B2B Connection

What are Application Performance Management (APM) tools? APM tools are any type of software that help you manage and monitor the performance of your code, application dependencies, transaction times, and user experiences. APM platforms typically contain a range of different capabilities. Standard capabilities of these products include digital experience monitoring, application discovery, tracing and diagnostics, application analytics, and AI for IT operations. Below we’ll define each capability. Digital Experience Monitoring The experience of application performance and availability whether by a human or a digital agent is the bedrock of APM. Tools must be able to monitor and troubleshoot application performance from the perspective of user experience. Application Discovery, Tracing, and Diagnostics These are the core APM services providing the most value to customers. The APM tools should be capable of discovering the application topology—a map of the layout of mission-critical applications in an enterprise, how applications are connected, how they can be accessed by various computers and networks, and how they are currently performing from an availability perspective. Tracing refers to a technique for monitoring microservice environments. When apps comprise many different microservices, figuring out the source of slowdowns is much more complex. Tracing, or “distributed request tracing”, is an […]

Web conferences should support collaboration, so you’ll want to be able to share your screen, for example. They also connect you with people outside your organization. You may want to be able to meet with clients overseas “face-to-face”. If that’s the case, the last thing you want is to have to deal with a spotty connection, or low quality video. Stream to win esteem, if you will! Key Features of Web Conferencing Software High-Quality Audio & Video For 58% of web conferencing users, audio & video quality is in their top 3 most important features Audio and video quality is of the utmost importance to web conferencing software. Users want to feel like they’re having authentic face-to-face conversations with other participants, and quality video is a major component of that. A lag in video conferencing as well as blurry images and crackly audio is a sure-fire way to make any online meeting go south. Beyond the quality of your webcam or microphone, the software itself can feature tools that enhance the overall quality of your experience such as noise cancellation, auto-mute for non-speaking participants, and settings adjustments for users with low bandwidth. Screen Sharing 67% of users consider screen sharing […]

My first exposure to the world of HR came years before I ever had a job, in the form of the cult classic, and utter hatchet job on the cubicle lifestyle, Office Space. I still have no answer as to why my family thought the movie made good viewing for a pre-teen, but the movie’s success and impact demonstrated how unhealthy tech offices, and modern corporate machinery, could be. The release of Office Space, one piece of a whole genre of similar content, added social imagery to the demands for better work environments, and the responsibility to deliver on those demands has largely fallen on HR departments and personnel. Fortunately, HR management software products have developed to meet the perennial and evolving challenges faced by HR professionals. What is HR Management Software? As the name would suggest, HR management software supports HR management processes and administrators. HR management includes the strategic hiring, development, and guidance of a company’s employees. These processes can be conducted by dedicated HR professionals or line managers, depending on the size and structure of the organization. HR management software enables these processes in a variety of ways. Primarily, HR management software digitizes and centralizes employees’ information, […]

Nothing’s worse than getting all excited about buying a new gadget or another piece of tech, only to be met with a never-ending stream of confusing acronyms when you start researching your options!  In the world of B2B software buying, this is a frustratingly frequent reality. But don’t worry, we’ve done the preliminary research for you and come up with a list of 8 need-to-know VoIP terms.  Curious about what the difference is between fixed vs. non-fixed VoIP numbers, or when to use a PBX phone vs. VoIP Softphone? Check out the list below for a primer on all things VoIP, a little bit of IP telephony trivia (did you know that the PSTN has been around since the 1800s?!?), and some quick tip about which type of VoIP software is best suited for specific use cases. 8 VoIP Terms to Know Before You Start Researching #1 VoIP The most important term to know is VoIP! This stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, and is a means of transmitting voice traffic via the internet, rather than using landlines or cellular phones. Businesses have multiple options when it comes to using and setting up VoIP technology. Users can connect to a […]

Today’s Community Contributor is Chris Hyde, a software QA lead who has extensive experience with test architecture, test suite/case management, and test direction for multiple projects. His former development experience helps with understanding how to componentize major test efforts into testable units for both manual and automated test solutions. Check out his reviews on Sauce Labs and JIRA here. Why you should use automated testing This is one of the hottest subjects in software development and testing today. What is automation? How much should I automate? What do I automate? How do I fit this into my development cycle? This is a topic that raises myriad questions. The first thing to understand is what is (and should be) automated testing? Let’s be clear that automated testing is not intended to replace human, senior, skilled testers. These people are very adept at using their experience to root out tests and test scenarios that are often overlooked. Automated testing can be technically defined as transforming a test from manually-executed to run by a machine. This is often done via various automated test frameworks available in the market and by integrating tools like Saucelabs for cross-browser testing. Knowing what automated testing is defined […]

This week, TrustRadius published The 2020 B2B Buying Disconnect Report. It provides an outlook for buying and selling business software and hardware in 2020, based on a broad survey of buyers and vendors. The report tracks year over year trends and changes in the market. It also explores new areas of inquiry, including purchase dynamics within different organizations, the specific impact of reviews in the buyer’s journey, attitudes towards analyst rankings & reports, and how lead handling processes affect relationships. In this post, we’ll highlight some of the key resources software buyers are using to make a purchasing decision. Buyers identified reviews, product demos, and analyst rankings or reports as being some of the most helpful resources to consult. We hope that the insights shared by other buyers are useful to you on your buyer’s journey, and help make some of the obstacles you may encounter seem less arduous.   Who’s doing the buying? Our research uncovered that 95% of buyers work with a group of stakeholders to identify a new tool for their organization to utilize. Buying committees allow for chosen software to represent a more diverse array of interests and alleviates some of the stress associated with having a single […]

Application Performance Management (APM) and Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) look quite similar at first and have misleadingly similar acronyms. Both of these technologies are designed to ensure that IT infrastructure runs smoothly and efficiently. But they are quite different disciplines and use completely different technology. What is Application Performance Management? APM tools are software applications that help IT administrators ensure that the enterprise applications that employees use to do their jobs every day deliver a quality user experience and meet defined performance standards or KPIs. It is not enough to understand that there are performance problems. APM can determine the detailed reasons for performance problems. How does APM Work? Most APM products comprise several different agents for data collection: An application agent is installed on the server running the application and it sends performance data back to the controller. It collects data on non-normal behavior and analyzes the data to understand the business impact. The software looks at things like RAM and CPU usage, response times, traffic spikes, availability, and uptime. An end-user agent collects performance data from end user machines and gives insight into how an application is performing from an end-user perspective. A database agent looks for slow-running […]

Today’s post was written by Cally Conklin, guest writer for TrustRadius. Have you ever thought about humans as capital?  This is a newish concept to me but after having spent the last several days reading about this approach, I find it fascinating.  I mean, what could be more valuable capital than humans and the skills we have to offer?  I love the idea of monetizing and quantifying these assets. The conundrum with trying to fit human beings into a mathematical equation is that ultimately we are human.  We have good days and bad days; we get sick; we have families and laundry and vacations.  This is where the brilliance of human resources (HR) comes into play. The HR department of an organization manages anything employee-related such as recruitment, hiring, retainage, payroll, benefits, leave and termination.    What is HR Reporting? The complexity of managing humans necessitates the need for HR Reporting.  If you are an amateur when it comes to the world of human resources (like me!), HR Reporting is an analytical tool designed to compile data, statistics, and metrics on employees.  For instance, HR Reporting aims to collect information such as personal details, position in the company, skills, and salaries […]

Phone calls and emails have been the two main business communication methods for decades. But companies are increasingly using other technology, like video conferencing and instant messaging applications, to help serve their daily communications needs.  Voice communication, using either traditional private branch exchange (PBX) telephones or VoIP technology, and business email aren’t going anywhere. But the use of other types of digital communication software is expanding. For enterprise companies using multiple types of communication software, consolidating all their communication technology under one platform may be the best move. But for smaller businesses only using one or two of these applications, transitioning to a unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platform may be overwhelming and too expensive for their organization.  Is VoIP being swallowed by UCaaS? The short answer to the question ‘is VoIP being swallowed by UCaaS’ is no. But the larger story does involve the integration of the two. VoIP technology, which allows users to make voice calls over the internet rather than using traditional PBX phone systems or cellular data, is part of the underlying technology supporting UCaaS platforms. UCaaS platforms typically encompass four main capability areas: Voice/VoIP Meeting solutions (including audio and video conferencing) Team collaboration (e.g. […]

Jargon is part of doing business anywhere–but it’s most rampant in the mid-market Research shows no matter where you work, you almost certainly hear buzzwords sometimes during your day. On average, 94% of professionals hear business buzzwords on a daily basis. More likely than not, you’re hearing these cliches often, or even way too much. But it turns out, buzzwords are not distributed equally in the workforce. They’re most pronounced in the mid-market. Looking at the frequency of business jargon based on the number of employees who work at an organization, smaller and larger companies aren’t quite as beleaguered as mid-sized companies. 26% of respondents in this study were from small businesses, 41% were from mid-sized companies, and 32% were from enterprises. Read on for more insight into business buzzwords usage by company size. You’ll find out which buzzwords small business, mid-market, and enterprise employees hate. You’ll also find out more about what makes language in these workplaces different. Business jargon at small businesses Employees at small businesses seem to experience buzzwords the least during the workday. Still, around 1 in 5 respondents who work at a company with fifty or fewer employees said they hear business buzzwords way too […]

Marketers have a ton of digital tools at their disposal. But when those tools don’t automatically work with each other, it can feel like you are taking steps sideways for every step forward.  “From our own proprietary CRM, to our B2C email database to our B2B marketing automation platform, to event marketing software, our tech stack is fairly fragmented,” explains one TrustRadius user, a Director of Marketing. This fragmentation can create large gaps in customer information and communication when left unaddressed.  That’s where iPaaS software comes in. iPaaS solutions enable marketers to get all their separate tools — no matter the environment — to work together seamlessly. iPaaS products like Zapier and IFTTT let you set sequences for triggers in one application and resulting actions in a different application. “Zapier is a great product if you have a fragmented tech stack like ours. Most marketing teams have multiple software tools that get customer information. Zapier is a great tool for connecting those without using developer resources,” further explains the same user.  Along with Zapier, many TrustRadius users explore how IFTTT can reduce divisions in their stack. These two products support marketers to automate their workflows, streamline their data, and receive […]

Everyone wants to make sure they’re getting the best deal, value for their money, and overall highest quality experience. I’m no exception to this – I won’t check out a new restaurant or go see a movie before reading reviews online first! The drive to vet our options fully before making a decision is alive and well for consumers and business buyers alike. And software review sites have made it possible for technology buyers to access high quality, detailed customer feedback about almost all types of software. Think TripAdvisor or Yelp reviews, but for your ERP, content marketing software, or cloud-based business phone system.  While the democratization of reviews is definitely a good thing, it also creates some unexpected problems. Most notably:  There are now HUNDREDS of reviews for you and your coworkers to read through.  There are also HUNDREDS of different products available for you to choose from.  Given the sheer amount of information out there, it can be hard to make sense of it all and figure out where to start. Even if you’ve managed to whittle the list of VoIP products you’re considering down to 5 or fewer options, coming up with a list of the most […]

70% of marketers say marketing automation software is critical to their success. So what is it, anyway?  Marketing automation occurs when marketers pass the burden of monotonous tasks to software logic to complete. Ideally, your team would define this process once, perform maintenance checkups, track the provided analytics, and take action on those insights. What is marketing automation and why is it used? An automated system allows experienced marketing teams to deliver new customers without increasing employee requisites. Having a lean team is important to achieve company goals and function within budgetary constraints, especially in a startup mindset. Common automation themes include outbound and inbound lead generation, campaign management, workflows, email sequences, reporting, and analytics. Some tools are set up for success in different channels like SMS, email, and social media, or are even native to applications.  A solid marketing automation solution will handle your tasks elegantly, but also provide insights around your campaigns. For example, email automation covers several useful KPIs. It includes things like Open Rate, Click-Through Rate, Unsubscribe Rate, Response Rate, and Bounce Rate.  What are the most important marketing automation features? Automated marketing began with the “email”. By sending emails to your customers and prospects based […]

Relaxation is a revolutionary act (if you’re a woman).  Being true to yourself is the absolute best thing to do, because you’re guaranteed to fail at being anyone else. Real leaders don’t pop into ‘fix-it’ mode whenever their people have a problem – they prompt self reflection and action.  You better start lifting weights, because your arms need to be strong enough to carry all your own problems and give yourself a pat on the back when you’re done.  You don’t have to be best friends with everyone on your team, but love and mutual respect will be key to success and growth.  One of the biggest mistakes you can make (before negotiating your salary, or really doing anything else in life) is not knowing your worth.  Once you know your worth – give yourself a healthy markup.  All are insights and lessons from women like Elizabeth Gilbert, Megan Rapinoe, Carla Harris, and Tracee Ellis Ross that I left with after the 2019 Texas Women’s Conference.  Though the conference required a 5am wake-up call, I left feeling energized and motivated by all the women who shared their expertise, experience, and advice. Listening to this group of speakers share insight into […]

Today’s Community Contributor is Chris Hecox , owner of Lucky Whisker, a video production company specializing in post production and animation. He has over six years of video production experience and has written many in-depth reviews of video production tools and business software on TrustRadius.  After Effects can be fairly simple. It can also be a deep dive into a varied web of choices, algorithms, and numbers. When greenhorn animators start fresh with After Effects, options might initially seem limited to simple effects like greenscreen keying or adding ease in/out to naturally animate 2D text. However, after watching Andrew Kramer or countless scores of YouTubers, eyes widen as the world opens up into scripts, precomps, pickwhips, fractal patterns, and of course: third-party plugins. I’m not a genius, and learning to write scripts and expressions seems out of easy reach for me. The longer I’ve animated, the more I’ve called my animator friends and said, “I keep running into this issue while animating. How would you tackle this problem?” Thankfully, there are so many talented thinkers out there who are ten steps ahead of me. They’ve developed hundreds of time-saving plugins and After Effects UI tools that have increased my productivity […]

Amy Paterson is a Marketing professional with over 14 years’ experience planning events, designing ads, website maintenance, building content for web/social/newsletter campaigns, creating and editing marketing materials, and acting as liaison to the sales team of 15 account executives nationwide. She is a graduate of Shippensburg University with a BBA in Marketing. Additionally, Amy is certified in the Adobe Suite, taking classes for Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. Check out some of the software reviews she’s written here. In my experience, direct mail campaigns can prove to be extremely effective and don’t have to be overwhelmingly complicated. We are all inundated with mass amounts of emails every day, so now more than ever conventional mail may be considered a “breath of fresh air” to receive. Although it is more expensive than digital, you may see the ROI is more effective at getting a response. I’ve broken down my success in 5 important points, so here’s how to create a successful direct mail campaign. The Target Narrow in on your audience. Who is your buyer? Understand their pain stake, or why they would benefit from purchasing your product or service. The Mailing List Do you already have a list in-house of existing […]

Any business owner, manager, and executive will attest that a company limited, or empowered, by the quality of its employees. In the face of a tight job market that is impacting the compensation and benefits packages companies provide, prioritizing talent management and development has shifted from an add-on to an essential component of HR services. However, like other areas of HR, talent management can be a vague, ill-defined area with lots of overlap with other HR processes . This is just as, if not more, true for talent management software products. To help business professionals who aren’t sure what talent management software is, why it matters, or whether they need it, we’ve provided an overview of the HR area in addition to a comprehensive list of talent management solutions. What is Talent Management? Talent management is an area of HR management that focuses on cultivating and developing a business’s talent. This includes processes throughout the employee lifecycle, from recruiting to succession planning. Talent management software solutions are offered either as standalone suites, or as modules within Human Capital Management (HCM) suites. HCMs with notable talent management offerings include UltiPro and Ceridian. Cornerstone and SuccessFactors also offer leading standalone talent management […]

If your organization needs a new learning management system, the first step is to get a handle on your requirements. This article provides three resources for corporate LMS buyers: a list of the top 5 requirements to consider, an example RFP to articulate requirements to vendors, and a scorecard template to compare how well requirements are met. Top 5 must-have requirements for LMS TrustRadius talked with experienced LMS buyers about their requirements, and put together this list. It includes direct commentary so that other LMS buyers can learn from how their peers in the field think about and solve problems. Here are the most important factors to consider when evaluating corporate learning management system in 2019: #1 System integrations – from HRIS and CRM to communications and reporting, for example.   Why it’s important to buyers: “In order to create a culture of learning, we had to look at the experience from a learner-first mentality. We want to make sure that learning isn’t something that requires the learner to access a totally independent system. It should look, feel, and interact as a seamless tool that links to benefit information, internal training, and external vendors (LinkedIn Learning, for example) without feeling like […]

Your data is invaluable to your business. That’s why you need to feel confident that you have your critical data securely backed up.  With the increasing complexity of data management and recovery, legacy systems cannot efficiently (or cost-effectively) keep up with your transforming business. You may need data backup and recovery systems that offer multi-tenant needs, unlimited scalability, AWS and VMware integrations and more. When searching for new data center backup software, we often see customers exploring Cohesity and Rubrik reviews. Both are Top Rated solutions and can be seen side by side quickly on our Cohesity vs Rubrik comparison page.  If you want a more in-depth look at the differences between the two, we take a deeper look at these powerful data backup and recovery solutions. Using Data Center Backup and Recovery Solutions Data center backup software allows companies to provide business continuity and ensure that data will not be lost in case of emergency.  Natural disasters, hackers and ransomware all present serious risks to businesses that need to keep their data safe. Data center backup systems provide an extra layer of insurance against the threat of data loss or holdup.  Whereas legacy systems often rely on multiple point […]

Today, we’re proud to announce the new Buyer’s Guide to VoIP Providers. It includes product profile summaries for 7 popular VoIP solutions, in-depth comparison charts, and information about how to tell if your company should start out with a voice solution or if it’s ready for a broader solution like a UCaaS platform.  Why is VoIP Important? Voice communication, whether using traditional landline phones, mobile phones, or voice over IP (VoIP), has been a standard mode of business communication for decades. Rather than being overcome by other forms of digital communication like video calls or instant messaging, voice calls are still an incredibly popular and effective way to get in touch with people.  One reason for this is that VoIP offers an affordable way for small and midsize businesses to set up a professional yet secure business phone system. Most VoIP solutions nowadays are also cloud-based, or have cloud deployment options available, and are therefore extremely mobile as well. Users can install VoIP applications on their mobile phones, tablets, or laptops and be able to place a voice call from anywhere that has a strong internet connection.  This also makes VoIP software an ideal solution for larger businesses with highly […]