By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music
is… lemme find a CD here… oh, how about country blues master Rev. Gary Davis, Say No to The Devil:
Thanks to Ali Jani,
SVP of product management and founder of iCode for taking the time to
answer some of First CoffeeSM’s questions. In a few places answers
have been lightly edited for a conversational tone:
You’ve been quite an
advocate of India as a resource for American high-tech firms. Could iCode be as
successful as it is with an “all-American” operation?
Actually, iCode, Inc. is more successful with a mixture of
American and India-based resources due to the quality of the talent pool in
both locations, the 24/7 around the clock availability for increased productivity,
and cost effectiveness. iCode’s carefully blended mixture of India- and
American-based resources has had a positive growth impact on iCode’s total
solution offerings to the marketplace. With almost 12 years of experience in
the small- and mid-sized business market, iCode has determined which job
functions are performed in which location to stay competitive in the
market.
How has Everest
Advanced 2.1 been received?
Everest Advanced 2.1 has been very well received in the
marketplace since it addresses the market’s biggest challenges when it comes to
optimizing and managing all business, financial and online operations from a
single point. Everest Advanced 2.1 addresses these concerns with several new
capabilities.
You guys play in the
SMB space. Over the next two to five years, what’s going to be the
differentiating factor(s) in business applications that succeed in that space,
as opposed to those that don’t find traction?
First productivity, both time to productivity and time
required to perform job functions. Then Business Performance Management, such
things as Business Intelligence, Analytics, KPIs and Business Activity
Monitoring. Also business process automation and efficiency, functions that can
be automated not requiring human interaction. Finally there’s the flexibility
of the solution in configurability, customization, and integration as well as
overall solution scalability.
What’s the biggest
mistake companies used to the enterprise market make when trying to make
products specifically for the SMB market?
Some companies don’t build the product specifically for the
SMB market. Instead, they try to take scale down a product that was originally
developed for larger companies vs. addressing the specific needs of SMBs.
Did the flooding in
Bombay affect any of your operations?
No, this did not affect iCode’s operations in India at all.
Products like Everest
are basically one-point management for lots of business functionalities. As far
as most SMBs are concerned, what are the three or four key functions they won’t
buy such software without?
Supply chain management, accounting, e-commerce and CRM.
What are the SMB
verticals you’re looking to for your most significant business growth over the
next three years?
Medical equipment and industrial equipment.
Do you segment the
market that way, by verticals?
We segment the market by industry type, such as
wholesale/distribution, retail and e-tail.
People are comparing
the long-term prospects of both China and India, and more people think India is
set for greater success. What’s your view?
I personally agree with this assessment, particularly for
hardware manufacturers due to the English-speaking capabilities of the talent
pool and the high quality selection of software engineers in India as opposed
to China.
…
So Microsoft’s going to offer hosted CRM
sometime next year, and a mid-market server in a couple years. One wonders if
it’ll be before or after their long-delayed enterprise CRM release, or where
the world will be then. Office pool on a release date, anyone? Closest month
and year wins.
First CoffeeSM wonders why they’re doing it. “Uh,
to make money.” Right, but what’s the driver here? Listen to Steve Ballmer, as
reported by Paula Rooney on CRN:
“We recognize that need to respond to [Salesforce.com] and
will approach that need and a variety of other managed services for smaller and
midmarket sized companies over [the] course of [the] next 12 months,” Microsoft CEO Steve
Ballmer told about 700 partners, customers and analysts gathered for the summit
at company headquarters in Redmond, Wash. “We will give Salesforce.com a run
for its money.”
Okay, he’s getting the troops fired up – “Let’s go get
Salesforce.com!” – but First CoffeeSM would prefer to see Microsoft
responding to market needs, instead of its own need to body-slam market
competitors.
It’s always been Bill Gates’s motivation to crush
competition, not to build the best software he can. That works for a while, but
what happens when you can’t crush the competition through bundling? You need to
connect with the market, understand their needs and be humble enough to build
what they want, not what you want them to want. Microsoft’s inability to do
this is why, as Rooney notes, their three major market attacks on Intuit have all failed. Build a better
mousetrap and you’ll win, but Microsoft, being – allegedly – human, can’t
always do that.
We know Microsoft is great at crushing competitors, but in
hosted mid-market CRM we’ll see how well they can compete with them.
…
Wow. What a match at
the U.S. Open last night. One for the ages – unbelievable shot making, a
young player on the biggest stage of his career against a veteran, five sets of
quality tennis, momentum shifting back and forth, strong rallies, stupid
mistakes, creative play – oh, and Agassi
vs. Blake was good, too.
Agassi won a great quarterfinal against James Blake, who’ll
be back in the quarters before long, but folks, watch out for Robby
Ginepri. In his quarterfinal match against Argentine nandrolone
doper and unsportsmanlike embarrassment to tennis Guillermo Coria you saw game by game, almost point by point in that
fifth set, a player reaching within himself for the will to win a tennis match
that you – and he – didn’t know if he really had or not until it was either
have it or go home.
He has it – now. He didn’t when the match started. Tennis
requires the greatest gunslinger instincts of any sport, and with the talent so
equal among the top forty or fifty players simple determination, desire and
guts play a huge role in who wins and who loses. Occasionally you can see someone
develop into a gunslinger before your eyes.
Now that boxing’s just corrupt show business tennis is the
most pure mano a mano sport. No
teammates to carry you, no artificial time limit, no pads or helmets, no
mechanical things to go wrong on cars or bikes, no refs deciding which fouls to
call and which to let go – and it goes without saying that pleasant fluff like figure skating, diving and gymnastics, where winners are determined by French and Russian judges instead of objective competition, aren’t real sports at all. Motorized barstool racing or cowchip throwing is more of a sport than that.
In tennis you’re not competing against a time, score, weight,
target or course, you’re facing your opponent in perfectly even circumstances
and one person simply beats another one. No ties, just win or lose. Life or
death. Its roots aren’t in a pastime elevated into a “sport,” like bowling or
golf, but in sword dueling.
The Robby Ginepri who walked off the court yesterday is not
the same one who walked on the court, or even the same one who blew five match
points. He’s a gunslinger now.
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