Connecting the dots ...
Since I’ve shared with you a video making fun of the Suites it’s only fair to show how a “suite”, NetSuite makes fun of competitors. Oh, I love edgy marketing:-)
But this is nothing.. wait till they publish the SAP vs NetSuite video we’ve just seen at the SuiteCloud conference 🙂
(And I can’t wait for a SAP response ….)
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)
What we missed in our Google Apps Marketplace coverage: the Best Poster Award … drumroll.. goes to box.net:
And while at it, their video isn’t too shabby, either:
Wait… is that an iPad killer with a great virtual keyboard at 0:46?
Bias alert: I’ve been watching Box.net from the humble early days starting here:
..to becoming a successful business. Just sayin’ 🙂
(Update: my secret retirement plan is collecting royalty from Box.net for using Google-in-a-Box 
)
P.S. On a more serious note, here’s our previous Google Apps Marketplace coverage:
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
Under the Radar is Silicon Valley’s most established startup debut platform: a conference series organized by Dealmaker Media, covering business applications, social media, entertainment, mobility..etc.
This year’s conference in Mountain View, CA on April 16th will focus on Commercializing the Cloud – that’s a fairly wide definition, and one that perfectly mashes with our focus over @ CloudAve, so we’re proud to be Media Partners at this event. That means we’ll be covering it before, during and after, and if you decide the attend, we’ll get you in at a discount rate.
In this American Idol of startups typically 32 finalists are selected, who are grouped in categories of 4 each and each has about 15 minutes to present in two parallel tracks. They get grilled by the judges and audience, and at the end of the conference the winners of each category are announced. A few years ago I participated in the pre-selection of startups, and I remember having checked out hundreds of companies to come down to the finalist set. At the moment 19 finalists are announced:
AppDynamics, AppFirst, Aprigo, Cloudant, CloudShare, CloudSwitch, Conformity, CubeTree, Fonolo, GoodData, Layerboom Systems, Makara, MaxiScale, Neo Technology, NorthScale, Reductive Labs, RiverMuse, SaaSure and SendGrid.
This means two things:
So if you consider your startup a (future) leader in Saas | Collaboration | Business Apps | Development Tools | Compliance | (and more!), don’t waste time, apply here to be a presenter.
A personal note: the roster so far is quite infrastructure-heavy, which I’m sure makes Krish happy… but as the dumb non-techie business guy, I’d love to see more Business Apps, too 🙂
Past presenters include: Heroku, Get Satisfaction, Marketo, Eucalyptus, Zuora, Box.net, Ribbit, Hubspot, Twilio, New Relic, CloudKick, Jive Software, and many more. Many (54%) of the UtR participant received funding, some grew to fame, others disappeared… but disappearance is not always bad – as is the case of 2008 Under the Radar graduate 3Tera, which just got acquired by Computer Associates. 🙂
And if you’re not presenting, you sure would like to attend 🙂 CloudAve readers get $100 off their tickets here!
Under the Radar is not only a great startup showcase, it’s perfect good networking and and deal-making forum in Silicon Valley. Stay above the clouds – see innovation in its earliest stages – and get deals done; one handshake at a time. Mingle with 350 VC’s, journalists and C-level executives seeking to find, connect and partner with startups who’s products, technology and teams fit strategically into their road maps.
Remember to use our discount – and see you there!
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
I don’t claim to be an expert in the area, so this is more a quick pointer then a real post. Well, too short for a post, too long for a tweet:-)
Duane Jackson, CEO of SaaS accounting provider Kashflow writes up his experience of using Google Analytics and Website Optimizer to fine-tune his site to increase conversion:
It turned out that of everyone that visited our registration page, only 45% of them actually went on to complete it. So over half of everyone that looked at our registration page sailed off into the sunset never to be seen again.
We’ve managed to gradually improve that to almost 70% by trying a few different things…
His conclusion:
I’m really pleased we’ve found the time and tools to do this. What really irks me is that we didn’t do this ages ago. I could sit down and calculate what our revenues and customer numbers would look like if we improved conversions like this years ago – but I’m scared to.
Every day that you’re not actively working on improving your conversion ratios is a day of lost opportunities.
You can do it, too at zero cost:-) Or if you want to turn pro level, you may want to check out HubSpot, the inbound marketing gurus.
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
SaaS Directory has announced September’s most popular SaaS companies. The top 5 are:
September’s top 5 US winners are:
#1 – Gogrid
#2 – WebECS
#3 – CariNet
#4 – Rackspace
#5 – American Data Technology
That’s a strange list..or perhaps SaaS Directory has a strange definition of “SaaS companies” since the top 5 are all in the web hosting business. (ASP, anyone?). Well, it triggered my curiosity enough to dig deeper and look at the full list. I’m not picking on any business here, simply stating my own ignorance, but I have to admit I haven’t heard of Robson Communications, Younicycle, Apptix or Yuba, just to name a few. But perhaps it’s just me, so I asked around on Twitter:
How many “SaaS” companies do you recognize in this so-called “most popular” list?
Here are a few responses:
Hm.. you tell me:-)
6 from former Industry Analyst and current SaaS Exec Chris Selland – should say something about the list
Ben makes a living writing about this stuff, and he only recognizes a third of these companies…
There’s one on the list I know by pure co-incidence: Vembu Technologies, whose CEO I happened to meet at his brother Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu’s office (disclosure: Zoho is Cloudave’s exclusive Sponsor). I guess it proves it’s an entrepreneurial family: but wouldn’t Zoho be a more recognizable SaaS brand than Vembu?
The more I look at the SaaS Directory, the more confused I am. Or perhaps they are the ones quite confused? Here’s their definition of SaaS Project Management:
SaaS is an effective project management tool which enables teams to work together towards achieving common objectives dramatically improving the overall user experience while offering increased flexibility
“SaaS is an effective tool”… LOL. (By the way, for SaaS PM discussions you may want to read this thread, or Andrew Filev’s PM 2.0 Blog)
Clicking further I’ve discovered the SaaS Directory Forums – they all seem to be overrun by commercial spam:
I rest my case. Awards are a great way to recognize effort, success – but some awards can only harm a company’s reputation. As for the SaaS Directory – well, it’s a directory sans the SaaS part.
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
The best CRM system can’t help you if your sales / marketing team is clueless. Here’s a ridiculous email I’ve just received. Name removed to protect the (not-so) innocent
In celebrating our 40th anniversary, I’ve been given the privilege to manage the relationship between your organization and Communispond. When you have a moment, please take a look at the information below. Kindly let me know if it’s out of date, and the best way to reach you. I wish to be respectful of your time and patience.
Is your organization prepared with the communication tools and behaviors (presenting, selling, coaching, persuading, etc) to achieve greater success in 2010? I would like to hear your thoughts and ideas on any communication challenges you anticipate, and see if we can help. Please let me know if you’d be willing to meet with me – either conference call or face to face. l greatly appreciate your consideration.
Warm Regards,
X. Y.
What’s wrong with this email campaign? A few things… where should I even start?
Obsolete data: we all know this is a disease that plagues many (CRM) systems, but this one is extreme. The data shown on this business card never existed in such combination, but bits and pieces did. Yes, I participated in SAP’s International Consultant Training – exactly 20 years ago, so they must have picked it up from a very-very ancient resume. (It also means I understand Charlie’s joke…). Yes, I did work at SAP America, when they were a tiny outfit with 70+ employees, and the Newton Square HQ listed above was not even a dream.
Data errors do happen – but how on Earth could they dump 20-year old, pre-CRM, pre-ERP, pre-everything data into a CRM system?
Now let’s focus on content. The title, specifically. That’s the marketer’s opportunity to grab attention – or lose it. Time is money, and most of us don’t have a lot to waste – why on Earth would I want to meet a stranger without any previous contact or knowing the intent?
You just don’t send out an initial contact request asking for a purpose-less meeting.
Anyway – this email is in its well-deserved place in my Spam folder and Communispond is flagged as mindless marketers. But hey, it was good for a rant. In return, free advice to them: you don’t need Salesforce.com. It won’t help you.
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
Southern Comfort dumps old media, and pours (pun intended) their entire $8 million media budget on the Net. Let’s hope they’ll spend it smarter then they did on this ad four years ago.
What’s wrong with this banner? Nothing – unless you place it in context. It appeared just days after Hurricane Katrina almost wiped out New Orleans… which gives the words “where anything can happen” a special meaning. And if you think it was just an innocent mistake, read the details here.
Related posts:
Fiber One has a risky tagline: Cardboard no. Delicious yes.
Why risky? Because ..well, cardboard is indeed the first word that comes to mind when I taste it. Oh, well, my Dad likes it. Lucky for him, since he needs it for health: it’s hard to find this much fiber in half a cup of breakfast cereal elsewhere. I assume that’s the reason for this product’s popularity, not taste…but wait, building on the base product’s success, there is now a whole range of Fiber One products, cereals, breakfast bars..etc.
They went mainstream. Translation: sweet, tasty, sugary, less healthy. From 57% of your recommended daily fiber intake down to 20% in some cases. But wait.. there’s one cereal likely a lot tastier and not that far from the original fiber content:
Forget the standard industry trick that the new box contains only 14.25 ounces instead of the original 16.2 for the same price… it’s almost as healthy and likely tastes better. Let’s check the small print:
At first glance the two products are close: 14g vs. 13g fiber. But how come the tastier version is listed with 42g Carbs while the original had only 25? And 160 Calories vs. 60?
Oh, there’s the trick: the ingredients are listed as per serving. However, the original serving size was half a cup, while the tastier Honey Clusters’ serving size is 1 cup. I repeat:
General Mills, makers of Fiber One is using (almost) double the serving size to compare fiber content. The true comparison would be on the same serving basis, which would show a drop from 51% fiber content to roughly 25%.
This is an outrage: while technically correct, it gives false impression, especially since these products are typically placed right next to each other on supermarket shelves – and on the company’s website, for that matter.
Shame on you, General Mills for treating us as if we were stupid.
This listing on eBay is hilarious, almost makes me wonder if it’s a true listing or carefully planted advertising for Google Apps (and SaaS in general). But the seller appears to be real, has been on eBay for ten years… Here we go, get Microsoft Office w. Outlook for $75, because:
It’s brand new and never been opened. My boss bought it right before I moved the whole company over to Google Apps.
We never looked back, but here’s your opportunity to live it up, 90’s style, with this great, retro piece of Microsoft 2007 software.
Quick update on the Atlassian $timulus drive I previously reported about: at 2pm on the last day of the promotion, they are at $93K – the $100K donation is realistic… but they may need a little push.
So I decided to put my money (well, a little) where my mouth is and have just purchased 10 5-person licences of Confluence, the market leading enterprise wiki. Not that I can use them all – so I will find a way to give them away in the future.
If you want to help them donate $100K to Room to Read, you can do your part easily … and just as a reminder, you’re buying a $1,200 licence for $5. What a bargain to close out the week. 🙂
Update: With 3 hours to go Atlassian is just $2.5K short of reaching the target. See coverage map at Mike’s blog.
Update #2: Ah, the drama of the last minutes:
$640 short of $100k… with 20 minutes to go, my maths says we’re just going to miss! 🙂
$590 short. Need $30/minute now… at least we did $35 last minute! 🙂
Just tipped $99,510… I wonder if we should just leave it up for 10 minutes extra, or does that seem dodgy?
Well… computer says it’s…over $100k!!
Woo! Woo!!! Dancin’ around the room. Atlassian Stimulus Package 400% of $25k goal. What a week. Simply staggering. THANK YOU EVERYBODY!
Atlassian Stimulus Package (preliminary) final total – $100,350 for Room To Read in 120 hours from 7284 _awesome_ startups and teams!!
Publisher / Editor of CloudAve and Enterprise Irregulars.
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