Insights and musings about customer service and managing a SaaS software company.
Archive for the ‘technology’ Category
January 16, 2012 by Yuval Brisker
Last week Google announced a milestone deal with BBVA that should have people at Microsoft even more worried than they probably already are, and pure Cloud enthusiasts like my colleagues at TOA and I ever more excited and confident about the future of pure-play Cloud-based software.
BBVA is a major employer with over one hundred thousands employees. But this is significant not just because of the sheer number of new Google Docs and Gmail users – but mostly because of the network effect.
At TOA we have always ‘practiced what we preached’ and that means that we not only sell Cloud-based enterprise software (SaaS), we also buy and use only Cloud-based software. What that means for us is that we only look for SaaS solutions for our internal needs. We believe firmly that in order to understand the benefits, as well as the limitations of what we sell, we have to experience it like our clients do: as real bon-fide users. So we have been Google Apps users from the moment that these were available for the enterprise and moved our whole mail infrastructure to Google about two years ago. We have followed the evolution of the Google Docs Suite from the moment that Google bought Writely and watch closely as these applications have become more and more deep and more and more sophisticated and complete. In fact, from a classic enterprise users’ point of view , someone who is not crunching numbers or doing intense graphics and a lot of offline work, there is very little difference today creating text, presentation or spreadsheet documents on Google Docs in comparison to Microsoft Office. In fact, the most amazing aspect of the GDocs Suite is the strong native collaboration capabilities that make it absolutely a killer app for this purpose.
Only one serious gap remains that has kept us from adopting the GDocs Suite as our one and only productivity tool and that is robust, easy to use offline capability, access and storage –(full disclosure: I am writing this very post on Word – to be transferred later - because of that…I’m on a plane with no Wi-Fi).
The only other serious hindrance is people’s mindset.
Office is the standard and people are afraid of deserting the standard. But that’s where the network effect comes in. With companies like GM and BBVA adopting the G-Suite as their mail app and G-Docs as their primary productivity tool (even if for now for internal communications) we will begin to see the conversion of the masses and the tipping point will get ever closer.
December 15, 2011 by Yuval Brisker
I blogged about this a few weeks ago and it seems that Google’s Siri headache is not going away….
Here’s more fascinating stuff about what might be an even bigger battle than Android vs. iOS.
I’d be interested to read your thoughts and comments on this, so use that comments button!
December 13, 2011 by Yuval Brisker
There was a lot of negative buzz in press over the past few days about the Kindle Fire and now that buzz has turned into scorching criticism. Jakob Nielsen, one of the world’s foremost experts on usability, issued an alert saying that “Kindle Fire…suffers from plain old bad UI design in many areas” and “a disappointingly poor user experience”.
The NYTimes prominently covered the issues saying that Amazon is having some real challenges with the Fire in an article that went straight to the number one spot on the Times’ Most Emailed List. In it, the Times cautioned all the naysayers not to count Amazon out, but nonetheless described the problems in detail and raised red flags for consumers.
We should not forget that while there was plenty of criticism of the iPhone when it came out (remember no ‘copy/paste’?) or the iPad (‘who needs it…’) it was first to market; and the sheer wonder of the new was enough to help people over the hump.
The Kindle Fire competes with the iPad, despite Amazon’s insistence that it doesn’t…I personally can’t see myself owing the Fire AND an iPad AND a Kindle eReader….I will choose one eReader and one tablet. And though Fire might be cheaper…given that it is not functionally on par with the iPad…I choose the iPad as my tablet.
Amazon, an inspiring company on many many levels, should have made sure that its product was perfect. It didn’t and the Fire’s future is not clear.
And here’s an update to this blog…a followup article in the NY Times.
December 4, 2011 by Yuval Brisker
Right on the heels of my previous post – SAP announced that it is purchasing SuccessFactors, the second most prominent pure-play SaaS company after Salesforce.com, for $3.4B.
The most amazing aspect of this deal is that it represents a 10.3 multiple over this year’s revenue of $330M (a 63% premium over Friday’s stock price) and 8.5x over next year’s projected revenue of $400M (a 52% premium)! For comparison - most legacy on- premise software vendors are trading at 2-3x (4X at the absolute most).
This is the biggest transaction of its kind to date and represent the most significant validation of the transformative nature of SaaS and Cloud-based software.
Clearly, by paying a rich purchase price, SAP is embracing what it’s co-CEOs have stated publicly: that it must evolve quickly to be a Cloud-based software company in order to assure a long-term future for its business (and extrapolation – for any business).
Coming after last month’s purchase of RightNow Technologies by Oracle for an equally attractive multiple – it is clear that SaaS and Cloud-based software is truly coming into its own.
We agree!
Let’s just hope these companies integrate and invigorate their purchases not squelch them. The news the Lars Dalgaard, SuccessFactor’s founder and CEO is going to manage the company as a separate SAP subsidiary, be on SAP’s executives board AND be in charge of all their Cloud-based initiatives bodes well for this.
Forbes analyzes the deal.
