Software - A world where I live

Social media revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:33:00 +0000

We do not longer search for news, news find us...

Obama about business

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:02:00 +0000

In an interview taken by Business Week, Obama has been asked what did he learn in the first six months after his election. I liked his short but complete answer:

"I think over the last six months I have just relearned that lesson—that my most important job is to get the right people in the right place, give them the freedom to innovate and to think creatively about problems, hold them accountable for results, and make sure that they are cooperating with each other and communicating with each other on an ongoing basis."

How cool is that?

The entire interview here:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_32/b4142000676096.htm

Njoy!

Yes, I am very happy!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:12:00 +0000

How to screw up your CTR rates

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Does it make any sense to use a paid advertise program to promote yourself on your own site?

Distribution Channel Management for software products

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:59:00 +0000

For a software company the distribution of its software products is a very challenging job. The Internet is offering unlimited opportunities but is opening many doors also for the competition. As a company director, I am sure that you are questioning yourself everyday what you need to do to keep (or target) the leader position.

The modern strategies include these days channel distribution strategies such as exclusivities for resellers, local market prices, marketing development funds and local brand development strategies. How to manage all these? How to protect the channels? How to improve the channels? How to define new channels? And, very important, how to measure all these parameters?

All these challenges will be discussed on Thursday, June 18th on a webinar hosted by my colleague Casey Potenzone (VP US Sales) and our partner Ken Beam (President, VAR City). The webinar is called “60 Minute Crash Course on Channel Management” and the registrations are open (and free):
http://www.avangate.com/webinar/software-channel-management-2009.php

Njoy!

Twitter - news and life in real time

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:59:00 +0000

How can you find out and feel when something big is going on? And how to do it in real time? The answer is, again, Twitter!

I arrived to the office today and I have opened Twitter as usual; a popular channel showed up to me: Air France! A catastrophic accident happened today with an Airbus 330 of AirFrance, over the Atlantic, from Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) to Paris (France).

The reactions on Twitter - 73 messages in 2 seconds:

Indian Killer from Bollywood

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:54:00 +0000

Friday question: exclusivity vs. success

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Fri, 22 May 2009 23:40:00 +0000

If you are offering a unique solution on the market, can that be called a success?

Mercedes E class - Dreams will have to wait

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:10:00 +0000

Sound of tractors, sound of life

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:10:00 +0000

I want to share with you a little story from my life. The story is about my grandmother, an 80 years old woman from the country side, a woman that means very much to me.

She worked very hard the land for her entire life and now she becomes to lose from her strength. Recently I had a phone conversation with her and she told me a little thing that impressed me to tears; she told me “you know Daniel, I was sitting in the courtyard the other days and I was looking to the field and listening to the tractors that were working the land; I realized that I worked my entire life around these tractors; they use to lead my daily activities. Now, after 60 years, the tractors are still working on the same land but I feel them so far away from me…”

What happened is that my grandmother accepted that she became old and she cannot work the land anymore; now she is waiting for great-grandchildren…

Twitter world

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:10:00 +0000

Should I tweet you or should I call you? Watch this:

Casual Drinks – networking event for software professionals

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:54:00 +0000

If you are going to be in the Silicon Valley area on Thursday, March 26th come join us for Casual Drinks, a networking event aimed at software professionals within the Valley. The event is hosted by Avangate (eCommerce and solutions provider for software distribution). If you are a software publisher or provide services to the space, Avangate invites you to come join us and meet your peers.

Why you should attend?

Networking with key people from Software & eCommerce Industry
Get valuable business contacts
Happy Thursday: Drinks & Fun
Meet the Avangate Team

The event is free and is being hosted at Don Giovanni’s restaurant on Castro Street in Mountain View. We encourage you to come join us and please feel free to invite your friends!

See you there? RSVP online.

P.S. Pictures from the previous edition.

YouTube introduces Google Ads on videos

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:35:00 +0000

Welcome to disagreement (by Dale Carnegie)

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:25:00 +0000

Remember the slogan, "When two partners always agree, one of them is not necessary." If there is some point you haven't thought about, be thankful if it is brought to your attention. Perhaps this disagreement is your opportunity to be corrected before you make a serious mistake.

DISTRUST YOUR FIRST INSTINCTIVE IMPRESSION: Our first natural reaction in a disagreeable situation is to be defensive. Be careful. Keep calm and watch out for your first reaction. It may be you at your worst, not your best.

CONTROL YOUR TEMPER: Remember, you can measure the size and stature of a person by what makes him or her angry.

LISTEN FIRST: Give your opponents a chance to talk. Let them finish. Do not resist, defend or debate. This only raises barriers. Try to build bridges of understanding. Don't build higher barriers of misunderstanding.

LOOK FOR AREAS OF AGREEMENT: When you have heard your opponents out, dwell first on the points and areas on which you agree.

BE HONEST: Look for areas where you can admit errors and say so. Apologize for your mistakes. It will help disarm your opponents and reduce defensiveness.

PROMISE TO THINK OVER YOUR OPPONENTS'S IDEAS AND STUDY THEM CAREFULLY: And mean it. Your opponents may be right. It is a lot easier at this stage to agree to think about their points than to move rapidly ahead and find yourself in a position where you feel yourself or your opponents can say: "We tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen."

THANKS YOUR OPPONENTS SINCERELY FOR THEIR INTEREST: Anyone who takes the time to disagree with you is interested in the same things you are. Think of them as people who really want to help you or your cause, and it is possible that you may find true friends in your opponents and true friendship in their intents despite the difference of opinions.

POSTPONE ACTION TO GIVE BOTH SIDES TIME TO THINK THROUGH THE PROBLEM: Suggest that a new meeting be held later that day or the next day, when all facts may be brought to bear. In preparation for the meeting, ask yourself some hard questions:
1. Could my opponents be right ? Partly right ?
2. Is there truth or merit in their position or argument ?
3. Is my reaction one that will relieve the problem, or will it just relieve any frustration ?
4. Will my reaction drive my opponents further away or draw them closer to me ?
5. Will my reaction elevate the estimation good people have of me ?
6. Will I win or lose ? What price will I have to pay if I win ?
7. If I am quiet about it, will the disagreement blow over ?
8. Is this difficult situation an opportunity for me and my leadership qualities ?

Be a leader. Be a reference.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 04:06:00 +0000

Today I was convinced once again that Einstein was right; everything is relative. But this is not all – the most amazing thing is that if you can create and control this relativity, then you will become a reference point; and my friends, that’s a guaranteed success.

Take a break and start looking how many reference points you are using on a daily basis in your life, in your business and, most important, in your decisions.

“Microsoft built a very popular operating system”
“Toyota is building the most reliable cars”
“This product is much cheaper in China”

Sounds familiar? How many times a day you are thinking or hear statements like that? Microsoft, Toyota, China - all of these are reference points. If you can enforce yourself to be a reference point in life and business then you will lead and achieve your dreams. I am serious!

One of the past days I was talking to a guy that asked me where I am from. After I told him I am from Europe he asked me how much costs the things out there. More of that, he asked me if I know what are the prices in China! What does that mean? It means that the price suddenly became a reference point for this guy and he is ready to buy products from a specific market because it’s cheaper. If the economy was good maybe the reference point for the price was limited to the United States; after this guy was forced to look for alternatives he made a search over the Internet and his horizons were expanded overseas.

Stop copying the competition and look to become a reference point for others!

How is the software channel coping with the crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:26:00 +0000

Avangate is doing a survey on how the crisis is impacting the channel distribution in the software industry. If you are:

an ISV using a partner network or
a reseller in the software industry,

take our brief survey and become part of the study – find out how your own challenges and solutions regarding the channel compare with those of your peers. Read more here: http://blog.avangate.com/software-channel-crisis/

THANK YOU!

Economic crisis vs. Sex

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:16:00 +0000

I just noticed today that a quick search on Google for “economic crisis” returns over 64 million results; in the same time, a search for “sex” returns 80 million results.

Is the crisis about to dominate the world as sex does it for thousands of years?

Windows Vista Sidebar - Radio gadget

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:51:00 +0000

During this weekend I had to work a lot and I realized at one point that is very quiet around me. My music library is played so many times that I had the feeling that I need something new.

I opened Windows Vista Gallery looking for some entertainment. After a quick search I found exactly what i was looking for: Online Radio 2.0. The installation was piece of cake; I have clicked the download button and that’s it :)

Now, my working hours are accompanied by various music that is helping me to concentrate to my job. Sometime we need some things to fill in the missing parts of our busy life...

Is blogging dead?

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 09:23:00 +0000

Just realized today that many people are moving to live news and interaction networks like Twitter and LinkedIn.

Why should we write two-three times per day here instead of broadcasting the same idea using Twitter? Follow me on Twitter and I am sure that we will save a lot of time; I don't have to write pages to feed the search engines and you don't have to add another bookmark to your existing list.

Let's make an exercise: how much of your allocated time for information are you spending on each of these separate information channels: news websites, blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn? My numbers are 55%-5%-15%-25%. What numbers you have?

OneCare - should I allow myself to acces the Internet?

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:53:00 +0000

The Wasteland - think twice before disposing your electronics

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:54:00 +0000

Facts

e-waste - a growing concern
one of the most toxic places on earth
a story about recycling electronics in US
how "green" can be transformed in death

Yahoo Pingbox - nice gadget for your blog

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:40:00 +0000

I spent 10 minutes today to look into Yahoo Pingbox. I found the option under the "Messenger" menu and I said to check it out.

Yahoo made a pretty nice job by developing this little nice gadget. Basically it can be added to any website/blog/forum as an online chat option.

Want to add it on your website? Simple as 1,2,3... Go to Yahoo Pingbox website and start the "Create a Pingbox" process; it will take you maximum 3 minutes to get the HTML code to be inserted in your blog. The nicest thing is that the installation instructions are made for most popular blogging platforms (like Blogger for instance).

The gadget can be seen in action on the right side of this blog :)

Can be used this tool as an alternative for chatting online with your customers? Certainly YES!

Casual Drinks with Avangate

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:07:00 +0000

We will host a free networking event here in Mountain View on November 20th. There will be 2 hours of food, drinks, business people and funny moments.

You are invited if:
* you are connected with the software industry
* you want to extend your business network
* you want to meet Avangate US team
* you want to have fun :)

Interested? Register online

We look forward to seeing you at the event!

UPDATE: The 2009 Spring Edition will be on 26th of March. More details in this post.

Pirates of my life

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:46:00 +0000

Keep the same course but in more steps

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:50:00 +0000

Spending a dollar these days is more than a shopping experience, it’s a challenge! The customers are looking for best values money can buy.

What can we do about it? Serve the customers, of course.

Let’s suppose that you have a piece of software which costs 49 dollars. Also the sales trends are not following the forecasts from the beginning of the year. Same product but different customer behavior.

It’s time for action! Hit the customers with many buying options! Everybody loves to choose. Expand your shopping cart by selling the same product but with monthly payments!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Puchase options:
=> one time fee: USD 49
=> monthly payment: USD 4.9 (12 months subscription service)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And, to follow market trends, add a support package that will dramatically increase the customer satisfaction and your conversion rates.

So, to keep your sale forecasts, make it possible today by respond in an elegant manner to your customers:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Puchase options:
=> one time fee: USD 49
=> monthly payment: USD 4.9 (12 months subscription service)

Purchase until 20^th of November and get the Golden support package for free.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can you share what measures have you implemented to respond to the actual economic situation?