SolidWorks World is over, and we have all headed home and back to work. With the big announcement about data on the cloud, a lot of people are wondering what the implications might be to them. Rather than talking about CAD, I have an example of how cloud computing is going to help me run my business better. 

So, I hate all of the back end work that I have to do as a business entity. Quotes, Invoicing, Expense tracking, etc… all seem like a distraction from the real work I want to be doing, and I am going to bring in a college student to do some of these things for me a few hours per week. I had my credit card out, and was about to buy Quickbooks, and I hesitated. I thought “Gee that’s a lot of money for a software package I’m hardly going to use. What computer am I going to install it on?” Well, as it turns out, Intuit, the makers of Quickbooks has an application on the cloud. 

Then again, wouldn’t it be nice if my financials integrated with my address book and list of nebulous projects I have hanging out there? Well, for that I use an online CRM (Corporate Resource Management) tool.   

Choosing a CRM tool is like picking a spouse. While theoretically, you could leave your current system and go to another one, but there is a good chance that would make you miserable. No, your old CRM tool will not take half your assets, but you might not get all of your data out in a manner that’s transferable cleanly to your new system.  Zoho had me at “I’m Free”.

If you want to check out a great example of cloud computing, sign up for a free account at www.zoho.com . In addition to the native CRM application, there are other Apps you can add to your “Dashboard”. It handles email from any Pop account, and it has a money manager, an online meeting tool, as well as a full suite of office tools.