May 2010
In this issue

√ The Virtual Enterprise
√ Salesforce Platform
√ Quick Tip
√ Networking Corner
√ Client Spotlight
 

Thinking of starting or growing a business? How about expanding or opening a new office? There used to be a long list of things you needed to get started before you could even open the doors. Of course an office was first. You need a place for people to come in the morning. You probably need some sort of a phone system. After all, you need to be able to have conference calls and call transfer queues and all sorts of other telephone features. And don't forget about computers. You will need some serious computing power to run a company day 1. You need to setup email and share files and group calendars, and everything else it takes to let people work together.

Slowly but surely that has changed over the years - and it has changed very radically recently. We have seen a proliferation of professional office space to start. These are places you can go to rent maybe 1 or 2 offices and share a conference room. This is good if you need to have people all in the same place, but maybe that's not even a requirement. Why not have all your people work from home? Many large companies are doing it, and technology is certainly there as an option.

OK, phone systems are next. Your range of options here is growing daily. Sure, you could still get a phone system - and there are some very powerful ones that have come way down in price. You could also "rent" use of a phone system. In this scenario, you get just the handsets and get tied back into a large phone provider somewhere off-site. The phone provider then carves you off a piece of their system for your own. You now have all the features of an enterprise phone system for a low monthly cost. Even better is your people can all work from different locations, and tie into the same phone system. One less reason you need an office. If you need to, you can even take it a step further. A solution like VirtualPBX actually turns your cell phone or home phone into a fully-featured phone system end-unit. Now you don't even need to buy the phones. You can do everything you could do from your desk from a cell phone on the road.

Read more

As a cloud computing network services company that also specializes in custom programming, IT Solutions is pleased to add Salesforce.com development and training to our service offerings. We recognize the value and flexibility that Salesforce-based systems offer our clients, and are eager to demonstrate what it can do to improve business workflow and efficiencies.

From the fully functional CRM base product that may only need minor customization to make it fit your organization, to systems that need extensive, under-the-hood programming to deliver results, Salesforce has the potential to be a valuable tool for any company, regardless of size or industry. The fact that these solutions are completely hosted securely in the cloud eliminates the overhead and maintenance associated with similar client-server based products. And because IT Solutions is adept at building custom systems on a variety of platforms, we can typically link to a Salesforce-based solution for the sharing of data to give clients maximum flexibility.

Combine this with affordable per-user subscription-based pricing and no software and servers to install and upgrade regularly, it's clear why Salesforce is the industry leader in web-based custom development platforms. IT Solutions' specific expertise includes custom development using the Force.com platform as well as customizations to the existing suite of products and Salesforce.com training.

Typical engagements only require a limited amount of discovery time to determine scope of work and cost.

For more information on our Salesforce capabilities, or to schedule a demo, contact Jim Higgins at 215-886-7166 x 113.