28 July 2007
The Herald reported today on Steve Ballmer’s comments about the future of software.
“Every piece of software – the basic core value in the way software gets created – will change in the next three, five or 10 years,” said Ballmer, adding that future software will all factor in some aspect of desktop, web and server elements.
However, he rejected the idea the software industry would shift entirely to an internet delivery model.”
There’s a lot of talk about SaaS being the future of software, but I think a lot people still see SaaS as just delivering software as a web application. I believe SaaS is the next major business model for software, but if you look at existing SaaS providers, the web app is just part of the service.
SaaS systems today include:
- The web application
- The service delivery platform (part web based, part server based and part client based)
- Server modules to provide integration with third parties
- Client modules to provide integration with client based software, such as Outlook
- Client side reporting using Acrobat and Excel
- Rich client side UI using Flash and Silverlight
- Brower plugins to provide offline or regular services (such as Wesabe’s firefox uploader)
- Core client side software such as provided by skype, google, virus scanners
- Vista gadgets
To limit SaaS to a web based delivery model is to overlook the richness of how a web application fits into the bigger picture of software as an integrated web/client/server service.
2 Comments | 
SaaS, Software | 
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Posted by Andrew
24 July 2007
Apparently, too many people print their emails and more and more mailPrimer users are adding tree-friendly ‘don’t print this email‘ messages to emails. This has impelled Tom from Calcium Software to launch a campaign to reduce everyone’s carbon-email-emissions to zero by sponsoring some dieing trees.
All you have to do to feel green for the day is click the banner and vote for the trees by sending an email to your friends from the site. All in accordance with the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 of course.
www.saveatree.co.nz
A short note from dogbert:
Leave a Comment » | Marketing, NZ Companies | Permalink
Posted by Andrew
18 July 2007
Unit testing can be very satisfying, especially when tests fail. If your tests always pass, then you start to wonder if the tests are working. I was wondering this yesterday, so I added some extra assertions, thinking that one of these two tests must fail:
Assert.AreNotEqual(firstInvoiceNumber, secondInvoiceNumber);
Assert.AreEqual(firstInvoiceNumber, secondInvoiceNumber);
Wrong. They both passed. After some more testing,
string firstInvoiceNumber = string.Format("{0}", "TEST");
string secondInvoiceNumber = string.Format("{0}", "TEST");
string firstInvoiceNumber1 = "TEST";
string secondInvoiceNumber1 = "TEST";
Assert.IsTrue(firstInvoiceNumber.Equals(secondInvoiceNumber));
// PASSES
Assert.AreEqual(firstInvoiceNumber, firstInvoiceNumber1);
// PASSES
Assert.AreEqual(secondInvoiceNumber, secondInvoiceNumber1);
// PASSES
Assert.AreEqual(firstInvoiceNumber, secondInvoiceNumber);
// PASSES
Assert.AreNotEqual(firstInvoiceNumber, secondInvoiceNumber);
// PASSES
Assert.AreEqual(firstInvoiceNumber1, secondInvoiceNumber1);
// PASSES
Assert.AreNotEqual(firstInvoiceNumber1, secondInvoiceNumber1);
// FAILS
So, don’t trust your unit tests any more than you trust your code. “It must work because it compiles” doesn’t apply to unit tests either.
2 Comments | .NET, Software | Permalink
Posted by Andrew
9 July 2007
I had the best beer on Sat night at In The Cactus in Petone. Just like a Corona, but warms your throat!
Lime is for whimps!
The Arizona desert. Home to 20 million rattlesnakes, Scattered F-16 parts, and lizards the size of beagles. All baked to a crisp 130 degrees. It’s the kind of wide open desolation that makes people think twice before shutting off the car. And a place where a cold beer is pretty damned important.
For Crazy Ed Chilleen, of Cave Creek, Arizona, (Pop.1328 including coyotes and cattle) beer was much too important to be trusted to outsiders. So, in 1989, he started brewing his own.
The town was suspicious. And became even more so when an entire brewery arrived in crates at the foot of Black Mountain, along with a German named Arnold. But after the first batch the people began to come around. The beer was good, damn good, So good in fact, the yuppies started driving in from all over to try it.
Something had to be done, So , whenever one of them whined for a “wedge of lime” Ed started putting a hot serrano chili pepper into the beer instead. Amazingly, about 2 out of ten actually liked the stuff. Surely, thought Ed, the Eighties had come to close.
Today Ed with Juan Olguin brew the original “Cave Creek Chili Beer” “Juanderful Wheat” “South of the Border Porter” “Ocotillo Amber” ” Frog light” and the original “Black Mountain Gold”. Chili Beer is sold in 20 states in the U.S., Japan, China and some other countries with strange sounding names.
Our motto is and always will be
“WE DRINK ALL WE CAN AND SELL THE REST”
Leave a Comment » | Wellington | Permalink
Posted by Andrew
4 July 2007
Here are some good tips for entrepreneurs from inc.com:
Successful entrepreneurs tend to have a disproportionate share of their assets tied up in their business. It’s the arena they know, and when they have cash to invest, they sometimes see themselves as expert stock-pickers in the very same industry.
- Brad Barber | business professor | University of California
The way you really are entrepreneurial is that you have to set your own strategic direction. That’s what entrepreneurs do. You have to take risks and you have to expect to be held accountable.
- Philip Rosedale | CEO | Linden Lab
We believe that the best ideas have most of these traits: They are simple, core messages; they are unexpected; they are concrete, credible, and emotional; and they are stories.
- Made to Stick
How can you run a company when your very business model constantly teeters on the edge of irrelevance?
- Inc.com
Not all investors care about your interests as an entrepreneur, and some will do whatever it takes to close a deal. They’ll prey on your cash-flow crisis, they’ll prey on your lack of confidence. You have to find the strength to walk away.
- Kirsten Osolind | CEO | Re:Invention
Leave a Comment » | Business | Permalink
Posted by Andrew
2 July 2007
Mark Halton gave me four tips to closing the sale:
Because
Giving a simple ‘because’ is often enough to convince someone. “Can I please push in front of you because I have to get this job done”.
People Say
Referrals are the most powerful sales tool. “People say that after a month of using it, they couldn’t go back”.
That’s enough
Always identify the next step. “That should be enough information for you to make a decision”.
The winner takes all
You only need to be a nose ahead to win (or a nose behind to lose).
1 Comment | Business, Sales | Permalink
Posted by Andrew
