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WANTED: More disruptive and innovative vendors..

...to join our list of disruptive and innovative vendor sponsors

We started a blog sponsor program earlier in the year (see sponsor policies here) and are proud to have a list of charter sponsors who are moving and shaking and disrupting their individual tech markets.

Like Zoho, which has pioneered Office functionality in SaaS mode
Like Cognizant, one of the fastest growing outsourcers as it represents to many customers a much nimbler alternative to its bigger competitors
Like Rimini, which offers mature Oracle and SAP customers a far lower-priced maintenance option
Like Joyent, which is a pioneer in the new wave of cloud computing
Like Neubloc, which offers technology companies IP development capability in. E. Europe away from the heated Indian market

Each of them aligns with the readership of this blog which focuses on disruption, and the New Florence blog which focuses on technology enabled innovation.

Over the next few weeks we are opening up a few more sponsorship slots.

So, if you are moving and shaking and disrupting your part of the hardware, software, outsourcing or telecom world, come join our team of like-minded sponsors

Please send Vinnie Mirchandani an email at vm AT dealarchitect.com and we will send you a sponsor package to evaluate. And help you better reach an audience which is into moving, shaking and disruption.

More in New Florence

On my innovation blog

"Electronic Papyrus"

GE's CIO is very different

Digg's Crowd Driven Recommendation Engine

The "Nerdy" Congressman

Smart Appliances

Dell's Destiny

Om Malik interviews Michael Dell, and sure enough its "supply chain advantage" comes up. To me, though, that is so 90s because it still focuses on its hard-good manufacturing and distribution efficiencies.

Dell is today much more of a services player but it has not shown the ruthlessness to optimize the service chain. What is the opportunity? To drive traditional outsourcing pricing from $ 3 a gb a month for storage to 20c that cloud computing models are showing. Instead, as Dell points out elsewhere in the interview he is content to sell equipment to cloud providers.

Not just in the data center, there is a huge opportunity to optimize deskside management  - it is embarrassing that to some companies BestBuy's GeekSquad can provide a better outsourcing solution than established infrastructure outsourcing players with massively more scale. Ditto with IT help desk, asset management etc - areas where Dell has shown early signs of competence.

But to me Dell is still a hard-good vendor. It will likely spend more mind share in getting in to smart phones and selling stuff to other outsourcers, when its real big opportunity is in blowing up the infrastructure services supply chain.

Integration as a dis-service

Phil Wainewright has a nice post on Cast Iron appliances and next-gen SI Appirio offering "Integration as a Service"

But as we navigate the market for a car for my daughter and a replacement for our old minivan, I have sticker shock from the fact the auto industry has moved to the traditional software model. It expects hundreds and thousands for "integrated" new communication and entertainment technologies. Worse, they are features that are locked-in and cannot be ported to other cars.

Examples:

a) HomeLink on a rear view mirror or visor - can do lots of fancy things like controlling outside home lighting ...but for most folks the $ 25 Sears or LiftMaster garage opener with 25+ year RF technology does fine. Costs $ 25. And is portable.

b) iPod and other MP3 auxiliary ports draw oohs and aahs from teenagers, but worth hundreds? You can get a FM transmitter plug-n for your iPod for around $ 30. Or if you have a cassette player in the car you can get a Phillips or Belkin adapter to hook in your iPod. The technology came out to connect CD players to cars 15+ years ago. Cost under $ 10. And again, portable.

c) Routing your calls via Bluetooth to your car radio is nice, but many car companies require a optional package with a much more expensive audio system for hundreds/thousands more. In contrast, a BlueAnt speakphone I have had for a couple of years does pretty well - and goes for under $ 100. And again, portable.

d) Integrated GPS navigation units can run over $ 2,000 and maps are invariably months, if not years outdated. Get a portable GPS unit for $ 200-300. I use my ATT Tilt and get navigation through Microsoft Live for free. Again, portable so when I travel I don't need to pay for GPS rental units. Some GPS units also combine Bluetooth calling so get c) above also covered.

e) DVD players - sure they look nice, stow away nicely on the roof, many come with wireless headsets but at $ 1,500 plus? Get your kids players for around $ 100, or have them use your or their laptops. Again, portable.

Ok, enough being a curmudgeon. It is nice to have many of these technologies integrated into your car, but can we drop their prices down from the 5 to 20X of the comparable portable units?

In other words, let's see something similar to what SaaS is doing to the economics of traditional on-premise software ...

Weekend Stuff: Rainman was right

Qantas is a very safe airline as this scene from the movie accented

After the miraculous landing of the 747 with the gaping hole, that legend is going to grow even more. Apparently, out of superstition, Qantas pilots do not like to discuss the topic of safety.

What is even more impressive is how calm the passengers and crew were as this video shows. May be the calm came from the fact they knew they would be safe on a Qantas plane?

Weekend Stuff: The most heated debate of the year

Would you vote for one of the Obama-Clinton ones? Or wait till McCain and Obama go at it?

I think any of them will pale compared to "Whose Joker was better?".

This video may help you decide.

Bothersome

So it is bothersome if Steve Jobs called Joe Nocera at the NY Times and shared what is wrong with him while his CFO tells investors his health is a "private matter". It is even more bothersome that Joe chose to write about it (though does not disclose details of what the specific ailment is) when the call was supposedly "off record"

But the real bothersome thing to me - as I wrote here is how much ink the NY Times gives to Apple. Yes, Jobs is a genius. Yes Apple has a lot of momentum.

But it sure would be nice of Joe and his colleagues to get away from their Macs and go visit the numerous Fortune 500 CIOs right there in Manhattan. And report more on products from HP, Verizon, Oracle and may be even obscure companies like SAP, Nokia, Infosys that make up the other 98% of the technology industry.

Weekend Stuff: You earned it, professor...

Must watch - Last Lecture by Carnegie Mellon Prof. Randy Pausch, who passed away this weekend.

Amazing grace and humor knowing he had just a few months to live...

Weekend Stuff: Take your SYSADM to lunch day

Actually should have done that yesterday - the 9th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day

Least each of us can do - I hear the Mayor of San Francisco had to promise Terry Childs a month of lunches when he gets out of the Hall of Justice :)

Weekend Stuff: Not Bobby, the other kind of Knight!

My daughter heads to Lubbock, TX today to represent the state of Florida at the prestigious Susan Polgar Invitational.

Susan, one of the best lady players in the world has done plenty to encourage young girls to take up the game. And she now coaches the Texas Tech chess team. In chess terms, you can say she made an en passant move to take over from the legendary basketball coach.