deal architect

Services and applications and suites

BusinessWeek reports on the lack of openness - even blocking - of telco cell networks to certain services.

So, can Verizon clarify its recent "open" announcement? Does Any Apps, Any Devices - also cover Any Services?

And talking about web services, notice how software vendors talk incessantly about their SOA, but pricing is still on user, server and vertical metrics. Telcos could actually teach them a thing or two about line item based service pricing and billing.

Of course, telcos are themselves moving to unlimited plans and "triple plays"...and looking for guidance from the software suite model.

Hey, at least they are all committed to becoming "open" -)

Update: T-Mobile blocks Twitter

iPhone and enterprises

Forrester provides 10 reasons why it is not ready for the enterprise - lack of encryption, no back-up battery, lack of 3G support, AT&T lock in etc etc.

Forrester must have slept through the firestorm all week about consumer versus enterprise "sexiness".

The real reason it is not right for enterprises is does not have an ugly UI -)

Wait till the telcos win the net neutrality battle...

...then this monthly bill will have a few more zeros, if telcos charge for transmitting large video files on a premium tier.

Is Earthlink headed to Arkansas?

It was a no show at the council meeting in Philly....may be the Atlanta based company plans to join local Falcons Coach Bobby Petrino as he sneaks away to Arkansas.

Only 28 wi-fi hotspots in Fayetteville to compete against -)

Bringing Sexy Back

The sexiness of Consumer versus Enterprise debate refuses to die.

In meantime, a reader reminds me that Justin Timberlake has nothing on this performance by Steve Ballmer

How convenient - this whole conversation was started by his co-star, Bill Gates

For the curious - the Ballmer tape mixes two actual speeches Steve gave to his minions in 2001. Now we finally know what to blame Vista (aka Project Longhorn started in 2001) for -)

Mr. Omnipresent

Michael Krigsman and I had a chance to talk to N. Chandrasekaran (Chandra, as he likes to be called) of TCS this week about their study on IT project performance (dismal in general across the industry) and their metrics driven approach to better project control, estimating and expectation management. Michael has a write up here. TCS, of course, has a proud tradition of CMM Level 5, Six Sigma and other project and process methods and techniques.

It is always a pleasure to catch up with Chandra. I first met him during a client visit to their Mumbai SEEPZ location. I remember asking him in my usual undiplomatic way - how TCS expected to manage staff turnover and rapid growth. This was in 2002 way before those and currency issues plagued TCS and its customers. And he smiled and answered it without hesitation. I remember having him on a conference panel and asking him what he would do if he was running Oracle R&D. This was when Oracle had the well publicized quality problems around apps release  11i. He smiled and answered the question without hesitation. 

Besides his smile, I noticed he was being mentioned by name on most major accounts TCS had - and I would catch him in the middle of drive in the Midwest and at various airports. So I asked him if he ever slept. He comes to the US every six weeks. Now with TCS's growing global diversification (they have one of the more mature E. Europe centers in Budapest of the Indian outsourcers, they have a large JV in China, ambitious plans to grow in Mexico and on and on) his travels are even crazier.

Now a days, I only seem to call him when a client needs attention. So while I say it is a pleasure to catch up with him, not sure he enjoys my calls-)

But I sure am glad to see all his smiles and plane hours have paid off. He was named COO of TCS a couple of months ago. I look forward to our next set of debates. Probably somewhere in Budapest or Beijing.

Look who else is going after consumer eyeballs!

Satyam, the large Indian vendor, is going to sponsor FIFA. Smart move as IBM, Accenture, others have found in past: Enterprise buyers are also sports fans.

"Rama Raju, co-founder and chief executive, says the World Cup gets a better audience than the Olympics and could be particularly powerful in building awareness in Europe, which accounts for around 23 per cent of Satyam's revenues."

Go on, Satyam. Be a tiger!

Mark Hurd to join Deal Architect

some day I hope...

...because he and CIO Randy Mott are poster children for squeezing HP's internal IT cost.

He would be my lead negotiator ...for HP spend at clients.

5 major opportunities he could help clients with:

- data center consolidation around HP infrastructure running today at many clients at less than 25% capacity
- renegotiating HP infrastructure outsourcing contracts to more realistic utility computing prices
- reducing maintenance on HP's growing systems management and IT governance software products
- reducing large margins around HP print consumables
- leveraging HP's growing offshore facilities in India, Poland and other low cost countries

Let's just give everyone title of VP

So, Prabhat who wrote a guest column on his "second generation" outsourcing firm, sends me a note that Nasscom has recognized his firm, Anantara, as one of its most innovative. And I go - good for them. I hope some of the elusive Indian software (not services) firms also show up on the Nasscom list.

The list is 100 long and every major Indian outsourcer is on the list. And a vendor like AdventNet which makes the Zoho set of SaaS tools does not deserve to be?

Sounds like promotion day at the bank. 80% of employees are now Vice-Presidents, er Innovators...

Bill Gates is right

So the Consumer/Enterprise coverage dustup this weekend was driven by Bill Gates' comments that the media does not really cover enterprise technology topics:

"The business computing market, which is way bigger than the consumer computing market, no one pays attention to it. Even in the Wall Street Journal, and you think, oh, this is the paper they're going to tell me about business computing; no, it's all about consumer computing."

I went back to my post "Is the media biased? last March and updated some queries on mentions of consumer/enterprise vendors I had run on the New York Times website. 

In the last year, mentions tally as follows:

                                   

Apple	1,444
ebay	416
Google	1.082
SAP	25
Infosys	17
Lawson	0
SunGard	5
BMC	1
Covansys	1

Microsoft, did not do too badly, with 844 mentions.

So, Bill is right - mainstream media does not much cover enterprise technology . SAP with only 25? Infosys, after the coverage Tom Friedman uber-columnist at the newspaper has given it with his Flat World book, with just 17? SunGard, a major financial services player. with just 5 in New York City?

But may be Bill was really asking for was the soft "reporting" that the media typically does even for consumer technologies. What do I mean by soft? I am still waiting to see a non-glowing media report (not just picking on NY Times), for example, on Google Mobile Maps. As I wrote here, use it while driving and you are almost guaranteed to have an accident or find yourself in the wrong part of town.