The Village View

Two signs Web 2.0 has gone mainstream

2008-05-16T17:14:00.002-04:00

I've meant to post about this for a while, but then again I've meant to just post at all for a while: In the last two weeks I've gotten notices about two fairly mainstream organizations that I am was affiliated with introducing their new Web 2.0 functionality.

I got this one about two weeks ago:

Introducing RSS and Social Bookmarking

New services make it easier to subscribe to and share Quarterly articles.

When you subscribe to our McKinsey Quarterly RSS feed, you receive personalized headlines with summaries and links to our articles on mckinseyquarterly.com. Once you create a feed, you will be provided with a custom URL to view your feed, as well as an easy way to add the feed to your own news reader, such as My Yahoo! or Google Reader.

Click here to create your personalized Quarterly feed.

Social Bookmarking is a way to share and discuss Quarterly articles with a larger community. The Share tool integrates Digg, Del.icio.us, Technorati, and Newsvine into our article and abstract pages.

Today, I got this from my b school:

Today, we are proud to launch the School’s new social networking application. It will bring our community closer together, changing the way we communicate and share ideas, information, and interests with each other. In addition to offering improved access to the School’s distinguished alumni network, the application will enable you to more fully explore and utilize the breadth and depth of knowledge, experience, and opportunities made available not only by your fellow alumni, but also by current faculty and students.

By integrating existing directory information with job postings, industry-standard technologies such as Picasa™, Flickr™, and YouTube™, Columbia Business School-specific articles and content, and other rich social networking features, your connection to the School and to the people who make it the extraordinary place that it is will be constantly enhanced.

We encourage you to stay connected. To get started, log into www.gsb.columbia.edu/alumni.

I see this as a sign that RSS, Social Networking and tagging is going mainstream. For some of you that read this blog (and I think there are 3 or 4 of you left) you're probably saying, "no sh&t Crofton," but I'd bet if you ask the majority of the folks on the street, and certainly the majority over 35, if they know what RSS, Social Networking, tagging etc are, they'd say no. Admittedly, Columbia and McKinsey are not great signs of what's happening on Main Street, but the fact that they're offering their alumni/readers these tools is a surely a sign of the mainstreaming of the these technologies.

I'm admittedly more intrigued about the CBS "social networking application" (really? that's the name? world class marketing dept and that's what we come up with?) then I am about tagging my favorite Quarterly articles. I'm wondering if folks will really upload their info to yet another social networking site. My sense is that given that's it's the business school and the focus is on the network, that this thing is going to be as exciting as LinkedIn. Not saying that LinkedIn isn't useful, but I don't really think of it as a social networking application as much as a good way of keeping track of were former colleagues and classmates now work. I'll likely upload my info at some point. right after I get writing my next post.

[McKinsey Quarterly][Columbia Business School][Social Networking][RSS][Columbia Social Networking]

New versions of SAP GRC solutions

2008-04-08T10:22:00.002-04:00

SAP announced new versions of several Governance, Risk & Compliance solutions at the recent GRC2008 conference. (the conference itself was very good by the way. I had the opportunity to co-present the Jumpstart day as well as an EPM/GRC presentation with our partner Protiviti). Hope that folks don't take this as blatant shilling, but these are the solutions that I spend my days (and nights/weekends) talking about. There's a link to the press release, but here are a couple of things that I personally think are cool:

SAP GRC Access Control 5.3

This is SAP's Segregation of Duties management solution. Originally part of the Virsa acquisition, SAP has released several versions and enhancements in the last couple of years. For those who think that SAP only focuses on SAP ERP customers, note that this version brings more provisioning functionality to Oracle, JDE and Peoplesoft customers.

SAP GRC Process Control 2.5

SAP's internal controls management solution, Process Control along with Access Control can be used to automate SOX compliance.
This solutions allows for testing and monitoring of both manual and automatic controls.

SAP GRC Risk Management

This solution is based on the tool that SAP uses internally in its own Enterprise Risk Management program.
This version has integration to SAP Strategy Management thus bringing together Enterprise Performance Management and GRC.

SAP GRC Global Trade Services 7.2

New integration between SAP GRC GTS and the SAP Environmental, Health, and Safety (EH&S)
Expanded certifications for country-specific processes

[SAP] [SAP GRC] [GRC] [Virsa] [Access Control] [Process Control]
[GTS] [Risk Management]

Please let me do business with you

2008-03-17T08:15:00.002-04:00

I'm writing this, my first post in exactly two months, from Amtrak's Acela Express train on route to Philadelphia (I'm actually heading to SAP's Newtown Square US HQ). I'm a big fan of the Acela and to a large degree of Amtrak. Fairly high level of service and especially so given its quasi-governmental status.

I'm not feeling so warm-and-fuzzy about Citibank given a recent experience. As background, I've been a Citibank customer for over 10 years and have two checking and one savings account with them. I've had personal loans and other accounts in the past. Admittedly, I have very modest sums deposited with them. However, recently I've been wanting to open a brokerage account. (I'd like to lose just enough money picking individual stocks to re-confirm my hypothesis that I should be just buying index funds).

But I digress. Point is, I call up Citibank to inquire about how to open a brokerage account, how much per trade, if there is an annual fee etc. Now I just didn't call because I like the sound of my own voice, but rather because I couldn't find this information on Citi's website. It seemed I had to have a "financial advisor" or somebody similar call me. Uh, it's a brokerage account to buy a few stocks, not a wealth management relationship. So I called. A nice gentlemen who sounded like he might actually be located in this country explained to me that the information I sought was not online. Furthermore, I couldn't open an account online or over the phone, but he'd be happy to send me the paperwork. When I asked if he could email it, he replied that the material was actually mailed, which I understand is some arcane form of communication that involves dead trees. He was nice enough, but unable to help me. At the same time, I had Fidelity's web page up. There was the information I needed online and a link to open an account. Oh, and there was no account fee and the commission was cheaper.

So, what's the deal? Does Citibank have inefficient processes? Are they not savvy enough to have the information on the website (weird as they have won awards for their online banking site)? Or, are they trying to get younger customers to self-select away from their brokerage accounts because they likely have less money under management? Whatever the answer, I know have a new brokerage account and it's not with Citi. However, this non-Citi account has just one long position. In a bit of irony, guess what the first "buy" I initiated today was? C

[Citibank]

Estonia's hi-tech "embassy"

2008-01-17T20:31:00.000-05:00

Worked from home today so I listened to NPR (does that make me a New York Liberal?) while answering emails. Two stories on Estonia and technology on today. The first one is about Estonia opening a technology Embassy in Silicon Valley. (more here).

The Enterprise Estonia Technology Embassy will open up new investment opportunities to the Silicon Valley/Bay Area region and bring in an infusion of new ideas and technology talent.

I have a good friend from Estonia and have visited there so this is of special interest to me. What is particularly interesting and found in the 2nd NPR story here is that Estonia doesn't suffer from a brain drain as do many other small countries. That was according to Skype manager Sten Tamkivi. Also, the country is incredibly wired and Internet savvy: 98 percent of banking transactions made electronically; 80 percent plus of income tax filings by individual citizens were filed electronically.

[Estonia]

Jeff Nolan's new role at NewsGator

2008-01-17T20:20:00.001-05:00

My old boss Jeff Nolan has an expanded role at NewsGator. He's going to be running their SaaS business.

NewsGator's SaaS business, which encompasses the company's syndication and data services offerings, today has more than 50 media and online publishing customers, including USA Today, Media General, Discovery Channel and CNN. Using NewsGator's Widget Framework, underlying content network and editorial tools, these customers are able to extend their content and brands while positively impacting important online metrics that enhance their economics.

His new employees are lucky as he's a great boss. "Low key" and "hands off" are the ways I would describe his management style. As long as you get your work done on time and it is of a high quality you've got no problems and nobody riding your back. Just watch out if you've got an MBA as you'll likely to be referred as an "MBA monkey." However, you'll probably learn more working for Jeff then you did during your MBA so it's a small price to pay.

[Jeff Nolan][NewsGator]

The other 53 % are liars

2007-12-18T11:53:00.000-05:00

In a report Sunday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said 47 percent of U.S. adult Internet users have looked for information about themselves through Google or another search engine.

Liar, liar, pants on fire. C'mon I don't know anyone who hasn't Googled themselves. I've got to admit, and maybe I'm just narcissistic, but I Google myself at least once a month. By doing so, I recently learned that there is some guy with my name who is in the movie business. He's even worked with Jet Li. How cool is that?

Links for 12/12/07

2007-12-12T10:44:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of links I found interesting

Oracle acquires Moniforce

Moniforce's software monitors network traffic to measure the performance and availability of Web applications from the perspective of the end user. Oracle said Moniforce's technology would be a valuable addition to the business software maker's Enterprise Manager software, which provides a more extensive view of application performance throughout the enterprise.
I'm guessing this gets branded as part of Fusion Middleware. Which according to the ad on the back of my newest Economist is the "Leader in Middleware." hmm, who knew?
Another in a long line of Oracle acquisitions

Larry Ellison Controls NetSuite's Destiny Despite IPO

Ellison remains the majority shareholder of NetSuite, with his share of the company expected to drop from 61% to about 55% following the IPO. A few of his family members will keep control of another 11% of the company after its IPO. Ellison, however, plans to transfer his shares to a "lockbox" limited liability company to eliminate his voting control over NetSuite directors, and also to "avoid potential future conflicts of interest that might otherwise arise," according to NetSuite's prospectus.....Still, Ellison controls NetSuite's destiny. According to the prospectus, he has control over "significant corporate transactions," including a sale or even liquidation of the company.

SAP, VMWare ink support pact

VMWare said Tuesday that SAP will support its software running on VMWare's ESX erver, in 64-bit Windows and Linux environments.
Vinnie has his take here. Surprisingly, he expresses some scepticism
Larry at ZDnet also weighs in

[SAP][Oracle][NetSuite][VMWare]

SAP unveils its first software for iPhone

2007-12-04T17:11:00.000-05:00

This is pretty cool. Not that I have an iPhone, I'm solidly a Blackberry guy.

SAP said on Tuesday that new software for sales-force automation that it is hailing as one of the most user-friendly products to date would be compatible with Apple's iPhone. SAP, a maker of business management software, will include the program as part of new sales-force automation software that it is launching this month.

[SAP][iPhone][CRM]

OpenWorld Fusion Apps update by someone who wasn't there

2007-11-15T16:17:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I wasn't actually at OpenWorld, but I've talked to some folks who were and I've done some (very little actually) reading about what happened/didn't happen there. What's easy about providing this "update" on Fusion Apps is that nothing is really changing, so it's kinda easy. (yes, I know that there were 3 Fusion Apps released. What about a comprehensive Fusion Apps suite as previously promised?) So, here are a couple of thoughts:

Fusion Apps has never been much more than a concept

I've never seen a clear product roadmap

Exists only in the marketing realm. Anybody else at the “Halfway to Fusion” event in San Fran City Hall in Jan 2006?

Fusion is looking to be more of a technology, than applications play. Less value for the line of business users than for IT.

Challenges involved in a completely rewritten, unified application seem to have been too much
The 08 version of Fusion App suite (if one is even released) will likely be separate applications forced glued together with Fusion Middleware

The departure of John Wookey and the ensuing reorg will have substantial negative impact for Oracle customers

Oracle will likely see organizational upheaval and may lose focus on applications for several months as things sort themselves out
New org structure emphasizes technology focus of Fusion. Applications now under leadership of Rozwat (server focus) and Kurian (middleware focus)

[Oracle][Fusion][Fusion Applications][OpenWorld]

SAP pairs GRC with Identity Management

2007-11-12T22:36:00.000-05:00

This is pretty cool as it allows for integration of GRC risk analysis (in this case, specifically Segregation of Duties risk) into the overall user provisioning process. SAP GRC Access Control has had the capability to provision directly to core ERP systems, but now with these web services APIs, customers can integrate the ERP provisioning and risk analysis, remediation and mitigation into their wider user provisioning process. (In fact, I was just talking about this in a customer meeting today).

SAP AG has announced the immediate availability of new GRC web services that enable the seamless integration of identity management software solutions with SAP GRC Access Control. Based on open standards and built on the SAP NetWeaver platform, these new web services open up the full capabilities of SAP GRC Access Control, allowing identity management software vendors to tightly integrate their respective solutions, providing customers with a single set of tools to manage user identities, enforce corporate security policies and ensure compliance with regulatory mandates.

[SAP][GRC][Identity Management][Access Control]

Oracle buys GRC firm LogicalApps - Part II

2007-10-16T09:37:00.000-04:00

I've been asked recently what I thought drove Oracle's acquisition of LogicalApps. I'd remind you that these are my personal thoughts only.

Essentially, Oracle was looking to fill weaknesses in its existing financial compliance functionality in E-Business Suite and PeopleSoft. EBS has limited functionality in this area, including poor Segregation of Duty automation (there is a Gartner report in which the solution was rated "caution") and incomplete internal controls management. The LogicalApps product set will increase Oracle EBS functionality in Preventative Business Controls and automated controls testing. Additionally, Oracle expands Segregation of Duties risk management for Oracle EBS and PSFT. This acquisition, however, will not bring additional compliance functionality to JDE customers. Also, given that LogicalApps was already an Oracle customer and runs on Fusion middleware, this was a, ehem, logical choice for Oracle.

My sense is that Oracle still has some integration work to do as they have various financial compliance solutions (and I'm not using GRC here, because I view financial compliance as only part of an overall GRC offering) on various app platforms. I'm going to be curious to see the roadmap for LogicalApps as well as other, existing Oracle GRC solutions.

One positive aspect of this acquisition might be that it reaffirms my decision to work in this small part of the software industry. Clearly, GRC is an area of interest to the major software vendors, and their customers.

[Oracle][LogicalApps][GRC]

Vinnie: Oracle Fusion Apps Delays

2007-10-11T23:21:00.000-04:00

Vinnie is saying he heard that Oracle may acknowledge that Fusion Apps will be delayed. In other news, I plan on acknowledging that the Earth rotates around the Sun.

I hear at Oracle OpenWorld next month it will be acknowledged that Fusion apps will be delayed through 2009 at the earliest. Not surprised - it was always a moonshot.

It seems like just yesterday (actually Jan 2006) when I was still wet behind the ears at SAP, that Jeff took us to the "Halfway to Fusion" event in the SF city hall. Of course, I really hate when my own predictions are wrong.

[Oracle] [Fusion]

Oracle buys GRC firm LogicalApps

2007-10-10T11:15:00.000-04:00

Interesting to me of course. Would love to hear anyone's thoughts on this. I'm just starting to read about it. I've run into LogicalApps at one event, but haven't seen much of them otherwise.

Oracle today revealed plans to acquire LogicalApps, an Irvine, Calif.-based maker of automated governance, risk and compliance (GRC) software that gives users greater control over business processes.

[GRC][LogicalApps][Oracle]

PlanHQ Launch

2007-09-26T19:41:00.000-04:00

Heard from a couple of different folks who are out at DEMO in San Diego. (Myself? I was in Charlotte which is almost as nice). One of the companies that I was told to check out was PlanHQ (hardly a scoop on my part as they got a nice write up on TechCrunch). Looks like it's aimed at helping small and mid sized business write and develop their business plans (oh, and achieve, can't forget achieve). So a couple of thoughts were spawned from this news (and they're not real deep thoughts as this has been a long day)

Is the launch of a company to help entrepreneurs and small businessmen write biz plans an indicator (leading or trailing) of a bubble-like environment?
PlanHQ has an office in Wellington, NZ; how cool is that and are they hiring? I've got a buddy that used to live in Wellington and we went kayaking in the harbor. I didn't realize you could work for a software company and live in NZ. hmmm....

[PlanHQ] [DEMO]

SAP and Second Life

2007-08-27T08:13:00.000-04:00

SAP Developer Network Evangelist Craig Cmehil will be "talking" to Thomas Jung and Rich Heilman LIVE in Second Life at the SAP Community Office today at 5:30 EDT. Thomas is a NetWeaver Product Manager focusing on Custom Development tools. (NetWeaver is SAP's platform, see more here and here). Rich is a Software Engineer/Analyst for Yorktowne Cabinetry specializing in ABAP and Java (ABAP is SAP's development language, see here and here).

[SAP][SAP Developer Network][Second Life]

Michael Oxley On International Markets

2007-08-23T15:53:00.000-04:00

"Other countries have stepped up and understood how important it is to have these kinds of standards...." Oxley said.

I cover the Americas for the SAP GRC group, but that includes US subsidiaries of foreign companies. The last month or so has shown a real uptick in the number of conversations I've had with companies that need to comply with J-SOX. Makes sense as compliance will be required for fiscal years starting in April of 2008.

[SOX][J-SOX][GRC]

Salesforce.com adds another president to ranks, hires new CFO

2007-08-21T22:35:00.000-04:00

Wasn't it just last year that Steve Cakebread was considering leaving Salesforce.com? Now he's going to be president, or more accurately, one of four presidents. He is, however, giving up his CFO role.

What's interesting is that they are hiring a traditional software guy as their new CFO. I think it was Dennis who made the point in an email to the Enterprise Irregular group, about the irony that a company whose motto is "No Software" keeps hiring big enterprise software company execs. (I think he made the comment after Salesforce.com hired Rene Bonvanie, ex-SAP. see here and here). Obviously, as an employee of a big enterprise software company, I have no problem with it. My sense that it's another data point to suggest that Salesforce.com will continue to evolve to look more like a traditional software company. (Another if true, would be what I hear anecdotally, that they are hiring more Account Executives i.e., sales guys and that the mix of Sales and Marketing spend is moving in the Sales direction). Graham Smith has an impressive background. But make no mistake, it's an enterprise software background.

Graham Smith joined Advent in January 2003 and has assumed the role of Chief Financial Officer. From 2002 to 2003 he served as Chief Financial Officer of Vitria Technology, an enterprise application integration software company. From 1998 to 2002 Graham served as Chief Financial Officer of Nuance Communications, a voice recognition software company. From 1987 to 1998 he worked for Oracle Corporation in various senior finance roles, most recently as Vice President of Finance for worldwide operations. Graham holds a B.Sc. from Bristol University in England and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

I used to compete against Advent when I worked at Thomson Financial. And in fact, I know several ex Thomson folks that work there now.

[Salesforce.com][CRM][Graham Smith][Steve Cakebread]

SAP Communities just launched "Community TV"

2007-08-21T21:54:00.000-04:00

Craig sent this my way and blogged about it on the SAP Developer Network (I've referenced SDN in a couple of previous posts including this one). Registration is required for SDN, but it's free and a great source of SAP related info.

Anyway, Craig talks about how SDN has re-tooled SDN TV.

Kyte.tv, has just become our newest addition of useful tools for the community. We've had a chat with the folks over at Kyte and Daniel their CEO welcomed the idea of us having our two channels there.

kyte allows anybody to create their own interactive TV channel on their website, blog, social network or mobile phone

With kyte, you create your own live TV shows and broadcast them on your own interactive channel, on your website, blog, social network or mobile phone. You can share your kyte channel with your friends and collaborate with them so that they can also be a part of your shows, by adding their own content, by voting and by chatting live with other viewers. With kyte, you can share your experiences live with the world and be the star, director and producer of your own live TV channel, wherever you are and however you want.

[SAP][SDN][SAP Developer Network][kyte]

JFK: the new battleground in the software ad wars

2007-08-16T09:02:00.001-04:00

So after a week on the road and the transcontinental from San Fran, I get back to JFK last night around 10pm.

In the hallway/underpass back to the main terminal is Microsoft's new Office 2007 advertising campaign. As you can see from the picture, this thing takes up the whole wall. It starts when you come down the escalators and continues all the way to the up escalators; complete with monitors informing us that "It's a new day." Also, saw a demo pod closer to the gates. Evidently, they've rolled them out in Times Square and on 49th Street (Not that I would know, given that i'm never in NY any more).

So that's fine, Microsoft is a partner and I like Office (and didn't realize that Office 2007 would be launching soon). However, as I settled into my cab for the ride back to Manhattan, I drive under a big, lighted advert that spans the highway: "#1 in Business Applications - Oracle." Not the first time, I've seen Oracle ads, last year on the way to Vegas they had filled one whole terminal with Oracle SMB ads.

Airline delays

2007-08-12T18:14:00.000-04:00

Remember the old saying, "Lies, damned lies and statistics?" A bit of this is what I think ABC News uncovered with this story on Airline delays. The network had reported the delays like everyone else:

U.S. flight delays are at their highest level in at least 13 years, and analysts say fliers can expect more of the same for the rest of the summer.

The Department of Transportation on Monday said the industry's on-time performance in the first six months of the year was its worst since 1995, the earliest period for which the agency has comparable data. In June, nearly a third of domestic flights on major U.S. airlines were late.

That's bad enough; trust me, I'm on the road almost every week. But, they dug deeper and found out that the actual situation is much worse than the reported:

This summer is shaping up to be the worst ever for delays, but the dismal numbers don't tell the whole story, because they measure late planes, not late passengers.

For instance, if you arrive three hours late and miss a connection, it can take hours or days to re-book another flight because planes are flying nearly full this summer. But officially, the only delay that's reported is the initial, three-hour-late arrival.

The same rule applies if your plane is diverted to another city. It's counted solely as a diversion, and the subsequent delay goes unreported.

Recently, I was trying to get back from what was supposed to an overnight trip to San Francisco
(I was supposed to be there less than 24 hours). My red eye was canceled and I got on a flight the next day which was delayed about 4 hours. I landed at JFK at 10pm instead of 6:30am, but I guess according to American Airlines I would only have been 4 hours late. Lucky me.

This week I traveled to Boston, Chicago, Philly, back to New York (by train) and then on to Orlando. The only leg of that which was not late was the flight to Orlando. Even given the fact that flights to Florida from the Northeast must be the slowwwwweeessst boarding flights known to man we arrived 1o minutes early. On Tuesday, I'm flying back out to the West Coast. Wish me luck.

Summer Sales & North Carolina

2007-08-04T11:35:00.000-04:00

One of the reasons I took my job in the Office of the CFO (or more properly, the CFO Center of Excellence) at SAP was to learn how a leading enterprise application software maker goes to market (I also want to understand how large companies make the purchasing the decisions). Last week, I attend the Summer Sales Meeting in DC. A couple of thoughts I have coming out of the meeting:

Bill McDermott is inspirational. Now I know that you're not exactly shocked to hear me say this given that he signs my paychecks, but I gotta tell ya, every time I hear the guy speak I'm impressed. Usually you dread having to listen to any keynotes at large corporate events, but I enjoyed listening to his vision. Also, he's straightforward about his expectations: satisfied customers and making the numbers. Ok, I can wrap my arms around that.
An SAP Account Executive has an unbelievable number of resources to assist in the sales cycle. Depending on the product, he/she may have an overlay account executive, pre-sales, value engineering, solution principal, industry principal, product marketing. Customers (rightly) have high expectations, and an AE can draw on a lot of experts to help in the cycle.
The SAP ecosystem is extensive and knowledgeable. I talked to several partners at the meeting and then at a customer meeting later in the week. Some of the folks working at these firms have an unbelievable grasp of the SAP products down to a very granular level. Since I didn't come up through SAP consulting or implementation like my manager and some of my colleagues, I learn a lot from talking to these guys.

And now for something completely different: I am becoming a bigger and bigger fan of the state of North Carolina. My best friend recently moved from outside of Raleigh to outside of Asheville. As I had a work meeting in Charlotte on Thursday, I drove up and spent the last two nights with him and his wife. We went into Asheville last night, had dinner and walked around. When I was a kid we had a cabin in the mountains outside of Burnsville, which is not to far from Asheville (btw, if you go up into the mountains in this area, it's chock full of Floridians escaping the summer heat). Anyway, I hadn't been there in 20 years. All I can say is: wow. Counterintuitively, Asheville is like a hippy town. There were folks banging drums and jumping around in a park downtown. We ate at the Tupelo Honey Cafe which I had read about in a NY Times article. I had an awesome mountain trout. Afterwards, we walked around checked out the Art Deco city hall and more traditional court house next door. They are working on a new park and some new buildings downtown as well (much to the dismay of some local Wiccans that were placing protection charms on a magnolia tree slated for removal). Long story short, if you get a chance to visit do.

[SAP][North Carolina][Asheville]

Larry's new yacht

2007-08-01T19:58:00.000-04:00

Yeah, i know, i don't blog in almost a month (just shy) and this is my big re-entry on the stage. Thanks to Scott, for the heads up on this one.

So, it seems that Larry Ellison is building a new yacht.

Why, you might ask, does Larry Ellison need another yacht?

Because Rising Sun is too big.

As Wealth Report readers might remember, Mr. Ellison has been complaining for years that the boat he built specifically to be the longest in the world — or at least to be longer than Paul Allen’s — turned out to be rather impractical. He can’t dock at most of the world’s marinas, since his boat exceeds size limits. When he pulls into shore, he has to tie up with oil takers and container ships at industrial ports. (Not very posh.) Or he has to anchor offshore and take tenders to the dock.

[Larry Ellison]

Ellison's NetSuite Headed for IPO

2007-07-02T13:37:00.000-04:00

Thought this was an interesting title for the BW article. Technically, it's true as Larry owns almost 2/3 of the company, but I wonder how many guys at NetSuite consider themselves working for Ellison. Still as the dear professor from my grandpa's alma mater points out:

"As long as Larry Ellison has a controlling stake, the company is going to do whatever Ellison wants, even if other investors don't like the strategy," says [Jay] Ritter, the University of Florida finance professor.

This IPO, of course, has been widely anticipated. Jason and Zoli both had good posts on the implications earlier. I anticipate a lot of stories in the mainstream media and tech pubs about SaaS being the Holy Grail. I'll reiterate my position that SaaS is an important delivery method, but there is a time/place and situation for both on premise and SaaS. If you're starting a small business and need a system that's easy to use and install (and cheap) to manage your customers, why not go with a hosted solution. But is this really the BEST answer if you're a Fortune 1000 customers and need a complete enterprise solution? Maybe for some LoB's, maybe not. Anyway, don't expect to see those arguments, as things will be "all Saas, all the time" I would imagine.

In the same vein, these sentences caught my attention:

....but NetSuite has struggled with the productivity of its sales staff, which hasn't offset its costs with bigger deals and faster closes as it has expanded, according to one venture capitalist with knowledge of the company. "They've hit the low-hanging fruit of the lower end of the small and medium-sized business market, and then it got harder and more expensive to reach more of the smaller guys, or go upmarket and hit the bigger guys," he says

I don't think this is endemic to NetSuite. My sense is that Salesforce.com has liklely encountered similar issues (although in SFdC's case overall Sales Marketing costs may not have moved much, I would bet that the mix of Marketing -declining- to Sales -increasing- has changed). At the end of the day, regardless of how you deliver your software, to sell large enterprise deals, you're going to need an Account Executive (and perhaps pre-sales, vertical specialists etc).

[NetSuite][Larry Ellison][SaaS][On Demand]

Enterprise 2.0 Conference - more thoughts

2007-06-24T22:11:00.000-04:00

Had a few more thoughts on the Enterprise 2.o Conference last week in Boston. I attended the Enterprise Mash-Ups session. As is my style, this is neither complete nor in any particular order

Ajay Gandhi (i think this was his name, but I don't see it on the program) made a seldom heard, but I thought very important point around using Web 2.0 technologies in your company: "You can't ignore your enterprise apps or your IT governance." It seems very popular in many Web 2.0 circles to think of enterprise application software and the IT org as soooo yesterday. However, most people still work in organizations that use enterprise apps and, while they may be able to circumvent IT in the short term, need to work with the CIO's office.
First mash up I saw in the Enterprise 2.0 Mash Ups session showed Google Maps. Uhhh! Please just one demo of a mash up that does NOT involve Google Maps.
Didn't see the value in the ShareMethods demo. There was an on-demand word processing tool, a presentation tool and a spreadsheet. All from separate vendors, but integrated. "All documents can be shared across all apps." Ok, I can do that now with Microsoft Office, or if I don't want to shell out the money with OpenOffice Why repeat something that already exists? And the fact that they're "on demand" is just not an interesting enough (or sustainable) differentiator to me. If anyone doesn't think that Microsoft will offer essentially the same capabilities, I'd would respectfully disagree.
Rod Smith of IBM talked about "how do I get to the data?" Fair enough and very important. However, I asked the question "what about process-orientated mash ups?" Most of us work in organizations with processes and use various products to complete tasks. I would have loved to have seen what someone is doing to mash-up a CRM tool with an SME accounting tool (Peachtree, QuickBooks). That may be a bad example, but I could imagine that process mash ups would be very useful. (When I mentioned this to Jeff a few days ago, he made the point to me that you don't realize how important data mash ups are until you really need one).

[enterprise2conf][Enterprise 2.0]

Enterprise 2.0 Conference

2007-06-20T07:14:00.001-04:00

Arrived yesterday morning to the Enterprise 2.0 Conference. (After having just gotten back from Europe the day before-uuhh). The conference is at the Westin Waterfront, which is a gorgeous hotel. about 10 years ago or so I used to work right down the street at Thomson Financial. None of this stuff was here then. Flying out tonight to Toronto to address an ASUG meeting there. A couple of thoughts from yesterday:

David Weinberger, who gave one of the keynotes, made, at least, two points I found interesting around metadata

Best real word example of metadata and what finally crystalized the concept for me: library card catalog.
"No difference between data and metadata.....Everything is metadata" - "Metadata is what you know, data is what you're looking for."

David showed how something that is generally considered data, e.g., a line from a book -"Call me Ishmael" - can also be metadata. If that's the only line you remember, but you don't remember the book's title or author, you can search on that line.

Fellow Irregular Andrew McAfee made a request during his keynote for a central repository of Enterprise 2.0 success stories. He says he seems to cite the same examples over and over.
Ran into a former McKinsey colleague of mine on the plane down. Seems McKinsey has an initiative around technology and business that involves how Enterprise 2.o technologies will affect things. To me this is an indication that these technologies are now on the radar screens of C-level executives at the world's largest firms.
Attendance is good in terms of quantity and quality. Several Irregulars are here (thanks to Atlassian for picking up dinner last night!) and I've met a few new people, including Michael Krigsman with whom I had a good discussion over lunch. I'm looking forward to expanding my network today.
There's no accounting for taste. At dinner last night there was a very heated debate about best band of the 70's. In one corner was Andrew McAfee making a spirited case for Led Zeppelin; in the other was Jason Wood arguing (seriously) for Earth, Wind and Fire?!?!? Don't they know it's Lynard Skynard?

[Enterprise 2.0 Conference][Enterprise Irregulars]