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SAP has been beating the drumbeat of organic growth as opposed to Oracle’s acquisition strategy. It is immaterial that SAP did make an unsuccessful bid for Retek and has acquired a few small companies. Bottomline is that SAP failed to deliver the revenue growth, growing a small 8%. I am waiting to see how SAP […] 

Yes, it may sound counter-intuitive but many technologies over the last 100 years have successfully added a lot of value without being a profitable business. Airlines add a lot of value to both individuals and businesses allowing us to meet people, establish relationships, ship goods and deliver services. However, since flying is a highly competitive […] 

When you think of EMC buying RSA Security it may seem like a strategic fit for a storage company to provide security especially with Network Applicances (NetApp) having aggressively positioned itself in security around data encryption. But it is the math that is most at play here- just as with most small enterprise software companies […] 

Google is launching an authentication (Auth) service that will allow third-party applications to better integrate with Google services. Nathan Torkington of O’Reilly reported this in their blog. So now you can allow a third-party application to access Google services on your behalf. Current limitations include having to manage separate tokens for each Google service. Google […] 

Google created a lot of buzz around its Web2.0 Spreadsheet anouncement a few weeks ago. Many other players including Zoho had launched similar or even superior functionality before Google did. So now Zoho is launching ZohoShow to provide Powerpoint-like functionality on the web. I test drove the ZohoShow and it appeared to be a good […] 

Oracle Q4 reported higher than expected earnings. (See Oracle Profit Jumps to $1.3B byAP) So how does a business like Oracle have a high cash-flow and very high margin business? What are the key metrics to look at? Is Database still a growth business? What is the role of SOA and other key technology trends? […] 

Google Spreadsheet lacks many common features available in Microsoft Excel. There are plenty of reviews on Google Spreadsheet comparing its features with Microsoft Excel. See Rod Boothby’s ‘Spreadsheet wars!…’ , Computer World’s ‘Google Spreadsheets is more powerful than you think’, Zoli’s comparison of Google Spreadsheet and Zoho, Vinny Carpenter’s ‘Google hits a home run with […] 

These are age old words of wisdom in the Silicon Valley but some people still do not get it. I have encountered a lot of budding entrepreneurs that see venture-capitalists and angel investors as no more than a source of capital. They forget that one of the key reasons you want to ask other people […] 

I was in India for a 20-day family vacation and found an India that continues to amaze, dazzle and disappoint simultaneously. The real-estate market is booming, stocks are growing faster than in any other world economy (except Russia) and people are excited about the future. And it is the last aspect that holds out the […] 

I started reading the latest book by Clayton M. Christensen- Seeing What’s Next. He is also the author of Innovator’s Dilemma and Innovator’s Solution. An interesting case study to apply his book’s theories is JBoss. JBoss was clearly a disruptive innovator that targeted low-end customers with a good enough product at a lower cost of […] 

My first response was of initial excitement. And then 30 seconds later… a big yawn. The Application Server market is mature and growing slowly (if at all). The big players like IBM and BEA have cornered the enterprise customers that are willing to pay for the software and support. For Red Hat this clearly makes […] 

I attended a TiE (The Indus Entrepreneur) event tonight. There were 3 speakers- Dan Avida, General Partner, Opus Capital (ex-CEO Decru) Joshua Pickus, Senior Vice President & GM, Computer Associates (ex-CEO Niku) Tom Berquist, CFO, Ingres Corporation (previously Securities Analyst at Citigroup) Dan Avida sold Decru to Network Appliance for $272.5M; Josh Pickus sold Niku […] 

I discovered a new site for borrowing and lending money. (Hat tip: Jeff Nolan of Venture Chronicles). This site allows users to lend and borrow money directly from each other. The concept is very similar to a Bank where we all deposit money and then the Bank lends our money to borrowers. However, in the […] 

The buzzword has arrived. The applications will follow. The blogging community has had an epiphany- If we could transplant the success Google and others have had and make boatloads of money, it would be really rewarding. The solution: create Enterprise 2.0. The problem is that all of us are struggling to define the killer apps […] 

InfoWorld reports that “BEA Systems on Wednesday announced its $87.5 million acquisition of Fuego, a business process management software (BPM) company. “ BEA finally accepts defeat that it has been unable to build out a BPM platform that is easy to use and will actually be adopted by its customer base. With Oracle and IBM […] 

There is a new kid on the block called PayTextMe that lets you do PayPal style transactions with a mobile phone using SMS Text messages. But the thing that really impressed me was their Go-To Market Plan: Since, PayPal is their obvious big brother, they advertise using PayTextMe for your craigslist transactions (eat that EBay!) […] 

Jeff Nolan asks the following question on his blog: I’d love to hear your thoughts on what the benefits of a pure SOA application framework are. While the technical benefits are important, of equal interest are the actual end-user business benefits for companies investing in this technology. I predict that the biggest benefits of SOA […] 

Kintan asks in his blog as to what is the killer app of Web 2.0. My bet is on Email. Any software company (enterprise or otherwise) that can successfully change our email experience will be a huge winner. And to the naysayers out there- it has already happened once. Hotmail is not what email started […] 

“Eat your own dog food”- that adage is not working for Microsoft or any other ‘big’ software company. The problem is that they do not have people that really appreciate good dog food i.e., Dogs. Our friend at Innovation Creators blogs about Google winning the race for Web 2.0 office tools. Yes, Google is definitely […] 

Here is a detailed report on the Web 2.0 event. I would really like to know how many people understand Web 2.0 as would help understand where we are in the Hype Cycle. The consumer Web 2.0 space seems over-crowded. Or is the fundamental folly is to think in terms of looking for the next […]