Business Manager

Jose Vanegas asked:

Defining a Business Manager.

When an individual thinks of a Business Manager, their mind often leads to a man or woman that is in charge of a business. Often times, this case holds true, but with new technology other types of Business Managers are being used. Such a Business Manager is not a human, but in fact can be a computer program.

Prophet can ACT as a Business Manager.

Although there are many different computer programs that are available to ACT as a Business Manager, one of the most popular and effective forms of a Business Manager is the software program known as Prophet. Prophet is a Business Manager software program that is made available by Avidian, a computer company that specializes in customer relationship management, also known as CRM. CRM is highly important for many companies, as it is the relationship between a customer and a company that regulates the sales for a company. If there is a positive CRM relationship established, there is a high certainty that a client will be a repeat purchaser. Many companies give thanks to Prophet as their acting Business Manager, as the program can generate multiple sales for a company.

The multiple factors of Prophet as a Business Manager.

There are many factors that Prophet plays upon as a Business Manager. For example, Prophet can regulate a client’s contact database for all of its customers. This means that as an acting Business Manager, all of a company’s clientele can be regulated and organized into an electronic file. A company can keep electronic records of all of their clients, including a company name, physical address, telephone number, and an e-mail address for the contact individual at the company. A Business Manager can do the same things for a company, but it will take much more time to keep everything as organized as a computer program such as Prophet can. Prophet also acts as a wonderful organizer, keeping all of the business contact information in order, as well as easily and readily accessible.

Prophet can save money as an acting Business Manager.

Another reason why many companies are turning to computer programs for a Business Manager instead of working with a person within the company is due largely for costs. The price of Prophet’s Business Manager is quite affordable (starting cost is around $100.00), which makes for a wonderful investment for any company. It is hard to find a Business Manager system such as Prophet that is as affordable as it is. The competitors are much higher, and a lot less cost effective than Prophet. Prophet has proven that as a Business Manager, that the software can keep track of sales, hold notes on accounts for reference, provide graphs and charts of projected sales as well as sales past, and the most beneficial means of gaining additional profits. Prophet’s Business Manager is indeed geared towards multi-tasking, which is what many companies are looking for.

Prophet can ACT as a Business Manager for companies large and small.

Prophet is not only helpful for companies, but for individuals and major organizations as well. For an individual, Prophet Business Manager is great for a small business. This is often the choice for entrepreneurs that have a very small staff, usually under 10 people. Just as a major company can keep track of transactions and sales projections, a small business owner can as well. Sales lead management is filtered all throughout the Business Manager, which is one of the main reasons why there is such a high demand for Prophet software. Business owners are constantly looking for additional outlets for their company, and can find such business management with Prophet.

Large size companies can benefit from Prophet as a Business Manager, too.

For those that are dealing with a larger sized company, Prophet is a wonderful tool for Business Manager as well. This is what is known as the “professional edition” of the Business Manager end of Prophet. The Professional Edition of Prophet offers the same incentives for acting Business Manager as in the small company, but it is also available as a network. When Prophet software acts as a network for a Business Manager, it can be manipulated in a variety of ways. For instance, when Prophet is networked as a Business Manager, it can simultaneously share information with those that are connected to the system of information. That being said, those that are linked with the Business Manager network can generate sales and the likes with the program. Workers that are connected to the Prophet Business Manager network can also see where others in the company have left notes of relevance on an account. This is highly important; as a note may be a flag on an account, such as payments rendered, or accounts past due of payments.

Conglomerate companies can save a lot of money utilizing Prophet as a Business Manager.

For conglomerate companies, a Business Manager is a must. A Business Manager in a large company keeps track of sales, and is responsible for where there needs to be sales generated. Prophet acts as a Business Manager on many levels, and this aspect is no exception. Prophet can be seen as a Business Manager in large, corporate setting, as it can be a Business Manager on many folds. Prophet as a Business Manager in a corporate setting can lead to an ease in record keeping, while showing where there is need for improvement in other areas. As an acting Business Manager, Prophet can demonstrate all of the duties as set forth with other levels of sales. Furthermore, as the principal Business Manager, Prophet is created to hold a plethora of information, as well as keep it all organized. Prophet certainly does the job well with the Business Manager program for corporate organizations.

Palm Pilot can operate Prophet.

Another addition that is important to many Prophet Business Manager users is the fact that it can be displayed on a Palm Pilot. A Palm Pilot, or a personal hand held electronic organizer, is compatible with the Prophet software, and makes for a great mobile Business Manager device. There are many features and benefits that can be generated from using Palm Pilot as a Business Manager. For instance, a Palm Pilot that is doubled as a Business Manager can become the equivalent of a computer, as it shares Business Manager information like the regular Prophet program would on a computer. In essence, the Palm Pilot is a mobile version of Prophet’s Business Manager software.

An overall view of how Prophet is an essential tool acting as a Business Manager.

A Business Manager is indeed an essential tool for any company, but utilizing Prophet as a Business Manager is even more efficient. The information that is needed is easily accessible, and can be transferred time and again. As a Business Manager, Prophet can utilize its electronic resources to generate sales slips and projections. Prophet is not only a Business Manager of today, but also a Business Manager of the future.

About Avidian Technologies:

Avidian Technologies is a software company specializing in creating software solutions for users of Outlook and Exchange. Prophet, developed by Avidian Technologies on the .NET platform, is the leading contact management and sales CRM software built in Outlook. The company is headquartered in Redmond, Washington. For more information, please visit http://www.avidian.com or call 1-800-860-5534.

Shopping Carts: 5 Usability Problems

Tracey Simpson asked:

The process leading up to a transaction online is possibly the most critical to a shopping cart’s success. If the buying process causes frustration, confusion or insecurity, the user is likely to abandon the shopping cart, never to return again.

The usability of a shopping cart refers to the efficiency with which a user can achieve their goals on a website. Many of the larger online shopping carts, like Play.com and Amazon.com, are continuously striving to make their buying process as fluent and as effortless as possible. Knowing you can buy a book or film in just 3 or 4 clicks encourages you to return to the same, reliable website.

Having read numerous articles and white papers dedicated to best practice shopping cart design and usability; below I have highlighted five potential design problems in shopping carts that I’m sure many users have encountered.

1. Shopping carts that ask a user to register before knowing if the product is available or not.

It could be quite irritating for a user if they have spent 10 minutes entering their credit card details, home address, telephone number etc etc. only to find out during the checkout process that the product they want to buy is out of stock.

Many shopping carts enable you to present users with live stock availability before the user places their product in the shopping cart.

2. Suggesting the user buys similar products before adding the main product to the shopping cart.

It’s often helpful when a website recommends additional products you may want or need after adding your main product to your shopping cart.

However, I think you’ll agree that it could be slightly confusing if these additional products were offered to you before even adding the main product to your shopping cart? You press “Add to Cart” and suddenly you’re offered batteries, or insoles or travel cases. Many users would be left feeling confused, wondering if their product had been added or not, or if they’d pressed the wrong button.

Best practice guidelines would indicate offering your user the extra products after the user has finished shopping and they’re entering the checkout process.

3. Shopping carts that ask a user to register before they have even added a product to their shopping cart.

Asking for a user’s personal information before they have even added a product to their shopping cart is not a good move.

Customer registration can offer some big advantages to you as a merchant including recovery for abandoned shopping carts, customer loyalty and email contact. However, many users may be browsing a number of websites, adding products to numerous shopping carts for the main purpose of comparing prices and features. If a user has to register personal details before using the shopping carts, a large percentage are likely to abandon the website.

4. Requiring a user to delete and add the same product to shopping carts just so they can change its colour, size or variation.

Editing a shopping cart should be as simple as possible and shouldn’t require the user to delete anything from the shopping cart.

If a product comes in different colours and different sizes don’t make them delete it from their shopping cart if they want it in a different variation. Users should be able to select from within their shopping carts the different options.

5. Websites that do not clearly show the user the contents of the shopping carts.

Have you ever been on a website and added the same product to your shopping cart 3 or 4 times because you’re not sure if it worked the first time?

Many users that can’t see the contents of their shopping cart in the same browser as the one they are shopping on can often feel confused about whether or not their item has been added successfully.

As a merchant it is understandable that you don’t want to take your user away from the page they are shopping on every time they add something to their shopping cart. Best practice guidelines therefore indicate displaying the contents of a users shopping cart in the same browser, in the right hand corner for example.

To summarise, the design of the entire shopping experience is of utmost importance. These 5 potential design problems highlighted are five of many common problems found on shopping carts.

Which one is most likely to make you abandon your shopping cart?

Tell us about additional usability problems you have encountered!

Which, out of those above, do you think is the most irritating and the most likely to cause shopping abandonment?