DI Live! IT Executive Insights

Digital Investor's news roll & commentary

Sony software - can a basket-case be bought back to life?

I was surprised to see Sony's Howard Stringer say that Sony's turnaround effort "is centered around tapping younger software engineers to boost product development".

The move is expected to strengthen product offerings because younger engineers are more familiar with the digital age, and because software development is becoming more important for gadgets, Stringer told reporters in Tokyo.

That's a healthy sign since in my humble opinion Sony's software, with the exception of the PlayStation and PSP's is real crap.

Stripping all the crud off your VIAO is the first task of anyone buying those machines - of course a lot of that baggage isn't Sony's but that that is only adds to the incompatible cludge of half-baked Sony software.

The same article quotes Sony President Ryoji Chubachi, saying "We had become self-indulgent in growing smug in our technological powers".

That's true - but smugness is probably not the cause of the software cludge that Sony turns out - its just incompetence from an engineering company who has grown from conscious competence in engineering products to unconscious incompetence in engineering software.

It's a not uncommon disease - look at Motorola, Nokia, GM, Siemens - they all suffer from it as well.

Somehow from Sony I expected more, but that was before I experienced my first two VIAOs!  Why did I buy two, when I was disappointed with the first - - good question - because I expected more from Sony!!  Fool I am.

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What's your view of Asia's potential dominance in mobile and software development?  Post your Comments.  How can I help? Email me; Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632 (direct); +1(817) 382-4453 (SkypeIn USA); +852-8199-0189 (SkypeIn HK);

"We hired Walter to complete a technology audit, but he gave us much more -- he has the ability to identify business opportunities that benefit all sides, creating networks of customers, suppliers, investors and intermediaries. His breadth of knowledge and willingness to push himself beyond the brief are tremendously valuable." Zenon Pasieczny, Director, Saphet Capital Management

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Australian companies group at ATRE 2006 Beijing

ATRE 2006 starts today in Beijing, and Digital Investor and Business Strategies International (BSI), working together, who are committed to helping Australian early-stage technology companies grow and succeed internationally, brought a first-ever "Australian Team".

We are proud to be working with the following clients to enable and assist in their participation in ATRE 2006:

AURA is Australia's leading mobile technology service provider specialising in interactive wireless marketing, mobile ticketing and m-commerce. AURA has a team of industry experts who are globally recognised as some of the pioneers of mobile barcode solutions used for ticketing and coupons.

Contact: Adam Dunne, adam@aura.net.au www.aura.net.au

InterAcct Solutions are the global leader in the provisioning and delivery of USSD solutions to mobile network operators. Our Ezy-Info product suite allows operators to deploy extremely quick direct dial interactive data services to all their customers today via their existing handsets.

Contact: Chris Eyles, chris.eyles@interacctsolutions.com www.interacctsolutions.com

Webit Technologies has created some of the world’s first online registration systems for Fortune 1000 companies. Most recently Webit received a 24th ranking in the Australian Business Review Weekly, 2006 BRW Upstarts Awards.

Contact: Felix La Spina, Felix.LaSpina@webitgroup.net www.webitgroup.net

Digital Futures China is a China-based company which holds exclusive territory rights for the Australian pxidigital digital print and digital media distribution kiosk, in association with leading technology, financing, and franchising partners.

Contact: Leigh Baker Leigh.Baker@digitalfutureschina.com www.digitalfutureschina.com

Digital Investor works with its early-stage clients in IT, telco and mobile content to achieve and sustain profitable growth. BSI, using its Investor Forums and unique network of 300+ high net worth individual investors, accelerates capital acquisition and business expansion.

We wish to thank Red Herring/DASAR for their enthusiastic support for our mission to bring the first Australian group of companies to ATRE.

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What's your view of Asia's potential dominance in mobile and software development?  Post your Comments.  How can I help? Email me; Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632 (direct); +1(817) 382-4453 (SkypeIn USA); +852-8199-0189 (SkypeIn HK);

"We hired Walter to complete a technology audit, but he gave us much more -- he has the ability to identify business opportunities that benefit all sides, creating networks of customers, suppliers, investors and intermediaries. His breadth of knowledge and willingness to push himself beyond the brief are tremendously valuable." Zenon Pasieczny, Director, Saphet Capital Management

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Asia sets the stage for massive mobile and software leadership and sales

Two items in Finance Asia's A Week in Tech caught my eye as particulalry important signals for the West and countries such as Australia.

In Korea The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) revealed its grand plan to construct a "mobile paradise,'' a special district, where people will be able to enjoy a seamless service from the world's latest wireless technologies next year.

Dubbed the M1 (Mobile No. 1) project, the special district is kind of a free technology zone that will create a new mobile environment and be the testing area for up-and-coming wireless platforms. Included in the available techniques will be all mobile broadcasting systems like DVB-H developed by Nokia, Qualcomm's MediaFlo and the home-grown digital multimedia broadcasting.

The place will allow individuals to use for free every next-generation telecom platform such as time division-synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA), WiBro and a global system for mobile communications (GSM). Under the programme, MIC said it aims a 100-percent mobile literacy here as well as substantially expanding the country's presence in the global market.

An MIC official said the new project is looking to come up with products worth W576 trillion ($591.6 billion) by 2010 and create additional value of W266 trillion ($273.2 billion) within the same period.

That's an astounding objective, but such objectives have been set by Korea and the MIC before, and met.  Korea has developed major planks of its economy around such bold moves and it looks like the pace is excellerating, leaving in the dust countries where IT and telecommunications rank low on the political agenda.

China is on the same path with software, as we have mentioned before, and Finance Asia reports:

With software companies in China’s Henan province accumulating nearly Rmb5 billion ($621.1 million) in sales revenues during the past five years, observers are saying the software industry in the area has become one of the fastest-growing industries in the country. Observers also say the industry exhibits the most potential. From 2000 to 2005, the software industry in the province posted an average of 50 percent growth in sales revenue every year. The province has four software parks, and serves as host to more than 400 software developers. Henan province said it aims for targeted sales revenue of Rmb20 billion for its software industry in 2010.

This is also the tip of the iceberg as China sets itself on a path to chase and pass Indian in software development and services.

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What's your view of Asia's potential dominance in mobile and software development?  Post your Comments.  How can I help? Email me; Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632 (direct); +1(817) 382-4453 (SkypeIn USA); +852-8199-0189 (SkypeIn HK);

"We hired Walter to complete a technology audit, but he gave us much more -- he has the ability to identify business opportunities that benefit all sides, creating networks of customers, suppliers, investors and intermediaries. His breadth of knowledge and willingness to push himself beyond the brief are tremendously valuable." Zenon Pasieczny, Director, Saphet Capital Management

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How and what to present to a VC

The most-often asked question - "what should I put in my powerpoint presentation" for the all-important VC meeting?

Guy Kawasaki profers his advice, and worth noting as it is simple enough:

I am trying to evangelize the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.

While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.

Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal...

If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business. The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

1. Problem
2. Your solution
3. Business model
4. Underlying magic/technology
5. Marketing and sales
6. Competition
7. Team
8. Projections and milestones
9. Status and timeline
10. Summary and call to action

You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.

He finishes with this tip about the "thirty points,"  - I offer you an algorithm: find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s you’re optimal font size.

You know, I noticed something missing that I always tell people is absolutely vital, coming from the point of view that the VC is there to make money, "its not about you, it is about how much money you want from me and how much and when I will get it back".

So I tell them to include two key items: (1) the ask - how much they want, and (2) the payoff - how much the VC will get back, and when.  In fact my list is shorter than Guy's:

1. The Market and How Big it is and How Fast growing
2. Your Offer and Technology Advantage  - IP, sustainability
3. Why people will Buy it and How (direct, indirect, margins)
4. The Team and their ability to deliver
5. The Ask and the Payback for the investors
6. How you're going to Spend the money and how the VCs can Control it
7. The Risks and your Mitigation
8. The Financials

Call and I'll explain these points in detail and give you more tips about how to make a winning pitch to a VC. Fee US$1.00/minute.

Also explain how you are going to succeed when you get less money and everything takes more time than you imagined - the Last Man Standing Strategy.

That's a nice 20 minutes with time for a quick wrap at the end.  Give them some time back. They'll be pleased, and if they want you to stay they'll keep you talking.

And I advise the 3/6/12 rule - no more than 12 slides, with no more than 3 points on each slide and no more than 6 words in each point.

But for all the process, what does it boil down to?  It boils down to "suprise them", tell them something that really gets them out of their seats - make a bold move and show them how you are going to pull it off.

Otherwise, you're going to be another of those that are killing Guy:

As a venture capitalist, I have to listen to hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch their companies. Most of these pitches are crap: sixty slides about a "patent pending," "first mover advantage," "all we have to do is get 1% of the people in China to buy our product" startup. These pitches are so lousy that I’m losing my hearing...

Go for the "surprise me" factor, and give Guy back his hearing.

PS. Don't tell then its unique, because they'll spend the rest of the presentation time trying to remember where they heard that it is already being done, and being unique hardly matters unless you can tie up all the IP and can defend it.

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What's your best content and order for a VC presentaiton?  Post your Comments.  How can I help? Email me; Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632 (direct); +1(817) 382-4453 (SkypeIn USA); +852-8199-0189 (SkypeIn HK);

"We hired Walter to complete a technology audit, but he gave us much more -- he has the ability to identify business opportunities that benefit all sides, creating networks of customers, suppliers, investors and intermediaries. His breadth of knowledge and willingness to push himself beyond the brief are tremendously valuable." Zenon Pasieczny, Director, Saphet Capital Management

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Been here many times, but HK has its surprises still

It's odd what grabs your attention when visiting a foreign city that you've been to many times already.  In HK today, waiting for a flight to Helsinki late tonight:

• In a local restaurant, dare I say "Chinese restaurant", a group of 7, who it became clear were from the Mainland, hovered over the menu for 10 minutes and then engaged the waitress in what appeared to be a less than satisfying encounter - resulting in a parade around the other diners while pointing at and discussing their dishes.  (The menu was in Chinese and the waitress seemed to be able to communicate in an appropriate dialect, although since the restaurant proclaimed itself to serve food from Shanghai, Beijing and Szechuan perhaps these were true Szechuan or Shanghaiese and the communication was difficult in broken Mandarin - very complicated!! But the menu had written Chinese with pictures - so what was missing seemed to be related to preparation and presentation).  Anyway the moral of the story is that if YOU feel that you need more explanation in HK about the food you can also wander about and check what's on the tables and you'll be quite "local".
• Sticking with the restaurant story, I was just sitting back to relax after placing my order, after a solid study of the lunch specials, when I was really shocked to see that my table number was 14.  I mean - this is China !!!  Wow I was really shocked and tried to see if I could fake a pass and remove the "4" as the number was in two parts - but no luck.  I can't reiterate what it means as I don't want to repeat the bad karma but you will observe that buildings in Chinese communities don't have a 14th floor and noone buys a car numberplate or telephone number with 1-4.
• Walking the streets - the sign "Ocean Sky Diving School" - great - I like skydiving but isn't it a strange place to do it and have a school?  OH, hang on, "Ocean Sky" - Diving School - now I see how to read it - nice name - I see the pics now and it is all clear!
• And how about this street sign - "Bar - Table Dancing - Foot Massage".  That's multi-skilling - great staff - but watch out that the HK$99 foot massage doesn't require a bank loan by the end of the night!

Technorati Tags:
Hong Kong Chinese food travel tales foot massage

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What's your best travel story from a place that you know well and just passed through again?  Post your Comments.  How can I help? Email me; Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632 (direct); +1(817) 382-4453 (SkypeIn USA); +852-8199-0189 (SkypeIn HK);

"We hired Walter to complete a technology audit, but he gave us much more -- he has the ability to identify business opportunities that benefit all sides, creating networks of customers, suppliers, investors and intermediaries. His breadth of knowledge and willingness to push himself beyond the brief are tremendously valuable." Zenon Pasieczny, Director, Saphet Capital Management

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Australians heading the world's biggest online Xmas

Perhaps unexpectedly Australia ranks as one of the highest in countries of a recent survey for online shopping and purchases - not in absolute $$$ but in terms of percentage of the population that feel comfortable, and execute, purchases across the internet - "Australians one of the world's biggest purchasers online".

The survey found that the vast majority of Australian Internet users (87%) had made a purchase over the Internet, compared to the global average of 77 percent and 70 percent regionally.

What was also very interesting to me was that the older segments of the population, 35+, were also very comfortable and active purchases across the internet.

Estimates of this Xmas shopping through the internet for Australia range around US$1 billion, of a total Xmas spend of about US$20 billion, and around 2.3 million people are expected to purchase across the internet for Xmas out of a total population of 20 million people.

Xmas spending represents about 11% of Australia's annual retail sales.

Although internet purchases are only 5% of the total, about 30% of Australian purchasers use the internet for researching before making any purchase.

This boom in internet shopping has helped eBay Australia more than double its gross turnover and it is on track to hit $1 billion in 2006.

Technorati Tags:
Internet shopping eBay Australia ecommerce Australia XMAS online

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How do you think that online shopping can become totally maintream - what are the final hurdles to overcome?  Post your Comments.  How can I help? Email me; Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632 (direct); +1(817) 382-4453 (SkypeIn USA); +852-8199-0189 (SkypeIn HK);

"We hired Walter to complete a technology audit, but he gave us much more -- he has the ability to identify business opportunities that benefit all sides, creating networks of customers, suppliers, investors and intermediaries. His breadth of knowledge and willingness to push himself beyond the brief are tremendously valuable." Zenon Pasieczny, Director, Saphet Capital Management

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For small business, telcos don't come to mind for VOIP - survey

When it comes to business VOIP and especially small business it seems that the established telcos are facing a serious marketing and perception challenge - namely that they don't come readily to mind when SMBs are considering acquiring VOIP.

WiFi Planet reports on a survey by John Macario, president and CEO of Savatar, a consulting and research firm.

"Right now it's like a bad date -- they aren't speaking the same language."

In a survey of 300 SMB decision-makers released at the Fall 2005 Voice Over Net (VON) conference, Savatar found there's interest in VoIP, but also a lot of confusion.

When asked which type of provider comes to mind for business VoIP, answers were all over the map:

• nontraditional telecoms, 25%
• equipment vendors, 17%
• traditional telecoms, 14%
• cable companies, 13%
• no one in particular, 13%
• ISPs, 10%
• resellers, 7%
• other, 2%.

Macario said the responses aren't encouraging for traditional telecoms, rating just one percentage point above "no one in particular".

Savatar has reviewed virtually every business VoIP offering on the market and said that the feature-sets are remarkably similar.

WiFi Planet noted the comments of another speaker at VON, Mark Spencer, president of Digium/Asterisk, who said the lesson of Skype is that the users and market value "low-cost, high-performance and ease of use" in VoIP products.

Technorati Tags:
VOIP Skype IP telephony SMB VOIP

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How do you think that VOIP can best be sold to small business?  Post your Comments.  How can I help? Email me; Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632 (direct); +1(817) 382-4453 (SkypeIn USA); +852-8199-0189 (SkypeIn HK);

"We hired Walter to complete a technology audit, but he gave us much more -- he has the ability to identify business opportunities that benefit all sides, creating networks of customers, suppliers, investors and intermediaries. His breadth of knowledge and willingness to push himself beyond the brief are tremendously valuable." Zenon Pasieczny, Director, Saphet Capital Management

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IT tarred with the brush of HR

In an article in The Age (Melbourne, Australia) called Getting down and dirty with HR (August 31, 2005) Leon Gettler asks:

How low does Human Resources rank in our organisations?

According to US academic and consultant David Sirota, who has taught at Cornell, Yale, MIT and Wharton, in most places it's right at the bottom, usually sitting somewhere alongside the IT department.

That's damning news for IT, since HR is often certainly at the bottom of the barrel as far as respect goes and value-added contribution.  HR has willingly exercised a "power without glory" role because it firstly liked the power and secondly proved incapable of articulating a value proposition beyond doing he transactional dirty work for line management.

I'm not sure that IT has the power, although it has been know to rule by fear in some organisations.  But it certainly has often found itself at a transactional/support end of organisatonal life without being able to consult and articulate value to the business.

Sirota's view is expressed in his book The Enthusiastic Employee and the views in the article in The Age are canvassed here at Human Resources - Wharton:

According to its critics, HR departments can be needlessly bureaucratic, obstructionist, stuck in the "comfort zone" of filling out forms and explaining company benefits, and too closely aligned with the interests of management yet lacking the business knowledge to be effective strategic partners.

Dealing with these types of HR departments "is like going to the dentist," says David Sirota, author of The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want (Wharton School Publishing).

When people are asked to rate the quality of different functions within their company, he adds, "IT and HR are repeatedly rated the lowest."

The solution for IT can in part be achieved by strategic analysis of the role of IT in the organisation and the relationship and alignment between IT and the business strategy.

Those transactional pieces of IT that add little value can be effectively outsourced to a specialist group, and the relationship with the business can be improved by attention to alignment and business engagement.

Moving to a consultative role, and changing to a position of helping the business and management to use and buy IT services, rather than simply "selling" or responding to demands of IT services, is all part of a necessary transition if IT is to crawl above HR, and upwards! on the organisational perception scale.

Technorati Tags:
HR IT alignment Sirota employee satisfaction

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How do you think that IT can best raise and sustain its stakes in the perception stakes?  Post your Comments.  How can I help? Email me; Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632 (direct); +1(817) 382-4453 (SkypeIn USA); +852-8199-0189 (SkypeIn HK);

"We hired Walter to complete a technology audit, but he gave us much more -- he has the ability to identify business opportunities that benefit all sides, creating networks of customers, suppliers, investors and intermediaries. His breadth of knowledge and willingness to push himself beyond the brief are tremendously valuable." Zenon Pasieczny, Director, Saphet Capital Management

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Fujitsu launches USX ubiquitous connectivity SDK

In an announcement that might have flown under the radar Fujitsu launched what it calls its USX ubiquitous connectivity solution.

It leverages presence management functions to automatically route calls over the optimal network, such as wireless LAN (via internet or intranet) or internal or external phone lines including cellular, depending on the location of the mobile handset user.

The USX software package enables instant communication with other parties without having to think about where they are, creating a ubiquitous networking environment.

The package also supports an optional push PoC/W function, enabling a user to transmit voice or data messages to multiple recipients simultaneously.

USX also enables "easy to build" customized mobile applications. For example it includes an interface for linking with main office operations and a software development kit, making it easy for customers to build customized operational applications for mobile handsets.

Initially, intelligent mobile handsets from Net-2Com Corporation, the WiPCom 1000 series, will be available as client handsets. The WiPCom 1000 series, which run on Windows(R) CE, can operate over both wireless LAN-VoIP and cellular networks.

In the future, Fujitsu plans to also support mobile handsets that run on either Linux or Symbian OS, facilitating the development of client application in an open standard environment and making it easier to integrate with existing operations.

Because the software includes all functions such as user and handset management, remote client software transmission, presence management, and address book with corresponding server functions in one package, it reduces the operational management burden that is typical of mobile systems.

Other features such as PIM (personal information manager) and secure VPN transmission come standard with the software.

Net-2Com and Fujitsu Laboratories announced in June 2004 the development of the "world's first wireless IP mobile handset capable of seamless switching between wireless LAN and public wireless networks".

Although mobile PCs and PDAs can run various applications freely, they lacked the compact portability offered by mobile handsets. Given this, needs grew for a device that features both the compact mobility of handsets along with open architecture available for PCs and PDAs.

Net-2Com Corporation was created as part of a Fujitsu program to cultivate venture startups in July 2000 to focus on VOIP technology.  Net-2Com uses the Radvision SIP toolkit as the base platform of their new series of handsets.

The launch of the USX platform should boost mobile business applications and VOIP over cellular usage.  Previous verions of the WipCom Wifi-LAN handsets have suffered from high pricing and low battery life, as is so common in new generation handset launches, but these will be overcome in time.

Technorati Tags:
Mobile VOIP Japan mobile Fujitsu mobile Net-2Com

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How do you think that mobile VOIP will develop as the first major point of penetration e.g. in consumer or in enterprise?  Post your Comments.  How can I help? Email me; Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632 (direct); +1(817) 382-4453 (SkypeIn USA); +852-8199-0189 (SkypeIn HK);

"We hired Walter to complete a technology audit, but he gave us much more -- he has the ability to identify business opportunities that benefit all sides, creating networks of customers, suppliers, investors and intermediaries. His breadth of knowledge and willingness to push himself beyond the brief are tremendously valuable." Zenon Pasieczny, Director, Saphet Capital Management

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The internet as the database

In a previous post The Power at the Edge of the Network Regroups I refered to what Scott McNealy said a long time ago that "the network is the computer" (McNealy kicked off Sun's user conference, SunNetwork 2002, beating a drum to the same mantra the company has held during its 20-year history, "The Network is the Computer.")

This has become now become a truism, and the question now is more around "what sort of computer?".

And an equally interesting view, perhaps a more general substitute, is the concept of "the Internet is the database".  And the question, is "what sort of database?".

Steve Ballmer, when recently asked in Sydney "What do you see as the main disruptive technologies coming on to the radar screen in the next 10 years?" replied:

Firstly, I think people underestimate the ways in which the software business will re-engineer itself based on the assumption of internet-based resources and services.

Most things today are still smart devices in corporations talking in HTML to websites. The notion of looking at the internet as a big server that all PCs can talk to – that revolution and what it means in the way people find and use information, communicate with people, build those relationships – I think people might underestimate that at this stage.

Just take health care. I met Minister Tony Abbott and we were talking about health care, and I am not making a particularly Australian prediction, but I believe the way this electronic medical record thing will be solved is that eventually people will be in charge of their own medical records, which will be securely stored and managed and shared with doctors through the benefits of internet technology.

The internet will help break down these silos of information. It's as much about web services as anything.

This is the Internet as the database, an intelligent semantic database linked by "web services".

This sounds like a concept without much practical application at present.  But just like McNealy's comment changed people's world view and how they then went about engineering applications and architectures, the shift in world view in designing and developing around "the Internet is the database" is even more disruptive and profound.

Technorati Tags:
Ballmer disruptive IT architecture web services

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How do you make a reference architecture which includes open source an effective part of your IT strategy?  Post your Comments.  How can I help? Email me; Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632 (direct); +1(817) 382-4453 (SkypeIn USA); +852-8199-0189 (SkypeIn HK);

"We hired Walter to complete a technology audit, but he gave us much more -- he has the ability to identify business opportunities that benefit all sides, creating networks of customers, suppliers, investors and intermediaries. His breadth of knowledge and willingness to push himself beyond the brief are tremendously valuable." Zenon Pasieczny, Director, Saphet Capital Management

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