Alana Rudder's Image

Alana Rudder

Staff Reviewer

Small Business Technology, Human Resources, Marketing, Operations and Project Management

About

With over a decade of experience as a small business technology consultant, Alana breaks down technical concepts to help small businesses take advantage of the tools available to them to create internal efficiencies and compete in their markets. Her work has been featured by business brands such as Adobe, WorkFusion, AT&T, SEMRush, Fit Small Business, USA Today Blueprint, Content Marketing Institute, Towards Data Science and Business2Community.

Alana is the HR in-house expert for Forbes Advisor. She has 14 years of experience in the business technology field. She has worked as a consultant and subject matter expert for countless small, mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies, consulting small businesses on the best technology solutions for their needs. Her work has appeared in such brands as Adobe, WorkFusion, Content Marketing Institute, SEMRush, Fit Small Business and USA Today Blueprint. Alana holds a Masters in Business Administration from Excelsior University with a focus on business leadership.

During her career, she has worked to break down complex business concepts and available technology into language a small business owner can understand and apply. Her goal is to help small businesses create internal efficiencies and winning work environments to compete in their markets for talent and share.

When she is not consulting small businesses, Alana volunteers as a lay chaplain for hospice patients. She is also studying to pair her chaplaincy work with a certification as a Spanish-English medical interpreter to help more people.

Expertise

  • Small Business Technology
  • Human Resources
  • Marketing
  • Operations
  • Project Management

Other Publications

Education

  • Excelsior University (M.B.A., Leadership)
  • Liberty University (B.A. Spanish)

Honors And Awards

  • Sigma Beta Delta

  • Traqq Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    Traqq is a time tracking app that offers employee monitoring features within its features. For example, it tracks employees’ timesheets, activity levels, app and URL usage idle time, amounts earned and click and keyboard activity. It further offers team monitoring...
    Traqq Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • We360.ai Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    We360.ai is an employee monitoring software that stands out by offering a dedicated account manager with personalized customer support for each client. It also offers some complementary features that make employee monitoring worth the effort, such as the ability to...
    We360.ai Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • StaffCop Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    StaffCop has been serving customers since 2001. It is an employee monitoring and data protection software that focuses on monitoring computer usage among employees, freelancers and third-party vendors to ensure compliance with company policies and data protection laws. It offers...
    StaffCop Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • Reviewsnap Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    Reviewsnap is a performance management software that primarily focuses on setting goals and coaching employees to continually work toward their achievement. First, it allows businesses to set goals for each employee that align with company-wide goals. It then offers tools...
    Reviewsnap Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • Snap Schedule 365 Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    Snap Schedule 365 is a cloud-based plan from Business Management Systems that offers the ability to create schedules, automate schedule generation and manage labor requirements and labor costs across teams and locations. It offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop schedule creation tool,...
    Snap Schedule 365 Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • DeskTime Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    DeskTime is an employee monitoring software that connects time tracking to projects and tasks. In doing so, it helps companies manage their projects and budgets, determine bottlenecks and identify top performers. To track productivity, the platform offers screenshot captures, automatic...
    DeskTime Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • Veriato Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    Veriato is an employee performance management software that offers two plans, one primarily for small businesses that need a cloud-based solution and another for large businesses that need an on-premises security-focused solution. The solution stands out by offering the ability...
    Veriato Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • Controlio Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    Controlio offers employee monitoring tools to help you manage a distributed workforce, even when handling sensitive data or complying with data privacy protection laws and regulations. You can continuously record and livestream users’ computer activities during working hours. It also...
    Controlio Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • Deputy Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    Deputy is a timesheet, time clock, scheduling and labor compliance software. We like that it offers a free version, affordable paid plans, a mobile and desktop app and advanced features such as biometric-based contactless clock-in and clock-out features. These reasons,...
    Deputy Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • Hubstaff Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    Hubstaff is our number one pick for best employee monitoring software. We found it has a plethora of features while still remaining intuitive to use even for small businesses with little tech experience. It also does a great job of...
    Hubstaff Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • Synergita Review 2024

    Synergita Performance is a performance management software solution that allows companies to increase performance, employee engagement and employee development. It also offers tools to create a healthy company culture and improve employee productivity and retention. Its reporting features offer overall...
    Synergita Review 2024

  • Insightful Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    Insightful is an employee monitoring software that focuses more on overall productivity trends across organizations, projects or teams rather than monitoring individual employees. For example, its video recording feature focuses on recording project completion rather than continuous recording of individual...
    Insightful Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • ActivTrak Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    ActivTrak is an employee monitoring and productivity tracking software. We chose it as one of the best employee monitoring software for its robust free plan. This plan includes time tracking by project and task, active and idle time tracking, website...
    ActivTrak Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • Teramind Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

    Teramind is an employee monitoring software with a long list of advanced features used to help companies stay compliant when faced with strict data regulations, such as those that must adhere to healthcare data-usage and privacy laws and those in...
    Teramind Review 2024: Features, Pros And Cons

  • PerformYard Review 2024: Pros, Cons And Features

    PerformYard is one of the top performance management software solutions that offers goal management, performance reviews, an array of feedback mechanisms and more. PerformYard helps managers and employees keep employee performance on track to support broader team, departmental and business...
    PerformYard Review 2024: Pros, Cons And Features

  • Most Profitable Businesses In 2024

    While success in business is never guaranteed, some opportunities may have a higher chance of profitability than others. When planning a new business, it’s important to consider industry trends, market demand, operating costs and potential profit margins. To help you...
    Most Profitable Businesses In 2024

  • How To Unblock Websites 7 Different Ways With Step-By-Step Directions

    If you’re struggling to unblock a website, this guide is here to help you. In it, you will find seven ways to unblock a website, including using virtual private networks (VPNs) and proxies, alternative browsers, URL shorteners, public archives, device...
    How To Unblock Websites 7 Different Ways With Step-By-Step Directions

  • ClickUp vs. Jira (2024 Comparison)

    ClickUp and Jira are both powerful project management tools, however, each is best for unique use cases. In this comparison guide, we will delve into their features, differences, pricing models and use cases to help you decide which solution is...
    ClickUp vs. Jira (2024 Comparison)

  • Asana Vs. Basecamp (2024 Comparison)

    Asana and Basecamp are reasonably priced project management software with plenty of tools to make project management easy and efficient. Both have unique use cases. Asana, often better suits projects that span company functions while Basecamp’s tools and pricing model...
    Asana Vs. Basecamp (2024 Comparison)

  • Best Manufacturing ERP (2024)

    With so many enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions on the market–all with varying feature sets and pricing–it can be difficult to determine which is the best fit for your unique manufacturing needs. To help you find the best manufacturing ERP,...
    Best Manufacturing ERP (2024)

  • ERP Vs. CRM: What’s The Difference?

    An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is primarily used to help companies manage their finances and resources to control costs and meet company production goals. A customer relationship management (CRM) software helps companies manage the sales cycle and customer experience....
    ERP Vs. CRM: What’s The Difference?

  • Best Accounting Software For Small Business Of 2024

    Accounting software helps small business owners track their financial accounts, income and expenses, prepare for tax season and keep tabs on financials easily. For many small businesses, software is the more affordable alternative to hiring an accountant, a bookkeeper or...
    Best Accounting Software For Small Business Of 2024

  • Best Employee Engagement Software 2024

    Whether you want to keep employees engaged, gauge satisfaction levels, solicit feedback—or all of the above—a top employee engagement software platform can help. Whether you’re in-person, hybrid or remote, companies of all sizes and formats can use this tool to...
    Best Employee Engagement Software 2024

  • 10 Best Leave Management Systems In 2024

    The best leave management systems offer all the tools needed to manage employee leave requests as well as additional tools to meet common company goals―all at an affordable price. We reviewed dozens of top leave management systems to land on...
    10 Best Leave Management Systems In 2024

  • 13 Profitable E-Commerce Business Ideas For 2024

    To evaluate inclusions for this list of profitable e-commerce business ideas for 2024, we looked for ones that tap into consumers' passions and meet unique needs and, so, help our readers enter profitable markets. The e-commerce business ideas that met...
    13 Profitable E-Commerce Business Ideas For 2024

  • How To Start A Nonprofit In Texas (2024 Guide)

    There are nine steps to starting a nonprofit in Texas. They include setting up your nonprofit with a name, directors, an incorporator, a registered agent and bylaws. You must also file key paperwork to obtain an employer identification number (EIN),...
    How To Start A Nonprofit In Texas (2024 Guide)

  • 501(c)(3) Vs. 501(c)(4): Differences, Pros And Cons

    A 501(c)(3) nonprofit operates for charitable as well as religious, educational, scientific, literary, public safety testing, sports competition fostering or animal- and child-cruelty prevention purposes. In contrast, a 501(c)(4) has a broader purpose definition. It operates to promote social welfare....
    501(c)(3) Vs. 501(c)(4): Differences, Pros And Cons

  • 32 Types Of Nonprofits: The Complete List

    There are five categories of nonprofits, including charitable, religious and church, private foundations and political organizations. Some types of nonprofits fall under miscellaneous, such as Federal Credit Unions. Within these categories, there are dozens of 501 tax-exempt statuses. In this...
    32 Types Of Nonprofits: The Complete List

  • 9 Disadvantages Of A Sole Proprietorship (2024 Guide)

    A sole proprietorship is an unincorporated business owned by one person. Its disadvantages include fewer legal and financial protections than other business structures, a nonexistent benefits package for the owner and fewer built-in resources and opportunities to ensure business continuity....
    9 Disadvantages Of A Sole Proprietorship (2024 Guide)

  • What Are Voluntary Benefits? The Ultimate Guide

    Voluntary benefits are benefits employees can opt in to in addition to the basic benefits packages offered by their employers. Examples of voluntary benefits include life insurance, supplementary vision or dental insurance and gym memberships. In this guide, we dig...
    What Are Voluntary Benefits? The Ultimate Guide

About

With over a decade of experience as a small business technology consultant, Alana breaks down technical concepts to help small businesses take advantage of the tools available to them to create internal efficiencies and compete in their markets. Her work has been featured by business brands such as Adobe, WorkFusion, AT&T, SEMRush, Fit Small Business, USA Today Blueprint, Content Marketing Institute, Towards Data Science and Business2Community.