Ideas Blog

If you are a CIO, CFO, Advisor or Business Owner then SaaS has become an increasingly compelling choice over software. Online accounting is on the shopping list rather than the future wishlist. The questions are increasingly about how to change rather than is it secure. Not adopting SaaS has switched from being viewed as “risk averse” behaviour to one of “please explain why we are spending a fortune on software licenses”. Ask yourself “can I outperform the Cloud and SaaS providers on security if I take that risk on myself in house and manage and host my own software and data?”

SaaS contains a lot of sugar and spice. It turns CapEx into OpEx. It gives you capacity to burst workflow and users. It enables work from home for parents. Small business owners can take that holiday, do the online accounting payrun from afar and keep up to date. It’s liberating technology. If you aren’t a believer ask yourself why every major software company around the world is busily trying to reinvent themselves. They are busy getting their pilots license so they can fly into the cloud.

Choose an online accounting system based on credentials. Being a traditional software company is far from an appropriate credential to do cloud based applications well. Do you want to back an old dog trying to learn new tricks? Choose SaaS providers who are profitable, there are many. Most important of all is to look at their breed. Do they have a history of free tax updates? Do they let you export your data? Do you get stung for high support costs? Many new SaaS providers along with the old software companies fail on this. What’s their motive? Barriers to exit? What are their ethical genetics like in light of this?

Look for SaaS companies that will let you fly like you’re in an A380, that has the scale and all the mod cons and features you expect in this new age. One that you can trust.

Photo by VSZ

I presented at Web3.0 and the Future of Social Media Conference yesterday (see Twitter hashtag #web3).

I wanted to push ahead a few years and get the point across that we need to think about the web in a more naturalistic way. It’s not about silicon, electrons and data. It’s now has a life unto itself and displays the traits of living things.

I also wanted to focus on the way the web application and business space faces consumers. Essentially that we need to change direction and treat each individual as important, be careful with their time and relevent when we give them content and services.

Here’s my slide notes…

Burning Questions

So much technology
:: Why am I so time poor?

Photo: ToniVC

The next big thing
:: Where are we at?
:: Web 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, yada, yada.

Photo by David Prior

The Web Entity

The net is a beast
:: It has developed a life unto itself
:: Relative to natures evolution it’s a mini-beast, amoebic.

Photo by microagua

Primordial Days
:: Quality of info filters builds
:: Good levels of sharing
:: Early sensory control
:: Early utility adoption
:: Start of linked data

Life like
:: Homeostasis
:: Organization
:: Metabolism
:: Growth
:: Adaption
:: Response to stimuli
:: Reproduction

Biotic
:: Consumers
:: Employees
:: Developers
:: Investors

Abiotic
:: Applications
:: Network
:: Platforms
:: Web construct

Devices

Generation D
:: The data generation
:: The device generation

It’s about the data
:: Data surpasses the importance of the digital bodies that it lives on.
:: Data is created about data. A world of linked data.
:: Data lives on the web and Devices are windows into the web.

Data is set free.
:: User permission.
:: Socially permission.

Everything has a brand
:: People, Ideas, Services & Products. Not just companies.

Numerical Brand
:: Algorithm + vote search
:: Social bookmarking
:: Followers & friends
:: Crowd sourcing
:: Content rating
:: Like vs link

Information overload
:: We need better controllers of the data we see.

Restraint
:: We collect and regret
:: Collect = Gather and store data, experiences, apps, tools.
:: Regret = Missing something like news, ideas, experiences.

The Cost of the Habit
:: Time
:: Effectiveness
:: Self expression
:: Quality of experience

Data Addiction
The old addiction
:: Physical Consumption
The new addiction
:: Digital Consumption

Sales Automation

Educate vs Sell
:: Authenticity

Trigger vs Campaign
:: Trigger based email/mail/web

Targeted and relevant
:: Don’t waste their attention

Off balance sheet Sales
:: Community, Customers, Partners & F&F

Data Brokers

Data Brokers
:: Integrate and connect applications and data
:: Examples: WDCI, Boomi, OneSaaS

Web applications will change
:: less device dependent
:: more connected.

Application Constraints
:: Apps that don’t connect and that are feature light weights
:: Applications that are niche require hand holding

Moving data around
:: Too many pieces in the puzzle.
:: Too many connected apps to solve business problems.
:: Too many moving parts.
:: Higher risk of failure

Attention Dollar

Attention Dollar
:: The currency of the web is attention.
:: The attention police is relevance.

Attention Defined
:: 8 hours a day playing Warcraft

Photo by glenn batuyong

The Attention Economy
:: The web beast evolves based on your attention votes.
:: Your time is being absorbed by websites and apps in piecemeal
:: Systems seduce you into giving your time away.
:: Good systems will reward your time

Marketing emails
:: Like the guy at the party who talks & talks *eyes glaze over*

Attention engineered email
:: The new email regime.
:: Email that is exactly relevant to my needs in time, place and interest. e.g. Marketo

Infographics
:: Pictures trump text

by Davvi

Meta Data Driven Content
:: Wikipedia trumps Encarta
:: Twitter trumps Yellow Pages

Digital Soap Box
:: You have something you want to say
:: e.g. walls, tweets, blogs, chatter

Data and graphic rich business apps
:: Replacing numbers/words with pictures

Memetic Engineering
:: Designing business models to produce memes.
:: Capital value is based on the consumer & business Attention acquired.

Ubiquitous Web

Required Elements
:: Data, Utilities, Connection & Computation

The web is evolving based on what works & what doesn’t
:: Small nuances = Big differences

The web is getting judged, naturally selected
…and across many devices

Consumers are mini VC’s
:: Invest small amounts attention dollars

Consumers are natural selectors
:: May the best “web genetics” survive.
:: Facebook is genetically superior to MySpace? Or does it have a privacy cancer?

Do you have an iPhone?
:: How many apps have you tried?
:: Small numbers of apps survive your standards
:: The few that do have common traits

iPhone App Survival Traits
:: Extremely entertaining
:: Create or save time
:: Window into content

Utility Web

Low rather than No Software
:: Software burns time and CapEx from business
:: Software = Rekeying data, upgrade software, buy licenses & maintenance

Cloud applications / SaaS
:: Converts CapEx into OpEx
:: Google, Microsoft, Amazon are re-building the webs architecture

The Semantic Web is a WIP
:: Resource Description Framework
:: Ontology Language
:: Folksonomy

The AI Web
Mechanising our activity
:: Mechanical turks
:: True Artificial intelligence
:: Data collection and connection
:: Collective web intelligence
:: Knowledge coding
:: Recommendation Engines e.g. Apple Genius
:: Rules Engines: Triggers, Rules, Scheduled Events
:: Business Logic Layers that are flexible, learning, crowd sourced

Web Evolution

Darwinian
:: Natural Selection applies

The future will be strange
Strangeness is a consequence of innovative thinking
Ross Lovegrove

The future will be functional
its the only vehicle which have the elegance of intelligence, because it’s not driven by marketing, it’s driven by function
Philippe Starck (on military vehicles – his favourite vehicle)

User Designed Applications
:: Behavioural design
:: Relevance design
:: Theme serving

Q: With all this technology why are we time poor?
:: Shouldn’t the evolution of the web help?

A: The web doesn’t let you triage your time very well
:: We are designed to collect, gather & hunt = Quick, while it’s there.
:: We are opportunists by design

A: We are bad at delaying gratification
:: The marshmallow experiment.
:: We are still learning how to do this with financial dollars.
:: What hope is there for us with the attention dollar. It’s too easy to spend.

Web 3.0 will
:: penalise inefficiency
:: lack of connectivity
:: poor relevance

A new kind of Capital Punishment
:: Inefficient, expensive, disconnected will lose the survival of the fittest contest
Failure to be efficient
:: The new “margin squeeze”.

All business are really two+ businesses
:: They are what they normally do and they are technology businesses.
:: Survivors will have embraced this passionately
:: Survivors will ensure tech creates time rather than consuming it.

Saasu calls this
:: Engineer the way you work

Thank You

Marc Lehmann
Email: marc@saasu.com
Twitter: @marclehmann
LinkedIn: marclehmann
Web: saasu.com
Blog: saasu.com/blog
Personal blog: marclehmann.net
Address: 1st Floor, 111 Elizabeth St Sydney, Australia 2000
Creative Commons: Attribution-NoDerivs License

Often small businesses can tap into opportunities that arise out of government policy change, project work or new schemes that have uncertain longevity. Billions of dollars of this happens in the economy each year. In recent years the stimulus in the G20 economies has resulted in many new opportunities which businesses are now tapping. The big catch is that a fleeting start can have a fleeting end. I refer to these as pen-stroke opportunities.

As an example in the UK the construction of 5 billion dollar aircraft carrier is in doubt as quickly as it was planned. In Australia there was an insulation scheme with good environmental intentions that recently collapsed highlighting the inherent risks and subsequent systemic business failures.

The problem is that while you swim in a sea of cash a storm may be brewing. Politicians might be changing their minds, funding may be ending, new technologies might be about to make your business model irrelevant. Any business model based on a temporary market opportunities requires a agile business model. In doing this some simple strategies can be employed.

It must be a low capital structure.
Make sure the CapEx you have to make is commensurate with the risks of the opportunity ending and that you can sell that CapEx when and if it happens. The inability to shift old or redundant inventory is one of the biggest problems I see in business.

Keep your human resource needs off balance sheet
Outsourcing, sub-contracting and services (vs. self-service) can help keep headcount down in the business. Thinking more like a film producer that pulls people together for a project rather than thinking like a traditional business owner. Pull the right people together and know that filming will stop and you need a simple dismantling strategy for your business and it’s crew. Set the expectations in the staff as such, they have families and responsibilities and need to know where the risks are around longevity.

Preferably hold near zero or just-in-time inventory levels.
This is simply so you can dance near the door. If you don’t and the party ends you don’t want to get trampled in the rush for the door. If you are holding a big capital investment or high levels of stock you risk not achieving a good exit when forced to sell it back into the wholesale market.

Don’t expect the government to pick up the pieces.
They love cutting projects with the stroke of a pen. We all know this and little compensation is ever forthcoming. Even when the Government is clearly the party that has messed things up there is little sympathy from the electorate or other businesses because opportunism for high returns is understood to have higher risk. If the change in the scheme or project is due to a government change post election then the new government doesn’t need to act in your interests for at least another 3 or 4 years until the next election comes along. They know your cries will be long forgotten.

Structure a low CapEx and instead higher OpEx model
Keep leases and contracts short or flexible. Keep creditors as short as possible. Don’t run your capital structure with long term debt or intensive plant and equipment capital purchases. As an example opt for pay-as-you-go mobile phone plans instead of 2 or 3 year contracts. Buy Saasu on subscription instead paying upfront for old style accounting software!

Gap management
Make sure you OpEx matches you revenue side of the business. This gap management is critical. If considered it will ensure you don’t load expense into the business without having contracted or committed the revenue side.

Put your opportunistic hat on but make sure it’s the right hat for the job.

Google constantly reinvents the way things are done in business. Re-invention in all aspects of their business is a fundamental part of Google’s culture. It’s not just about online solutions and the cloud.

On the way to work I spotted a Google Maps Real Estate promo done with LJHooker. Essentially it highlights the ability to search and view houses for sale or rent using Google Maps. You can explore the area where you are looking to buy or rent with Google Street View. Even check out the neighbours houses next door to your prospective property before you even get in the car to have a look in person.

This is interesting for many reasons. It is a classic leap in customer experience we see often thanks to the web. Mashing up a relatively new tool, Google Maps with a time consuming problem of house hunting. Further monetizes Google’s investment in the Maps technology, which was developed in their Sydney, Australia office. The same team now building Google Wave.

What I also like about Google’s approach is the physical marketing device (pictured). It’s different to all the other marketing devices used in the building. The "placemark" symbol has become synonymous with Google. It was also a tangible and sculptural presence. Typically the advertising device of choice at this site is plasma screens, perspex covered billboards or freebies handed out to passers by. I noticed a lot of people stopped to check it out. I think it has a quality that can be very valuable in marketing. It’s "curious". Curious is good, curious is usually a consequence of innovative thinking.

I’ll be speaking at the International Business Review Web 3.0 conference on the 3rd of June this year about what I call the Naturally Selected Web. Some of the topics covered in my speech I touched on in my speech at CeBIT last year about the Data Generation but at this event I’ll get into more detail about how Web 3.0 is in part about participants selecting brand and product variants in what is literally a Darwinian Natural Selection process.

Quote voucher code SAAS-WEB3 if you want an extra 10% of the 31 March early bird deadline price.

I attended Tech23 in Sydney a couple of weeks ago and posted some tweets of key comments made by panel members made up of various industry leaders. Some didn’t make it to twitter, so here’s the content from my notebook.

I like attending these events. You can get insights (and insight reminders) at most events by sitting, waiting and snipping them from the conversation as they appear. Most content at these events isn’t dramatically new but there is usually outlier comments. It’s the context that they are made in and how it my apply to your own business model that is interesting.

It’s extremely important to watch other industry’s. When you cross pollinate ideas into your own industry or business model you can create new products and even new markets where they didn’t exist before.

Getting to critical mass. What is your critical mass? Chunk it down to micro market and get intensity.
Alison Deans from Netus

If it takes you 4 minutes to sell something you have a costly customer acquisition strategy.
Sue Klose from News Digital Media

We measure the life of an iPhone App in hours, not even days.
Sue Klose from News Digital Media

The lifespan of tagging is as long as humans can do it better than code.
Alan Noble from Google

Auto-magical (Alan describing a system that does something well automatically).
Alan Noble from Google

Don’t give concrete forecast numbers. Better to talk about the tech you have.
Mike Cannon-Brookes from Atlassian

They need to be careful and respectful of the users desktop space (In reference to desktop apps).
Phil Morle from Pollenizer

Patents stop you shaping your IP. People usually patent IP to early.
Mark Bonnar Cleantech Ventures

Patents should be used to ring fence a commercial space.
Roger Price from Innovation Capital

Young people will open up more online.
Didier from Cultureamp.

Building culture means give better feedback daily to your staff.
Didier from Cultureamp.

You can scale culture with software in your company.
Didier from Cultureamp.

Saasu has a long history of developing a mix of community ideas into our products. At the same time we like to apply some of our own ideas as an innovator where we see the opportunity. After all, we are a research and development company.

Introducing CrowdTheme™

Soon you will see stage one of Saasu’s CrowdTheme™.

CrowdTheme™ will support themes for your invoices and statements. You simply apply a theme to each template you have in Saasu (or create and submit your own). What’s more exciting is that this allows you to build a raft of workflow documents such as remittances, packing slips, purchase orders and print labels to name a few. Really it’s only limited to your imagination.

CrowdTheme™ will also be used to cover themes for Reports and Customer Self Service screens in a future release.

We will write about CrowdTheme™ in detail at our Product Blog in coming days.

Innovation background

At the moment Saasu crowd sources ideas from our blog, websites and application into our development candidate list. One such popular request was multiple templates for invoices. Many of our customers wanted to send invoices and quotes using more than one brand for their business. Slight changes between invoices and quotes for specific circumstances are another reason.

In essence the request we receive are what our customers want to do rather than how they want to do it. So this is where Saasu comes in with the innovation twist. We work out ways to solve the problem but at the same time create innovative approach that we think will add a whole new layer of benefit. We have to do this as it’s in our company mantra to create extremes in price relative to competitors while also creating extreme benefits.

Not wanting to let an opportunity go we decided it was time to use a themes approach we have wanted to put into Saasu that goes back to when we started blogging in 2003.

It was also a result of identifying that there is a vast complexity of international reporting and documentation requirements in accounting. We always felt that in the end only crowd sourcing themes and templates solves this issue. New document themes can be quickly added by the whole community and shared in a social service model and then applied to individual Saasu templates. This reduces the development cost and thus the cost of our communities Saasu subscription. More features for less cost = win win for all.

What’s this mean for the future of accounting?

We believe that Web3.0 is now starting to form it’s foundations. Companies like Saasu will increasingly allow users to design web applications by their use or by their own design (or a combination of these approaches). Themes are one mechanism that allow this. They will start to extend beyond Content Management Systems.

We also believe the web is becoming more and more organic as it gets a life of it’s own above it’s many tiny masters, the people who use it and the people who build on it.

One of the most important things we can do as a human species is take a step back or change our perspective when we look at a problem. In the movie Dead Poet’s Society, Robin William’s character, has his students stand on their desks in order to change their perspective.

This advert for the RWE found on Vimeo is another example of how the problems seem quite small but also the solutions are here and quite do-able when looked at from the giants perspective.

How could you change your perspective when looking at your business?

Service Seeking is a Saasu customer who’s business is getting businesses competing head to head to try and win work from a buyer. Service Seeking produced a Start Up Online series of videos. Saasu was included in one of the videos – thanks Jeremy and Oliver for the mention!

Saasu use a couple of the tools mentioned in the video (below) which is the third in the series. It was nice to see we think alike. One tool is tech related but the others can be applied to most business models.

Got a video about what technology or services you use in your business? Let us know.

Ever wondered what Web3.0 is shaping up to be? There are two things generally agreed in the technology industry. It’s not clear and it’s complex.

The following presentation on this topic is from my talk at CeBIT Webciety this year. The topic was What web Web3.0 will look like. This is all about the "Data" and the "Data Generation". Concepts such as the Semantic Web, Data-on-Data and more recently the Datarati have evolved in recent years to deal with the concepts.

If you are interested in the data area and how to use your business data to influence your business then Will Scully-Power’s blog is a great read. Previously of MarkSydney (part of the M&C Saatchi Group) he is seeding a new business in the data space.

We generally upload our presentations to Slideshare. See ~ Saasu | Marc Lehmann | Peter Cooper