2011 May 15

Taking Care of Your Good Customers

There is a very old line in business: the easiest customer to get is the one you already have. There are lots of variants on it, such as, "upsell is easier than new-sale," but the principle is still the same: it is much easier to sell to an existing customer than a new customer. In many industries, this can be difficult. As good as IBM's legendary sales staff is, if your customer already has DB2, it is hard to also sell them WebSphere.

2011 May 14

The Google File?

Way back in early Internet history, as in 1998, someone recommended to me Wendy Goldman Rohm's book, "The Microsoft File." It was a pretty damning indictment of Microsoft and its founder, Bill Gates, and its anti-competitive business practices. In 1998, Google was just being founded, Microsoft was the company to beat (if it was possible), and I ordered the book via Amazon, whence it came via UPS. Nowadays, Google is considered the behemoth, Microsoft, despite all its cash, appears to be a has-been, and I get most of my books digitally to a Kindle or an iPad.

2011 May 13

Microsoft and Skype - So it ain't a Windows Mobile exclusive?

At least one of my theories is (as far as Microsoft is PR is concerned) disproven. I theorized that Microsoft would consider making Skype, with it 600+MM users (for perspective, as big as Facebook), a Windows Mobile exclusive, saying, in essence, "if you are a Skype user, and want to Skype on the go, then you need a Windows Mobile device." From Microsoft's perspective, it would be a (possibly) smart move to drive customers to WM devices, albeit with the risks that (a) Skype may not be a sufficient make-or-break for sufficient to tip the market, and thus could drive many away, and (b) it would open the market to alternative VoIP platforms on iOS and Android, where many possible competitors today simply say, "

2011 May 11

Selling to the Enterprise - Best-of-Breed vs. Suite Customers

Here is something risky: a self-described non-sales-person is going to write about sales. I grant myself a little license, since it is about selling to the exact role I played as a buyer in enterprise IT shops for a decade. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of companies that have failed due to their inability to sell to, or are currently frustrated trying to sell to, enterprise IT shops. I speak not of those with miserable products, or poor financing, or subpar executive teams.

2011 May 10

Now Microsoft is Buying Skype?

I rarely post about the same company twice in a row, unless it is a part I/part II series. And, unlike many, I have no fundamental issues with Microsoft. Steve Jobs once said that Microsoft "has no style." It may be true, but they sell products that billions of people (and millions of businesses) voluntarily buy; I have no direct issues with them. But, after last week's "kvetch" (no better word) about Google Apps, this week Microsoft reportedly bought Skype for $8.

2011 May 5

Who is Microsoft trying to convince?

This week, Microsoft released a new whitepaper (available here) that decries (kvetches?) that the real cost of Google Apps is much more than the $50 per user per year that everyone assumes. It lists various areas where Google Apps is either weaker, or where there are significant costs, specifically around ongoing support and one-time migration costs. In the words of my kids, "Well, Duh!" Microsoft is not trying to convince the individual casual (or even serious) users, to whom such issues as Exchange migration costs are irrelevant.

2011 May 4

Is Google Fighting the Right War?

Two weeks ago, with the removal of Eric Schmidt as CEO of Google and his replacement by Larry Page, Ben Horowitz wrote a fascinating article comparing CEOs to Tom Hagen: there are wartime CEOs and peacetime CEOs; Schmidt was peacetime, but Google is entering the wartime phase in the world of social. By all accounts, Page is obsessed with catching up on social, and has even made it part of every employee's compensation plan.

2011 May 2

Amazon Part II - Hiding the Cause

This short posting is a follow-up to the one last week about Amazon's culture and its outage. Amazon has finally explained what caused the outage last week. The explanation is long and complex, but boils down to an avalanche. One relatively small problem caused a few more, which cascaded into a large issue, similar to a small snowball down the side of a mountain causing an avalanche. I have been there, I know it, it hurts.

2011 Apr 28

R&D is the Best Long-Term Investment a Company Can Make

I could make many arguments on this, but Jeff Bezos did a great job in his letter to shareholders, published yesterday. Interesting aside for those who run companies that work online. If you look through the list of technologies he has implemented, significantly more than half of them, and likely a lot more than half of Amazon's R&D investment on the innovation side, is in infrastructure, that platforms on which all of the software/Web applications run.

2011 Apr 27

Why Culture Matters - Amazon and its Outage

Last week, Amazon's EC2 business suffered a significant outage, which took down a significant portion of hot start-ups and existing businesses alike. While the technical causes of the outage are interesting, and have been dealt with - at least with what information is available - in other places, including http://blog.rightscale.com/2011/04/25/amazon-ec2-outage-summary-and-lessons-learned/ (thanks to Josh Mahowald for the link), I find the crisis management most interesting. Amazon's communication level during this incident was an F, and that is being generous.