Sales Graphics Blog

Close to a quarter million people are currently participating in some form of BYOD with their organization, and this number is about to grow rapidly. As the infographic below shows, tablets are not only commonplace, they also make their employees more productive.

With that said, the tablet surge isn’t without its challenges. Privacy is an issue we’ve addressed multiple times on the Sales Graphics and Presentation Agency blogs, but one concern we haven’t talked about is the struggle to find the right apps. As the infographic below shows, only 38% of organizations know how to provide their employees the right apps based on the roles they serve in their company.

Are marketing teams supposed to use storage solutions like Dropbox or Box to trade presentations back and forth with sales teams? What happens when someone edits that PowerPoint presentation, and should the company be using PowerPoint or some other solution? For businesses that hobble along with pseudo-solutions like PowerPoint and Keynote, the lack of version control and central slide library management makes for hard work on everyone’s part.

That’s why we focus on CustomShow. After working in the presentation world every day for more than 50 years, we’ve learned a thing or two about how presentations work in the enterprise world. That’s why we’ve built the ultimate solution that solves one of BYOD’s biggest concerns. If you’ve wondered if there might be something better than PowerPoint out there for your company, you’ve found the solution. Contact us for more information and we’ll tell you how you can use our technology to close more deals.

There’s something fundamentally flawed about PowerPoint and Keynote, yet for some reason many companies are still trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. A single slide edit usually results at least one of these all too familiar issues.

1. The loss of brand consistency. A single slide edit ends up as jumbled as a game of telephone gone wrong when every sales person in the company tries to edit their version of the latest PowerPoint.

2. The delivery time sucks. When the new presentation edit exceeds the typical allotted attachment size (which happens most of the time), everyone’s left toiling over WeTransfer, multiple Dropbox versions, or any other service brought in as a band-aid for a flawed presentation software.

As a global company, Western Union knew these problems all too well. Their game of telephone wasn’t only in English, and finding a file transfer service that works globally is close to impossible. Forget crippling inefficiencies, Western Union needed a presentation software actually built for business that would work on iPads around the world.

CustomShow proved to be the answer they were looking for. With cross-platform capabilities, a custom asset management solution, iPad presentations, and security features fit for a financial firm, the Fortune 500 company had finally found its match.

Today Western Union uses CustomShow to deliver presentation updates globally. With brand controls coupled with sophisticated editing capabilities, the company can lock down signature assets like global backgrounds or international logos while allowing for controlled edits in the field.

It’s the perfect compromise between power and control. Marketing teams can guarantee their sales teams instantly polished presentations while country-specific teams (or even individual sales representatives) retain the power of control.

In Western Union’s case, this means global accessibility through the internationalization of slides. Translations are delivered throughout the world from designated master accounts, meaning no matter where you are in the globe, CustomShow can make sure that Western Union (or any company for that matter) speaks your language.

Want to learn more about CustomShow? Get a glimpse of the way it solves the problems of common presentation software here and contact us for a free demo.

Enterprise security has never been one of Apple's strong suits. Devices are left exposed every day, and with them, potential trade secrets. To date the risk has been worth the beauty and benefits of deploying iPads across corporations, but as the BOYD tablet market matures the demand for more secure solutions is increasing. These are the most promising technologies that may save your trade secrets in years to come.

User Roles

A few months ago a site called Betterific, (a website where community members make suggestions for a better world), featured a BetterIf calling for user roles on iOS devices. Micha Weinblatt wrote:

Wouldn’t it be better if the iPhone allowed a password to enable “guest mode” that locked private data (texts, emails, and recent calls) but allowed access to apps and such.

This sentiment has been repeated on Techcrunch and elsewhere, and hopefully Apple and others are listening.

Could Fingerprint Technology Solve the Password Problem?

Less than 50% of iPad users password protect their tablets and half wish there was a better method of authentification. Windows tried to remove us of the keyboard-oriented password burden with picture passwords, but that doesn't feel like a true solution. After watching someone swipe a circle around a picture of their kid's face for example, it feels like anyone could break into a device from there into infinity.

Apple may be looking into a different solution, and it could be very exciting. According to an Apple Insider report, a company named Apply could be planning to integrate a fingerprint censor in iPhone 5S.

This could solve ownership issues (and could very well bring us into the future), but unless Apply plans carefully for multiple logins, it feels like fingerprint technology could create issues for shared devices.

A Startup Could Sweep In and Fix Security Issues

B2B companies have quickly become the new darlings of the startup world, and there are more than a few companies trying to capitalize on enterprise security. Cellrox, a company that focuses on user roles for BYOD, raised a $4.7 million Series A round just this week. Others have also raised money as well, and they're well worth watching.

The Best Solution for Security Today

Until someone emerges with a clear cut solution for enterprise security, corporations have to rely on developers to integrate smart solutions into the apps they use. Most people are familiar with the way banks sign users out of their inactive accounts every 15 or so minutes. Here at Sales Graphics we encode presentation URLS to keep presentations in the hands of those who need them.

These solutions are a good start, but they are just that. A start. At Sales Graphics we're devoted to making CustomShow and the materials you put on it as secure as possible. Do you have a policy for keeping other information on your enterprise devises safe? If not, it's something worth thinking about.

As 2012 draws to a close, Sales Graphics wishes you a happy holiday. May the happiness of the season be with you throughout the coming year.

Microsoft sees a future where every device is connected through a single OS. That future begins with Windows 8. Launched two months ago, this new ideology marks Microsoft’s biggest change since Windows 1995, and the enterprise seems ready to jump on board.

The process of upgrading a business to a new operating system takes time, but the move to Windows 8 may come sooner rather than later. 25 percent of IT professionals plan to migrate to Windows 8 soon. With this migration comes significant benefits, including the prospect of deploying Windows tablets across organizations.

According to a recent Forrester study, 20 percent of IT professionals already prefer the Windows 8 tablet over other devices. Compare this to the 26 percent that favor the iPad, and we could easily see a shake up in the enterprise tablet industry.

Today Microsoft is a crippled Surface tablet that works with ARM processors and runs on Windows RT. This means Microsoft’s OS is burdened by a 32-bit architecture that’s incompatible with Windows desktop programs. Come Spring Microsoft will switch to compatible Intel chips. When this happens Microsoft may fulfill their promise of a Windows ecosystem that spans from desktop to tablet to phone.

This Spring timeline bodes well for many enterprise IT migration schedules, and it also means big news for Sales Graphics. This Spring we plan to offer the CustomShow presentation app for Windows tablets. Even if you’ve been tied to PowerPoint for ages, get ready to say goodbye. This is going to change the way your company thinks about presentations.

Today part of the Sales Graphics team is attending the TabTimes’ TabletBiz Conference just a few blocks south of our offices. Deemed ‘The tablet business Event of the year, leaders in the industry gather at this conference to discuss the smartest ways to deploy tablets in the corporate world.

We’ll write an event recap with the most important takeaways soon, but in the meantime enjoy this Twitter live feed from the event.

Tweets about “#tabtimes #tabletbiz”

Product development is like walking a tightrope. Teams must balance time constraints, budget, consumer demand and software bugs, all on the path to product enhancement. Prioritization and time management can make or break a new feature rollout, so we mark our progress with focused sprints that help make Sales Graphics better every day.

As we add to the CustomShow presentation software we gather feedback from clients. The insights from sales teams around the world are then fed back into the product development process so we can help companies close more deals.

In our latest round of talks with customers we spotted an opportunity for a big win. With Salesforce BCC figured out how to turn every presentation into a trackable lead generation tool. Here’s how it works:

Salesforce BCC lets sales people blind copy a special email address provided by Salesforce. This address automatically links to their account so CustomShow can track invites to individual CustomShow SlideShows and Online Meetings. When a lead clicks on the link provided in the email, CustomShow tracks usage and engagement metrics for each individual. These metrics then automatically appear in Salesforce.com, giving companies the power to separate and prioritize their most crucial contacts.

Now CustomShow clients have a new, easy to understand feature with a heavy impact. Want to hear more about how Sales Graphics manages our product sprints? Stay tuned and we’ll reveal more about our processes and upcoming features in the coming weeks.

A few months ago we mentioned that the Sales Graphics iPad app was featured in the CableShow app pond alongside ESPN, Disney, Showtime and others. At the time only conference attendees got a glimpse of the CustomShow iPad app as it appeared in the pond, but now we’re releasing the experience to the public.

As you’ll see in the video above, our presentation software is designed with enterprise in mind. CustomShow scales across sales and marketing teams, works on Macs, PCs and iPads, and delivers a consistent message that looks as good as your brand’s advertising.

Finally, the animations on this video weren’t just added for a bit of extra pizazz. The CustomShow iPad app helps customers manage and play flash video better than anything else on the market. Want to see more? Subscribe to Sales Graphics on YouTube or get more immediate product updates on our LinkedIn page.

Last week at New York City’s sold-out IAB MIXX conference & expo, WebMD captured the attention of attendees with a presentation video by Sales Graphics. The leading source of health information snapped up a VIP sponsorship spot alongside companies like Yahoo!, Google, and NBC Universal, giving them the opportunity to showcase serious accomplishment in front of thousands of attendees.

This kind of high velocity, high pressure environment is Sales Graphics’ wheelhouse. Our creative team thinks about the art and science of communicating ideas effectively via slides while our technology team works every day to perfect presentation software that scales across sales and marketing teams.

At the end of the day it’s these kinds of video that makes our job so rewarding. Congratulations to WebMD for reaching so many people, both at IAB and online.

After the event Scott Fedonchik, the VP of Marketing and Communications at WebMD said the following about their experience.

“The team at Sales Graphics helped us sharpen our vision for this video project and brought sight, sound and motion to the task in perfect harmony.”

We are delighted to hear that they are continuing to use the presentation with their sales force and look forward to creating more for WebMD in the future.

Last year Sales Graphics conducted a study that proved CustomShow customers save an average of 30 minutes per presentation when they switch from PowerPoint to our presentation software, CustomShow. This year we followed up with another survey and received equally excellent feedback.

As it turns out, an overwhelming majority of sales and marketing teams believe CustomShow saves them time and helps them create better presentations for the field. Once sales and marketing teams sign up, they stick with CustomShow, and 100% of survey-takers said they would continue to use the presentation tool in the future.

But what makes CustomShow so different from PowerPoint, Prezi, and all the other off-the-shelf presentation competitors? Our customers mentioned the ability to update presentations automatically and transfer videos seamlessly. They also love our iPad presentation app, and believe the ease of creating and customizing presentations for each client makes for a standout experience.

Sales teams using PowerPoint can probably testify to the fact that they don’t get a lot of compliments on their presentation decks. When it comes to putting CustomShow to work, almost 50% of respondents said the quality of their presentation prompted a positive response from audience members. One sales person even went out of her way to tell us a story about a customer who complimented her on her presentation, urging her to reveal her secret.

Like 75% of our survey takers who say they will definitely or probably recommend CustomShow, this client was happy to recommend the software. Now that company is thinking about using Sales Graphics too.

Although we’re delighted to hear such positive feedback, we’re not satisfied with the status quo. Presentations are our specialty, and we’re getting ready to reveal a series of updates that will make a standout product even better.