Schwab Advisor Services used theI MPACT 2010 stage to anoint two vendors for Schwab Intelligent Integration that surprised some people and a third that many expected.”

According to RIABiz, the RIA custodian “picked Microsoft CRM and SalesForce – two brand names not readily associated with financial advisors — in addition to Junxure, a widely used CRM software that is already tied closely to Schwab.”

The industry journal cited executives who said the integrated platform would likely be launched by this time next year.

“It was somewhat surprising … because industry surveys don’t indicate that Microsoft and Salesforce are that high up on people’s list,” RIABiz quoted Joel Bruckenstein, a technology consultant who produces Technology Tools for Today, as saying.

RIABiz speculated that Schwab could be placing its emphasis on “satisfying the biggest, fastest-growing RIAs who need software built foremost for scaleability.”

Read more here.

…

According to SMB technology advisor Brent Leary, a new study has found that small businesses “are struggling with marketing and innovation, which is an eye-opener in an age in which "social" marketing and innovation have gained traction.”

According to the June installment of the “Network Solutions /University of Maryland State of Small Business Report,” the overall health of small business “has declined over the past six months. Marketing and innovation -- the second most important category used in measuring overall competitiveness (only behind access to capital) -- appears to be the main culprit, as it experienced the largest drop in performance.”

The reason why they’re struggling might surprise you. According to Leary, “more and more, businesses are are turning to social tools and strategies to communicate more with customers. In fact the study shows three-quarters of businesses surveyed look to social media to raise awareness of their business, compared to only 56 percent just last year.”

Read more here.

…

Knowledge management products vendor Consona recently highlighted the importance of making knowledge the center of attention for your customers.

Using the experience of their client VMware as an example, Consona recommends companies have “knowledge champions” that take ownership of the knowledge base and the user experience to maintain standards, ensure accuracy and availability, and generally ensure that the system is providing real value to users – both tech support and end-user customers.

One of the most intriguing aspects of VMware’s customer support structure, Consona officials say, is that their knowledge champions “are actual tech support representatives,” brought into the champion position on six month rotations. “As you can imagine, it is challenging for a support manager to take their top resources off the phones,” says Lynn Llewellyn, senior p-program manager – Knowledge Practices, “but they recognize the value of what we’re doing.”

Read more here.

…

Recent commentary on the hesitance of many providers, value-added resellers and their customers to make the jump into hosted or virtualized information technology is “the inability to monitor network performance -- when the network is the Internet itself.”

According to industry observer Edward J. Correia, “over the past decade, a number of powerful applications and appliances have hit the product provider channel that allow for constant network performance monitoring. Even a free application, Wireshark, is software that can trace whether a network is performing up to snuff or whether there is a big problem brewing.”

You’d think that would be all to the good -- and it usually is. But as Correia says, “what happens when an enterprise's infrastructure is the "as-a- service" variety, connected to the physical enterprise by cables connected from Heaven-knows-where to Heaven-knows-where-else?”

Read more here.