Services Safari

Interruptible Service?

Put the Twitter, IM, Phone and E-Mail On Hold and Read This Post

Maggie Johnson's new book, Distracted, might be something more VCs, software developers, geeks extraordinaire and self-important folks might want to read. In a nation full of Crackberries (those who take and check their Blackberries everywhere), this book may be too late for some but it could save others.

Maggie wrote a short piece for last week's BusinessWeek (see: "May We Have Your Attention, Please?", 6/23/2008) and this excerpt speaks volumes about the issue:

"Roughly once every three minutes, typical cubicle dwellers set aside whatever they're doing and start something else - anything else. It could be answering the phone, checking e-mail, responding to an instant message, clicking over to YouTube, or posting something amusing on Facebook. ...These distractions consume as much as 28% of the average U.S. worker's day, including recovery time, and sap productivity to the tune of $650 billion a year according to Basex, a business research company in New York City."

I was pleased to see this piece as I've often wondered about the business ROI of technologies like IM, Twitter, Facebook and countless other products. In their rush to tout the coolness of new technologies, few research firms ever really calculate the negative impact some of these technologies can have on corporate productivity.

Moreover, I've found it disturbing to have a meeting or meaningful business conversation with someone who is trying to win the multi-tasking Olympics. On a personal level, I resent it greatly when I'm paying a lawyer, accountant or other service person who isn't giving me or my business 100% of their time and attention. I also question the quality of the service provided from someone who never takes the time to give my problems the full, undivided and focused attention they deserve. Many problems cannot be solved in 3 second or 3 minute bursts. Maybe you think you can text a reply, read some emails, Twitter your latest GPS co-ordinates, order tonight's take out online, etc. and slip in my business in between it all but I don't want you working on my account.

Look at the problem this way. If you were buying a new car, would you want the factory workers doing all these activities while they're supposedly assembling your car's engine. No, you wouldn't. I recently had an impatient doctor try to pull this bad behavior in front of me and several family members. Since I don't suffer fools gladly, I called him on this unprofessional behavior and made him cut it out long enough for us to get straight answers to all of our questions.

Just yesterday, a client of mine admitted how good he felt when he took a week's vacation with his family and left most of his intrusive technologies at home. If you want a quality relationship with the people you love or do business with, you have to give them the attention they need/demand. Anything less is insulting or demeaning.

Let's get old school for a moment. When I need to solve big, complex problems, I turn off the phone, the television and even the iPod to focus my attention completely on the matter. I realize some problems just take more time to solve. Sometimes I even put a sign on my office door to remind potential interrupters that I'm preoccupied and unavailable short of a bonafide emergency. And, you know what? People understand that. It turns out that most of the interruptions people fire at me are neither important or urgent. They can wait.

I seriously doubt the rude, egocentric, self-important folks out there will read Maggie's book because it can't be parsed into a quick one line Twitter entry. That's a shame. But, here's hoping that some of you will fire off either this blog post or a copy of her book to those hopelessfully trapped in an attention-distracted (not attention-deficit or attention-overload) mode.

For those of you in a services profession, you and your peers really need to take heed. Inattention to clients and each other will not bode well for your firm. Just because hot technologies exist doesn't mean they don't need boundaries.

this blog cross-posted on Software Safari

Can You Trust Your Travel Firm?

                         Betrayed By Your Travel Provider?

Suppose you kept running into your worst competitor at every prospect you are selling services. That would make you more than a little suspicious wouldn't it? Suppose you were trying to negotiate a merger but those meetings kept getting disrupted by competitors and media who knew where you were meeting. Suppose you were trying to negotiate better T&E arrangements with major agencies or providers only to find that all sorts of firms know more about your travel activities than you do or they should?

Sound improbable? Scary? All of the above? Read this SoftwareSafari post concerning Siemens unpleasant discovery.

That a services firm discovered this and went public about it is very interesting and commendable. I hope their actions cause more service firms to understand who else has access to their employee prescription purchases, the web sites employees surf, the medical claims of their executives, etc. It's time service firms, especially IT service firms, take a leading role in defining the limits that should exist on the rights of others to access and use the transaction data of their firms and their employees.

Psst - Hey Buddy! Wanna Buy a Consultancy Cheap?

                              Penny Stock Status for BE?

I was reading today's Wachovia Weekly (June 20, 2008) issue and it stated that BearingPoint (BE) shares traded at $1.05/share on Wednesday and approximately $0.72/share today. That means that the stock can't be traded on the main NYSE floor and is instead traded on the NYSE Arca exchange.

Worse, Morningstar may revise its fair value estimate for the company and drop their prognosis for a successful turnaround as part of the valuation. 

If my math is right, then the company has a market cap of only $157 million on sales of approximately $3.4 billion. Wall Street is not pleased with the prospects or earnings (or lack thereof) from this firm.

I think it is time for some aggressive, growth oriented systems integrator to step in and grab a bargain. $3.4 billion in revenue is not insignificant and if it can be acquired for a pittance, it might make for a quick way to gain headcount, revenues and clients.

Usually, I'm not a fan of buying/selling consultancies as these are often expensive and the key asset of the firm (its people) are fleet of foot and tend to leave en masse once word of an acquisition surfaces. In the BE case, I would suspect the staff would appreciate and welcome new owners, a new company name and new lease on life.

Who would buy BE? I'd suggest the following: a major offshore services provider that needs additional local (i.e., US and European) personnel in local clients. I say the major offshore firms like Infosys, Cognizant and Wipro could be players in this.

I'd also expect a private equity group could also get involved. Remember Carlyle Group just led the deal to grab Booz Allen Hamilton's government consulting group. BE has a lot of government business in its portfolio.    

I know some really great people at that firm and I'd hate to see it slowly implode. I do believe the assets could serve clients but an infusion of new talent, new momentum and new purpose would go a long way to righting this entity.

Let's see what develops.

NetSuite and OpenAir Marriage

                    A Deal That Re-Defines the PSA Space

Today, NetSuite announced that it is acquiring OpenAir, a professional services automation (PSA) software company based in Boston, Massachusetts.  NetSuite will pay approximately $26 million in cash for OpenAir.

Why We Like This Deal

We believe this deal will have a significant impact on the PSA software market space.  Why?  For many years now, the PSA marketplace has maintained a nominal sense of stability wherein PSA vendors quietly competed with one another.  And, although large ERP vendors purchased some earlier PSA solutions, they have failed to take full advantage of same in the marketplace.  In fact, we would argue that only Primavera has done a reasonable job of integrating companies (e.g., Evolve) into its product suite. In fact, recent merger and acquisition activity in the space has mostly been between PSA and PPM (project portfolio management) vendors.

In our discussions with SMB top executives, we have consistently heard complaints about the high cost of integrating clusters of application functionality with other components that companies have purchased/licensed.  For example, users are distraught about the cost of integrating back-office solutions to front-office solutions to vertical specific solutions (e.g., PSA or manufacturing).  Specifically, users have indicated that the cost of integrating these collections of functionality together is often a form factor greater than the license cost of a specific application suite.

By doing this deal, OpenAir now brings to the market an integrated financial back-office solution with its own service industry product line.  Both will be offered in an on-demand (i.e., SaaS) basis. Service firms will, in time, benefit from the tight integration to come between these two product offerings.  In a conversation this morning we had with Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite and Morris Panner, CEO of OpenAir, we learned that the integration will take place in three steps.  Step one will be to integrate the two companies and their organizations.  Step two will tie the existing product lines from both firms together.  Step three will see the rebuilding of the OpenAir solution under the NetSuite toolset.

While NetSuite had its own service solution, OpenAir's is a more robust product and will undoubtedly assume the service industry leadership role within NetSuite.  We believe this transaction will put considerable pressure on other PSA vendors such as QuickArrow and will likely result in a wave of other acquisitions in the PSA sector.

The deal brings other opportunities for the combined company.  The acquisition of OpenAir brings a significant East Coast presence to NetSuite.  OpenAir brings 300 service based customers into the NetSuite family.  Virtually all of these customers utilize back-office applications that are prime replacement candidates for NetSuite.  A typical OpenAir customer would be using solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics, Great Plains, Sage, AccPac or other financial accounting software.  Every OpenAir customer is an upsell opportunity for NetSuite.  Likewise, NetSuite has over 5000 customers and considerable experience in the services sector.  However, what we really like about NetSuite is its product development architecture: NS-BOS. This platform, also known as the NetSuite business operating system, permits two key things:

• the rapid development of vertically specific applications in a well-designed multitenant SaaS architecture
• the seamless integration of these applications with NetSuite's core front and back office products

This deal should be accretive in short order if both sales forces are unleashed to sell the NetSuite front office solution, the NetSuite back office solution and the OpenAir PSA solution.

This entry cross-posted to the Software Safari blog.