Very interesting video I saw on Youtube that does a quick drive by at an event for VPs/CIO's and gets their candid feedback on Enterprise 2.0.
While most of them were really witty, some of them seemed clueless. Tip of the hat to the VP/CIO from Altera and his comment. I think he actually gets it.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
What is an Enterprise App in the 2.0 world?
Wanted to post this as a thought inspired by Vinnie Mirchandani's post "Another brick in the wall".
First off let me be clear that I dont have anything against Carsonified or Ravelry, I'm sure both are pretty good enterprises in their own right. My comment on Vinnie's blog might lead some to think otherwise so wanted to clarify.
However I wanted to post on the "how close are enterprise applications to this list" aspect. So here's a link to the list shown below.
So by that vague definition everything that was a non-enterprise application was placed in the consumer application bucket.
Here's what Wikipedia says about enterprise software and applications
But in my experience over the last decade and certainly over the last few years this line has started blurring significantly. Here's an example from the CRM side of things.
Would you consider eBay, Amazon, Gmail as consumer applications? Most of us would say yes to that I guess. What about user interaction channels on these sites like if you had issues with Amazon and you logged an issue with them on their site are you using Amazons consumer application or enterprise application for logging that ticket?
I'm starting to head to a place where any web application that's accessible to an entity outside an enterprise firewall (without VPN or tunneling) is a consumer application to me and vice-versa any application that's restricted in use behind an enterprise firewall is an enterprise application.
So the lines blurring for me now. There are no black and white enterprise or consumer applications cause they could quickly be repurposed.
Now maybe one could debate that it depends on the roots of that application or use the 80:20 rule and say 80% of the time application is used as a consumer application etc.
Anyways according to me the good news for enterprises is that they no longer need to be confined in their thinking that .. aw shucks wish I could use that in my enterprise but alas its a consumer app.
First off let me be clear that I dont have anything against Carsonified or Ravelry, I'm sure both are pretty good enterprises in their own right. My comment on Vinnie's blog might lead some to think otherwise so wanted to clarify.
However I wanted to post on the "how close are enterprise applications to this list" aspect. So here's a link to the list shown below.
So what is an enterprise application. Till recently enterprise applications conjured up images of ERP, HRMS, CRM, SCM etc. Those with a slightly broader view would often include things like office productivity, email, application, directory, integration servers and other software into this category as well. Some of these applications were sub-classified based on their channels as well so for example we had B2E, B2B, B2C and stuff like that, the B2C ones were mainly inward looking portals into enterprises.
Gmail - web mail
flickr - photo sharing
Twitter - micro-blogging platform
Facebook - social network
Ravelry - "knit and crochet" community
WordPress - blogging platform
Mint - web analytics
last-fm - music
Basecamp - project collaboration
livejournal - social network
So by that vague definition everything that was a non-enterprise application was placed in the consumer application bucket.
Here's what Wikipedia says about enterprise software and applications
Enterprise level software is software which provides business logic support
functionality for an organization, typically in commercial organizations, which
aims to improve the organization's productivity and efficiency.Services provided
by enterprise software are typically business-oriented tools such as online
shopping and online payment processing, interactive product catalogue, automated billing systems, security, content management, etc.
But in my experience over the last decade and certainly over the last few years this line has started blurring significantly. Here's an example from the CRM side of things.
Would you consider eBay, Amazon, Gmail as consumer applications? Most of us would say yes to that I guess. What about user interaction channels on these sites like if you had issues with Amazon and you logged an issue with them on their site are you using Amazons consumer application or enterprise application for logging that ticket?
I'm starting to head to a place where any web application that's accessible to an entity outside an enterprise firewall (without VPN or tunneling) is a consumer application to me and vice-versa any application that's restricted in use behind an enterprise firewall is an enterprise application.
So the lines blurring for me now. There are no black and white enterprise or consumer applications cause they could quickly be repurposed.
Now maybe one could debate that it depends on the roots of that application or use the 80:20 rule and say 80% of the time application is used as a consumer application etc.
Anyways according to me the good news for enterprises is that they no longer need to be confined in their thinking that .. aw shucks wish I could use that in my enterprise but alas its a consumer app.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
SaaS - Services as a Service .. now wait are you trying to confuse us here
Saw this interesting post When SaaS Means 'Services as a Service' posted on Intelligent Enterprise by David Lunthicum. At first glance this read like an attempt at confusion. However now that I looked at what StrikeIron does it actually makes sense. So in yesterdays world if you wanted to embed logic about currency conversion or validating a US postal address or symbol of a company listed on Nasdaq you would either try coding it yourself by maintaining some seed data or you try finding a public web service that meets the requirement.
What companies like StrikeIron are doing is they've become aggregators of services from partners like D&B, MapQuest etc and offer them through their own catalog. Now one might question the value of that and say why wouldnt I go directly to D&B and get access to their services and data. Well the spectrum is wide and there could be instances where the StrikeIron model works better. Lets say you're a small startup or a SMB kind of a company that needs access to some disparate services, would you invest in people and contracts and partnerships to reach out to each of these vendors get info on their offerrings and then maintain relationships. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe you might go to StrikeIron and pick off of their catalog or services.
So SaaS with "Services as a Service" makes some sense. Now nearly half of Salesforce's traffic these days comes through web services, does that mean they are now transforming into a "Services as a Service" company?
By the way here's what StrikeIron says it does in a nutshell.
* CONNECT
* • Find Data Services
* • Browse Solutions
* • Cleanse & Enhance Data
* CREATE
* • Build Mashups in Excel
* • Create Business Solutions
* • Integrate into Salesforce.com
* COLLABORATE
* • New! Developer Community
* • Download Code and Clients
* • Access Free Data
What companies like StrikeIron are doing is they've become aggregators of services from partners like D&B, MapQuest etc and offer them through their own catalog. Now one might question the value of that and say why wouldnt I go directly to D&B and get access to their services and data. Well the spectrum is wide and there could be instances where the StrikeIron model works better. Lets say you're a small startup or a SMB kind of a company that needs access to some disparate services, would you invest in people and contracts and partnerships to reach out to each of these vendors get info on their offerrings and then maintain relationships. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe you might go to StrikeIron and pick off of their catalog or services.
So SaaS with "Services as a Service" makes some sense. Now nearly half of Salesforce's traffic these days comes through web services, does that mean they are now transforming into a "Services as a Service" company?
By the way here's what StrikeIron says it does in a nutshell.
* CONNECT
* • Find Data Services
* • Browse Solutions
* • Cleanse & Enhance Data
* CREATE
* • Build Mashups in Excel
* • Create Business Solutions
* • Integrate into Salesforce.com
* COLLABORATE
* • New! Developer Community
* • Download Code and Clients
* • Access Free Data
Friday, February 29, 2008
Freeeconomics ... It changes everything
Recently ran into this article "Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business"by Chris Anderson at Wired Magazine.
Now while on the surface I dont buy what this article is trying to say, cause someone always has to pay and there is no free meal. There is a growing perception these days on the web that onlines services should essentially be free and if there is a cost associated to a service your best bet to fame is by offerring a free version of that same service.
I think whats going on today on the web is a great deflection economy where the consumer of the service is being funded by the vendor based on the revenue it might be getting from another consumer or advertiser. So the consumer is left with the perception that what they are consuming is essentially "Free". Now wasnt that going on already with ad based community magazines that were available for free. I guess todays online service providers have taken that model and optimized it to their benefit.
Here's the Taxanomy of free that Chris has listed.
Now while on the surface I dont buy what this article is trying to say, cause someone always has to pay and there is no free meal. There is a growing perception these days on the web that onlines services should essentially be free and if there is a cost associated to a service your best bet to fame is by offerring a free version of that same service.
I think whats going on today on the web is a great deflection economy where the consumer of the service is being funded by the vendor based on the revenue it might be getting from another consumer or advertiser. So the consumer is left with the perception that what they are consuming is essentially "Free". Now wasnt that going on already with ad based community magazines that were available for free. I guess todays online service providers have taken that model and optimized it to their benefit.
Here's the Taxanomy of free that Chris has listed.
Click "here for the complete article.Freemium
What's free: Web software and services, some content. Free to whom: users of the basic version.
Advertising
What's free: content, services, software, and more. Free to whom: everyone.
Cross-subsidies
What's free: any product that entices you to pay for something else. Free
to whom: everyone willing to pay eventually, one way or another.
Zero marginal cost
What's free: things that can be distributed without an appreciable cost to
anyone. Free to whom: everyone.
Labor exchange
What's free: Web sites and services. Free to whom: all users, since the act
of using these sites and services actually creates something of value.
Gift economy
What's free: the whole enchilada, be it open source software or user-generated content. Free to whom: everyone.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Platforms for building future CRM Apps or any Apps for that matter
Had a very interesting interaction last week with some bright folks at a .com company. Anyways felt like blogging after a long time cause had something really interesting to share based on some stuff I've been working on. Also have lazily ignored blogging over the last few weeks :-(
Anways to get on with it. Over the last few weeks I've been trying to play around with what might very well be platforms delivered through the cloud for building the next generation CRM Apps and maybe even "any" Apps in general. So here's the working list and as I go through them will have detailed posts on each as well.
As I go through the list, 3 strong trends that are emerging for me are;
Here's the list I've been looking at and will post soon on each of these individually as well.
Anways to get on with it. Over the last few weeks I've been trying to play around with what might very well be platforms delivered through the cloud for building the next generation CRM Apps and maybe even "any" Apps in general. So here's the working list and as I go through them will have detailed posts on each as well.
As I go through the list, 3 strong trends that are emerging for me are;
- Delivery as a service
- Rich internet applications
- User focused application development
Here's the list I've been looking at and will post soon on each of these individually as well.
Force.comWhether you're an individual, organization (large or small) or ISV looking for a new application or with existing applications, there is no way you can go decide to create or buy your own application today without looking at one of these platforms.
Coghead
OpenLaszlo
Iceberg
ZohoCreator
Trackvia
WuFoo
LongJump
SugarCRM
Friday, January 11, 2008
2008: A Year for Enterprise 2.0 or is it
Read this really interesting post titled "2008: A Year for Real Choices" by M.R. Rangaswami on SandHill.com. The post has some great insights for folks trying to gaze through the glass and see what lies ahead.
However the reason I wanted to bring it up here is the prediction for Enterprise 2.0. It couldnt have been summarized better. This year will either establish "2.0" as more than just a buzz word or announce its demise as we wrap up '08.
However the reason I wanted to bring it up here is the prediction for Enterprise 2.0. It couldnt have been summarized better. This year will either establish "2.0" as more than just a buzz word or announce its demise as we wrap up '08.
6. Enterprise 2.0 Will Take Shape – or Not The social network applications have been working on “consumerizing” the enterprise for the last couple years. 2008 will be the year in which we begin to see hard proof of how these technologies can revolutionize the enterprise – or we won’t. Enterprise 2.0 vendors must emerge from the sidelines and deliver strong proof that this trend is more than a buzzword or a fad in order to stay on CIOs’ radar.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Lets close the 2007 deal, SR, campaign, order ... and welcome the business of 2008
As they say, another good year behind us. Had to really resist the temptation of blogging about '08 predictions or '07 observations as my final post for the year.
Think '07 was a great year for CRM and one look at products from vendors like Oracle and SAP indicate that the next (2.0) generation is very much here and mainstream. So I would say buckle up as we are on for a ride in 2008.
Happy New Year everyone.
Think '07 was a great year for CRM and one look at products from vendors like Oracle and SAP indicate that the next (2.0) generation is very much here and mainstream. So I would say buckle up as we are on for a ride in 2008.
Happy New Year everyone.
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