Stories by Vangie Beal

From letting Facebook users simply comment 'sold' to buy an item to engaging your customers, CIO.com looks at how a small business should invest in Facebook as a social commerce channel.

From basic document collaboration to video conferencing and scheduling, these collaboration tools help small businesses connect people and information.

Consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices to connect to businesses of all shapes and sizes. From optimizing your website to capturing holiday sales on mobile devices, these tips will help improve your mobile marketing strategy.

Small businesses don't need expensive customer relationship software to manage customer records and important business data. Here are four inexpensive CRM options that offer the functionality you need and also integrate with the social sites your customers and prospects use.

The new Office 365 and its enterprise-grade cloud services are a good option for a business of any size. We look at the Windows 8 experience, the desktop-cloud connection and which of the new features will most appeal to both end-users and IT admins.

From shopping carts to marketing tools to image-editing software, here's a look at 35 open source tools and hosted services that can help you get started with your own Web store.

From shopping carts to marketing tools to image-editing software, here's a look at 35 open source tools and hosted services that can help you get started with your own Web store.

A small business doesn't need expensive software to manage a general ledger and basic business accounting tasks. Here's a look at five reasonably priced cloud services.

Busy? Of course you are. Own an Android tablet? Then one of these 10 free task management apps will help you organise your business and professional lives.

Free shipping is a popular holiday sales promotions -- so much so that more than 2,000 retailers are expected to participate in Free Shipping Day next Monday. It's not too late to sign on. Ecommerce experts offer advice on how to offer free shipping without losing your shirt any day of the year.

To quickly increase online sales this holiday season, start with a good schedule, work in rewards and don't forget about social and mobile customers.

This roundup of holiday website tips offers quick advice you can use right now to cash in on holiday sales this year. A good start: audit your site to ensure that it makes sense to customers old and new.

From tax incentives to energy rates, there are several key factors that directly impact the total cost of ownership over the lifetime of your data center. Building your facility in the right place, then, is no small task. Here's what you need to know to keep costs down.

With its cool climate, low risk rating and skilled labor force, Canada seems like a great spot to build a new data center. If that's where your customers are, experts say, there's no reason not to expand north of the border. Otherwise, think twice.

If staying organized is difficult at your desk, it's nearly impossible when you're traveling. These 10 apps will help you manage your to-do list, keep tabs on the office and find your way to that lunch meeting.