What Indian Start-ups in the Cloud may be Missing!

Indian start-ups are high on SMAC and are brimming with ideas and many are working hard on their ideas in a garage somewhere in Bangalore or yonder;  working day and night to bring out the next big winner in the cloud, but can they hit pay dirt like Hewlett & Packard?

Many of these start-ups will be driving SAAS solutions on the cloud and Nasscom has added  momentum by leading the charge with a target of 10,000 start-ups a very modest number, India can  do with a million start-ups'  to service the world  and create economic value for India.

The first aspect the start-up needs to get right is the domain name, is it "startup.in" or is it startup.com, starup.biz, starup.net, it is nice to be nationalistic but in the cloud SAAS you are building could be used by anyone in the world and will  need a global address.; also is the start-ups  twitter handles and other social media address available in the proposed name of the start-up?

The website is the start-up's sales brochure in the cloud,  have the founders spent enough time on the start-up's website and do they have a social media footprint and presence. Awesome technology alone will not bring in the revenue, you need marketing muscle and agile selling online, plus you need audience. There have been great technology companies, names we cannot even remember now in the cloud rush that vanished before they were even born. Get the Branding and Positioning Right of the start-up right, if it does not work change the name of the start-up, not driven by an astrologer or numerologist but by the attributes of the product offering.

The first is S in SMAC has to be done right; either your start-up is in social media or you are not there. Word of Mouth is good to take your start-up places and bring in the eyeballs, but you need to get it right. Has the website been launched in more than one language, the world's most spoken language is Spanish followed by Mandarin, do you provide support in these languages other than English for your global customers? If you do not have Spanish you will miss most countries in Latin America and without Portuguese you will miss Brazil which is a mature Digital Market.

The next is M -  Mobile support, does your website and application work in the mobile, has the start-up tested their presence in various mobiles and tablets.

Then there  is  A - Analytics, is the start-up measuring its engagement in the digital world,  if you do not know how to do it, subscribe to a SAAS solution in the cloud which can do it for you.

The last is C - Cloud; has the start-up chosen the right cloud partner for its solution.

The Start-up has to get its SMAC right and to get high in the cloud.

Some more some more pointers which need to be addressed by the start-up up in its

digital avatar starts with the description of its offering. Does the start-up's  web page and

 social media campaigns get prospective customers excited about their product, is it

supplemented by video advertising on Television and You tube and other social media

sites?

Is the start- up  able to sustain its  digital footfall and get visitors  excited and subscribe to  its offering? Remember  layman's  language works best since most SAAS users do not understand Geek language.  Tell your prospects  why they should try your offering, and highlight the features and benefits of your solution,  be transparent on the pricing and let there be no surprises. Make sure you offer a self service trial of your offerings from your website, which can be  used with no fuss and can be concluded with two mouse clicks. If the trail user's like the start-ups solution they will continue using it irrespective of the pricing, so getting them to use it is the first step.

The start-up needs to explain the security around the offering, cloud is all about trust, the more you share the better is the TRUST.  A full  page on security is warranted, including standards, backups and what not to convince your customer they are in safe hands.

The start-up should share its coverage in the media and also customer  success stories and testimonials, this gives confidence to a prospective customer.

Start-up needs to talk about the Help & Support available, it needs to provide a chat room for immediate support on inquiries  to close sales and offer solution support.  The start-up needs to share its  marketing presentations and videos to  be easily viewed by the prospective customer, remember you will need to close the sale most times without ever meeting your customer in person. Many Indian start-ups still believe they need to meet the customer and close the SAAS sale, this shows their reluctance and lack of understanding of Digital Branding and Marketing. The most classic lament is we do not have a Beta as yet, how can a start-up get a Beta without a self-service delivery of its SAAS solution on its website. Who has the patience to write to the start-up for a Beta site, when I stumble on the start-up's site I am looking for instant Nirvana  not Penance.

The start-up needs to share on the website details about its partners, affiliates and Careers, also needs to Provide  Contact through, an online form, email, chat, social media, phone and any other innovative ideas of communication. The start-up should encourage prospect to remain connected through Social Media, email and newsletters.

If Indian start-up companies with great technology skills and brilliant SAAS solutions incorporate some of these points which they may have missed, then India can serve the world and multiply into a million start-ups in the cloud.

IBM should ignore AWS !

Recent advertisements have shown IBM  comparing itself against AWS in the cloud.
Here is the ZDNet article http://www.zdnet.com/ibm-takes-aim-at-amazon-web-services-via-marketing-campaign-7000022805/.
It seems to be a let down for Big Blue who has forgotten its blue blood and is stooping to compare itself to a company which is about a decade old.
If you missed my blog on the Big 5 it is worth a read again, since most of the analogies seems to have panned out, here is the link
http://cloudbus.blogspot.in/2011/04/big-5-in-cloud-computing.html?q=the+big+five

Photo Credit : Sudesh

IBM seems to have forgotten that the Elephant can Dance and only  needs to learn new steps in the world of SMAC and Internet of Things.IBM should not discount its loyal customer base who are there to cheer and support IBM through thick and thin; some customers could also teach IBM to dance to their tunes.

IBM has all the arsenal required, but is reluctant to open its chest and take off to the cloud, IBM's survival is not about beating AWS, it needs to do more to make Wall Street smile.
For one it needs to provide all its software applications on a SAAS model ASAP so that it can change the world of computing.
There is no business application that IBM does not have in its arsenal, but it is internally so divided that it has forgotten that the "Sum of parts is greater than Whole".
It needs to bandy all its application under one SAAS roof and make them available to the world.
Here is what IBM has as per its  own web page.
http://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/pw_com_swg_application-specific-licensing-solution-areas

The only element that IBM is missing the inertia to put together a Winning GO TO Market strategy.

Here are some pointers which can put IBM on top of the heap in the cloud war.
a. Selling cloud to the Government is not where the action is , the action is in delivering cloud services to the retail computing user. The Government and large business is a saturated market for IBM, and it needs to focus on the smaller user for future growth. Though winning big deals is always a joy, but the such deals are few. The retail is money on the table, more like the dollar bill on the table before the drink in an US bar, this is real money and now.
b. The Planet story is old, IBM needs to move into the clouds and acquire the speed of Mercury to compete in the world of SMAC which is always turbulent. IBM has to learn new steps, and needs to be quick to respond in  the consumer driven marketplace. They need a ship commander like Captain Spock!
c. IBM has to realize that the action is with the end user and not the CIO; the power user has shifted  and IBM has address this segment.
d. IBM will come on top if it can change direction, it has shown the world before it can do this, it is time for the Titanic to change course, if it does not then 2014 may be the Titanic year for IBM.
e. Shooting at AWS is not doing any good for IBM, it is not an IBM way of doing business. Remember AWS has the first mover advantage, IBM is entering the party late, no use shooting the leader of the pack.
If AWS goes there is a good chance that Cloud Computing may also crumble; a 10 year old will die without being given a chance to be a teenager.
This will not help IBM if it is betting big on cloud computing since it will not have any competition unless it believes Google is competition.
If AWS goes down so would Twitter and Facebook and many more social media sites which we take for granted in our daily lives.
IBM should not behave like the fox n the story "Grapes as Sour",
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes
IBM needs to take the mantle of the wizened elder and understand there is space for all including AWS and IBM in the cloud and  realize that good  wine is not sour grapes.

Do share your thoughts. I am an old IBM fan and wish Big Blue all Success.

Goodbye Cloud, Welcome Services.

It it time to bid goodbye to cloud computing, the time has come to evangelise the three services offered by the cloud
IAAS - Infrastructure as a service
PAAS - Platform as a service
SAAS - Software as a service.

Are you ready to embrace cloud services

Cloud has been established as an utility - secure reliable resilient and trustworthy.
So the future is in evangelizing, marketing, branding and deploying the services that ride on the cloud.

The opportunity in SAAS has seen exponential growth making cloud ubiquitous for computing.

The next challenge is in increasing PAAS and SAAS adoption, this means shaking up the enterprise computing space, changing the mindsets of the CTO/CIO and the CISO  and the Cloud Strategist.

Are we ready for this, the next year will see the intense adoption of PAAS and SAAS as more companies shut down their data centers and move to cloud computing.

Are you prepared to ride the next tsunami in the cloud computing saga, are you prepared to deploy and support PAAS and IAAS operations.

The time is now to build the expertise and skills in managing these services in the cloud.

By the end of the year we will bid  goodbye to the cloud  and embrace  the services PAAS/IAAS?
Are you ready for the next wave in the cloud computing disruption ?

Indian SAAS solutions can recreate the Indian IT Story ! BUT.

This week has been busy as I had to review a number of cloud based solutions SAAS and cloud hosted for a contest among Indian Software companies. Some of the solutions were outstanding in compliance, workflow,agriculture,  abstract word search engines, patient management, rewritten ERP solutions, content management, specific business vertical solutions   optimization solutions all were world class solutions and can be used anywhere in the world.

It is a wide open marketplace, can Indian Companies tap the opportunity ?
Photo Credit : Amitav Thamba 

BUT here is what these companies need to do to compete in the world market place
1. Declare the name of cloud vendor they are using, it is difficult to ascertain whether they are in the cloud or a traditional hosting environment.
2. Provide a free trial of your solution, with ability to regularize it after the trial period. Most companies wanted a big form to be filled before the trial, you have a few seconds before the mouse clicks away from your site. Grab the customer with a simple email id and a password like Google does.
3. Provide a payment gateway to sign up to your solution immediately anywhere from the world, customers that need a cloud solution want to start using it from the word GO.
4.The designs are good, but give some features to customize it for the customer without your help, ability to add  the customers company logo and template could be a beginning.
5. English is not the only language in the cloud, you could also provide your solutions in Spanish, German, French, Russian and Mandarin and Swahili and more languages to capture the world.
6. Your solutions must be for the world and not for India and India's problems, many countries who have no software solutions will be the fastest adopters of cloud computing solutions, target these countries.
7. You do not have an online chat to answer queries, customers need solutions NOW in the cloud and support has to be proactive through chat and voice.
8. Some of the sites were simple and effective, many still lean on Indian verbose, the English have long left this country, stick to the point so that the eyeballs of your customers freeze at your site and they empty their wallets.
9. Lastly keep up the good work, go social, you need a  social media presence to be discovered in the crowded digital marketplace. Get your blog, twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and more into place so the world knows you exist and make sure you use SEO tools.
All the best to you brave entrepreneurs  in making the difference to customers who believe in the cloud by providing them the best SAAS solutions in the world.

Selling a SAAS Software to the CIO

Today an old friend of mine asked me on my idea of selling SAAS software solutions to a CIO.

His contention was since I was a CIO  could I share my perspective of how to go about selling SAAS solutions to CIO's.

The CIO

The CIO - Chief Information Officer is a busy person, who is more like a juggler who has to make sure that the digital infrastructure and solutions are working like a well oiled machinery for the success of  the business.

CIO is a busy person and it is important you have your elevator pitch ready to get your product into his.her eco system.

Pitching to the  CIO

Will the solution be useful for his business, does it feel a need that a Business has been asking for  a while.
If it is a new fad the CIO has no time for your solution.

Important for you to map the CIO with the benefits and advantages for your software product.

Remembers not more than 7 points .. that is all his attention level, so get the best first.

Here goes a suggestion of key points of interest

·        Cost of Ownership of our solution  is Low

·        Our solution Will work in any device and standard operating system

·        We have already rolled out three (n) locations successfully

·        You can do the pilot in a few hours on our self service environment

·        Can you please nominate someone from your team to check our solution.

·        we will give you a free trial for three months and lock in the price before the evaluation

·         You can customize the solution with your company logo and screens of your company

Managing the CIO

You might have found the CIO' attention but closing the deal has to be done surgically and with finesse at the shortest possible time, before similar product vendors come knocking the CIO's door.

You can move the CIO into buying with the right strategy !

Managing the CIO's ego is something of an art, we recommend a salesman who can do this and not a technology and product specialist :-)

Finding the CIO

Find out the curious CIO's in conferences and events or some whom you may know professionally, they are the  people open to ideas and willing to try.

Beware of CIO's who are good listeners, they sponge your product idea and try to build it themselves to keep their troops at home happy.

Happy Selling!

Is SAP losing its Sheen !

Is SAP losing its Sheen !
I have had three calls this week to attend the SAP India Forum in Mumbai but have not qualified since my turnover as a consulting company does not meet SAP India's requirements !
The fact that their agency repeatedly calls me to register and follows it up with an email and again turnover verification is the show stopper.
It is clear that SAP wants only customers who have significant turnover in their business and not consultants who are vendor agnostic .

Is it Sunset for SAP !

I am no new comer to SAP and have seen it swallow companies and enforce inflexibility in its process and stifle innovation ! I have had a few consulting stints where I have had mixed success in making SAP usage flexible and user friendly, but companies still finalize their forecast and balance sheets on data downloaded from the SAP and then used in Excel Sheets. Of course those companies who can afford the connector can directly connect into SAP through Excel.
I know of a company who get repeat orders from its customer  because the SAP system makes it cumbersome to add new vendors, thus depriving the company on introducing new vendors and realizing competitive pricing.
SAP's offering on the cloud was aggressive but the same inflexible systems as a SAAS model has not made much headway !
The best definition of SAP is buy a bundled solution and then pay to get it work in your organization, most often the SAP code gets customized  in many Indian companies that one large group had to make a special deal with SAP for version upgrades which were no longer supported.
In the world of cloud computing SAP may be just blown away as a dinosaurs and businesses look for agility and flexibility and cost effective solutions.
India is one of the largest potential markets for SAP given its low adoption of computing in manufacturing and distribution, but will SAP be able to compete with SAAS vendors and Oracle and Microsoft in India ?
SAP may not be geared for the battle and could  be one of the first victims to the disruptive technology of  Cloud Computing! RIP - the dinosaurs  ruled the world once upon a time !

Oracle CloudWorld 2013

Oracle CloudWorld is coming to your city soon, here is the schedule

Sydney, Australia	March 13	Register Now
Mumbai, India	April 2	Register Now
New York City, United States	April 2	Register Now
Singapore, Singapore	April 4	Register Now
Tokyo, Japan	April 9	詳しくはこちら
Frankfurt, Germany	Coming Soon	Notify me when registration opens
London, England	Coming Soon	Notify me when registration opens
Mexico City, Mexico	May 7 http://www.oracle.com/events/global/en/cloudworld/register/index.html

I wonder if it is too late for Oracle to get into the cloud computing bandwagon ?
Oracle suffers from its database centered marketing, which is under threat with Big Data solutions.
Oracle has to play catch up on Big Data now though it still retains its grip on its citadels in the Banking and Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI) sector
Oracle has some of the best business applications in the world either their own or acquired, Oracle has  done a fair job of integrating the various acquisitions into a single platform. But its complacency on not willing  launch them as SAAS services has cost them dearly in getting their rightful place in the cloud computing world.
Even Oracle's foray into the operating system world with acquisition of SUN has been lukewarm, with SUN hardware and operating systems being bundled with Oracle database.
Oracle had the best database, business applications, operating systems, hardware environment and  a hands on leader who is one of the greatest Marketing Gurus in the IT world.
Finally Oracle has been a non-starter on the mobility and social media space, maybe because of the rigidity and culture of database creation which holds it back. It has not built any solutions in this space from its labs or by acquisition . Hence Oracle is weak in dominating  end point devices which play a significant role in Cloud Computing deployment.

Will Oracle give up its past laurels on focus on the cloud which is the "Future of Computing" or will it also start slipping like Microsoft in Cloud Computing?
Look forward to  Oracle's vision for Cloud Computing in the Oracle CloudWorld 2013!

Will love to hear your comments and thoughts on this blog post, thankyou.

New Banks in India need Cloud Computing

The Indian regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently agreed to provide licences to a number of new Banks in India with a caveat of serving the under banked population.
The promoters of these Banks will be scurrying with their consultants to hire CIO/CTO from other Banks to get off their Core Banking Systems off the ground before they can launch their banks.
It will be good for them to pause for a moment and consider Cloud Computing as a vehicle for their technology launch and here are some of the benefits

Cloud Computing will be the dawn of a new technology paradigm for Indian Banks. 

1. Time to Market will be in weeks rather then months so they can start their operations ASAP, especially if they adopt a SAAS based Banking solution. (e.g. the cloud based core banking solution offered by NABARD through Wipro and TCS).
2. They will operate in an Opex model, which means capital will not be locked into traditional technology capex investments. 
3. Agility  in their business will make launch of new and innovative products a breeze.
4. The under banked population can be easily reached from any device that can connect to the banks cloud Infrastructure. 
5. The significant savings in technology operation costs will be of immense benefit to the bank. 
6. They can focus on Banking rather then tackling information technology constraints and challenges. 
7. The regulator will support this initiative because this is not the first cloud computing banking solution in India. 

In a few months time we can spot the technology winners in these new banks and I am sure that the banks that adopt cloud computing will be at the top of the list. 

Financial Exchanges Forecast 2012

Seasons Greetings and  Good Luck in 2012.

1. Many Financial Exchanges will declare bankruptcy in 2012 creating a flurry of transnational merger of exchanges.

2. Financial Exchanges will move their trading engines to a shared technology infrastructure like cloud computing to bring down their technology cost.

3. Rating Agencies will play a major role by stabilizing global equity markets after the regulator tames their independence by introducing reforms in their rating methodologies.

4. Cloud will be predominantly used for algorithmic and similar computer driven trading, which will make markets operations  cost effective and profitable. 

5. SAAS (Software as a Service Models) will emerge for financial exchanges to use as a service, though it may face resistance from regulators, but this paradigm shift will make technology solutions for financial trading engines a commodity with a Opex budget and will find large scale adoptions by exchanges globally in but developed and developing markets.

6. Traders will stay ahead of Regulators and Exchanges and will continue to make money thus sustaining  the joys and rewards of trading in financial markets.

Cloud Forecast 2012

Cloud forecast for 2012 

Cloud Computing will spread like this Banyan Tree Nourishing Computing Globally. 

1. Amazon and Microsoft will lead, and Cisco, HP, IBM and others will have a tough fight for the third place in the Cloud Computing Business. 

2. Thousands of SAAS Mobile Applications will be launched using the cloud in 2012, you could even have applications for monitoring your dogs health and diet, including posting photos and similar applications.
3. There will be a number of outages among smaller cloud service providers and this will lead to tighter regulation of cloud computing and also trigger a wave of Mergers with stronger cloud service providers.
4. Cyber Attacks will increase many fold using the cloud as the base for launching these attacks, Security professionals will need to gear for many sleepless nights in 2012 to stay ahead of the cyber criminals.
5. Business Leaders will aggressively bring cloud adoption mainstream and it will be a great year for businesses to save costs and cloud service providers will make windfall profits.
6. A number of cloud computing companies will go public by mid 2012 creating wealth for these pioneers in cloud computing services.
Seasons Greetings and  Good Luck in 2012.

VC will fund SaaS Solutions in Cloud

As the global economy continues its roller coaster ride the VC has become selective in their funding. 

The one category which the VC will fund are Saas Solutions in the Cloud.

What is the criteria to attract the VC's interest and get the funds you badly need to grow your business.

Photo Courtesy Ajay Gopal.

1. You need a running application which is a SaaS solution in the cloud.

2. You must have an monthly income on the use of your solution with a projected growth of 50% quarter to quarter. 

3. The solution must be unique and if possible you must have a few patents or IPR on some processes. Thus creating a barrier for replication. 

5. It could be in any industry vertical or any consumer/corporate segment. 

If you meet the five criteria above the VC will be calling at your door with the cheque and for their share in growing your business.

You need a great SaaS solution idea which can be developed in the cloud and a credit card to buy cloud services and finally a small team to weave it all together on the cloud. 

All the best to your dreams and ambitions and if the VC does not fund you give me a call and if I like the idea I will fund your company. 

Footnote : Facebook is a SaaS solution in the cloud.