The second consequence is that I’ve been thinking a lot about the implications of virtual OSs. With Google OS recently having been announced, which is supposed to integrate flawlessly with Macs and Windows, assumably Android, as well as being designed for Netbooks, I wonder if Intel, with it’s multi-core processors, has not created a situation where nothing else matters, hardware-wise, except to have a powerful enough processor? In other words, have hardware-manufacturers like Sony, Samsung, and to some extent, Apple simply become irrelevant?

Take Sony for instance, which has just announced its first “Netbook.” It’s one selling point?

“Like other netbooks the Vaio W has a 10-inch screen, but its display has a resolution of 1,366 by 768 pixels rather than the more common 1,024 by 600 pixels. That means more of a Web site can be fitted onto the screen, and the user will have to scroll less, the company said at a launch event in Tokyo on Tuesday.” (emphasis my own)

Not much to write home about, except if you absolutely need to use a Sony, and bear in mind that that company was at some point a premium manufacturer of technology. The PC market has long been commoditised of course, ever since IBM opened its hardware up to the world, but with the rise of ultra-cheap PCs & laptops, I think they are digging their own grave.

I think that, as I wrote in a comment to a recent post, Netbooks are a failed experiment and, to add to that, unless either drastic changes in the cost-structure can be made to increase profit-margins, or new business models can be found (e.g. a similar hardware-service bundling to what has been happening in the mobile phone space), I think that we won’t be hearing from netbooks after 2010 onwards.

What also seems clear is that software companies, with their much more favourable profit margins, are winning this war, and, pretty soon, they won’t have to think about hardware at all any more. Instead of writing for a “spec,” you just need to write for a virtual space, which can run anywhere or everywhere.

Arguably, hardware has always been enslaved to software (except for one company), but I see the Sony’s & Samsung’s of today becoming the Nokia’s & Motorola’s of the future.

Since I’m not a technologist (more of a technology philosopher), I may be drastically oversimplifying. What do you think?
P.S. going to stop signing my name for a while. I’ll see if that makes a difference. V.

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As the latest update to Mac OSX Leopard, 10.5.7, has caused some mayhem on my company’s server (something to do with DHCP constantly refreshing my IP, if you can help buzz me), I am now booting into Windows XP via Bootcamp. Additionally, my boss also ordered me a new Dell PC to persuade me to “be like the rest of ‘em” (my own words), but really more to do with security: we work in a Financial Trust, which means that we deal with highly sensitive data that shouldn’t be stored on any laptop, really!

OK, so how do you, as a Mac-user, survive that Windows experience (slash “Trauma”)? Here’s what I did:

• I love Quicksilver (a launch-utility that allows me to circumvent the mouse and explorer interface and launch apps with a few keys), and I am currently using Slickrun as a fairly effective replacement. OK, you won’t exactly be able to program triggers or append text to files, but it works.
• Expose is another “interface aid” I use instead of alt-tab. DExposE2 is a Windows replacement that works fairly similarly.
• Marsedit is my favourite blogging application on the Mac ever (you all know, how frequently I write..) and Windows Live Writer is a surprisingly good replacement for it.
• GDI++ is an interesting font-rendering app for Windows XP users. It took some getting used to, but I find it works well when Cleartype is turned on.
• Textexpander has made writing a slightly more efficient task on the Mac, certainly a less error-prone one. It basically allows you to create abbreviations or add frequently misspelled words and the program then replaces it with the word you intended. On Windows: check out Texter.

As you might have noticed, the “Mac Experience,” to me at least, is not about Application support, it’s about productivity, i.e. doing stuff quicker, which the Mac excels at. Everything else, from Microsoft Office to Mozilla Firefox essentially works the same and, in several cases better, on Windows, so no survival guide needed there.

While I will never enjoy the Windows experience as much as the Mac one, these few things have made my life a little more bearable. If you have some nifty tricks to share that have made your Windows experience better, please share them in the comments!

Vincent

P.S. One thing I would still love to have is a system-wide spell-checker like in OS X.

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I wonder if such a thing also applies to software, by which I mean anything that can be coded and presented to someone on a screen (so web-apps as well). Traditionally, the power of software has certainly been to mass-produce the same thing, save on storage, reproduction, and distribution, and collect the cash.

But for certain people, like me for instance (more right-brained than left) it’s often quite frustrating that I can’t shift software around the way I want. To me, Excel should be 3d, mapping not only the co-evolution of variables over time, but also how different forces, on a Z-bar affect these variables. I’m also a Visio guy and would love for that to integrate well with the numbers.

Beyond that there’s certainly the promise of multi-touch that I find exciting, not because I want to shake things around on the iPhone, but because it’s often much simpler to communicate with a drawing. Instead I’m forced to type this text into an editor and hope you can read between the lines.

I’m sure that companies can have all kinds of things customised these days. I was reading an interview with Micheal Dell (from 1998), who talked about how Dell pre-installed custom-software for companies at the factory already, to save the sys-admins the hassle. These days, I’m sure the magic of networks changed much of that, though the principle remains the same.

But the core of my thinking is that customers, individuals like you and me, are becoming more and more conscious of their rights. They are able to become activists at the click of a button. The internet and the media is making what is and what should be more and more transparent.

When I visualise “luxurious” software, I don’t necessarily see it as expensive either. It only takes a single company to realise that there is a market out there for doing things differently, without charging much for it. All it takes is a smart way to collect information about a customer and an equally smart way to translate that into a customised piece of software for you and me.

Vincent

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I have decided that headphones, especially the more expensive kind, are a big rip-off, because, while the sound may be better per euro/dollar spent, the wires are pretty much identical with whatever model you buy. And it’s the wires that fail 95% of the time, not the USP with which headphones are usually advertised: better sound.

In my opinion, there are three solutions for this problem:

1. consumers buy cheaper headphones and forget about the sound;
2. manufacturers make unbreakable wires or go wireless;
3. manufactures make wires modular.

I thought of the latter, remembering an interview, I heard years ago, with Giles Slade, author of the book “Made to break,” and believer in a great conspiracy: that, ever since the industrial economy took off, manufacturers have create products that were designed to break, because the alternative—a perfectly replaceable modular system—would diminish their profit-potential. The consequence of this philosophy is that, instead of throwing away failing components, we are forced to throw away the whole thing—whatever it is—resulting in great, big thrash-heaps all over the world. The consequence is a higher cost for the environment and for consumers.

The manufacturers’ perspective kind of makes sense. If you look at two computer-companies, IBM and Apple, the one that opened up its technology to be replaceable, was the one who is no longer a computer-company today: IBM. And those technologies that have decided to go modular—razor-blades, printer-cartridges, the iPod-ecosystem—have done so in a way that it is become monetarily painful to replace any part of that technological system. On the other hand, smart companies like Dell have proven that modularity can also create opportunities, but for assemblers more than manufacturers.

Taking it back to headphones, I (egotistically) maintain that a non-modular stance does not apply for the case of wires—though there may be arguments regarding portability. Rather, wires have long been modular for pretty much any application, ranging from mere electrical plugs to the wires that you hook up to your stereo-system. While the quality of wiring plays a real role in the quality of sound, the ultimate value that is attributed to a speaker-brand, is in the quality of the speakers themselves. Sennheiser would lose little by making wires replaceable; rather it would avoid potential PR-scandals and expensive warranty-problems.

This is of course assuming that Sennheiser isn’t one of those companies, whose products are “made to break.”

Vincent

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This being said, I’ve never been more unhappy about my experience as a customer. Here are 5 free pieces of advice from too faithful a customer:

1. The company pretends to invest millions in its customer relationship management systems, but why on Earth Amazon never implemented any Fidelity / membership program? Even the worse companies in the world, customer service-wise (yes you’ve recognized them, I’m talking of airlines), have membership /faithfulness programs. I would be delighted to gain some travel miles or free mp3 as a reward for being a long time customer.
2. Books purchased via the one-click purchase button should be automatically removed from one’s automatic recommendations, wish list & shopping cart. Why would you want to recommend a book already acquired and shipped to the actual same customer in the past? Today, you face a high risk of ordering a book twice because of that.
3. Amazon seems to consider that none can purchase a book anywhere else than on their store. I think users should be granted with the possibility to mark a book as already acquired (somewhere else), either on Amazon (they should make this automatic though, but I’m so desperate…) or elsewhere.
4. Even worse, when these books are already in the shopping cart (or mention “In your shopping cart” already), that is to say between my wallet and Amazon’s and their warehouse and my shelves, Amazon still finds ways to recommend them. Don’t they think I already know the book if it’s included in either my shopping cart or my wishlist?
5. This one is more a back office thing. But aren’t you guys all about dematerializing the bookshopping experience? So why can’t I find ‘.pdf’ed invoices in my “account info” space? I still need to keep these blue bills for ages: I know you legally have to send these, but why don’t you help us get rid of the tons of paper we receive.

And I’m not even mentioning transnational use of Amazon (if you acquire a book on Amazon.com rather than on Amazon.yourcountry login in with the same email address, it’s not removed from your country’s wishlist) or the interface here. Or… let’s mention it before we leave the floor: Amazon’s interface wasn’t so much more convenient back in 1997 or so than it is today. I’m surprised because every engineer from Amazon I’ve met was super bright, but if I were an e-Commerce entrepreneur today I would definitely embrace rich media and video category marketing as a paradigm to set a new user experience standard.

To everyone: as you will have understood, I’m not so happy with my experience as a customer on Amazon. Any alternative?

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Getting back to business (we’ll get back to the gambetto later), it is very common to say that the state of an economy is reflected by the strength of its currency when the Euro currency is weak – and hence that the economy of the EU are in poor shape. However, when the Euro gets stronger, companies and officials claim that corporations are constrained in their efforts to export goods and services and that the situation should be reversed or the EU will soon enter an economic turmoil.

I think this is all too easy and bullshit.

God Dollar used to be the only viable currency in international trade, until the Euro came out of nowhere in January 2000 (2001 for actual pocket coins and bills). The European Union is the world’s largest consumer market, and a gateway to the Middle East and Africa for American companies. Although the Dollar still dominates international transactions of goods (slightly) and financial transactions (easily), the Euro has emerged as a tangible alternative considering the political stability of the region.

Consequently, the Euro vs. US Dollar exchange rate has kept growing insanely from 1 EUR = USD 0.85 in mid 2000 (1 EUR = 1.19 USD on January 1st 2000) to 1 EURO = USD 1.47 USD today. Althoug I acknowledge the trickiness of the situation for export businesses, high tech or not, I see very few corporations have implemented hedging strategies or make proper use of forward contracts – which is a shame. Still, instead of lamenting, I believe economic decision makers of both the US and the EU should roll up their sleeves and act in such a way (hell yeah I’m even givin’ lessons now, love blogging…):

For US High Tech companies: go for internationalization. Acquiring hardware, software, telco devices, consumer electronics and services labeled in USD has never been cheaper. So why wait? I’m pretty sure any potential buyer would understand this reasoning. A weak USD is a fantastic opportunity for American exporters to thrive abroad, and win strategic, long-term projects. It doesn’t matter whether the profitability of these projects is low: what matters is to build reputation on new markets, or to highlight your competitive advantage against local players. Remember, the gambetto? Be ready to sacrifice a few cents today (anyways, the dollar rates so low that it’s no big loss whatsoever) to be in the real race when that moment comes.

For European high tech ventures: shop for intellectual property and talents in the US since the Euro has never been so strong against the US Dollar – which will make acquiring quality companies cheap, and build production capability in China and India (or go and get cheap but excellent developers in Eastern Europe, before the Euro comes there, or Israel) to reduce the cost of goods sold, enhance their competitiveness and therefore be ready for a shift during harsher economic times or win back market share on their competitors’ behalf. EU corporations, especially the big ones, find it hard to tear the P&L from the balance sheet and should learn to make better investments. Remember when the VCs said that few large European high tech corporations had a real, sound external growth strategy? Even though making the quarter may seem tough because of a strong Euro, acquiring today technologies that will generate tomorrow’s revenues boils down to ‘sacrificing’ a small slice of the pie to weaken the competition, and build a better product offer for tomorrow. Gambetto again.

Now waiting for the Chinese Yuan to offer a third way…

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Btw, Software is the industry with the highest gross margins amongst all industries.

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• turnover
• Click-through rate
• CPM / CPT
• eCPM
• CPI
• CPA
• CPC
• eCPC
• referrers
• key words
• profiles
• average cart
• cost per single visit
• direct convert rate
• indirect convert rate (comes back within 30 days to process purchase)
• retention rate
• churn rate
• top entry pages
• average number of clicks until purchase completed
• average time spent on the side before purchase completed
• average visit time
• abandon rate
• abandon rate on the first page
• number of whitepaper / testimonies / product data sheets downloards
• newsletter subscriptions
• abandon rate on the contact page
• number of detected projects
• number of leads transformed
• number of visits lasting less than 90 seconds
• main search engine request entry points
• typical path
• browsing scenario
• click rate
• most typed in requests
• most used search engines
• directory abandon rate
• search engine abandon rate
• recommendation engine abandon rate (eg Xinek, Zlio, Criteo, U.[Lik], etc.)
• escrow click rate
• emailing validated rate (= number of Emails on listing – mailer daemons received)
• emailing curiosity or opened rate
• emailing interest or click rate
• emailing effectiveness click rate (= interest / curiosity)

Can you think of other digital marketing or eCommerce key performance indicators?

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I can’t wait to have a look at mid-2007 financial statements of all major hardware companies like EMC, HP & IBM

1. IBM Software Group for instance, a world leader in middleware solutions & second-to-Microsoft in total software sales, represents one fifth of total IBM Corp. revenues, and published a gross margin (83,6%) roughly twice as high as IBM’s average gross margin (40,2%). See the 1Q results slides of their CFO Mark Loughridge here.

2. EMC, a world-leading data storage company, owes the increase of its 1Q profit almost exclusively to the tremendous growth of its software revenues. Such a performance from EMC software is due to strong competitive positions on a number of key and growing markets:

• dematerialization software with EMC Documentum;
• collaborative data exchange solutions with EMC eRoom;
• virtualization software with VMWare, which yearly turnover had even doubled in 4Q06 only;
• encryption solutions with RSA Security, a company EMC had acquired in end-2005 for US$ 2.1bn;
• I’m stopping here, the list would be endless.

3. HP invests so heavily in software that it had seen the size of its software group double in 2006, with the rather clever acquisition of Mercury Interactive only. Not to mention the 2005 acquisitions of OpenView (still not so well embedded within the HP offer I think) & Peregrine Systems (that filled a critical gap in the area of IT administration in my opinion). Again, HP software grew 81% over a year in 1Q07, vs.11% for the company.

Software has turned and is becoming everyday more a key cash inflow stream for global companies, which are looking for the right preys to hunt. Consequently, I believe opportunities to start software start ups have never been so wide opened: there exists a significant number of growth avenues for talented software teams. The quest is no longer for market-traction (it’s there, clients & consumers understand the value software as a strong enabler), money (there has been plenty of financing available @ venture capitalists for quite a while, and it seems to be a long term thing as new funds are being raised here and there everyday) or a good idea (I have plenty of these in case you need one).

The real bottleneck are: 1) guts to start up something on your own: too many people (including me), and software developers (not including me) join big, established companies while value creation lies in promising start ups; 2) the number of talents available to build up your team; I know it’s somewhat related to my first point, but although it’s nice to see an entrepreneur going out of the wood, (s)he isn’t going anywhere without a few lieutenants who share her/his vision and yet are complementary in term of skills & personality.

And don’t worry about the exit: a software pure player may acquire you, as well as any hardware or computer network company. In other words, digital convergence is something real, hence making of all technology companies potential buyers of promising software start ups, as software is getting hotter and hotter – revenue & profit margin-wise.

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• ‘Comment j’ai foiré ma start-up‘, by Nicolas Riou; the story of a discontinued web agency founded in Paris during the New Economy Gold Rush. Funny, takes 45′ to read. Available in French only.
• ‘Risk & Reward and the making of America’s great industries‘ by Jack Rivkin; insights on the world of venture capital & their impact on the American economic landscape. Brillant but slightly outdated.
• ‘High Stakes, No Prisoners‘ by Charles Ferguson – not read yet but I’ll keep you up to date.
• ‘Seize the American dream: 10 entrepreneurial success strategies‘ by Jim Houtz & Kathy Heasley: general stuff on entrepreneurship, very structured book; applies to software companies as well.
• ‘Hard Drive: Bill Gates & the making of the Microsoft Empire‘ by James Wallace and Jim Erickson – not read yet but, 2 stances from a Microsoftie: 1) not said to be gentle with Microsoft 2) still said to be the best documented book on MSFT. N°1 on my reading list.
• ‘Ils ont réussi leur start-up!‘ or the Kelbook, by Julien Codorniou & Cyril de Lasteyrie: you read it like you watch a movie; fast-paced writing style, book describing the backstage of Kelkoo, one of the few pan-European success stories in the Internet / software industry, from the birth of the project in a research lab in the Alps to the acquisition by Yahoo! Breathtaking stuff that gives you the drive to entreprendre as soon as you’ve finished the book. A pity it’s available in French only since the Kelkoo story happens in France, true, but also (and mainly?) in Spain, Scandinavia, the UK, Switzerland, etc.
• ‘Who said Elephants can’t dance?‘ by Lou Gerstner (my review here; by the way, let me know in the comments if you’re interested or not in reading more book reviews on Tech IT Easy in general).
• ‘The Road Ahead‘ by Bill Gates – I read it when it came out in France back in 1996 I think. Gates describes his vision of the world and how computers in general will integrate more and more with offices and homes. Btw, this is exactly what’s happening today with mobile devices and machines or robots on top of computers. Good historical reading, but getting a bit outdated.
• ‘Why Butterflies don’t Leave‘ by Erik Stam – interesting small academic book explaining why and how gazelles starting up in a precise location aren’t so likely to move to a better place (I’m fond of topics involving entrepreneurship with spatial development and I believe geographical strategies play a big role in successes and failures). About the book: although my intuition disagrees with some of the outcomes of the research, great work, extremely relevant conclusions in the light of the examples provided (very telling, all located in the Netherlands). Available for free on the Internet over here (.pdf).
• ‘The Perfect Store: inside eBay’ by Adam Cohen – everything about eBay; I read it 18 months ago and surprisingly can’t remember so much about it. Oh yes, now I remember I enjoyed it a lot: a great pick for those who feel like understanding how to build a successful e-Commerce website with 2 ingredients: a strong business acumen, and technology.
• ‘Regional Advantage: Culture & Competition in Silicon Valley & Route 128′ by AnnaLee Saxenian. Probably the book that made me make the decision that I would move to the US one day. Believe it or not, although located in the same country, the Valley and the Boston area actually compete to attract the best entrepreneurs and technology start-up companies. Amazing book that I should re-read some day.
• ‘Opportunity Entry Performance‘ by Marco van Gelderen. Academic research on entrepreneurial project generation. Extremely insightful although I don’t think you would get a chance to purchase it anywhere (I got it from the author who was my Professor at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus Universiteit).
• ‘Softwar: an intimate portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle’ by Matthew Symonds and Larry Ellison – not read yet. Same business as the Kelbook (whose generation was inspired of Softwar): the backstage of the building of Oracle and Ellison’s personality. Said to be an excellent book for those joining the B-to-B software business.
• ‘The New New Thing: a Silicon Valley Story‘ by Michael Lewis – not read yet although I read 2 other books from Lewis in the past (namely Moneyball and Liar’s Poker). Amazing writer. ‘The New New Thing’ is about Jim Clark (founder of Silicon Graphics & Netscape) and the Healtheon craze.
• ‘The E-Myth revisited: why most small businesses don’t work and what to do about it’ by Michael Gerber. Out-of-the-box thoughts and advice on entrepreneurial matters. Highly recommended.

Now it’s your turn to contribute:

1) which books dealing with the software industry, venture capital or entrepreneurship would you recommend me to read on top of this list?

2) I’m looking for the 2 best books on Apple and Google (and maybe another one on CISCO). I just can’t make a decision since there are loads of books about these 2 companies. Any idea?

Many thanks for your help.

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People relationships have been evolving quite rapidly recently. If the e-mail has, despite its many flaws, changed the way people communicate, other disruptive new uses like online dating, social networking (professional: LinkedIn; friends on FaceBook; hobbies, etc.), instant messengers (allowing you to let people know whether you’re available or not and leave small notes to the attention of your contacts) have sort of opened new paths to getting to know new people, or helping you keep in touch with people you already know. In this perspective, here’s something new, both a device and a software.

Before we get going, many thanks to Steve D. (whom you’ll hear more about quite soon…) for telling me about this amazing innovation developed by the Smart Internet Technology research group – an Australian digital media think tank, and a researcher at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology named Christine Satchell.

The Swarm, that’s the name of a software (see picture on the right side of your screen), basically allows you to tell your contacts what you’re doing (eg. “In a meeting”; or “I’m driving, not so convenient to pick up the phone”), whether you’re available (“I’m sunbathing on the beach so call back tonight please”) and when you’ll be available (“Free on Saturday night”). You may also separate your professional and private contacts, interface easily the software with your regular digital address book, etc. The software is REALLY EASY to use, and will probably adapt perfectly to the new “finger-driven phones” trend set by Apple and its iPhone. If you don’t believe me and feel like judging by yourself, check out the interactive demo of Swarm over here.

Sources: Techno-Science.net, InternetActu, SmartMobs

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In the recent weeks, I’ve been restructuring my newsletters portfolio. I was receiving way too many newsletters and couldn’t read 10% of them. (I should do the same with my RSS readers, tabs have been piling up in a very unsustainable way.)

So, now that I’m pretty happy with the remaining ones, here’s the selection of newsletter I decided to remain a subscriber of.

Obviously, please feel free to submit / criticize / recommend additional newsletters – I’d be glad to have a look (unless dismissed already). Please, leave commercial newsletters away – not the purpose of this blog.

There you go:

In English (random sort of sorting, this is not a ranking):

• TrendWatching.com
• The Register Daily Headlines
• Networking Report – Infoworld
• CTO Source – Infoworld
• Infoworld Tech Watch
• Robert X. Cringely – Infoworld
• Eclipse and Open Source Update – Dr Dobb
• SourceForge.net
• Security Report – Infoworld
• Roger Grimes – Infoworld
• SMB Report – Infoworld
• Ask the VC
• Line56 e-Business
• HBS Working Knowledge
• LifeHack.org
• McKinsey Quarterly
• Ziff Davis CIO Minute Editors’ Pick
• Online Business / about.com, by Ana Rincon
• Guerilla Marketing Weekly Intelligence Tip by Jay Conrad Levinson & Amy Levinson
• The Latest From TechCrunch
• Emerging Technologies Daily Update – Technology Review, an MIT enterprise
• Biotech Weekly Update – Technology Review, an MIT enterprise
• Small Business info / about.com, by Darrell Zahorsky
• Inc.com Daily Small Business Briefing
• Mike Sisco’s Practical IT Manager Newsletter
• Technology Voices daily headlines
• CIO Minute
• SmartMoney.com Week on the Street
• ECT News Network
• eWeek.com Editors’ News & Views
• Contract Watch – Channel Insider
• Netcraft
• USA Today Tech Briefing
• Dr Dobb’s Java Update
• Fog Creek – Joel on Software
• Baseline briefing / Baseline tools – the Project Management Center
• Enterprise Strategies – Infoworld
• What’s New Now from Ziff Davis
• Economics / about.com, by Mike Moffatt
• Retail / about.com, by Shari Waters
• Knowledge @ Wharton
• Gantthead Newsletter
• Dr Dobb’s Windows & .Net Update
• Dr Dobb’s Linux / Unix Update
• Dr Dobb’s Database Update
• Dr Dobb’s C/C++ Update
• Sun Developer Network Program Newsletter
• Off The Record – Infoworld
• DealWire – TheDeal.com
• PrivateCapitalWire – TheDeal.com
• Bankruptcy Insider – TheDeal.com
• ISN Security Watch
• Strategic Developer / Martin Heller – Infoworld
• Tech Confidential Wire – TheDeal.com
• eWeek Enterprise Update
• Inc.com Connection
• WetFeet Insider
• Russian Analytical Digest
• Dr Dobb’s Global Developer Update
• Dr Dobb’s Mobility Update
• eWeek Strategic Partners Intelligence Report

In French, en vrac:

• VNUnet.fr – la lettre quotidienne
• Finance d’Entreprise, la lettre de Pierre Vernimmen
• Reseaux-Telecoms.net
• Journal du Net
• Journal du Management
• Droit-TIC
• La Lettre de l’Atelier
• ZDNet.fr News Hebdo Business & Technologies
• Ebusiness.info
• Lettre Distributique
• Le magazine des développeur, developpez.net
• En3Mots
• ZDNet Juridique
• ZDNet Informatique
• ZDNet Sécurité
• ZDNet Télécoms
• ITRManager.com
• IFRI Actualités
• Tous les Titres des Echos 4h00
• l’Orient le Jour
• La Lettre JDN Solutions – journalinformatique.com
• Supplément Science – journalinformatique.com
• Focus RH la lettre
• LSA Flash
• Newsletter du Groupe HEC
• Marketing Direct Online editialis cabestan
• Agorabiz.com transmission d’entreprise
• Microsoft la newsletter des entrepreneurs

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The opinions expressed within this blog are those of the authors alone. ©2011 Tech IT Easy. All Rights Reserved.

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• Gartner vs. Microsoft, Episode I: the premices

On May 1st 2006, technology analysis firm Gartner Group published a report entitled “Windows Vista Unlikely to Ship Before 2Q07“. The report started with the following stance: “Microsoft’s track record is clear; it consistently misses target dates for major operating system releases. We don’t expect broad availability of Windows Vista until at least 2Q07, which is nine to 12 months after Beta 2.” Gartner fully participated into MSFT’s financial downgrading at that time (following the trend, MS Corp had just plummeted 11% in one day, down to US$23,8, after releasing disappointing Q3 figures). A long time Microsoft stockholder, I remember getting nervous against Gartner’s analysts: how the heck these guys could, sitting in front of their computers, declare things such as someone’s track record is clear?? Can’t people or organizations change?

Winner: Gartner

• Gartner vs. Microsoft, Episode II: The Empire Strikes Back

Gartner had forecasted the release of Vista as late as 2Q07, or April 1st 2007 min. That is 2 months late at least compared to the initial calendar, January 30th 2007; people at Gartner should catch up in maths: they say that’s one month in advance only: “For all the press on the topic, it appears that Microsoft will beat our prediction by a month (if they meet their 30 Jan. target). We will congratulate Microsoft as they hit their dates.” (see this post on Gartner’s blog about Vista).

Bottom line: it appears today that MS Vista is to be released on time.

Gartner was wrong: Microsoft’s track record wasn’t so clear. Or actually, I believe it’s clear MS is getting better: Windows 3.0 didn’t quite deserve the OS title; Windows 3.1 wasn’t ridiculous but a few years late compared to Mac OS; Windows 95 was intrinsically late & pretty dirty in terms of memory management and security; Windows 98 was much better in many respects; Windows Millenium was an unstable version of Windows 98; Windows NT eventually provided honest security features and some sort of stability; Windows XP is a very good product; and I still don’t know what to think of Vista, but my first impression (tested Beta) is extremely positive. It’s pretty clear the number of innovations (thanks Kari) improvements (3000!!) integrated is underrated (see Scobleizer) by most observers. So, to me, MS’s track record is crystal clear: the company has been getting better and better over time.

Winner: Microsoft

• Gartner vs. Microsoft, Episode III: The Phantom Menace

Gartner is definitely not a fair player. Taking advantage of its “CIO advisor” sort of situation, the firm now advocates that “companies shouldn’t rush to upgrade to Microsoft Windows Vista” (see here). Gartner’s call to CIOs is to wait until 2008, for the first service packs to be available. I don’t know what’s going on between Gartner and Microsoft, but the friendship thermometer looks rather low. After betting MS would be late, Gartner now pushes for companies to postpone updates.

Winner: Gartner

• Gartner vs. Microsoft, Episode IV: The Return of Gartner

Probably not satisfied yet, Gartner came up yesterday with one big new argument against Microsoft. Now that Microsoft is to release Vista on time, Gartner criticizes the calendar, saying launching in end of January will damage the entire PC market and Christmas traditionally booming sales. MS had anticipated such a move, and has negotiated preferential updating (through downloads) conditions with most OEM vendors. Still, potential reputation damage is high for MSFT. We’re talking here of the economic impact of being on time…Furthermore, Gartner anticipates a very low penetration rate for Vista (10% of computers equipped with Vista in the end of year 2007 only). So how come the launch of Vista may damage Christmas PC sales? It’s all illogical.

To state things clearly: had Microsoft been late, Gartner would’ve said “I told you”. Now that Microsoft is to launch on time, Gartner says “The timing’s wrong”. To repeat myself, there’s something opaque and unclear going on between Gartner and Microsoft. Has an employee from Microsoft had an affair with the girlfriend of a Gartner analyst? Has someone at Gartner had his/her grandmother taken a short position (equivalent to a put option) on MSFT? I don’t know. But I’ll figure it out.

Winner: Gartner (for the reputation damage to MS)

Questions/Conclusion: in your opinion, what’s wrong between Gartner and Microsoft? What next? What would’ve been the best calendar for the launch of Vista? (according to Gartner I guess, Never).

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The opinions expressed within this blog are those of the authors alone. ©2011 Tech IT Easy. All Rights Reserved.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDiCTnQrw78]

Two young American students took a very interesting initiative: they went to several hardware manufacturers and/or distributors and asked relatively simple technical questions. I liked Apple most, where nobody bothered to answer, and the Geek Squad who didn’t know the answer (“what’s the role of a hard drive cache?” I think) but still tried to bullshit…

This video raises once again the issue of training. While pure engineers ought to get training in finance, marketing, logistics and strategy, marketing and sales people need to understand what they’re talking about. We live in a complex world, and IT products are complex products. Still, the best way to make sure people know what they’re talking about is bringing people from the R&D department talk with the customer. But R&D people are in short supply, and sometimes do not want to see customers.

Complicated equation, isn’t it?

Still, the video’s pretty cool.

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The opinions expressed within this blog are those of the authors alone. ©2011 Tech IT Easy. All Rights Reserved.

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Anyways, what does ‘very soon’ mean? The world’s been existing for million years. And even by Jewish standards (calendar year 5767), waiting for a century would be peanuts, in other words ‘very soon’.

So, when? Please, do something! Yes, you. No, don’t pick up your ringing phone, leave your MSN windows where they are and your weblog readers may certainly wait 2 minutes more for your new post to be released.

Take 2 minutes to think. Think of a world in which there wouldn’t be any single wire anymore. Beautiful, isn’t it.

Now, if your neural network is still fit enough to get back to work, think of new solutions to eradicating wires. Disruptive solutions. It seems that all the people down there, from the analysts to the experts, have mistaken. The wireless problems is simple to determine but extremely difficult to solve.

Disclaimer: as you may have noticed if you visit this blog often, this post was actually not an ‘Entrepreneurial business idea’ but rather an ‘Entrepreneurial busines kick in the butt’.

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I have to say I was very excited by the perspective of seeing which companies manage information best in a world in which information is the new graal at the center of all paradigmatic shifts. Information today is what oil used to be, half a Century ago: the future.

However, I got disappointed by the fact that I, for instance, don’t know any of the 50 top companies of the ranking. The biggest company in the world, Exxon Mobil, ranks 52 – and it’s the very first name in the list I happen to be familiar with.  Again, in a globalized world at the information age, it’s a pity the survey weren’t more international.

To comment on the actual ranking, there’s lot to be learnt from the “Information Value-Added” (a metric rather hard to compute in an objective way) and the “Information Productivity” criteria. I leave it to your own appreciation but to tell you the truth, I believe this is complete bullshit. As a proof, and looking at the industries from which top performers come from, three sectors prevail: Energy, Manufacturing & Banking.

Seriously, how could the energy sector top the banking sector in terms of information management performance? The mission of an energy company is to produce energy, not manage information – which is a skill needed to better business processes and perform trading. Conversely, the mission of a bank is to manage information: datawarehouses in a bank are strategic in our dematerialized world since all the assets are digitally, not physically, stored. Few industries are as tied to information management as banking. There may be the telecom industry (eg a cable or mobile operator) for billing & CRM purposes & the Internet industry (eg Google) for load management. Retail (RFID challenges) and manufacturing (business process optimization) are next. So, could someone help me understand why is that that energy companies top their counterparts in this ranking? I really can’t tell.

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The opinions expressed within this blog are those of the authors alone. ©2011 Tech IT Easy. All Rights Reserved.

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Here’s my story:

I’ll be entering the job market in about 6 months from now: I’m slowly starting to look for 4-to-6 months internships potentially leading to full-time job offers. Since it’s been quite a while that I’ve been thinking about my career options and entrance into the world of work, I’m facing a dilemma most of you, experienced readers, probably know about: do I want it big or small?

No, no, you didn’t quite get it. Or perhaps should I say that I didn’t make sure I made my point.

Should I go for a big company, or a middle-sized one?

I’m obviously not talking here about an elephant vs. an ant, but more of a shark vs. a gazelle; which means that one of my criteria when thinking about applying to big corporations is their dynamism, ambition to remain a leader, and vision. By the same token, a middle-sized company has to be growing at an at least 2 digits rate to be of an interest to me: grow with a growing company should empower me with positive skills and mindset much more than declining with an elephant, or living the boring life of an ant (and I apologize to my friends ants reading this blog).

In a small but fast growing start-up, I would certainly interact more with the entrepreneurs, and grow with the company. In case I prove myself to be both competent and committed to the mid-run success of the company, and I sure will do my best to match these criteria, I could also land quite a nice responsibility level within 2/3 years. Furthermore, I may have a deeper and faster impact on the company, pretty logical. However, small and fast growing companies are be definition not brands yet. Start-ups lack international visibility and brand recognition, which may damper, for instance, ambitions to secure a managerial position elsewhere, maybe abroad in the Silicon Valley or Israel, after, say, 5 years on the job: if I were a headhunter willing to avoid risk, I would certainly hire this IBM executive over this start-up manager. Common sense. Last thing, there’s small, and small: 5 doesn’t equal 40. A 40-strong company is actually 8 times bigger than a 5 headed one, and both are called small…

In a big but dynamic corporation like CISCO, Dell, CSC, Oracle, Microsoft, HP or IBM, I would learn proven methodologies, work with bright people, get to know how to deal with big corporations (in case I need to sell them something later on in my life), probably get a lot of exposure to international business and the long-term industry trends. BUT big organizations may easily be political, and although I believe many jobs are quite fun (it’s my job to find them!), the relative level of responsibility and potential impact I may have on the firm will mathematically be lower than if I were working for a smaller company. Do you dare asking why? Read Czech novelist Kafka again: bulgarian bureaucracy, red tape, administrative burden.

Right now as I’m writing this post (and it changed 2 minutes ago), I’m sitting on the ‘big and dynamic company’ side of the fence: I’m thinking of joining a world leading player for 4/5  years; then, at a managerial position, a smaller and fast-growing venture for 2 years, to be ‘scaled up’ and ready enough to either buy out some company on the market or create my own business. The problem is that I’m changing my opinion everyday. What would you do?

Where would you stand? I’m sure you’ve experienced such dilemmas, and I’d be glad to see you share your experience on Tech IT Easy. Such exchanges could benefit other students-soon-to-enter-the-stadium in the future, for the sake of Humanity (that’s where the psychiatrist thing comes in).

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For 5 years now, Dell and EMC have been doing a great job cross-selling high end storage solutions to corporations ranging from small businesses to Fortune 100 players.

EMC deals with solution architecture (EMC is by far number 1 in SAN ie Storage Area Network) and supply issues, Dell with distribution and support.

Both companies have extended their joint venture for five more years starting from now. Making such a decision actually was a no brainer since Dell-EMC had sold 34,000 storage systems to 10,000+ clients in just half a decade.

For those who feel like doing some research, the storage industry is a very interesting competitive forces live case study…

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The opinions expressed within this blog are those of the authors alone. ©2011 Tech IT Easy. All Rights Reserved.

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Now I’m thinking about changing: I spend a lot of time learning about software development, and this little insignificant noise – probably due to an ageing device, urges my decision-making.

First question: should I wait until Spring 2007? Not only are MS Vista and Apple Leopard coming out in Europe, at that time, most Mac software should be re-written to fit new hardware standards. But I would miss the Apple Education laptop acquisition program ending on October 6th 2006…

Second question: if I decide to proceed and purchase a new laptop right now, which one should I chose?

Sony Vaio are fast, well designed, expensive but reliable.

Lenovo sounds good too, and I have access to a very interesting Education offer.

I’ve been happy with HP, why should I switch?

Dell is Dell: well manufactured, no surprise.

And Apple, despite serious heating issues, is very attractive too. It’s been almost a decade I haven’t had a Mac, and fifteen years since I used a Mac laptop (a Powerbook 170 if my memory’s correct, I still have it somewhere). Not only do I miss it, I’m also getting influenced by many Mac-lovers around me (like Kari and Vincent).

Your advice are most welcome.

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I frequently mention Michel (who blew away my first quizz this Sunday) in my posts, and almost as frequently apologize about the fact that Michel de Guilhermier’s blog is written in French. Well, there won’t hopefully be any apology no more since Michel decided today that he should internationalize his readership and hence switch to English. See this post.

English is the lingua franca of the Internet, and I can only encourage those who blog in their native language to take a similar move. Blogging is all about allowing people to connect & start discussions, conversations, debates. English is the rally point of many different cultures, making such debates every day more fruitful.

All in all, to my readers who feel like reading and commenting top-notch insights from an e-Commerce entrepreneur on retail, distribution, doing business in Europe and the US, Apple & Warren Buffet, Michel de Guilhermier’s blog is the place to be.

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Is the bell tolling for process-intensive (Dell, Home Depot, Amazon, Wal Mart, HP, Ikea, etc.), top of the class in operations, companies? Why have marketing-dept. driven companies (Apple, Nescafé, American Express, l´Oréal) so strongly gained momentum in the recent months?

Take the Dell-Apple bullfight. Check this MacDailyNews article. Ceteris paribus, Apple computers (laptops & desktops) now appear to be less expensive than Dells (see an example here, in Spanish but easy to pick up).

As a reminder, Apple´s market cap has been topping the one of Dell since the early days of May 2006.

Furthermore, Apple blows Dell away at the Google fight (see picture).

Adendum: I guess economics may help here. In growth periods, marketing-driven companies outperform operations-driven ones, and conversely. Provided that it already has a sort of cost-killing culture, I bet that Dell & HP will take the lead again at the next economic downturn.

Adendum 17th August 2006: Interesting article in InfoWorld about Mac Pro being overpriced.

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France 3 – 1 Spain

Top 100 IT Companies by Business Week:

France 1 – 2 Spain

(Cap Gemini ranks 72; Telefonica Moviles & Telefónica rank respectively 6 & 7)

This high-end comparison being written down, some interesting facts derived from this ranking should be highlighted:

- criteria are financial; company executives and hence employees behaviors, need to align with shareholder´s interests in order to be successful;

- Top 3 companies are all from emerging countries (Mexico & Taiwan);

- Where the hell are IBM? Adobe? Symantec? Business Objects? Comverse? Salesforce? AMD? etc.

- Accenture is the only huge Western IT services consulting company to appear in the ranking (where are CSC? Bearing Point? IBM – again? EDS?), and it interestingly outperforms Indian rivals (Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services);

I´m going to stop here with remarks since I could spend the night analyzing the results. The whole point of these highlights is that I highly recommend you to take a deep look into the chart.

Oups, I was almost forgetting…I have a business idea: what about opening a bartering e-commerce platform where France could trade its soccer skills against Spanish IT capabilities? What do you think is the most valuable?

The opinions expressed within this blog are those of the authors alone. ©2011 Tech IT Easy. All Rights Reserved.

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