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Perspectives on the wonderful world of tech

MiM 2012: RBS, financial services and mobile.

October 30, 2012 by

Ed Hodges is the head of mobile for the Royal Bank of Scotland and is responsible for creating and launching RBS’ rather splendid mobile apps. During his very honest talk at MiM 2012, Ed argues that financial service providers should be slightly behind the curve in adopting mobile technology, and considers the key lessons large bank brands can learn from disruptive new entrants and other sectors.

This talk was taken from our March edition of Making it Mobile. The Making it Mobile events are one day conferences for adopters of mobile to engage with disruptive businesses making mobile happen today. For the November edition we have lined up an exciting new programme of speakers who are integrating mobile into their business – find out more on the speakers and schedule here, or register for the event here.

 

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Mobile: opportunities & unexpected truths for publishers

October 30, 2012 by

‘The key will be innovation as we go forward.‘

How true. Mark Challinor is director of mobile at the Telegraph Media Group. Few people have his level of insight into the increasing overlap of print and digital media. Here he gives us 15 minutes of insight on mobile for media owners: including the most interesting opportunities in and some unexpected truths about how people consume digital media, truths which will drive exciting new products for mobile content and advertising.

This talk was taken from our March edition of Making it Mobile. The Making it Mobile events are one day conferences for adopters of mobile to engage with disruptive businesses making mobile happen today. For the November edition we have lined up an exciting new programme of speakers who are integrating mobile into their business – find out more on the speakers and schedule here, or register for the event here.

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Why do UK technology IPOs suck? We’ve never had it so good.

October 24, 2012 by Mark T Littlewood

In the first half of this year, the Financial Times says, over £600 million was invested in private technology companies in the UK. In contrast, only three technology companies have braved an IPO in London over the year. The largest, Wandisco, has a total market cap of just £40 million – source FT. No technology company has listed on the main market since 2010. Exits via M&A are viewed by many as the best option but these typically reduce an entrepreneur’s ability to achieve their objectives.

While this is gloomy news, things are changing and we want you to play a part in making that happen.

Why is the lack of UK technology IPOs a problem? Neil Rimer at Index Ventures summarised the challenge in his blog post, ‘Who will open the London IPO window?‘

“The ability for private, fast-growing, venture-backed companies to float their shares in a public offering to tap into a larger pool of capital from institutional investors and create a liquid market in their equity, is an essential phase in the lifecycle of technology companies in the US but is largely lacking in Europe. IPOs have allowed hundreds of US venture-backed companies to finance their more mature stages of growth and become household names in the process.

“By providing liquidity and even financial independence to founders and employees, IPOs often enable them to become angel investors or entrepreneurs themselves, further enriching the talent and experience pool of an ecosystem. More importantly, IPOs allow all of this to happen without requiring the company to be sold outright to a single buyer. Finally IPOs allow millions of shareholders to share in the value created by these companies after they have gone public. If IPOs or their possibility did not exist, it’s safe to say that there would be no Microsoft, Apple, Google or Amazon; they would all be part of some other entities by now and we know how well those movies usually play out.”

In other words, IPOs are good for the technology ecosystem as they allow companies to grow and stay independent and they release cash and expertise back into new businesses.

Is the only option open to an ambitious, UK-based, growth technology company a US listing? While there are more IPOs, there seems to be a similar imbalance between the availability of private and public capital in the US where investment in private technology companies outstrips funds raised in IPOs by a factor of 5x or so.

The reasons people have offered to explain the lack of IPO activity in Europe in my conversations with people over the past few months are numerous:

  • US bulge bracket banks will always advise companies to list in the US as their analysts coverage there is much more active.
  • US investment banks will always advise companies to list in the US as their fees are much higher in the US – c 6-7% of funds raised vs 2/4% in UK.
  • Government regulation is too severe in UK.
  • Europe only has about 24 technology companies of market cap above $1 billion and half of them are distressed assets. It isn’t worth analysts time to cover.
  • UK entrepreneurs lack ambition.
  • M&A offers a much better route to exit – valuations are better and exits more complete.
  • There isn’t the pipeline of large, profitable, growth companies in Europe.
Many of these points are either untrue (lack of ambition?!), changing (government regulation for example), or partly true. It may well be that US investment banks will advise their clients to list where they make the most fees however…
The fact is there are a significant number of companies in Europe that could IPO and it is great to see people discuss the issues and get the window open again. Robin Klein of TAG and Index Ventures has played a significant role in agitating for change and he should be recognised as a key person in changing the government’s outlook. He also has clear ideas about what type of companies should go to market (they are clearly not the kind of pre-revenue companies that were dumped on AIM until investors woke up).

“Investors, for starters, need to make sure that their best companies come to market. These companies should fall into the category of “high-growth,” presumably with annual revenues over £20/30 million , annual growth over 20%, proven track record of hitting numbers and a strong executive team.

“European bankers need to study up on how to properly value internet companies, better understand their business models and assess the competitive advantages of their strategies. Since 2009, while the FTSE 100 Index has increased by 39% in value, new high-growth companies like ASOS have increased by 695%, while RightMove has increased by 841% in value.” Robin Klein

Neil Rimer again…

“In the end, the choice of where to list largely depends on how committed we are to building an integrated ecosystem for entrepreneurship in Europe. If we continue to export our IPOs to the US, we will reinforce the argument that there is no market for IPOs over here and ultimately make it wholly uneconomic for analysts, portfolio managers and investment bankers to devote resources to covering tech stocks traded in London. But if we would like to ensure that European entrepreneurs can build large, sustainable companies that can reliably access the public markets to fund their trajectories, we should think again before accepting the closed IPO window as a fait accompli.”

If the IPO candidates are out there, regulation is changing for the better and we don’t lack ambition, what else is holding us up?

“When weighing up a technology company’s initial public offering, there is one thing that venture capitalists, analysts, company directors and investors can agree on: an hour is not enough. But that is all a London investor may be given to evaluate a new technology companyand its business model.

“Unlike in New York – where investment banks and will often spend days, even weeks, educating prospective investors on the products and prospects of companies seeking a listing – investors in London are often forced to make a decision after just an hour or two with bankers and analysts, industry observers say.

“It has been a major factor in the drop-off in tech listings in London since the financial crisis in 2007, the observers argue – and a situation that has to change.” London fog impedes tech IPOs, FT

In other words, public market investors need to be put in front of great companies early and often. Anything that can be done to help put great companies in front of investors in public technology companies to stimulate discussion seems like a good thing to us. One thing that we are doing is focusing our next CEO Tales on bringing these two sides together.

BLN CEO Tales: Funding growth technology companies in Europe, November 21st, 6-9pm, UBS, Liverpool Street

We are bringing some of the key protagonists – entrepreneurs, VC, PE and public market investors – together consider the potential solutions to the challenge. Most importantly, we want public market investors to meet the entrepreneurs and companies they will be investing in the future. Informal drinks networking and a discussion debate informed by views from leading public and VC investors and entrepreneurs. We hope you will take part.

BLN CEO Tales: Funding growth technology companies in Europe, November 21st, 6-9pm, UBS, Liverpool Street

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‘Meme Businesses’ & the need for a new kind of storytelling for mobile

Dan Lyons explains why all TV shows are typically made in the same way that the new generation of ‘Meme Businesses’ are made.

October 23, 2012 by

This is a summary of a part of the talk Dan Lyons gave at Business of Software 2012. It has been taken from the summary originally written by our BoS in-house blogger, Zuly Gonzalez. Dan covered three important things in his talk – the importance of mobile, the concept of Meme businesses and how to talk to the press. Read the full summary for more information.

This is about the concept of meme businesses and why mobile needs a new kind of storytelling…

Dan Lyons is the writer behind the Fake Steve Jobs blog, which at one point was supposed to be turned into a TV show. In the process Dan learned that the TV business is completely broken. Lesson learned – writing a blog is way more fun than writing a TV show. It did get Dan thinking about how the process of making TV shows works and came up with the concept of, ‘Meme Businesses‘. A brilliant concept.

Dan realised that all TV shows are typically made in the same way. Someone pitches an idea to a network, if the network likes it, the idea gets turned into a pilot at minimal cost. If the pilot does well, they commission a series. If that does well, they commission another series and so on ad infinitum. Eventually, the public loses interest.
Memes are essentially extremely short-lived TV shows. Check out Cats with Bread.

The home of the meme is YouTube – Hitler discovers… Gangam Style… 75% of YouTube users are mobile. Google has invested $300 million on content; doing an end run around the TV business. As mobile grows, what’s happening to TV? TV is already killing itself. There is a generational shift – young people are tuning out TV and using YouTube more. YouTube has lots of stupid videos, but the money is real.

So the big question is, “Are companies becoming more like TV shows?”. “Yes!” says Dan.

  • Attract jerks like TV does.
  • Require relatively little capital.
  • Don’t last long.
  • Different expectations. Not built to last.
Consider the process of TV production:
  • Someone pitches an idea to a network, if the network likes it, the idea gets turned into a pilot at minimal cost. If the pilot does well, they commission a series. If that does well, they commission another series and so on ad infinitum. Eventually, the public loses interest.
Now substitute a few words…
  • An entrepreneur pitches an idea to a VC, if the VC likes it, the idea gets turned into a MVP or product launch. If the launch does well, they invest more. If that does well, they invest more and so on until they are bought. Eventually, the purchaser loses money.

Today’s ‘hit shows’ are ‘Meme Businesses’:

  • Facebook: A global performance space. You don’t just watch the show, you ARE the show. (7 hours/user/month)
  • Instagram
  • Twitter: Another performance space.  Over 60% of usage is mobile.
  • Flipboard
  • Pinterest: 10 million users. (7 hours/user/month)

These are still the early, experimental days. There will be numerous flameouts:

  • Color app
  • Airtime
  • Quora – half a flameout

New world: light, fast, fragmented, ephemeral. Audience is in constant motion.

There is still real, long-term value in businesses that take a different view, a view that involves creating long term value for customers. They won’t necessarily hit the heights and the headlines in the way that Zynga, GroupOn, MySpace and Bebo do, or did, but they will make a difference in the world.

The most spectacular Meme Businesses make a few people rich and usually leave others nursing significant losses. Most Meme Businesses however fail. They are run by, and invested in by people who want to run hard at making something happen, if it doesn’t give up, get out and move on.

Who gets hurt?

  • VCs: VCs are built for companies like Intel. They are not built for this world. More money than ideas is bad news for VC firms.
  • Angel funds: Crowdfunding is a better fit for the new kind of company.
  • Media: A daisy chain of destruction. Ads online don’t work.
  • News and entertainment: Also funded by ads.
  • Consumers: Get fed the same crap.
Almost all, ‘Meme Businesses’ either don’t have a business model (the model is to get huge and get sold) or rely on advertising.

Why don’t online ads work?

  • Advertising was a creature of the TV age. It was an industry built around 30 second spots.
  • Ads are weak on social. Customers fight back with “anti-ads”.
  • Mobile makes it even worse because of the tiny screens.

Shift to mobile is hurting Facebook, Google and Pandora (i.e. web-based companies).

But, what if we reinvented advertising? Make it all about context – not just who, but when and where and what they’re doing. However, mobile devices are incredibly personal, so we must be careful not to violate the circle of trust (i.e. don’t be creepy). This has high potential if implemented properly – the ability to reach 7 billion people on the Internet. Two things we need:

  • A new kind of storytelling: A new way of crafting stories to the media, and in a language unique to the medium.
  • A new business model: Based on something that isn’t advertising, but that accomplishes the same thing (allows you to reach customers).

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How to ensure your startup is trusted by no one. The GetIntro case study.

October 15, 2012 by Mark T Littlewood

If you want a case study in how to ensure people will never trust you as a startup, check out the Get Intro approach. Anyone else been spammed by GetIntro with some vague email saying that one of your connections has met another of your connections thanks to you through the GetIntro platform?

Started with an email a bit like this…

Hi,

James and Simone [names changed to protect the innocent etc] have been introduced on INTRO. You are one of the many reasons they were connected.

If you think this is a good match and they could help each other in business then please do them a favour and endorse it on INTRO. INTRO is a business networking app that matches you to the people you’re looking for to increase your business connections.

Jump on INTRO to extend your business reach and find who you’re looking for.

Download the free app here [WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T DOWNLOAD THE FREE APP]

Thanks!

Blah Blah INTRO Labs

There is no unsubscribe option (not that I subscribed in the first place). I check out the website.

To be honest, it is pretty horrible for two reasons, the font is pretty illegible and it really isn’t very clear what you should do, how the whatever it is is supposed to work.

Get intro home page

There are two buttons to download Android and iPhone versions of the app. To be honest, my spidey sense is already up a bit so I would want to find out a little bit more about the people behind the company.

Things like:

  • Who is backing it?
  • Who is behind it?
  • Where is the company based?
  • How did it get my email address to spam me?
  • How do I know my data is safe? How do I know my info won’t be used inappropriately?

First stop the about page. Nothing.

OK, the blog.

Get info Blog

Mmm. Not much help there either.

How about the FAQs? (Pasted from the site into plain text so it is more legible)

Q – What is the security like around INTRO? How do I know my information will not be shared with others unless I allow it to be?

A – INTRO takes data from the social networks that you already use. It never displays your mobile number, and only shares your email address once you have Reached Out to another person and you have both accepted.

Q – Will information from INTRO be shared on my other social networks?

A – No, not unless you explicitly tell us that you want to share it. For example, if you are checking in at a certain venue on INTRO, you can send this alert out through your other networks. But you need to press a button to do this – it is never done automatically.

Q – How do you create introductions for me?

A – Introductions are based on three main things:

  • The people you are looking for.
  • The people nearby that have strong network connections to you.
  • People in your industry with close degrees of separation to you.

We add little magic, and Voila! You have a ranked and personalized list of new people you should meet for business, waiting in your INTROS tab.

Q – How can I get INTRO to work better for me?

A – Tip number 1: Under the Profile tab, add in the social networks you belong to like Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare.

INTRO will show you the reasons to connect. Swipe the black bar with all the networks on it to the right. You will see the overlaps you share with the person within each network. This helps you see the connections and make sure you have a lot of stuff to talk about when you chat through the network or meet face to face.

Tip number 2: Reach Out.

See someone you want to connect with? Then make the first move. You must “Reach Out” or press “Accept” to connect.

Once a “Reach Out” has been accepted, the person moves to your CONTACTS, where you can chat with them.

There may be other new intros waiting, so it is important to action your current INTROS by “Reaching Out” or if you aren’t interested, deleting.

Tip number 3: Invite your contacts.

Did you know the valuable networking for business is done with casual acquaintances and people known indirectly? So invite the people you know to join INTRO. And get them to invite the people they know. It pays to invite your friends and contacts as you will get better connections and find people you want to do business with.

It’s worth noting that INTRO works best in big cities, and is particularly good at big conferences and events.

Q – What smart phones are you developing for?

A – Currently, INTRO has been developed for the iPhone, and will shortly be launched for Android phones. Windows and Blackberry will follow behind.

Not much help other than the fairly standard promises of most event and location based apps. Still not giving me much incentive to trust them though.

Only other option left on the site other than to just go right ahead, trust them with my data and download the app, would be to see the terms and conditions and then make a choice.

After all, the Ts and Cs will contain the legal entity for the company etc and if I was really desperate for the app, I might be prepared to take a chance. (I did think twice about pasting these – after all, they have probably spent thousands of dollars or pounds with a lawyer to get some nicely crafted words. But then I copied and pasted a bunch of the paragraphs, verbatim into Google, and discovered of course that they were exactly the same paragraphs that appear in so many other startup websites word for word.

“Terms and Conditions

1. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS OF USE AND AMENDMENTS

EACH TIME YOU USE OR CAUSE ACCESS TO THIS WEB SITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF USE, AS AMENDED FROM TIME TO TIME WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU. (“TERMS OF USE”). IN ADDITION, IF YOU ARE USING A PARTICULAR SERVICE ON THIS WEB SITE OR ACCESSED VIA THIS WEB SITE, YOU WILL BE SUBJECT TO ANY RULES OR GUIDELINES APPLICABLE TO THOSE SERVICES, AND THEY WILL BE INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE WITHIN THESE TERMS OF USE. THE TERMS OF USE CONSTITUTE A CONTRACT BETWEEN YOU AND INTRO LABS (“WE” OR “OUR”). THE TERMS OF USE INCLUDE OUR PRIVACY POLICY, WHICH YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ. BY USING OR CAUSING ACCESS TO THIS WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF USE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND, THEN PLEASE CEASE USING THIS WEBSITE IMMEDIATELY.

2. Age

You must be 18 years old to enter or use this website. By using this website you have represented and confirmed to us that you are at least 18 years old.

3. The services

This web site and the services provided to you on and via this web site are provided on an “AS IS” basis. You agree that the we reserve the right to modify or discontinue provision of this web site and its services, and to remove the data you provide, either temporarily or permanently, at any time, without notice and without any liability towards you. We will not be held responsible or liable for timeliness, removal of information, failure to store information, inaccuracy of information, or improper delivery of information.

4. Your responsibilities and registration obligations

In order to use this web site or certain parts of it, you may be required to register for a user account on this web site; in this case, you agree to provide truthful information when requested. By registering for a user account, you explicitly agree to this site’s Terms of Use, including any amendments made by us that are published herein.

5. Privacy policy

Registration data and other personally identifiable information that the site may collect is subject to the terms of our Privacy Policy.

6. Registration and password

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password, and you will be responsible for all usage of your user account and/or user name, whether authorized or not authorized by you. You agree to immediately notify us of any unauthorized use of your user account, user name or password.

Blah Blah Blah. Lots of legalese.

14. Notification of copyright infringement

If you believe that your property has been used in any way that could be considered a copyright infringement or a violation of your intellectual property rights, our copyright agent may be contacted via: e-mail to getspammed@getintro.net.

15. Applicable law

You agree that these Terms of Use and any dispute arising out of your use of this web site or products or services provided will be governed by and construed in accordance with English law, without regard to or application of its conflict of law provisions. By registering for a user account on this web site, or by using this web site and the services it provides, you accept that jurisdiction is granted to the courts having jurisdiction over us, and that any disputes will be heard by the said courts.

So English Law but based in San Francisco. no idea what the legal entity is called or where it is based.

Privacy Policy

INTRO(“we” or “our”) provide this Privacy Policy to inform users of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personally identifiable information received from users of this web site or collected through the services that we offer. This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time for any reason; each version will apply to information collected while it was in place. We will notify you of any material changes to our Privacy Policy by posting the new Privacy Policy on our web site. You are advised to consult this Privacy Policy regularly for any changes.

By using our web site you are consenting to our processing of your information as set forth in this Privacy Policy now and as amended by us. “Processing” means using cookies on a computer or using or touching information in any way, including, but not limited to, collecting, storing, deleting, using, combining and disclosing information. By visiting our web site and providing information to us, you consent to such use and processing.

Third party vendors, including Google, show our ads on sites on the internet. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website. You have the option to opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page. http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html . Alternatively you can opt out – opt out of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt out page. (http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp)

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or our use of your personally identifiable information, please contact us by e-mail to getspammed@getintro.net.

Information Collection and Use

Our primary goals in collecting personally identifiable information are to provide you with the product and services made available through the web site, including, but not limited, to communicate with you, and to manage your registered user account, if you have one.

Information Collected Upon Registration. If you desire to have access to most of the services provided by the web site, you will be required to become a registered user, and to submit certain personally identifiable information to us. This happens in a number of instances, such as when you sign up for our services, or if you desire to receive marketing materials and information. Personally identifiable information that we may collect in such instances may include your IP address, full user name, hobbies and personal preferences, age, address, password, time zone, telephone number, and other information that you decide to provide us with, or that you decide to include in your public profile.

Additional Information Your full user name and your photo, if you decide to upload one, together with certain other information, are displayed to people in our network. Once a member, you may provide additional information in the profile section. Providing additional information beyond what is required at registration is entirely optional, but enables you to better identify yourself to help us deliver services to you. If you contact us by email through the Site, we may keep a record of your contact information and correspondence, and may use your email address, and any information that you provide to us in your message, to respond to you.

Use of Contact Information In addition, we may use your contact information to market to you, and provide you with information about, our products and services.

Log Data When you visit the Site, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website (“Log Data”). This Log Data may include information such as your IP address, browser type or the domain from which you are visiting, the web-pages you visit, the search terms you use, and any advertisements on which you click. For most users accessing the Internet from an Internet service provider the IP address will be different every time you log on. We use Log Data to monitor the use of the web site and of our services, and for the web site’s technical administration.

Cookies

Like many websites, we also use “cookie” technology to collect additional website usage data and to improve the web site and our services. A cookie is a small data file that we transfer to your computer’s hard disk. We do not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information. We may use both session cookies and persistent cookies to better understand how you interact with the web site and our services, to monitor aggregate usage by our users and web traffic routing on the web site, and to improve the web site and our services. A session cookie enables certain features of the web site and our services and is deleted from your computer when you disconnect from or leave the web site. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the web site. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser help file directions. Most Internet browsers automatically accept cookies. You can instruct your browser, by editing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the web sites you visit.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

Service Providers We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us, including, without limitation, hosting and maintenance, customer relationship, database storage and management, and direct marketing campaigns. We will share your personally identifiable information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these functions and provide such services, and only pursuant to binding contractual obligations requiring such third parties to maintain the privacy and security of your data.

Compliance with Laws and Law Enforcement We cooperate with government and law enforcement officials or private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We may disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims, legal process (including subpoenas), to protect our property and our rights or those of a third party, the safety of the public or any person, to prevent or stop any illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity, or to comply with the law.

Business Transfers We may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of our assets, including your personally identifiable information, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganisation or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy. You will have the opportunity to opt out of any such transfer if the new entity’s planned processing of your information differs materially from that set forth in this Privacy Policy.

Security

We are very concerned about safeguarding the confidentiality of your personally identifiable information. We employ administrative, physical and electronic measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access.

We will make any legally-required disclosures of any breach of the security, confidentiality, or integrity of your unencrypted electronically stored personal data to you via email or conspicuous posting on this web site in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, consistent with (i) the legitimate needs of law enforcement or (ii) any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system.

Blah

Our Policy Towards Children

The Site is not directed to persons under 18. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that a person under 18 has provided us with personally identifiable information, he or she should contact us at e-mail to getspammed@getintro.net. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from persons under 18. If we become aware that a person under 18 has provided us with personal identifiable information, we will delete such information from our files.

That last bit is so sweet.

So it turns out

So with a little more ‘detective work’ aka emailing the two people I had allegedly helped put together, it turns out that they had both been in contact with the founder of Get Intro when he was raising money for another startup, Streetspark. Neither of them had been connected via Get Intro, and neither of them use the app, one of them had previously but had deleted it. They both reported getting similar emails from other investors, angels etc who were equally confused.

This may yet turn out to be one of the most brilliant strategies to get the attention of investors on the planet, or not.

Response on twitter.

I probably shouldn’t have been quite so rude to the guy on Twitter but this probably isn’t the best way to react to pissed off customers if you want to be known as a trustworthy NETWORKING organisation that people can trust. Ho hum.

If you are a startup, think about the image that you want to present to the world. Think about the things that people want to know –

  • Can I trust you? (Don’t just say, ‘Yes, you can trust us’) Why should I?
  • Can you show me who you are and why you are worthy of my trust?
  • Show me why you care about protecting my personal information. (Spamming me in the first place is not a good start).
  • If people complain about their privacy being breached, show you care (or not), in the way you react and behave.

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CEO Tales: SaaS in the City, 6-9pm, 23rd October. Free registration.

How SaaS and the cloud is transforming technology in Financial Services. Discussion and networking drinks. 6-9pm, 23rd October. Free Registration.

October 15, 2012 by Mark T Littlewood

How SaaS and the cloud is transforming technology in Financial Services.  Discussion and networking drinks.

Join some of the people who are changing the way we think about technology in Financial Services. Meet senior people from banks including HSBC, UBS, Lloyds TSB, Bank of America, M&G, The Currency Cloud and Credit Suisse, emerging technology providers including Rackspace, Salesforce, Huddle, Mimecast and Symantec , and venture and private equity investors including Highland Capital, Eden Ventures, GE Capital for an evening of discussion, debate and drinks networking.

Thanks to generous support from Erevena Executive Search and Rackspace, there is no charge to attend this event.

Eventbrite - CEO Tales - SaaS in the City

Format: 6-9pm. Drinks networking, panel discussion and audience Q&A, drinks networking.

Address: No2 Royal Mill Court, Tower Hill, London, EC3N 4QN

Speakers:

  • Chris Swan, CTO, Client Experience, UBS.
  • Ali Mitchell, CEO, Huddle.
  • Darshan Chandarana, Global Lead, Financial services Strategy, Salesforce.

Our panel will offer their views on why the City has embraced SaaS businesses in such a short space of time, key industry trends, successful sales strategies for SaaS businesses and how to overcome the blocks to adoption in larger enterprises. SaaS and the City is an event for the people that are driving change in the financial services industry – buyers, vendors and thought leaders – to discuss the challenges they face in a fast moving industry.

Even two years ago, there was a high degree of skepticism in the financial services industry and banking sector in particular that SaaS based solutions were ‘right’ for such complex, regulated and security conscious environments. “I’m fine with our sales teams having SalesForce but it’s hard to see how it is going to get much further into the organisation than that without addressing some serious issues for us”, said one global banking CIO. How the world changed.

This CEO Tales will consider how much progress SaaS solutions have made in the financial services sector, where they are being adopted most rapidly, the major blocks to SaaS adoption and cloud computing more widely.

About the speakers:

Chris Swan, CTO Client Experience, UBS. SaaS in the CityChris Swan, CTO Client Experience UBS: Chris concentrates on strategy and architecture for web and mobile offerings across all regions and business divisions. He was previously co-head of Security CTO focussing on identity management, access control and data security. Chris represents UBS as a Director on the Steering Committee of the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA), an industry association focussed on enterprise adoption of cloud computing. Before joining UBS he was CTO at a London based technology investment banking boutique, which operated a cloud only IT platform. Chris previously held various senior R&D, architecture and engineering positions at Credit Suisse, which included networks, security, data centre automation and introduction of new application platforms.

Alastair Mitchell HuddleAlastair Mitchell, CEO Founder, Huddle: Alastair founded Huddle in 2006 after being frustrated by the inability of existing enterprise technology to help people collaborate. Spending millions on a SharePoint implementation, to watch it fail dismally, was the final straw. Since 2006, Alastair has grown Huddle to more than 200 people in London, San Francisco, New York and Washington DC. Sales have tripled year on year and Huddle has raised $40M in funding.  Alastair’s career has followed the trajectory of the internet. He built the first global soft commodities marketplace. When the business was bought, Alastair moved to Dunnhumby and led its marketing intelligence product from $0-$60 million sales in 4 years. He joined the board in 2005 to run a 300 person global team. When Dunhumby was purchased by Tesco, Alastair started Huddle. Alastair has an MEng in Naval Architecture.

Darshan Chandarana salesforceDarshan Chandarana, Global Lead, Financial services Strategy, Salesforce: Darshan has worked on both sides of the table – as buyer and seller of technology and solutions in the Financial services industry and is well placed to comment on the significant changes in approach to technology that have taken place in the industry over the past decade. He currently leads the Global Financial Services Solutions team at Salesforce, where he is focused on transformational projects in Banking, Insurance & Capital Markets. Previously, he was a director in Oracle’s Cloud Computing Group, working on product strategy, development & solutions specifically for the Platform as a Service initiatives within Financial Services. Until 2008 he headed up the financial services product strategy team in London for BEA. Prior to this he worked for Bank of America, where he was responsible for various cash and treasury management products & technologies in Capital Markets.

Our supporters for this CEO Tales: SaaS in the City are Erevena and Rackspace.

Address: No2 Royal Mill Court, Tower Hill, London, EC3N 4QN

Eventbrite - CEO Tales - SaaS in the City

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Felix Baumgartner’s record breaking jump. It’s only a model.

Clever LEGO based tribute to Felix Baumgartner’s lunatic jump promoting the Vienna Model Maker Fair, 25th-28th October. I want to go.

October 15, 2012 by Mark T Littlewood

Chapeau, Austrian chappy.

Clever LEGO tribute to Felix Baumgartner’s lunatic jump promoting the Vienna Model Maker Fair, 25th-28th October. I want to go.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-10-14

October 14, 2012 by Mark T Littlewood

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Cloud-o-nomics

October 12, 2012 by

Several insights this week into Cloud disrupting businesses, in more ways than one.

A report from the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) shows Cloud is causing some friction between business manager and IT managers: 50% of business managers view cloud as the default option for any new application, although only 19% of their IT colleagues agree. Potential for a lot of grumpy emails there.

AIIM pinpoint regulation and control as the top issues bothering IT managers, but there is a larger issue with valuing Cloud. Earlier this year, Forbes reporter Reuven Cohen ran an excellent analysis of Cloud costs which you can read here. The headline finding – Cloud is not necessarily cheaper than your own servers, especially if you have a significant baseload of traffic – is not surprising. But the value of Cloud for businesses is seen as its strategic benefits: differentiation, customer intimacy, opportunities for product innovation. Unfortunately many of these benefits are extremely hard to quantify.

On the other side of the fence, is it easier to quantify the costs of Cloud? Well, no. New start ups like Cloudyn may make it easier to account for Cloud operational costs and pinpoint where it should be used, but IT managers have their own strategic concerns: security, control, regulation. These are equally tricky to put solid numbers against and the models of costs will vary from industry to industry.

So for now we are left with two opposing sets of strategic concerns and plenty of potential for friction going forward, at least until IT managers are given performance targets relating to differentiation, opportunities for innovation and all those other good things. Until then, Cloud will continue to lend new meaning to the term disruptive technology.

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Making it Mobile: customer engagement – the biggest award

October 10, 2012 by

We’re running our Making it Mobile awards again this autumn, with the support of Twilio. We want to spotlight creative talent in the UK and showcase outstanding examples of great customer engagement.    We’ll be looking for ideas that add extra value to a client’s core product, bring in new customers or help retain existing ones. If you think you’ve got one, head over here for more details and how to enter.

Of course, great customer engagement has its own rewards – when you’re impressing Mobile Industry Review, you know you must be doing something right.

 

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