Dilbert Knows Software Sales…
Humor December 22nd, 2009
Google’s FeedBurner Social Isn’t Quite Ready. Back to TwitterFeed – for Now.
Software December 14th, 2009
Why bother with an intermediary when we can now have FeedBurner send our blog post to Twitter directly?
- I wrote in Startup Bloodbath in Social Media and I meant it. But for now, we’re switching back to TwitterFeed.
The new Feedburner service that pushes blog posts to Twitter directly isn’t quite ready. Let’s just say it’s a bit too trigger-happy: it pushes an update after every “save”, even minor updates to already published posts.
This is so crappy, we’re switching CloudAve back to TwitterFeed – for now. Because it is crappy enough for Google to fix it soon – and then we’re back to the original formula: no need for intermediaries.
Tags: CloudAve, feedburner, Google, social media, Twitter, twitterfeed
Startup Bloodbath in Social Media?
SaaS, Startups December 14th, 2009
Google announced their own URL shortener. Great. But some startups may be panicking. The TechCrunch title says it all: Bit.ly Just Got Fu.kd: Facebook And Google Get Into The Short URL Game.
Of course bit.ly is not the only possible casualty, but they are the dominant one in the URL shortening space – or at least they have been so far…
But what most commentators haven’t noticed is another feature from Google: FeedBurner social, which might very well kill TwitterFeed. Yes, why bother with an intermediary when we can now have FeedBurner send our blog post to Twitter directly? Check out the URL for this very post on Twitter: it’s the shiny new goog.gl variety.
And it’s not over yet.. just as we’re absorbing what all this means, here’s news of Twitter testing business features, including the ability of multiple users posting on behalf of one organization.. Somehow I don’t think CoTweet, HootSuite and a bunch of others are too happy about it.
Are they all doomed? Not necessarily – right now they all offer additional features (multiple accounts, scheduling, stats..etc), but nevertheless, it must not be very comforting when the Ultimate Giant enters their space…
Oh, yeah, I know … we’ll soon see the statements from all these startups welcoming Google, validating their markets…etc. 
Tags: bit.ly, CloudAve, competition, cotweet, entrepreneurship, facebook, feedburner, Google, hootsuite, social media, Startups, Twitter, twitterfeed, url shortening
Why Isn’t There a Reliable Pay-As-You-Go Internet Fax Service?
SaaS, Technology December 10th, 2009
The title pretty much says it all, and frankly, how is this possible in 2007 is beyond me.
But wait, isn’t it 2009 (almost 2010?). Yes it is. An therein lies the rub. I wrote this two years ago, and the fact that most of it is still valid is quite sad. Fax technology should be dead – it’s ridiculously unpractical to translate meaningful text to dumb image, when on the receiving end they need meaningful text again. Yet in many professions faxes are still used, and from time to time all of us are forced to dealing with it. That means finding a service appropriate for the ad-hoc, just-in-case use, nothing less, nothing more.
I’ve had a trusted old eFax numer for perhaps a decade, never gave it a lot of thought. However, some glitches prompted me to check again. Here’s an updated version of the matrix I published in 2007 – the comparison of 10 Internet fax services by Top Ten Reviews:
What’s wrong here? There’s not a single offer tailored for individual ad-hoc users. I’m sure a busy office has enough fax traffic to justify the $10 or so that most of these services charge, but as a consumer, the grand total of faxes I receive in a year is perhaps 2-3, and I don’t send more than 5 per year. $10 is not a huge amount, but why would I pay a monthly subscription optimized for 1-200 pages monthly traffic?
The free version of eFax (btw, how could the granddaddy of Internet fax services escape the comparison?) allows free inbound services, but no sending at all. I don’t expect free sending, but why can’t I pay per use, only for the pages I send? Oh, well, since the previous (2007) vintage of this post, I’ve found two free / pay-per-fax services that solve the outbound problem: FaxZero and GotFreeFax. Very well – problem solved. Except now there’s trouble on the inbound front.
In the past two years two of my eFax numbers “disappeared”, and so did an alternative one @ FaxDigits (in fact FaxDigits no longer seems to exist). For now, any time I need to give my fax number to someone, I need to send a test fax to it first to check if it’s still operational. That’s crap. Yes, I get what I pay for, you might say – which is zero. But like I said, I’m willing to pay, just not $10 per month – that would make the 2-3 faxes I receive par year really expensive. I can’t believe I am the only one with such usage pattern and there is no reliable provider with a usage-based pricing plan to match such usage.
I understand it may not be economically feasible for a service provider to maintain all these phone numbers and charge pennies – so perhaps the solution is lump it with another service that already runs millions of phone numbers – Google Voice? Let’s hope they will step up.
Finally, here’s Dilbert’s take on the issue. 
Tags: CloudAve, communication, efax, fax, faxzero, Google Voice
SAP Video: Real-time Computing
Misc December 9th, 2009
Cool video by SAP, promoting the concept of in-memory computing.
If only their UI was as cute as their videos
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Twitter in the Enterprise – Round 56745327
Enterprise Software December 8th, 2009
In the last minute I had to cancel my trip to the SAP Influencer Summit, but I am following it almost as if I was there – by following the Tweet Stream. SAP has also provided a Virtual Environment, where analysts, media, bloggers can interactively participate – right now I am watching a live video on their On Demand Strategy (hm.. how appropriate – watching the On-Demand session on-demand). The Virtual Environment includes Twitter tools, including sentiment analysis based on SAP’s Business Objects technology:
Tags: business objects, CloudAve, Enterprise, sap, sapsummit, sentiment analysis, Twitter
Brand vs. Quality. Which Would You Pay For?
Technology December 7th, 2009
Time to re-evaluate just what we consider “good brands” vs. junk.
I could not resist the summer back-to-school discounts and upgraded two laptops – one of them is already making funny noises. Tired already? It’s an HP. Perhaps just a co-incidence - but my desktop monster, just two years old has long been pretending it was a turbine – at least in terms of the unhealthy hard disk whining it makes. Oh, it’s an HP, too. Noticed it while under warranty, but did not have any desire to deal with HP Support again. So be it.
Of course I had not seen this report before those purchases. Yes, shocking as it is, every fourth HP laptop fails within three years.
That’s awful. My personal experience prior to the recent purchases has been a lot better. I can’t possibly recall how many computers I’ve had since the mid-80’s, but not one of them died on me. They slowly became obsolete – like the trusted old Sony after 7 years or so.
But there’s another name worth paying attention to: Asus. They had been manufacturing component for PC makers, but were not exactly a household name until they emerged out of nowhere riding the netbook-wave. And wow – look at the stats: the formerly no-name “cheap Chinese” (actually Taiwanese) laptops have become #1 in reliability. So just who has a better brand now? Or: would you rather pay for brand or quality?
Oh, before I forget.. as they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s one of the three Windows 7 Upgrade packages waiting to be installed.
Amazon mailed the retail version in proper packaging on October 22nd, Win& Launch Day.
Sony took their time, they were 3 weeks late, but it still came in a decent plastic box.
HP? Over a month late, 2 DVD’s stuck in one paper sleeve. Reminds me of the tech-savvy admin assistant from the mid-80s who happily reported she overcame the technical difficulties, and finally managed to stick the 5.25” floppy disk in the drive. Too bad it already had one inside.
Tags: amazon, asus, brands, CloudAve, hp hardware, windows 7 sony laptop malfunctions computer failures
If it Swims Like a Duck and Quacks Like a Duck, then it Probably is a Duck. The Anti-SAP Duck.
Enterprise Software December 6th, 2009
Two SAP-related conferences will run literally next door to each other in Boston next week. One, which I am attending is the SAP Influencer Summit where analysts and the media get to meet SAP execs – the other is what some of us quickly dubbed the Anti-SAP Conference.
The Sapience conference is focused on “Alternatives for leveraging your investment in SAP”. Fellow Enterprise Irregulars Vinnie Mirchandani and Ray Wang will both be presenting – no surprise there. Vinnie has long earned the nickname Vinnie Maintenance (well, when he’s not Vinnie Merchant
) for his crusade against bloated integration and maintenance costs, which “can make up 70 to 90% of TCO in an SAP shop” and Ray also has a track record of taking the customer side. No wonder the two are now working together as Enterprise Advocates.
Are enterprise software fees outrageously high? Probably… see my old post on how SaaS subscription can be half of only the maintenance component of traditional software’s TCO. Do System Integrators, Consultants overcharge? Probably … although let’s be real, they charge whatever they can get away with, i.e. whatever the market allows. Hence alternatives are good – SaaS, nimble, less expensive third party providers and even strategic client-side consultants like Vinnie and Ray who can make a decent living on advising customers on how to reduce their ERP TCO. The market is all about competition and and market players have to take sides, no shame in that.
But then I don’t understand why Vinnie and Dennis Howlett are vehemently denying the anti-SAP nature of Sapience. I prefer to call it what it is – just take a look at the sponsor list:
It’s a who is who of SAP’s competitors – now let’s look at some of the Conference Speakers:
- Craig Conway, PeopleSoft’s last CEO before getting swallowed by Oracle
- Jan Baan, Founder of Baan, a “hot” SAP competitor in the 90’s
- Paul Wahl who left SAP for Siebel, and took the creme of SAP’s leadership at the time with him
They share one thing in common: all former SAP competitors but also representative of the very same “fat” business model they will no doubt speak out against. They are joined by several former SAP Execs and current service providers.
Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite is a great competitor and one who does not miss a chance SAP’s fumbling with their own SMB SaaS offering, BYD offers him.
It’s hard to not see what the conference organizer, Helmuth Gumbel assembled here: the Anti-SAP All Star Band. Oh, and let’s not forget how Dennis Howlett had introduced Helmuth: SAP’s feet put to the fire.
How about the timing? If you believe it’s pure coincidence that Sapience coincides with the SAP Influencer Summit both in time and location, I have a bridge to sell you. It’s just as “accidental” as Netsuite’s SAP for the Rest of Us Party was during SAPPHIRE 2006, right across the Convention Center. Nothing wrong about guerilla marketing, but why be shy about it?
A conference designed to steal some thunder from SAP’s Summit, at the same time and place, sponsored and keynoted by SAP’s competitors, and it’s not “anti-SAP”? C’mon… you know the quacks and all. But don’t get me wrong: Sapience may very well be a healthy contribution to the SAP ecosystem – it just does not need any whitewashing.
You may also want to read the healthy debate that developed in the comments to Vinnie’s post.
Tags: anti-sap, Anti-SAP Conference, baan, CloudAve, conferences, ecosystem, enterprise advocates, influencers, netsuite, peoplesoft, SaaS, sap, sap summit, sapience, siebel, software tco, sofwtare maintenance
Good Luck Steering the Titanic
Blogging December 3rd, 2009
USA Today’s (former) Travel Editor blogs her last day, after getting laid off:
But what bothers me the most is what my firing represented. See, I’ve been learning all the tricks that a modern multi-platform journalist is supposed to know. In the past 22 months, I’ve blogged, tweeted, shot photos and videos, and handled speaking engagements. I edited my section, managed my high-personality staff and then in my spare time, I wrote cover stories – something that very few other editors at USA TODAY do. I hustled and I cajoled and I ended up out on my ass anyway…
…But increasingly, things have become more interesting outside the newsroom bubble. I’d go to conferences and meet people who were making it just fine on their own. Some were creating niche businesses, busting up the paradigm. Others were parlaying old school media talents into fresh ventures, with a moxie that made me wish I had the freedom to emulate them. The air inside USAT’s towers on Jones Branch Drive always seemed a little stale after that.
These freelancers-slash-entrepreneurs are smart. They are nimble. And now they are my role models, as I join their ranks.
So to the managers who made this decision, in less than 140 characters I tell you: Good luck steering the Titanic. And thanks for the head start. Now I’m really going to run.
In unrelated news, a bridge was sold in England for a million pounds ($1.66M). Which proves there is a market for bridges. So in true entrepreneurial spirit, I have a bridge to sell you. 
Tags: Blogging, bridge to sell, CloudAve, entrepreneurship, Humor, media. journalism, titanic, usa today
Comcast Data Usage Meter: What’s to Celebrate About Being a Year Late?
Customer Service, Technology December 1st, 2009
I admit I’m baffled. If a major service provider imposes consumption caps without providing a way to measure consumption, then promises a metering tool and fails to deliver for a year, than what exactly is the reason to celebrate when finally they start limited testing a year late?
But that’s exactly what’s happening: Comcast keeps promise, launches data usage meter says ZDNet and some others - GigaOM calls it a step in the right direction.
Yeah… a right step. Long overdue. I said over a year ago it was ridiculous to introduce the cap without a way of measuring it, and that the few tools available were largely inaccurate.
It’s not that Comcast had no way of measuring consumption – otherwise how would they shut down the “guilty” accounts? No, it took them over a year to develop a tool to present the data – and even now it’s at limited pilot stage in Portland.
Not that such delays are unusual for Comcast. Does anyone recall the first promise of Tivo-driven Comcast DVR’s? Was it two or three years ago? I’m still waiting.
Tags: broadband cap, broadband meter, CloudAve, comcast, Digital video recorder, Set-Top Boxes, tivo
Zoli Erdos
