(R)Evolution is in the Clouds....

As I stated several weeks ago, there is a certainty for fin serv customers to move to the cloud for most of their mid and back-office operations data needs as well as move as much of their non-trading applications.  Mobility and cloud platforms/technologies are maturing at a rate that is much faster than incumbent application and information vendors can deliver new solutions on their closed, proprietary technologies.

Further, as exchanges and other information creators begin to realize the power of the cloud, it will become imperative for information vendors to react and stay ahead of the trend and differentiate themselves by something other than simply being an information 'aggregator'.  New paradigms are emerging that will apply pressure to entrenched companies and disrupt their businesses. 

Recently, NASDAQ has released a tick-on-demand service through Xignite, which offers simplified access to NASDAQ tick data through a standards-based API.  Xignite, for those who do not know them, are what I consider one of the 'next-gen' information service providers.  The addition of NASDAQ brings the total number up to 33 exchanges or exchange groups, covering Asia, North America and Europe.  In addition, they have connected to other data sources such as Morningstar, Dow Jones, Cantor, Tullett and others to offer a very robust list of information assets.

Unlike traditional vendors, Xignite specializes in 'plug-and-play' data access.  Whereas traditional vendors like Thomson Reuters or Bloomberg have built a desktop business and allowed data access through APIs to be an off-shoot of their core business, Xignite has come without the baggage of a desktop interface.  Preferring to be the plumbing for non-latency sensitive data, Xiginte (and their emerging competitor Flexisphere), have subversively gained traction where the incumbents aren't - data solutions for off-trade floor and corporate web solutions.

This model very much is in line with where the world is moving for non-latency sensitive applications.  Now, an application builder for an iPad has only to connect to the Xignite data cloud and deliver a wide range of content into a highly functional application.  Further, since the incumbents are directly focused on a ground war within the application space, Xignite, through continuing to build an extensive inventory of data assets, could easily become a data-arms dealer to the off-trade floor market, which is approximately a $10 billion business by my estimates.  This does not include other markets where financial data is important and widely used, such as the legal, business/corporate intelligence, etc. and other services such as public and private websites.

The lesson for the incumbents is this - your days are numbered unless you take a swift and painful change of strategy.

In the 80s and 90s you were the only games in town.  You had the technology advantage and you had the scalability to allow niche providers to plug into you and 'advertise' their content under your commercial terms and sometimes draconian restrictions which always favoured you.  Now, technology is cheap and those same, small, niche content owners, (like other industries such as advertising, music and a lesser degree televised programming), now have other means and channels to get to their customers and can interface more directly with them through things like social media.  Cloud-based technologies and services like Amazon or Xignite allow these firms to grant easier access to their information without an intermediary.

Now, to be fair, do I expect the incumbents to disappear overnight or at all - of course not.  They are all multi-billion dollar companies with some very viable businesses.  But there are cracks in each and some markets they serve are changing dramatically right out from under them.  But like Microsoft and Oracle when Salesforce.com finally proved the SaaS/Cloud model, the large vendors will need to pivot and alter their strategy to stay relevant. 

The key point is that for these desktop providers, they need to stop being the very thing they are - a product provider - and become a service provider.

While doable, it also is a great threat to their current economics and revenue.  The question for these providers is: do you have the right people to rebuild and revolutionize your business?  Microsoft had to re-think their very strategy and bring in several new people to redefine what Microsoft was for its customers and its future.  Some stayed, some left but they did change.

Next move is yours gentlemen.....

Data Clouds - Part 1

While at Thomson Financial/Thomson Reuters, I was given the opportunity to explore the capabilities of the Salesforce.com platform initially as a proof of concept for integrating Thomson data into the Force.com cloud.  During this period, I saw the future of the information industry and a new paradigm of how ‘information products’ are delivered; one which I hoped to see Thomson grab and change the industry.  Alas, it was not meant to be but nonetheless, recent events and discussions further enforce my belief that the time is near where there will be a change in how information is delivered to customers.

After I completed the proof of concept, thanks to some smart folks at Okere/Fujitsu in executing my requirements, the future appeared.  What I saw was a future where an information vendor, like Thomson, could fundamentally shift its operating model, expand into new markets and leverage Salesforce.com not only as a CRM tool but as an application platform, a distribution network and more importantly, a model whereby they can shift out of siloed mainframe databases and complex delivery systems they have now and open up their content to the mobile/cloud-based world we live in today.

The Salesforce.com platform itself is very flexible and easy to build out some complex functionality and workflow.  With the introduction of Java, this likely will result in more impressive visual tools and better usability.  Although some functionality needed for financial services might be out of range as this time, I suspect as the platform grows, many of the tools now available through vendor applications, will be available – specifically those within the “off-trade floor” disciplines such as Investment Banking, Investment Management and Wealth Management. 

There are some ‘restrictions’ currently in the platform, but they are more a function of how the firm sees itself as a CRM player and can be worked around.  Nonetheless, as an application platform, there is the possibility to rewrite many of the solutions vendors offer for those segments mentioned above with added functionality and at a reduced cost. 

As a distribution network, Salesforce.com allows for easy integration of bundled services into a firm’s “Org” (or Salesforce.com instance in the multi-tenet environment), which means a customer on the platform using the CRM tools, for example, can be ‘entitled’ for a subset of data from a vendor very easily and with a great deal of confidence of the security.  In fact, due to the tiered nature of the platform, different user profiles can be permissioned for different data sets and even data fields.  Further, an information vendor can ‘lock down’ their content ensuring the data isn’t changed or altered by the customer (or can be depending on the controls in place).  Finally, due to packaging controls offered through the platform, information providers can easily see who is accessing their information and how and offer new commercial models instead of the pure monthly subscription rate.

Using the platform tools would allow an information vendor to offer ‘packages’ of information, tailored for each customer with extensive protection and tracking capability while reducing cost of delivery for both themselves and customers.  In effect, once the data source is ‘plugged’ into the platform, any one of the nearly 2 million users on the platform can access the data while being tracked for that use.  

Using this model, ISVs wishing to serve a market, but require specific information can also access these data packages and either license directly for the data and pass on the cost to their customers or the information vendor can sell directly to the ISV’s customer for the data.

Effectively, Salesforce.com’s platform can become the “iTunes of data” by information providers leveraging the tools and building the delivery model I pioneered while at Thomson. 

Add to it, the cross-platform integration Salesforce.com has natively built and information from a provider can be accessed through Facebook, Linked In, Google, AWS and other cloud platforms.

There is an even more compelling opportunity which I explored, one that was deemed pretty controversial and shifted the definition of what an information vendor did for customers.  I’ll explore that next time….

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I would be remiss in thanking those of you who offered their congratulations for my inclusion in the Forrester Research book “Empowered”.  The experience and being included in the book is very humbling and one I would do again.  Thank you again to those at Thomson that were supportive of both my effort that lead to the mention as well as my being included in the final book, I greatly appreciate it.

The End of No Software?

The other day, I caught a story how Salesforce.com - the pioneers of No Software and Cloud Computing - are building an app for the iPad and Android devices both expected in 2011.

That's right: the leader of the cult of no software is developing - gasp - a software application.

Clearly I am missing something. Yes I understand how important mobile computing is and the rest of it, however, I am at a loss to understand why Salesforce.com would step out of the cloud and onto terra firma in the world of deployed software. I am wracking my brain to understand why they would do this. Their applications and platform work just as well on Safari and Chrome as they do on IE and Firefox so why divert valuable development resources into building a closed box application on the iPad.

Then it struck me - might some merger or the like happen between Apple and Salesforce.com some time in the very near future?

It makes perfect sense (to me anyway). Salesforce.com are completely complementary to Apple in so many ways and together they are devastating. I'll explain:

Apple has:
1) Great devices
2) Great application platform for mobile computing for consumer apps
3) Great ecosystem of firms building consumer apps
4) Great customer loyalty and numbers
5) Market cap of over $240 billion
6) Strong central leadership and a CEO who is a visionary and thought leader

Apple hasn't:
1) Trust of enterprises/large corporations around security or application development
2) Any real revenue from corporate businesses
3) A clear successor for Steve Jobs (sorry - they don't)

Salesforce.com has:
1) Great application platform trusted by large corporations
2) Great customer loyalty and growth
3) Market cap of just under $12 billion
4) Strong central leadership and a CEO who is a visionary and thought leader

Salesforce.com hasn't:
1) Any consumer-based revenue
2) No device business
3) A tough road to go from $1 billion in revenue to $5 billion as planned

So what if you put these two firms together, what do you have:
1) A firm that can deliver end to end applications - browser or device-based
2) A huge ecosystem of partners building apps for either businesses or consumers
3) A firm ready to merge consumer and corporate apps into one channel
4) Technology trusted by businesses and consumers
5) A firm to really compete with Microsoft and Google and win - big
6) A successor for Steve who is 10 years younger than he is

I might be enjoying the glorious Friday weather too much but this makes way more sense than those Google-Salesforce.com or Oracle-Salesforce.com rumours/stories we've all heard. Imagine - the power of the device leader with the cloud computing leader. Wow.

It would be an absolute game changer for the industry and complete the shift to cloud/mobile computing. Businesses would be able to buy in more heavily into the mobile cloud story with the combined entity. Parker Harris and his team would address any security concerns with the OS and take the Apple productivity tools into their cloud with relative ease (that's my guess). The ecosystem could tap into two channels - consumer and business - and start to develop huge revenues through each.

RIM would be done and really have no choice but to sell to Microsoft to give them a viable device business. Microsoft would need to double-down on Azure and hope their .NET developer community can win out over the Apple OS and Java developer community that the Apple-Salesforce.com entity would carry.

If there is something to this hypothesis, it would be a good year or so away (didn't Salesforce.com say they would have an iPad app by mid-2011) and does assume Mr. Jobs is ready to pull back a from running Apple much like Bill Gates has done with Microsoft. I think Mr. Jobs concern is he has a Steve Ballmer type ready not a Steve Jobs type. No offense to Mr. Ballmer but he isnt in the 'visioning thing'.

Marc Benioff is - big time. There are parallels between Mr. Jobs and Mr. Benioff in that Mr. Benioff worked for a time at Apple, has been the slayer of giants and mover of mountains in leading the cloud computing charge. Mr. Jobs we know has done similar in the mobile space. And both have a passion for getting Microsoft.

What if......