Yesterday a business friend of mine contacted me with information about an interesting business deal. I had a look at the information and began to think of ways to make this work. In short, I was interested to do something about this opportunity.

This morning I got up and started looking through my RSS feeds and I found a post on David Maister’s blog: Can you say NO? He says:

[…] One of the saddest mistakes businesses make is that by stressing growth and volume (goals that are almost sacred in most companies) they are inescapably, unavoidably inevitably led to compromise their own strategies and turn themselves into undifferentiated organizations that look like everybody else.[…]

Hmmm, that hit home. I think this is a very important lesson to be learned, you need to focus on your business, because let’s be honest, I do not have enough hours in the day to run my own business, and now I am thinking about getting involved in another business.

Further down the line David also says:

[…] there’s a difference between “Let’s make money by delivering on our strategy” and “let’s make money any way we can.”[…]

You should read his post and his article on his website: Strategy Means Saying “NO”.

I will say NO to my business friend, sorry, but I will stick with my strategy!

Thank you David for your timely advice.

Tags: Accountants, Business Development, Business Mentoring, Business Start Up, Entrepreneur, Home Business, Micro Business, Sales, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, sme-blog

Jeff Cornwell, in the States has written a post titled “Get Ready” for small business. This was triggered by the latest storm forecast for the US, which makes for unpleasant reading.

But not only a hurricane, flood or other natural disasters can destroy your business, so his advice is a timely reminder for all of us to get ready for a fire or a burglary. So here is Jeff’s question:

Ask yourself: what if the worst happened? How would it affect my business and my family? Would we survive if the business were closed down for weeks, months, or perhaps my entire revenue season? What can I do to make sure we survive?
Be a little pessimistic now, and assume it CAN happen to you. Develop a Disaster Plan for your home or business now so you can rest a little more easily in the future.

In short you should read this post and get ready! SaaS technology can be an effective part of your disaster planning.

Tags: Accountants, Business Development, Business Infrastructure, Business Start Up, Entrepreneur, Home Business, Micro Business, SaaS, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, sme-blog, WinWeb

Open Source is said to be geeky. It certainly can be difficult to install and setup for the normal enduser. The open software scene was always belittled by the established vendors as not commercial enough to succeed, and because of it’s user unfriendliness.. But the development scene is slowly changing.

More and more open source software projects are being set up to develop web based applications. While this does not mean that it is any easier to install and setup, it open now possibilities for SaaS - Software as a Service providers.

The software is installed on the SaaS providers server and by the technical team of the provider. Now the enduser “consuming” the software online is removed from the geeky process and can use the software as a normal user.

A halfway point is the consulting firm which installs and maintains the open source software for a client, this way the software is free and only the consulting and maintenance part is to be paid for. But even this service can end up costing hundreds if not thousands of pounds, putting it out of reach for small business.

SaaS providers offer the install, maintain and usage part for a small monthly fee. Open source software is now within reach of the small business community. This creates a much better value proposition for enduser.

Combining Open Source and SaaS - Software as a Service will challenge the established software industry and even put one or two vendors out of business. Now the problem for the “boxed” vendors is that they are too commercial.

Tags: Business Development, Business Infrastructure, Business Start Up, Entrepreneur, Home Business, Micro Business, On-demand, Open Source Software, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, sme-blog, Software as a Service, Web Technology, WinWeb

Late last week, Shel Israel, co-author with Robert Scoble of Naked Conversations contacted me about a forthcoming European tour he and venture capitalist Rick Segal are planning for August. I explained that most of mainland Europe and lumps of the UK will be away on holiday so it might be tough to fill the time. Shel was of the view that startups would forego holiday as they beaver away to get product or services out the door. He obviously doesn't know a great amount about the European psyche

Shel and Rick are trying to find early stage businesses developing for the so-called Web 2.0 space. That means they are looking for individuals and small that are developing the next generation applciations. Details are dribbling out slowly and for those interested, I suggest subscribing to Shel's RSS feed so you can receive automatic notification of updates.

This is unusual. It is rare for US VCs to look outside their borders as most of the action is said to happen in Silicon Valley. Also, the lads want to find folk with really smart ideas rather than fully baked business models. They have made it clear they are not after PowerPoint presentations (phew - I hate those at the best of times.) As professional accountants, this is a golden opportunity for you to support people in your community who are coming up with ideas that you think could make a difference in the world.

Let's put it this way - how many people do you know who have ideas that haven't a snow flake's chance in hell of getting funding because they are just that - an idea that is as yet unproven or untested? I remember meeting one such in the 1980s. His idea was so mad I thought it would never get funded. But we did and today he is a very wealthy person employing many hundreds of people. So there is hope. And nothing to lose.

Anyone out there brave enough to engage with the big bad world of venture capitalism? Anyone know which is the next Skype?

This is the third part of my SaaS benefits mini series of posts, looking at the SaaS technology from a users point of view. You can find a link to the previous posts in this series at the end of this post.

Benefit Number 3:

All software upgrades and bug fixes are free, no installation needed, you are always on the latest version of the software.

Have you ever been told by support staff ” We do not support this version anymore!”, or you need to download (if you are lucky) a new version, or get a new CD to install. Then you install the new version, and things disappear or get overwritten? With the SaaS - Software as a Service technology these problems do not exist anymore.

Any bug fixes can be dealt with in hours, rather then month or until the next CD release. You do not have to keep on spending money for new upgrades, and you do not have to buy a new computer to run the new program on the new operating system. These, in my opinion, artificially accelerated product cycles are a thing of the past.

I have been using my word-processor for over 20 years, bought numerous upgrades, spend thousands of pounds and after all that, use virtually the same functionality as I did 20 years ago. The choice is now yours.

If you are interested to discuss this topic in more detail please visit www.sbqaforum.com, or leave a comment.

Links to the other posts in this series:

SaaS Benefit Number 1: No Software Installation
SaaS Benefit Number 2: Software runs on Linux, Mac and Windows
SaaS Benefit Number 3: Free Software Upgrade
SaaS Benefit Number 4: Anywhere @ Anytime.

Tags: Business Development, Business Infrastructure, Business Start Up, Home Business, Micro Business, On-demand, SaaS, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, sme-blog, Software as a Service, Web Technology, WinWeb

Since 1976, The Prince’s Trust has transformed over half a million young lives. Tomorrow, they’ll work with over 100 more. This extraordinary achievement is worth celebrating and to find out how to help.

Through practical support including training, mentoring and financial assistance, it helps 14-30 year-olds realise their potential and transform their lives. The Trust focuses its efforts on young people who’ve struggled at school, have been in care, are long-term unemployed or have been in trouble with the law. Since the charity was founded by HRH The Prince of Wales in 1976, it has helped more than half a million young people.

WinWeb is proud to be a supporter of The Prince’s Trust for one year now. We offer our OnlineOffice to all Trust-supported entrepreneurs for two years at no cost. To find out more please visit The Prince’s Trust supporter website.

Tags: Accountants, Business Development, Business Infrastructure, Business Mentoring, Business Start Up, Entrepreneur, Home Business, Micro Business, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, sme-blog, The Prince’s Trust, Web Technology, WinWeb

This is going to be another series (noticed how I did not say “mini” series) about small business advisor accountants. Having started my series the other day with Stuart Jones, I think it to be a good point to introduce accountants who obviously share my passion for SaaS and have the business advisor approach. SaaS - Software as a Service is such an integral part of business success today, that you can not afford to be hampered in you business development by old technology or by outdated accountant - client relationships.

This post is about Philip Woodgate. He is a Chartered Accountant and Partner of Goodman Jones LLP, based in London. He is dishing out great advice on his SME Blog, like:

[…] Every business must make a profit. But even profitable businesses can fail if customers don’t pay on time since they may not have the cash in the bank to meet their own bills. Every month, identify customers who haven’t paid you on time, known as “aged debtors”, and chase them. Remember that you are in business to make money and not to lend it - you are not a bank!” […]

You should really spend the time and have a look. They are using an SaaS accounting product called Twinfield, nobody is perfect.
But with the kind of business advice, you are in good hands and small business can flourish.

BTW, if you know of an accountant who uses technology and sensible advice, let me know and I will talk about him or her.

Tags: AAT, ACCA, Accountants, Accounting, Bookkeeping, Business Development, Business Infrastructure, Business Start Up, CIMA, CIPFA, CPA, CPAs, Finance, Home Business, ICAEW, ICAI, ICAS, IFA, Micro Business, On-demand, Outsourcing, SaaS, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, sme-blog, Software as a Service, Twinfield, Web Technology, WinWeb

This is the second part of my SaaS benefits mini series of posts, looking at the SaaS technology from a users point of view:

Benefit Number 2:

Apple Mac OS, Linux, Unix or Microsoft Windows, SaaS run on any computer platform with internet connection.

This has to be one of the greatest benefits of the SaaS - Software as a Service technology, you do not have to worry about which operating system you run on your computer, which release of it, how old your computer is, or what system your coworkers are using.

Again you just log in, give your coworkers access and they can work with your SaaS application, without any problem, even if they use a different computer platform, it does not matter.

Maybe you always wanted to change your computer to a different platform, from Windows to Mac maybe, with SaaS that is not a problem. You will be surprised how many applications exist already.

If you are interested to discuss this topic in more detail please visit www.sbqaforum.com, or leave a comment.

Links to the other posts in this series:

SaaS Benefit Number 1: No Software Installation
SaaS Benefit Number 2: Software runs on Linux, Mac and Windows
SaaS Benefit Number 3: Free Software Upgrade
SaaS Benefit Number 4: Anywhere @ Anytime

Tags: Apple Mac OS, Business Development, Business Infrastructure, Business Start Up, Home Business, Linux, Micro Business, MS Windows, On-demand, SaaS, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, sme-blog, Software as a Service, Unix, Web Technology, WinWeb

I see that Stefan started a mini-series on the benefits of SaaS - the Software as a Service model. I thought it would be interesting to insert here my notes from the  Software Luminaries Panel at TiEcon 2006, a Silicon Valley, California Entrepreneurial Conference I attended last weekend..  While Stefan’s series will obviously look at SaaS from a small business user’s point of view, this Panel discussion examined the issue from the software companies standpoint - some are larger organizations, others are startups, i.e. small businesses themselves, just like most of our readers here.  Please note, even though I am  publishing this, after the Conference, but did only very basic editing,  essentially posting my raw notes from the meeting.   I’ve also deviated from the role of passive note-taker here, as this is a subject where I am somewhat competent, and can’t help but insert my own comments here and there - you will see those in italics.  I invite Panelist, participants and obviously readers of this blog  to feel free and correct / add to my notes in the form of blog comments.

There were parallel sessions run with industry luminaries in ballrooms next to each other. Moderator  M.R. Rangaswami opened on the humorous side: the audience picked the right session, as he peeked into the next room where the Semiconductor luminaries session would take place, and saw a sign there saying "semi-luminaries" :-)   M.R. is Co-Founder of the Sand Hill Group and host of the recent Software 2006 conference (an annual event).  .

As introduction he uses his Software 2006 slides about  Software’s quiet revolution. Three major realities:

1. Changes represented by SaaS , Open Source, while CIO’s indicate increased spending on software.
2. Real business is in the Enterprise (but consumer technologies find their way into the Enterprise)
3. Thriving ecosystem critical

Panelist(s)

• Larry Augustin , Angel Investor, Founder VA Linux, SourceForge …etc.
• Amit Chatterjee , VP Strategy SAP
• Mark Gorenberg , Partner Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
• Jason Maynard , Research Analyst Credit Suisse
• Zach Nelson , President and CEO Netsuite
• Sanjay Parthasarathy , Corporate Vice President Microsoft Corp. (Chief Evangelist of Microsoft Church)

Starting with a few canned questions for warmup, then taking audience questions.

Question:  Will there be a billion-dollar software company in SaaS? 

Jason:  Yes, Salesforce, NetSuite to begin with.. Client-server, on-premise screwed customers, overpromised, underdelivered. SaaS will be huge, it has barely  scratched the surface so far. 

Mark: Agrees.  Hummer Winblad did 12 pure-play SaaS investments. SaaS is most disruptive.  Siebel was the uncontested market leader and the appearence of Salersforce.com killed it. (I can’t help but insert my own opinion here: Sure, Salesforce squeezed Siebel from the bottom up, but two other factor were just as significant in their demise: the "overpromise, underdeliver" syndrome, i.e. customer dissatisfaction after expensive and lengthy projects; and the fact that SAP that already owns the Enterprise market significantly improved their own CRM  offering, and the integrated approach offers a better value proposition to their customers then the standalone Siebel CRM-only solution).  

Sanjay: We’ve already seen billion-dollar  SaaS companies:  eBay and  Google, just not in Enterprise.

Amit:  SaaS by itself is not a business model… for larger organizations hybrid models work better …with increasing process complexity and integration requirements there is a need for a mix of  on-demand and on-premise solutions.

Question specifically to Zach: Larry Ellison (Oracle CEO, owns over 50% of NetSuite, which is expected to pull off a billion-dollar IPO this year) stated that SaaS is only for SMB’s not for large corporations. Is that so?

 Zach: He is generally trying to avoid speaking for Larry. (They clearly have an interesting relationship, Larry has to be somewhat anti-SaaS, and Zach can’t really get into a public debate with his absolute majority owner. It seems to me that Larry is betting on two horses at the same time)  Nobody will switch software because they want to, or because SaaS ismore fashionable. First and foremost customers have a functionality challenge, which the software company has to meet.. Functionality is the primary consideration, and the delivery model supports it.

Sanjay:  We shouldn’t be talking about software as a service, it’s actually software + service.

Mark: A number of companies are selling to both small and large organizations. What’s exciting is that this is the very first time when medium sized companies can get the same functionality as the large guys! ( I tend to think the same is true for small businesses, in fact that may be an even more radical change, and it’s a mistake that analysts often only think of the midsize market when they speak SMB )

Jason: Disagrees with SAP’s Amit on the notion of need for hybrid.  Software needs to become a utility.  There is no room for innovation in most corporate  IT budgets, 80% of which is spent on running the infrastructure.  Let go of thee server!  I know it’s hard …it’s your baby … you may get visitation rights at your SaaS provider:-) (huge laughter at audience)

MR  makes a comment/question on recent high-profile outages in the industry, largely at salesforce.com but elsewhere, too.

Zach: Not all delivery models are created equal.  Sforce runs on "big iron", (find article here) while Netsuite opted for a grid-like system based on cheap boxes. When a salesforce.com server goes down, it effects the majority of customers,  when NetSuite loses a box, a maximum of 50 customers are effected. This setup  also helps rolling out new versions smoothly, in a phased fashion,  while  Salesforce.com has to do it in "big bang" style.   Zach predicts Salesforce moving to a grid-like environment soon.

Larry: It’s about ease of adoption.  Software has become a lot easier to create, it’s acquisition is a painful process, and that’s the part that SaaS improves.

Sanjay: Service orientation helps picking best-of-breed solutions, mix and mach. The current trend of consolidation in the industry is actually contrary to it.

Amit: SOA is critical, some services in the cloud, others in the enterprise. 

Zach: Picking composite applications to mix and match is difficult, especially as business processes get more complex.. Composite transactional  applications are a fantasy -  far to difficult to synchronize.  Example: Microsoft CRM and Great Plains are hard to synchronize, even though MS owns the code for both.  Integrated transactional systems are unbeatable - that’s why SAP owns the Enterprise.

Question:  Consolidation, Oracle acquisitions .. getting bigger and bigger - is there room left for innovation?

Larry: Oracle is buying since it’s not doing a great job of innovation itself.  Startups have the benefit of new distribution mechanisms, SaaS, Open Source, user base helps them.

Amit: Lot of room for innovation by partners id they participate in verticals.  He "only" has 6000 developers, cant cover the whole world.(audience laughter)  Larry interrupts: I’d like that problem, I have 12. With 6000 how can you NOT cover the world? (even bigger laughter). Amit: Citibank has more developers then SAP.

Question about data privacy, Security. 

Zach: Especially for small, midsized businesses NetSuite’s security is better than running on local server next to coffee machine. 

Larry: Security is still a huge  unsolved issue.

Sanjay: The real data challenge is mashing structured and unstructured data. 80% of corprate data is unstructured  without business processes: xml is the glue. 

Larry: Html amplified the problem of huge amount of unstructured data, the future will be to move to have data in xml and html is just the presentation.

Question: Are there profitable SaaS companies?.  Sforce is barely profitable.

Mark: Salesforce.com is barely profitable, .Rigthnow is making decent profit,  employees (?_) is largely profitable.

Jason: Many are profitable,  SaaS lowers the cost of distribution - there is price elasticity in the market.  SaaS also helps reducing R&D, support costs - salesforce only needs to support one version, SAP, Oracle multiple ones.

Zach: When he joined NetSuite their sales model was direct. Now with success ecosystem develops.  Typically start with direct, build customer base, then ecosystem develops.

MR’s comment/question: Software 2006 had a panel: Open Source: money machine or money pit? 

Larry: Open Source is a young model, there can not be a lot of profitable companies yet,  Red Hat beng an outstanding example.  On $10M in R&D Salesforce.com spends 100M in Sales & Marketing..  It’s cheaper to create software then sell it > Open Source helps eliminating the huge sales costs.

Jason concurs,  sales is 80% of cost.  Enterprise Software companies don’t make a lot of profit on software sales, their profit comes from maintenance.  Smart Open Source companies jump out of this expensive sales cycle and focus on support only.  They will increase botttom line while reducing top line.

Larry:  There is also a culture change: people did not understand software, they had to be educated and had to pay for that education.  Now everyone is computerized, carries a PDA, cellphone ..etc.  This means the  education need is reduced, good opportunity for Open Source’s pull model.

Question: SAP , MSFT will you be giving away your products free? 

Sanjay: Fuzzy answer on giving away software and promoting distribution. 

Amit: Support, explore Open Source, but not fully embrace.  SAP does not have the distribution channel that MS has. SAP needs to build ecosystem.

Question:  Will MS look into buying SAP?  Tried. Jason: pragmatic approach: it won’t happen, if for no other reason, the fight with the  EU..

Question: What Open Source opp’s exist? 

Mark: Recently made two investments into companies that develop applications for the lamp stack.  Issue: IP ownership, integration.  Sales issue: agree with the Open Source effect on lead generation, but how to close sales?  What happens when you move to markets that people don’t understand?

Question: any Open Source  companies to go public?  

Jason:  Potentially MySQL.  Markets pay 10-times sales, 30-times cashflow. Fewer, but better , more sustainable companies.

Question (more a remark) on SAP’s new compensation plan. Hasso Plattner recently  announced he is aiming at doubling the market, if they achieve that, the top 100 execs will make 100’s of millions.  Is that a realistic objective? 

Amit: The announcement certainly helps: -) but the true driver for growth  is product innovation.  

MR askes the panelists for their final remark

Mark: We’re in the greatest disruptive times. Hummer Winblad invested more in the past few years than in the previous 17..

Sanjay: Software industry does not spend enough time with users. 

Larry: Fantastic time to be a software entrepreneur.  Small team , little $, reach to market - not possible 10 years ago

Zach: It’s a great time to start a software company, when you do it, remember  you need a great application to run the business. (audience laughter; good plug for NetSuite …possibly the last one before going into pre-IPO silent period?)

Amit: Customers matter. SAP needs to focus more on the ecosystem.

Jason: MS announced spending additional $2B on emerging areas. Look at areas they are spending… go in those "white spaces", since  they are good in seeing the  opportunities, but can’t exploit them properly.

Tags: tiecon, tiecon2006, conference, entrepreneurship, technology, innovation, venturecapital, vcfunding, startups, forum, paneldiscussion, netsuite, salesforce.com, SAP, Oracle, Siebel, software2006, CRM, ERP, enterprisesoftware, SaaS, opensource, SMB, SME, Microsoft, zoliblog

I’ve decided to write a little mini series of posts of the next few weeks to look at the benefits of using SaaS - Software as a Service technology. Some of the benefits are WinWeb specific, but were only possible by using this technology.

SaaS is a relatively new software concept that allows you to “consume” software as a subscription, like for a magazine. The software is made available to you via your browser ( IE, Firefox, Safari and other browsers), but the benefits of this may not always so obvious.

Benefit Number 1:

You do NOT need to install the software, you open your browser log in and get to work. It is that simple!

This has several advantages for you. There is no problem with getting the software to work in the first place. Often when you install software, you see the little software loading bar, slowly go across the screen, while you sit there and wonder if it is going to work or if it is not. This problem does not exist for you anymore when using SaaS software.

Since your printer already works with your browser, it will also work with your SaaS application, no need to interfere.

How many hours have we all been sitting in front of the computer screen, pulling our hair out, over some problem a software installation caused. It does not matter if you use your computer for business or not, this time is wasted unproductively.

If you are interested to discuss this topic in more detail please visit www.sbqaforum.com.

Links to the other posts in this series:

SaaS Benefit Number 1: No Software Installation
SaaS Benefit Number 2: Software runs on Linux, Mac and Windows
SaaS Benefit Number 3: Free Software Upgrade
SaaS Benefit Number 4: Anywhere @ Anytime

Tags: Business Development, Business Start Up, Home Business, Micro Business, On-demand, SaaS, Selfemployed, Small Business, smb, sme, sme-blog, Software as a Service, WinWeb