KEEP IT SIMPLE
Author Archive
The Call for Basic Numeracy
There seems to be some good discussion in the blogosphere that has been sparked by Michael Vizard’s recent blog post calling for a Business Intelligence Institute. I’d like to continue that conversation. It’s my claim that the most fundamental issue that challenges companies regarding their success with BI is not what people have traditionally blamed. [...]
A Visionary Who Thinks Clouds Will Cloud His Vision
There’s an interesting article on Forbes.com called A Cloud Filled Debate. The article interviews Michael Saylor, the CEO of Microstrategy, about the on-demand trend. I’ve always thought Michael was a smart guy, and he’s always positioned himself as a visionary thinker. So, I was pretty surprised when Michael proceeded to belittle the on-demand market, [...]
Business Intelligence Industry Healthcheck
Recently, we’ve been working with many companies to deliver what we call LucidEra Pipeline Healthchecks. It’s a free assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your pipeline, your sales people, and your sales process. There’s nothing you need to do except provide us access to your sales data, and the results are ready in 48 [...]
Using Analytics to Avoid Wasting Time
One of my favorite bloggers is Garth Moulton from Jigsaw. He’s a great guy, and if you ever need a little procrastination (and some good insights too) in your day, check out his blog. Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Garth at a LucidEra marketing event, which Garth referred to in [...]
Don’t Confuse “Simple” with “Throw Away”
Last week, Ephraim Schwartz posted a blog called “Is SaaS Just Throwaway Software?” The main premise is:
“… some companies are using SaaS as an interim solution. Try it for a year, two, maybe three, and when the time is right, dump it for something better. That something better could be another SaaS application, [...]
IBM is Completely Missing the Boat on Business-Analysis-As-A-Service
As Darren Cunningham already mentioned, Rob Ashe (general manager of IBM’s business intelligence and performance management unit) commented that “BI doesn’t lend itself to SaaS” in an interview. His explanation is:
“Every company is different because even if transaction systems are the same the decision making process is different. Unlike Netsuite or a CRM application [...]
Selling SaaS to the Enterprise
Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of being a guest lecturer for a class being taught by Chuck DeVita at Stanford. The topic was “Selling SaaS to the Enterprise.” I was impressed with the questions that the class asked. I’ve included a few of the questions below, with my answers.
Q: Are you [...]
Transforming Marketing’s Traditional 4 P’s into SaaS’s 5 A’s
If you’ve ever been involved with Marketing, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the classic “4 P’s” of Marketing: Product, Pricing, Placement, Promotion. Since the 1960’s, the marketing function has been historically focused on what products to build, how to price them, where and how to distribute them, and how to advertise them.
But, just as SaaS has [...]
What’s in Store for Business Intelligence in 2008
It’s that time of year again. Everyone from George Bush to journalists to my next door neighbor whips out their crystal ball and predicts what’s in store for 2008. So, I’ve dusted off my own crystal ball and joined the fray. Here are my Predictions for Business Intelligence in 2008:
1) SaaS BI will continue to [...]
SAP’s acquisition of Business Objects, a.k.a. Oracle’s acquisition of Siebel, part II
For a sum of $6.8B, years of speculation were ended when SAP announced its acquisition of Business Objects yesterday. The thing that strikes me as a curious is, after so many years of stating that Business Objects is more of an acquirer than an acquiree, why did Business Objects’ management decide to sell the [...]
Ken Rudin is the VP of Market Development at LucidEra. He co-founded the on-demand business intelligence company in 2005. Ken is a veteran of the rapidly growing software as a service industry with over 7 years of experience as an executive with leading on-demand software vendors. These include roles at Salesforce.com, at Netsuite (as an advisor), and at Siebel's on-demand division.
Darren Cunningham is the Director of Product Marketing at LucidEra. Prior to joining LucidEra he was the Category Director for salesforce.com AppExchange Analytics and Data Management. Before joining the on-demand world, he spent over 7 years at Business Objects.