deal architect

In the zone!

So, I am at a Borders cafe accessing their WI-FI hotspot. The laptop starts to run out of juice and I ask the barista if I can use the power outlet. It was near a table designated for handicapped and I thought I would be polite and ask.

She tells me "Of course not. This is the wireless zone"

I walked away with my mouth open like the AFLAC duck in the commercial with the Yogi-Berraisms...

SOAr

In my post SOA = SOS I summarized several concerns about enterprise SOA. This week John Hagel, Jeff Nolan, Joe McKendrick add their perspectives. And Joe asks "What's the alternative?"

For SOA to soar like an eagle, not waddle like a turkey I think there are 5 changes needed:

- SOA sponsors need to find a Line of Business executive with a specific project where they can use the technology/concept. Then another, then another. If there are not enough volunteers give up - at least for a couple of years. It is the classic solution looking for a problem.
- Think constraints. Project team of no more than 3. Project time no more than 3 months. Total burdened cost less than $ 100K. And that's for the pilot. Even less for on-going ones. You are competing with web 2.0 team sizes and budgets.
- If you are a tools vendor, package everything in to one "wrapper". Do not show customers your sausage factory of 10-15-20 products
- If you are an application vendor, for every time you mention SOA plans, make sure you have 5 mentions of application functionality improvements.
- Everyone - it's about web services, not people services. Send the consultants home.

For those who call me a SOA cynic, they forget. I love architectures. Check out my blog name.  Just talk to me in dollars and cents not acronyms like WSDL and UDDI. Give those - and the hype about SOA - a REST.

Update: Phil Wainewright says SOA may have hit rock bottom and should re-emerge with more realistic expectations.

The Salesperson and the Accountant

While we are on the issue of software SG&A being too expensive, I thought I would share this joke I received - inspired by Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men

Salesperson: "You want answers?"

Accountant: "I think we are entitled to them!"

Salesperson: "You want answers?!"

Accountant: "I want the truth!"

Salesperson: "You can't handle the truth!!!"

Salesperson (continuing): "Son, we live in a world that requires revenue. And that revenue must be brought in by people with elite skills. Who's going to find it? You? You, Mr. CPA? We have a greater responsibility than you can't possibly fathom.

You scoff at Sales and curse our lucrative incentives. You have that luxury. You also have the luxury of not knowing what we know: that while the cost of selling is excessive, it drives in revenue. Revenue you find all kinds of excuses to try and defer. And my very existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, drives REVENUE! You don't want to know the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about in board meetings... you want me on that call. You NEED me on that call!

We use words like psychological ROI, value matrix, VITO – learned from a life spent negotiating opportunities (yes against that Deal Archtiect assXXXX). You learned ROI in Accounting 101! The sweat of our labor generates our vaporware.  We make quota even without SuperBowl ads.   

I have neither the time nor inclination to explain myself to people who rise and sleep under the very blanket of revenue I provide and then question the manner in which I provide it. Don’t forget A comes way after S in SG&A. And the S in Sarbanes-Oxley did not change a darn thing.

I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a phone and make some cold calls. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!"

Accountant: "Did you expense the private jet?"

Salesperson: "I did the job I was hired to do."

Accountant: "Did you expense the private jet?"

Salesperson: "You're damn right I did!

Update: this post is finding its way through sales forces around the world. I just got an email from a UK Sales Director "...it is printed out and will go on our team board". He then gushed something I cannot print on this blog. Accountants of the world - brace yourselves for the Nicholson speech next time you question sales expenses. Look on the bright side - would you rather them use Jack's "Here's Johnny..." line?

"Evolution of a Sourcing Strategy"

K. Mohan Babu writes an interesting Computerworld article about EDS's journey in India. While they may seem late to market with their recent investment in MphasiS, their India strategy has been over a decade in the making.

Babu works for Infosys and I thought it was nice for him to just presents the facts in a restrained, uncompetitive tone. He need not have been so generous.  Infosys has quadrupled in revenues over the last five years. EDS's has declined slightly.

EDS, as he says, was the first company to sign a multi-year outsourcing deal in India. But could not capitalize on the early advantage.  Even after Perot Systems, which EDS watches closely, signed a JV with HCL in 1996. If not India, could EDS have focused on rural sourcing, automation, other productivity?

To me, it is a bit like Delta and United have known for a decade the airline industry was changing and lower cost competition was not going away and they have analyzed, dabbled, analyzed, dabbled.

"Epidemic of yes-people"

Judy Mandell writes in USA Today - Saying No can be a Positive.

7 years after the famous Monster.com commercial I thought we had all grown up to be Yes-men.

Even David Spade's Capital One "No" commercials appear to have had little effect on the growth of Yes-men.

So, how to explain the nay-saying Mini-Microsoft? Too bad Mini has to hide behind an Austin Powers inspired name. If we cannot call him a Yes-man, does that make him (her?) a Yea-Baby?

Skoal, Brother!

Do you admire Google or feel sorry for it? Everyone's gunning for it - which means it is also in many, many promising markets.

Is it Earl Campbell?

"Campbell is widely acknowledged as one of the best running backs in NFL history. He is still considered a prototype for the bruising, power running back. Described as a "one-man demolition team," Campbell was a punishing runner....

...All the pounding he absorbed, all the bone-jarring blows from second, third and fourth tacklers wore down his body and prompted a premature drop-off in performance. Beside the fact that debate still rages as to whether Coach Bum Philips hastened the end of Campbell's career by overworking him, the consensus is clear that during Campbell's heyday, few running backs were as productive or imposing."

I tell you what though - it is great for now to see Google run through defenses and celebrate with an emphatic "Skoal, Brother!"

Update: Gary Hamel extols Google in a WSJ column, Paul Kedrosky spits tobacco juice over it!

Sanjay Kumar of CA

Sad story here for someone who helped build quite a software empire in Long Island, of all places. CA was an incredibly difficult company to buy from, partner with, analyze.  It was the place people called "where technologies went to die".  But love them or  hate them, Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar understood economics of software maintenance 15 years ago and went on an acquisition spree to mine maintenance annuities. Sanjay also led the company into a bold move around subscription based revenues way ahead of the industry.

He was well on his way to putting his own mark on the company. Not sure what posssessed him to do what he is pleading guilty for, but in my few dealings with him I did find touches of this attitude ""My mom always told me you meet the same people on the way up as you meet on the way down. And you will rise faster and fall slower if you are nice to people." A shame.

The Real Deal: Jeff Kaplan on SaaS in Back Office

This continues a new set of posts. Guest columns from practitioners and bloggers I respect. The category - The Real Deal describes them well.

Jeff Kaplan, ex IDC and Meta, is the managing director of THINKstrategies, a strategic consulting company based in Wellesley,MA, and the SaaS Showplace.  He recently wrote a nice piece in BusinessWeek on SaaS myths.

"One of the most widely-held misconceptions about software-as-a-service (SaaS) is that it is only suited for front-office functions, such as customer relationship management (CRM) and salesforce automation (SFA), rather than ‘mission critical’ applications like enterprise resource management (ERP) or supply chain management. The reality is that SaaS has already made significant inroads into important back-office areas and the rate of adoption of these applications is accelerating.

The primary reason SaaS is generally associated with front-office applications is the tremendous success of Salesforce.com. Yet, even Salesforce.com is trying to bust out of the tightly-defined box that it created for itself as the CRM company. Its most aggressive efforts center on its AppExchange partnering platform and ‘ecosystem’ of third-party applications, including many back-office solutions.

Another barometer of the growing market for back-office SaaS solutions is the growing number of back-office application providers adding their names to THINKstrategies’ SaaS Showplace online directory. There are currently twenty SaaS providers offering Accounting and Financial applications; sixteen e-commerce providers; another sixteen ERP providers; a dozen offering supply-chain solutions; a half dozen in procurement; and three more offering manufacturing SaaS applications.

Among the most recent additions to the back-office SaaS landscape is Kinaxis with its new web-based, on-demand RapidResponse™ service that enables brand owners and contract manufacturers to share online decision support tools to respond to changes in product demand and supply. Another indicator that SaaS supply-chain solutions are becoming ‘industrial-strength’ is the recent announcement by Secure Computing Corporation that it selected the Click Commerce demand chain management solution. When a security solution company selects a SaaS solution, it represents a pretty strong endorsement that it can be trusted to manage a back-office function.

In a recent supply-chain spending survey, AMR Research found 26% of companies are considering on-demand service offerings. These findings confirm the market trends which THINKstrategies sees and expects to accelerate over the coming months."

He can be reached at [email protected]

"Should Be" and "Wanna Be" software pricing

Courtesy of Jason Busch I read this article by Debbie Wilson on "should cost" models and tools.

Then I see this argument between Jeff Nolan, Charles Zedlewski and Phil Wainewright  and I just shake my head at how complicated the software industry makes things.

Most sophisticated buyers I know understand the cost base in the software industry. They also know how to do detailed buy v/s build analysis often with help from consulting firms like mine.

They know what "should be" no matter what the "wanna be" licensing model is.

Scott McNealy: Industry Icon

Sorry to see Scott resign as CEO of Sun - he is a feisty fellow, passionate about everything he does, always ready with a quip.

But if it means Jonathan Schwartz, the new CEO will aggressively move Sun in to his vision of utility computing then I think buyers have reasons to be optimistic about the company. Michael Lehman, who is back as CFO should help transition to the different economics that require. I did a panel with Michael in the late 90s and was impressed at his savviness way beyond finance.

Update: James Governor has a  passionate piece defending Scott's loyalty to his staff and a concern about his continuing to hang around as Chairman