TMCnet News

WORKetc Founder: Small Biz Tools 'Hurting' SMBs
[February 22, 2010]

WORKetc Founder: Small Biz Tools 'Hurting' SMBs


TMCnet Contributing Editor
 
If WORKetc Founder Daniel Barnett is to be believed, the current crop of cloud small business tools are actually hurting small business, not helping them.
 
'What we are seeing time and time again, are small businesses that have jumped on board with some web app that helps only one part of their business,' he said. 'Be it CRM, project management, billing or whatever. Next week, they discover another app, then another and another.'


 
But before they know it, he said, they're paying five different monthly subscriptions, having to remember five different logins, five different workflows and then try and find a way to synchronize data between everything: 'It just doesn’t make sense.”

 
Barnett said he was frustrated 'watching small business throw money after single focus solutions.' So the WORKetc team is 'speaking out against the money drain. Taking on bigger players, WORKetc wants business to understand that 37 doesn’t go into one, and never will.'
 
Last August, TMCnet reported that Barnett said 'unfortunately for large businesses, it is difficult to stop staff entering inaccurate data, but for smaller businesses there is a much simpler solution.' His company, online CRM software developers, offered an alternative to programs like Salesforce 'designed to make sense in a small business environment' by combining CRM with project management and billing.
 
“We started this movement because we needed a tool for our own business,” Barnett said, including 'a single place to manage my customers, run projects, close sales and invoice clients.”
 
WORKetc has '14 business tools,' Barnett said, including 'CRM, billing, project management and now e-mail marketing in its arsenal.' The vendor's marketing it as a single-point product for small business, claiming customers have been 'evangelical in their uptake. Clients tell me all the time no cloud app has the completeness that WORKetc does.'
 
The product lets users share projects with clients in a secure online environment, allowing real time project tracking, feedback and billing. It's available in English, Spanish and German.
Pricing starts from $29.95 a month with a free 14-day trial.
 

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Edited by Amy Tierney

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]