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I've of course, been trying to keep track of press coverage relating to this week's triumph at the Microsoft bizspark summit and one thing that keeps popping up again and again is people analysing the cloud as a thing of the future. 'The cloud revolution is coming', 'companies are banking on the cloud taking off', 'preparing for the cloud shift' were just some quotes taken from bloggers reviewing the event. But it's wrong to suggest the cloud is simply something in the distance, that organisations will simply have to deal with. It's here now! And it's a help, not a hindrance!The one barrier to entry is said, time and time again, to be security worries. Banks and the like are concerned that moving data to the cloud will ultimately anger customers and raise security alarms. Why is it then, that in the GFI Software SME Technology Report 2010, only 12% of 250 sme's said high security risks were the principal barrier to adoption. What was more telling from the report was that 64% of senior business decision makers did not fully understand the term cloud computing. That is the real barrier. Especially in the current financial climate, cloud computing is there to improve processes, yet the very thought of doing something about it strikes absolute terror into those who wish things could just always stay the same. Yesterday, Sean Kelley, global CIO for Deutsche Asset Management was appointed chairman of the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council, an alliance set up to promote cloud services uptake. The list of members include Alcatel-Lucent, Amdocs, AT&T, BT, CA, Cisco, EMC, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Nokia Siemens Networks, Telecom Italia and Telstra. The awareness of just how powerful cloud computing can be is clearly there (the aforementioned companies would not be investing this sort of time into it if not), the understanding is what keeps pushing the cloud into the distance, onto the 'to do' pile. It's here now, so why not make the most of it.
courtsey of stevenvanwelArtesian were celebrating last night after winning the pitching contest at Microsoft's sixth Bizspark European summit. CEO Andrew Yates shared the prize with French social game pioneer Kobojo, who have gone from 0-41 million users in just under two years. Considering the high level of competition it was a terrific success and one which truly highlights the value of Artesian's b2b service. Artesian was one of four UK companies represented at the event and the trip across the channel proved an invaluable experience with interest flying in from all over Europe. As Andrew was quoted as saying 'it's nice to be hot'. A big thanks once again to the Microsoft Bizspark team for hosting the event and giving us the chance to attend.Ironically enough on his return from Paris Andrew was drawn France in the office World Cup sweepstakes. He's now praying for two french success stories in the space of a month!
Andrew (far right) celebrating victory
Artesian CEO Andrew Yates represented Artesian Solutions at the 6th Microsoft BizSpark European Summit today alongside other key entrepreneurs in Europe, as well as Silicon Valley star Guy Kawasaki. The event was held to bring business together to actively 'encourage and foster' entrepreneurship. Held in Paris, the day also included speeches from President of Microsoft International Jean-Philippe Courtois and chairman of Microsoft Europe Jan Muehlfeit. The feedback has so far been immense and you can keep up to date with everything @artesians as Andrew responds to any questions outstanding from the summit. Full information from the event can be found here and we'd like to once again thank the Microsoft bizspark programme for having the opportunity to attend. The interest gained from the presentation just shows the exciting market we're working in and if you're interested in learning more about today's speech by all means just send us an email and we can sort out some info.
I took a headline today, from the BBC news site that read 'German approval for euro rescue '. I copied it into a Google news search to find 6532 sources reporting the same story. That doesn't include blogs or the endless user generated response to the news. The web is saturated with news like this. Major sources have to cover it, quite simply because everybody else is and they can't be seen to be falling behind.This has really left a door of opportunity open for local papers, especially in the business media monitoring field. Because local papers offer real insight into localised issues that will most likely be missed by the nationals completely, or, at best, be covered later or when the story picks up momentum. This means the locals have somehow found themselves in a prime position to report important stories first, before the headline grabbing nationals are interested in getting hold of them.If you think about how many local papers there are in the UK alone, you can imagine the power of technology automating search within them. From a five minute morning scan you can literally be in the heart of the action in every town UK wide. Before the nationals get wind of the story. Before the bloggers and social networkers start alerting the World Wide Web to them. Before competitors pick up their papers. The local press is fast becoming an invaluable source.
I knew I was onto a winner this morning when I saw Dave Kahle blogging about sales' best practises with the title 'Makes good use of the tools provided by the company.' I gleefully rubbed my hands together anticipating a barrage of soundbites promoting sales software and I was not to be disappointed. So here we go, a run down of the blissfully helpful highlights:"Electronic tools like CRM systems help organize the sales call, and provide a way to automate routine tasks.""Mediocre sales people see all these things as encumbrances: More “busy work,” or someone telling them how to do their job, or encroaching accountability. The real issue underneath these excuses is their fear of, and inability to, change in positive ways and become more effective at their jobs. It is just easier to complain and find fault with the latest software tool that the company wants you to use....To accept them (company provided tools) is to give tacit acceptance to the idea that they can and should improve. They would rather hide under the radar screen of accountability."AND, as a final hurrah:"That’s why making good use of the company-provided sales tools is a best practice of the best sales people."
Dave Kahle, you are now my soundbite hero. How about one regarding automated sales intelligence in the cloud?... Or is that pushing it?
Did anyone notice just how quickly Lord Triesman resigned from his post as head of England's 2018 World Cup bid yesterday? The Sunday Mail broke the rather unfortunate Triesman story (thanks a lot for backing the bid Sunday Mail) on Sunday Morning and Lord Triesman was already clearing his desk at about half one in the afternoon. A few years ago a scandal like this would've taken at least a week to play out.But scandal spreads like wildfire now. Stars of the globe must live in constant fear that they are 5 minutes away from trending on Twitter or having the whole population of Facebook sharing a link to their latest PR disaster. Gossip is travelling faster than the speed of light.For business this means reacting with the reflex of a Jedi ninja. There is no longer time to spend weighing up options in endless round tables. If you're not aware quickly, and you don't react swiftly, then the stable door has already been open for too long. To have any chance of keeping up, you've got to be on board the train. Those not embracing the online surveillance technology available are lagging behind further and further by the day.
Once you've read a story, would you ever click on the same news produced from a different source? My guess is probably not. If it's a developing story you might follow it's progress, reading updates and follow ups. Perhaps you might even dig into the background of the story. But reading exactly the SAME breaking news from a different source? It's probably less likely. I laugh every morning at the national paper's alternative stance towards a news item. What the Telegraph might report as 'Business lending down' will be seen in the Daily Mail as 'business crisis as stingy banks hoard money for secret holidays to the Maldives!...Oh, and you're going to die.'But in terms of content, differing sources can rely on differing leads, thus highlighting crucial information others may have missed. For example, recently a company won a key contract in the North of England. Most nationals covered it, most locals covered it and most industry journals covered it. But only one article out of the whole bunch mentioned a plucky protester who planned to launch an appeal against the contract. ONE local article that could have quite easily been overlooked. That is the advantage of automated media monitoring. Being alerted to crucial bits of information that a human eye can miss. If you really want to cover all angles, it has to be automated.
I've never actually tried it myself, but from all accounts, finding gold is not particularly easy. Apparently, if it was, everyone would be doing it (gold sells quite well according to experts...). You don't find gold searching the same place everyday. You don't discover gold scanning over the outskirts and skimping on the detail. In business terms, that also applies to the web. Sure you can set up some loosely structured alerts, maybe check back on some regular sites every now and again, but that's not going to get the job done. Being able to automate over 1,000,000 search queries, incorporating topics of choice, companies of choice and sources of relevance daily, now that'll get the job done. When you find the gold, it's certainly worth it. And let's face it, you're not even finding it under these terms, it's being bought directly to you...So maybe smoke a pipe or something, put your feet up. Automated sales intelligence can hit the jackpot.
Despite the constant bombardment of emails and tweets from people claiming to 'have the answer!' to social networking for business, the overall perception is no one has quite mastered best practises just yet. It's on everybody's list of things to do and it fills Powerpoint presentations Worldwide with buzz phrases like 'tapping into the social craze' and 'increasing our social networking presence 50%.'In the sales intelligence field, companies want media monitoring to include the social aspect. Some may not necessarily know quite why, but the assumption is it's going to be useful. And, make no mistake about it, it is but you have you to go into it with your eyes open and not be expecting a miracle formula. If you arrive at a party expecting a free bar only to receive a free drink coupon, the free drink seems disappointing. But it's still a free drink!Because people are unsure of it, they are hoping it provides all the answers. It doesn't. Twitter feeds can be erratic, unpredictable, and sometimes absolute rubbish. Contrary to popular belief top executives do not spend their time tweeting about classified account details (unless they are somehow connected to the Labour Party). But by tracking the right blogs and feeds you can gain valuable, personal insight from potential customers, who would probably not share such details in a face to face business meeting. You can monitor product sentiment, you can be alerted to press releases quickly, and with tools like Artesian's, you can analyse volumes of social networking traffic, meaning you can be alerted very quickly if something is stirring within a company or a news item is starting to surface. Best practises may still be a way off, after all, it's only been a year since the B2B/B2C markets really began to realise that social networking was here to stay, but providing you know what you're getting, the value and benefit of these sites can be exploited very easily with the tools available.
There can sometimes be a lot of pressure on management to ensure users participate in new software trials. It is after all, management who have green lighted the move to trial and therefore their financial responsibility. It is of course in their best interest to get users engaged in the software and adopting the technology.But whilst there are best practises in making sure this happens (constant dialogue, review sessions, updates etc) the software should encourage user interaction by providing a helpful platform that genuinely improves work flow and solves problems previously highlighted by the sales team.It's a mixture of the two that makes an implementation successful. When it comes to automating sales intelligence, we can not make up the news (although I can try and get this site aggregated as much as possible!) but what we can do is show the value of the technology, proving the concepts that would make a sales team want to come back and use the software again and again.
