Digital Discourse / Archives for platforms

174 Million Reasons to Get Involved in SIIA Mobile Software Committee

May 6, 2010 By

Written by Jim Szafranski, Fiberlink

You probably can guess what that large number refers to? It’s smartphone shipments in 2009. In a way, it’s hard to get one’s mind around this and how to tap that market. Personally, I find it easier to think about the growth of this market, which was 40% quarter-over-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2009. That’s a lot of new devices getting into users and businesses hands. It’s nearly impossible to find a market that is this large and growing at such fast rate.

So, that’s why the SIIA is launching a Mobile Software Committee with the initial mission statement of:

The SIIA Mobile Software Committee was formed to address the business issues of software companies entering and growing in the mobile marketplace. The explosion in mobile platforms has profound implications on how software and services should be delivered. The committee’s mission is to guide businesses in building & delivering apps, managing & measuring their infrastructure, and demystifying the process of selling through carriers & app stores.

The cloud has been driving a lot of innovation and growth in the software business. I think it’s safe to say that mobile will be on par or bigger in both driving innovation and growth throughout the software industry.

Some of the ideas behind this SIIA initiative include:

  • Helping each other navigate the myriad of mobile device platforms
  • Sharing best practices of selling into the mobile space
  • Discussing how “consumerization” impacts technology and business
  • Creating a strong network of members interested in and committed to mobile
  • And, this group can evolve the SIIA platform into other ideas such as enterprise issues of mobile, consumer markets, app store developers, and more.

So, help shape this market and grow with it by getting involved here early at the SIIA. There will be a town hall breakfast meeting at All About the Cloud on Wednesday, May 12 to discuss the Future of Mobile. Please join us.

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Events, Mobility, Software, Software Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

2010: B2B eCommerce (Finally) Realizes Its Potential

May 3, 2010 By

Written by Godard Abel, Co-Founder and CEO, BigMachines
Submitted by BigMachines

Over the past decade, B2C eCommerce has changed the landscape for selling products as leaders like Amazon.com have brought eCommerce to the mainstream — and the numbers are growing. A 2009 survey of online consumer behavior conducted by Harris Interactive found that 48% of US online adults say that they are now conducting more online transactions than they did in the past. In the UK, the number is even higher as 53% of online adults say they are making more purchases online, with the ability to compare products and prices cited by 74% of these as the main reason.

Businesses still rely primarily on inefficient direct and channel sales strategies supported by legacy selling tools and cumbersome enterprise software tools rather than providing their business customers the same intuitive online experience available to consumers.  We expect that over the next decade businesses will bridge this gap and deliver increasingly intuitive eCommerce tools to their business customers.

B2B eCommerce, by definition, is not a new concept in the business world. Back in 2000, sources like Gartner Research and Forrester Research were predicting explosive growth numbers in the B2B eCommerce world, upwards of $3.95 trillion by the end of 2003. But, to date, B2B eCommerce has not seen the adoption across industries that were initially predicted back in 2000. In fact, over the last decade, while many companies have expressed interest in incorporating web technology into their existing sales platforms, very few have actually implemented it. Based on experience with over 250 companies, BigMachines has found that over 90% of companies still rely on clunky spreadsheets and rigid enterprise software systems to price, quote, and sell products. And while we’ve seen great success with the B2C eCommerce world – everyone from Amazon.com to Dell have become masters in the retail world because of it – B2B eCommerce requires online systems that can support the complex products, contract, and pricing logic often needed to satisfy B2B relationships.

It’s clear that the technology industry has been talking about eCommerce for a while but the question is: Why is 2010 going to be the year that it takes off in the B2B space? The answer is simple. The need is still there, better SaaS technology is now available, and business customers are demanding it. New technology is now available that enables businesses to provide their sales people, channel partners, and B2B customers intuitive online tools that make it just as easy to buy business products and services as consumers shopping online. The B2B eCommerce platforms also support the complex product filtering, bundling, contract management, and pricing rules that businesses need to conduct online commerce. By leveraging Web2.0 technology, B2B eCommerce platforms now offer a much richer, more real-time business shopping experience.

Knowing that B2B eCommerce will start realizing its potential this year, what can you do as an organization to take advantage?

Do your research and find a platform that suits your needs. Make sure the rules engine is complex enough to handle your products and services and pricing. Understand online self-service and its importance to your customers. In essence, B2B eCommerce helps you predict what your customers may want to purchase and when you can predict correctly, you have a better chance of winning that sale.

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Events, Software Tagged With: , , , , ,

5 Reasons the Recession was Good for Enterprise Mobility

February 8, 2010 By

With most pundits having declared that the tech recession is over in corporate IT spending (click here for Forrester’s case or check out Cisco’s latest results), I thought that it would be good to reflect on the impact of the recession on the enterprise mobility market. Largely the recession has been very challenging for many businesses and individuals. But, in my opinion, there have been some sustentative positives for enterprise mobility from this pause in growth. These positives primarily stem from either an increased pace of innovation and a refocus of IT resources on some critical, but taken for granted areas of mobile computing.

1. Taking Inventory

Most IT shops stopped all but essential capital spending in 2009 and aimed their freed up human capital to find even further savings. In the arena of mobile computing, the first step was creating a solid inventory and analysis of mobile assets. Given that the future is more mobile and less office bound, this intelligence will be critical to managing and securing the overall business. So, the naval gazing of the recession period has helped businesses realize that yesterday’s solutions to desktop management and security need to be updated for the increasingly mobile landscape.

2. Timely Cloud Cover

The recession has brought cost effectiveness into nearly all decisions in our personal lives and certainly every decision by IT executives. While in years past, achieving lower costs would have to be solved by vendor negotiations, headcount reductions, searching for scale, and consolidating operations, in 2009, the vendor community brought real technical innovation to the table in the form of proven and effective cloud computing and software-as-a-service solutions.

There is an emerging set of cloud-based, mobility management platforms that can manage all of a business’ remote and virtual assets, as if they were still attached to traditional LANs. More so, this class of solution helps solve the visibility gap identified above, but providing reliable and accurate inventory and assessment of mobile devices anywhere, anytime on the corporate network or on the public Internet cloud.

[Read more...]

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Filed Under: Mobility, Software Tagged With: , , , ,
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