Blog Yes & Know

How to Add [more] Value as a Remarkable Executive!

How do you become a world-class executive?
You’re a proven business leader, with respected subject matter expertise. But are you viewed as a key executive to the organization? Does your CEO or Board trust you to provide input on, and champion, the issues most crucial to your firm’s long-term success? Do you know what it takes to get there? Is it about increased skills and competencies, or about style and attributes to break the glass ceiling, or even about better networking so you increase your sponsorship within the organization? Or is it something else? What makes you more than good, what makes you remarkable?

Video Use In Education

According to market research recently completed by Rubicon Consulting, video editing currently represents the fasting growing category of software sold into Education. More and more schools are producing videos, with even middle schools often broadcasting live announcement shows via in-school cable systems. Most new school construction now includes dedicated video studios for use by students and faculty. Despite all of these signs of impending breakout, Rubicon estimates that only five percent of K-12 teachers currently use video creation in their classes, so the market remains a very early one at this point.
This white paper analyzes the current situation, some best practices for adoption and offers projections for what is next.

Is the Mobile Market Ripe for the Pick’n?

Questions software executives must answer if they expect to stay on top of the rapidly emerging mobile market space.
Lately, it seems you can’t swing a PDA or Smart Phone without hitting a business or trade publication article that contains the word “Mobile.”

Sequoia VC Evangelizes ‘AskJeeves Meets Google’ Market Trend

Mark Kvamme, one of the true blue-bloods of Silicon Valley, recently shared his take on what will fuel the next wave of technology innovations. Mark, as some of you might know is the former CEO of CKS, and is a current partner at Sequoia Capital, focusing on the same markets as Rubicon, the Software and Services space.
His premise is this: content will drive the next wave of technology innovation, because organizations fail to access 90% of the content in their organization.

Microsoft to Use Licensing to Drive Enterprise Penetration

Microsoft LogoMicrosoft just announced changes intended to reconcile new technology and old licensing models, effective December 1. Microsoft will now calculate the cost of server software products by the number of running instances of that product on any given server, rather than the number of physical processors contained in that server.

Licensing Trends: Software Vendors vs. Enterprises

Licensing TrendsWhile vendors are trying to move customers to term licensing (subscriptions), enterprise customers continue to sing the praises of concurrency due to its cost savings and easier management. According to research by Macrovision, subscriptions or term licensing will be offered by a majority of software vendors for the first time in 2006. By 2007, the forecast is that fully two-thirds of software vendors will offer term licensing even though 57% of enterprises prefer perpetual licensing. Moreover, by better than 2-to-1, enterprises see concurrent licensing as preferred over seat-based licensing. Concurrency is the only licensing model to see an increase in customer preference during the past year, so we are already looking forward to the hallway conversations next year.
In the longer term, utility pricing looks to address the needs of both software vendors and enterprises, but utility pricing is clearly not ready for prime time yet.

(Dis)satisfaction with Pricing & Licensing Strategies

Here is a shocker: nobody much likes their licensing models. According to Macrovision’s research, less than one in three enterprises are satisfied with software vendors’ pricing & licensing strategies. Dissatisfaction is not limited to the customers, as only 57% of software vendors are satisfied. While to some extent this probably demonstrates healthy market forces at work–meaning compromise has left neither side is completely satisfied–it also demonstrates the opportunity for new types of innovative licensing such as term- and utility-based models if software vendors can position them appropriately.

Questioning the Unquestionable

From time to time in business, an idea emerges that sounds obviously good — so good, in fact, that it becomes accepted wisdom almost immediately. Product managers quickly incorporate it into their assumptions, marketeers let it shape the way they approach the project, and executives quickly incorporate it into their presentation slides so that it ceases to be mere idea and becomes… (drum roll) fact.
The idea makes the leap from theory to principle without ever being subjected to rigorous testing. Often, the idea eventually gets proven out. But what if the so-called fact turns out to be false? Or what if an idea that once was true becomes false? What happens then? Has it happened to you?

Channel Optimization: Are you paying your channel too much?

Given the constant squeeze on end-user prices, increased channel competition, and investor demands for steady–if not increasing–earnings, it is hard to believe that many high-tech companies have an untapped source of additional profits on current business.
In a recent worldwide channel economics study, Rubicon studied industry giants like Microsoft, Symantec, Apple and Macromedia, as well as their top channel partners, and found that each vendor, in their own way, was leaving money–profits–on the table. Neither the channel nor the vendor was using their channel investments optimally to bring products to market. The Rubicon study found that the investments many companies make in the channel do not prevent loss of mindshare or improve returns. Most importantly, the study revealed that channel economics are changing in ways that challenge conventional wisdom.