Courtesy of a Twitter notification I see that Pearl has uploaded a new ‘what is’ video covering the use of a simple client portal to manage a quote to cash transaction. I am constantly amazed how small development shops like Pearl come up with great ideas that can respectably sit alongside much large (and more expensive) systems such as SAP Business ByDesign and Netsuite. How can I make that comparison?
Last week I attended a shoot out between BYD and NS. I filmed a good chunk of proceedings but so far have restricted myself to putting the panel discussion out on the public internet. In viewing Pearl’s demonstration, I can see direct comparisons that render Pearl arguably slicker. The direct integration to email is a great example of a time saver that many will welcome. The next step must surely be automatic pop up notification in the portal. Integration to payment gateways is another piece of functional goodness.
I still find Pearl’s interface a tad ugly and in technical terms, they could do with some AJAX treatment to avoid unnecessary screen refreshes. Like it or not, a good looking user interface matters. But then nobody’s perfect.
What’s more troubling to me is that smaller vendors which are trying hard to do good things rarely get the attention they deserve. In part that is the fault of people like me who tend to concentrate on the better known brands or those that create an ongoing dialogue. But equally, the smaller vendors don’t have the capital to put into marketing their wares. This is something Xero got right from the get go and which allows them to put money into marketing and sales in a way the smaller players simply cannot match.
In 2010, I’d like to see the investment community take a bolder approach to innovative companies. The rewards will be there if they are prepared to take the opportunities afforded by some of the UKs brightest young things. On the other side, SaaS start ups will need to be a lot more inventive in their go to market strategies.
In the meantime, I’d encourage you to check out the portal demonstration. It’s a good investment of 5 minutes of your time.
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