Blog Yes & Know

Unlike ASPs, SaaS is Hotter than it Looks

I think SaaS (Software as a Service) is potentially the biggest issue facing software firms today. This formerly “ASP” (application service provider) model blipped back in ’97-’00. And it seemed …

Help! Microsoft Is Targeting Our Business

Recently we’ve been hearing that more and more. The companies being targeted usually assume they’ve being singled out for special attention from Microsoft, but when you add up all the reports a different picture emerges. What is not new is that Microsoft sees you as nothing but a bucket of money to them. What is new is that Microsoft is targeting almost every major tech company, all at once. This is a fairly new behavior for Microsoft, and it means the rules of competing with Redmond have changed as well.

Blogging: Friend or Foe?

Blogging is hip. Blogging is cool. More and more companies are using blogs as corporate marketing tools. Some of these efforts are enormously successful, while others make us shudder. Before your company adopts a blogging strategy, here’s what you’ve got to know.
Some companies like Google, GM and Cisco have official company blogs. Others like Sun and Microsoft have hundreds of employee bloggers to which the companies link to from the corporate web site. Still others are encouraging executives and rank and file employees to blog, but don’t seem to be having much success. Here are some thoughts about corporate blogs.

Software as a Service: Over-hyped, But That Doesn’t Mean it Won’t Kill You

We were involved in a recent roundtable meeting where the topic of Software as a Service (SaaS) came up. Some of the people there felt it’s an important trend, others viewed it as the latest round of Silicon Valley hype.
Our view is that it’s an important change in the way the industry works, but one that will take years to play out. As so often happens in our industry, it will probably be written off by a lot of people before it has its greatest impact.

Will Cisco’s Latest Move Bring in Big Bucks?

For every successful market entry, another four fail. We learned that in grad school. One of the few facts that made practical sense, and thus stuck. So it’s a brave company that tries to do market expansion, and Cisco is doing it in a new way that’s worth learning from.
When even your smallest movement makes waves in the market, how do you find the lever that moves you to growth?

The Real Price of the Blackberry Lawsuit: Executive Distraction

The RIM Blackberry folks finally settled their patent dispute with NTP, averting a feared shutdown of the service. That dispels the ominous cloud hanging over the Blackberry, and now the company can go back to growing wildly, right?
Not necessarily. If RIM’s watching the landscape carefully, what’s happening now is more like emerging from the storm cellar after a thunderstorm only to find two funnel clouds on the horizon.
One tornado is Microsoft. The other is market saturation.

Lose the Judgment; Focus on Learning

My son, who is two and a half now learned to walk just shortly before his first year birthday. About on schedule as the books suggest. What I find interesting …

Playdough, anyone?

In our offices, we have playdough. Yes, you read it right. Playdough. When I asked my assistant to get some playdough, she thought she had heard wrong. (It could have …