Cloud Software we use at CloudSource Solutions – Part two
February 2nd, 2012 // 3:59 am @ admin
I thought it would be a good idea as we get moving in 2012 to do a quick follow up post to my article from April 2011 about the ‘Cloud Software’ we use at CloudSource Solutions, to compare the shifts we have made through 2012. The great thing about using cloud based web apps is that generally the subscriptions are ‘month to month’ so it’s very easy to switch between solutions as your requirements change.
- Yuuguu – simple app to share your desktop for product demo’s We have been using GoToMeeting from Citrix form the past 6 months and love it. Yuuguu was great initially but we found it’s VOIP capabilities were limited and we needed a heavier duty solution. By far the two highest rated systems are GoToMeeting and WebEx an after a trial of both we settled on GTM as the most robust solution. It’s around $40 a month but completely worth it. Great audio, screen share and now has ‘HD faces’ for great webcam chat. I use it to deliver online training and product demos several times a week.
- Evernote – I use this for everything from storing business cards of people I Meet to my bookmarks service While we still use Evernote to be honest it’s pretty occasional now.
- Google apps – This just keeps getting stronger and stronger. Hopefully ‘hangouts’ from Google+ will be integrated with Google Apps soon for group videoconferencing
- Coursedirector – Great news: Google now has opened up the API’s on the free edition of Google Apps so CourseDirector works there now as well. Now being used by colleges such as Rutgers in the US and Middlesex University in the UK.
- Zoho – Great simple and functional CRM, free for up to 3 users – We still set up Zoho for may clients and are a Zoho partner
- salesforce.com – As a salesforce partner we set up and maintain 1000’s of salesforce user accounts and are experts in the system. We have re-started using salesforce again internally in one division of our business
- NEW Highrise – If you see my previous post about 37signals and my admiration for their business philosophy I mentioned how we did not actually use any 37signals products. I’m happy to say this has now changed and I can highly recommend Highrise as a simple, super easy to use CRM. It’s not good for complex workflow solutions but if your sales cycle is pretty simple it’s great.
- MailChimp – Can manage an email list of up to 1000 users for free. We’ve expanded our MailChimp usage and now have almost 8000 subscribers on our list and still growing. It’s worth noting that you can now have up to 2000 subscribers on the free plan!
- Linode – great hosting service, UK And US based servers and we use both depending on our clients location – We still use and recommend
- Godaddy – This is the only service I use regularly that I feel strained to recommend. Incredibly spammy interface - We still use and I wouldn’t say we recommend but ‘it’s functional’
- AgileZen – Great project management tool - We still use. This is based on ’scrum’ methodology and is only really useful if you are adopting an ‘agile’ development cycle of quick release and then rapid product iterations, as we do with our ‘CourseDirector’ App.
- NEW Dropbox – We set up Dropbox for many clients and with the new team edition it is pretty much at the level where a smal or medium sized business can ditch their file server and move to a simple and cost-effective virtual Dropbox solution.
- NEW AmazonS3 – Bulletproof virtual servers. We use them from everything to hosting applications for clients to setting up online file servers for larger clients
You can contact me at info at cloudsourcesolutions.com We are experts at setting up and supporting cloud-based solutions to reduce your costs and simplify your company operations!
Category : Blog
admin
3 months ago
Update: We missed off EchoSign off the list. Great way to sign agreements electronically.