Zoho Guides Online Productivity and Collaboration Market into 2008

Enhanced Zoho Suite Driven by Long-term Commitment to Customers and Technology Innovation

PLEASANTON, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Zoho continues to raise the bar in the online productivity and collaboration market with relentless upgrades and enhancements to its suite of online productivity and collaboration applications. Zoho’s dedication to helping people harness the advantages inherent to the Web — mobility, collaboration, productivity and cost-efficiencies — is the driving force behind the industry’s broadest, most feature-rich online suite.

“In our first year, we focused primarily on building the broadest suite of online applications for our customers,” said Raju Vegesna, Zoho evangelist. “We spent our second year broadening our suite further and started integrating these applications into a unified suite. Moving into 2008, we’re building out the depth of the suite, striving for feature parity with desktop suites because our customers have made it clear that the ‘good enough’ functionality of most online applications is not good enough for them.”

As people live and work online more than ever, their needs and expectations continue to mature. Now, users want online applications that offer the functionality available in offline word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and other traditional productivity applications. At the same time, users are also demanding collaborative applications unique to the online environment, e.g., wiki, chat, and desktop sharing.

Zoho has resolved to meet its customers’ needs on both fronts. Zoho is redefining the traditional productivity suite by enabling enhanced collaboration and mobility simply unavailable in offline suites. More, Zoho is setting the standard for these new, online productivity and collaboration suites by constantly upgrading its applications to meet its customers’ evolving demands.

“Google Docs is good, but another online office suite has been rolling out upgrade after upgrade this year, slowly, steadily, and consistently trouncing GDocs in the features department.” Gina Trapani, LifeHacker

“…Zoho has created a terrific product and continues to improve and enhance it at a pace that is far faster than anything coming out of Google or Microsoft.” Jason Hiner TechRepublic

Zoho Upgrades Roll On in 2008

To set the online productivity and collaboration standard, Zoho has already begun rolling out a steady stream of application upgrades, including the highlights below.

• Zoho Show 2.0 gains a rich, Ajax-based user interface to 50+ default themes; shapes and symbols support; extensive editing support for text, images, bullets, etc.; clip art support; Zoho Meeting and Zoho Chat integration; and many more.
• Zoho Writer offline support lets users read and write documents while online or offline. Pagination support, header/footer support, and spell checker in 43 languages have also been added.
• Zoho Sheet adds sidebar and batch operations, auto-fill, auto-suggest, duplicate sheet, multi-language support and several more features.
• Zoho Creator Mobile version gives users access to their private and shared Zoho Creator applications from their mobile phones and devices.
• Zoho Notebook adds linking support, including links back to content sources, a new hand tool, improved books navigation, scheme support, and more.

Zoho’s commitment to long-term, continuous improvement and advancements reflects the backing it receives as a member of the AdventNet family. Unlike companies built around an exit strategy, Zoho is a brand of AdventNet, a company with an execution strategy. Privately-funded AdventNet has been profitable for 11 years, with a successful track record that demonstrates it knows how to deliver software and execute against larger players. For AdventNet, Zoho is pursuing the long-term vision of empowering people to work online.

Disclosure, Consulting Pulse is an active user of Zoho technologies for its publications and productivity tools.

Business Software: One Size Does Not Fit All

-(BUSINESS WIRE)-

In 2008, more and more common business practices will come to be customized. Consumers and professional alike want products especially designed for them. We are living in an age of customization: customized computers, custom-fitted jeans, custom-built cars, pay-per-view and on demand TV that allows viewers to watch what one wants when one wants. The business world is not exempt from this trend.

“In a culture where most everything can be made to order, why should companies expect their business software solutions to be one size fits all?” asks Jason Bishara, Chief Executive Officer of SLM Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: SMHI, http://www.slmbiz.com), a financial software company that develops products and services designed to provide Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools and enhance client support for those working in the financial sector. “In other words, if custom tailoring is good enough for your pinstripe, it should certainly be good enough for your day-to-day communications software.”

SLM Holdings has installed their unique business software on over seventeen thousand desktops at some of America’s leading brokerage firms including: Wachovia, Smith Barney, and Merrill Lynch. The company offers complete on-site training and full data migration and, once their software systems are installed, these tools are accessible by entire teams and trading desks rather than just individual users.

One software tool, ACT! For Financial Professionals (AFFP) records critical financial transactions and tracks important personal client information such as birthdays, anniversaries, hobbies, and gifts given and sent. For example, the software can be programmed to automatically send a client a favorite bottle of wine on his/her birthday.

Particularly noteworthy for those working in the financial sector, SLM software data can provide invaluable protection against arbitration. “If a broker’s primary fiduciary responsibility is to know your client and what you told them, keeping track of client roster information isn’t always as simple as it sounds,” explains Bishara. “In 2006, there were over three thousand cases due to breach of fiduciary duty; nearly three-quarters of those cases involved information directly addressed by SLM’s offered software and services. Knowing the details of your clients’ investment portfolios is crucial. The key to that is more personalized relationships.”

You can learn more about customized business software by visiting www.slmbiz.com.

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Accenture Completes Acquisition of Corliant, Expanding Enterprise Networking Services and Capabilities

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has completed its acquisition of Corliant, Inc., a privately held technology consulting firm that helps clients deploy and support advanced Internet protocol (IP) networks.

Providing Accenture with specialized skills, methodologies, tools and Cisco-specific network technology expertise, Corliant strengthens Accenture’s networking services and enhances Accenture’s capabilities and market presence in the network technology space.

“This acquisition helps Accenture strengthen our networking services and skills, particularly around implementing advanced, next generation IP network solutions for our clients,” said John Kaltenmark, head of Accenture Technology Consulting. “Accenture’s experience combined with Corliant’s Cisco-based technology specialists will enable us to help our clients achieve high performance.”

The transition of Corliant’s approximately 150 employees to Accenture will enable the company to meet growing client demand for networking consulting services.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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Director of SAP Practice for The Judge Group Presents at SAP Summit in Boston

PHILADELPHIA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Harry Hirsch, SAP Practice Director for The Judge Group, a professional services firm specializing in Technology Consulting, Enterprise-Wide Staffing and Corporate Training, presented at the 5^th Annual SAP^® Influencer Summit in Boston on December 4^th.

The two-day, invitation-only event consisted of five hundred key IT and Business Influencers from around the globe. The gathering took place at The Westin Boston Waterfront where the theme of the event was “Business Network Transformation.” As an industry expert, Mr. Hirsch led an informative discussion on The Judge Group’s accomplishments and future plans with SAP. Some of the key topics discussed were Business ByDesign (BBD), All-in-One (AIO), Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Software as a Service (SAAS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

“The Judge Group was honored by Mr. Hirsch’s invitation to speak in support of SAP’s newest innovations at this year’s Summit,” said Martin E. Judge, Jr., CEO and Founder of The Judge Group. “The Summit presented a great opportunity to network with other industry experts from around the world who are all striving towards innovation and growth.”

SAP presented and demonstrated their strong commitment to Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture and how SOA enables innovation based on a stable, extendable core. “SAP has done an excellent job in developing a portfolio of products that are not only affordable for the small and medium business (SMB) sector but also give organizations like The Judge Group the opportunity to level the playing field against their larger competitors,” said Harry Hirsch, Director of SAP Practice for The Judge Group.

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Sapient Expands Its Digital Marketing Creative Team

Former Oglivy NYC Creative Director Tomas Siedleczka Joins Sapient’s Miami Studio

 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sapient (NASDAQ:SAPE) today announced that it has expanded its digital marketing creative team with the appointment of Tomas Siedleczka to creative director. This new appointment will enable Sapient to further expand its marketing services group, Sapient Interactive, which was ranked as the second largest interactive advertising agency in the United States by Advertising Age in April 2007.

“We continue to attract world-class creative talent to Sapient—a testament to our position as a dominant player in the global interactive sector,” said Sapient Chief Creative Officer Gaston Legorburu. “Our unique ability to merge outstanding creative talent with our strategic prowess and deep technology expertise will enable us to attract more marquee brands to our growing client roster.”

An award-winning interactive creative director, Siedleczka is renowned for his B2C and B2B focused multi-channel campaigns—which leverage emerging media and broadband interactive video—as well as his innovative viral campaigns for the gaming industry. Throughout his career, Siedleczka creatively led successful online initiatives and campaigns for several marquee global brands, including Cisco, Volvo, Jaguar, Exxon Mobil, Dos Equis, Zac Posen and Ivy.tv.

Prior to joining Sapient, Siedleczka was a creative director for Oglivy NYC, where he was responsible for Cisco’s day-to-day interactive marketing initiatives, including the well-received “Human Network” campaign. During his tenure at Oglivy NYC, Siedleczka also spearheaded one of the industry’s most anticipated gaming campaigns, “Save Sam,” a joint venture from Cisco and Ubisoft.

Before Oglivy NYC, Siedleczka was a part of a key creative leadership team for Euro RSCG 4D in New York, where he was responsible for driving new business concepts, account strategy, design and creative art direction. He also played a key role in Jaguar’s global online marketing initiatives, extending Jaguar’s XJ campaign online.

About Sapient

Sapient, a global services firm, operates two groups—Sapient Interactive and Sapient Consulting—that help clients compete, evolve and grow in an increasingly complex marketplace. Sapient Interactive provides brand and marketing strategy, award-winning creative work, web design and development and emerging media expertise. Sapient Consulting provides business and IT strategy, process and systems design, package implementation and custom development, as well as outsourcing services such as testing, maintenance and support.

Sapient’s passion for client success—evidenced by its ability to foster collaboration, drive innovation and solve challenging problems—is the subject of case studies on leadership and organizational behavior used by MBA students at both Harvard and Yale. Leading clients, including BP, Essent Energie, Harrah’s Entertainment, Hilton International, Janus, Sony Electronics and Verizon, rely on the company’s unique approach to drive growth and market momentum. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Sapient operates across North America, Europe and India. For more information, please visit www.sapient.com.

Sapient is a registered service mark of Sapient Corporation.

Contacts

Media:
Sapient
Gail Scibelli, +1.617.452.1911
gscibelli@sapient.com
or
fama PR
Jeff Drew, +1.617.758.4145
sapient@famapr.com

Business Intelligence / Analytics Technology Drives 42% Improvement in Customer Retention in Best-in-Class Companies

Best-in-Class Companies Post Significant Gains in Service Profitability, Customer Retention, and First Call Fix Rates

BOSTON, MA–(Marketwire – December 6, 2007) – The recently published study by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks company (NYSE: HHS), “Get Smart: Business Intelligence and Analytics for Service Organizations,” found that leading field service organizations are adopting business intelligence and data analytics technology and best practices to enable better and faster decisions and reporting within post-sale service organizations. They are also beginning to deploy simulation modeling within their organizations to perform sophisticated “what-if” planning and forecasting.

Among the service organizations recently surveyed, companies that have implemented technology for reporting and decision support have improved:

--  Service profitability by 17%--  Customer retention rates by an average of 29%--  Service Level Agreement (SLA) performance by 33%  

Best-in-Class organizations are showing greater improvements, with service profitability up 18%, customer retention increase of 42%, and a 44% improvement in SLA compliance.

“Top organizations have realized the value of having accurate, readily available information to drive service decisions,” said Micky Long, Research Director at Aberdeen Group. “By leveraging technology and applying the right business processes and workflows, organizations are making better, more informed decisions, providing better analysis of service performance and giving service executives the tools to perform rigorous business analysis. The result is reduced costs, better customer retention and higher service profitability.”

Other service organization Best-in-Class characteristics include:

--  80% have enterprise-wide balanced scorecard initiatives in place--  71% have a vice president or higher executive overseeing service  functions--  40% have established enterprise-wide standards and process to ensure  data accuracy

Long recommends that service organizations consider the following strategies to drive efficiency and decision support within their service organization:

--  Implement technology and process to ensure data accuracy within the  service operation.--  Provide service organization with total visibility into parts,  workforce and knowledge across the enterprise.--  Implement technology to enable "what-if" simulations.--  Focus attention on longer-term customer-facing metrics like  retention as well as profit.  

Over 250 companies participated in this quantitative study, including: ABB, Circuit City, Honeywell, KLA-Tencor, Kodak, NCR, Rockwell Automation, Trane, and Siemens.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: I.B.I.S., Inc., ServiceBench, Inc., and Tavant Technologies, Inc. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4189.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen’s analytical and independent view of the “customer optimization” process of Harte-Hanks (Information – Opportunity – Insight – Engagement – Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

© 2007 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company260 Franklin StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02110-3112Telephone: (617) 723-7890Fax: (617) 723-7897www.aberdeen.com

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IBM to Acquire Arsenal Digital Solutions

Combination to Provide Clients a Complete Range of Information Protection Solutions

ARMONK, NY–(Marketwire – December 6, 2007) – IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Arsenal Digital Solutions, a privately held company based in Cary, North Carolina. Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Upon completion of the acquisition, Arsenal will become part of the Business Continuity and Resiliency Services (BCRS) business unit in IBM Global Technology Services. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.

An emerging worldwide leader in on-demand data protection, Arsenal delivers a comprehensive suite of information protection solutions. Arsenal’s scalable on-demand services architecture provides customers with automated infrastructure management and gives Arsenal the unique ability to provide solutions to all segments of the marketplace.

IBM and Arsenal serve small and mid-market businesses as well as large enterprises that need to achieve data resiliency in light of increasing regulatory requirements, explosive data growth and evolving technology requirements. With the acquisition of Arsenal, IBM will provide global clients with security-rich information protection services designed to handle increasing data retention requirements. Arsenal brings unique capabilities in the on-line data protection market, complementing IBM Tivoli’s flagship data protection offerings and IBM System Storage solutions designed to deliver the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio for addressing enterprise information protection needs.

“Information protection is not optional for businesses today. Continuity of data, applications, and infrastructure means survival in a world that operates around the clock, regardless of a company’s size or industry,” said Philippe Jarre, vice president, IBM Global Business Continuity and Resiliency Services. “IBM’s leading business continuity and resiliency services, combined with managed services from Arsenal, give IBM the most comprehensive range of information protection services, and provide clients the ability to back up and protect their information in a way that is integrated with their business continuity plan.”

“As organizations grapple with stringent government regulations and the continuing explosion of business information, they seek a trusted provider of products and services that will meet their needs on a global scale,” says Frank Brick, chairman and chief executive officer of Arsenal Digital Solutions. “Arsenal delivers a comprehensive information protection portfolio that is adaptable to address businesses of all sizes. Our on-demand capabilities, together with IBM’s global reach and industry-specific knowledge, position us as a strong competitor in this rapidly growing market.”

Arsenal’s services are already used by thousands of clients in a wide range of industries including healthcare, hospitality and manufacturing. Arsenal’s strategic business partnerships with the world’s leading telecommunications providers have helped the company become an industry leader in the on-demand data protection marketplace.

With forty years of global experience in the business continuity space and more than 150 BCRS recovery centers worldwide, IBM has deep industry-specific knowledge and a broad range of major clients and leading services, for an unmatched end-to-end portfolio. Together with Arsenal, IBM will be a leading provider of information protection services for clients of all sizes.

IBM plans to make Arsenal solutions available worldwide through IBM’s BCRS services business, through Arsenal’s existing channel partners, including telecommunications providers, as well as direct through IBM.com and from select business partners.

The acquisition of Arsenal will bolster IBM’s strategy to blend software, hardware, and research into replicable, asset-based standardized services that can be used with multiple clients to help them transform their businesses.

More information about IBM and Arsenal is available at www.ibm.com or www.arsenaldigital.com.

IBM and the IBM logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Arsenal Digital Solutions is a trademark of Arsenal Digital Solutions USA, Inc. All other company and product names and service marks may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Media contact:
Tim Willeford
IBM
914-766-4618
twilleford@us.ibm.com

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SaaS Research Firm Announces Plans to Add 2.2 Million Company Profiles to Its Database

Stratascope is proud to announce it has signed a contract to add 2.2 million company profiles to its database.

MARLBOROUGH, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Stratascope Inc., a leading provider of independent financial and operational research services, today announced that it has signed a contract to add 2.2 million global company profiles to its database. This expansion of the Stratascope Company Repository will help Stratascope client’s effectively research any company, on a global basis, with annual revenues in excess of USD 2.5 Million. The expanded database will also include more than 350,000 subsidiaries for over 60,000 parent companies.

“Our global clients continue to reach out to the worlds emerging markets as well as downmarket to smaller and smaller businesses, where it is very difficult to get accurate research and analysis. With this new database acquisition and our research teams in both the United States and India, we are able to provide the most effective research and sales intelligence available” said Bruce Brien, CEO of Stratascope Inc.

Brien also indicated that since Stratascope is already licensing data from this provider, users should see the full effects of the expansion in a matter of weeks, targeting mid to late January for the complete rollout.

About Stratascope Inc.

Headquartered in Marlborough, MA, Stratascope Inc., through its on-line expertise and on-demand collateral, help clients to establish an automated link between their solutions and the value that they bring to the business issues that their clients are facing. When our clients walk into a customer meeting they are prepared to talk about their customer’s current situation and real business issues. Through our expertise and collateral, we help our clients read their customer’s mind, looking at sales cycles from their customer’s “buying” point of view, so that they can address the customer’s needs resulting in a mutually beneficial relationship.

For more information visit www.stratascope.com.

Stratascope^® is a registered trademark of Stratascope Inc.

Contacts

Stratascope Inc.
Bruce A. Brien, CEO, 1-508-624-8900
bruce_brien@stratascope.com

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Business Intelligence on the Web

Since the turn of the century, management has had a growing fascination with “The Dashboard”. A set of metrics and visual representations of performance that allows C-level executives to understand:

- Where the company is going,

- Where it has been, and

- Provide the information to take decisions about where they want it to go.

A recent Aberdeen Group report has highlighted that there has recently been a turn in the way that companies implement Business Intelligence in their Enterprises. This indicates a large swing away from the “build-it” approach, and towards the “buy-it” approach.

For Aberdeen Group this represents not only a swing away from traditional Business Intelligence models, but also that companies are beginning to see the value in outsourcing the BI and IT skills.

In their report, they go on to say, “The current use of traditional information delivery technologies among Best-in-Class organizations will give way to emerging methods within the next 12-24 months, according to survey responses.”

Again, the potential opportunity for consultants here is enormous. Facilitating a company’s transition to a SaaS type BI model, reviewing the business processes underlying the entire data structures, and providing the expertise required to embed the Business Intelligence initiatives.

Regardless of whether your clients are leaning towards off-premise BI or not, there are still areas where you can help them.

- Asses their skill sets for BI – Poor performing companies are three times more likely to be deficient in this area.

- Determine the data sources and the timeframes that information would be required. Sixty percent of poor performing companies do not have information available to them until after one week.

- Embed the use of BI, to do this you will need to make sure that:

o Information is Actionable – relevance is tied to business goals;

o Information is Timely – information must be delivered within a time-frame that provides opportunity to act

o Information is Accessible – knowledge workers and decision makers must be able to grasp the meaning of the information and take advantage of the BI tools.

- Help them establish a BI centre of Excellence – an independent internal organization that represents all departments.

- Beware of Information overload – Ensure the right information is there to facilitate decisions, but avoid paralysis by analysis. Ensure your BI center of excellence makes sure that all measures are useful for optimal decision-making.

- Help them progress toward a self-service BI environment – Get them to a point where end users can reduce their dependence on a central IT function,

Growing areas of SaaS consulting

The SaaS revolution is starting to take on an air of inevitability.

Oracle’s online business currently brings in a surprisingly large percentage in revenues, and Charles Fisher has recently signaled that the new Fusion technology will also be available in a SaaS framework. SAP has entered the BusinessByDesign product line amid little fanfare, and Microsoft recently started to champion their Microsoft Dynamics toolset.

When added to the already impressive list of Tier 1 SaaS providers, such as WorkDay, NetSuite and Salesforce.com we can see how opportunity draws competition. An interesting recent development is a global contract awarded to Salesforce.com, the sector pioneer, by Citibank; totally debunking the myth that SaaS is for SME’s only.

So what other changes are in the offing for the world of management consultants? Where are the big opportunities within this area?

As we pointed out in a previous article, VAR’s and channel companies are already starting to embrace this change by focusing on Business Process work and the work of implementing, rather than relying on license fees for their revenue. Charles Prince has also underlined this by recent claims that after the first 2.5 years the SaaS model can be even more profitable through sales of value add services, rather then the old technology models.

Salesforce.com is again setting the pace in this area starting another wave of tremendous change and tremendous opportunity. Force.com is just one of the waves of emerging platforms that companies and consultants alike can use to create their own online systems. Coghead, SuccessFactors, the coming Microsoft platform, are all examples of how companies can be able to take the next step in software on demand.

One possible hook for consultants is to use these platforms to generate their own niche tools, driving into areas where there is still little or no SaaS coverage. Thus providing them with a grab bag of niche applications to deploy at will. Exchanges like AppExchange are already bristling with niche tools that consultants can draw from to suit client needs. Coupled with the implementation services above it can provide a range of niche areas for consultants to build on through partnerships and other mechanisms.

However, all of this does beg the question; if companies can easily build and deploy small niche business applications globally, why would they rent them from a SaaS provider?

This, I feel, is one of the real growth areas for consulting professionals at the dawn of the SaaS age. The case for SaaS is established, most IT managers are coming, kicking and screaming, to embrace this advance in technology, and the platforms and tools now exist to develop these applications quickly, easily and economically.

There is a need for specialist companies to provide the development skills, post deployment implementation experience, and the culture change techniques to make these systems permanent. Specialists who can work with HTML, Ajax, Flex and any number of emerging programming languages to take advantage of the online tools now available.

Why would companies dedicate their own resources to this? It is niche work, given the size of the systems in use it is often not gigantic systems, and the consultant can and should also bring additional experience for developing and embedding work processes, providing training, and providing an external point of view. Allowing everybody else to focus on their line roles, this is why they are there in the first place.

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MicroStrategy and the Remaining BI market Space

The world of Business Intelligence is shrinking and growing both at the same time. With the recent purchases of Hyperion by Oracle, Business Objects by SAP, and Cognos by IBM, the top three players, the number of independent vendors has shrunk significantly.

So why have they bought into these companies? Obviously, the sector is growing exceptionally fast, booming in fact. Regardless of what else has happened technologically the dashboard remains the Killer app of the early 21^st century, particularly for senior leaders.

The three purchasing companies anticipate buying market share, a developed and mature technological solution for integration with their own products, and purchasing some of the talent that has developed the products and sales pipelines for these companies.

Sounds like a good plan, particularly the first two; but holding onto the talent in these companies could prove incredibly difficult. In fact, MicroStrategy, the remaining leader in the sector, is relying on it.

Within a day of the IBM announcement, this company was setting out its stall for disgruntled employees of the three recently purchased companies. Why not, Aberdeen Group noted in their recent report “Delivering Actionable Information to the Enterprise”, “BI skills are in limited supply”.

So there is a pool of talented people, experts in their area and knowledgeable of their markets, suddenly drafted into much larger companies, finding that their goals and ambitions are now not aligned with those of their new parent company, and quickly starting to feel like small fish in a very large pond.

MicroStrategy sees the whole acquisition phase as a great time of opportunity, possibly the greatest one they have had as a company to date. There overt statements and approaches to employees of recently acquired BI companies is one area where they can snap up disaffected talent and possibly buy their way into some long term relationships within this sector.

Other advantages come from the acts of acquisition itself. All three companies will have to focus on maintaining their client base, integrating their offerings with those of their new parent companies, and aligning their messaging and sales efforts.

MicroStrategy, on the other hand, is free to poach disaffected clients, unhappy with the change in suppliers, and they will be free to continue to develop their products and technologies, while other companies focus on integration.

This will also be a time for them to look at extending partnerships and growing their distribution channels. Why would Accenture, or CapGemini, dominant management consultancies that offer Cognos to their clients, want to represent the products of IBM, One of their direct competitors?

BI is very safe as a separate sector despite the removal of the top three players as independent companies. It will of course get tighter for the existing players, but the MicroStrategy approach shows that with a bit of innovation, and the right level of determination, this could be their best opportunity for breakaway growth.

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LinkedIn or Left Out?

Just as professionals prefer the Blackberry to the iPhone, they are also increasingly choosing LinkedIn over Facebook and MySpace as part of their online global networking tool set.

So what does LinkedIn offer that others do not? While the fluff and fun of social networking sites is undoubtedly good to pass a few hours, LinkedIn has a more serious edge to it. Filled with experts, corporate leaders, and industry mavens, it is a place where you can find strong contacts, leading edge candidates, job opportunities and consulting offers, as well as the ability to perform some pretty in-depth research in almost any field.

Reference Collecting

One of the more useful aspects of LinkedIn is as a place for you to detail your professional track record for all to see. Recruiters, prospects and potential partners can use this to check on your history, the sorts of people who are willing to refer you, and they can use the information to see if somebody in their own network is somehow connected to you.

Those who use the site tend to collect references, comments and endorsements that enable people to get a strong first opinion of who you are and what you are capable of.

Recruiting

Many companies that are actively looking for consultants, or candidates of all flavors, make this site their first stop today. This gives them two distinct benefits;

1) They get to speak to people who are self selected and are already engaged with the networking and job markets in one way or another and

2) They get to speak to candidates who had not considered moving previously, therefore giving them a “first mover” advantage on resources not yet in play in the job market.

For the people in the network, there are job site also. With the ability to quickly scan through the job postings.

However, more than anything else there are a range of real high flyer networks. These are pay to join networks such as ExecSuite, which I subscribe to.

ExecSuite actually holds a range of jobs in the $150K plus range and boasts an impressive level of CEO’s, VP’s and other senior business executives. This has been one of the best investments I have made personally in networking.

Research

A lot of the research I do for this blog comes from LinkedIn and the network I have created there. The Question and Answer section is well divided into relevant areas and all the questions I have posted have drawn answers from people who I could only describe as experts within their chosen fields.

I am sure there si a lot more that could be done there, like announcing your availability, testing the waters for Interim management work or even looking for consulting or contract work.

Staying in Touch

Like most of us the vast majority of my life as a consultant is either at work, traveling to work, or returning from work. So most of my contacts, either social or professional, have arisen out of my business dealings.

Like me, they are also very busy people with more work than time to do it, so LinkedIn provides an easy way for me to get in touch with them again. Through this tool I have touched base with people I had lost contact with long ago – great stuff! (Seeing as we are all a bit older and a little swollen looking these days)

This is only the tip of the iceberg, I am pretty new to this so I am sure there is a lot there that I have only just begun to discover. Have a look for yourself, and feel free to link to me if you do!

Leveraging off new technologies

Consulting is about change, always about change. In fact, more than any other managerial discipline, consultants need to be the ambassadors of new technologies, new ways of working and thinking, and new ways of getting even greater performance.

SaaS is a change that most consultants didn’t see coming to be frank, and those that did are now offering products as part of the continual barrage of emerging online applications.

Regardless of whether you are championing changes to work processes, new technologies, a different configuration to SAP or Oracle (say), or even different strategies and corporate structures; at all times we need to be the most up to date with the changes in our area of expertise, and know how our clients could benefit from them.

So how can consultants tap into this growing trend, by joining in the game of course!

Today’s technological offerings allow consultants to be even more productive than ever before in delivering their solutions. The Force.com visual programming language premiered by Salesforce.com this year gives everybody the ability to rapidly develop online programs, and they will also host it for you on their market-tested servers.

But wait – there’s more, Adobe Flex is a free programming tool that can be learned easily and is able to deliver very smart looking products quickly. Or if you are in a hurry to deliver a turnkey product for your clients then just plough through some of the commodity-priced programs already on offer through AppExchange.com, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

If you are not able to provide coding services yourself, then there is already a burgeoning market in outsourced independent coders for you to work with. Check out Rent-a-Coder.com if you like, a meeting place for freelance technical consultants and product developers. Auctioning is the name of the game here and you can pick up a good deal quickly. I have used it twice and it has served me well. Today I have ongoing relationships with a couple of coders I met online there and they often deliver small services for me.

WordPress, Blogger, Microsoft Dynamics, WebScribble.com, and so on, the list grows every time you look. All these products are out there for you to use in delivering productivity improvement to your clients. A fascinating time for consultants, particularly those that are keen to tie small technological offerings into their overall service portfolios.

HP Announces Data Center Consultancy Acquisition

On Monday HO announced the successful acquisition of EYP Mission Critical Services, a specialist in the field of designing data intensive facilities where the probability of failure of critical services has to be extremely low.

This follows from their recent purchase of Opsware (OPSW) and positions them for greater revenue generation from the growing market space of data intensive facilities. (From trading floors to storage hubs)

Data centers have been growing in importance for the last five years continually as companies become more and more focussed on the value of their transactional and corporate data as a corporate asset.

SaaS and the new VAR landscape

As Internet Access becomes faster and more widespread SaaS is starting to gain some real traction as the next evolution of business software.

This is forcing radical change throughout the IT community, with impacts on technology providers as well as VAR’s and Channel companies. How will this dramatic shift in technology impact on this area of consulting activity?

A map of the internet published by Technology Review

Under the old-technology architecture of SAP and Oracle value added resellers were a viable part of the distribution landscape. Their income streams were largely generated from margins on hardware and technology sales, and the high yield consulting rates due to their particular specialty.

SaaS is emerging as a large scale disrupter in this area. While the large E.R.P vendors are playing it down and trying desperately to relegate it to the Small and medium Enterprise level, there is growing evidence that globally, industries of all sizes are tapping into the benefits that SaaS offers.

And why wouldn’t they? Reduced cost of ownership, infrastructure as a browser, access throughout the world, commodity pricing and increasingly functional platforms is a very enticing proposition. Particularly where data security and transactional speed can also be guaranteed.

And the big players are sitting to attention, on one hand talking down the technology as something for Mid market companies, while on the other hand making sure they have a position on the playing field.

Oracle chief Larry Ellison is currently having a bet each-way with his investment in NetSuite, the company that launched its IPO recently. SAP has also launched into the space with its Business ByDesign offering, but has stopped short of driving this product into its existing Enterprise Software marketplace.

Channel distributorship will continue to exist, and maybe become even more profitable. The Enterprise market is still strong and it will take some years for this change to become universal one would assume.

However, as always it will be the first-movers that benefit the most, while those trying to hang onto recognizable business models will see their sectors becoming increasingly threatened by improving online offerings.

So how can VAR’s adapt? Experts seem to be divided on this, and even divided over whether they will all need to change their business models.

Jim Collins, CEO of Affinity Internet Inc, sees this as a positive for VAR’s “By removing the more mundane aspects of application installation, the alternative delivery models allow the VAR to focus on what will most please the client, and that is the successful implementation of applications that clarify, secure and simplify business processes.”

In his view those VARs who have focused on building the resources for implementation, adaptation and training will be well positioned for renewed growth.

This is an interesting point and one worth considering further. When the technology has become a commodity in terms of price, other perspectives also change. A client could easily decide to switch between (say) Salesforce.com to Microsoft Dynamics based solely on the ongoing price of ownership.

Why wouldn’t consultants look at representing several SaaS applications? There are more and more springing into this space everyday, and there are even platforms for generating online applications.

Joe Bevk, a Partner at ServiceVantage Corporation sees it this way “In the transition, partners will have to protect current “resale” revenues and grow new revenues throught a combination of referral fees (the new resale revenue base) and changing the service model to business process re-engineering (BPR).”

But what about new business opportunities? And if everybody is focusing on services then who will be able to tell the difference? Jim Holt actually saw things a little differently, with a belief that those companies who “get it” will will “create unique bolt-on application adders and and use the application exchanges that are becoming popular with the leading SaaS and HaaS players. (Such as Appexchange)

Their are changes on the horizon. No doubt about it. The extent of these changes is yet to be fully understood. Will they do to SAP-style architecture models what Google did to Yahoo? Or will it ultimately be more of what Skype failed to do to landlines and mobile phones (Despite the early promise)

regardless of the scale of change, there is definitely an opportunity within this space. Emerging service delivery options within this redefined landscape will definitely include sharper and more developed focus on pre and post implementation services, business process engineering and providing a one-stop shop for add ons, additional packages and extent ions.

It will also force a dramatic change in the way that VAR’s and vendors form agreements. Finders fees, ongoing revenue sharing and other (as yet) undefined models could point the way for technology companies and their consulting partners in this scenario. Models that will provide incentive for both parties to stay loyal and to specialize, rather than offering a bit of everything depending on their mood.

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