“As
Brits, we’ll carry on — it doesn’t scare us at all,” said tour guide Michael
Cahill, 37. “Look, loads of people are walking down the streets. It’s Great
Britain – not called ‘Great’ for nothing.”
By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music
is the eerily appropriate The
Unforgettable Fire by U2, especially the first cut, “A Sort of Homecoming”
which would serve well as the soundtrack for a London bombing video montage:
Why, now here’s a timely product announcement. Applied
Global Technologies rushed out a press release this morning “announcing” the “development” of a
communications package for Emergency Response and Management Applications.
Almost creepy how… well-timed that was.
“The compact, self-contained ruggedized kit allows first
responders to provide terrestrial command centers with immediate data, video
and audio from any remote location,” reads the press release.
“Ruggedized,” wow. Let’s see if we can figure out what
they’re trying to ca-, um, which market niche they’re aiming for here:
“Easily deployable and easy to use, the IC-360 Gear allows
police, fire, rescue, military and others to immediately communicate from the
scene of natural disasters or man-made incidents.”
“Man-made incidents,” such as… any coming to mind this morning?
“It is portable, can use any AC or DC power source, contains
internal batteries for independent operation, contains critical communication
tools and integrates cleanly into existing emergency management applications,
tool suites and architectures.”
Loves beans on toast, warm beer, the Harry Potter books, punting
on the Cam, Chelsea soccer (“Wait, they call it ‘football’ over there.”).
“In addition to aiding first responders, the IC-360 is also
useful for pre-planned events. From military exercises to sporting events to
political conventions, the IC-360 provides instant data, voice, and visual
communication back to an on-site command post or terrestrial central location.”
So you’ll be
prepared when your city gets hit by a… hurricane:
“With the return of hurricane season we are reminded how
important it is for emergency response teams to be able to rapidly deploy and
effectively communicate in remote areas,” added Todd Jacobson, Vice President
of Product Development, Applied Global Technologies. “We are excited about the
IC-360, developed by AGT’s R&D team, and its ability to effectively
facilitate remote and rapid communication.”
Yeah, that’s what this is all about, hurricane operations. Front of everyone’s minds this morning. Lucrative
field, jump on it while it’s hot. Topical. On all the news.
First CoffeeSM would like to learn more about
this astonishingly newsworthy product, but a search of their Web site performed 11:00 A.M. at
GMT+2 returned no hits for “IC-360,” SurfWax had nothing except the press
release cited here and Googling [“Applied Global Technologies” IC-360] at the
same time returned no hits.
…
Intelsat is announcing that RR Satellite Communications Limited, an
Israeli broadcast service provider, has
selected Intelsat to provide two new content distribution platforms in the
United States and Asia, respectively.
Pembroke, Bermuda-based Intelsat says RR Sat has chosen the
Intelsat Americas-5 (IA-5) satellite to distribute Asian, European and Middle
Eastern content via a new direct-to-home platform in the U.S.
IA-5 hosts a large international broadcasting community in
the U.S. from its orbital location at 97ºW, presenting RR Sat with the
opportunity to penetrate the U.S. DTH market.
In a separate contract, RR Sat has launched a new Pan-Asian distribution
platform via Intelsat on the APR-1 satellite located at 83ºE. The platform on
APR-1 will enable broadcasters and programmers to target cable head-ends across
most of Asia, including India and Australia, using just one satellite.
…
First CoffeeSM’s never heard of Apptastic.net,
sorry to say, but notes that this morning the company’s announcing a long list of new features to its
shareware registration service offering, “packing all the necessary
features of a Customer Relationship Management system into a single web
application.”
New features to the Apptastic.net control panel include RSS
(XML) connectivity, POP email integration, end-user emailing application, test
ordering system, revamped accounting reports, order form and support request
customization – “so it feels like your customers never left your site,” company
officials say.
Apptastic.net’s control panel already included sales tracking, piracy defense,
end-user support management, order processing, search engine optimization, and
on-demand CD burning. Justin Burger, Apptastic.net co-founder and CEO, said the
new features will “bridge the gap between independent software developers and
major industry players.”
…
Good article by Gavin
Clarke on The
Register this morning, explaining why Microsoft’s
ISV pep rally in Minneapolis this weekend will have a harder evangelical feel
to it – “Microsoft cannot assume it will be preaching to the converted in
Minneapolis during the next few days,” Clarke says.
He cites “changing market dynamics combined with execution
problems” as reasons why they can’t simply ride Windows anymore, but must
actually work hard to prove why
businesses should bet on Microsoft when they can’t ship on time and when Oracle,
SAP, SugarCRM and a host of others are thriving in the highly profitable small
and medium-sized business space, which Microsoft is slavering over but
which they’ve done an abysmal job tackling so far.
There’s a lot of money at stake for ISVs who choose to stick
with Microsoft, they know it and Microsoft knows they know it. “The SMB market
opportunity for business applications is huge,” as Clarke says: “19 per cent of
small companies plan to deploy ERP software this year – up from three per cent
last year – while 23 per cent will deploy CRM/SFA software – again up from four
percent in 2004, according to AMI Partners.”
And right now if you’re selling Microsoft you’re not exactly
scooping out fistfuls of that cash. Microsoft Business Solutions, the division
responsible for ERP and CRM software is aptly described by Clarke as a “debacle”
which is getting its butt kicked by the likes of Oracle, SAP, SugarCRM and
salesforce.com.
Elsewhere Clarke notes that according to Forrester, SMBs “accounted
for 44 per cent of overall IT spending in the US last year … with spending
expected to grow by eight per cent this year. Spending by enterprise customers
will grow by six per cent.”
Basically it’s Microsoft’s job to convince its partners not
to jump ship to IBM and Oracle, both of whom have far more impressive partner
offerings available now, and to convince them that it makes sense to trust a
company which in 2005 still has not shipped a product, Longhorn, which was
promised in 2003, and which won’t before 2006 – at the earliest. And whether aforesaid
product is still worth waiting for.
…
Bored? Not anymore you’re not, with the Pepto-Bismol Dance Machine just a click
away.
If read off-site hit http://blog.tmcnet.com/telecom-crm/
for the fully-linked version. First CoffeeSM accepts no sponsored
content. This means yours, too.
