Enterprise software and the curse of vendor sameness
Enterprise software vendors talk in pithy, some would say pseudo-sophisticated, language designed to impress prospects, customers, and influencers in the market. Almost all enterprise vendors use terms like the following as symbols to convey broader meaning, despite offering little or no content to the reader: Time to value Continuous innovation Accelerated solutions Big data Mobile first Increase [...]
StitchLabs–Solving SMBs Inventory Woes
Many readers know that outside of technology, I own a business that manufactures apparel and other products and sells them both online and through retail outlets. Having been involved in that business for 17 or so years, I’ve had first-hand experience of just how difficult it is to run a tightly integrated operation with e-commerce, [...]
FinancialForce on a Tear
When salesforce.com invested in FinancialForce a few years ago, there was keen interest in how this would help the company grow. There’s never been much clarity around those numbers since the parent company of FinancialForce, Unit4, doesn’t break out the individual numbers of operating divisions. That is a bit clearer now since in its last reporting period, [...]
If You Want to Get Funded – Dude, Make It Easy On Them
Lately, I’ve noticed that some of the absolutely smartest, sharpest folks I know trying to raise early/early-ish stage capital are struggling … and they are sort of amazed how other folks they know who, well, aren’t quite as sharp are mopping up that venture capital. What’s the issue? Seems like it’s always the same. You [...]
Because Old School Retail is Dead–NetSuite Acquires Retail Anywhere
NetSuite’s acquisition of Point of Sale (POS) vendor Retail Anywhere creates a powerful offering that allows retail businesses to compete in the face of a challenging environment.
Reflections on BoxWorks
Having had a little while to reflect on a month that saw me attend both DreamForce and BoxWorks, I wanted to get down some thoughts on what is happening with Box, one of Silicon Valley’s current darlings. This is all the more relevant given the slightly uncomfortable position that Box found itself in after DreamWorks [...]
OneLogin Launches Cross-Application Search
The announcement by Salesforce a few weeks ago that it was moving into the enterprise Single Sign on (SSO) space was both an excellent validation that sso across cloud and on-premise applications is needed, but also a rude awakening to the existing independent SSO vendors like OneLogin and Okta. While
Netsuite Introduces Billing and Subscription Service
At the NetSuite SuiteWorld conference held earlier this year, CEO Zach Nelson announced that the company would begin to provide some billing and subscription functionality into their platform. Billing in the services based world is an immense nightmare, others have delved into intricate detail of the reasons why this is
Mobile First? The Desktop Still Has Three Good Years Left in It in SaaS
“Mobile First.” OK, we all get it. Look what’s happening on Facebook, as the majority of its usage has rapidly transitioned to mobile, throwing at least a wrench into its browser-based ad model for the time being. Google, Zynga, etc. the impact is huge and clear. Apple seems to be the only one in consumer [...]
TradeGecko–Cloud-Based SMB Inventory Launches
I’ve spent couple of decades dealing with the realities of a small business that sells physical goods. The functional requirements of these businesses are surprisingly broad but alas the budget tends to be small. I was interested then to hear from the founders of TradeGecko, a recently launched SaaS inventory
Box Counters the Threat of ChatterBox–The Switzerland of Content Collaboration
When Salesforce announced their ChatterBox content collaboration solutions a couple of weeks ago, the one vendor most impacted by the news was Box – partly because they’d previously been an important partner of Salesforce, but also because the announcement cut off some of Box’s oxygen, especially inside companies who are
Nothing Stops the Box Bunny
OK, so I ‘m abandoning my pictorial post schedule, as Box-mania just broke out, and I feel compelled to jump in. But the skipped NetSuite post is coming soon… I’ve been following Box longer than probably most observers and some of the old memories are worth sharing – from an admittedly subjective point of view. [...]
A Pictorial Tale of Two Conferences (and more)
Recently I’ve attended two conferences two weeks apart in San Francisco, and the difference in style is shocking. One did not even feel like a conference, rather a Festival – Woodstock, Mardi Gras, SXSW – your pick:-) The other a decidedly more “closed” traditional corporate conference, so much so, that fellow commentators actually compared it [...]
Why Competition Is So Bitter in SaaS: Oligopolies and Dominant Strategy Equilibriums
Perhaps the oddest thing about the Apple-Google “go thermonuclear” strategy to SaaS guys is that it is so odd at all. Competition-to-the-almost-death seems the norm in SaaS. Just look at Larry Ellison or Marc Benioff. You can see the blood lust in their eyes, in every speech, in a way you never really saw/see in [...]
Salesforce Becomes the First Next Generation Enterprise Platform
Strong words but, as I predicted, the announcements at this years DreamForce point to Salesforce firmly creating for itself the position of first true IT platform of the cloud era – that’s a lofty statement but a justified one I believe. From the release, here are the announcements:
