New Tools for Your Online Business

There are many new tools and services being launched almost daily for small businesses. If you visit any press release site, you will find that such launches are announced by different companies almost every hour. One might be overwhelmed by such a varied number of product launches, brand-spanking new tools and services that are available to small businesses. The best tool for your business is one that would help you manage tasks efficiently and with little time as possible. One other consideration is the cost, of course. To help you out, I have gathered 5 of the latest tools to help your online business.

Microsoft and Apple have recently launched their own cloud computing applications. Microsoft introduced Office 365 while Apple has the iCloud. Both offerings intend to take you to the cloud but the main difference is that Microsoft launched theirs with small businesses as their target market while the iCloud can be used by businesses and consumers alike. The cost of Microsoft’s Office 365 is $6 to $27 per user per month while Apple’s iCloud is offered free with iOS5.

Another tool small business owners may find interesting is the Intercall solution for Microsoft Lync Online. Intercall is a conferencing and collaboration services provider and this solution would work under the Microsoft Office 365 platform. According to the Intercall press release, some of the highlights of this collaboration include call scheduling via Microsoft Outlook, VOIP/PSTN integration and the ability of participants to join for external locations and multiple devices.

A recent collaboration between PayLeap and PinnacleCart looks to be a promising partnership that’s beneficial to small businesses, whether online or not. PayLeap is a payment platform for merchants and consumers using online payment transactions and with their partnership, PinnacleCart will offer PayLeap’s bundled gateway and merchant account to business owners as an affordable payment solution.

CorFire and InComm recently announced that they formed a partnership to deploy a mobile commerce platform which is going to be tailored to a specific retailer. What this partnership means is that online retailers would be able to offer promotions and deals which can be linked to and redeemed by individual consumers. This would be rolled out in Q4 of this year.