Archive for the ‘industry trends’ category

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Innovation in Search

June 5th, 2009

Search is hot lately, with two new search engines being announced in recent weeks. As the world’s only easily-searchable database platform, we’re happy to see attention being paid to finding relevant data easily.

The first new search engine to come out is Wolfram Alpha, founded by physicist/inventor/crank Stephen Wolfram. I would describe Wolfram Alpha as a cross between Google and Wikipedia for technical topics: math, physics, chemistry, and so on. It’s neat that I can type in sin(x) and see a graph, or type in benzene and see everything from its molecular structure to a phase diagram. Then again, I’m a nerd. Outside of scientific fields, it does poorly. If I type in Brazil I see only a smattering of factoids about the country. Compare this to Google’s entry for Brazil, which gives me images, maps, recent news, and so on; or Wikipedia’s entry, which is simply awesome, and shows Wikipedia at its best.

The second recent search engine to be unveiled is Microsoft’s Bing. It copies recent Google innovations like chunking out search results into different areas (news, maps, facts, weather) and providing suggestions for refined or related searches. It also has some very useful new features, like a mouse-over preview of the content of each search result that a user can skim before deciding whether to follow the link.

All of this innovation shows that search is as important as ever. We couldn’t agree more. That’s why we built the world’s only searchable database. Type in what you’re looking for, like you would in an Internet search engine: phrases, people, dates, numbers, and so on. TrackVia translates your request into a search that’s appropriate to your data model, and presents a highlighted list of matching records from your database.

Search Results in TrackVia

You can then edit the data right in the results page. You can also search notes that colleagues have added to database records, and search the built-in change history that TrackVia keeps for every record. And you can use advanced tricks like phrase searches, exact matches, negative matches, field binding, and even searching for blank values. All of this with a single search box, and a button labeled “Go.” No queries or wizards required. Did I mention it’s really, really fast – even with a hundred thousand records in your database?

It’s sort of like TrackVia is the Google/Bing/WolframAlpha of your own data.

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Why is Cloud Hot Now?

June 1st, 2009

Journalists wrote about cloud computing more than 6,000 times in May. Why?

After all, the delivery of IT services across the Internet is more than a decade old. Hotmail is a cloud-based email service, PayPal a cloud-based payment service, and Salesforce.com a cloud-based CRM – and all of those companies were started in the ‘90s. So what’s new that has made cloud computing so popular in the last two years?

I think the answer is that three prerequisites, or enablers, of cloud computing have been progressing steadily over the past decade, and their combination is only now at an inflection point.

The first enabler was the ubiquity of high-speed Internet access. The percentages of offices with broadband, of airports and hotels with WiFi, and of smart phones with data capability have all grown steadily since the dot-com crash. The second enabler was the maturity of browser technology. Only in the last three years have the major browsers settled on standard implementations of the technologies required for rich, interactive user interfaces – most importantly the Document Object Model (DOM), but also xhtml, CSS, and JavaScript. The third enabler was the gradually increasing comfort end-users have with storing private or critical information on the web. Call this the Gmail effect: over the last decade, professionals became accustomed to using the web for email, then retailing, then personal banking, and finally conducting business. 

If one supposes that improvement in those prerequisites has been more or less linear over the past 10 years, then their product – cloud readiness by businesses – would have increased not in a straight line, nor even like a parabola, but along a cubic curve. In other words, the trends combined to produce an inflection point in cloud readiness only recently.

At that inflection point, major vendors like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and (ahem) TrackVia entered the space, in turn driving those 6,000 press mentions. Okay – more of that coverage focused on those first three vendors than the last one. But check out our online database for business anyway!

 

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TrackVia Database Review

March 20th, 2009

Earlier this week, Bill Ives wrote a post reviewing TrackVia’s online database.  In his post, he reviews TrackVia’s excel import functionality, robust search tool, and many other database features.

You can check out his full review here: “TrackVia Provides Ease of Use with Useful Functions”

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Try Before You Buy

March 5th, 2009

SaaS Crash TestSounds too good to be true and often is. Many companies claim they let you try before you buy, however how many really let you TRY? The retail industry lets you try clothes on before buying, however how many national retailers (with the exception of Nordstrom) will let you remove the tags, wear the clothes and return them no questions asked? Not many. The auto industry lets you take a new car for a test drive, but dealerships don’t let you crash the car to see the responsiveness of the service department. Do they?

It is great to be a part of the SaaS industry that embraces the try before you buy philosophy. As Chris and Matt mentioned in a recent podcast, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the SaaS industry. There may be no free lunch, but there are free trials in the world of SaaS. If you are fortunate enough to try before you buy, I challenge you to put the product or service you are trying to the SaaS Crash test.

Remember: “You can learn a lot from a Free Trial”

Put your SaaS Free Trial to the Five Star Crash Test:

1. Total Your Data. If the company claims to have great back-up services, ask for a back-up. Even if they don’t claim to have a great back-up service, ask for one because they should.

2. Test Drive all the Features. Test all features and if there are any not accessible during a free trial ask to experience them. If the company says no, that is a red flag.

3. Challenge the Service Department. Contact via phone, email, twitter, etc. See how responsive they are to your needs. Ask an easy question. Ask a hard question. Ask multiple questions. Remember there are no dumb questions, and support replies should not make you feel dumb. When you call, see who answers the phone. Does a human answer the phone or are you routed through a maze of prompts with the ever familiar pre-recorded operator voice? Are you able to get management on the phone?

4. Read the Manual. Make sure there are adequate help documents and security procedures in place. Check out the blog and see if it is current. Watch a demo or check out the training library. If there is no demo or you want additional information, ask for a live demo.

5. Ask to talk to current drivers. If the company hesitates to put you in touch with a current customer, start exploring other options. Do you really want to sign-up with a company whose customers are not its biggest fans?

Does your SaaS provider receive a five star crash rating?

Additional Reading:
Three Things to Consider When Evaluating SaaS Providers
Benefits of SaaS in a downturn

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TrackVia Podcast: SaaS Tips and Considerations

March 2nd, 2009

It has been a big week in which software-as-a-service has been in the headlines with the recent Gmail outage and Coghead’s announcement that they would be shutting their doors. In this podcast TrackVia founders, Chris Basham and Matt McAdams share some tips for companies considering software as a service (SaaS) including:

  1. Look at the price that the service charges and see if it is a sustainable price. At the end of the day, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
  2. When you call the company, do you actually get to speak with a person?
  3. Assess the risk of outages – don’t put your data under the mattress.

Listen to the podcast:

For additional tips, check out GigaOm’s post: 7 Questions to Evaluate SaaS

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The Facebook Fast

February 25th, 2009

Facebook Banned A recent article in the Wall Street Journaldiscussed a trend of parents giving up Facebook for Lent. I was a little amused that one parent referred to Facebook as “their candy”, but at the same time I must admit I can relate.

As a member of the Digital Generation, I think I am not alone in stating that technologies like Twitter and Facebook have actually brought some friends and families closer together. Sad to say but true. Are parents really considering giving up their “connection” to their friends and families for 40 Days? If so, I thought I’d give a few fasting considerations:

  • What you are doing now is really what you are doing in the moment. Make the most of it.
  • You may get odd looks if you provide a verbal status update at the office, at home or in public
  • A poke is no longer innocent, it may actually hurt someone.
  • If you ignore a friend, they will know about it.
  • If you crave wall to wall, check with your friends before pulling out the sharpie or tagging their house with spray paint.
  • If you were a Facebook voyeur, your cover is now blown and you may have to face up to the fact that you truly are a stalker.
  • If an old high school friend runs into you, you cannot run particularly if you already friended them and sent them a generic “great to reconnect” message.
  • Stealing friends now takes effort – no pilfering through other’s friends and friending them.
  • It is back to the socially awkward conversations with that relative that is so much easier to chat with online.
  • No more photo tagging, back to email or mailing pictures to friends and relatives.

For those parents who opt to stay connected, you might want to sign up for a Facebook for Parents class being taught for free at Stanford.

What additional considerations would you add to the list for parents or others opting for the 40 day Facebook fast?

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WHIR tv Interviews Matt McAdams

February 24th, 2009

TrackVia’s CTO, Matt McAdams, recently had an opportunity to visit with Larissa Primeau of WHIRtv during the Parallels Summit. Below you will find the video of the conversation where Matt addresses the following:

  • What is TrackVia?
  • What role TrackVia’s online database plays in the small to mid-sized business market?
  • How the current economic situation will impact business?

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Coghead Customer Discount

February 19th, 2009

20% Discount for all Coghead Customers

Coghead recently announced that it has discontinued operations and all data must be downloaded by April 30th. At TrackVia we understand how important a customer’s database is, therefore we are offering all Coghead users a 20% discount for the life of their account. We will also give Coghead users FREE unlimited technical support to help with the transition. Simply enter COGHEAD as the promotion code when you create your free trial. Offer expires March 16, 2009.

Our support team is ready to help you make a smooth transition to TrackVia’s online database. Call 800.673.3302 with any questions.

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The Hallmark Stimulus Package

February 13th, 2009

Hallmark Stimulus PackageWhy doesn’t the President look to Hallmark or Twitter for a little help with the Stimulus Package? After all, Hallmark has done a great job generating revenue through card sending occasions. Here is a look at the top card sending holidays in the U.S.:

Assuming on average a card costs $2.50, Valentine’s Day cards alone pump an additional $478 million into the Hallmark coffers. Why doesn’t the U.S. Government partner with Hallmark and agree to donate all proceeds to the Stimulus Plan? A new card giving occasion won’t cover all the $789 billion cost of the stimulus plan, but it will put a dent in it. The government could also partner with Twitter and create the twallmark card series. Just think if all of the 5.6 million Twitter users purchased one twallmark card at $2.50, an additional $14 million would be pumped into the stimulus plan.

What Hallmark or Twallmark occasion would you create to help stimulate the economy?

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Tech Layoff Trends

February 12th, 2009

Sports and weather are two things you expect to find on news sites, and I hate to say it but layoffs have joined the lineup as well. I’ve always heard that most companies designate Fridays as the day of the week to hand out pink slips, and I started wondering if there is any trend related to the day of the week companies announce layoffs.

I took the data from CNet’s technology scorecard and uploaded it into an online database, so I could easily slice and dice the data. I may be biased, but I find that it is easier to understand data viewed through a powerful database.

Some of the results may surprise you:

There are many theories as to when companies should begin a layoff and often times it is suggested that it take place at the end of the week close to the end of the day.

However, by dropping layoff data into a TrackVia database, I found Wednesday to be the most popular day for tech companies to announce layoffs followed by Monday. Friday ranks fourth. If you want to avoid depressing layoff news, don’t read the paper or watch the news on Wednesdays. View calendar displaying layoffs.

I also was curious to see which tech companies made the most layoff announcements in recent months and found Lenovo and AMD topped the list with three rounds of layoffs. Additionally, October 17th was the date with the most companies (9) announcing layoffs in the past quarter.

Perhaps the British have it right with the 3-day work week scenario. In this case, reducing overall unemployment but wouldn’t that also mean that Wednesday would be the new Friday? If you were put in the tough situation how would you go about the layoff process and what day would you pick? Would you prefer to mandate a 3 day work week vs. layoffs?

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