deal architect

Death by Powerpoint

Courtesy of Thomas Otter I saw this on YouTube

Last week, as we visited vendors in India I wondered why the client and I were exhausted. The PPT files we got copies of total over 60 mb.

I read somewhere McKinsey had  created over 12, 500 PPT slides for a consulting client.  Forget the mental exhaustion. Think of the financial fatigue at their rates -)

Of course, if you have seen Gartner presentations, we were trained to not have much white space on any slide. Plus the printed speaker notes covered other dimensions of the topic at hand. And if you were an analyst worth your salt, your speech talked about things other than that in the picture or the notes. Trying triangulating that. Oh, did I mention we were encouraged to use lots of TLAs?

Of course, the antidote to PPT - before and after, get a big sugar fix with a slice of Death by Chocolate

Putting things in perspective

So, I think iPhone is overpriced. And I think AT&T is slow and overpriced. 

But Jeff Nolan brings a sense of balance with his post comparing iPhone madness in Bay area and live coverage of bombs found in London.

"One that plays to our worst fears, the other to our most optimistic imaginations."

Thank you Steve, for helping so many people dream.

On Transparency

Ironically, on my post titled Extreme Transparency on the New Florence blog, I get an anonymous comment

" So... speaking of transparency, how about disclosing which outsourcing vendors you own stock in?"

Usually I do not allow anon comments. My position on anon comments is summarized here. And I was just going to delete it. But I have chosen to respond and share a glimpse of my investment portfolio.

Now, since we are talking about transparency would this commenter similarly identify himself/herself?

As I asked in my post above:

"Compared to that (blogger in Iran) what do we in the West have to fear?"

We need a ZT&T

Zoho brings out a lightweight version of their Office suite for the iPhone. How agile is that to launch the software alongside the device? One of the many advantages of SaaS delivery. And I have written before how reasonably priced they are. And humble.

Contrast that with AT&T. Ok, so a massively different scale. But also a company with a massively bigger capital budget. It has been promising mLife for years. But every single iPhone review I have read says something to the effect of " oh, if it was not for AT&T's slow network...." Steve Jobs paid it a left handed compliment today "“Edge is good, but you’d like it to be faster”

Every one's counting on WI-FI. Sure WI-FI has grown explosively, but not free WI-FI. $ 3 to 10 a day in many US locations. $ 17 a day at each hotel in India for me last week. Not included in the 2 year plan AT&T expects with the iPhone.

And with the locked iPhone SIM (sold as a security feature in case your phone gets stolen) you are forced to roam at AT&T's voice network at $ 3.49 a minute in Romania, $ 2.99 a minute in India and a bit more reasonable 99c a minute in much of Europe. Plus $ 5 a month for international roaming. Plus tax.

Zoho - agile and humble. AT&T - lumbering and pricey.

Would it not be nice if Zoho could launch a ZT&T?

Infosys acquiring Cap Gemini?

Rumors are flying. Heard it yesterday and again today.

Historically, Infosys has been a build versus buy culture. They made a tiny Australian acquisition a few years ago. This would give Infosys a huge foothold in Europe. Allow them to diversify from a largely English speaking customer base and delivery staff. And get plenty of business process expertise to supplement their techncial skills.

Be nice to see them make a bold move. But acquiring someone three times their size, with no previous integration/digestion experience at that scale, may be too bold a move. Not to mention  the likely foodfights when a 27% margin business tries to discipline a 6% margin business.   

"Don't Clog Mah Pipes"

During the net neutrality debate in 2005, Ed Whitacre, CEO of AT&T in his Southern twang famously talked to BusinessWeek about protecting "my pipes" from free loading VoIP providers.

Well, AT&T, having stuck with you for over 15 years through all your wireless unit's trials and tribulations and name changes, I want an assurance "mah pipes" will not be clogged by the new Apple iPhone deluge.

Dan Farber does a good job summarizing all the comments from various reporters who have been pre-testing the iPhone. If anything the iPhone may regress some of the things other phones can do today. If Apple fans want to shell out $2, 3, 4, 500 more on iPhone than they could on a competing PDA/PocketPC, it's their money. As David Pogue at NY Times says it has at least one nice feature: "When the screen is off, the glossy black glass becomes a handy makeup mirror."

But if they all try to download YouTube on AT&T's network as Apple's ads suggest, and cause me access problems, I will be mightily pissed.

Them's mah pipes too, and I have paid for them for a long time...

"Skunky" Software

A decade ago when you traveled overseas, you dreaded taking a foreign airline - because more likely than not you ended up with old equipment like the DC-8 I flew across the Indian Ocean on Kenya Airways. Today, though many upstart airlines around the globe have the latest Boeing and Airbus gear - in fact, in age most of them are younger than US airline fleets. Translates to more efficient, safe and passenger-comfortable planes.

So, I see Oracle bragging about how well it is aggregating all its application acquisitions, and I say why should customers like this airline which keeps buying 15 year old 727s  instead of investing in new 737-800s?  In a world where SaaS models have shown to be far more efficient delivery models, Oracle keeps on expanding its on-premise stable and keeps going retro.

If I was competing with Oracle (and IBM for that matter since it also acquires aging software companies), I would run a Budweiser type "Born On Date" campaign. Brian Sommer would prefer an expiration date. 

Because freshness matters in airlines, in beer - and in software.

Update: Just realized my international readers would benefit from a bit more explanation. “Skunky” beer, “freshness” and “Born on Date” were sound bites from the Anheuser-Busch campaign a few years. It was pretty effective particularly against their foreign beer competition (with longer delivery times). Not only was marketing campaign successful, it helped cleaned up their distributor supply chain …armed with the easy-to-read "Born on date" old beer in corners of remote warehouses started declining…

The Valley of the Digital Dolls

Harry Potter? Yawn - Scoble's son is saving up $ 600 for iPhone.

Global warming? Use Facebook's car pooling app and feel good about saving planet.

Sundays? According to eWeek, go listen to Marc Benioff's SaaS sermons.

Welcome to life in Silicon Valley.

...but what does eWeek know? They are based in Woburn, MA for pete's sake.

If they were Valley based, it would be in Flickr. And you would be doing something different on Sunday morning in your Second Life.

40 years later, the stage is set for a sequel to the Jacqueline Susann classic. Based in THE Valley, of course. To be released on YouTube, of course.

I am bringing several kids to the Valley in July. I think I better prep them they will not be in Kansas anymore.   

Bagoly mondja verébnek, hogy nagyfejű.

On my recent trip to Hungary I picked up a local version of the expression "Pot calling Kettle black". Actually it is an owl telling another bird it has a fat head.

Close enough to continue this series of Oracle/SAP pot/kettle series - see English, Spanish, German, French episodes.

In his earnings call this week, Charles Phillips of Oracle said "Our strategy of combining innovation with acquisitions is clearly beating SAP’s strategy of trying to build everything themselves using a 1970s-era proprietary programming language"

Let's see now. Oracle's bread and butter business (almost 70% of revenues) is still based on the relational database technology that Codd and Date first wrote about in the 70s.

"But, Vinnie look at all the innovations we are delivering in 11g...."

Forget fat heads. What is impressive is the  fat margins both vendors continue to expect for decades-old technologies...

Safra, please blog

Dear Safra,

You are known, unfairly, as a number cruncher who hardly ever leaves Redwood Shores. So it is good to see you passionate and forceful - from Israel.

But why not let your customers, consorts, competitors, critics react to your statements? Start a blog and take your positions - then listen to what others have to say.

Seriously, numbers are fine. Conversations, particularly passionate ones, are much more important. Hope you do join the debate.

Sincerely,

Update: Dennis Howlett and Josh Greenbaum, in less subtle ways, tell Oracle to become more transparent. For too long Oracle has believed in making statements and not debating or explaining them. Safra, a blog with points of views from every dimension is what I am suggesting.