14 DAY TRIAL // With the latest update for the Daylite Productivity Suite, Marketcircle gives potential Mac "switchers" more reasons to make the leap from Microsoft's OS to Apple's. Alykhan Jetha, Marketcircle's CEO, was kind enough to answer a few questions regarding the switch to Mac in small businesses.
Daylite 3.7.4 integrates with Apple's full iWork suite, giving Mac users more cost effective options for correspondence sent to customers. Besides full support for Apple's iWork, Daylite 3.7.4 also includes a connector to Dialectic, a telephony solution more powerful than anything else you'd find on Windows. All this, and more, now make Daylite an actual reason to consider the adoption of Macs for small businesses.
Choosing the Mac
Marketcircle touts Daylite as "the productivity core of any Mac business." But how did it evolve to this state? Why did Marketcircle choose the Mac in the first place?
"The decision had three aspects," AJ revealed to Softpedia. "The first one was ideological. Back in 2001 when I was making the decision, I felt that the World would be in trouble if there was only one major operating system. There would be no competition and progress would slow. I felt I could help the situation just a tiny bit by providing a needed solution on Mac OS X. I felt that Apple had a better chance of making a difference than Linux did (at least for the masses).
The second aspect was that I was familiar with Mac OS X having developed solutions using NeXTSTEP and Cocoa since 1991. I had already experienced the future with NeXTSTEP and doing something on a lesser platform would be a very difficult thing to swallow and get motivated to do.
The third reason was that we needed a tool to help us grow (we were a very small business at the time). To this day we use Daylite to run our business."
Once you've used the Mac, you want everyone to know that it's great
While Daylite is aimed at companies that deal with sales and at those that track customer habits to sense opportunities, the productivity suite "is not a sales tool specifically," AJ notes. With version 3.7.4 out, we were wondering whether Daylite now provided the necessary tools to convince small and medium-sized companies to adopt both the Mac and the productivity suite. AJ claims they've been focused on convincing small businesses to adopt the Mac for quite some time now.
"Daylite deals with the sales aspect to business because that is a required component for the success of a small business - but it is not a sales tool specifically," AJ pointed out. "Daylite is built around a concept called the Productivity Pyramid and in that pyramid we have things such as meetings, tasks, notes, emails, contacts, users, projects, shared calendars and more."
As for the tools and features that make the switch easier, AJ claims the latest version of Daylite (3.7.4) only includes "refinements towards [their] goal of helping small businesses grow, to become more competitive, and to move forward."
"We've had features that help to convince small businesses to adopt the Mac for a while," AJ said. "We've also had a good sized partner network for a while now. This network of consultants help small businesses implement Daylite so that they can get the most out of it."
Constant updates mean constant improving
As noted above, besides merging with Apple's iWork suite, Daylite 3.7.4 also includes a connector to Dialectic, the telephony solution for Mac. AJ stressed how these particular additions make the switch to Mac a logical choice.
First and foremost, AJ notes that the switch "is not cheap." There are things to consider like "the investment a company has to make in software and hardware purchases. [?] Prior to 3.7.4, you had to either use our built-in letter editor or Microsoft Office to create personalized letters," he said. However, now that Daylite integrates with Apple's iWork suite, the process is "considerably cheaper than [with] MS Office, so the integration helps in that way as well - giving different stylistic options," he added.
Speaking about the recently included connector to Dialectic, AJ claims "the Dialectic folks have done a great job on the integration with Daylite and [that] the overall solution is real strong and much better than many similar solutions on Windows." In his opinion, Dialectic is "a fantastic telephony solution for the Mac, great for people who are on the phone a lot."
Sooner or later, everyone is likely to jump on the Mac train
As some of you may already know, just recently, five companies, all of which are already producing "switch-to-Mac" solutions, have founded the Enterprise Desktop Alliance. The EDA hopes to convince the deployment of Macs in the enterprise (more than 500 employees), validating and promoting the availability of solutions that make it easy to switch to Apple's OS and hardware. We asked AJ: do you see this as a marketing move, or as an attempt to convince folks that "the switch" really does bring more security, stability and workflow to a company?
"The Enterprise is an interesting market for Apple," he replied. "While there is demand, I do not think that Apple should specifically target the Enterprise. I strongly think that Apple should stay focused on the consumer/small business market. If Apple caters to the enterprise, the rate of innovation will slow down, and that is the last thing we need. Recent surveys show that small business is outpacing large enterprise in terms of number of people employed and it is a growing market. That puts Apple in an ideal position for the future."
AJ also noted that "employees in those large enterprises are buying Apple products now (such as iPod, iPhones, etc...) and they are bringing them to work and convincing others to do the same." In his opinion, these people are "also discovering the Mac and its better security, stability and productivity. This poses challenges to the IT staff and this is where this alliance has a role. The alliance can bridge some of the workflow gaps and help the large, slower moving enterprises adapt to the fast moving vanguard that is Apple."
AJ also said he wouldn't go as far as claiming the EDA was a marketing move, "but there is definitely a need and I sincerely hope the alliance can fill the gap," he noted.
Mac vs Virus... er, Windows
Most companies that have already made the switch will agree that Macs are more secure and more stable in most cases. If we were to compare two companies handling sales, one using Windows, the other Mac OS X, it would be interesting to see where the Windows company is likely to hit a wall, while the Mac company is able to move forwards and deliver on promise. AJ offered his thoughts on this too, as "it boils down to usability and reliability of the whole system. Fifty percent of our buyers are switchers and the consistent comment we get is that viruses and dealing with those viruses is just taking too much time." as he said. "Our sales surge when there is a major virus outbreak - in a 'last straw that broke the camel's back' kind of way. The other consistent comment we get is from people that recently switched. They are amazed at how much more enjoyable things are once they make the move. So if you add the two together - less time wasted on dealing with viruses and a more enjoyable system - it's easy to see that you'd get more productivity and enthusiasm out of a Mac team."
Those who use Marketcircle's Daylite Productivity Suite, as well as own an iPhone, should be glad to know that the company is adding the final touch for... well, Daylite Touch, Marketcircle's upcoming version of Daylite for the iPhone. "The iPhone is a whole new platform," AJ said. "It will take mobility to the next level and Daylite on that platform with wireless synchronization (OTA) is going to be great!"
Visit Marketcircle's official website to find out more about the Daylite Productivity suite. If you are working for a company that still struggles with Windows solutions, maybe you should tell your boss to give this article a glance.