A friend of mine sent me a link to a page that manages to equate the revolutions spreading across the Middle East to the claimed revolutions included in the latest versions of an ERP system - Pronto.
Who’d a thought it.
All we have to do is hand out copies of Pronto to dictators everywhere and soon democracy will flourish. It will flourish, basically, because the dictators will be so busy pouring resources into managing and running the ERP system that they won’t have the people to stifle dissent and murder the opposition. That and the fact that the maintenance fees will bankrupt their regimes.
I know Pronto. I’ve worked at a few sites where they use it.
Its an okay piece of work. Is it able to contribute to global democracy and freedom of the oppressed? I think that’s a bit of a stretch. The fact that the piece was written by the Managing Director of Pronto may go some way towards explaining the reason why he’d want to find a way to tie a growing social revolution to his software.
The funny thing is that he also mentions something about Mercedes-Benz doing some sort of ‘lock in’ thing with mobile phones and saying that “they offered hardwired mounts that supported only certain types of mobile phone. This was not a popular offering, and showed how Mercedes had gotten it so wrong when it came to mobile phones. The company did not understand how the mobile was becoming a communications infrastructure that empowers social connectivity. Phones then evolved quickly so that people could use them to express themselves in many ways, making hard-wiring a bad idea.”
He goes on to say “I make and sell business software, and in my world, there is a similar transformation going on today and I believe that in the future it will be regarded as a very profound change. That change is similar to the revolutions in the Middle East. This isn’t hype — it is reality, and the smart companies are already actively transforming”.
Funny thing is Pronto is one of the worst offenders at this sort of thing.
I’d just like to point out to David Jackman that by refusing to free up Pronto from the Wintel centric thin client they use and move to a more open, democratic, platform independent client, like, say a browser (or ideally any browser) he is no better than the regimes that democratising technology is helping to overthrow.
He’s quite proud of the fact that Pronto is a Wintel only platform - it appears that technological democratisation, as far as Pronto is concerned is a good thing to speak of, but not actually execute. Sounds a lot like the statements made by the, now, deposed leaders of Egypt and Tunisia where they’d say - yes we are making steps towards democracy.
Since Mr. Jackman wants to tie his software to the Arab Spring it may be good for him to listen to a suggestion from the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutolglu who said “Leaders of other countries must be aware of the fact that they will be in power as long as they satisfy the demands of the people.”
I know for a fact he has quashed discussion of Mac and browser clients for Pronto by saying, in effect, ‘the customer base doesn’t want it’, despite long discussions about running Pronto on platforms other than Wintel by that same customer base.
This whole puff piece is ego gone mad. Pronto Dimensions is the Arab Spring of enterprise software!?
I’m sure Larry Ellison will quake in his Sperry Topsiders.
Linking the updates in the new version of Pronto to the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia sounds like the blathering of a man who doesn’t hear ‘no’ often enough and cheapens the sacrifices made with blood and lives in both of those countries and continues in Libya and Syria.
His article sounds like a cheap attempt to gain marketing mileage from years of suffering that people in these countries have endured.
Mr. Jackman - let my people go!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
A Brisbane Board Meeting - Hooray!
The time had finally came. I flew up to Brisbane the day before the Board meeting.
I wanted to prepare. This was going to be an unhappy meeting for someone.
The day came and I got a cab over to their office. It was off Coronation Drive so the morning traffic was a struggle.
I arrived and went in. The Financial Controller was in my face almost from the moment I walked in. She wanted to know what I was going to tell the board.
I said “I’m going to give them my professional opinion on what I think is the best solution for this business”.
She was so arrogantly self-absorbed that she didn’t think for a moment that I might say something that wasn’t in agreement with her agenda.
We walked into the Boardroom and got introduced after a few minutes of pleasantries we sat down and the meeting started. The technology stuff was scheduled for the start so at least I didn’t have long to wait.
The man who started the company, I’ll call him Stavros, turned to me and said “What do you think of our new technology strategy?”
“I think its going to waste a lot of money and it won’t give you anything new or unique.”
The Financial Controller nearly burst her brain.
The Board was surprised.
“Look”, I said, “regardless of what you’ve been told, you will have to spend over $400,000 to execute this strategy and you will have no extra functionality. You’re spending that money just to replace everything with Windows machines. You won’t get anything extra to what you have now. You may have the money to throw at this, but, you can spend $400,000 on computers, or, you can spend $400,000 on something that’ll turn into profit.”
Everyone around the table thought about this for a moment.
The Financial Controller gave me the ‘look of death’. I think I was off her Christmas Card list for good.
She was about to launch into a tirade when she was cut off by Stavros. He asked me if using Windows everywhere was what all businesses did.
“A lot of business do. But its expensive. Let me explain.”
The Board nodded.
“A copy of Windows costs you around $350 for an upgrade. A copy of the Mac Operating System costs you $32.00 for an upgrade. You have about 150 computers and you will have to pay for at least one upgrade in the life of a piece of hardware. The maths is simple About $52,000 for Windows and $4,800 for the Mac OS. You’re putting $48,000 in Microsoft’s pocket for nothing really. The operating system doesn’t do anything except the computer to turn on and be ready to do something.”
Just then the Financial Controller jumped in and said, “But no one uses Mac’s in business except for graphics arts companies. We’re in a different business.”
I was about to answer when the Board member who wasn’t involved in the business said, “But the Commonwealth Bank has just gotten rid of 4000 Dell laptops and replaced them with Mac laptops. They’ve got the new branch in Queen Street and there’s lots of Apple equipment in there.”
The Financial Controller’s face turned the same colour as her lipstick…
Stavros turned to her and said that he wanted to see all her financial projections for this move to Windows including all the benefits. He asked me to have a look at them and report back to him.
This meant one more trip to Brisbane. It ended up being memorable.
I’ll tell you how this story finished soon.
I wanted to prepare. This was going to be an unhappy meeting for someone.
The day came and I got a cab over to their office. It was off Coronation Drive so the morning traffic was a struggle.
I arrived and went in. The Financial Controller was in my face almost from the moment I walked in. She wanted to know what I was going to tell the board.
I said “I’m going to give them my professional opinion on what I think is the best solution for this business”.
She was so arrogantly self-absorbed that she didn’t think for a moment that I might say something that wasn’t in agreement with her agenda.
We walked into the Boardroom and got introduced after a few minutes of pleasantries we sat down and the meeting started. The technology stuff was scheduled for the start so at least I didn’t have long to wait.
The man who started the company, I’ll call him Stavros, turned to me and said “What do you think of our new technology strategy?”
“I think its going to waste a lot of money and it won’t give you anything new or unique.”
The Financial Controller nearly burst her brain.
The Board was surprised.
“Look”, I said, “regardless of what you’ve been told, you will have to spend over $400,000 to execute this strategy and you will have no extra functionality. You’re spending that money just to replace everything with Windows machines. You won’t get anything extra to what you have now. You may have the money to throw at this, but, you can spend $400,000 on computers, or, you can spend $400,000 on something that’ll turn into profit.”
Everyone around the table thought about this for a moment.
The Financial Controller gave me the ‘look of death’. I think I was off her Christmas Card list for good.
She was about to launch into a tirade when she was cut off by Stavros. He asked me if using Windows everywhere was what all businesses did.
“A lot of business do. But its expensive. Let me explain.”
The Board nodded.
“A copy of Windows costs you around $350 for an upgrade. A copy of the Mac Operating System costs you $32.00 for an upgrade. You have about 150 computers and you will have to pay for at least one upgrade in the life of a piece of hardware. The maths is simple About $52,000 for Windows and $4,800 for the Mac OS. You’re putting $48,000 in Microsoft’s pocket for nothing really. The operating system doesn’t do anything except the computer to turn on and be ready to do something.”
Just then the Financial Controller jumped in and said, “But no one uses Mac’s in business except for graphics arts companies. We’re in a different business.”
I was about to answer when the Board member who wasn’t involved in the business said, “But the Commonwealth Bank has just gotten rid of 4000 Dell laptops and replaced them with Mac laptops. They’ve got the new branch in Queen Street and there’s lots of Apple equipment in there.”
The Financial Controller’s face turned the same colour as her lipstick…
Stavros turned to her and said that he wanted to see all her financial projections for this move to Windows including all the benefits. He asked me to have a look at them and report back to him.
This meant one more trip to Brisbane. It ended up being memorable.
I’ll tell you how this story finished soon.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Can RIM pull of a Lazarus like resurrection?
Boy Genius Report recently had a piece on RIM and whether Blackberrys with the QNX Operating System will turn their fortunes around.
I’m not going to regurgitate the article here, but, I’m not so sure.
While I have a soft spot for Blackberry and their platform I don’t think that some new, well built hardware and a new OS is going to change the tide for them. Neither is an ‘Android layer’ that lets a Blackberry run Android apps.
Here are some of the practicalities, that I think, get in the way of a resurrected RIM.
The Cool Factor.
The Blackberry isn’t cool any more. I don’t hear of executives lining up at the door to their IT department demanding a Blackberry. An iPhone or an Android phone, yes, but a Blackberry, not so much.
The BES
More and more of the functionality that required a BES is now being found as native features in a wider and wider range of handsets. So why need a BES? If you don’t need a BES what’s the compelling story for a Blackberry over something else?
Blackberry Messenger
This was an awesome tool. Its becoming replicated functionality in other handsets. iOS is looking like its going to have something like it and you can bet that Android and WinMoPho devices will have something very similar as well.
I suppose the question is “if there was no real difference in features and functionality would you buy a Blackberry if you could choose from all the other smartphones out there”?
Sadly, I don’t think I would and I’m not so sure that I’m alone in that thinking.
I’m not going to regurgitate the article here, but, I’m not so sure.
While I have a soft spot for Blackberry and their platform I don’t think that some new, well built hardware and a new OS is going to change the tide for them. Neither is an ‘Android layer’ that lets a Blackberry run Android apps.
Here are some of the practicalities, that I think, get in the way of a resurrected RIM.
The Cool Factor.
The Blackberry isn’t cool any more. I don’t hear of executives lining up at the door to their IT department demanding a Blackberry. An iPhone or an Android phone, yes, but a Blackberry, not so much.
The BES
More and more of the functionality that required a BES is now being found as native features in a wider and wider range of handsets. So why need a BES? If you don’t need a BES what’s the compelling story for a Blackberry over something else?
Blackberry Messenger
This was an awesome tool. Its becoming replicated functionality in other handsets. iOS is looking like its going to have something like it and you can bet that Android and WinMoPho devices will have something very similar as well.
I suppose the question is “if there was no real difference in features and functionality would you buy a Blackberry if you could choose from all the other smartphones out there”?
Sadly, I don’t think I would and I’m not so sure that I’m alone in that thinking.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Good Morning Mr Husic. You mission, should you choose to accept it...
So. Ed Husic has decided to rattle the cage of the IT industry about pricing discrepancies between the US and Australia.
Congratulations Ed. You scored yourself a cheap headline by calling out the Managing Director of Apple Australia - Tony King.
Having been in the ICT industry for a long time I don’t disagree with Ed that the pricing discrepancies between the US and Australia are inexplicable but, seriously Ed, why didn’t you call out Microsoft, or maybe even Adobe - throw Lenovo in there as well.
Two of these three companies have had Australia grabbing their ankles for a long time and their mysterious pricing policies show much wilder discrepancies than Apple does.
Maybe your aides should do a little more research, because, in all honesty Ed. Going for the cheap headline is what I’ve come to expect from a politician. All sizzle and no sausage.
Maybe, Ed, you should get your staff to look at this article that was in IT News Apple by no means the worst Aussie price gouger, Mr Husic.
It gives a little more insight into the problem, with some numbers. I mean really Ed, if you want to have a really good look at some of this stuff maybe you should look at Adobe, and I don’t think anyone has had a real long hard look at Cisco and their pricing policies?
Really Ed if you wanted to become a hero to millions of consumers and even Australian business you should have a good hard look at Microsoft and Adobe. Get their pricing to look a bit more reasonable and you’d give back to Australian business millions of dollars in money spent on software.
The fact is Ed, while I wish something like this would happen, I doubt it will. The reason I doubt it is that as a politician you’re going to want to raise re-election funds. These guys make political donations and it seems to me that no politicians are left in Australia that have the sausage to match their sizzle.
This’ll be another flash in the pan where you can sit back and say “I raised the issue, but, the others wouldn’t back me up so re-elect me and I’ll maintain the rage. I spoke to Treasury. I spoke to the ACCC and they’re the ones who aren’t doing anything.”
Yeah. Right Ed. The only rage you’ll end up maintaining is if they raise the prices in the members bar.
I’d like to think you’ll prove me wrong, but, somehow I doubt it. If you were serious, I mean really serious, about this maybe you should spend some time talking to people on the ground in the ICT industry rather than using having a sit down with the MD of Apple Australia.
Talk to the guys who have to make IT work in small to medium businesses who run into daily examples of price discrimination in order to keep their businesses running efficiently.
I don’t think you’d do that Ed. There’s no headline in it for you.
Congratulations Ed. You scored yourself a cheap headline by calling out the Managing Director of Apple Australia - Tony King.
Having been in the ICT industry for a long time I don’t disagree with Ed that the pricing discrepancies between the US and Australia are inexplicable but, seriously Ed, why didn’t you call out Microsoft, or maybe even Adobe - throw Lenovo in there as well.
Two of these three companies have had Australia grabbing their ankles for a long time and their mysterious pricing policies show much wilder discrepancies than Apple does.
Maybe your aides should do a little more research, because, in all honesty Ed. Going for the cheap headline is what I’ve come to expect from a politician. All sizzle and no sausage.
Maybe, Ed, you should get your staff to look at this article that was in IT News Apple by no means the worst Aussie price gouger, Mr Husic.
It gives a little more insight into the problem, with some numbers. I mean really Ed, if you want to have a really good look at some of this stuff maybe you should look at Adobe, and I don’t think anyone has had a real long hard look at Cisco and their pricing policies?
Really Ed if you wanted to become a hero to millions of consumers and even Australian business you should have a good hard look at Microsoft and Adobe. Get their pricing to look a bit more reasonable and you’d give back to Australian business millions of dollars in money spent on software.
The fact is Ed, while I wish something like this would happen, I doubt it will. The reason I doubt it is that as a politician you’re going to want to raise re-election funds. These guys make political donations and it seems to me that no politicians are left in Australia that have the sausage to match their sizzle.
This’ll be another flash in the pan where you can sit back and say “I raised the issue, but, the others wouldn’t back me up so re-elect me and I’ll maintain the rage. I spoke to Treasury. I spoke to the ACCC and they’re the ones who aren’t doing anything.”
Yeah. Right Ed. The only rage you’ll end up maintaining is if they raise the prices in the members bar.
I’d like to think you’ll prove me wrong, but, somehow I doubt it. If you were serious, I mean really serious, about this maybe you should spend some time talking to people on the ground in the ICT industry rather than using having a sit down with the MD of Apple Australia.
Talk to the guys who have to make IT work in small to medium businesses who run into daily examples of price discrimination in order to keep their businesses running efficiently.
I don’t think you’d do that Ed. There’s no headline in it for you.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO - its iMargeddon
It was always going to happen.
Jobs was never going to stay as CEO forever.
The fact that he resigned the way he did was smart, and good for Apple.
Despite what all the ADHD afflicted Wall Street wunderkinder think, dumping shares and claiming doom and gloom because their spreadsheet models say so, this isn’t as big a problem as everyone thinks.
Different situation. Gates resigned after the rot had set in and handed the reigns over to Monkey Boy. Vista was already in the works before Bill resigned, he just left the big steaming pile for Ballmer to deal with.
This time Jobs, appears, to be leaving with Apple going from strength to strength.
The other day I was in one of those Home Maker Super Centres.
The 5 year olds wanted to play with iPads and Macs. I mean all of them. They weren’t lining up top play with Windows 7 laptops or someone else’s tablet.
Want to know what tech trend to follow look at what floats the boat of a 5 year old.
I don’t really think iMargeddon is here - but if you do I’ll offer you a couple of bucks for your Apple shares.
Jobs was never going to stay as CEO forever.
The fact that he resigned the way he did was smart, and good for Apple.
Despite what all the ADHD afflicted Wall Street wunderkinder think, dumping shares and claiming doom and gloom because their spreadsheet models say so, this isn’t as big a problem as everyone thinks.
- Jobs is a long term thinker. He knew this day was coming and has been busy preparing.
- While the common view of Apple is that its a company built on one tent pole, and that tent pole is Steve Jobs - there’s more to the company that just him.
- Jobs brilliance lies in the fact that he can look at technology and distill it down to something that is accessible to the “I just want it to work” crowd.
- I’m willing to bet money that he’s been explaining this rationale to everyone in his inner circle.
- Apple’s product line for the next 2 years are already in the pipeline.
- Apple’s engineering mules for the next 4 years of possible products are in the pipeline.
Different situation. Gates resigned after the rot had set in and handed the reigns over to Monkey Boy. Vista was already in the works before Bill resigned, he just left the big steaming pile for Ballmer to deal with.
This time Jobs, appears, to be leaving with Apple going from strength to strength.
- The iPhone 5 due ‘real soon now’.
- The Mac grabbing market share like Ballmer grabs futile acquisitions.
- A very successful patent war being fought against Samsung. The timing on this is interesting too.
The other day I was in one of those Home Maker Super Centres.
The 5 year olds wanted to play with iPads and Macs. I mean all of them. They weren’t lining up top play with Windows 7 laptops or someone else’s tablet.
Want to know what tech trend to follow look at what floats the boat of a 5 year old.
I don’t really think iMargeddon is here - but if you do I’ll offer you a couple of bucks for your Apple shares.
iPhone 5 Release Date?
This crazy rumour crossed our desk late last night.
On October 23 2001 Apple announced the original iPod and released it to market on November 10 the same year.
Could Apple be planning to announce the iPhone 5 in September and release it to market on the 10th birthday of the announcement of the iPod?
Who the hell knows but we may as well add to the rumour fog swirling around the next incarnation of the iPhone.
On October 23 2001 Apple announced the original iPod and released it to market on November 10 the same year.
Could Apple be planning to announce the iPhone 5 in September and release it to market on the 10th birthday of the announcement of the iPod?
Who the hell knows but we may as well add to the rumour fog swirling around the next incarnation of the iPhone.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Dilbert Loves WinMoPho
It turns out that Dilbert’s creator, Scott Adams, loves his WinMoPho, or at least acording to the spin on the story from another blog site.
Normally I’d leave this sort of drivel alone, but, it kind of makes me think of the bleats you’d get from Apple fanbois, back in the day when you had to defend your choice of Apple gear.
Here’s the paragraph that got my attention, “Scott Adams after accepting the challenge from Brandon Watson on using Windows Phone just published his results. In short, Windows Phone emerged as Winner. He actually compared Windows Phone on Samsung Focus on AT&T, iPhone 3Gs on AT&T and HTC Evo 3D on Sprint. Even though he didn’t use every single feature of all these devices, he just used the way he wants and found Windows Phone as the winner.”
Now most people when they hear the word winner they think of gold medal on the top step of the podium I was so good you barely deserve to live in my shadow type winner.
Here’s what Scott Adams said in his blog post “However, the intangible coolness factor is impossible to ignore. Even the names Microsoft and Windows feel dated. And the home screen of the Windows phone is great from a usability standpoint, but lacks sizzle. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t matter to me.”
This doesn’t sound like a clear winner to me.
In fact Scott Adams has hit on the real issue. WinMoPho’s just aren’t cool.
Its like you’re being given a choice between three cars. One is a high performance machine that, for every hour of driving needs an hour of tuning but is cool and lets face it, kinda fun. The second is a high performance machine that’s been built by an engineer without a lot of thought for ergonomics or fuel economy. The third is your father’s Volvo.
Hmmm.
So then you find ways to justify the Volvo as being the new up and coming thing.
It’ll be there. It’ll have market share, but, its not going to set anyone’s world alight.
Normally I’d leave this sort of drivel alone, but, it kind of makes me think of the bleats you’d get from Apple fanbois, back in the day when you had to defend your choice of Apple gear.
Here’s the paragraph that got my attention, “Scott Adams after accepting the challenge from Brandon Watson on using Windows Phone just published his results. In short, Windows Phone emerged as Winner. He actually compared Windows Phone on Samsung Focus on AT&T, iPhone 3Gs on AT&T and HTC Evo 3D on Sprint. Even though he didn’t use every single feature of all these devices, he just used the way he wants and found Windows Phone as the winner.”
Now most people when they hear the word winner they think of gold medal on the top step of the podium I was so good you barely deserve to live in my shadow type winner.
Here’s what Scott Adams said in his blog post “However, the intangible coolness factor is impossible to ignore. Even the names Microsoft and Windows feel dated. And the home screen of the Windows phone is great from a usability standpoint, but lacks sizzle. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t matter to me.”
This doesn’t sound like a clear winner to me.
In fact Scott Adams has hit on the real issue. WinMoPho’s just aren’t cool.
Its like you’re being given a choice between three cars. One is a high performance machine that, for every hour of driving needs an hour of tuning but is cool and lets face it, kinda fun. The second is a high performance machine that’s been built by an engineer without a lot of thought for ergonomics or fuel economy. The third is your father’s Volvo.
Hmmm.
So then you find ways to justify the Volvo as being the new up and coming thing.
It’ll be there. It’ll have market share, but, its not going to set anyone’s world alight.
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