That’s a p-r-e-t-t-y big statement which I roughly translate as: “Get lost.” And while I wonder at the wisdom of engaging in what Jevon calls a ’schoolyard brawl’ with Microsoft, the reaction indicates that Microsoft is determined to protect its turf. But will the IBM/Microsoft approach, based as it is in the past, be enough to win the day?
I’m going out on a limb here because many of my colleagues look at history and think it kinda repeats itself. I disagree. As Limbert says, startups are the future winners. While today, the top slots in the enterprise market may be the same as they were 10 years ago, let’s not forget that Facebook (as an example) came from nowhere in 2006 to dominate the news in 2007 and gathered the now fabled $15 billion valuation. Microsoft may be aligned to Facebook on advertising but that leaves Facebook owning the customer relationship. Duh? Google went from strength to strength and many believe the war for dominance of the ‘internet cloud’ is already over with Google declared a winner. So picture this:
The startups who are doing the outside in stuff as outlined above become established in 2008, deepening their understanding of how relationships are created and sustained. One of them realizes that the people centric principles delivering CRM 2008 value can be equally applied to Social Capital Management. In other words, they can supplant today’s Human Capital Management solutions. What happens then to so-called core business processes? I think SAP knows, even if it might struggle to get there. I’m not convinced that IBM, Oracle or Microsoft are remotely close. Libert most certainly knows even if the eventual 800lb gorilla’s identity is yet to be revealed. As the old saw goes: we live in interesting times.
Note: Source taken from ZDNet blog.
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