Celebrating Our Digital Independence, One Meeting At A Time

Ah, the 4^th of July! Barbeques, fireworks, family fun…freedom. Yes, freedom. It’s at the core of what we value and celebrate as Americans. And, although we may not be fighting Red Coats or throwing tea in Boston Harbor anymore, we are still expressing our freedom every day. Here are some of our favorite acts of rebellion in our digital age:

• No more downloads: There is nothing more exhilarating than joining a meeting without having to download yet another piece of software onto your already messy desktop. Meetings from everywhere and anywhere with no delays. That must be what our forefathers had in mind.
• No more email clogs: Breaking PowerPoints into chunks to share them with co-workers or, worst yet, prospects is about as good an idea as making the turkey our national bird. With online data rooms, we can soar overhead and avoid the mess that email file “sharing” brings.
• No more dial codes: Is there anything worse than having to fumble around with dial codes to join a meeting? Imagine what would have happened if Paul Revere had had to rely on many of today’s conferencing solutions to let his countrymen know the British were coming.
• No more unnecessary expenses: Online conferencing and data sharing don’t have to break the bank. There is no reason that there can’t be reliable, affordable and secure choices out there, choices that don’t involve an IT department as crowded as the Mayflower. Thankfully, the cloud has delivered just that for us—simple, easily deployable solutions that make our lives easier without pinching our purse strings.
• No more traffic:  This has got to be our favorite. Today, with powerful web conferencing and online data sharing options, you can work from anywhere anytime. So don’t battle the 4^th of July traffic this week; work from home—or better yet, a vacation home—and miss that terrible commute.

And that, my friends, is the greatest freedom technology has brought us so far. So enjoy the 4^th, cherish our freedom, and don’t forget to save a hot dog for us!

There is A Cure for the Summertime Blues

It’s that time of year again. Kids are counting down the last days of school. People at big corporations are putting in for their two weeks off in July. Everyone is asking you where you are going this summer. And, if you are like most small business owners, your answer is pretty basic: to my desk. It’s enough to get you down, especially when the temperature is going up.

But we have a cure for those summertime blues. It’s the cloud and YouDazzle.

Until now, people who were self-employed or running a small business couldn’t go anywhere. Say, for example, you are a marketing consultant. No client wants to hear that you are going to the beach for a week with limited connectivity because frankly who wants to lug a laptop onto the beach, even if there was available WiFi….which somehow I doubt exists at beaches anywhere, even in California. Plus, what are you supposed to do when that client inevitably asks for you to lead a meeting or better yet simply find a file when not even your rental cottage has connectivity? It’s enough to make a grown professional return all their sunscreen to the drugstore and shut the office shades until summer is over and everyone else is back in their work caves too.

But now, with YouDazzle, your phone or device really can be your office. YouDazzle lets you not just attend meetings but even host meetings from your phone. And with branded data rooms where you can store and share all types of files, from Word docs to PDFs to Excel spreadsheets to videos to CAD drawings and more, you never have to worry about not being able to access and share your information while you are away. You can even co-browse with your clients and help them make a purchase while you sit under a shady elm as your kids play. Whether you have an iPhone, iPad, Android or newer Blackberry device, you can put your office in your pocket and head out to enjoy the sunshine this year.

So, yes, Virginia, there really is a summer vacation. And this year, even you get to have one.
So go get some sunscreen pronto!

It’s Dropbox, But With Personality!

Here at YouDazzle, we don’t mind telling you that we are fans of Dropbox. It’s a great tool! But frankly we’ve long thought that it is a bit too impersonal and not quite powerful enough to share with prospects and partners. So, we’ve spruced it up, and our users—and longtime Dropbox users—are loving the results. PC Magazine even pointed out our Dropbox integration as one reason why we are one of its 25 Best Small Business Apps for 2012.

So, what’s our secret sauce? It’s simple:

• Custom branding: Add your own branding to Dropbox folders and make your brand stand out whenever you share content and collaborate online. Add your logo and color choice in seconds to present a consistent and professional image.
• Web meetings: Instantly share Dropbox files with up to 100 people at once. YouDazzle web meetings are 100% browser-based, require no download, and work with virtually any computer, tablet, or device.
• Commenting: Extend the collaboration capabilities of Dropbox by adding comments to your files. Exchange feedback and ideas with team members, clients, customers, and prospects, and keep everyone in the loop.
• Activity analytics: Keep on top of who’s looking at your files. Stay in touch with trends and decision-making processes with instant feedback on deals and projects! No more wondering if someone viewed your files.
• Enhanced viewer: View Dropbox files without leaving your browser in large format with helpful viewing tools like zoom and multiple page display. YouDazzle viewer supports 300+ popular file types including MS Office files, PDFs, and many more.

So, give it a try today and let us know what you think. We believe that together YouDazzle and Dropbox bring Cloud-based information to life in a way never before possible!

Why Traditional Web Meetings Often Fail—and Never Succeed

A long time ago, web meetings were created to augment face-to-face meetings. They were yet another tool technology was offering to bring us closer. Then, the economy crashed and web meetings became the only way to get close to anyone, be it your colleagues, partners, customers or prospects. This technology, created to be an aid to interpersonal communications, became the whole shebang. And, frankly, it just doesn’t work.

Think of it. Have you ever had a web meeting that was actually satisfying? Or even actually worked? Traditional web meetings have a horrible track record and a bad reputation, which is unfortunately well deserved. But you know all this. Enough with the problems. What about the solution?

We wish the simple solution was to double that travel budget of yours, but that sure isn’t happening anytime soon. So, instead, here are the top three pitfalls of traditional web meetings and some ways around them:

1)    It’s The Download, Stupid: Let’s face it, most of the reasons why web meetings don’t work is that they aren’t really, simple web solutions. They require downloads. In this day and age, no one should have software sitting on their computer. Say no to downloads, say yes to the cloud.

2)    Roam Where You Want To: The whole idea of the mobile office is to be mobile. It is ironic that in this time of virtual everything, people would be tied to their desks to have a meeting. Think of it, when you meet people in person, you aren’t always stuck in the board room. So, find a solution that works on any device and get out there.

3)    A Little More Conversation: Traditional web meetings are all lecture, little conversation. You don’t actually share anything, unless it’s those awkward glimpses at someone’s mailboxes or an unfortunately timed IM from the presenter’s boyfriend. There is a whole new world of interpersonal relationships out there in cyberspace, people! It’s called co-browsing and it will let you take people with you to find what they need and even to fill out online forms (like purchase orders—you get where we are going with this!). Now, this is what web meetings should be about!

So, long story short, there is hope out there! So clear your hard drive of any of those dinosaur web meeting solutions you might have, and start anew! You’ll be glad you did…although we’ll all kind of miss those awkward glimpses into our co-workers’ email! Hey, we’re only human after all!

Co-Browsing: The Ultimate Personal Touch

One of the challenges of today’s virtual business world is finding a way to still make human connections with colleagues, partners, customers and prospects despite the miles between us. Gone are the days when people visited prospects’ offices and made cold calls, now salespeople can quickly get on same page (literally) and control the customer experience from beginning to end.

There is a great online tool you can use to bring back those bygone days of stopping by with a box of chocolates or yet another mug: Co-browsing.

Co-browsing basically means that you can share your website—and anyone else’s website—with someone else in real-time. Co-browsing makes it feel as if you are actually sitting in a room with someone else again, surfing the web and working together. And, if you are in sales, that personal touch and in-the-moment responsiveness helps you achieve your ultimate goal: converting more leads.

Things you can accomplish with co-browsing include:

• Reacting in real-time to prospects’ needs: Rather than waiting and see what sales materials seem to spark the most interest, you can browse your secure, Cloud-based data room in real-time with your prospect, finding the most relevant information quickly and even demoing your product effortlessly and effectively.
• Filling out forms together: Let’s face it, countless sales opportunities are lost because someone gets tripped up by a question, has a submission error or simply just loses steam half-way through the process. With you by their side, you will never lose a sale to a form again.
• Shopping together makes you stay together: Co-browsing is the perfect way to make sure your prospect finds exactly what she wants—or better yet what you want her to find! There is no better way to make online shopping more effective and efficient than by being there to give your customer a hand.

So, you can see how easy it is to grow your business online with co-browsing. And if you really, really miss those mugs? Well you and your customer can design one online together!

Collaboration: That Loaded Term

There are certain terms that have become passé in the tech space, words that have lost all meaning in their over-use, words such as best-of-breed or cutting-edge (or our personal favorite, bleeding-edge, whatever the heck that is). But a few years ago would you ever imagine that an innocent term like collaboration could become so loaded?

In today’s world of all things social, collaboration has started to signify everything from editing photo books as a group to creating budgets as a team. Everyone and their brother claims they have a solution that will let you work together in ways never before dreamed possible.

Consider this definition from Wikipedia:

“Due to the complexity of today’s business environment, collaboration in technology encompasses a broad range of tools that enable groups of people to work together including social networking, instant messaging, team spaces, web sharing, audio conferencing, video, and telephony. Broadly defined, any technology that facilitates linking of two or more humans to work together can be considered a collaborative tool. Wikipedia, Blogs, even Twitter are collaborative tools. Many large companies are developing enterprise collaboration strategies and standardizing on a collaboration platform to allow their employees, customers and partners to intelligently connect and interact.”

If everything from Wikipedia itself to Twitter are collaborative tools, how can you possibly decide what tool is best for your business? Well, we at YouDazzle wanted to offer some simple criteria: present and share, keep your information central and accessible on all your devices.

How can you apply this to your business in a simple way? Deploy a simple solution that combines web meetings, screen sharing and online file sharing:

Present and share—creating Cloud-based data rooms where you can share files is a simple, organized way that you can present information and see what people are viewing when, accessing analytics that will help you give your partners, colleagues and customers what they need to best do their jobs. Add to this a web meeting solution that doesn’t require any downloads or other fuss, as well as some co-browsing features and you have an easy way to communicate, present and share.

Keep it centralized—having an online space where you can store all of your files in an orderly way, including tracking revisions, makes all the difference in the world. Forget about complicated platforms as they just mean more IT support headaches and endless passwords, create a branded data room that can build your image while controlling your content.

Accessible—having that online data room means that you can share documents, track projects and involve people as needed all from one simple place. Best of all, with a Cloud-based solution you are fully mobile, you can accomplish collaboration from anywhere, meaning you have way more options than ever before.

See, once you get past the hype, not everything has to be coined “collaboration .”  After all, people are looking for an easy way to share and present information without all the complexities.  And if that isn’t best-of-breed, I just don’t know what is!

25 Best Small Business Apps for 2012 by PC Magazine

2012 is looking to be a great year as we have some exciting news to share! We have been chosen by PCMag.com to be featured in their “25 Best Small Business Apps for 2012”. PCMag.com has chosen their 25 favorite apps ranging from cloud services to financial services and everything in between. What they have in common is the ability to enhance, grow and improve the success of your business. YouDazzle is ecstatic to be apart of such a great list. YouDazzle has been working hard to provide you with the tools you need to grow your business through affordable online file sharing, easy web meetings, seamless integration with Dropbox and a professional way to present your company through custom branding. With 2012 off to a great start we will be continuing to provide you great service and great features to help you succeed! Check out the article at www.pcmag.com Do you use any of the apps on the list? If not, then what are you waiting for? Get started today!

Four Easy Steps to Go From Virtual to Mobile

Remember when having a virtual office meant that you worked from a bedroom with some dirty dishes, coffee cups and presentation print-outs scattered around you, happily still wearing your bunny slippers at 3 p.m.? Those days were great but today is even better. Because now, at 3 p.m., you can be out picking up your kids or an afternoon coffee with a friend, with your desk waiting at home free of clutter because you already ate lunch out without any worries of not having time to get back by 12:45 to dig up the conference call dial-in and download the software needed for your 1 p.m. call.
Welcome to the world of the mobile office.

You aren’t alone. A recent mobility study by International Data Corporation (IDC) found that the worldwide mobile worker population will reach 1.3 billion by 2015, representing a massive 37.2 percent of the total workforce. So, what do you need to be a part of this sweeping trend? Here are four easy steps:

• Invest in a powerful smartphone: 2012 will mark the first year that 3G and 4G devices will make up the majority of all worldwide smartphone sales, according to ABI research. With these powerful data networks in place, you can now work from your phone as easily as your desk, multitasking while having crystal-clear conversations.
• Move your business to the cloud: The cloud has endless storage, endless billing choices and powerful infrastructure. Don’t rely on servers; don’t even rely on Outlook anymore. You can accomplish more with a YouDazzle account.
• Make your data work for you: Create secure, branded cloud-based data rooms where you can store your files in an orderly manner and, more importantly, share files easily with colleagues and prospects wherever you or they are. Imagine how amazing it would be to never have to worry about retrieving something from your C Drive. You can find what you need through a simple web browser on your mobile phone, post it to your data room for your customer to view, all without missing a word on your conference call. And you can do this from the park.
• Simplify your web meetings: Abandon all those complicated meeting solutions and go with a solution that requires no downloads whatsoever and can be accessed from basically any kind of device out there. Seriously, those solutions exist (hint, hint)!

With just these four changes to how you do business, you are freed to do business anywhere. Oh, and those bunny slippers? Wear them to that coffee date. Hey, we’re from California, we’re used to that kind of thing!

May Old Resolutions Be Forgot…

OK, it’s the second week in January. Have you been to the gym yet? Given up that bad habit? Been nicer to your spouse? No to all? Don’t feel bad! Just follow up on a few resolutions you can easily stick to–remember, we talked about this a few weeks ago when life was good and work was minimal?

Take a deep breath, take a break from your work and:

–Organize all of your files in one central spot. And give them real names, ones you will be able to remember.

–If you use Dropbox, get integrated with YouDazzle and get your tools working more efficiently.

–Analyze this, that and everything else. Once you get those files where you can easily use them, keep track of who does what with them. The information will give you better results than a few miles on the old treadmill.

–Delete that web conferencing software from your PC. Throw out your conference number ID card. And download nothing. Just sit back and relax, enjoy that extra disk space, and prepare for your next web meeting by doing nothing at all.

–Think about how to build your brand this year. Dream big and don’t worry about having the IT staff you need to build a sophisticated infrastructure. Just create an online data room, plaster your personality and invite some prospects on over. And the best thing about this party? You can stick to that lose ten pounds goal…And you thought I was going to let you off the hook on that!

Fresh Year, Fresh Start

Ah, a new year. Time to break out new resolutions with those new calendars. January is indeed the perfect time to clear the cobwebs and start fresh. And while it’s useful to clean out those old sweaters while you make room for some new gifts, it’s even more important to take some time to:
• Create a filing system that works for you: Find a way to group together your files in a way that keeps you organized
• Choose a web meeting solution that actually works—and stick with it: Clear out your desktop of all those web meeting software that you had to use last year and just stick with one choice for your web meetings—and make it one that does not require downloads.
• Invest in analytics: Rather than guessing what your customers and co-workers need this year, keep track of who uses what from your files. Some simple analytics on who looks at what/uses what when can make a huge difference in your business’s performance.
• Build your brand: Your logo is not just for business cards. In all you do, include your logo — be it in web meetings or online data rooms or existing tools like Dropbox – the more your customers and prospects see your brand, the better.
• Make more room, move to the Cloud: Don’t worry about your laptop getting filled up, file your data somewhere with endless storage and excellent security. Bring everything you can to the Cloud.

Aaahh, don’t you feel ten pounds lighter already? That’s right — don’t forget to add that goal to your list either!