What Will People Say @ Software 2007

Conversation With MR - A Preview of a Must-See Event

MR Rangaswami is a long-time friend and a fixture in Silicon Valley. Vinnie (www.dealarchitect.typepad.com) and I even approached him re: venture funding during our brief dot.com adventure.

I've attended most of MR's events over the years. Of late, he's been attracting a couple thousand software executives each year at his show in Santa Clara. If you've never been, you should attend. I doubt you'll find many other venues with so many entrepreneurs, VCs, tech luminaries, Wall St. analysts and big-time tech CEOs in attendance. The side deals and introductions there are especially worth the investment in this show.

This year, alas, a client is requesting my presence a half-world away during Software 2007. So, I decided to call MR today and find out what he believes will be the big discussion items for this year's event. Here's what we covered:

• When MR set the agenda and conference theme, he wanted to highlight innovation in the software space. MR believes that all of the focus on software industry consolidation (instead of innovation) has led outsiders into believing that innovation has slowed or stopped. MR sees the evolution in new business models (e.g., Software as a Service), new development processes (e.g., utilization of offshore resources), new process design capabilities powered by SOA, etc. as evidence of considerable but 'hidden innovation' within the industry.
• While innovation is the key intended discussion item, MR and I both agreed that recent events involving Shai Agassi at SAP and the SAP/Oracle/TomorrowNow lawsuit will get lots of discussion in the hallways, too. We even discussed, briefly, the recent Merrill Lynch report that speculated on whether Silverlake would buyout one of the SAP founder's stakes in that company. Private equity, we agreed, is a force that will continue to make for interesting reading in the software space.
• On-demand applications are now at crucial juncture. MR wants to hear more discussion at the show as to whether these applications are really scaling, gaining material market share and becoming profitable for those offering them. While the story looks encouraging for these solutions, definitive proof points are needed now.
• Open Source software is another area we discussed. MR wants more proof that firms can make money with open source solutions. Red Hat looks like a winner but how many more big winners will/can emerge?
• Services, one of my favorite subjects, is also expected to be a big discussion item. MR expressed a need for service organizations to upgrade their marketing tool chest and processes. They should use more Web 2.0 techniques in their sales and marketing efforts. I would certainly agree that services marketing is still mostly undifferentiated, trite and ineffective. While I could write books on this subject, let us hope that at least a few big ideas/best practices surface at this event and some of them get implemented.

I asked MR if anything is changing this year re: attendees. He told me that a significantly larger number of attendees are coming from out of the United States. He indicated that attendees from Israel, Finland, China, UK and more have already registered.

MR's show is May 8-9. You can get info on it at: http://www.sandhill.com/conferences/sw2007/index.php

One last thing, if you do attend, please post some blogs on it. I'd love to see what else gets discussed at this show.

This post is cross posted on www.softwaresafari.typepad.com