Hosted services/apps

[Gordon N]

Doing some research on some ideas I have burning away...

I would be keen to find out if any of you regularly use online hosted services or applications on a regular basis? More specifically services that you rely on for the day-to-day running of your business.

I, for example recently made a move over to FreeAgent for my financial stuff as it offers everything I need in a simple form and allows for shared access with the people who need the info or help me with that side of my business. I have also looked at services such as Basecamp, Highrise, MailChimp and similar for other areas of the business that may streamline or simplify the administration process or improve on client communication.

A few questions to get you thinking:

1. What services (if any) do you currently use and why?
2. What are your opinions/feelings toward hosted services?
3. Is there a service you would use, but can't find?
4. Any specific reasons for not using such services?

Open floor, I'm just looking for general opinions and thoughts across as wide a range of business/industries as possible!

(by the way if you like the look of FreeAgent I can give you my affiliate link that gets us both a discount, thought it would be rude to post it as the link though!)

 

[Gordon N]

Thought I'd be a touch ironic! :001_tongue:

Why not take my survey on this which I am using a hosted service to run!

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Well first off we use mailchimp on SBF which I actually rate as the best email marketing system out there. I spend alot of time online and when you see how many well respected people are using it it feels really good to have spotted it before them!

My main email system now is gmail and while it's had a few teething problems recently there's nothing there at present that I think beats it. I also use google for document sharing an collaboration which again is fantastic.

Another system I am really getting into just now is dotproject which is a hosted project management system. Stu and myself are starting to use this as we are starting to develop other opportunities and it really is a great way of tracking where you are and what needs done.

I'm sure I use much more but will see how the thread develops and give others a chance to have their say. I'll go do the survey now as well

 

[stugster]

I've just moved my diary system over to Google Calendar, and aside from the tiny downtime on Friday, it's absolutely fantastic.

My main worry about hosted services is that the end user has no real control over its availability. From a business point of view, this could result in a huge loss of earnings if the service provider doesn't provide an infallible service.

Having said that, if you have the SLA's in place to 'guarantee' the service availability, or to at least reduce downtime to a minimum, then it's definitely the way to go nowadays.

Internet Browsers are capable of much more than loading a website nowadays, so there's no reason why a business couldn't use that browser to access absolutely everything they needed. I've used KashFlow in the past, which works really well.

Remember though, there are associated costs with just running the service, so if you're looking at your financial forecasts, make sure you include an accurate figure for this!

P.S. I'll go do the survey now