Archives for 2007

Web 2.0 Wiki Essentials Kit Served up 1.0 Style

Posted on July 17, 2007 ·

Socialtext, the enterprise wiki company offers a free Wiki Essentials kit for download. It includes a basic wiki-intro, two analyst briefs and several customer case studies. Of course all of them Socialtext-flavored, but that’s quite understandable, and I think the package is a valuable intro into how corporations can use wikis – just replace Socialtext with “enterprise wiki” and do your own research.

What I’m not too happy with is the way these web 2.0 goodies are served up in good old “1.0-style”.

Registration form. Ouch! This is where I normally quit, but since I wanted to report about it, I patiently filled out all the fields. Sorry for the phone no. 111-111-1111, but some of you at Socialtext have my real number… I understand this is part of a sales-push, but believe me, it’s also a turn-off for many. Why not just be the nice guys (and gals), serve up information, and provide your contact form at the end of each doc? Which brings me to the next point…
Download. Unzip. Deal with several PDF files. This is so un-cool and 1990’s. Why not make them available online? In fact, why not link the individual documents to each other? Wait… wouldn’t that be a … wiki?

(P.S. I’d like to make the point that this is good info, I’m just teasing ST for not delivering it 2.0-style)

Update (7/19): There is indeed on online site Cases2.com, which is not a 100% overlap: it does not have the analyst writeups, but Harvard Prof. Andrew McAfee expects it to grow into Case Study Central” . It’s open for contribution by anyone – the Web 2.0 way. (hat tip: Ross Mayfield)

Tags: Socialtext, wiki, wikis, enterprise 2.0, wiki essentials, sales, sales 2.0, marketing, cases2.com

Filed Under: Collaboration, Enterprise Software, Marketing / PR ·

Google Disappoints…

Posted on July 17, 2007 ·

Gizmodo reports that Google is about to launch a fleet of 360° camera-equipped Chevy Cobalts on us, as part of its streetview program. Yes, you read it right: Chevy Cobalts. Whatever happened to hybrids, in fact Google-enhanced hybrids?

Tags: Google, Streetview, Google Streetview, hybrids, toyota prius, fuel economy

Filed Under: Technology ·

Can Tiny Zoho Beat Microsoft and Google in Online Office Apps? The Real Sanity Check

Posted on July 17, 2007 ·

If you write a blog you’ve probably had the feeling I have this morning: want to react to an article – but I already did just that, a month ago. Nevertheless, TechRepublic’s piece on Sanity check: Can tiny Zoho beat Microsoft and Google in online office apps? is a good one, worth another go at the subject.

Executive Editor Jason Hiner is impressed by the Zoho Suite:

“It’s impressive that Zoho has created a broad fleet of full-featured online apps in a short period of time, but just as significant is the fact that it has done it without sacrificing simplicity and usability. That points to software that is well-conceived and well-developed.”

Jason finds that almost all of Zoho’s apps have the best feature set in their class of online apps, and he is not alone: see the MIT Technology Review, Gartner and countless blogs in agreement. He also points to potential weaknesses:

business model
security (of not just Zoho, but online apps in general)
full offline capability.

It’s good to see Zoho’s Raju Vegesna acknowledge these, and stating they are working on them. In the past 18 months Zoho has proven that when they say “we’re working on it”, they better be taken seriously.

TechRepublic concludes:

In taking on Microsoft and Google in the office application arena, Zoho sees itself in the same mold as Microsoft taking on IBM in PCs in the early 1980s and Google taking on Microsoft and Yahoo in search in the past decade. It would be easy to wave off Zoho as a bug destined to be squashed, but judging by the quality of what Zoho has created so far, I wouldn’t count it out.

A very nice review, but let’s have a real sanity check: the question isn’t whether tiny Zoho can beat Microsoft and Google, but whether it needs to beat them at all. I don’t think so.

This is not a winner-take-it-all, zero-sum game: all players, including Google and Zoho are creating a new, emerging market. It’s not about slicing the pie yet, it’s about making sure the pie will be huge – and Google’s brand is the best guarantee to achieving that. Little Zoho can be a tremendously successful business being second to Google. There will always be room for a second .. third… perhaps fourth. Data privacy, the quality of the products, better service, or just having a choice – there will always be reasons for customers to opt for a non-Google solution.

The above is a quote from my earlier post, The Web Office Smackdown – Why It Does Not Matter, which covers further details, including Zoho’s small business apps, beyond the scope of Office. For a better understanding of what Zoho is all about, I warmly recommend Sramana Mitra’s interview series with Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu.

Tags: web office, office 2.0, google, google apps, zoho, zoho suite, microsoft, crm, smb, sme, on-demand, saas, techrepublic

Filed Under: Collaboration, Personal Productivity, SaaS, SMB / SME ·

Moved to WordPress

Posted on July 14, 2007 ·

Pardon the appearance while we’re under construction …

I’ve moved from Blogware to WordPress, and am still trying to figure my way here … some functions, like the rolling tabs on the left may not work yet, some of my sidebar widgets are still missing, and generally, the site is still being shaped.

In a few days when the dust settles, I will post about my conversion experience, (update: it’s here now) the new-but-old blog host, PressHarbor, and my current favorite theme, GenkiTheme.

Update (7/17): Stowe Boyd has considered moving his ~~ToshiBlog~~ /Message to WordPress, but he is worried about complications. All I can say is my transition was smooth, but it’s not because I am so smart, it’s because of support from PressHarbor. More details soon…

Tags: Blogging, blogharbor, blogware, genkitheme, pressharbor, wordpress

Filed Under: Blogging ·

On-demand CRM: Lunch is (Almost) Free

Posted on July 10, 2007 ·

Will Microsoft eat Salesforce.com’s lunch with their freshly announced pricing for hosted CRM? There is a heated debate on the subject, with longtime enterprise software guru Josh Greenbaum declaring that Microsoft is about to eat Salesforce.com’s lunch:

“2008 promises to be the real year of on-demand CRM: It’s Salesforce.com’s market to lose, and, unless something changes dramatically in their favor, lose it they will.”

Josh has been bearish on Salesforce.com for a while, declaring it the next Siebel. It’s a bold call, but calling it ahead of the curve, based on fundamentals, going against the trend is what makes a real analyst.

Salesforce.com does not seem to be worried about their lunch-ticket though:

“What it looks like is that Microsoft is just marking down an inferior product to what customers are actually paying right now. “

–says Bruce Francis, vice president of corporate strategy on Tod Bishop’s Blog. Ouch! He goes on:

“Also, one thing that I haven’t seen is the url where I can sign up for a 30-day trial.”

Well, I can point to such a URL, albeit not at Microsoft: http://zohocrm.com. (Disclaimer: I’m an advisor to Zoho)

I’ve long stated that Zoho’s product is actually more than just CRM: with Sales Order Management, Procurement, Inventory Management, Invoicing functionality Zoho seems to have the makings of a CRM+ERP solution, under the disguise of the CRM label. The company also stated they are working on Accounting and HR, they have a database/application Creator, and the best-in-class Office Suite: can you see the Big Picture?

Now, for the best part: pricing. Microsoft is heralded to undercut Salesforce.com with their $44/$59 per user pricing. That’s still a hefty price, if you ask me – Zoho CRM is free for the first 3 users, then $12 per user. I don’t know who is eating whose lunch, but if you are a business user, $12 bucks for CRM+++ is as close to a free lunch ticket as you can get.

How can Zoho do this? They are passionate about the real meaning of the On-Demand revolution: bringing good quality yet affordable software as a service to the masses. They are an efficient development “machine” and manage to cut out “fat”: Sales expenses, traditionally representing 70-80% of costs in the enterprise software business. We have an ongoing debate in the Enterprise Irregulars on whether this inexpensive “pull” model is hype or reality. The nay-sayers point to Salesforce.com, or the new IPO-hopeful NetSuite: sales costs are sky high, and for all the “no software” revolution Marc Benioff has brought about, he employs a rather traditional enterprise sales staff, a’la Oracle. The key differentiator IMHO is the target market:

“Salesforce.com is focusing more of its efforts these days on capturing larger enterprise accounts”

-says Phil Wainewright, and that means traditional, expensive sales. Viral Marketing, demand generation, try-online-then-sign-up works better with the Small Business market, which is what Zoho is focusing on. The Street only seems to value the large corporate market, so it’s understandable that venture funded, IPO-driven or already public companies strive to move up the chain; Zoho is privately owned, and can afford to grow their business as they wish – apparently they see the goldmine waiting to be explored on the SMB market.

Tags: zoho, zoho crm, salesforce.com, netsuite, microsoft, MS Dynamics, SMB, small Business, SaaS+CRM, CRM, ERP, On-demand

Filed Under: ERP / CRM, SaaS, SMB / SME ·

Enterprise 0.5 in Monterey

Posted on July 9, 2007 ·

Monterey, CA:

Next to Monterey is pretty Carmel, where this sign greets patrons of Carmel Plaza, the main shopping center:

Rules of Common Courtesy

Sticks under 1/4″ diameter are OK, larger ones are forbidden, knives over 2″ forbidden (geez, what about all the restaurants on the premises?), no photography without express permission – wow, everyone there is a tourist, and almost all are taking pix…

I wonder when the TSA will take over running the Plaza…

Filed Under: Misc ·

Yahoo Completely Wiped Out

Posted on July 6, 2007 ·

Has Yahoo ever existed? I don’t see any trace of it… it’s all gone. My.yahoo.com, the main yahoo pages … you name it, it’s all down.

Until this morning I haven’t realized just how dependent I’ve became on Yahoo, even though I hardly ever “actively” use it. After seeing my.yahoo dead, I started to read blogs from TechMeme – wanted to save one to del.icio.us – yuck, it’s dead, too, since it’s now a Yahoo property. Trying to load my blog takes forever – waiting for mybloglog to load – yet another Yahoo service. How about Flickr? Dead, too – it really looks like Yahoo is completely MIA.

Tags: yahoo, my.yahoo, del.icio.us, flickr, mybloglog, yahoo outage, yahoo down

Filed Under: Business, Software, Technology ·

Please Update Your Feed

Posted on July 3, 2007 ·

If you are my subscriber, please verify and if needed change your feed to:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/zoli

I will soon change to another blogging platform, and using the feedburner address above ensures continued delivery..

Of course if you haven’t subscribed yet, you can always do so by clicking on the button in the upper right sidebar area.

Thank you for being my reader either way.

Filed Under: Misc ·

NetSuite IPO Will Soon Cost Me …

Posted on July 2, 2007 ·

… my #2 position on Google. . It’s actually quite amazing: fellow Enterprise Irregular Jason Wood and I had a good dialogue about NetSuite’s long-expected IPO, and voila! Jason’s post is #1, mine is #2 on Google.

I suppose it won’t last long with the flurry of news… but it’s a good change. NetSuite has a good product, I’m happy for them. clap

Tags: NetSuite, IPO, NetSuite IPO, ERP, CRM, SaaS

Filed Under: Business, Software ·

Your $1,500 iPhone – the Cost of iDay

Posted on July 2, 2007 ·

Were you in line to buy the first batch of iPhones on Friday? If so, you’re probably the proud owner of a $1,500 phone … at least. The base price for the two models is $499 and $599, but you probably could you resist getting some accessories. Did you spend 5 hours in line? 10? A day and a half like Robert Scoble? How much is your time worth?

If we’re looking at $100 an hour (and frankly, almost everyone in the famous Palo Alto line is in a higher bracket) the real cost of an average iPhone purchased on iDay could very well be $1,500 or more.

But hey, you could have done worse… by buying a spot from this poor(?) fellow for $5,000 (photo credit: Engadget). (Oh, wait, it came with a free chair, what a deal…)

The real losers are those who stood on line all day in the hope of making a quick buck on eBay. Corey Spring posted an analysis of 933 eBay auctions, and came to two conclusions:

Half (52%) of the iPhone auctions expired without a single bid,
Those that actually concluded with a deal, yielded an average profit of $54.43 (yes, a lousy fifty bucks).

Factoring in the time they spent in line (or the average $15/hour some paid for their “stand-ins”), it’s probably fair to say that eBayers are at a net loss. And they did not have the experience, either