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If it Swims Like a Duck and Quacks Like a Duck, then it Probably is a Duck. The Anti-SAP Duck.

Posted on December 6, 2009 ·

RubberDuck

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 Merchantsmile_wink) 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

golden oldiesThey 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.smile_wink 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.

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(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )

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Good Luck Steering the Titanic

Posted on December 3, 2009 ·

titanic 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.

brooklyn-bridge

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )

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Comcast Data Usage Meter: What’s to Celebrate About Being a Year Late?

Posted on December 1, 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.

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(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )

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Coding Error Buries Trader Under Heaps of Coal

Posted on December 1, 2009 ·

Photo credit: Kordite@Flickr

I’ve had The Daily WTF ever since discovering the SAP Laundry story there… it’s a hit or miss.  But today’s story is a real gem. 

“Okay, I’m here!” he angrily announced once he stepped foot in the lobby. “So let’s do this! What do I need to—”

Brad stopped mid-sentence. His eyes were immediately drawn through the floor-to-ceiling windows and onto the river bay that Æxecor’s building overlooked. There was an absolutely gigantic barge – nay, an armada of tightly-connected barges – overfilled with enormous piles of coal that was attempting to dock in front of the building. “What… the… fuuu—”

Click through to read the story at  The Daily WTF

(there’s a geek part in it about sloppy coding..etc.)

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Special Delivery – by the Daily WTF

Posted on December 1, 2009 ·

Photo credit: Kordite@Flickr

I’ve had The Daily WTF ever since discovering the SAP Laundry story there… it’s a hit or miss.  But today’s story is a real gem.

“Okay, I’m here!” he angrily announced once he stepped foot in the lobby. “So let’s do this! What do I need to—”

Brad stopped mid-sentence. His eyes were immediately drawn through the floor-to-ceiling windows and onto the river bay that Æxecor’s building overlooked. There was an absolutely gigantic barge – nay, an armada of tightly-connected barges – overfilled with enormous piles of coal that was attempting to dock in front of the building. “What… the… fuuu—”

Click through to read the story at  The Daily WTF

(P.S. there’s something in it for geeks – sloppy coding..etc.)

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )

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SAP: Enterprise Software for Children

Posted on November 30, 2009 ·

Or not?

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )

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Scoble is Wrong When He Says He is Wrong:-) Full Feeds Still Rock

Posted on November 23, 2009 ·

Wow, I’m sensing another TechMeme Storm rising (and a certain analyst would call it a circle j***, but that’s another matter). Robert Scoble says he was wrong when he said In 2006 he wouldn’t use any news aggregator or feeds that aren’t full text.

I think the Scobleizer is wrong now that he says he was wrong. 🙂

His key argument is that his reading habits changed, he relies a lot more on Twitter, which is short form, uses the iPhone which is not that convenient for lengthy text, and Google Reader has become bloated and slow.

All true. But let the user / reader chose: even sadly slow and bloated Google Reader offers the choice of reading full text or scanning just the headlines.  It’s a simple switch, there is no need to cut off the source.  I don’t read all my feeds A to Z, like Robert, I do a lot of quick scanning.  But I find it extremely frustrating to have to click through to a site, sometimes wait looong (we’re all guilty of having too many widgets and plugins that slow down page load) only to find out it wasn’t worth the wait.  So I tend to skip partial feeds, and guess what happens to less read items?  They get dropped from Google Reader…

From the content author’s point of view, I understand the need to bring traffic to ad-supported sites, and that’s about the only exception when providing partial feed makes sense (but even than, please remember to send enough to entice me to click through).  But for many others, perhaps for the majority of blogs I follow: it’s a distributed world.  If you want your views to matter, you need to be heard  / read via whatever distribution channel you can reach, and that means providing full feed.

3 weeks ago I switched another group aggregation blog that I am editing, the Enterprise Irregulars to WordPress and along with that finally was able to offer full feed.  Our feed subscriber base doubled and on-site page views tripled. Yes, pageviews tripled despite the fact that we are “giving away” content.  Translation: we’ve became more visible, accessible, and it works.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )

Filed Under: Blogging · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Don Dodge Dumps Microsoft After it Dumps Him

Posted on November 16, 2009 ·

It’s less than two weeks ago that Microsoft let Don Dodge go, along with 5,000 other employees.  He parted gracefully, then soon posted:

Getting dumped by Microsoft was a life changing event…for the better. The future is very bright. The opportunities are amazing.

Don probably set a World Record in the speed of getting a new job offer:

Vic Gundotra at Google was the first one to contact me with an opportunity…90 minutes after the news of the layoff hit. That fast decisive action was refreshing, and such a contrast to the slow, secretive, bureaucracy at Microsoft

Not only the outreach was quick, but the entire hiring process concluded in days, which is highly unlikely for Google. Yes, Don Dodge is now with Google and it did not take long for him to dump the remainder of his Microsoft life:

  • Thanks Microsoft Outlook, but I’m going to Gmail.
  • Thanks Microsoft Office Office 2007, but I’m going to Google Docs.
  • Thanks Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5, but I’m going to Google Android.
  • Thanks Microsoft Internet Explorer, but I’m moving to Google Chrome.

Yes, I’m sure Microsoft made the right move, getting rid of a well known public face of the company was all worth it, and now this very public slap in the face is just the icing on the cake.  Well, Google was smart enough to turn Microsoft’s loss into their own gain 🙂

Congrat’s to Don for landing on his feet extra-fast, and – to paraphrase his blog title – moving onto The REAL Next Big Thing.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )

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The End of Cloud Computing? Chavez to Bomb the Clouds..

Posted on November 15, 2009 ·
line art drawing of cloud seeding.

Image via Wikipedia

Well, not really *that* Cloud.. but it’s the weekend (for a few hours), so light weight posts are in order. :-)  Reuters reports:

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez says he will join a team of Cuban scientists on flights to "bomb clouds" to create rain amid a severe drought that has aroused public anger due to water and electricity rationing.

Chavez, who has asked Venezuelans to take three-minute showers to save water, said the Cubans had arrived in Venezuela and were preparing to fly specially equipped aircraft above the Orinoco river.

"I’m going in a plane; any cloud that crosses me, I’ll zap it so that it rains," Chavez said at a ceremony late on Saturday.

Cloud Seeding is not a new concept: amongst others the Mayor of Moscow plans to resort to it to keep snow away from Moscow (no more White Christmas?), the Chinese reportedly used it to clear the air for the Beijing Olympics, and it’s an old trick of the long-gone Soviet leadership to provide such “air cover” for their big military parade.

But don’t worry: “our” Cloud will be OK.  Oh, and they won’t reach Cloud Avenue either. 🙂

Filed Under: Humor · Tagged: , , , , , , ,
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The End of Cloud Computing? Chavez to Bomb the Clouds..

Posted on November 15, 2009 ·
line art drawing of cloud seeding.

Image via Wikipedia

Well, not really *that* Cloud.. but it’s the weekend (for a few hours), so light weight posts are in order. 🙂  Reuters reports:

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez says he will join a team of Cuban scientists on flights to “bomb clouds” to create rain amid a severe drought that has aroused public anger due to water and electricity rationing.

Chavez, who has asked Venezuelans to take three-minute showers to save water, said the Cubans had arrived in Venezuela and were preparing to fly specially equipped aircraft above the Orinoco river.

“I’m going in a plane; any cloud that crosses me, I’ll zap it so that it rains,” Chavez said at a ceremony late on Saturday.

Cloud Seeding is not a new concept: amongst others the Mayor of Moscow plans to resort to it to keep snow away from Moscow (no more White Christmas?), the Chinese reportedly used it to clear the air for the Beijing Olympics, and it’s an old trick of the long-gone Soviet leadership to provide such “air cover” for their big military parade.

But don’t worry: “our” Cloud will be OK.  Oh, and they won’t reach Cloud Avenue either. 🙂

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )

Filed Under: Humor · Tagged: , , , , , ,
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