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A Monthly Journal for Venture Partners and Enterprise Software Executives

Industry Articles The Sterling Report partners with industry leaders and experts to publish original and interesting material. Customer Loyalty Is the Goal By Dr. Laura Brooks, VP Research and Business Consulting, Satmetrix Published: August 2008 The ability for companies to move beyond measuring satisfaction to understanding who will recommend them is improving their success. Net Promoter is more than just the question or the score. It is a discipline that focuses on creating a customer-centric view. By implementing a Net Promoter discipline throughout the corporate culture, companies are finding they can increase positive word of mouth and drive profitable growth. Ubiquitous BI: Worth the Trouble or More Trouble Than it’s Worth? By John Kitchen, Senior Vice President and CMO, Datawatch Corporation Published: August 2008 While IT executives strive to achieve ubiquitous Business Intelligence (BI) – which would provide everyone in the organization powerful BI Tools – another school of thought is beginning to take hold. Perhaps giving everyone access to these complex tools is more trouble than it’s worth – and a waste of valuable time and money. Leveraging the ­investment a company has made in existing reports is a smarter route for putting BI in the hands of those who need it most. Enterprise Software Pricing: At the Tipping Point By Chris Dowse, Founder and CEO, Neochange, Inc. Published: July 2008 Tipping points are rarely caused by a single, isolated trend or event. This is why extreme statements of causality such as ‘SaaS will kill software!’ or ‘Open Source will destroy Microsoft!’ seem far-fetched. Solving the Security Appliance Paradox By Dan Ryan, President and CEO, Secure Computing Corporation Published: July 2008 Instead of simplifying IT security, some security providers have complicated it with point appliances. Here’s how to get back to basics, consolidate your security infrastructure and strengthen enterprise security. Finding the Balance Between User Creativity and System Controls By Tim Tisdale, CTO & Co-Founder, ThoughtBridge Published: June 2008 It's the age-old question. How much freedom do you give users when it comes to IT systems? In the past, this question was not an issue discussed during IT meetings. Most systems were mainframe-based and transaction-oriented. Changes made were planned well ahead of time with many controls and checks in place. I can remember when PCs were a novelty and networks were based on protocols other than TCP/IP. The Internet has changed the approach on how we think about systems forever. Every day, I see business leaders’ priorities shifting from thinking about IT as an unfortunate cost they have to incur, to instead, a strategy for winning the race against competition. Latest SaaS Trend: Better Quality Than Commercially Licensed Software By Steve Woods, CTO, Eloqua Corporation Published: June 2008 Businesses that use software as a service (SaaS), where a software vendor hosts and operates an application for use by its customers, typically have pointed to the cost benefits of its use. Since they do not have to purchase expensive commercially licensed software and absorb the associated costs of deployment, maintenance, training and upgrades, businesses have felt that this is the primary benefit that makes this the better option for them. Top 10 Laws for Being ‘SaaS-y’ By Byron Deeter, Bessemer Venture Partners Published: May 2008 In the emerging sector of Software as a Service, one of the biggest challenges for many of the top CEOs is the lack of successful role-model businesses. There are still only a handful of public pure-play SaaS businesses, and thus the body of ‘best practices’ is very limited. Ironically, on top of this, one of the hardest things veteran software CEOs have to do when they start to run a SaaS company is, to forget much of what they know about running a software company. Utilizing SharePoint to Serve-up ‘Gourmet’ Business Solutions By Eric Baughman, CorasWorks Corporation Published: May 2008 What can a TV dinner teach us about solutions on the SharePoint platform? I experienced this little lesson during a recent visit to the supermarket. In the frozen food section, I noticed a five course meal in a box and questioned why they’ve lost popularity. They are inexpensive, convenient, cover the spectrum of food groups, and even include dessert – all on the same plate. It’s not unlike off-the-shelf software or business applications, where we’re given a number of pre-set features, served up together in a single package, all to fulfill a particular need. In both cases, however, there is evidence that consumers want and need more. They want more flexibility and choices, better quality, and usually need it all within certain time and budget constraints. Performance Management: A Cure for Strategy Implementation Failure By Gary Cokins, SAS Institute Inc. Published: April 2008 Enterprise performance management is now being adopted due to CEO failures to successfully implement their strategy plus needs to focus on more differentiated customer-service levels. Enterprise performance management integrates methodologies such as balanced scorecards, strategy maps, budgets, Activity-Based Costing (ABC), forecasts, CRM and resource capacity planning. It is not a process or a system, but rather an umbrella concept intended to align manager and employee behavior and limited resources to focus on the organization’s strategic priorities and objectives. Web 2.0 Social Learning By Cindy Rockwell, CustomerVision Published: April 2008 When will corporations identify the need to get onboard with the changing dynamics within their workforce and their customers? Communities and social mediums for connecting like minds to create and share ideas are growing exponentially every month. Would You like a Side of Mashup with Your SOA By Brent Carlson, LogicLibrary, Inc. Published: March 2008 What’s an IT organization to do with Web 2.0? Tools like mashups have the potential to provide great value to enterprises, but if not handled properly, can also tie down strategic initiatives like SOA. Get some insight into how to balance the benefits and risks of the Web 2.0 world within corporate IT by reading this article. The Case for Enterprise Cost Systems  By Matthew Smith, 3C Software Published: March 2008 Companies have invested significant resources into ERP systems to integrate a myriad of business functions, including operations, sales, finance and accounting. While their promise of integration is impressive, they consistently fail in delivering one facet vital to understanding profitability for process manufacturers – costing. Enterprise cost systems are designed to handle the rigor required to develop a comprehensive approach to managing production costs. Reusing Critical Enterprise Resources  By Robert Morris, GT Software Published: March 2008 The ability to define hard cost savings through SOA projects provides a strong value proposition for enterprises seeking to deploy new applications. At its heart, SOA is focused on reusing existing application and business logic to deliver new business services. Savings can be dramatic, not just from reusing inanimate resources such as data and applications, but also from the redeployment of programmers from maintenance to building reusable services. This article explains many of the ROI principles that are involved in cost-justifying SOA projects and strategies.  Workforce Planning: Visualizing Organizational Success  By Lois Melbourne, Aquire, Inc. Published: March 2008 The prospect of successfully grooming, developing and aligning a workforce to support business goals and to develop or enhance a competitive advantage may seem nothing short of a ‘Herculean task’. Fortunately, the answer can be found when companies elevate their thinking about how to approach and handle workforce planning. Move Over SaaS, Make Room for AbSD   By Rob Meinhardt, KACE Published: February 2008 There’s a new kid in town sharing the spotlight with SaaS. AbSD (Appliance-based Software Delivery) offers a similar, disruptive approach for delivering core business applications. This new model of software delivery offers many of the same benefits as SaaS models and a few additional benefits that create an advantage for certain types of applications. Dynamic Data Center – Getting Your Head into the Game   By B.V. Jagadeesh and Rob Reiner,  3Leaf Systems Published: February 2008 IT management tasked with deploying data center resources to keep one step ahead of rapidly changing business environments need solutions that offer new levels of flexibility, efficiency and cost effectiveness. Mergers and acquisitions, global outsourcing, remote access for telecommuters and mobile workforce, and desktop virtualization are forcing IT management to consolidate data centers in a few key geographic locations. The World Needs a Ruler: Life with Carbon on the Balance Sheet   By Lawrence E. Goldenhersh, Enviance Published: February 2008 In horse racing terms, the first quarter of 2007 represented the ‘trifecta’ for advocates of greenhouse gas regulation and carbon constraint. In three consecutive months, decisions in the scientific, financial and legal communities drove this nation past the tipping point on greenhouse gas. This article analyzes the genesis of this tectonic shift in the national attitude towards greenhouse gas, discusses some requirements that are fundamental to the emergence of a rational system for managing it, and highlights some early trends amongst industry leaders attempting to deal with this financial challenge. Identity Authentication: Are You Willing to Risk Your Reputation on It   By Andrea Klein, IdenTrust, Inc. Published: January 2008 A damaged corporate reputation translates into huge economic losses that span decreased brand value; low share price; lost customers, partners and strategic relationships and difficulty recruiting and keeping top-notch employees. Some businesses, such as Arthur Anderson, ­never recover. Corporations, and their financial institutions, need to understand that they can and must manage reputational risk in much the same way that they manage other types of risk – through sound strategies, modeling, business intelligence and technology. Making the Leap: Driving Process and Change in Retail   By Eric Olafson, Tomax Corporation Published: January 2008 Organizations have been plagued with entrenched silos – which pose as monstrous hurdles to managers that wish to optimize business process and align both strategy and execution. Traditional IT solutions have been a curse, not a resolution to the presence of stagnant silos. Eric Olafson, CEO of Tomax Corporation, discusses innovative methods to transcend business and technology silos and achieve true business process optimization. Enterprise Wikis – the Mash-Up of Content   By Cindy Rockwell, Customer Vision Published: January 2008 The land of Web 2.0 Enterprise Wiki takes k­nowledge, content and documents and mashes them up into a reason for organizations to once again look at one of their greatest and most expensive assets, in­formation. The new challenge is to develop and share content, k­nowledge and in­formation rapidly and make it highly accessible and integrated into day-to-day workflow. Financial Implications of the SaaS Business Model   By Todd Gardner, SaaS Capital Published: December 2007 The Software as a Service (SaaS) market is gro­­wing rapidly in response to a variety of macro-market trends. Although the rapid growth of SaaS offers an exciting time for entrepreneurs and established software vendors, the SaaS model also poses significant business challenges – not the least of which is cash flow. The good news for SaaS vendors is that the very financial elements that make SaaS companies require more capital are the qualities that make them good borrowers. This article discusses how the pay-as-you-go, subscription model is driving aspiring SaaS players to pursue funding alternatives to support their business operations. SaaS: A View from the Front Lines   By Kent St. Vrain, Paxonix Published: December 2007 Much has been written about web-based applications, regardless of what you call them, Application Service Provider, on-demand, online, web-based, Software as a Service, etc. The concept has been discussed and written about from many angles, many from an academic or philosophical position. This article is an attempt to apply some perspective from the front lines – those who are out talking to prospective customers about these solutions every day.  The Compliance Equilibrium   By Robert Gardos, GridApp Systems Published: December 2007 As compliance standards continue to rise, IT departments are challenged to improve procedures and better prepare for their ­formal audit. Organizations must equip their database professionals with the resources to understand and implement their new regulatory responsibilities. This article will outline five steps the management can take to better understand the importance of the database tier in meeting compliance requirements and will also provide best practices for equipping these professionals with the tools they need to manage their compliance duties. Quality: The Missing Link in Software Development   By Brad Johnson, Borland Software Published: November 2007 Imagine if businesses across all industries – from pharmaceutical drug testing, to automobiles, to iPods – waited until their products came off the manufacturing line to determine how well they functioned. While we can argue that technological advances have moved us far beyond the days of a ‘trial and error’ approach, the reality is that software development continues to be more art than science. Consequently, project cancellations and failures have become ubiquitous and cost overruns, schedule slippages, low quality and poor reliability have become disturbing norms in the software industry. Holistic Security – It’s the Enterprise Not the Application   By Gordon Rapkin, Protegrity Published: November 2007 Millions of words have been written about the best software to use, the correct policies to implement. Conferences are held, experts pontificate. Governments and industries pass regulations. We have the tools, the knowledge, and the impetus to lock down systems and data. The only thing we don’t have is real security. Here’s why. Flipping the Coin for Talent: How Well Are You Hiring?   By Dr. Maynard Brusman, Working Resources Published: October 2007 The new reality is that it is becoming more critical for companies to hire talented managers in order to maintain a competitive advantage, but that talented people are scarce, more mobile and demanding. The best people are those who can combine intelligence, data, and skills in a way that enables them to synthesize data into in­formation and apply their k­nowledge to address new and emerging problems. Virtual Appliances: An Alternative Approach to SaaS Value   By Dave Cotten, rPath Published: October 2007 The greatest challenge for software application companies today is accelerating new license growth while maintaining a reasonable level of expense for ­sales and R&D. Many have hailed Software as a Service (SaaS) as the best solution to the license growth challenge – after all, SaaS can enable new license ­sales to a set of customers that historically didn’t buy software because they couldn’t afford the cost or complexity of the technology. Trends in Clean Tech Investing   By Paul Holland, Foundation Capital Published: October 2007 Clean technologies that started merely as pie-in-the-sky ideas are ­now quickly becoming trillion-dollar markets that established utilities, transportation industries and others are beginning to rely on to put energy efficiency into practice. By the same token, ­former technology executives are driving new urgency into these markets by combining the pace of high tech with cutting edge science. The result is already benefiting the average consumer on a broad scale and will ultimately trans­form the future of our global environment. SMB Market – What is the secret sauce for success?   By Vas Srinivasan, Sonasoft Corporation Published: September 2007 Even though the SMB market looks very attractive, potential aspirants to conquer it face many hurdles. The SMB market is highly fragmented, diverse and unconventional. Prospecting for SMB customers is not an easy task. Contrary to what is expected, the sales cycle can be as long as that of enterprise companies if it is not handled properly. Also, conventional approaches and channels used to reach enterprise customers will not yield the desired results. Guidelines for Mitigating Risk with Open Source Governance  By Steven L. Grandchamp, OpenLogic, Inc. Published: September 2007 It’s an all-too-common scenario: A programmer at a Global 2000 organization faces a looming deadline. After some research, he selects an open source software package that meets his technical needs and will allow him to get his job done quickly and efficiently. He downloads the selected software and goes to work, unaware of the potential implications of his choice. As in the scenario above, open source software often comes into an organization with no further consideration than whether it can do the job at hand. While open source software provides a functional, flexible and cost-effective option for enterprises, there are issues to consider that can have a significant impact on a business. Virtualization Means Challenges for Static Approaches to Network Security  By Jeff Palmer, Blue Lane Technologies Inc. Published: September 2007 Earlier this year at the RSA security conference RSA president Art Coviello talked about how older static security technologies (like the use of signatures to detect and block hackers from gaining access to protected information assets) are crumbling under pressure from cyber criminals. Art was widely quoted for good reason. He’s right. While there is no doubt that his predictions about signature-based security solutions becoming a waste of money (in the near future) will eventually ring true; I think even the security-savvy audience at RSA may have missed the irony of Art’s prediction. The Rebirth of Enterprise IT   By Chip Hazard and Jeffrey Bussgang, IDG Ventures Boston Published: September 2007 When Nicholas Carr wrote his ­now-famous Harvard Business Review article over four years ago, “IT Doesn’t Matter”, the most damning claim to our industry was that IT had become a commodity input – irrelevant as a source for strategic advantage. Many pundits, from Larry Ellison on down, began pontificating on the maturation, consolidation and eventual death of the enterprise software business – at least for companies whose names are not IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP or Symantec. Love ’em or Lose ’em: Retaining Talented Employees   By Maynard Brusman, Working Resources Published: June 2007 Even in a slower economy, attracting and keeping top talent is a serious concern for corporations. The problem is exacerbated by a gro­­wing propensity for people to change jobs frequently. After 20 years of downsizing, it is ironic that corporations are ­now concerned about losing employees. The problem is one of getting qualified and talented people into the right jobs and keeping them there. Dr. Maynard Brusman talks about how to retain talented and valuable employees for the company.  Choking on Your Own Success  By Brian Turchin, Cape Horn Strategies, Inc. Published: June 2007 Success unleashes its own critical leadership challenges. Unless you deal with them, failure can follow. Here is how you can tame three such beasts. Business success can be fleeting. One day, it’s champagne and caviar and the next it’s a Big Mac. It’s like success pushes you through the proverbial looking-glass into a new world, where you discover, much to your surprise, that what worked before, no longer works ­now. Learn more about some leadership problems… What’s a Minute Worth? By Ann Hamann, PeopleCube Published: June 2007 ROI is one of the most popular metrics that can be used to measure the financial attractiveness of a business ­investment, but calculating an accurate figure is not easy. Yet, when it comes to scheduling applications, the return is quite clear, as they help businesses get more done in less time and with fewer resources. From simple room booking to facility management, the result is a more productive business environment creating more time to devote to important business activities. SaaS – Relegate RFPs to the Trashcan By Justin Benson, Sales & Marketing, Intraware Published: May 2007 On-Demand applications have changed the way we think about implementing and managing our infrastructure. Many organizations that adopt hosted applications cite the benefits of time to market, reduced internal IT resources, alignment of costs with benefits to the business, and the ability to easily add new users or even business units. However, has your organization tapped into the benefits as it relates to purchasing new technology? Managing Change Can Improve Bottom-Line Results By Terri Levine, Comprehensive Coaching U Published: May 2007 Change is inevitable, and it becomes necessary when companies are struggling with low productivity, profitability, and poor morale. In such an environment, you might think employees would embrace an ‘out with the old, in with the new’ culture, but instead, when change is introduced into the workplace there is often a degree of resistance, anxiety, and sometimes even ridicule of the new methodologies. Best Practices to Streamline the Annual Budgeting Process By Don Howren, Global Marketing and Support, ADERANT Published: May 2007 The annual budgeting process is a painful lengthy process that consumes teams for weeks and results in a marginally useful plan that isn’t revisited until the next year when the process is repeated. But it doesn’t have to be that way. By implementing a few best practices, companies can condense the budgeting cycle and create more accurate, living plans that better reflect the dynamic nature of business and provide ongoing support for decision makers. In the end, it’s not about the budget; it’s about growth and per­formance improvement. Mentoring Managers: Key to a Successful Enterprise By Pam Randhawa, Phase Forward Incorporated Published: April 2007 A strong mentoring program is an often overlooked but incredibly valuable element in grooming and retaining star employees. It can be a powerful force in the professional development of staffers, and in turn, a key ingredient in an organization’s success. Employees who feel someone is looking out for their careers are more motivated to do their best work and to stick with the organization. Read on to find out more. The Hidden Risks in Financial Reporting By Dr. Soheil Saadat, Prodiance Corporation Published: April 2007 With over 200 million users worldwide, the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is the most ubiquitous analysis and reporting tool on the planet. Business users can create powerful and incredibly complex analyses models in Excel. A Google search on the keywords “financial analysis spreadsheet” returns hundreds of capital budgeting, risk valuation, cash flow, financial projections, and break-even analysis models. In fact, spreadsheets are being used in businesses globally to drive critical business decisions. Yet, with this power comes an inherent risk; find out how to re-gain control and avoid crises. Turning Opportunities into Projects and Vice Versa By Ludwig Melik, Tenrox Published: April 2007 Your ­sales team invests a lot of time managing their pipeline and creating opportunities. CRM solutions today are improving quickly, helping you manage your ­sales team, your pipeline, forecast ­sales, and track customer opportunities and service requests. But what happens after opportunities are c­losed? How can the ­sales team gain visibility into the services’ or projects’ execution / delivery? Find out. Intelligent Protection: Document Security for Your Data in Motion By Dave Malmstedt, Vincera, Inc. Published: April 2007 The need to secure sensitive data in motion has ­never been more pronounced. The speed of business necessitates e-distribution of intellectual property, personally identifiable in­formation, and other privileged in­formation via documents. Ironically, the tools that energize in­formation distribution create fresh vulnerabilities for companies, so that your mobile 'secret' documents are more prone to theft, alteration, and illicit use than ever before. Yet with the right distributed-document security strategy, you can minimize stiff economic and brand losses without losing speed or efficiency. Is Your Software Competing with Invisible Shelfware? By Yee-Ping Wu, Knoa Software Inc. Published: March 2007 Adoption and problems with efficient and effective use of your software are not just your customer’s problem. An insidious new ­form of ‘invisible shelfware’, a condition where partial adoption and non-compliant use of enterprise applications is the hidden cause behind unrealized ROI, is threatening software execs especially because it directly attacks the ISV business model and impacts the maintenance renewals, expansion and cross sale opportunities. Learn how End-User Experience and Per­formance Management (EPM) software can protect your revenues and profits. The CRM Intersection: Where Business and Technology Collide By Benjamin Holtz, Green Beacon Solutions Published: March 2007 Technology has come a long way. New products in the market are making it possible for business users to create their own reports to analyze data and measure business performance against KPIs. These tools are allowing organizations to challenge their long-held anecdotal beliefs regarding which customers are the most profitable, and are enabling their sales and marketing departments to target individuals and organizations that are most likely to become profitable customers. This article reviews the intersection where business problems meet technology, allowing companies to get the most out of IT investments and to start achieving their business goals. Motivating and Retaining Top Talent By Karen Lawson, Lawson Consulting Group, Inc. Published: March 2007 Today’s workplace is a fast-paced and challenging environment. Global competition and rapidly changing technology have resulted in new skill requirements and more complex jobs with fewer qualified people to fill them. Faced with a shrinking talent pool and more ‘me-focused’ employees, companies are finding it increasingly difficult to attract, motivate, and retain top talent. The ‘old ways’ of leading and motivating just don’t work anymore. Effective leaders are those who learn how to create an environment in which people thrive and are committed to helping their organizations succeed. Got Ink? Increase Company Exposure with PR By Charles Erdrich, Avineon, Inc., Published: March 2007 Public relations is often considered to be a part of the marketing mix that is nice to have, but not required. Technology companies focus so intensely on developing and delivering their products and services that their effort to create positive awareness about their company moves farther down on the agenda. While many companies have considered instituting some degree of PR, they often fall short in developing a strategy and enacting a plan to execute PR tactics. Learn how to make a potent mix for sure shot success. Effective Marketing on a Shoestring Budget By Vas Srinivasan, Sonasoft Corporation Published: February 2007 Many companies spend millions of dollars in marketing their products and services, but with limited results. Money is important, but it has to be spent wisely. Excellent results can be achieved by being focused, understanding your customer pain points, and articulating your value proposition clearly. Especially, for small companies the task becomes even more difficult with limited marketing budget. This article talks about some useful marketing techniques that can be successfully employed to get good results. How can CEP Transform Business Process Automation By David Cameron, AptSoft Corporation Published: February 2007 The adoption of Complex Event Processing (CEP) is still in its early stages, but as studies indicate, the approach has real value in addressing a new class of very important business problems. As more organizations realize the unique benefits of the event-driven approach in today’s hyper-competitive market, growth will accelerate. Learn all about the CEP platform and the process involved in architecting an event-driven application. How Much is Your Influence Worth By Dr. Marlene Caroselli, “Principled Persuasion” Published: February 2007 Leadership guru John Maxwell maintains, “Leadership is influence. That’s it.” He asserts: “Nothing more. Nothing less.” Those leaders who occasionally find themselves seeking balance on the tightrope that spans influence and desired outcomes would do well to consider the ‘worth aspect’ that separates ethical influence from unethical manipulation. Learn more about where to draw the line between the two. 5 Strategies for Managing Linux By David Dennis, Levanta, Inc. Published: January 2007 Despite continuous and rapid evolution in the manageability of Linux, a survey conducted by the Institute for Partner Education and Development cited manageability concerns as one of the top three reasons why organizations hesitate to adopt Linux. However, Linux can be made as manageable, if not more, than other operating systems by following five key strategies which stemmed from experiences across a wide variety of customer environments. How is Selling SaaS Different By Jim Howard, CrownPeak Technology Published: January 2007 Pounding out product/feature matrix charts in RFP responses is a losing proposition for an SaaS vendor. While an SaaS product may have every feature under the sun, the reason customers buy an SaaS has little to do with features. Likewise, trying to sell around IT, or other technologists at a prospect can doom most sales efforts. Concerns around control and security will crush even the best SaaS offerings unless they are addressed head-on. Learn how selling SaaS is so different. Leadership by Persuasion By Dr. Maynard Brusman, Working Resources Published: January 2007 As a leader, your success depends upon your ability to get things done: up, down, and across all lines. Today’s organizations are politically complex and fluid, which blurs lines of formal authority. Colleagues continually question and challenge authority. The flattening of organizations has created informal power networks that render the old command-and-control style of leadership obsolete. Vertical Marketing Works – The Numbers Prove It By Olin Thompson, Process ERP Partners Published: December 2006 Every company wants to look at the numbers that count the most: revenue and expenses. Increasing revenue and decreasing costs are the results of an effective vertical strategy. It allows you to increase your win rate by increasing revenue and decreasing the cost of sales. This article helps you understand why a vertical strategy is good, and how it can make your sales and marketing initiatives effective. Leading Technological Change: Anticipating the Human Response By Diane Dixon, D. Dixon & Associates, LLC Published: December 2006 We readily acknowledge that we are living in 'The Age of Technology' but most would admit that the human response to it has been slower than the growth of technological innovation. Then what keeps people from embracing technology that will help them to do their jobs more effectively and ultimately improve service and/or product delivery? Ignoring or underestimating the human reaction to change is part of the problem. Understanding and anticipating the human response to technology is critical for successful implementation and advancement of innovation. How to Win Customer Trust By Lynn Daniel, The Daniel Group Published: December 2006 The question of trust applies in any market situation. Ask your customers if they trust your company to act in their best interests. See what they say. Listen for the expectations they have of your business. If those expectations are not being met, ask why? Remember, meeting those expectations at every point of the customer’s experience is a sure way to create a stronger company. It is a question of trust. It is also a question of the bottom line! This article will help you identify those areas that are critical to enhancing the level of customer trust in your company. How to Improve Your Organization’s Group Intelligence By Luis F. Solis, GroupSystems Corporation Published: November 2006 Chief Executive Officers worldwide are struggling with a common challenge: how to expedite innovation, achieve efficiency, and reduce process cost at the work group level versus the individual level. Whether called group productivity, team effectiveness or simply by the over-used moniker ‘collaboration’, the issue is the same. Is this really worth the worry? In this article, you'll learn the five mission-critical processes for innovation and growth. Finding Your Next Big Idea By Dr. Maynard Brusman, Working Resources Published: November 2006 The company that fails to continually innovate new products and services will not survive long. As competition becomes tougher and market challenges increase, innovation is an imperative for business leaders around the world. At the same time, not all innovations produce commercial success. Even the most seasoned executive may not recognize a good opportunity when it presents itself. What, then, can we learn about sources of innovation from both inside and outside the organization? How do you decide which bright idea to back and identify innovations that will yield commercial success? Vendors, Not All Revenue is Equal By Olin Thompson, Process ERP Partners Published: October 2006 Very few companies, if any, can be good at everything. Although many executives see that "all dollars are green" (at least in the US), the reality is that different types of revenue come at different cost. Be realistic on what is possible, how much you can afford to spend to get revenue, the timing of the expense versus the revenue and how much risk you are willing to accept. All revenue is green, but sometimes your revenue strategy can make your bottom line red. What Would General George Patton Do If He Were Your VP of ­Sales By Steve Martin, "Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom" Published: October 2006 When a German Senior Officer was captured toward the end of World War II, he said, "General Patton is the most feared general on all fronts. The tactics of the General are daring and unpredictable. General Patton is always the main topic of conversation. Where is he? When will he attack? Where? How? With what?" In sales, just as in war, there can be only one winner, and today's conqueror can quickly become tomorrow's vanquished. Learn what one of the greatest military minds in history has to teach us about defeating our enemies on the battlefield of business sales. The Blogging Phenomenon: How to Avoid Legal Implications By Alfred C. Frawley, Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios LLP Published: September 2006 Blogging is a phenomenon that attracts new writers every day. In fact, each hour two thousand new blogs are created. There are seven to eight million blogs or on-line diaries currently and the number grows. Individuals and businesses alike are reaching the online community via blogs because it is an efficient and inexpensive way to make your opinions widely known. But businesses should consider how a blogging policy could help avoid the legal implications of online publishing. A New Market Opportunity for IT Policy Control By Teresa D. Wingfield, Active Reasoning, Inc. Published: September 2006 Policies define the desired IT controls in an organization and what actions to take when controls, they violated, or parameters exceed acceptable thresholds. A number of factors are increasing the number of policies a company must implement. The alarming growth in security threats is escalating the demand for protection from them. As companies are turning to standards-based control frameworks such as ITIL, COBIT COSO, and ISO 17799 to improve their ability to deliver reliable support and services, they need policies that enforce their best practices and procedures. Don't Let Egos Sink Your Positioning Strategy By Lawson Abinanti, Messages that Matter Published: August 2006 To arrive at a successful positioning strategy requires a quest to discover the truth about your product, and why the target buyer should care about it. Let preconceived notions, personal biases and ego dominate your positioning process and you're leaving too much to chance. At every step during the positioning process, you filter information, make assumptions and decide which path to pursue. Even under ideal conditions, it's easy to head down the wrong path. In this article, you'll learn three steps along the way where ego - or denial or even sheer stubbornness - can lead you astray. Why Software Companies Must Consider Government Market By David S. Bloch, McDermott Will & Emery LLP, and James G. McEwen, Stein, McEwen & Bui LLP Published: August 2006 Software companies typically sell to other companies and individual consumers. Left out of this mix is another very large potential market: local, state, and federal governments. By most accounts, the U.S. government is the world's largest consumer of goods and services. This article discusses why software companies should consider selling to governments. Discover why the government is a potentially lucrative market for software companies - a market that too often is neglected for reasons having more to do with myth than reality. Determine how to find and win a government contract, and understand specific rules for licensing software to the U.S. Government. How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Open Source By Richard Boyd, 3Dsolve Inc. Published: August 2006 When you spend your career doing something and finally learn to do it well, it is a bit disconcerting when someone changes all of the rules on you. As Alvin Toffler said in this fast-paced and mutable information age, the illiterate are not just those who can't read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. In my North Carolina vernacular that translates as old dogs need to learn new tricks. The whole point of this article is to encourage you to go out and fish, not necessarily to tell you where to find the best fishing holes. Crossroads: Deciding If and When a Founder Should Sell By Javier Rojas, Kennet Venture Partners LLC Published: July 2006 If you are an entrepreneur that owns a majority or major stake in your business, you are often faced with the question of whether and when you should seek to sell your shares. This can be the hardest decision to make because the stakes are high - both through indecision or a misstep, and at the same time emotional because of the potential changes involved. This article discusses an approach that can be used by any equity holder of a high growth technology company, but it is most relevant to founder-led businesses - where the founder owns the majority and is active in the business. Success with Outsourced Product Development By Peter Harrison, Induslogic, Inc. Published: July 2006 Fortune 1000 companies (F1000) have flocked in droves to outsource their software development as a way of increasing efficiencies and saving millions of dollars. More than 70% of the F1000 outsource some portion of their information technology today, making this activity completely mainstream. This market for Outsourced Product Development (OPD) is currently pegged at $1 billion but is expected to grow to almost $4 billion by 2008. Achieving success in OPD requires creative re-thinking of traditional outsourcing models and careful selection of an experienced partner. Learn how to choose the right model and pick a perfect business partner to stay ahead of the pack. Reinventing the Software Development Strategy By John Seybold, Guidewire Software, Inc. Published: July 2006 If you've spent much time working on software projects, you probably bear the scars from a "death march" release. This is the kind of release that just won't come together in a shippable state. You work and you work, but you keep finding bugs, and as soon as you fix one problem, you find another, deeper issue that was previously hidden. The main cause is usually that the team left a huge backlog of known and unknown problems to be fixed at the end of the release. Learn how to overcome the problem, and think from a broader perspective of reinventing your software development strategy. 'The Reality of Virtual Opportunities By Isaac Kato, General Catalyst Partners Published: June 2006 People escape to virtual worlds because they provide a forum to express alter egos. Whatever flaws you may have in the real world are erased when you enter the virtual world. As these virtual worlds have become more compelling places to be, people have started essentially living in them. Users have even started to make a living in the virtual worlds, and this provides real opportunities for a host of players. 'Effective Ways to Decrease Cyber Attacks' By Carl E. Banzhof, Citadel Security Software Inc. Published: June 2006 Today's businesses are confronted by a far broader and increasingly dangerous set of cyber threats than they were just a few years ago. New vulnerabilities are discovered each day and there seems to be no sign of them letting up. Worms, spyware, software defects, misconfigurations, unsecured accounts, and many more can cause your network to be susceptible to vicious cyber attacks. You need to create a plan of attack for securing your environment. Here's what to do... 'Why CIOs Should Not Make Technology Decisions' By CJ Rhoads, Enterprise Technology Management Associates, Inc. Published: June 2006 Is your CIO making technology decisions all alone? If yes, the recent findings would make you sit up. When CIOs are included on the decision-making team, they improve the overall use of Internet technology. However, when CIOs make the decision alone, they don't do any better than other decision-making groups. The decision-making record of CIOs on web development and e-commerce is simply not good. So, how does a CEO make sure the best technology decisions are made, and when does the CFO get involved? 'Mergers: A Change Agent for Software Development' By Chris Barbin, Borland Software Corporation Published: June 2006 Growth through acquisition has always been a leading business strategy for the world's largest software companies. What is new, however, is that many acquirers no longer just want small pieces of technology to integrate with existing portfolios. Oracle acquired Siebel Systems after its expensive battle to win control of PeopleSoft. Then Adobe merged with Macromedia to "own" the digital media market. Soon to follow was eBay's acquisition of Skype. The list goes on... but each merger comes with a major challenge: How to best manage distributed development environments? 'The Software Industry's Other Transition' By Paul Holland, Foundation Capital Published: May 2006 Recently, a new breed of software companies has emerged that help customers grow the top line. By associating their value proposition with increase in revenues, they've been able to appeal to the strategic interests of senior executives and consequently their average selling prices far exceed that of the typical industry average. Technology companies today are hard at work to help their customers make more money vs. simply slashing IT expenditures. 'How to Evaluate Knowledge Management Technology' By Mirghani Mohamed, Data Center, The George Washington University Published: May 2006 Because of the recent rapid convergence and the noticeable synergy between technology advancements and Knowledge Management (KM) principles, it is becoming more intricate to choose the right technology for any KM initiative. Most of the standard technology selection models assume that these technologies are conduits for data and information. Further, traditional selection models do not put into consideration features related to human cognitive process and social interrelations. 'The Failed Promise of High Tech' By Tom Northup, Leadership Management Group Published: May 2006 High tech promised the business world an easy way to enhance efficiency, save time, and increase access to information. Instead it has reduced interpersonal communication, shattered our ability to focus, made us accessible to anyone at any time, and increased the time it takes to complete projects. In order to achieve success in business, go back to the days before high tech, retake control of our time and rebuild personal communication skills. 'Software Buying Has Changed - Will Vendors Follow Suit?' By Olin Thompson, Process ERP Partners Published: April 2006 Software and services vendors talk about agility. They talk about keeping an eye on the market and meeting the needs of the customer. However, do they take their own medicine? How an enterprise buys software and services has been changing. Buyers are smart about buying technology. They are skeptical, risk adverse, and tighter with their budgets. What are those changes, why did they happen and what does it mean for the both the buying enterprise and the selling vendor? 'Corporate IT Security Resources are Wasted!' By Al Payne and Jim Litchko, Internet Security Experts Published: April 2006 Thirty percent of IT Security resources are wasted, because of the inappropriate approaches that are used to review a corporation's IT security needs and the misunderstanding of the roles and responsibilities for each of the key players: executives, IT managers and IT security professionals. Effective IT security programs are achieved when the IT manager is open, honest, motivated and realistic about the IT security status. This begins with conducting a practical system security assessment and ends with providing adequate safeguard options to reduce risk to an acceptable level for the business. 'Achieving Breakthrough Growth: From Ideas to Execution' By Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble, Tuck School of Business Published: April 2006 How can companies simultaneously excel at today's business while building tomorrow's? It is a delicate organizational task. But new principles based on five years of research show that established organizations can build new futures when they design breakthrough new business units so that they can forget, borrow, and learn. Creating the future requires both breakthrough ideas and breakthrough execution. Ideas are crucial, but even the best ones are speculative. 'SaaS Not a "One Size Fits All" Paradigm' By Yuchun Lee, Unica Corporation Published: March 2006 The general paradigm shift will correct itself this year when software as a service will become part of the entire ecosystem. It's a very beneficial option for the market, but it's definitely not a "one size fits all" paradigm. Software vendors that will be successful in 2006 and beyond are those that can provide both on-premise and on-demand solutions, in one form or another. Companies that can't offer both are foregoing half of the market and will start to see challenges to their growth and leadership in the future. 'Are Your Customers Unhappy? Here's Help!' By Morris Panner, OpenAir, Inc. Published: March 2006 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provides real-time interaction between application vendor and customer that traditional client server companies can only envy. It is one of the key benefits of the SaaS model. What makes this possible? In any company, it is the customer support team. They are the first line of interaction with customers and the most important asset the company has. Most companies are unprepared for the new role of customer/application support. This article talks about how to get ready for the new world and how it will change every aspect of your business. 'What Great Leaders Believe In' By Paul B. Thornton, Be The Leader Associates Published: March 2006 What's the difference between a cab driver and a leader? A cab driver simply takes you from point A to point B. A leader takes you to a place you hadn't envisioned or thought possible. What drives a leader to pursue a better future? Leaders believe most people and organizations are under performing and capable of achieving much more. 'Silicon Valley CEO Failure: Seven CEO Lessons for 2006' By Steve Martin, "The Real Story of Informix Software" Published: February 2006 Silicon Valley is littered with far more failure than success. At first glance, you wouldn't think former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and ex-Informix Software CEO Phil White have much in common. However, there are striking similarities between these infamous Silicon Valley leaders and their failures provide seven important lessons for software CEOs for the new year. 'When Best Practices Aren't Good Enough' By Kay Hammer, Evolutionary Technologies International, Inc. Published: February 2006 To the average person, it seems like gross negligence that FEMA can't figure out how to route ice to the site of a hurricane when the navigational system in a rental car can adapt in real-time when a driver takes a wrong turn. Yet it is important to notice that the most dramatic breakthroughs in software over the past decade - e.g., Google or GPS technology - have not taken place in traditional IT shops, despite the fact that there are pressing needs like Homeland Security and SOX compliance that would constitute a huge market for new solutions. 'Managing New Revenue Streams: Think SaaS' By Robert O'Connor, Softrax Published: December 2005 Innovation is still the key to growth in the high tech business, but it has broader implications than in the past. Today some of the most important innovations are about the business model - how technology is being sold and delivered. Offering Software as a Service (SaaS) via subscription or utility models is reshaping key customer relationships for high tech companies. Along with the technical challenges, there are significant operational issues software executives must fully understand to successfully manage these new business models. 'Why 'SMART' Companies Never Fail' By Sydney Finkelstein, Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business and Eric M. Jackson, Jackson Leadership Systems Published: December 2005 Have you taken the necessary steps to help maintain and grow your software organization's pre-eminent market position? Over the last several years, research has uncovered the key differences between several successful companies that eventually failed in some manner and other very successful companies that have been able to retain and grow their market dominance. The latter can be described as "SMART Organizations," and they regularly track and improve in the Three Pillar areas of SMART Leadership, SMART Strategy, and SMART Process. This article elaborates on SMART Leadership and how to make it blossom in your software organization.