B2B Connection

How long do you flirt with a new piece of enterprise tech before you dive into a committed relationship?  Integration platform as a service (iPaaS) isn’t exactly disruptive, but it has meant that both enterprises with legacy architecture and major software vendors have had to figure out where it fits in. In terms of market growth, it seems to be fitting in nicely.  iPaaS is no longer the new kid on the block — it’s a growing software category around the world. But how and why is the global iPaaS market growing? In this post, we cover the trends that buyers should be familiar with as they consider an iPaaS solution. From critical acquisitions to surprising numbers, we discuss into the most important elements you need to know about the growing global iPaaS market.  Along the way, we want to answer two questions: what does the global market growth look like and what does it mean?  Why all the buzz on iPaaS?  As with any piece of software, iPaaS has grown in popularity because it addresses the particular needs of the modern enterprise.  iPaaS is distinct from other SaaS and PaaS solutions because it solves the problem these solutions have […]

We live in a world where our refrigerators have been talking to our phones for years, so shouldn’t our business systems talk to each other as well? While the business value of integration tools, such as Integration Platforms as a Service (iPaaS), are apparent (read this if they’re not yet or if you’re not clear what an iPaaS is), knowing which iPaaS is best for you is much more complicated. If you’re not sure what to look for in the myriad iPaaS available, here’s the top 10 self-evaluation questions to ask yourself to determine what you need. These questions revolve around 3 key areas: You, Your Tech Ecosystem, and Your Data. You These are the eagle-eye questions to ask yourself to solidify what you want out of an iPaaS and the people who will be using the platform. The answers will serve as the background for more effectively exploring the rest of the questions. 1. What do you want to do with an iPaaS above all else? When in doubt, start with the basics. What’s the key function that you envision your iPaaS performing? Understanding what the key value proposition for iPaaS is for you helps drill down into the […]

Today’s Community Contributor is Benjamin Plotkin, Technical Project Manager at California State University, Northridge.  Benjamin has managed software development teams and IT projects for more than 20 years, and has held additional IT and technologies roles throughout his career. He has written several detailed reviews on TrustRadius of the tools he uses at work. Here, Benjamin shares his experience and advice for completing an on-premise to cloud migration. “The Cloud” — a phrase that is, at turns, both idyllic and ominous. Clouds can be fluffy and fun, or dark and foreboding (reports of silver linings remain, at present, unverified).  Will “The Cloud” solve your data center infrastructure problems, or will it “lift and shift” them into a remote and confusing new paradigm? Wikipedia defines cloud computing as the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user.  But you knew that already, right? In fact, if you’re reading this article, it’s probably because you’re considering jumping on the cloud bandwagon.  Your timing is great, because you have a plethora of vendors to choose from. Popular services include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM Cloud (and this is, […]

The ecommerce industry, the amount of transactions that happen online, is growing. In 2018, U.S. consumers spent over $5 billion in online purchases—a 15% increase from 2017. And the range of businesses and number of ecommerce products available to them is growing along with it. This can make it hard to figure out which platform will fit your business needs best, whether you’re a solopreneur just getting started setting up your online store, or a seasoned online business already bringing in millions in annual revenue. We’ve created a Buyer’s Guide to Ecommerce Platforms as a free tool to help you evaluate different products and compare 7 comprehensive ecommerce solutions. The guide also discusses a few key ecommerce trends that are shaping the ecommerce space. These include how the direct-to-consumer (DTC) approach to selling enables SMBs to keep costs low, the convergence of CMS and ecommerce platforms, and the rise and importance of advertising and selling on social. According to our survey of 104 online sellers, 45% are now using one platform to fill both their ecommerce and CMS needs. Product catalogs are increasing in size and complexity, as are the marketing materials required to support them. And the need for […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Proposal Software for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Proposal Software based solely on positive user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. Here are the winners: PandaDoc  PandaDoc is a digital document creation platform that can be used to create proposals and close deals. The software includes a library of customizable templates that can be adjusted to fit branding requirements. An automatic quote creation tool brings in accurate pricing and product information from internal catalogs. Proposals can be customized with media from an existing content library or deal details from a CRM. PandaDoc’s e-signature capability makes it fast and easy for clients or customers to accept proposals. Two-thirds (67%) of PandaDoc users on TrustRadius are from small businesses. Reviewers love PandaDoc for its embedded video capability, product catalog features, and time-saving integrations. “The automations and integrations are awesome. Having automated reminders sent to clients helps keep things […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Electronic Signature Software for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Electronic Signature Software based solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. Here are the winners: PandaDoc PandaDoc is an electronic signature software that promises to streamline and simplify the contract, sales quote, and proposal process. PandaDoc is heavily used by sales teams because of several features that translate well to the sales industry. These capabilities allow users to create approval workflows and track basic sales metrics, such as time-to-close. PandaDoc also integrates with a variety of CRM tools. A majority (68%) of PandaDoc users on TrustRadius are from small businesses. Reviewers appreciate PandaDoc for how much time it saves its users.  “We use PandaDoc to streamline our proposal process. Whenever a proposal needs to be sent out to a potential client, instead of sending a static document or PDF, we author up proposals and send […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Diagramming Software for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Diagramming Software based solely on positive user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. Here are the winners: draw.io draw.io is a free online diagramming tool that integrates with many other tools, including Jira, Google Docs, and Confluence. It includes a library of commonly-used shapes and templates for different types of diagrams. Users can import images and existing diagram files, then export their diagrams to multiple formats. Change tracking and sharing options help teams collaborate and review their work. The tool includes an offline option and is compatible with all major browsers. A large portion (41%) of draw.io users on TrustRadius are from small businesses. Reviewers appreciate draw.io’s extensive template library, collaboration options, and intuitive user experience. “draw.io makes it easy to edit whatever you’re mapping out. Whether adding or removing a box, arrow, etc., draw.io automatically auto corrects […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Office Suites for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Office Suites based solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. So without further ado… Here are the winners: G Suite G Suite is an office suite by Google. In addition to the typical productivity tools, G Suite also includes email, document storage, identity management, online surveys, and meeting tools. Half (50%) of the G Suite users on TrustRadius are from small businesses. Reviewers appreciate that G Suite excels at collaboration and that it is an economical solution.  “We use G Suite across the entire organization. We utilize Gmail, Calendar, Drive (Docs, Sheets, Slides) and Meet. It allows us to collaborate as teams and have easy access to the information we need for our organization to be successful… We love using G Suite!” – Verified User | Director in Human Resources | Computer Software Company Microsoft Office […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Document Management Systems for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Document Management Systems based solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. So without further ado… Here are the winners: PDFelement PDFelement is a document management system that allows users to convert and sign documents in addition to creating and editing them. Other key PDFelement features include the ability to create fillable PDF forms and then export the filled data into a spreadsheet. A significant portion (65%) of PDFelement users on TrustRadius are from small businesses. Reviewers like PDFelement because it is a cost effective solution and it has a simple user interface.  “I am a novice PDF software user. This software is intuitive and very easy to navigate. I am discovering new features all the time and am having very little trouble learning how to use them. There are other, more experienced, users in my […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Expense Management Software for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Expense Management Software based solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. Here are the winners: Expensify Expensify is an expense management software that has intelligent automation built in. Receipt entry is efficient with mobile receipt capture via a mobile app. Expensify can then automatically categorize and submit that expense for reimbursement. Expensify has impressive integration with travel partners, corporate credit cards, and accounting software. More than half (57%) of Expensify users on TrustRadius are from mid-sized companies. Reviewers recommend Expensify for its integration capabilities. “At Numerify, we use Expensify to log all expenses, from entertaining clients, to transportation, to travel related meals, and more. We also use a travel booking software, which has seamless integration with Expensify so that all of our airfare and hotel expenses automatically sync with Expensify, which makes it very convenient.” […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Prototyping Tools for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Prototyping Tools based solely on positive user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. Here are the winners: InVision Invision is a design and prototyping platform. Its layered, vector-based drawing interface lets users create and customize their designs. It includes a timeline view for customizable animations and in-window animation previews. The tool also supports mobile layouts and gestures. Review, commenting, and collaboration tools help teams brainstorm, give feedback, and sign off on finished designs.  A little over a third (35%) of InVision users on TrustRadius are from midsize companies. Reviewers value InVision’s depth of interaction choices, granular inspection tools, and robust collaboration features. “It is a great collaboration tool, where our clients, developers and [ux]—designers can mark out thoughts at any point of the project and respond and share their opinions. I love that I can hand off the […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Sales Acceleration Software for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Sales Acceleration Software based solely on positive user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. So without further ado… Here are the winners: LeadFuze LeadFuze is a lead generation tool. Users can search for leads by role, industry, location,  tech stack information, number of employees, and advertising budget. It can also search for leads within specific companies or domains. Fuzebot, an automated lead generation tool, automatically crawls LeadFuze’s data sources and can return daily lists of leads, including verified emails, phone numbers, and social profiles. LeadFuze integrates with CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot to automatically import leads. A large majority (80%) of LeadFuze users on TrustRadius are from small businesses. Reviewers appreciate LeadFuze’s automatic lead generation tools and detailed filtering. “LeadFuze is best for building lead lists on a regular basis. The ability to ‘niche down’ is very […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Appointment Scheduling Software for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Appointment Scheduling based solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. Here are the winners: Acuity Scheduling Acuity Scheduling is an online appointment scheduling product that allows businesses or individuals to automate the scheduling process. Create meetings with multiple attendees in multiple time zones with ease with a scheduling product. Acuity offers integration with a plethora of applications, including accounting and invoicing clients, email marketing products, analytics, CRM, video conferencing, invoicing, and more. Most (90%) of Acuity users on TrustRadius are employed by small businesses. Users like Acuity because it integrates well with many calendar applications and because it gives the user a lot of options to help manage overbooking.  “Acuity Scheduling is used to schedule many types of appointments at my company. Thanks to its two-way API sync with Google Calendar and real-time updating, we […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Enterprise Content Management Software for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Enterprise Content Management Software based solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. Here are the winners: M-Files M-Files is an ECM solution that manages data by connecting to, not replacing, existing systems in use by the company. It uses metadata to organize data based on what the data is, not where it is stored. It uses AI to help automatically categorize and organize this data. M-Files still allows for document workflows and task tracking. Choose a cloud based, local install, or hybrid solution for your company. A little more than half (52%) of M-Files users on TrustRadius are from mid-sized companies. Reviewers appreciate M-Files for its mobile application and its search capabilities. “M-Files is being using by the whole organization to store, retrieve, revise and approve documentation. The system uses metadata properties allowing users […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Sales Engagement Platforms (SEPs) for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Sales Engagement Platforms based solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. Here are the winners: SalesLoft SalesLoft is a platform for sales engagement and conversational intelligence. It offers account prioritization features, helping sales representatives identify and personalize outreach to high-impact leads while automating outreach to low-impact accounts. Engagement tracking tools help teams understand which messages perform best. SalesLoft’s conversation intelligence system transcribes calls, tags important content, and allows users to share recorded conversations. Sales teams can use its cadence and workflow toolset to automate, optimize, and track interactions with customers. A majority (54%) of SalesLoft users on TrustRadius are from midsize companies. Reviewers value SalesLoft for its campaign organization features, integration with CRM software such as Salesforce, and detailed analytics. “SalesLoft eliminates a lot of the manual tasks we had to previously perform…You can […]

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Sales Enablement Software for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Sales Enablement Software based solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. Here are the winners: LeadFuze LeadFuze is a lead generation tool. To help teams generate quality leads, its contact search tool can filter by industry, role, location, ad budget, and more. Generated leads can include verified emails, social profiles, and phone numbers, giving the sales team more information to work with. The software’s automated lead generation tool crawls the web daily to find contacts that match search criteria. After verifying email addresses, the new leads are added to the list, helping teams keep a steady flow of sales prospects. A strong majority (80%) of LeadFuze users on TrustRadius are from small businesses. LeadFuze’s ease of use and automatic delivery of high-quality leads make it a top choice for reviewers. “We’re already seeing tremendous engagement […]

**This post was updated on October 9, 2019 to reflect recent changes in the Server Virtualization industry** We are excited to announce the Top Rated Server Virtualization Software for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line product in Server Virtualization Software based solely on positive user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products. Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. So without further ado… Here are the winners: Scale Computing HC3 Scale Computing HC3 is a server virtualization platform that integrates server, storage and virtualization into a single appliance. HC3 features self-healing tools that automatically identify and fix issues in the infrastructure without downtime. Simplified browser based management reduces the time spent managing the IT interface. Unlike some competitors, Scale Computing HC3 users pay no virtualization software license fees and have no external storage to buy. Most (74%) Scale Computing HC3 users on TrustRadius are from mid-sized companies. Users consistently appreciate that Scale Computing H3’s integrated solution replaces several stand alone solutions, thereby reducing costs.  “We […]

As the saying goes, “sound data, sound mind.” No one wants to deal with data loss. Whether you’re the CTO of a large enterprise or an aspiring baker like me, data is precious. Imagine if you lost important legal documents from work, or photos from your child’s recital! We all want to take steps to prevent data loss. However, not all of us can spring for enterprise-level data center backup solutions. Thankfully, there are lot of great free or low-cost backup products on the market. While these products may not be ideal for larger organizations, many are designed for small tech businesses and personal users. At the end of the day, everyone deserves to enjoy the serenity of knowing that their data is securely backed up against the many risks out there. So data center backup software providers have created offerings which support that philosophy.  Here’s a list of 6 free data center backup products that are popular both on the web and in TrustRadius reviews. Unitrends Free Unitrends Free is a free backup software that is great for developer outfits.  It is designed to deploy as a virtual appliance in VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V environments. With Unitrends Free, […]

Integration always sounds like a good thing for businesses. Who wouldn’t want their data, apps, and contact info to be more “integrated”? But what does that mean in practice? What problems can Integration Platforms as a Service (iPaaS) solve for people who aren’t already tech wizards or software developers? When it comes to technology in business, experience speaks louder than theory. With this in mind, I sat down with a Zapier user to see what impact a small-scale iPaaS can make for business professionals’ lives. Enter Ariana. Meet Ariana Ariana is a Customer Success Manager here at TrustRadius. She makes sure that clients get the most out of their partnership with our company. This means she works with many clients at different stages, from onboarding to scaling their use of the platform, and she plays a role in delegating and managing the workflow of her entire team. To do so, she’s usually neck-deep in Salesforce, Airtable, and Slack, among a host of other apps. Her Pain Like any informed business professional, Ariana knew that there had to be a way for these apps to work together. Unfortunately, her many of her apps didn’t have native integrations with each other, resulting […]

Women and men suffer equal exposure to business jargon According to a recent survey of business professionals, for 95% of women and 93% of men business buzzwords are a fact of daily life. Gender doesn’t impact the frequency with which businesspeople have to deal with bad jargon. More than 1 in 4 women and men alike say they hear business buzzwords way too much in their typical workday.  Though men were slightly more likely to answer at the extremes–”Almost never” or “way too much!”–than women, it’s clearly a plague upon both houses. The top 18 buzzwords for men vs. women in the workplace Here are the top 18 worst examples of corporate-speak, according to men and women. They agree that “synergy” deserves to be crowned the most annoying of all. But the other business jargon men hate the most differs from what women hate the most.  If you’d like to see the top 18 business buzzwords regardless of gender, see the comprehensive list of the top buzzwords and what they mean here. “Think outside the box” vs. “take it offline”Men and women both hate both of these phrases. But it’s interesting that women are more annoyed by being told to “take […]