The Indicee Blog

Reflecting upon Sage Insights 2010

by Scott Pledger on May 22nd, 2010

I am back in the office after a whirlwind trip to Denver for the annual Sage Insights conference. This 2010 edition was my first as a Sage alumnus and I came away with a feeling that not only is Sage, and its ecosystem of partners, world-class in business but also as people. I guess I knew this all along, but sometimes it takes time away to truly appreciate it.

Here are a few of my conference observations:

Cloud computing is moving to the forefront of the Sage product strategy. In his keynote presentation, Himanshu Palsule, EVP of product strategy and marketing, called cloud computing one of two major trends to capitalize upon and introduced Sage North America’s cloud-based “connected services” as a key product strategy pillar. Connected services take “the richness of on-premise applications and connect to the reach of cloud-based services.” The launches of Sage SalesLogix Cloud and Sage Fundraising Online are examples of Sage dipping a toe in the “cloud” water (does that make it “rain”?)

Visitors at Indicee's booth at Sage Insights keenly interested in Cloud BI....or maybe Craig was sharing another uproarious story from trade shows past.

Business intelligence continues to gain in prominence within the Sage community. This year’s conference featured an entire presentation track dedicated to business intelligence, analysis, and reporting. And if the buzz at the Indicee booth was any indication, the opportunities for cloud-based analysis and reporting solutions are immense. Business partners outlined the challenges that clients are facing when it comes to creating and updating reports especially when the data resides in multiple systems such as Sage ERP MAS or Sage ERP Accpac and SageCRM. Conversations also revealed that the complexity and costs of typical on-premise BI solutions are often barriers to adoption.

Sage ERP Accpac – still near and dear to me – continues to garner much attention as the ERP of the future (very near future with Version 6 beta just around the corner); the slick user interface and improved workflow continue to impress. Kudos to the product team under the leadership of Scott Zandbergen, Erik Kaas, Alok Tyagi, and others.

The Simply Accounting group under the stewardship of Jamie Sutherland continues to be one of the most innovative teams in the Sage family. They have followed up on the success of Billing Boss, the online invoicing tool, with a mobile payment processing solution called Payment Boss.

Sage continues to be the “partner’s choice” for top vendor–forthrightness, integrity, and accessibility are a few of the words that come to mind to describe Sage. Speaking with fellow attendees and trolling the online forums, common themes are the positive feeling about the Sage team and a real bullishness about the Sage strategy.

A big shout-out to the entire Sage team for pulling off another successful Insights conference. Can’t wait until Sage Summit 2011 in DC.

Keep dialed into this channel for more Indicee news including the upcoming launch of our iPhone & iPad mobile reporting application (incidentally, Himanshu indicated that mobility was the other key trend influencing Sage product direction).

Scott Pledger

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Filed under: Accounting, Analysts, Asking questions, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Company News, Events, Indicee Product, Industry, Industry Insights, Marketing, SAAS, software as a service
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Tourist in Techie Land: Reporting from Cloudcamp Vancouver

by Geoff Devereux on March 17th, 2010

During introductory remarks for Cloudcamp Vancouver this past Saturday one of the organizers asked the group, ‘how many of you are technical people and how many are “from the business side”?’. The split was about 70/30 for the technical side.  The witty rejoinder to this result was something about why having it on a Saturday is a good idea – ‘only the technical guys would think this is a good way to spend a Saturday’. I saw one guy wearing a shirt that said, “I’d rather be surfing”, but the picture was of an open laptop.  Okay, so I’m joking about that last bit.  But, as a non-techie attending on behalf of Indicee, I was definitely in the minority.  Hence the “tourist” designation.

Here’s my thoughts on the day.

For the uninitiated, Cloudcamps are workshop-based events where the participants decide the curriculum at the beginning of the day.  Then, they spend the rest of the day talking about their main areas of interest with respect to “Cloud Computing“.  This can even include spirited, in fact heated, debate about how one defines Cloud Computing.

For our purposes, we can define Cloud Computing as what Indicee does! We deliver our software online through your browser.  And, our back office exists pretty much entirely on Amazon Web Services (EC2).  The Cloud. As a side note, I was delighted to hear that EC2 generously donates computing time to University of British Columbia (UBC) students to help build for the future.

That said, like a cloud, the definition is definitely nebulous and within the tech community it’s a moving target (to say the least). On Saturday, Dave Nielsen (Clouderati), stated a good working definition, I think.  Cloud is 1) managed, 2) self-serve and 3) on demand.  Dave is one of the founders of Cloudcamp.

Cloud is the essence of Software as a service, and we, Indicee, are the quintessential Saas provider.  We get all of our computing power and data storage metered like you get electricity from your local utility.

Destination Cloudcamp

So far over 15,000 people have participated in Cloudcamps worldwide.  The events are organized as an “unconference” which means, in short, Embrace The Chaos.  The organizers basically provide a blank canvas (within the context of Cloud) and with the help of an impromptu panel some topics are generated to fill up the breakout sessions later in the day.

Everyone involved brought their A-game so we were able to have a lot of fun collaborating on what the day would end up looking like.  The list of “official” organizers is here, but the cool thing about an unconference is that we ALL became organizers.

In the end seven sessions were defined:

- Intro to Cloud Computing
- Cloud Management & Interoperability
- Designing for the Cloud & Best Practices
- Cloud Computing for Large Enterprises
- Security, Privacy, and Trust
- Scaleable Data Management (SQL vs noSQL)
- Enterprise Integration

If I can, I’d just like to pick out one thing from each of the sessions I attended to give you the flavour of the day.  Looking at my word count, I’m already pushing the bounds of net-friendly postings.  For more info, you can check out the Flip Notes from the day here.

Session #1: Cloud Management & Interoperability

Troy Angrignon kept a blistering pace through this lively roundtable in order to get through the points in good time.  The question of Vendor Lock-in was the overriding concern by a wide margin.  IT-guys are uber-paranoid of being held hostage and having their data held hostage.  It makes sense.  Once bitten, twice shy.  IT has a ton of baggage from the last generation of computing.  I don’t have the hubris to say “it’s different this time”, but I would say the issue is less difficult in a Cloud world than it was in the client/server world.  I hadn’t realized how intense these concerns were.  Good to know.

Session #2: Designing for the Cloud & Best Practices

Without being too facetious, my main takeaway is probably that I was in the wrong session.  This one was more of a how-to with respect to understanding the technology layers that make up a Cloud App; when to expect bottlenecks, and what to do about them.  Looking at the Flip Notes I think the Large Enterprises session would have held more value for me.  Know for next time.  Trevor O and Dave did a good job, it just wasn’t my bag.

Session #3: Scaleable Data Management – SQL or noSQL

I was really looking forward to this session because it had the potential to turn into an epic nerdfight.  All it would have taken is the presence of one militant, dogmatic ideologue on either side of the debate.  Unfortunately, our group was exceedingly rational and brought nuanced and balanced views.  My friend and colleague, Ryan Prociuk, really showed his chops on the subject bringing a ton of knowledge and experience to the group.

I won’t burden you with the gory details of this one.  Suffice to say, database are not one size fits all.

For now, just know the complexities of SQL (Structured Query Language) could be compared to writing macros in Excel. Tricky.  Here at Indicee, we prefer to let users ask questions using plain English.  It cuts down on the angst.

The highlight of the session, and indeed the DAY, was clearly Dave’s anecdote about running 50 million users on only 1 Oracle database.  It takes a fair bit of “wizardry” to pull something like that off.

Like the saying goes: “Plan for failure”

Aloha

It was a great day.  To everyone who came out, good on ya.  To everyone I was able to connect with, good times.  And to the sponsors, thanks. Leave a comment!

Meeting of the minds

Great local art in the Venue foyer

Enjoy!

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Filed under: Cloud Computing, Events, Industry Insights, SAAS, culture, software as a service
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Cloud Computing Enables Self-serve BI

by Mark Cunningham on February 22nd, 2010

If you are the average Internet user, you probably think the term “cloud” refers to weather. But every time you use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linked-In or Flickr you are “living in the cloud?” Cloud computing is the next stage in the Internet’s evolution, providing the means through which everything — from computing power and infrastructure, applications and business processes to personal collaboration — can be delivered to you as a pay-per-use service, wherever and whenever you need. Momentum for cloud computing is building and it is on the verge of a tipping point. Malcolm Gladwell’s concept of the tipping point is defined as “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.” Interestingly, it is the consumer market that has driven cloud computing to this tipping point but the corporate world has shifted into position to drive the next phase of cloud growth.

Amazon Changes the Game

Amazon is the ultimate consumer company, making something as simple as buying a book, a customized and easy customer experience. Amazon has applied their deep consumer knowledge to cloud computing. After years of designing and developing their own platform for Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos took this knowledge and intellectual property and spun it into a new business, now leading the charge in cloud computing platforms. Platforms like Amazon’s are known as “infrastructure as a service,” providing businesses with extremely cost effective alternatives to traditional IT models. Other platforms gaining traction include Microsoft’s Azure, but Amazon enjoyed a strong head start. Cloud platforms like Amazon’s allow software vendors to launch new applications at break-neck speed, paying only for what they need, by the hour. This model is revolutionizing the IT world and the up-time guarantees in the cloud are better than most internal IT organizations can offer. The interconnecting and scaling services hosted in the cloud enable IT professionals and other software vendors to link applications in endless creative and unique ways, enabling “web mashups.”

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

The cloud is cheap, some would even say ‘dirt cheap’ and it allows a business to off-load all the ugly computing tasks which have overwhelmed IT departments for years, from both a cost and resources perspective. Cloud computing allows a business to pay for computing power, based on actual usage, at a rate of 10 cents an hour. The recent global financial crisis has changed the way we think about our economy. Consumers and organizations are actively seeking simple and lower cost alternatives to just about everything. Using the cloud allows businesses to prototype and launch new initiatives faster and at a price point that is unmatched. A user can create a simple software as a service application, build a prototype in a day, create an account on Amazon Web Services, and make the application available to consumers in minutes. Furthermore, a Twitter feed can produce a thousand instant alpha users. No sales people, no marketing, only the cloud and a social network.

People Drive Change

Cheap and easy is critical but ultimately it is people that drive change. The popularity of cloud computing is due in part to a whole generation of users who have been chatting, texting, tweeting, and facebooking since they could walk. Online collaboration and public content sharing is the norm for these users and the cloud is part of their DNA.

But cloud use is also growing because of the many users in organizations who have been forced to endure cumbersome enterprise software applications, ridiculous IT policies, and limited visibility into disparate business data. These are the people who have been exposed to consumer applications like Facebook and Flickr and now expect their business software to be as easy to use.

Ultimately, the most exciting change-driver is IT. Old school IT is starting to change and will be the biggest adopter of cloud in the enterprise. IT is finally realizing the suitable role of enabling business success and results, rather than maintaining systems, fighting fires and ensuring job security. IT managers seem to agree on the need to find the best technology to address their business issues in the most cost effective way possible, whether it be in the cloud or on-premise. Cloud technology removes the need for physical hardware and infrastructure security requirements, which allows IT to devote more resources to higher priorities tasks that will improve productivity gains. Moreover, IT is realizing that the need to listen closely to the knowledge of workers at the frontline of an organization, who are demanding simpler, easier and more collaborative applications. Cloud computing addresses all of these issues which explains the massive adoption of cloud applications like Saleforce.com, Google, Amazon and many others.

The Cloud meets Self-serve BI

The cloud will have a huge impact on business intelligence over the next few years and is fueling the growth in self-serve BI. Demand for simple, cost effective self-serve BI is not new. Crystal Reports was originally envisioned as an out of the box, easy to use application for every user in an organization. But business intelligence like Crystal Reports has never really reached the ‘Promised Land’. Only 20% of people in an enterprise organization use business intelligence, mostly because it just isn’t that accessible to an average user.

True self-serve BI should allow a user to search for and locate a solution online, access and load their own data, create their own reports and dashboards, and invite, share and collaborate with other users. Ideally, it also means they can research and buy a BI application online without the assistance of a sales person.

Can the self-serve barrier finally be broken? The cloud is the best thing to happen to BI, making it possible for users to find, try, buy, analyze, share, collaborate, and learn.

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Filed under: Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, SAAS, software as a service
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Is Cloud Computing in your Company Culture?

by Mark Cunningham on February 9th, 2010

The terms “Cloud Computing” and “Software as a Service (SaaS)” are relatively new buzz phrases that have been flying around both the technology and business communities for the past few years. While these concepts might appear to be new and “radical” the reality is the implementation of these buzz phrases has been around for a number of years and there are a number of companies who have been using these technologies for years to provide both businesses and consumers with useful online products.

So why is the first question I get from IT and business executives, “How Secure is Indicee?” Each time I get this question I struggle with whether I should express my “inside head voice” or my “outside head voice.” Logic usually prevails and I take the high road. I know that most of the questions simply stem from a desire to the maintain the privacy and control of their corporate data. What is funny is that most of these executives don’t see the vulnerabilities they face in their current “inside the firewall” methodologies that are, in many cases, far more vulnerable than any of the current cloud technologies used today. Not to mention the huge security holes they have with employees being able email corporate data in spreadsheets and documents to just about anyone.

At the end of the day this debate really depends on which “lens” you choose to look at the world through. My belief is that the choice between using “cloud” or “inside the firewall” is first and foremost cultural. I see 3 cultural lenses most often and these lenses tend to follow Geoffrey Moore’s Technology Adoption Life Cycle curve

  1. Innovators Lens – these are the people or companies that are the first to hear about new technology and adopt it quicker than the vendors can produce it. When we talk to the IT and business leaders in innovative companies like this they are near polar opposite to laggards(see below). These are the companies that are trying to find as many ways to push everything they can into the cloud. Indicee’s operations are like this. We live in the cloud….Google Docs, Slide Rocket, Salesforce.com, Version 1, Amazon Web Services, Basecamp and a bunch more. If Stephanie, our sales goddess, tells me her computer spontaneously combusted I don’t have to ask her if she had it backed up. If Craig, our king of partnering, drops his laptop in the moat of Treasure Island while attending a conference I only need to ask how many beer he had. Everything we need is in the cloud, secure and waiting for us no matter what computer we are on. As you can see this lens has a very different view and the scenery is spectacular from my balcony. My advice to these companies….the wave is here RIDE IT!

  2. Wait and See Lens - “I don’t know about that cloud computing stuff….I know it seems to be hot and people are talking about it but I am just not sure.” This is a common statement I hear from both business and IT people in all sizes of organizations. The indecisiveness is a major challenge for these organizations especially when they dabble in the new technologies but they never fully commit to trying them in specific areas of the business. Instead they burn up endless cycles dabbling while maintaining the status quo of what they already have. These companies would be better served by making more clear and decisive decisions. SaaS services are amazing for doing small projects to determine their viability, they are low cost, easy to get going and if you don’t like them they are easy to kick to the curb. With SaaS and cloud computing you can actually be an innovator while you hold steady on your current course, something that has been historically more challenging to do with traditional enterpirse on-premise software. While the Wait and See crowd tends to take longer to change, they are much more open and receptive to the learning and change than a Laggard is. Wait and See types need validation from others, they need proof, they need trust and they need buy in from the rest of their peers. My advice to companies with this culture..pick something and DO IT! Live the Nike mantra and go for it.

  3. Laggards Lens -  I have met and visited with thousands of companies over the course of my career and what I have learned is that no matter how many facts, figures and benefits you put in front of a person(or company) if they are fundamentally apposed to it, culturally, you are probably not going to change their mind. Here is a simple, real world example of a conversation I have had with a Director of IT for $100M sporting goods manufacturing and distribution company: “The Founder of our business is an old school guy…he doesn’t even use email but he does use a phone. There is no way he is going to let us move our data outside the four walls of this building. As a matter of fact he only wants 4 people on the executive team to see any type of corporate data!” And that, my friends, is an exact quote. That is usually my cue to ask, “what is the quickest route back to the airport from here?” I actually like companies like this because I can see the lens they see the world through and I can quickly determine that our company and their company are probably not destined to do business together. Well, until the succession plan has been implemented and the founder has decided to move on. My only message to companies that adopt this type of culture…..have a listen to Bob Dylan’s “These Times They are A-Changin’”


So what does all of this have to do with the question,, “How Secure is Indicee?”  The answer is highly dependent on your cultural lens your company looks through. If you are an innovator, you already believe that the cloud is better, more secure and more reliable. It is built into your DNA. If you are laggard, well this “Cloud dog don’t hunt.”  If you are anywhere in between, then you just need to start hanging out with the innovators more often!

So what cultural lens does your company look through?

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Filed under: Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Industry Insights, SAAS, software as a service
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Ghost of Software Salesguys Past

by Geoff Devereux on January 20th, 2010

We are greatly influenced by our experiences.  As a child, the hand reaches out to a hot stove only once.

The last couple posts have talked about legacy issues; legacy IT systems, legacy education.  Today I’d like to talk about another actor in the Legacy IT Show, the classic software salesman (circa. 2004).

This guy (above) may or may not be selling software, but does the song and dance sound familiar? I’ve sat on both sides of the table. Listening to salesguys pitch software to me as a purchaser, and doing the accounting & finance work in a company selling enterprise software.  Software, as an industry, is still an infant relative to most other industries; and with youth, comes growing pains.  Here’s the story on both sides.

Listening to pitches, sitting through demos, taking notes only to be asked by a Director, “what would it cost if we just built our own?” was crushing.  Or, hearing about how easy a rollout will be (“it’s like lego”) and then, months later, hearing about how it won’t do all that stuff we thought it would do.  Did we send out that cheque yet?

On the sell-side, working with salesmen who could barely operate a computer or use excel well enough to complete an expense report.  There was one colleague who seemed to continually be calling me from the middle of a war zone, god bless ‘em.  The path to hell is paved with good intentions, indeed.

Over the years, I think we were selling more than software. We were selling a dream. And the dream was that somehow this product would magically work and fix all reporting and organizational problems. Presto!

Inevitably, due either to the vagaries of the software development cycle or to a salesguys overly optimistic nature, enterprise software was erroneously peddled as a solution to all life’s problems and the answer to all our prayers.  Coding is an art and the concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) didn’t work in a Web 1.0 kind of world.  It’s easy to forget this was all being pulled out of the air, out of imagination.  We can probably lay a bit of blame on the buyer’s side; I mean, we fell fer it!

Vapourware is the term used to describe selling software that’s still in development although, you could say the same for a solution not fit for the intended purpose.  Which gets us back to our salesguy, our classic software salesman.

A lack of technical expertise, in large part, meant they were simply oblivious to whether it would work or not.  The incentive structure certainly didn’t encourage it.  Once the papers were signed, they’re gone (in some respects that’s as it should be, most of these companies were hemorrhaging cash).  So, it’s a tough rap.  You can’t fault the guys.  There was a level of belief there; they wanted to believe the product would work.  They wanted to believe they could be the next Microsoft.  They wanted to believe their stock options would be worth something.  But they could only believe it because they didn’t know how the product worked.  You follow?

It’s just average guys trying to scratch out a living.  That Beamer doesn’t pay for itself!  If you’re willing to pay for it, we’re willing to do it!

We carry these experiences and memories with us.  Failed implementations.  The project that wouldn’t end.  Lack of adoption.  The work-arounds.  The broken promises, heartbreak, loathing.  It’s all still there lying dormant.  Fool me once and that.

Looking at Saas, the cloud, open APIs, etc, the question now is… can we let go of this baggage and start to trust that the dream is no longer so distant from reality in the software space?  Are we really in an era where systems can talk to each other?  Can share information?  Can snap together like lego?  Or, is it just Vapourware 2.0?

What do you think?  Yes? No? Let’s hear it.

Post Script. After finishing this post, I went to hear Julian Smith (co-author of Trust Agents) speak and he used the “hot burner” analogy. I’m going to go ahead and call that external validation.

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Filed under: Accounting, Business Intelligence, Industry Insights, SAAS, Software, Technology, software as a service
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