With 2006 quickly approaching, many companies are in the midst of thinking about “what’s next.” Whether it’s new customer acquisition plans, or accelerating profits, or displacing an emerging competitor, the pace and magnitude of success lies in clear thinking and planning now. The words planning and thinking sometimes imply “slow down,” but in reality the pace of business is ever — increasing and we need to figure out how to cause market momentum. Not slower, but faster.
Between A Hammer and the Anvil: Microsoft Gets More Aggressive
Any successful company in the tech industry eventually ends up competing against Microsoft in one way or another. But recently we’ve noted a rising tide of competitive action by Microsoft across much of our client base, all at once. In segment after segment — including financial software, antivirus, wireless e-mail, and graphics — Microsoft is making aggressive new pushes to displace the established leaders.
If you’re facing one of these assaults, you may feel like you’re being targeted individually, but the context is that Microsoft is trying to increase its growth by targeting many places at once. We think that now most of the antitrust complaints against Microsoft have been settled, it feels freer to be aggressive. And the company’s delayed delivery of new products has made it especially hungry for quick revenue growth.
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?
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.
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 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
While 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.
(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.
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