Interop and Software 2008 Booth Crawl

Interop and Software 2008 at Mandalay Bay Convention centered just wrapped up last week.  James Maguire from Datamation filmed a “virtual booth crawl” with 30 second pitches from select vendors - most of whom were being awarded for innovation in software.  You can check it out here.  Yours truly happened to be manning the booth when James came by.  I gave my best 30 second rendition regarding iRise.

Software 2008 and Interop: Saas and PLaas

Just a short one for now until I have more time to blog.  Software as a service and platform as a service by themselves are NOT innovative.  The solutions/offerings built leveraging these technologies still need to deliver innovation and VALUE to customers.  Enough said. 

Innovation (or lack-there-of) in Enterprise Software

In an interview with Vivek Ranadive, CEO of Tibco Software, he articulates the “Is Enterprise Software Failing The Innovation Test? « The Future of Software” problem.  It offers an interesting insight into what he calls “extortionist database architecture”.

The mother of all databases, the relational database, is at the center of everything, which is why prices of databases have stayed the same. Then we’ve got these silos on top of the database — the enterprise resource planning (ERP) silos — which is just more extortion because you need a $100 million SAP implementation to make it work. Then you’ve got this tool called “business intelligence,” sitting on top of the ERP, which is oxymoronic because it’s only a reporting system – meaning it delivers information about what’s happened to your business after the fact, when it’s too late for you to do anything about it, so it’s not really “intelligence” at all. And then you’ve got these incredibly expensive service and consulting companies who try to make this legacy stack work. Put it all together and you’ve got a three-layered conspiracy of aligned interests to extort money from your company, which prevents incentives to innovate.

Something about this interview really hit home with me.  Innovation within Enterprise Software has become a chicken or the egg conundrum.  Because the technologies described above are so deeply ingrained in the resumes and job descriptions of IT hallways, innovation (or change) is met with tremendous skepticism, and outright fear.  Therefore, Enterprise Software providers continue to create technology that IT is familiar and comfortable with.  Who tips the balance first - the Enterprise Software provider that creates the next “great thing”, or the IT department who breaks out of the mold and demands innovation?

Software 2008, April 29-30, Mandalay Bay

I will be attending this year’s Software 2008 conference in Las Vegas.  As much as possible (I will be working one of the booth’s), I plan to see “the future of software”.  Look for updates next week!

World’s Most Comprehensive List of Drivers & Destroyers of Innovation

World’s most My comprehesive list (started April 20, 2008).  I will keep this a running list.  To be continued…

Drivers of Innovation

1. Pride (lack of)
2. Realization of a problem
3. Experimental mindset (fail fast and often)
4. Innovation “mindset”
5. Freeing your mind
6. Desparation

Destroyers of Innovation

1. Pride (too  much)
2. Complacency
3. Decision by Committee
4. Excuses
5. Fear

Overthinking the Problem

I spent all weekend thinking about new ideas for this blog.  Between the earth day celebration at Marine Science Institute, farmer’s market in Belmont, looking at architecture plans for my sister’s remodel, and a neighborhood meeting to decide on whether we wanted a nail on fence or board on board, you would think I could have come up with at least one Extremely Innovative Idea (EII).  I will continue to keep an eye out as the week progresses. 

CRM Step Aside, TLM is the New Sheriff in Town

Corporations deploy CRM to help them understand their customers.  Wouldn’t it be great if we (as in you and I) could deploy a CRM-like approach to understand and manage our own life and goals?  Before you keep reading, this post is NOT a “new-age” “circle-of-life” article.  However, it is about how we can leverage technology, and software, to help us achieve our personal and professional goals.  I call this new category of software Total Life Management (TLM).  Now on with the post…

We are now 4 months into 2008.  Do you still remember those resolutions you made?  Lose weight, spend more time with the family, get in touch with old friends, get a new job, get a raise/promotion, etc.?  How are you doing against these goals?  Do you even remember what they are?  What if there was a way for one to enter and track these goals?  I’m not talking about eliciting the help of a “life-coach” - who wants to share such personal things with others anyway.  I am talking about an application that can be used by billions of people across the world to help them achieve “satisfaction” in their lives!

For example, let’s say my goal is to figure out how I can leverage my personal interests to further my professional career.  I might start by brainstorming around my personal interests.  I would also list my professional goals.  Then I would try to see if the 2 had anything in common.  Once I established the commonality, I would start listing activities that drove that commonality.  Then I would track how often I was doing that activity.  I would also track how I am doing against my professional goals.  This should start sounding a lot like a process that an intelligent system could easily handle.

Finally, one might ask, why would any company be interested in creating such a service/application?  You might argue because they want to “help,” that is if you are naive.  Let’s see, is there a company out there, that is interested in understanding and analyzing our goals, desires, likes, dislikes?  Are there any companies out there that would want to understand our behavior as “consumers”?  Does Google, Yahoo, Facebook, MySpace, etc. etc. etc. come to mind?

Business Travelers Have a LOT in Common!

I travel quite a bit to Los Angeles on business.  Whenever possible, I try to arrange plans in the evening with clients/friends.  However, there are plenty of nights I order room service in.  Sound familiar?  What if on those “lonely” nights, one could actually eliminate the boredom and build one’s professional network at the same time?

On a recent trip, while watching American Idol in the evening, I received an email from EventMingle (Web 2.0 software for conference attendees) for a conference I am attending.  With EventMingle, I can see who is attending the conference and network with other attendees that share common interests.  Hotels should leverage a service like this to help business travelers connect in their spare time!  BTW, I have no affiliation with EventMingle besides the fact that I am a consumer of their service.

For example,  imagine the below scenario:

1. Jay is planning to stay 3 nights at a hotel in San Francisco for business.
2. On 2 of the 3 nights, Jay already has plans (1 night with his client, 1 night with an old friend).
3. However, on the 3rd night, Jay would be really interested in meeting someone in the new media space.  Jay is in business development for a small new media company and is always interested in building new relationships and identifying potential partnering opportunities.
4. Before his trip, Jay signs on to the hotel’s website and tries the new “HotelMingle” capability.
5. Jay finds 5 other people staying at the hotel that share his interest in new media.
6. Jay sends a notice to them asking them to meet in the hotel lobby for coffee next Wed. night at 7pm.
7. During his trip, 3 out of 5 ppl Jay found through “HotelMingle” show up for coffee.  They end up having a great discussion for 1 hour and exchange business cards.
8. Following his trip, Jay keeps in touch with these folks, especially Barry.  Turns out Barry and Jay’s companies have complementary offerings.  The two companies embark on a partnership - all because of “HotelMingle”.

If I was a marketing guy for Starwood or one of the other chains, I would be all over this!