deal architect

"Short the Global SIs"

Chris Barbin, CEO of appirio, has a post on his blog - Short the Global SIs.

appirio is one of the new generation of  SaaS/cloud systems integrators with considerable salesforce and Google Apps experience.

Chris is right - the big SIs have done little in the SaaS/cloud space.  Most SaaS vendors are having better luck with players like appirio or reseller channels. And IBM's Software group is partnering with amazon for clouds rather than its own outsourcing group.

Even on-premise software vendors are increasingly willing to take on their SI partners.

Update: Phil Wainewright writes - Shafting the Global SIs.

Knowing Phil as a fellow EI, I am pretty certain he is just referring to a golf term :)

Nick Carr: High Prose and Hogwash

"Hogwash" - that is what Steve Ballmer of Microsoft called Nick Carr's "Does IT Matter?".

Most of us in technology reacted that way to a academic who likely had never spun a tape or written a line of code or developed a TCO model for an IT project.

But over the last few years, many of us have come to admire the "word bird". His prose when he describes tech trends, especially those about the impact of technology on society weaves a magical spell - as he does in the Sun Magazine interview.

Indeed, it is tough to remind yourself  he is a poet not a practitioner.

Clearly he craves blog link love

When the Black Book of Outsourcing recently named my firm as one of its top boutique advisory firms, someone more cynical than me emailed suggesting they did it knowing I would blog about it and they could bask in the free publicity. 

Boy, must be the same reason Marc Benioff, CEO of salesforce.com has mentioned our blog twice this week - once on his earnings call and then at the TechCrunch conference :)

Seriously, Marc has been good to bloggers. He has encouraged internal bloggers, has provided frequent access to external bloggers and at his conference, Dreamforce, last Fall gave us front row seats - to the annoyance of industy analysts and media who were behind us.

Could salesforce.com pull a Slumdog?

salesforce.com is up for awards in 8 CODiE categories to be awarded by the SIIA on May 9.

My friends (and blog sponsors) at Intacct are up for the Best Financial Software Award.

I wonder if some one will pull a Ben Stiller :)

Weekend Stuff: Great time to be an auto consumer

Put your fears aside, and beg, borrow, steal - it is a great time to be an auto consumer.

Having just bought a new family car, I can tell you we paid 40% less than the MSRP the 2009 Consumer Reports study has listed, and we got the Limited version which has more than the features CR lists. And we had 2 dealers calling the day after asking us to revoke the deal and they were offering another $ 1,000 off.

Next year, expect far less choice in models - as the industry dramatically shrinks its capacity - or in rebates.

I wish I could tell you with confidence to buy American.

Only 1 US entry - in the pickup truck category - shows up in Consumer Reports list of 10 Best of 2009.

Eight make the worst 10.

Tech Influencer Sunshine Act?

I was reading a New Scientist interview with Senator Chuck Grassley. He is on a mission to provide more transparency of money flow between pharma, doctors and medical research. He also framed the Physician Sunshine Act, which many pharma companies agreed to abide by last year.

I think tech would similarly benefit from more transparency on vendor payments to financial analysts, industry analysts, media and bloggers.

Mind you, all of us influencers have gradually been losing market share to a new category of influencers - industry peers.

As I have written before:

"In the 1970's when CIO's wanted to know what to buy, they asked IBM.

In the 1980's when CIO's wanted to know what to buy, they asked Andersen Consulting.

In the 1990's when CIO's wanted to know what to buy, they asked Gartner.

In the 2000's when CIO's want to know what to buy, they ask each other."

It's the economy, stupid

 salesforce.com reports 34% revenue growth this quarter, while SAP and Oracle stare at each other

MetroPCS added over 500,000 customers last quarter, while Verizon, AT&T and Sprint concentrate on each other

While Microsoft and Dell warily watch Apple's ads mocking PCs, Netbooks are hurting them all.

Cartridge World reports 13% growth as HP's printer groups reports a 19% drop.

It's trite to say recessions spawn innovative new companies.  Additionally, they provide rocket fuel to disruptive, price competitive players.

Oracle: Innovation Beehive, Innovation Light or Innovation Free?

Within the confines of our closed Google Groups forum, the Enterprise Irregulars have vigorous food fights on a whole bunch of topics.

Sometimes these debates spill over - this time the topic is around Oracle and whether it innovates. I am glad this debate has gone public. Customers have paid Oracle over $ 75 billion in the last five years and bloggers and analysts and media should all be exploring the value for money for that spend rather than just dutifully reporting its many acquisitions.

Here is the chronology of EI posts on the topic:

I kicked it off last Friday
Dennis Howlett jumped in Monday with his question whether Oracle was an "innovation free zone"
Josh Greenbaum jumped in Tuesday
Paul Greenberg joined in Wednesday
And on Paul's post Bob Warfield and I are slugging it out in the comments

I can see Bob's point when he says "It's true, they are focused on acquisition, but even that is innovative in our High Tech industry these days which mostly consists of Not Invented Here shops."

But I can only agree with that argument to a point - it's a "in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king" argument which would be more persusaive if we did not have Google, Apple, Cisco, Intel, and several other innovators.

It is obviously subjective, but I reward innovation with mentions on my New Florence blog. In the last 3 years there are over 1,000 posts on wide range of innovation areas from mobility to telepresence. Oracle has been featured there only 3 times - once on Larry Ellison and his fine taste and how that spurs innovation (I call him a modern day Medici) in clothing, high performance autos etc; once on Exadata, and once on the BMW Oracle trimaran.

Note that only one of them relates to an Oracle product - and that too a joint development with HP.

I am constantly looking for examples of innovation to showcase on that blog, but they have to be compelling in terms of customer payback and wow factor. Sure, I have considered putting features like Oracle's Social CRM on the innovation blog but it just was not that compelling after factoring in the typical Oracle TCO.

I would love to profile Oracle more on the innovation blog, but there is just not enough coming out of Redwood Shores. For the $ 75 billion over 5 years customers have paid I am with Dennis - Oracle has been innovation light, if not innovation free.

So you have 2 EIs - Dennis and me - who think Oracle has under-delivered innovation. 3 - Paul, Josh and Bob - think Oracle is doing fine.

Where do readers stand on this?

Technology and Hobbies - Part 2

On my New Florence innovation blog I have started a guest series on how technology has changed a hobby or weekend passion. Check them out here

This week, another 4 posts have gone up

• Christian Schuh, at Siemens Enterprise Networks on Soccer Coaching
• Kimberly Baker McDonald on how technology has made her a fearless “side-tripper”
• Brian Sommer on some serious tinkering with cars
• Dennis Howlett on home made brews 

Previous week, there the first 4:

• Eric Dirst, CIO of DeVry on jogging, in the Chicago marathon and in the bitter winter there
• Sig Rinde, the Norwegian transplant in France, on skiing
• Bob Warfield, owner of 9 patents, on hot rodding and a bunch of other passions
• Josh Greebaum with a contrarian - why he avoids technology in his hobbies

Readers, if you have a passion - cooking, basket weaving, whatever - and want to write about how tech is changing it, send me a quick note with your hobby and if it is not a dupe with others in the pipeline I will work with you to develop the column.

On my New Florence innovation blog I have started a guest series on how technology has changed a hobby or weekend passion. Check them out here

This week, another 4 posts have gone up

• Christian Schuh, at Siemens Enterprise Networks on Soccer Coaching
• Kimberly Baker McDonald on how technology has made her a fearless “side-tripper”
• Brian Sommer on some serious tinkering with cars
• Dennis Howlett on home made brews 

Previous week, there the first 4:

• Eric Dirst, CIO of DeVry on jogging, in the Chicago marathon and in the bitter winter there
• Sig Rinde, the Norwegian transplant in France, on skiing
• Bob Warfield, owner of 9 patents, on hot rodding and a bunch of other passions
• Josh Greebaum with a contrarian - why he avoids technology in his hobbies

Readers, if you have a passion - cooking, basket weaving, whatever - and want to write about how tech is changing it, send me a quick note with your hobby and if it is not a dupe with others in the pipeline I will work with you to develop the column.

The Lost Art of Sourcing

When you present and people save a question for cocktail hour, you know it made an impact :)

At the Cognizant event couple of weeks ago a few folks asked me to elaborate on what I said during my pitch

"We gave procurement folks the fancy title of Strategic Sourcing, and then told them to forget about IT Sourcing from every corner of the world and instead just consolidate vendor bases"

I gave them a polite answer, but I was thinking:

If that same consolidation principle applied, the Westminster Kennel Club would just rotate its winner each year between a Fox Terrier and a Scottish Terrier. Those breeds have won more than others in the last century. An aging Sussex Spaniel which won this year, and even a more pedestrian beagle which won last year would have had a snowball's chance in hell.

And Malia's allergies be darned, the First Dog would never have been a Portuguese Water Dog.

And it would have insisted on being named StrategicSourcing, when it should be called Stimulus:)