SmallBusinessMashups

From MashupCamp

This session led by Arun Varshney & Nirmala Ranganathan( both Intuit) was discussion around what mashup community (geeks) can create for small business community (non-geeks) so they can build "right-for-me" mashup that solves small business's unmet needs.

Contents 1 Context 2 Possible Use Cases 3 Mashup Types 4 Hypothesis 5 Comments from the discussion

Context

• Several millions small businesses, of those many use QuickBooks to run their business.
• These businesses use multiple on-line sources (websites) to grow their business.
• They don't need/want to learn technical aspects of Mashups.
• They view business data as sensitive ie. like control on their business data.

Possible Use Cases

• Collaboration
  • Small business <-> Employees
  • Small business <->vendors
  • Small business <->Govt agencies
  • Small business <->Accountant(s)
  • Small business <->Banks
  • Small business <->Suppliers etc.
• Mobile
• User contribution

Mashup Types

• Maps
• Contents
• Pricing
• Inventory etc.

Hypothesis

What if we create a application platform that allows small businesses to build their own mashup - platform provides a simple user interface that allows user to select/input data they want to mashup with the website of their choice. and the platform hides all the technical integration / APIs from the user.

Comments from the discussion

• Even if we build a mashup builder, is it feasible to build one? Is it possible to make it very easy?
• Mike (Mindjet) ask if anyone owns a small business and can relate to the problem.
• Someone raise their hand and shared the kind of issue they deal with.
• Mike shared that MindJet has a product called MindManager that's been used by small business and lot of these business also use Quickbooks. and he is dealing the similar issues.
• There were example of real estate discussed.
• Weather bonk shared their work on combining data http://www.weatherbonk.com/weather/
• Suggestion was look at
  • Demos from IBM (QED Wiki)
  • Microsoft windows workflow foundation

There are no notes so far from this session, but the issue can be discussed over in the threaded discussion forums.