Blog Yes & Know

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.

SaaS: Deja vú, or something new?

A few years ago, Application service providers (ASPs) were all the rage. Then the Internet bubble burst and the term fell from favor. Now more companies are offering their applications via Software as a Service (SaaS). Some articles you read do not even attempt to distinguish between the two, and refer to ASP/ SaaS companies.
So what is the difference, and why is distinguishing between them important.

Rubicon in the News

Nilofer Merchant will be speaking at SoftSummit on October 11 as part of a panel on Innovation. Learn more. Nilofer Merchant’s article on Value Innovation is a featured in the …

Value Innovation

Does your company need to win new markets in order to keep up with, or more importantly, exceed investor expectations? Will you be able to get there by evolving your products or solutions, or will it require disruptive innovation? Does the challenge of your “day job” managing the existing business and investor expectations keep you from your “other job” of developing the strategy and plans that will allow you to leapfrog the competition? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you are not alone and have the company of many other executives, which very likely includes your competitors.

Multi-Core CPUs Raise Licensing Issues

Users and vendors are both grappling with the impact on pricing models as a result of the introduction of multi-core CPUs. The choice between pricing per user and per server grew more complicated a few years ago when multi-processor servers came into broad use. With two-thirds of new servers expected to ship with multi-core CPUs by the end of 2006, software publishers are anything but unified in their reaction. Is a dual-core CPU one or two CPUs for licensing purposes? Consensus appears to be a long ways off.
Oracle, always looking for a way to improve licensing revenue, counts the number of cores. Microsoft counts only the number of CPUs. IBM, trying to have it both ways, counts by cores for some types of CPUs, but not for others.

Life Caching: Opportunity or Just Another Blog?

Why would someone want to video, record, or photograph everything that happened to them and/or their friends on a particular day, or any day, for that matter? Perhaps the best answer is simply because they can. Similar to the 70’s slide shows of “Dad packing the car”, but with a digital twist, the abundance of gadgets, Web sites, and software specifically designed and focused to easily record, document, organize and store all of life’s moments, it’s no wonder that everyday activities, no matter how mundane, are being recorded as if they are Oscar winning moments. Trendwatching.com, a leading Web source for the latest trends and insights who also dubbed this trend as “Life Caching”, put it best when they said, “Human beings love to collect and store possessions, memories, experiences, in order to create personal histories, mementoes of their lives, or just to keep track for practical reasons.”