PGreenblog

I Claim VICTORY!!

A few weeks ago, if you remember, I griped right here on these pages about Sony and their misleading advertising on the HDR-SR10 High Definition camera. They claimed they had an iLink connection where there wasn't one.

Guess what? They fixed it. HA!!

Take a look at the new page. Checked today....

LOOK OVER LEFT AT THE I.LINK INTERFACE THEN CHECK OUT THE PRIOR BLOG ENTRY

HA! I win!

Sorta.

Jerks.

I'm still out the bucks it cost me.

Technorati : CRM, CRM 2.0, Sony

A Few Items of Note Part Ten Million

Got an announcement, a request to everyone, a recommendation, and one thing I think is kinda cool.

The Announcement

I've been getting a fair amount of industry buzz for the Microsoft - salesforce.com configuration tool shoot out that I called for (and that Microsoft and salesforce.com) accepted. As a result, we've gathered up a great group of judges that I think can both be fair and know their stuff better and hold some sway all in all in the industry. You've probably heard of some and maybe not others, but the reality is that they all are knowledgeable, smart, and long standing experts in the industry. I tried to mix it up with technical folks and with business side folks so that all those who needed to be represented by judges were.

Without further ado, our judges:

• Denis Pombriant - for those of you who know him, you know him as the star analyst in the on demand world - not just CRM. He has a long and honored track record and is one of the most insightful and foresighted analysts in the business. Each year he issues his WizKids report (for 2008, go here) which gives exposure to up and coming companies in the world of on demand in particular though can extend beyond that certainly. He has his own blog and his own company, Beagle Research. YAY Denis.
• Brent Leary - if there is anyone who knows what small business needs when it comes to CRM, on demand technologies and Web 2.0 technologies, he is it. Brent is a popular radio/podcasting host, with his show, Technology for Business' Sake; a man who just simply "gets it" when it comes to how SMB and CRM work together. He and I are going to be partnered in the world class, super hot, awesomely spectacularly videocast,CRM Playaz by Summer 2008 which is easily going to be the best show on the Web for business - and where cool people want to hang out. That's because not only is Brent smart, he's cool.
• J. Bruce Daley - Having him on the team is just an outright honor. He is not only influential in the CRM and enterprise applications world, he is a serial entrepreneur and colorful quote in the major press when it comes to matters of software - and he is just a good man. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of Siebel Observer and now is the CEO of Test Common - a software testing company designed to hurry up the software development path. He knows from whence he speaks.
• Peter Churchill - Peter is the Director of CRM and Outreach Technology for the Center for American Progress - one of the smartest thinktanks in Washington D.C. - and one of the most influential. Peter is a CRM veteran, having been a CRM technical expert for the last at least 13 years. Because he brings, lets call it, a "wry sense of humor" to his work, he is a perfect person to judge this kind of contest because it needs an expert with some technical brilliance who can also laugh out loud. He is that man.
• Matt Witteman - Matt is the vice president of the CRM Practice at consulting firm, Customer Connect, based in Charlotte, NC. When I announced the shootout - before Microsoft and salesforce.com agreed - Matt stepped to the plate and said that his company, which is partnered with both companies was capable of doing the effort if that was the route I chose. While I chose the "get the parents to pony up" route, it occurred to me that what better judge than someone who knew both companies initimately. Matt, a clearly savvy guy, graciously agreed and that made me very happy.

That, folks is our judges panel for the shootout. Stay tuned for the next details. More coming.

The Recommendation

You know, I've been a reader of all the CRM sites that have been out there ranging from the venerable (Customerthink) to the upstart (InsideCRM - who I'll be writing a monthly column for starting in May). There are a good nearly dozen of them and I'll be straight. They all have value, they all have some good (and some bad) stuff on the sites but the reality is that the best of them is the most underserved and one of the least known in the U.S. That would be MyCustomer.com. MyCustomer.com has some of the best writing, the deepest content, the most engaging thinking that I've read. Its UK based and has a significant readership (I think that I've seen 80,000 as a number somewhere though I'm not sure of that). Its organized well, the content is forward thinking and cutting edge and still manages to be fair to the traditional forms that we deal with. They don't spare vendors their wrath - but only if they deserve some upside the head clubbing. They have strong opinions and state them. I mean, holy crap, they are just friggin' excellent!

I'm going to do an assessment of the CRM sites and their strengths and weaknesses (someone is welcome to do mine if they want.) in the near future - maybe even with a grade attached. I'll do it here and I'll do it as a list on my podcast, Experience on the Edge sometime in the coming weeks. But until then, make MyCustomer.com a daily stop on your reading route. They are the best out there - bar none.

The Request

Could you all put a link to this blog somewhere in your blogrolls please? I'm asking because I want to expand my reach and also I'm testing something. I would appreciate it a great deal. Really.

The Cool Thing

For those of you who don't know, the Kindle Reader is Amazon's e-reader that can wirelessly get books and subscriptions anytime and anywhere because its tied into Sprints EV-DO 3G network. It has been wildly popular - something akin to a small Wii-sellout - and is backordered for about 100 years or so - even though its really ugly. That said, there are 80,000 books that have been chosen out of Amazon's millions to be Kindle-ready e-books and I found out, by sheer accident, that CRM at the Speed of Light, 3rd Edition is one of them. Isn't that way cool (it is to me at least)? That's certainly a reason for you to go out, spend $399.00 plus shipping, wait about 5 years to get the backordered device and then order my book over the air for an additional $17.81 plus shipping, isn't it? Well, isn't it? Why aren't you saying anything........?

Bye.

Technorati : CRM at the Speed of Light, Center for American Progress, Microsoft, salesforce.com

SugarCRM: A Surprising Entry into the Platform Race - Though Not Surprising

In the past, I've been ambivalent or maybe conflicted is a better word (sounds cooler: conFLICKted) about SugarCRM. I love the open source active community based approach they take and the features and functions that the application provides are often excellent. But for complicated reasons I won't go into, I didn't like their pricing model (I don't mean their prices so much, though occasionally that too) - though I'm a bit warmer on that now - and I've always been critical of their user interface which I can charitably call a "developer's interface". I don't dislike it to mock it, I think that its a serious issue that they have to invest heavily into fixing - much like SAS did with their interface for Marketing Automation 4.0 - transforming the user experience in the process. Its not horrible, just bad.

But I have to tell you, that despite these concerns, I've had a mini-epiphany after spending some serious time with their awesome staff and customers at their CRM: Acceleration Summit in Miami that I keynoted a few weeks ago. I'm also looking forward to speaking at a similar event on December 4 at the Sofitel in Chicago, if anyone is interested.

I walked away from Miami with a fresh view by seeing SugarCRM 5.0 and some colorful varieties of what it can do - in addition to being crazy about their really buoyant and smart staff. They have been smart enough and they are growing enough to have lured industry influencers like Martin Schneider, formerly of the 451 Group and one of the best analysts in the world of CRM right into the Sugar fold. That tells you something.

SugarCRM 5.0 - There Will Be NO METAPHORS USING THE WORD "SWEET"

SugarCRM 5.0 does some smart, intriguing things. At the absolutely highest level - stratospheric - their platform (that is not a lightly used word as you will see in a minute) is flexible and creative. There are two probable consequences, both of which I'm sure SugarCRM is aware of - at least I think so. First a direct challenge to the heavyweights in the on demand world - salesforce.com, NetSuite, Right Now, Siebel CRM On Demand, etc. Second a challenge to the platform providers.

I'm going to focus more on the latter than the former since more and more of the CRM and enterprise application vendors are making moves to compete in the platform space and are looking for street cred to do that.

This isn't trivial because there is big bucks in being the platform of choice for both the vendors and the practitioners. Thus, in the last six months, we've seen salesforce.com come out with their Platform as a Service instrument - Force.com; we've seen NetSuite focus in on being a vertical platform with SuiteBundler as an addition to their SuiteFlex suite (I said nothing about "Suite"); and we've seen Microsoft, SAP, and Google move into the platform war for the hearts and minds of the web and desktop. Now SugarCRM moves into the war zone and makes a credible move into the fray.

SugarCRM 5.0 and a variety of interesting uses of the platform by their partners are what makes me think that they could be a real contender in the platform space.

First lets look at a few sexy (metaphorically sexy of course), features that will bear on their desired path.

Feature Sex Should NEVER Be Mechanical

SugarCRM 5.0 adds an interestingly timed module-builder to its arsenal - though I'm sure that SugarCRM has no idea why its interestingly timed. The idea of the module-builder is to provide a capability for the development of composite applications. For those of you who don't know what they are - imagine recombining legacy applications, processes, etc. into a new application or set of processes that can be utilized in a new way - regardless of what application they were built with (within limits). For those of you who want more on this,see this blog entry I did a couple of years ago. For those of you who don't, well, okay then.

What makes the timing of this smart addition interesting is that the leader in the standalone composite applications framework - AboveAll, not too long ago imploded due to a number of internal reasons that are best left unstated. (partly because I don't know most of them - though do know some). So by integrating the recombinant legacy system DNA into SugarCRM as a tool, well, that's a lot of potential larger customers who might be more comfortable with SugarCRM because they don't have to give up all their legacy systems. Though, the interest in composite applications is at an all time lull.

Shmatt move (as Billy Crystal might say)

Also like their integration of AJAX functionality into email and other deep dives they are making.

Adding increased capabilities for custom modules (those built with the platform tools) to interact with Reporting, Metadata and Studio tools - can't say it does a lot for my non-programming self - though I know its a developers _ _ _ dream (fill in the 3 letters - hint: first starts with a "w") and given the creative capabilities of the open source developers community they command - this is a very good thing.

And it gets even more interesting

Its Multi-Wha'?

They are pushing VERY hard with their newly written on demand architecture - one that they call multi-instance. That means that each customer has their own instance of SugarCRM, unlike the more industry-common multi-tenant - which means that each instance of the CRM application has multiple customers operating on it. Microsoft has its own version which is multi-tenant but which is written with the same code base as their on premise version. I have to presume but I don't know that SugarCRM is multi-instance but the code base for the on premise version is different than the code base for the multi-instance on demand version. Which one is better than the other, remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen if it really matters since what a customer cares about is much simpler. I don't think they are thinking about whether their "instance" is a part of a single instance or from the same code base as a version they might never use or that they have their very own instance. My guess is they are thinking "is this going to work the way I want it to work?" Regardless of the competitive value of one architecture over the other. I'll leave all that to better and more left-brained minds than me to figure out for now. But in CRM at the Speed of Light's 4th edition, I'll address the architectural tangle so that we all can understand it without doctorates in IT Miscellany.

But, in any case, its designed to make a go at salesforce, NetSuite and others in a very serious way.

Best for Last

What really got me going though, is that I've seen some very creative and elegant uses of the SugarCRM platform - which is striking and important because each of them is quite different than the next - which actually shows the versatility of the platform.

Here's a brief (and I do mean brief) look at each of the three that I was intrigued by.

OpenPHI - This is a snazzy, personal health services application that is designed with the seeker of health care in mind, rather than the provider, though it is sophisticated enough to link the providers and their patients/customers. The concept behind this SugarCRM platform created application is to on the one hand allow the patient/consumer to see and organize all the health data of their family in a single place (securely and privately); second to manage their health including appointment scheduling, health record access, data entry to update and systematize the health data and make it centrally available. The technical model is that this is a virtual appliance that uses software like VMWare to run so that this utility is available easily but not subject to the privacy/security attacks that your normal PC is subject to. More importantly, it gives the patient command over his own health and allows the provider to have (with the patients permission) easy access to the patient records that they need to start out the new patient or make the appropriate medical decisions. Here's a screen of the version that provides you with the ability to engage in clinical trials. (ignore the arrows) Note how this is a personal health application that is linked to the providers and others:

Mobile Edge - they are the creators of the mobile version (Blackberry) of SugarCRM and they did a damned fine job of it. If you look at many of the mostly WAP-enabled versions of CRM applications, you find that they are functional but ugly. IEnterprises did their Mobile Edge for SugarCRM and they did it simply but elegantly. What makes it work is that its not browser based and data is available offline so wireless connectivity is not absolutely necessary for the application to function. This company has done it for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and NetSuite too among others but I find their Mobile Edge app particularly good and built on the Blackberry and SugarCRM platforms to work. Take a look:

Q-Industries- While I have no name and no pictures, this one is really interesting. Using SugarCRM, Q-Industries announced that they had developed a SugarCRM based CRM system for corporate strategy firm Odell Simms and Associates that integrated social network analysis tools so that they could "visually map and identify webs of relationships and how they connect." This is not something you see everyday in CRM. In fact only salesforce.com and IBM has even made the attempt to integrate social media and social networking tools at any significant, though it is rumored that SAP and Microsoft aren't going to be slouches in that department as their future releases unfold. But what makes this cool is that the SugarCRM platform is flexible enough to do this.

All in all these three applications reflect a versatile and interesting platform - not just an application. So I'm throwing SugarCRM into the platform war hopper name and will be following this with interest especially because of Sugar's intent to release a lot more Web 2.0 tools into the ether with future platform releases. Maybe by 5.5 next year at this time?

I hope so. Its getting so interesting. Yes, it is......

Technorati : OpenPhi, Q-Industries, SugarCRM, iEnterprise, platform as a service

On Demand is Demanding But I LOVE Being Right

In 2004, when CRM at the Speed of Light, 3rd Edition came out, I had the following to say about the strategy of salesforce.com down the pike:

"Now their intention as an APS (author's note: Application Provider Service) is to be the service provider for all the applications that you might ever need, and to be the omnipresent provider at that. If you need to work on your sales opportunities or design your marketing campaign or handle your orders or just write a business letter from anywhere you happen to be, salesforce.com plans to be the one you use.

Tien Tzu (sic.) (Author's Note: Sorry Tien, my bad here), chief marketing officer at salesforce.com, has a colorful way of putting it: 'The network is the computer. That's something that you heard of for a long time. Software is something that needs to sit inside the network, not on individual desktops. We envision a scenario where everyone goes to work, fires up browsers, looks at Yahoo, does their personal stuff, fires up their applications, and it's all inside the network. We want to provide that service.'

In their longer-term strategy and vision, the Internet is the public network and customer development is done to create your space within that public network. 'You've probably heard this one before,' says Tien Tzu (ow, again), 'but its like the movie The Matrix. The whole world works within the public network, available to you anytime anywhere for anything.'"

I presume that all you salesforce watchers out there saw their recent announcement for Summer 07 that they were releasing the Apex code generally in August making them the first, as they call it, "Platform as a Service (PaaS). Actually, in prior posts, I called it Services as a Platform (SaaP),

(I'm trying to figure out which one I like better. Two, two, two mints in one. Which one do you like better? Mine, right? Though I might like theirs better. Oh, I'm so confused.)

In any case, read Dan Farber's zdnet blog on it for the slightly technical version of what salesforce is doing. Very good entry on the gameplan.

Also a great move by salesforce.com and something that they have been relentlessly pursuing for awhile. Perhaps the only thing I didn't particularly foresee was the number of competitors they were (and are) going to have for the platform war. Those competitors range from Microsoft to Google to now even Facebook if it white labels itself. (that means allows other entities to use the platform outside of the direct Facebook environment and then allows the other companies to have it under their own brands. Bet you don't care about THAT definition, do you?).

The platform war is going to be heated and the winner nowhere near declared nor might there only be one winner. But whoever does, salesforce is now officially in the war zone.

And I scooped the world. Yeah, baby!!

Kinda.

Technorati : Apex, Facebook, Google, PaaS, Platform as a Service, SaaP, salesforce.com, services as a platform

Looking at the In Between

I'm currently up late and being insomniac in my Adams Mark Hotel room in Denver Colorado, which makes me slightly "oh I GOTTA get to sleep" -ish and at the same time restlessly anxious to write my way through the night. I've kind of got this idea that a burst of exciting creative work can guide me to slumber (and no, Alanis Morrisette this isn't "ironic", nor is a black fly on your chardonnay. God, I hate that stupid song.)

In any case, I'm getting ready to leave in the early morning to head back from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference to DC and my remodeling-in-progress, cat-loaded, wife-away-for-three-damned-more weeks (I miss her) house. I got to musing a bit about things and realized that I go to a lot of conferences and cover a lot of "stuff" mostly, of course, CRM related and comment on what I think of what and yet there is something that I rarely comment on and that my fellow pundits also shamefully rarely to never comment on, which is the forces and people carrying on that made the trips we take to these things possible. They are part of the CRM story too and they are ignored because, well, maybe they are "just doing their jobs" or they aren't the Steve Ballmers or COO Kevin Turners of Microsoft, they aren't the keynoters either. But when it boils down to it they make it all work.

Before you get all, "oh, he's going to talk about the 'little' people...." on me....STOP. They aren't "little" people. They are important creative thinkers like everyone else in the universe who goes by the moniker, human. They do their jobs, they work hard, they have dreams, they have bosses, they have stresses and pressures, they have a job to do, they have a life, they sometimes don't have a life, they want a life, they have families, and friends and occasional enemies. They do things they regret, they are stars in other fields or their own; they have outside interests and love cooking, camping, reading, baseball, sex, church, technology, or maybe they just like to chill on weekends. Maybe they ARE CEOs of smaller companies. Maybe they don't have Steve Ballmer's handslapping, nervous, ambitious crackling energy. But they have their own form of energy and they are the ones that make Steve Ballmer's energy possible - at least those around here do that. In fact, in his keynote, Ballmer in a moment of his unhinged, uncontrolled MOVEMENT, ran through the partner crowd, slapping five and saying "you energize me." The weird thing is that he doesn't do that stuff just for show, though there is some of that. He's telling the truth. I'm speaking about the people who energize him.

And me.

The ONLY difference is that writers like me don't often cover these folks though I know, from conversations I have with my analyst and journalist and consultant and industry friends, we think about them. But DAMN are they ever friggin' good.

I mean, you had to see this conference. There were 13,000 Microsoft Business Partners roaming the huge, urban minimalist Denver Convention Center - an indoor colossus of a building that was as long a building as I ever saw. In order for me to get to the press room from the Adam's Mark, I had to allow about 10 minutes for the walk from the Hotel up the 16th St. Mall, one of the liveliest human circuses I ever saw and then another 10 minutes for walking through the building to get to the room that the press room was in (though, truthfully, that was before I found the indoor shortcut that reduced that time by half). It was THAT long.

Microsoft did it up right. There were soda and water machines everywhere. They had coffee and fruit cups and ice cream and little foodie things (cheeps, but no hambuggas) all up and down all the hallways in the place. The Expo had hundreds of partners exhibiting and there were, for my purposes, gems and partner surprises everywhere. I'll be mentioning a couple of them in just a minute. There was a Microsoft wireless network that me and my iphone hooked up to seamlessly and that everyone in the known Microsoft Partner ecosystem/universe was using - whether they were sitting down at these tables and chairs that were reminiscent of the furniture that's the hallmark of a Saturday Night Live "Nunie" bit, or on the floor. There were geeks everywhere. I saw this beautiful young woman sitting on the steps inside the building working on her laptop because something came to her in the middle of a geekdream and she just literally plopped down to the floor in this area that one had to go through to get into the building - meaning through her - and started to peck out the dream on her laptop, oblivous to all traffic. Kind of a Zen geekdom that you could only see at a conference like this one.

The conversations and buzz. Well, most of it was Exchange Server, Visual Studio-speak, because Microsoft was announcing that they were releasing new versions in 2008 and that was a big deal to the partners. There was Vista talk and talk about colorful striped socks - some guy had 6 pairs and someone he knew at his company noticed them and when they were walking around in London they had a running joke about finding them....guess you had to be there.

The press room was something else. They all are so serious about what they do and that's good and bad. At their peak, all the chairs around long tables were filled with earnest reporters who were pecking away at ethernet connected laptops with total and, honestly, kind of grim concentration on getting their story out. They were chatting and laying around, but there wasn't any of that young Paul Greenberg's starry eyed "being a reporter is important because we're chroniclers of human history and the ages" dream that drove me to graduate Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Maybe it was there. I didn't see much.

But, see, I ran into one of those hidden gems out there - Kimberly S. Johnson a Denver Post Business Technology reporter, who was doing something that I don't often hear from journalists - trying to wrap her arms around the idea of the Microsoft partner ecosystem and what all the visionary and detailed statements coming out meant in the grand scheme. THAT was SO damned refreshing because she wanted to figure out the concepts.

Our conversation began because she asked me if I knew if there were any analysts in the room. Even though I had a press badge, I suppose I'm more of an analyst than a journalist so I volunteered myself. How gallantly arrogant, n'est ce pas? I'm glad I have so highflung an opinion of me.

In any case we had a discussion which encompassed the whole environments and ecosystems thing that I've spoken about so many times that I won't repeat it, but I was delighted to converse because I learned a lot in the conversation. We didn't just speak about the formalities, but about reporting, and the transformation that's being forced on the print media by Web 2.0 and by how interesting the world is right now and sometimes so hard to fathom.

I deal with lots of reporters and rarely do they ask or think about the big questions that actually are more interesting than the facts of the matter. But Kimberly did and that's something.

Thing is, there are so many more things. I'm going to tell you a few more people who didn't speak at the conference who totally impressed me. Sometimes I'm going to be one or two sentences short. Other times a little more florid. All of these people got more than just my respect. The degree of intensity varies but the whole was there.

Oh, before I do that, there was one guy who was prominent at the conference I want to mention and that would be Brad Wilson. He runs the CRM strategy for Microsoft and I have to say, he is doing a very, very, very good job. I came out of this conference impressed with him as a person and as a strategist. He's not just a kool aid drinker for Microsoft. He has a vision that I really like on how to use Microsoft LiveCRM/CRM as platform that is only barely touched with the Microsoft Marketplace. I'll leave the rest for him to reveal when he feels the time is right. But its a good, smart vision and impressive. Pulver, you were totally right.

He was highly visible.

Now a few of the others.

Mitch Cannaday, President, Spinnaker - when I saw my itinerary, I knew his name and didn't know why. When I met with him we figured it out. He and I go back almost 10 years to SalesLogix (he worked there and I was a partner) and had a bunch of mutual friends in Pat Sullivan and Paul McCauley. He is an articulate, extremely well versed CRM veteran and he gave me a significant insight in how to look at the "single codebase" for Live and on premise CRM and overall initiatives. He uses it as an incubation platform. Meaning he brings in new fresh employees - sales people, developers etc. to work from the more simplified Live platform and when he wants to grow them to the more complex arenas, he can make that transition more easily because they are operating from the same foundation they were when they were newbies. A totally interesting take and a way for youngsters to get a foot in the industry door that is only possible in such a model. Makes the hybrid thing a bit more interesting. The guy is smart and creative and does a lot of speaking Waggener Edstrom Worldwideand has some ideas that are just plain unique.

Karin Rosain, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide - Karin turns 30 today and she is something else. She is the lead PR person for Waggener Edstrom when it comes to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM team (she never told me she was the lead person. I'm assuming that). She took care of EVERYTHING for me. My entire meeting list, except those I invented at the conference itself, my travel, my nervous inquiries, my blabbering...she made sure that it all ran smooth and that ALL the PR ran smooth for Brad and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM team. Yet she did it without a bit of rancor, or anxiety. She is a charming, ambitious and sweet human being - in addition to being better than just competent - actually superlative at what she is tasked to do and what she goes out of her way above and beyond to do. I only met her at the conference but I was truly impressed about the way she handled PR, me and above all herself. Yet, where in the program is her name? But there wouldn't be a program without her on her game and with her excellent work. I also want to say thank you to her for making my experience work.

Bill Pollie, President of Neocase Software - I know Neocase for about a year plus when they requested a meeting with me at Gartner. They are a highly robust customer service focused on demand/on premise (your choice), not particularly pretty, but very capable, application with some strong features. They are a French company who has had a bit of a problem gaining traction in the U.S. market where they have tough competition from the RightNows of this continent. I was literally wandering rather aimlessly through the Partner Expo, time to kill but no particular rhyme, reason or path, when I came across a Neocase booth that stated rather boldly that they were a Certified Gold Partner of Microsoft.

Huh? When I met the former U.S President and the former SVP of Marketing there at Gartner in 2006, they never told me that (or I'm having a serious senior moment). But I ran into Anna who I knew from Gartner and she set up a meeting with their new President (a bit less than a year) Bill Pollie. I gotta tell you, because of him, Neocase is going on my radar. When I met with them in 2006, they didn't get onto it. I liked what I saw but....so what. But Bill, ah, this man is another story.

First, his business history and credentials are phenomenal. Nine years an SAP VP of Field Operations; 4 years a VP of Microsoft Dynamics among a longer history than that. Distinguished and accomplished. Personally, a totally kindred spirit - New Yorker par excellence, every bit as big a Yankees fan as I am if not more. An exciting visionary guy who also knows something very important - which is, distinguished history or not, he is a human being who is proud of his kids (VERY proud), loves his outside interests (those Yankees :-)) and knows how to communicate with people in a way that engages them. Which is exactly the kind of person who, when they can execute too (which with his history he clearly can) can make a company successful and put that company on the maps of cautious skeptics like me . He is a GREAT guy and has some things up his sleeve that I can't wait for him to announce for Neocase. One thing, in particular, I think is unique. But that will be public when they make it that. But does he have some big public platform? Nope. But he has an amazing reach and a great gift and I may have even found a friend.

But that's exactly what I mean. One thing to remember always about CRM which is its most distinguishing characteristic when it comes to business is that it is the art of life's translation into a science of business. Its flawed, f'ed up a lot but it has a human dimension which not only makes it fascinating but also is the foundation for the business value it provides. Which is why you can never forget the totality and the individuals who make it up. It all matters as do they all matter.

So, I'm going to do one more for the conference and that will be on Microsoft Surface. But for now, I've got to try to get some sleep or its gonna be a long night. But when writing about something so nice, frankly, even insomnia doesn't seem that bad.

Finally! Both a Great Move and a Relief: NetSuite Files For Its IPO

NetSuite finally did something that's been rumored since the time that B.C. became A.D. It filed its S-1 this morning for an IPO. Back a few months ago, if you remember that far, there was a rumor that NetSuite was looking for a $1 billion valuation. They deserve at least that but then what do I know from financial stuff?

Here's the release from Mei Li, their SVP of Corporate Communications - probably the best in the entire U.S. at that kind of job. Go NetSuite!!!

For Immediate Release

NETSUITE FILES REGISTRATION STATEMENT FOR INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING OF COMMON STOCK

SAN MATEO, Calif., July 2, 2007 - NetSuite Inc., a vendor of on-demand, integrated business management application suites that provide ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and e-commerce functionality for small and medium-sized businesses and divisions of large businesses, today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the proposed initial public offering of its common stock.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC will act as sole book-running manager for the offering. In addition, WR Hambrecht + Co will act as co-manager of the offering. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. Copies of the preliminary prospectus for the offering, when available, may be obtained from Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Prospectus Department, One Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010, telephone 800-221-1037.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time that the registration statement becomes effective.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are registered service-marks of NetSuite Inc.

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Technorati : NetSuite

Technology For Business Sake...Listen for Your Own Sake

Hey I did a really cool thing yesterday. Did a co-host stint with Brent Leary, my good bud and CRM guru in his own right on his show Technology for Business' Sake, an Atlanta-based radio show that has international reach due to its syndication via podcast and RSS feed and great content. Brent has had interviews with an incredible number of luminaries in CRM and the Web 2.0 world. This week it's Stephen Wildstrom, the Technology and You column writer for Business Week - a very, very good writer and industry veteran.

Here's the link to hear Brent and me kibbitzing and Stephen Wildstrom and Brent doing a very intelligent interview.

I'd be listening to this every week if I were you. Very, very cool.

Technorati : Business Week, CRM at the Speed of Light, Technology for Business' Sake, podcast, small business

Senor y Senoras y Senoritas....BOGOTA!!

What a trip....the most amazing and possibly the most disconcerting trip I've ever made - and one I would do again in a heartbeat.

Last week, I traveled to Bogota Colombia, to be one of the keynotes in a 2-day CRM gala event - the number 1 CRM Conference in Colombia, and possibly in all of South America- run by Rafael Rodriguez, a managing principal of Focused Management Inc., a CRM guru in his own right, a genuinely nice man, and a good friend and coordinated by the meticulous event planner, Diego Ramirez of Practica - easily the most organized event I ever attended.

Prior to coming to Bogota, I have to admit I had some trepidations. I mean, the stories of kidnapped Americanos and drug lords in Medellin and Cali didn't exactly excite me . But I really wanted to do this conference. I had planned on doing it last year, but there were some parental issues that took me out of the picture for that event.

So I went.

I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised and at the same time, the security was DEFINITELY top of mind of the entire country.

Let's get this part out of the way.

Signs of Security

1. From the moment you arrived at the Bogota airport to the moment you got back into the building, armed and unarmed uniformed security was ubiquitous. I mean it was everywhere. Security was as common as the visitors to this lovely country. There was such a contradistinction between tree lined boulevards and peaceful conversations and striding, walking, standing security that was clear and visible everywhere. I saw it at the airport, standing outside my hotel, the lovely Casa Dann Carleton, standing inside the hotel, at the conference door, on the streets randomly - though I'm sure not actually randomly.
2. The first night we went out to eat at Club Colombia. The food was excellent. I had a seafood stew made in coconut milk that was fantastic. We had a wide selection of Colombian dishes including their versions of empanadas and varying meats. We had desserts. We had a Chilean Casa Lapostelle that went well with whatever anyone ordered. All in all an amazing meal. BUT prior to the meal, we came to the restaurant in an armored car and I saw two truckloads of armed Colombian soldiers patrolling the streets in the 15 minutes it took us to get to the restaurant.
3. When I registered at the hotel, I was given my room card and all the requisite little advertising brochure/cards. One of them was a "be careful" set of reminders on how to act in Colombia to remain "secure."
4. When I left, I was given a card with the name of my taxi driver (Humberto - a wonderful guy) and his phone number and a bunch of other info. He had my info. The reason? It wasn't safe to just hail a taxi in Bogota, given the propensity of a small percentage of drivers to take you to places you probably don't want to go.
5. Finally, at the airport, there wasn't the single security point to go through but four of them - first, before you got to the ticket counter, then the standard security that we're all used to, then once you've passed through to the gate area and are walking down the corridor to the gate, there is a carry-on check and then at the gate before you can go sit in the gate lounge area, there is another security check. Four. Quatro. 4.

Okay, that's out of the way. Oddly, you feel quite safe because Colombia is taking its security situation seriously and I never once, other than observationally, thought about it. I didn't worry a bit, once I got there.

But the conference, ahhhh, the conference.....

CRM/CEM In Bogota: La Conferencia Fue Increíble (in English: The Conference Rocked!)

This was easily the best conference I ever spoke at, no insult intended to any of them in the past. There were 200 attendees - most in their 20s and 30s, some in their 40s and 50s - all with an electric intelligence that was manifested in multiple ways throughout the conference. There was constant discussion, serious interest in how CRM was changing, what the customer experience was like, how to measure all this. The questions were restless, they were well thought out, they were lively.

The format of the conference was a major speaker, then a case study, another major speaker, another case study and then a panel of the speakers from the day. It went for two days. So the lead speakers were Naras Eechambadi, President/CEO of Quaero, who I have spoken on extensively here; Bob Thompson, CEO and founder of CustomerThink, formerly CRMGuru, the world's largest online customer-centric community (150,000 subscribers), Rafael Rodriguez, the founder of FMI (see above) and arguably one of the, if not the, leader of CRM efforts in South America; Jay Curry, a pioneer in CRM and measurement, also, apocryphally the father of Adam Curry, creator of the podcast; and me. There were case studies from IBM and Grupo Aval, one of the largest bank groups in Colombia.

Each of the primary speakers had three hours. Seems like a lot but, personally, I ran out of time!!

What was amazing wasn't just the speakers - all of whom had a lot to contribute, but the intelligence of the audience. It was a nonstop question fest for two days. How do you measure the customer experience? What impact do customers have on the supply chain? Who would you say are the vendors who actually get the new world that we're moving into? How does one focus this around financial services? Does a CRM implementation take the new tools into account? Does workflow have an impact on measurement when it comes to how productive the managers and staff are with their customer-centric goals?

Ad infinitum.

This was also the best looking group of humans in a single place I ever saw. The women were gorgeous and the men were handsome and they all exuded an individual confidence that was both staggering and heartwarming to behold.

Which highlighted a really peculiar irony.

While it wasn't unusual to see a stunning young woman in her late 20s who was in a position of influence at a major Colombian corporation, or a 35 year old man running his own successful company in Colombia, there was this what we used to call a "little me" sense of national identity, though not of personal identity. The refrain I heard both days was, "well, Colombia is so far behind" or "all these new technologies and new business models are for aficionados, not for us generally." This attitude was prevalent.

After thinking about it, I decided to take it on head on in my presentation on the 2.0 world and the business models that are appropriate to it. I used Threadless as the polemic. Basically, my comments were along these lines.

"I've heard for the last two days that Colombia is 'behind' and that 'this new model is for aficianados.' I don't mean to be disrespectful, but that's not true. First, you complain about the infrastructure. Well, I'm using EDGE here in Bogota with my Blackberry and that is no different that what I have available to my Blackberry in the U.S. So the infrastructure is there. Second, Threadless, as I pointed out was formed by 4 college graduate students with an Internet connection. I've shown you that you have the Internet connection. Are you telling me you can't come up with four graduate students in the entire country?....You are the most electrifying intelligent audience I've ever dealt with, bar none. And, I'd have to say, the best looking. Thank you."

In a condensed fashion, that's what I said.

The fact is that the size of this conference, the enthusiastic interest shown by the 200 participants, and level of questions asked by this crowd points out the amazing possibilities for providing the customer-centric culture that will be necessary to lead Latin America to providing the kind of human "service excellence" committed to by only Singapore to date and by various individual agencies of government in the United States and the UK among others.

Colombia is ripe for Business 2.0.

But Then Again...So Is All of South America

And there is a coalition to prove it. While in Bogota I met with Eduardo Sanchez of Mass Digital, one of the largest interactive marketing firms in South America (I think he said second largest, though don't hold me to that). Oddly, Eduardo happened to work at El Tiempo, Colombia and one of South America's leading newspapers on their web presence seven years ago - and worked with Rafael Rodriguez there. Weird coincidence....though I've seen weirder --- stories for another time another place and another dimension. Eduardo is also the Colombian representative of a coalition of companies called CustomersForever that is providing CRM and social media services as a coalition throughout Latin America and also has an annual CRM Conference, CRMC CALA each year. They are a BPT Partners business partner for us in South America and represent a cutting edge for the Latin American nations CRM initiatives.

In other words, there is a lot of advanced CRM activity going on in South America and its exciting, vibrant, intelligent and very pretty too.

I hope they invite me back.

Soy un gran, muy gran, fan.

Technorati : Bogota, CRM, CRM 2.0, Travel

Housekeeping: Cleaning Up on A Sunday

Just wanted to do some announcements and one doesn't have my usual friendly demeanor with it.

CRM At The Speed Of Light, 4th Edition & The CRM 2.0 Wiki

First, I've put up a CRM at the Speed of Light, 4th edition suggestions page at the CRM 2.0 wiki site on PBWiki. First, the deal is that I need suggestions by June 7 for the new edition of the book - which will be acknowledged if used. Also, I would potentially be willing to include a chapter written by you in the new edition that would get you $500 and contributing author status in the new book, though this requires a really good idea for a chapter that I wouldn't otherwise be doing AND you have to give me a writing sample and establish why you should write the chapter (meaning, you have the expertise to do it). Sorry to be such a stiff, but you gotta be able to write if it comes to what's my bread and butter so to speak.

That brings me to another matter - the CRM 2.0 wiki itself. There are 150 members or so of this thing from 16 countries and yet NO ONE (including me until today) has done anything to forward the discussion on what CRM 2.0 is since the end of March.

Brothers and sisters, we're falling down on the job. Unless we don't give a (fill in the blank) about whether or not we have a consistent, community based definition of what we're going to be doing for the next part of our business lives.

If you remember, the requirement for joining is contributing and yet, most of you haven't. Although, the benefit of that is that I'll get to determine the definition all by myself which is pretty cool, now that I think of it.............

Technorati : Books, CRM, CRM 2.0, CRM at the Speed of Light, wiki

Salesforce + Google = And Only God Can Make A Tree

The rumors are flying everywhere about a Google and salesforce.com's pending nuptials. They are going to merge, salesforce is going to be acquired by Google, they are partnering, they are having sex in multiple locations (don't have the link to that)- in public. They are pursued by paparazzi, they are harassed as they eat at Indigo Landing, they are....I can't say THAT!! In fact, the rumor will be put to bed on June 5 at a luncheon with Marc Benioff in SF that I'm invited to, desperately want to attend and can't because we have the CustomerThink formerly known as CRMGuru retreat on June 4-5-6 in Santa Clara - an annual event I look forward to every year. But, my prediction is straight up. Salesforce.com and Google announce a partnership that is aimed squarely at seizing the platform space from Microsoft - though they may not put it that way, given Google's dissembling propensity to say that they aren't competing with Microsoft. Something like Seinfeld's "and there's nothing wrong with that." If you want to read the straight scoop, check out Denis Pombriant's blog and his "annus mirabilis entry. As always, the best take on it all.

But the war is over platform dominance and the victor's spoils are dominance in the realm of what is more or less a composite applications platform. Most of the serious vendors have figured this out and are in pitched battles that are galactic in scope to win that one.

Huh? What's Platform Dominance?

The reason is that big bucks come to those whose platform rules. That means that whatever applications, services, and user interfaces you want, you can get it - on the platform you chose. All of a sudden it is not an SFA application, it is whatever you want it to be. It is not a social networking site, it is whatever you want it to be. It is not an enterprise application, it is whatever you want it to be. It is not a personal productivity suite or a search engine or a.... it is whatever you want it to be.

That means a BIG market, and LOTS of reach, and OODLES of dollars and TONS of customers (in the obese US market TONS means 10 customers - Ha Ha. Yuk. Yuk.).

Think about it, salesforce, SAP and Microsoft have long pushed the platform as a strategy. Companies like Above All have always been smart, out in the forefront of the composite applications space. Last week at Software 2007, Steve Ballmer took the world's leading personal productivity suite (guess....) and magically transformed it into the Microsoft Office platform. Office became as the front end for Office Business Applications e.g. ERP as the back end. In fact, this platform play too was described as a platform for composite applications which I've written extensively on.

These are wise attempts because he who rules the platform, rules the technology world. And the dollars associated with it.

Which made some of the other announcements of the last two or three days more important but less melodramatic than the Googleforce (or salesoogle, which I like better) buzz.

First, salesforce.com announced SOA as a Service.

Second Facebook announced the release of a "social utility" platform that has enormous possibilities and makes me finally understand why they turned down a billion dollars.

SOA As A Service

When I first heard the term, I thought, hmmm, service oriented architecture as a service. Now what does that mean? I had no idea how you offered a web-services based, business-rules directed architecture as an on demand offering. But...

Well, the more I read, the more I observed and the more I thought about it, I realized that what salesforce.com is actually offering is a composite applications toolkit using Apex, their programming language - meaning that Apex and APIs and other pieces will allow you to link the business rules and the data you have to multiple applications - either new or legacy.

Whatever it is, it is an important step for salesforce and another proof that the war ain't over. I'll do more down the road on this once I see what it actually can do. Right now, see the strategy, the big pitcher, the large kahuna and you'll see how SOA as a service fits into the Grand Schema of Thingsa.

Facebook Platform

Facebook's platform is essentially a set of tools to build services inside the Facebook "social utility" (for some reason, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, doesn't like being called a "social network." Don't know why....). That could be pretty much anything. That means that they could build a restaurant recommendation engine and peer review site that would link to the outside restaurants or they could build a. ummm, uhhh, how about, oooohhh, lesseee, mmmmm....here's what they have so far:

Not exactly a sterling collection of enteprise-strength apps, but I guess its a start. The important thing here is that while this is a nascent platform, it is a transition toward a similar direction that we see Google, salesforce.com, SAP, Microsoft, Rearden Commerce, Above All, and a dozen other companies moving in - a drive for platform-dominance and agnostic services/applications provision on that platform. Sometimes the business value isn't apparent to the customer but it sure is a revenue generator to the platform provider.

Another baby industry trend brought to you by PGreenblog.

See ya.

Much more later...NetSuite Goes Mobile....

Technorati : Facebook, Google, composite applications, platform, salesforce.com