The BPT 2007 Steppin' Out Awards

Until late last night, I had a dead heat. Two of the companies were tighter than a by-the-nose-finish in the Kentucky Derby. It was so close an analogy that I'm giving my 2007 BPT Steppin' Out Award to...Street Sense.

Just kidding.

Okay, before the big announcement of the 2007 Steppin' Out Award winner, I'm going to do something that you don't see often. I'm going to give you a high level peek at the criteria I used and how I did what I did.

The Field: The Numbers

Initially, I looked at 81 companies (final count) - big, mid-sized, small, Size was never a criterion for this award. I narrowed the field down pretty quickly to around 30 who merited a deep look. Remember this was an award for impact - a company that had the model, vision, strategies, offerings, approach to innovation and ability to sustain their impact and business value over time - no one trick ponies. Though I love ponies - they're so cute. But these companies had to be able to impact markets, not just provide a great ROI for their customers - though that was part of the equation.

I reduced the 30 to a finalist list of six after quite a bit of deliberation actually. All six of the finalists can provide sustained business value to their customers over time. That was something that got them in the finalist door. Believe me, I was ruthless in my assessment. As a result, I'd be willing to vouch for any one of the final six as a great business partner with any company looking for enterprise solutions or some part of that.

But, alas, I had to bring it down to one, so I did.

I gotta tell you, before I get to the criteria I used for the selection, the questionnaires I sent out to each finalist were make or break for more than one of the companies. I put a lot of stock in how well a company was able to articulate its worldview. But what turned out to be the deal breaker for many of the finalists was the ability to sustain the impact or breakthroughs/innovations. There was usually something that hurt them one way or the other that didn't damage their ability to be a great vendor for their customers - just their ability to sustain impact.

These are blockbuster companies. I don't doubt that some of these finalists will be in my finalists next year and maybe even the winners of the 2008 or 2009 awards. They are just short this year. But each of them has something that sets them apart as a truly remarkable company with a disruptive potential. However, the award is for the company likely to have market impact this year and next. Not just the potential for it.

The Criteria

The criteria for selection were split between a questionnaire and a large number of other criteria. The questionnaire was 50% of the total and the other criteria the other 50%.

The Questionnaire

Each of the six finalists filled out a questionnaire that was not the usual multiple choice style. It was almost essay questions that were designed to let each company articulate a number of things including:

1. A worldview/vision
2. Strategy for the next 2-3 years
3. Products/Services road map for the next 2-3 years
4. A case study of a company that not only got a good ROI but that the finalist felt could have or had an impact beyond the immediate company.

While I won't reveal how I weighed the four areas (each was different), I will say that the first two were valued more than the last two, but at least one company rose and another fell on the case study they presented. Keep in mind, the six finalists were close - very close - and a small error could be writ a lot larger because they were close. So even a more lightly weighted area could be either helpful or damaging.

What I was looking for in this was not four discrete areas that were individually interesting. I wanted to see how well the worldview was articulated and then how much it permeated the strategy and the product map. I looked at how interwoven the strategy was with the product maps and whether or not they reflected the worldview and vision, etc. In other words, was the company doing something that was not a moment in time, but was a sustainable, viable business objective that made sense to the very chromosomes that govern the business. I also wanted to see how well the companies understood and could present the implications of their own work through the case study - which is why the case study I asked for needed to show some capability to have an impact (groundbreaker so to speak) beyond just a good ROI.

The Other Criteria

In no particular order, here are the other criteria:

1. Existing products and services
2. Management team
3. Infrastructure/Organizational structure
4. Public Relations/Marketing
5. Customer Trust (means customer perception of corporate transparency, collaboration etc.)
6. Value Chain trust (meaning partner, supplier perception of cooperation/support/skin in the game, etc.)
7. The use of social media and collaboration tools internally/externally
8. History of innovation
9. Social responsibility
10. The buzz out there already and the potential to generate it (which goes back to 3, 4, and 7)

There were two underlying themes that governed these slightly unorthodox criteria. Again, impact award. The themes were organized around the capacity of the company to generate the levels of viral activity that could create the impact around the business models that could transform markets (that meant the products, services, experiences and skills, business models, investments and infrastructure in multiple departments) and then the ability to sustain that impact over time so that they didn't just become a company that flared up and burnt out. In other words, not only were these companies very important but would continue to be important in a fluid marketplace - which can only benefit their customers and the market itself.

I also looked at the more localized impact that the company had on their direct customers, partners, suppliers, etc. The idea was that a happy collaborative value chain means not just well received customer engagement but an impact-sustaining transmission belt.

The Finalists

Okay, now to the business at hand. I'm going to restate each of the finalists and a thing or two on why each of them stood out in the industry and with their customers:

1. Neighborhood America - Neighborhood America has a rock solid enterprise social networking platform that can be integrated with any CRM or web-services application. They acquired Movo, a mobile platform, several months ago and have integrated it into their existing technology, providing real life peer-to-peer anytime anywhere capabilities to an already outstanding architecture. They are visionaries with a solid practical history, making them best-in-their-class.
2. Zoho - Zoho is no Web 2.0 startup wannabee - they are a division of Adventnet and they are a company that understands the value of the Web 2.0 tools in the contemporary business world - especially when it comes to productivity of the the workforce in the service of customer engagement. They offer roughly 15 web-based tools ranging from an Office competitor to a Zoho CRM application that competes with salesforce.com's SFA application. What makes them serious finalists is that they have an unbeatable pricing model - for some of the services - free and the others a low priced subscription model that just challenges the marketplace for the value/price relationship. For web services based 2.0 apps, top of the line.
3. Rearden Commerce - They have one of the most intelligent, and fresh potential market creating service models I've seen since...well...let's just say, "since." They are a serious player. They have developed a true service oriented architecture - yes, the real deal that actually ties business rules to web services, not just web services under another name. But with that, they've also wrapped over 135,000 business services a la concierge style services ranging from faxing to airport parking to event planning to restaurant reservations and any other reservation you might need - leaving you with no reservations to have about these dudes. The other outstanding part of their value proposition is that they are the first vendor company I know of who has a conscious knowledge that work-life balance is not the way of the world, but personal-work integration is just what life happens to be so that it is clear that people do personal things at work and business things at home. Thus, the 135,000 services offered through their Personal Concierge service on a subscription basis, encompass that idea, creating exactly that collaborative value chain that is happy and thus, a business model that is impact-sustaining and an anytime anywhere proposition. Did I tell you that American Express has a deal with them to offer the services to all 4000 of their major corporate customers and that within 60 days, 135 of them had already signed up? No. Consider yourself told. These guys are cool.
4. NetSuite - NetSuite is unparalleled in several areas. They are easily the most functionally full and expansive end-to-end enterprise application, perhaps only rivaled by SAP for the rich functionality they provide. Second, they have a smart strategy for what they are - attacking the upper reaches of the mid-market with forays above and below but always remaining focused. And easily the most cooperative, most enjoyable corporate culture since the halcyon days of PeopleSoft under Dave Duffield. Zach Nelson, their CEO is the best guy at his level in the industry and they have a superb corporate communications/marketing operation. They are also a company with a heart. Their customers actually told me that they went with them more often than not because NetSuite sales and technical people were "straight shooters." If they couldn't do it they would say so. Big time in my book.
5. Microsoft - Microsoft operates in the world of environments and ecosystems as I pointed out in a prior blog entry a couple of months ago - a level that no one else in the world of high technology including Oracle, operates at. Unlike much of their public and often undeserved "empire" image, they are a surprisingly nimble and innovative company that understands and uses contemporary tools like blogs, podcasts and wikis to generate new ideas, products, and technologies and engage customers. They are the only company in the world (with the possible exception of Google) that could technologically cover the 24X7 period of your personal and business lives and that would include the hardware, the web services, the on demand applications/services and the on premise applications - all of which they can provide. Wow.
6. Salesforce.com- Salesforce.com was the last major disruptor of the ecosystem - their business model and their software-as-a-service (SaaS) on demand model transformed the technological landscape and the business ecosystem. They are a giant now - though not a lumbering one. They watch trends carefully,; they create structures and organization to capture the most important and sustainable trends - if it fits their worldview and business plans. Plus they are a cool and a hot company. Very hard to beat in an ecosystem where style and substance matter.

And The Winner of the 2007 BPT Partners Steppin' Out Award Is...

Salesforce.com

This was by no means an easy choice. At one point or another in the final evaluation, four of the six companies leapt to the top, only to fall back and there was a tie until yesterday evening when the final criteria and questionnaires were re-examined.

There were no companies among the finalists who aren't superb and no companies among them who can't provide great customer experiences and services.

But the criterion that put salesforce.com over the top was their coherent approach to the creation of infrastructure, incentives and culture that would and could sustain their vision which was a market impacting vision. Their ability to clearly understand trends accurately, read the market in general and specific markets, and then move to quickly seize market leadership through often very innovative means, was second to none. Couple this with actually beginning to realize their long term strategy - as revealed to me in 2004 by Chief Strategy Officer Tien Tzuo - to become the the ubiquitous, agnostic platform for web services - and they become a formidable force difficult to beat.

Take a look at what they've done in just a couple of year's time - and this only touches on the surface of it.

1. The AppExchange - a new business model to develop more customized add-ons utilizing their developer community and business partners - who then can profit from the services that they develop - on the salesforce.com platform
2. The Incubators - they are providing, for a $20,000 fee, all the ancillary required services ranging from development support to marketing and PR to business development to office space. Promotion of innovation within their ecosystem
3. IdeaExchange - This is a community based concept for the creation of new products which salesforce.com ties to its business plans directly and transparently. Done through its Successforce site.
4. AppSpace - This is a hosted portal that salesforce.com calls the MySpace for Business and will use collaborative tools like wikis, and blogs,and other web 2.0 capabilities like mashups and widgets, to provide private communities that companies can build and use for their employees, partners, and customers if they so choose.
5. Campaignforce - Their foray into politics and legislative government, this is a new market with some scattered players who are not nearly as capable as salesforce.com. Already becoming a dominant force, they spent several hours of developers time at first creating Campaignforce (which they since have spent many days on making better) and they now are the dominant name in this new market. That ability to create, seize and institutionalize the vertical is something that no other company does as quickly or as well in that short space
6. Salesforce.com Platform Edition - They decoupled from the CRM/SFA apps/services and are now doing exactly what they said they would - providing an agnostic platform to build your personalized version of the Business Web/Live Web/Web 2.0 in whatever way you want with whatever apps you want. As a result, companies like Verticals On Demand are showing up on the landscape, providing things like Pharma for the salesforce.com platform.

In other words, they have the capability to quickly create the institutional framework around a coherent strategy that will lead to a real market impact - and one that is ongoing. They have the organization, the tools, the transmission belts that are community based value chains, the marketing and public relations machine, the well-articulated vision and worldview and a clear cut strategy that they have been directly focused on for at least three years that I know of.

Are they perfect? As anyone who knows me knows, I leave no company uncriticized. They have too much of an over focus on the AppExchange - sometimes turning a blind eye to what needs to be strategic partnerships rather than something reduced to an AppExchange service-let. That could hurt them.
But, ultimately, they provide a great value for their customers and they have a sustainable model for impacting the market for years to come.

So they win.

Congratulations, salesforce.com for winning the 2007 BPT Partners Steppin' Out Award.

Awesome.

Denouement

Logos for the finalists and the winner will be going out within the next 30 days for use on websites, blogs, business cards or wherever at the finalists/winner's discretion. There will be national press release issued tomorrow from BPT Partners on the salesforce.com win.

Additionally, as a thanks to all the finalists and the winner, I'm willing to provide, if they want it, a free one hour of my consulting time (a $500.00 value) to discuss why they didn't win, or, if they don't care that much about that, whatever they want to.. Salesforce.com gets two hours ($1000.00 value) of the time free. I'd like to think (for my fragile ego's sake) this is a meaningful thank you. I certainly am the richer for my investigation throughout the award process that led me to conclude that these six great companies were truly great companies.

Thank you, salesforce.com, the winner of the BPT Partners 2007 Steppin' Out Award and thank you Neighborhood America, Zoho, Rearden Commerce, NetSuite and Microsoft for being so cooperative and making the effort to get me the questionnaires and for being companies that you can be proud you are. I really appreciate it and you.

Technorati : BPT Partners, CRM, CRM 2.0, Microsoft, Neighborhood America, NetSuite, Rearden Commerce, Salesforce.com, Steppin' Out Awards, Zoho

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