Events, dear boy, events.

Really looking forward to a couple of events we've got planned with Qgate. Keep your diaries free for:

23 April: Microsoft HQ, Thames Valley Park, Reading
15 May: Microsoft offices, Victoria, London

The theme is that in tough times hosted CRM enables market-leading business process management, customer retention and business growth.

Our partner QGate is a leading consultancy that time and again has helped businesses of all types discover prove that strategically adopted CRM practices yield meaningful, tangible results. At a time when most businesses need to stay profitable and hold onto customers on demand CRM is a great way of helping organisations to win and hold onto customers.

The agenda is going to be (subject to lightening bolts):

Agenda
09.30 - 10.00: Registration, coffee and networking
10.00 - 10.15: Introduction and welcome - Rowland Dexter, MD QGate
10.15 - 11.00: The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Proposition - Jason Nash, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft
11.00 - 11.20: Demo - Mike Shaw, Microsoft Dynamics CRM consultant, QGate
11.20 - 11.40: Coffee and Networking
11.40 - 12.00: Microsoft Dynamics CRM - A Hosted Solution; Paul Doherty, Sales & Marketing Manager 7global
12.00 - 12.45: QGate's Integrated Solution - Mike Shaw, Microsoft Dynamics CRM consultant, QGate
12.45 - 13.00: Summary, Q&A
13.00 - Close & Networking Lunch

Email me (pdoherty@7global.com) if you'd like to come)

Genesis acquires Increase...and then there were two.

Interesting to read about Genesis's acquisition of Increase CRM earlier this month. The acquisition creates a very large organisation actively promoting hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This has got me thinking and crystallising what I think of the state of play in the UK marketplace.

One trigger to my thought process was pulled when I was asked recently by a partner what I thought about the deal. Was I pleased that there was one less piranha in the tank? Or was a nervous that there was an even bigger shark in the tank that had just eaten the piranha and was now devouring everything in the tank with the ferocity of a starving megaladon? Ok, he didn't phrase it quite like that but briefly that's what it sounded like.

My feelings are that this is a Good Thing. There's no doubt that having a large telco (Genesis), which has acquired what was in all but name a Microsoft Dynamics CRM boutique with a 100% dedication to the hosted market (Increase) has created a powerful competitor.

However, I think 7global's partner network really offers a strong alternative. 7global's partners are large and small, cover the whole of the UK (and a lot of Europe), have specialisms in most verticals, with staff specially trained to deal with those industries.

By acquiring Increase Genesis has definitively moved from a 'wholesale' approach to a full service approach, which will certainly compete with other Dynamics Partners which should heat up the marketplace a little more. As a telco they had a telco approach to CRM, just as 7global has a hosting provider approach. Now they have a Dynamics Partner approach. Will be interesting to see how that pans out.

One advantage of our approach is we can marry our hosting expertise to partners Dynamics CRM expertise which I think creates the more compelling solution. However, if Genesis draws attention to the value of a hosted solution I will be there applauding.

Webinar

We're doing a webinar with Microsoft and Mural entitled 'Coming Of Age with Software-plus-Services' on Thursday 11 March. The dry run is tomorrow so it will be interesting to see how that goes. It should be interesting for ISVs. There's a lot of good stuff coming out of Mural regarding the S +S Incubation Centre Program at the moment. I'm genuinely impressed.

Also, the SaaS/S + S marketplace is so different nowadays to what it was say 3 years ago. Then, it was very difficult to talk about the business benefits as you were too bogged down in the concept. These days the awareness is so much more and you don't have to argue the corner quite so vociferously as you once had to.

I think the main thing is everyone's living on the web now. They're twittering and Facebooking, buying online and booking online. Business applications such as hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM, or our ISV partners SaaS apps are a logical conclusion.

You can always take me to task on the 11th if you disagree. Or blog it, or twitter it, or send me an email from your hosted mail account...

There's snow business like the hosting business

Ok- so I just had to get that in! Can’t believe the weather. It’s like a winter from the seventies. All we need now is an economic crisis…oh.

I haven’t had time to get chilly though. It’s been a busy few weeks since my last post. We managed to get a nice case study out which we did with Microsoft on the UK Home Offfice and our ISV partner Matrix Decisions.

It’s on aspirahub, a rather cool application Matrix has rolled out to a number of clients using the S + S model. It automates data collection, analysis, and aggregation processes for corporate reporting, including health and safety and environmental reports. A great argument for security (it’s good to see a client really utilise and rely on all the security we roll out at our Liverpool DC).

Incubating ideas in the City of Light

I was also in Paris last week for the (deep breath) Microsoft S + S Incubation Center Program Business Design Session Update meeting. In short, this was a refresh of some of the materials we’ve been using to help ISVs bring deliver their software using a pay as you go, S + S model.

One thing I noticed was the value Business Design Session actually add to the business. Having been at the receiving end of one (and subsequently run them ourselves) I was bowled over at how looking at your own organisation from the outside can make you think differently. It can be a little discomforting about what you’re getting wrong, but you are really energised to go and fix it and there’s loads of good that comes out of them.

We do these sessions for £1,500 for a day (we throw in 3 months hosting on a Standard Managed Server On Demand Server) but looking at the work that goes into the materials and the value of the day I was genuinely reminded of the value. That said, they’re not for the weak or fain to heart. They’re pretty gruelling affairs- but then getting things right can be exhausting.

You say SaaS, I say S + S, let’s call the whole thing On Demand

One other thing that came out is the confusion over the nomenclature for SaaS or S + S. I’m suffering from verbal schizophrenia because just as people are getting their heads round SaaS, Microsoft comes up with software-plus-services just to be awkward.

I want to keep calling it SaaS, because that’s what people are getting to know it as, but then as a Microsoft Gold partner we need to rap like the dudes in Seattle to keep the messages joined up.

There's an element of arguing about how many angels can dance on a pin head, but there's more to it than that. It's about making a great proposition understandable. I think this one will rumble on.

I think I’ll bottle it and call it On Demand. That’s that sorted.

Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM

We’re currently looking at really going at vertical with this at the moment. Got some exciting things in the pipeline so watch this space.

New Year, New Hangover, New Challenges

So, 2008’s gone and 2009 is here. 2008 is already being clumsily auto archived by my brain so it now seems like a year ago as opposed to a few days. However, addled by Christmas and New Year festivities though my poor brain is, I think it is on to something. 2009 certainly will be throwing up brand new challenges in the marketplace and as firms seem to be going bust everyday, knowing who will be here and who will not is a scary consideration.

That said, from 7global’s perspective the message we can bring to businesses is, if anything, even stronger. Essentially, organisations still need cutting edge IT solutions to compete. I would say that is even more important as margins are cut and marketplace is squeezed. Rather than employing new staff or redirecting existing employees I think we have an extremely powerful ‘spend money with us to save money’ message.

Take hosted applications, like Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Exchange. Why spend money building and maintaining an infrastructure, 24 x 7 management, buying hardware and training staff unless absolutely necessary (I concede there will be times when on premise is the only solution)?

Take bespoke managed hosting. Why go through the very real pain of providing a top tier hosting environment when you can plumb in your solution to an existing infrastructure (preferably ours!) which manages all the pain for you? Or hire consultants to specify solutions when we can do that for you as well as deploy it?

Take outsourced network services. With 7global managing firewall, SSL-VPNs and other on premise devices it can take the hassle and cost out of using new or existing staff on doing something on which we can bring our engineering and support teams, not to mention special relations with vendors such as SonicWALL and Cisco, to bear.

Something to ponder over your Alka-Seltzer, perhaps…

Christmas is coming, the inbox is getting fat

Christmas. It has come around with alarming, terrifying speed. It seems like what has already been a manically busy year is getting more manic, like some kind of crazed Greek dance.

Anyway, there's plenty of time for mince pies. What I really want to talk about is the mad, bad and dangerous world of product development. Not what necessarily springs to mind when one thinks of untrammelled anarchy but it can be unless you're disciplined. Having done this a thousand times, and I'm currently doing it again, this focuses the mind.

We're currently reviewing 7global's hosted services, and working on an addition to come out in the New Year. It's one of these products we've been doing in a 'soft' way for years. Now we're re-engineering it for public consumption so I'm eating and sleeping R & D at the moment.

I've found unsuccessful (or at least overlong, underwhelming products and services) are 100% always the result of lack of process. The best ideas, the most original concepts, the most fecund potential markets mean nothing when execution is poor. The result can resemble a bar room brawl in a Western:

*Smash* the CTO shatters a whisky bottle over the Marketing Director's head.
*Crash* the Support Manager hurls the Sales Director onto the ubiquitous poker game table.
*Thunk* the FD floors the Presales Lead before being thrown into the piano player, bringing the rendition of Camp Town Lady to an abrupt halt.

To avoid these unseemly scenes I think there are 5 key steps to take to get this right, forged over the years on the anvil of failure and success. Like so many sensible steps they look simple but are harder to stick to. Worth re-iterating, though.

1. Getting started.

This needs to be the loosest stage. Brainstorming, looking at the competition, establishing clear ambitions for the product. Make sure people are relaxed- some of the best ideas can follow on from the worst at this stage. And vice versa.

2. Planning

You need to look hard at the intended scope. What can it do? What benefits will it deliver? What do people want? Too many times, people focus on the technology without thinking about the customer.

Product Team: "Oooh- look what it can do!"
Customer: "So?"
Product Team: "But look! It does that!"
Customer: "So?"

Strategy and scope are essential. Timelines, costs, resources must all be finalised to make sure everyone is on the same page.

3. Delivery

Making sure everyone is communicating is one of the most important aspects. Working in splendid isolation usually means things don't fit together when you sit down to review. "Oh, I see. You wanted it to do that."

Making sure there's strong project management is essential, too. If you've not done your bit there better be a pretty bloody good explanation.

4. Control

It's essential to keep revisiting the plan. If it's a good one, then it will adapt. The course of technology product development rarely runs smooth. On the plus side, new angles, features and benefits always emerge to enhance your product too. Be careful to manage these new developments (positive and negative) and keep to the objectives and strategy.

5. Launch

Launching a product is often the hardest thing of all. There you need to pull in all the elements of your organisation to understand, market, sell, deliver and support your new clients. Kicking it off in style is also imperative. Never miss an opportunity to sing and dance about the work you've done!

As I say, these are almost truisms. However, I read other people's truisms feeling slightly sheepish that despite their innate truth, I don't follow them myself. So now it's my turn.

Right, time for a bourbon and a game of cards...

SaaS Microsite

We've launched our SaaS microsite. It's essentially a forum to promote some of the fantastic applications on demand our ISV partners are delivering to hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. It's essentially something I've been planning for a while and it was a case of seizing the day to get it underway.



As time goes on we'll be looking to expand the site and integrate it with some third part tools to make it a real portal. As a hosting provider committed to SaaS delivery we want to use as many angles as possible to ensure success for our partner. After all, this reflects on us too!

We've got some great partners so having the likes of large ISVs such as C3, KCS, LexisNexis Visualfiles, KCS and Northgate alongside new, smaller ISVs such as Matrix, PureNet, MS2M and Solarvista is a great advert for SaaS.

Any feedback is welcome on the site, as well comments on how we can build on it and improve.