Last week IDC published results of its recent survey stating that despite to economic slowdown (or maybe thanks to it) SaaS revenues are going to grow faster than they predicted previously. 40,5% instead of 36%.
The key driver for this is probably the will to save. Less earnings means that businesses are more flexible. So they are ready to fit their working procedures to the standard way of doing things if they can benefit from the "$1 per month per user" software pricing.
At the moment the only thing that sells is "saving money". High availability, pretty design, convinient, fast and powerful is out. Cheap is in.
But if we talk about the SaaS market then it is not going to fall after the economy has started to go up again. It is an irreversible change that is going to happen. In 10 years time developing your own CRM or sales software will sound as stupid as developing your own e-mail or office software sounds now. But this means a lot of integrating and customization.
...and most probably there will be a time when you will have to consider all the data anywhere to be public. :-)
Monday, February 2, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Estonian ICT Demo Center opens tomorrow
Tomorrow is going to be the official opening of the Estonian ICT Demo Center. (Sorry about the mess-up of names. The official name is "Estonian ICT Demo Center". Here is the list of VIP-s coming to the opening. Really impressive! :-)
- Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia
- Valdo Kalm, CEO of Estonian Telecom
- Jan Muehlfeit, Microsoft, Head of European operations
- Christopher Des Forges, Sun Microsystems, Head of Nordic region
- Mika Sarhimaa, Manager of HP Finland and Baltics.
The speakers will be:
- Enn Saar, MicroLink's CEO
- Mika Sarhimaa
- Jan Muehlfeit
- Tiit Riisalo, Deputy comissioner of the Estonian presentation in EXPO 2010 Shanghai.
The demo center is organized by:
- MicroLink
- EMT
- Elion
- Microsoft
- Santa Monica Networks
- Datel
- Ülemiste City.
If you are interested in visiting the demo center then let us know! :-) All the participants can bring visitors to the demo center and we are glad to be your hosts.
The project team has made a great job! :-) As most of the participants brought their demo equipment on the previous and last week ... you can imagine how hectic the project has been.
If everything goes fine we gonna have a guide from Holland working there in a few weeks. :-)
Today the Demo Center got a web page! Here it is: http://www.demoestonia.eu/
- Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia
- Valdo Kalm, CEO of Estonian Telecom
- Jan Muehlfeit, Microsoft, Head of European operations
- Christopher Des Forges, Sun Microsystems, Head of Nordic region
- Mika Sarhimaa, Manager of HP Finland and Baltics.
The speakers will be:
- Enn Saar, MicroLink's CEO
- Mika Sarhimaa
- Jan Muehlfeit
- Tiit Riisalo, Deputy comissioner of the Estonian presentation in EXPO 2010 Shanghai.
The demo center is organized by:
- MicroLink
- EMT
- Elion
- Microsoft
- Santa Monica Networks
- Datel
- Ülemiste City.
If you are interested in visiting the demo center then let us know! :-) All the participants can bring visitors to the demo center and we are glad to be your hosts.
The project team has made a great job! :-) As most of the participants brought their demo equipment on the previous and last week ... you can imagine how hectic the project has been.
If everything goes fine we gonna have a guide from Holland working there in a few weeks. :-)
Today the Demo Center got a web page! Here it is: http://www.demoestonia.eu/
Monday, January 26, 2009
Estonian IT showroom
On Thursday, 29.01 the Estonian IT showroom will open. The showroom will be opened in MicroLink's office at Lõõtsa 8, Tallinn. There will be official press releases but here are some words from me about the project.
The goal of the showroom is to demonstrate IT solutions created in Estonia. For that many Estonian companies and state ministry's have co-operated and have installed some of the best and attractive solutions in the showroom. There are both hardware and software solutions on display. From cash-registers, home digital TV solutions, interactive blackboards to e-government IT systems.
The idea is that each participating company brings his own guests to the demoroom - shows them his products and also the other interesting solutions developed in Estonia. So we get a much more interesting display and much more guests.
The projects web page is at www.demokeskus.ee (at the moment quite empty and in Estonian but this will change in a few days.)
We hope to have The President of Estonia on the opening!
The whole project was started and developed largely thanks to Enn Saar (MicroLink's CEO). Well, I haven't seen anything like this before and it really is a fine example of co-operation, stamina, vision!
Come to visit us! :-)
The goal of the showroom is to demonstrate IT solutions created in Estonia. For that many Estonian companies and state ministry's have co-operated and have installed some of the best and attractive solutions in the showroom. There are both hardware and software solutions on display. From cash-registers, home digital TV solutions, interactive blackboards to e-government IT systems.
The idea is that each participating company brings his own guests to the demoroom - shows them his products and also the other interesting solutions developed in Estonia. So we get a much more interesting display and much more guests.
The projects web page is at www.demokeskus.ee (at the moment quite empty and in Estonian but this will change in a few days.)
We hope to have The President of Estonia on the opening!
The whole project was started and developed largely thanks to Enn Saar (MicroLink's CEO). Well, I haven't seen anything like this before and it really is a fine example of co-operation, stamina, vision!
Come to visit us! :-)
Saturday, December 27, 2008
New legislation - new possibilities for startups
I recently did a small research on the implications of the Sarbanes-Oxley 2002 Act on businesses. The general opinion seems to be rather sceptical on the implications of the law. Most of the critics are of the opinion that the costs of additional finance reporting, procedures and IT systems are too big and useless. Many companies have even decided to go from public to private to avoid all the work and costs of becoming SOX compliant.
The proponents of the act claim that by investing into IT systems, better auditing and effective processes the companies become more transparent, easier to manage and besides becoming SOX-compliant they also will be more effective after the upfront work and investment is done.
New legislation is a possibility.
As with SOX much of new legislation opens up possibilities for new business. With SOX the obvious winners were auditing, accounting and IT companies. As studies show it took up to $2 million for every public company to become SOX compliant. Much of the money was spent on consultants, IT systems and additional audit fees. Somebody made that money. :-) So startup-s! Check regularly the legislation put together in Parliaments, Senates etc. Maybe some of it creates new business opportunities.
Build good team spirit.
It is possible to make a transparent company with the help of IT systems and good procedures. There is a big obstacle though. If a company does not have an open and trustworthy working atmosphere then every bit of information becomes an asset. Meaning that the specialists and mid-managers are not exactly motivated to do additional work (reporting) which results in giving away some of their decision power (information). The primary reason is that even though they are honest and work a lot they are afraid. Afraid of the possibility that they lose decision power to upper management who then might just overrule them and make decisions relying on financial numbers only for example. And even with the best information quality there are always some matters that are not accounted for in the IT systems and the decisions made without consulting the people involved are usually not the best ones.
So the first step of making every change in the business, be it becoming SOX compliant or having ISO standards, is to have a good team spirit, give full information to every employee about what is being done and why. And then yes, you can get SOX-compliant and transparent and run a much more effective business.
The proponents of the act claim that by investing into IT systems, better auditing and effective processes the companies become more transparent, easier to manage and besides becoming SOX-compliant they also will be more effective after the upfront work and investment is done.
New legislation is a possibility.
As with SOX much of new legislation opens up possibilities for new business. With SOX the obvious winners were auditing, accounting and IT companies. As studies show it took up to $2 million for every public company to become SOX compliant. Much of the money was spent on consultants, IT systems and additional audit fees. Somebody made that money. :-) So startup-s! Check regularly the legislation put together in Parliaments, Senates etc. Maybe some of it creates new business opportunities.
Build good team spirit.
It is possible to make a transparent company with the help of IT systems and good procedures. There is a big obstacle though. If a company does not have an open and trustworthy working atmosphere then every bit of information becomes an asset. Meaning that the specialists and mid-managers are not exactly motivated to do additional work (reporting) which results in giving away some of their decision power (information). The primary reason is that even though they are honest and work a lot they are afraid. Afraid of the possibility that they lose decision power to upper management who then might just overrule them and make decisions relying on financial numbers only for example. And even with the best information quality there are always some matters that are not accounted for in the IT systems and the decisions made without consulting the people involved are usually not the best ones.
So the first step of making every change in the business, be it becoming SOX compliant or having ISO standards, is to have a good team spirit, give full information to every employee about what is being done and why. And then yes, you can get SOX-compliant and transparent and run a much more effective business.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Two ideas on how to support startups
I recently won a "new economic engine" competition held by Eesti Ekspress. The idea of the competition was to find new ideas on how to shape up the Estonian economy. My idea was to introduce an "enterpreneur salary". The idea in a nutshell is that when you start a business, have a valid business plan and agree on some financial results, the state would pay you a "salary" during the first 6 months of starting the business. This would lower significantly the barrier of starting your own business. Of course the whole mechanism should be thoroughly planned to avoid possible maluse. But as "SeedCamp" type of competition price could be one of the possible solutions.
Another thing that the startup blogosphere has not covered very thoroughly is all kinds of business problems - customers not paying, weak contracts, co-founders cheating on each other. It is clear that all these bad things happen and enthusiastic startups are even a better target for cheating than professional businessmen with years of experience.
If you find time then please comment if you know any country or organizations that support their startups with "enterpreneur salary" type of support? How to minimize the risk of fraud for new businesses? Is there any legal advice offered by business incubators? How to minimize the risks for international businesses?
Another thing that the startup blogosphere has not covered very thoroughly is all kinds of business problems - customers not paying, weak contracts, co-founders cheating on each other. It is clear that all these bad things happen and enthusiastic startups are even a better target for cheating than professional businessmen with years of experience.
If you find time then please comment if you know any country or organizations that support their startups with "enterpreneur salary" type of support? How to minimize the risk of fraud for new businesses? Is there any legal advice offered by business incubators? How to minimize the risks for international businesses?
Thursday, December 18, 2008
EST_IT@2018
Estonian Development Fund published recently a survey on what could be the role of IT in Estonian economics. This document most certainly deserves attention. Hopefully the Development Fund will translate it into english also, but here are some points about possible developments.
IT, communication and electronics technology industry itself will probably have a mediocre role in Estonian overall economy and exports. This is mostly due to the fact that at the moment serious ICT technological development demands huge resources and hundreds of specialists that we just don't have. But on the other hand our small size, flexibility and openness is a benefit as we can implement IT technology in other industries fast and they will be more efficient thanks to that. So the primary role of ICT in Estonian econoby will be using it in the most current and effective way.
Most of Estonian IT skills are in the field of finances and IT security. That is due to the fact that banks are our biggest IT buyers. Now we also have the NATO IT security center that most certainly helps to develop good IT security specialists.
In the near future the biggest social changes in Estonia, the Western Europe will be driven by the aging population, Peak Oil and environment (Global Warming). This in turn means that our societies need to rethink healthcare, education, industry, energy production and effectiveness, governing.
The only effective tool that we currently have for coping with these changes is ICT. So the challenge is bringing heavy ICT use into all these sectors.
So according to the study in Estonia we must change the ICT sectors priorities and build up strong skills besides finance and security also in eHealth, e-education, e-industry, e-energy and e-governing.
The next steps.
Development fund will finish the survey and publish it. The next concrete step will be that the our Ministry of Economics will have a 100 MEEK fund for giving the IT sector additional boost and they will use this survey as an input for the way of using this investment. The best option for spending this money is hiring some 6 world-class IT professors for a five year period for Tartu University and Tallinn Technical University. This will make the IT faculties more popular and also give a better and more openminded education to the students. I hope this will happen.
IT, communication and electronics technology industry itself will probably have a mediocre role in Estonian overall economy and exports. This is mostly due to the fact that at the moment serious ICT technological development demands huge resources and hundreds of specialists that we just don't have. But on the other hand our small size, flexibility and openness is a benefit as we can implement IT technology in other industries fast and they will be more efficient thanks to that. So the primary role of ICT in Estonian econoby will be using it in the most current and effective way.
Most of Estonian IT skills are in the field of finances and IT security. That is due to the fact that banks are our biggest IT buyers. Now we also have the NATO IT security center that most certainly helps to develop good IT security specialists.
In the near future the biggest social changes in Estonia, the Western Europe will be driven by the aging population, Peak Oil and environment (Global Warming). This in turn means that our societies need to rethink healthcare, education, industry, energy production and effectiveness, governing.
The only effective tool that we currently have for coping with these changes is ICT. So the challenge is bringing heavy ICT use into all these sectors.
So according to the study in Estonia we must change the ICT sectors priorities and build up strong skills besides finance and security also in eHealth, e-education, e-industry, e-energy and e-governing.
The next steps.
Development fund will finish the survey and publish it. The next concrete step will be that the our Ministry of Economics will have a 100 MEEK fund for giving the IT sector additional boost and they will use this survey as an input for the way of using this investment. The best option for spending this money is hiring some 6 world-class IT professors for a five year period for Tartu University and Tallinn Technical University. This will make the IT faculties more popular and also give a better and more openminded education to the students. I hope this will happen.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Who helps you get your startup started in Estonia.
So you have an idea and want to start your own business - an internet or a tech startup. If you want to do it in Estonia or nearby you can use the following help and contacts.
1. If you just have an idea you can participate in the "Ajujaht" competition. This is a yearly competition with serious prise money (1 MEEK fund in 2008) and really experienced judges and mentors. You can get the first advise on your idea and if you get to the finalists this proves that your idea is worth something.
2. The post-competition training programs and contact events of Ajujaht help you develop your business and idea further.
3. After that you can go to the Tallinn business incubator or Tehnopol. There you get also startup mentoring, contacts and affordable office space. They also have useful training programs. With their help you can also get the Tallinn municipalitis starting business support (100 000 EEK) or (50 000 outside Tallinn).
4. At any stage you can contact MicroLink incubator. We support startups with the technical solution (the web application, server hosting etc.) We charge for it, as our employees want their salary, but for startups we have a really special pricing! Starting from 10 euros/month for the first 6 months. Read more on our website: inkubaator.microlink.ee.
5. Contact "Connect Estonia". They can help you with a springboard event. They have a network of specialists and investors. Good ideas do get advise and investment with their help!
6. Take a day or two and go through all the support programs of EAS. Visit their office and with the help of their consultants find a support program for your technical development or export support.
7. You also need internet marketing! Contact Altex, Dreamgrow or Peep Laja for that.
8. Cheap hardware and freeware system software you can get from Sun Startup Essentials program with our help.
Come to Open Coffee! The startups, their supporters and just interesting people gather on every first Thursday of the month at Mercado. Just show up, no fee, no registration. Sit to our table and tell us what your idea is about. Follow information on Facebook.
Communication. List your startup on ArcticIndex. Contact me or Arctic or www.tigerprises.com to write about your startup. Create a blog and a Twitter account.
1. If you just have an idea you can participate in the "Ajujaht" competition. This is a yearly competition with serious prise money (1 MEEK fund in 2008) and really experienced judges and mentors. You can get the first advise on your idea and if you get to the finalists this proves that your idea is worth something.
2. The post-competition training programs and contact events of Ajujaht help you develop your business and idea further.
3. After that you can go to the Tallinn business incubator or Tehnopol. There you get also startup mentoring, contacts and affordable office space. They also have useful training programs. With their help you can also get the Tallinn municipalitis starting business support (100 000 EEK) or (50 000 outside Tallinn).
4. At any stage you can contact MicroLink incubator. We support startups with the technical solution (the web application, server hosting etc.) We charge for it, as our employees want their salary, but for startups we have a really special pricing! Starting from 10 euros/month for the first 6 months. Read more on our website: inkubaator.microlink.ee.
5. Contact "Connect Estonia". They can help you with a springboard event. They have a network of specialists and investors. Good ideas do get advise and investment with their help!
6. Take a day or two and go through all the support programs of EAS. Visit their office and with the help of their consultants find a support program for your technical development or export support.
7. You also need internet marketing! Contact Altex, Dreamgrow or Peep Laja for that.
8. Cheap hardware and freeware system software you can get from Sun Startup Essentials program with our help.
Come to Open Coffee! The startups, their supporters and just interesting people gather on every first Thursday of the month at Mercado. Just show up, no fee, no registration. Sit to our table and tell us what your idea is about. Follow information on Facebook.
Communication. List your startup on ArcticIndex. Contact me or Arctic or www.tigerprises.com to write about your startup. Create a blog and a Twitter account.
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