Business & Technology Nexus

ze frank has some cool pumpkin pictures. check them out! 

I’m pleased to report Coupa is hiring additional personnel.

The pitch is something like this: Do you believe open source is the future of enterprise software? Are you ready for a challenge? If so, maybe joining an early-stage start-up like Coupa should be your next big move.

We currently have openings in Sales and in Development. Drop me a line if you’re interested.

Fresh off its record fund-raising drive, the Clinton Foundation is looking to manage the delivery of its expanding programs as efficiently as possible. I noticed several open Procurement positions, including this one:

Africa Regional Manager, Procurement – The Regional Manager will be responsible for ensuring countries have access to high-quality, low cost ARV and laboratory products offered through the Clinton Foundation, with the ultimate objective of ensuring swift ramp-up of high-quality ARV Treatment to patients.

I’m sure the resumes are flowing in. It’s not often people get the opportunity to use their Procurement proficiency in something so obviously altruistic. If you choose to apply, best of luck!

You have to tip your “Red Hat” to Larry Ellison. After building a world class support organization, he’s now countered Red Hat’s assault into Oracle’s tools business by unveiling discounted support for linux.

Enterprise customers have to be happy. After all, this is about lower prices for enterprise support for their servers. And Red Hat, as a pure open source firm, has no intellectual capital or other defenses… Yet! You have to assume they are working on a response currently.

Commercial open source firms are going to look at Larry’s move and direct their businesses accordingly. Supporters of open source applications and technology simply must move to mixed models – ones like Coupa where an Enterprise version contains intellectual property hold-back in order to protect the business from being usurped surreptitiously. Either that or build in protections that restrict who can offer support. Both these notions fly in the face of the normal goals of open source and yet seem required to sustain the cash necessary to continue to press forward progress in emerging areas of the movement.

Beyond open source and onto Oracle – I think Larry’s right and this is about Oracle’s right to compete. And compete they will. Oracle’s ability to provide “one stop service” to a complete stack of software – everything from operating system through enterprise applications, is now a reality. And continuing a current Oracle theme, absolutely no engineering or product development was required…

Nothing new to say – here’s their press release. Please refer to my previous post on last quarter’s numbers as it applies equally “well” to the current quarter.

Though I’ve only been to the world’s oldest continent, Australia, once, I loved it. I stayed in and around Sydney. Which, come to think of it, is like saying you love the US because you visited New York. But indulge me.

I remember as I was leaving, a local gave me some great insight by predicting my route from Sydney to India would involve crossing over thousands of miles of arid, parched earth. “Look out your window 30 minutes after you take off, then 3 hours later and you’ll understand the climate of central Australia,” he said.

So I was delighted to read Australia has found a use for all this extra sunshine – namely, power. They are going to build the largest solar power plant in the world. And why not?

For those who are verbally challenged, or just plain bore easily, here it is in pictures:

A satellite image of Australia (before):

What Australia really looks like (so you understand):

Australia builds massive solar power plant (now that’s big)

Hey Indonesia, need some power?

Okay, all silliness aside, I think this is fantastic. More capital flows into emerging energy technology when this kind of investment is made. And that helps the technology mature and improve. Nicely done Australia!

Here’s a review of Ford’s latest quarter. And it’s not pretty. I thought I’d offer the perfect audio complement: a snippet of Rudy Vallee’s 1932 recording of “Brother Can You Spare A Dime.”

Now their new CEO has called on accelerating the move to smaller, more fuel efficient cars. But that misses the point. Slow 2nd movers in a commoditized market get crunched. Ford will move to smaller vehicles while the leaders take it to a new level. And Ford, I’m afraid, may be no more.

First thing in the morning, I usually take a quick glance at my My Yahoo! page. I’ve looked into switching to more customizable homepages, but none have appealed yet. I’ve got my ticker of stocks that I own (not many!) and others that I follow. Being in enterprise software, of course SAP is on the watch list. Drilled down into the news and came across this press release “SAP Drives Open Standards to Simplify Enterprise SOA“.

Reading through the release, I felt guilty. Why? Because I’ve been in the same place as the people putting out the release. SOA is a difficult concept to explain. But rather than trying to boil it down so my grandma could understand it, we wrap it up in acronyms, technical talk and other jargon.

Looking at the release, I noted down the following acronyms (not including SAP!):

SOA, Java EE, W3C, HTML, XML, SOAP, WSDL, WS-Addressing, WS-Policy, OASIS, WS-Security, UDDI, WS-I, WS-I Basic Profile 1.1, WS-I Basic Security Profile 1.0, JCP, JCP SE/EE, JSRs, SCA, SCO, BPEL4People, BPEL, EPCGlobal, EPC/RFID, SDN, IVN, UN/CEFACT, CP, GS1 eCOM, VICS, GCI, ARTS, TCO

I counted 34 acronyms in under 1200 words and about 42 sentences. My poor grandma’s head is spinning.

Jason Busch over at spendmatters tucked a whopper into a seemingly innocent Friday-goodbye-post – that Oracle just might buy Ariba. And why not? Ariba’s priced at less than 2.5x revenues, even with its recent 2-day stock rise. (hmm.. rumor buyers beware, they’re not always true!)

The Oracle “standard issue acquisition plan” is to chop off G&A, cut combined R&D, and capitalize on new customer relationships to cross-sell and up-sell. Combine that “standard” plan with the added bonus of applying Freemarkets consulting expertise on Oracle’s much-bigger installed base to improve utilization, and off you go. There’s also the prospect of monetizing the Ariba Supplier Network more fully, although that really doesn’t fit into Oracle’s tried-and-true business model.

Well, fact or fiction, this rumor is pretty interesting. If true it sure would fit Oracle’s “let drain the swamp” pattern of buying any and every applications vendor out there “of sufficient size” to steal the mo’ from SAP. And the strategy, with Oracle stock up to over 19 bucks a share, sure seems to be working. Your move Walldorf.

-Dave

If you’re like me you just take for granted that the Internet is here to stay. It connects all of us, and despite its many flaws and failings is arguably a modern day miracle.

So when I read about the prospect that in just a few years the Internet may fracture into a bunch of separate systems it’s cause for reflection. After all, it’s possible. Access to the net is, in the end, provided by governments. And governments can simple shut off the spigot.

Maybe in 5 years we’ll be talking about “Free Internet” pirate signals being broadcast into China, India, Russia, and perhaps other nations.  (As I write this I expect a rebuke on China saying “hey, Dave, that’s already happening”)

Sure hope we can keep it together people!