Three CEOs each review a different business software package--HR Task Counselor, WebTalk, CRUSH.
New software packages help you position your products, manage your people, and cut your phone costs. Our CEO reviewers take their measure
* * *
Software
CRUSH from Hands-On Technology, Burlingame, CA (800-772-2580; price $499), a marketing-analysis program. (Crush 1.1, released after we went to press, is a CD-ROM with direct Internet access and industry-specific data. Owners of the original CRUSH can get free upgrades to version 1.1.)
Reviewer
Jordan E. Ayan (jordan@create-it.com), president of Create-It! Inc., a technology-consulting firm based in Naperville, IL
Requirements
486/50 MHz IBM compatible, or 68040 or faster processor running Mac OS 7.1 or later; 12 MB RAM; double-speed CD-ROM drive; 13-inch color monitor, minimum 256 colors; 12 MB hard-disk space; SoundBlaster or compatible audio system
* * *
A well-developed marketing-positioning strategy can mean the difference between a product's success or failure. Marketing-consulting firms can help you develop and periodically update a plan, but the service may carry a hefty price tag. Now there's a tool that not only helps you develop a strategy and keep it timely but also lets you tap the expertise of one of the country's leading marketing strategists, Regis McKenna, all for much less than you might expect. The software, appropriately named CRUSH, combines state-of-the-art multimedia with analysis tools and expert advice to help you crush your competitors.
CRUSH defines new levels of quality and interactivity for CD-based business multimedia. Using audio and video, the program leads you through a series of interactive questions about your product, competing products, the market you're targeting, and the business climate, and directs brainstorming sessions on marketing trends that may affect your offering. Finally, based on your input, it creates a positioning map that compares market factors, along with a detailed report and an action plan. It also helps you develop a database to keep the plan current.
Key to the effectiveness of the program is the excellent coaching available through a module called Mentor. When you need advice, you simply click on the Mentor button, and video footage of marketing consultant McKenna pops up with suggestions. Interesting case studies about how Coca-Cola and other companies have dealt with each step of their marketing plans make the concepts easier to understand.
I used CRUSH to help my company position a new Internet-training seminar and workbook we're launching. The program first had us generate a list of broad market trends in categories like New Technology, Economy, and Politics. Under New Technology, for example, we came up with the Intranet, the falling cost of accessing the Web, and the speed of change on the Web, among others. The program summarized the trends we'd noted in a chart, from which we could easily select those we felt might affect the launch.
CRUSH also helped us identify competing products and compare their strengths and weaknesses with those of our product. Then we rated how our product and our competitors' products address the market trends we'd already identified. At each step in the process, we were able to feed information about our competitors into a database; the information could be included in a final report or accessed in the future.
The positioning map CRUSH ultimately generated made it very clear that our customized product is the best choice for companies that want to offer in-house training because it is highly flexible -- a quality that goes a long way on the Internet, given how rapidly the technology is changing. On the other hand, some of our competitors' products -- like off-the-shelf books and and nationwide courses -- are fairly difficult or expensive to change. That information was critical to our sales and marketing plan.
The only problem we had with CRUSH is its interface: it's very awkward to navigate, especially if you're used to Windows or Windows 95. For example, the Help menu is neither standard nor intuitive. Clicking on Help reveals a screen with just three pages of information, not the searchable Help database that is usually found in today's Windows environment. You can't enlarge most of the text windows, making it impossible to see some screen data. There is no spell-checker, and the fonts seem to change for no discernible reason after you've entered information. Changing CRUSH to a standard Windows interface would give an extra boost to an otherwise fine offering.
* * *
Software
HR Task Counselor from Jam.LOGIC Designs Inc., Englewood, CO (800-750-8113; base price $499), human-resources software for small to midsize companies
Reviewer
William Floyd (bill_floyd@ifginc.com), executive vice-president of Investors Financial Group Inc., a $50-million financial-services provider based in Atlanta
Requirements
486/33 MHz IBM compatible; 8 MB RAM; 11 MB hard-disk space; Windows 3.1
* * *
Need help tracking your employees' performance? Confused about how to comply with government regulations? Wondering if it's appropriate to ask an applicant how she spends her spare time? HR Task Counselor, the equivalent of a human-resources manager on disk, can handle those daily personnel functions and more.
The software is a boon for companies in the 15- to 200-employee range, where the HR role is often performed by the controller, the office manager, or even the owner. A single icon kicks things off, revealing four areas of responsibility covered by an HR department. The Application Counselor sets the scene for evaluating prospective employees, offering everything from questions you can and can't ask in an interview to telephone reference checks. The Hiring Counselor provides a company Rolodex, a kind of storage bin for information on company hires. (An on-line module that feeds into the company network gives managers access to the Rolodex and other records.) The Employee Counselor makes it easy for managers to prepare employee evaluations. And finally, the Termination Counselor offers a standard exit interview and release agreement, and describes COBRA. Checklists help you manage details as small as ordering keys for new employees' offices. Other modules allow you to track inventory (for example, the hardware and software assigned to individual employees), report expenses on-line, and even run an on-line library of forms and procedures.
