How not to win points with bloggers
As someone who writes a weblog that gets thousands of visitors a week, I receive an e-mail like this every few days (the names have been deleted out of politeness): === From: [deleted] Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 7:56 AM…
See Rubicon at SoftLetter's Marketing and Selling SaaS Seminar
October 23, 2008 - 10:00 AM
, San Mateo, CA
Warning: Don't adopt the software services model in increments
Like an oyster, software as a service business models are best consumed in one gulp rather than nibbled over time.
Whitepapers
The Apple iPhone: Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry
By Michael Mace on April 1, 2008
The Apple iPhone is easily the most publicized new mobile device in recent memory. But despite all the discussion about the product, there’s relatively little hard information available to the public on its impact. How is it being used? What effect is it having on customers and on the technology industry?
To help answer those questions, Rubicon Consulting conducted a detailed survey of 460 randomly-selected iPhone users in the US. This report summarizes the findings from the survey, and what they mean for users and other companies.
Download a PDF of this whitepaper.
Growth of web applications in the US: Rapid adoption, but only when there’s a real benefit
By Michael Mace on September 25, 2007
The rise of web applications — websites that replace the functions of a software program that was traditionally installed on a personal computer — is one of the hottest topics in the tech industry. Huge numbers of “Web 2.0” startups are competing for user attention, and many observers predict rapid growth for web applications.
But most of the analysts refer to web application growth as something that’s going to happen in the future. The reality is that web app usage has already stretched far beyond early adopters, and is moving rapidly into the mainstream of US home computer users. A recent survey, conducted by Rubicon Consulting, showed that more than a third of them already use at least one web application on a regular basis. Students are moving especially fast, with more than 50% using web applications.
Download a PDF of this whitepaper.
Even Steinways Get Out of Tune
By Nilofer Merchant on November 8, 2006
What’s the difference between an ethical leader and a business leader? Are they mutually exclusive, a subset of each other, or one and the same?
Like the best Steinway can get out of tune, we humans can get slightly off kilter in small ways. The many decisions that lead to “right or wrong” are often more like shades of grey or unclear forks in the road. Ethics are fundamentally about a set of gradual and subtle decisions that lead to a larger impact.
What can people can put into place to make perhaps better decisions? We can move from being experts on facts and novices on values to experts on values, and students of fact.
Download a PDF of this whitepaper.
Solving the Puzzle: Pricing, Licensing & Business Models
By Nilofer Merchant on November 8, 2006
Today, almost all software vendors are doing something in the SaaS arena. Salesforce.com, NetSuite, Yahoo! and Google are well-know SaaS developers, but IBM, Oracle, SAP, and Symantec are all moving that way too. Single-user desktop applications are under the least pressure, and are moving the slowest.
Download a PDF of this whitepaper.
In the Channel: VARs Put a Different Face on SaaS
By Bruce LaFetra on September 25, 2006
According to a 2005 AMR Research study of 500 respondents representing companies of all sizes, more than 78 percent said they are currently using or considering SaaS. As ISVs push SaaS applications into the mainstream, ISVs and VARs need to consider likely changes to the channel economic model. One of these changes is likely to be a shift in the balance of power toward full-service VARs. While ISVs will find some of these changes hard to swallow, they need to keep in mind that this is the cost of extending the reach of their applications into additional market segments.
Download a PDF of this whitepaper.
Excerpts from Stop Flying Blind
By Michael Mace on June 19, 2006
Nobody can predict the future of a market or business perfectly. If I could do it, I’d be retired someplace living off my stock income. If the authors of all those management books could do it, they wouldn’t have to write books and give speeches for a living.
Part of the problem is that the world’s very complex, and any absolute prediction is bound to break down as unexpected things happen. But the biggest challenge is that the future doesn’t yet exist. It’s no a single deterministic thing, it’s a set of possibilities. We change the future every day with our own decisions. So what we need for the future isn’t a prediction. We need a map, showing all the possibilities and consequences of various decisions: if you go here you’ll end up in a valley, if you go there you’ll end up in the mountains — and if you go over there you’ll run off a cliff.
The better you draw the map of possibilities, the better your company can choose a good future for itself and its customers.
Download a PDF of this whitepaper.
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