Verizon plans to share your call data

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

This story was passed to me today and thought it post worthy.  Basically the friendly folks at Verizon are putting it on us (yes, I am a customer) to tell them NOT to share our call information with others.  This Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) is marketing gold as they plan to share it with "affiliates, agents and parent companies (including Vodafone) and their subsidiaries."  Targeted ads based on your calling patterns anyone?

Carriers like Verizon are in constant competition to "suck less" than the alternatives and I have found them to be the best of the worst out there.  I’ll make my call and suggest you do the same.

RSS bankruptcy

/ Robert Pease / 3 Comments

Uncle.  I have become overwhelmed with the sheer number of RSS feeds I have accumulated over the previous year.  Much like many declare email bankruptcy, I am going to extend this a bit and declare RSS bankruptcy.  I can’t keep up so I am scaling back.  I began to realize that there were just a few that I actually looked forward to reading with the rest getting "mark all as read" treatment.  Newspapers and periodicals?  Gone.  Robert Scoble and other nonsense peddlers?  Gone.  Here’s my list of must haves:

  1. Paul Kedrosky – I have declared my fan status previously
  2. Brad Feld – he lives in Boulder, knows his stuff, and answers my emails
  3. Fred Wilson – just generally good stuff
  4. alarm:clock – funding activity and venture news
  5. Marc Andreessen – just good stuff
  6. DealBreaker – my dose of Wall Street
  7. Kirkland Weblog – news from the hood
  8. Random Desiderata – good stuff from friend and previous co-worker Bradley Young
  9. Scripting News – i just like the posts
  10. Glenn Reynolds – see if you can keep up with Instapundit and b/c I took a class from him when I was at UT.  Great guy.
  11. The Big Picture – more Wall Street coverage
  12. ValleyWag – for a dose of Silicon Valley without actually having to go there
  13. Jeff Nolan – thoughtful posts from an enterprise software guy
  14. Extreme Mortman – I like the posts
  15. WallStreetFighter – just entertains me
  16. WallStreetFolly – another Wall Street site but I like to see who posts first – these guys or DealBreaker
  17. Politico – the best balanced political site I could find (recommendations wanted for others)

I have more than this set up in my reader, but these are the ones I look forward to that post pretty regularly.

SaaS and its role in B2B

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

How’s that for acronym soup?  Software as a service (SaaS) is all about providing value on-demand without the need to deploy software on premise.  Fundamental to this a multi-tenant architecture meaning you don’t have to have an instance of a software product for every customer you serve on-demand.  That’s one of the things that makes Hubspan unique (yes, that is a plug) and sets us apart.

This is a good post from Mark Morley over at GXS on this topic as it relates to the automotive industry (his focus) but these data points can be applied across verticals.

eBusiness expertise on display in Seattle

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Had the opportunity to attend a great couple of presentations the other day thanks to an invite from Tom Westbrook and the Open Network for Commerce Exchange (ONCE) at the Fairmont Hotel here in Seattle.  Great presentations by Clay Siemson, Director of E-business from OfficeMax, and Chris Vike, Director of Information Management from Weyerhauser, on the topics of B2B traction and 3rd party B2B services, respectively.  The conversation was more about industry trends and best practices than anything else.  Here’s a couple of points I took away from the gathering:

  1. 100% trading partner enablement remains elusive especially for those with non-standard connection requirements or that don’t transact significant volumes.
  2. eBusiness is a corporate priority that includes both the business and IT sides of the house.
  3. There are significant opportunities for process improvement related to what happens when an order fails or when an invoice does not get delivered as intended.
  4. Improvements in these processes have significant cash flow impact as it relates to reducing days sales outstanding (DS0) via invoice acceleration or time to cash with order validation among other opportunities.

All in all a great gathering and I appreciate Tom inviting us to attend.

New gig

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

For those of you that don’t know, I have recently taken a new position here in Seattle.  I’m staying in the messaging & collaboration space although headed "down stack" a bit into business-to-business information exchange.  I have taken the VP Marketing role at Hubspan and am really excited to be working with a great team in an exciting space.  My coverage will continue to include personal messaging but will expand to incorporate items related to supply/demand chains and how companies are using technology for real-time information sharing.

Top challenges facing CEOs

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Selling to the enterprise?  Here’s what is on the mind of the CEO according to a recent survey from The Conference Board.  You’ll notice IT doesn’t make the top 10 but some of the benefits certainly do (via CIO Insight):

1. Sustained and steady top-line growth   41.3%
2. Excellence in execution   39.6%
3. Consistent execution of strategy by top management   38.5%
4. Profit growth   29.9%
5. Customer loyalty/retention   25.6%
6. Finding qualified managerial talent   20.9%
7. Top management succession   20.1%
8. Corporate reputation   19.7%
9. Stimulating innovation/creativity/enabling entrepreneurship   19.2%
10. Speed, flexibility, adaptability to change   18.2%

Eat the anxiety

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I like this post from Andy Sack (via a mentor of his).  Here’s the link but essentially he’s talking about using the anxiety you feel as fuel to drive and motivate you.  Good guidance.  I had the chance to meet Andy briefly at the first Seattle Open Coffee.  I have been unable to make another one due to recurring conflicts but they continue to gather at Louisa’s on Tuesday am.