search
8. Google Book Search
9. Picasa
10. Google Earth

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert