If you’ve been in the mobile world as long as I have, you know business and personal applications can and do sit iconically side by side on either Android or iOS device idle screens.   Since the end game is about bifurcating business and personal applications and their content, why virtualize a mobile device when you can maintain security and control by running all you business apps to the mobile device via the browser.   Why screw up a natural progression to cloud-based computing on mobile with an unnecessary virtualization layer.   And is this really efficient?  VMware says you can expect no more than a 10% reduction in performance and 1% impact on power management.  Yeah right.

The truth is HTML 5-based browsers Safari on iOS and Chrome on Android provide secure offline access to your applications that can be  maintained by either your enterprise cloud service provider or very own private cloud.   The real discussion is how best to run your native and web-based applications on a mobile device.   Since that is the new paradigm shift is application access.    Creating multiple layers within your mobile device and possibly doubling your operating costs gives your network operator another excuse to double tax you, even without a dual SIM jack.

No, running a mobile VM like VMware’s new Horizon Mobile solution is a lot like putting a coat of oil-based paint on your latex coat.  You can do it, but why make a bigger mess to clean up and manage in the end?

1.  Nokia + Microsoft.  This one may turn into a slow waltz if they don’t pick-up the pace. No questions the best dressed partners by far.   Nokia is scheduled to release its first Windows Phone 7 device this fall.   Unfortunately just in time to be preempted by Apple’s iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy 2S North American launch.

2. HTC + Android + Sprint.  This once hip hop dance team has clearly been tamed by the market forces.  I admit since HTC abandoned its white label model for a full throttle branded business, it has produced some of the best smartphones, especially on Android.   The HTC EVO device is second only to iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy 2S.   The Sprint WiMax network brings out the full power of these devices.  Too bad Sprint will likely be 2012 road kill as T-Mobile and AT&T close their deal.   HTC on the other hand is  ripe to find a new dance partner if they don’t go back to their ODM roots.

3. Samsung + Android ?  The Samsung and the Galaxy had a good thing going with dance partner T-Mobile.   You could say they commanded a stage like Apple did with AT&T in the early years. But with T-Mobile in AT&T merger limbo, Samsung may lose the lead and momentum (especially in North America) as it combines with new partners AT&T and Verizon that have fat feet to say the least.  Now that Google plans to compete head to head with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), maybe we’ll see a slick new Samsung Galaxy WM7 variant in 2012.  God I hope not.   In any event I’ll still put them at number 2 behind Apple.  They have style and good looks to match.

4. RIM + BB OS7 +QNX.   RIM is where Nokia was 3 years ago, less the messaging market dominance.   A true solo routine with no desire to partner.  Yet the pressure to modernize the dying BB OS and ship new devices remains.   Early this month RIM did introduce a new Bold 9930 and two new Torch devices, 9810 and 9850.   All running BB OS7.   Not much to do with this OS release other than some enhanced voice-based search and web browsing.   Net net, they arrive at the dance close to par with Android and iOS.   It’s a shame, too little too late with these dance moves.  A nice trio of devices that provide the form factor of choice, and may temporarily stop the bleeding from their own Crackberry fan base.    At least for another year till QNX devices finally arrive.  Yet with the Playbook issues dragging RIM down, I don’t see a long-term future for this smartphone routine.

5. Apple + iOS + All.   The dance floor leader and showing no signs of slowing down.   It pays to own the club.   Next up the iPhone 5 running of course IOS 5 with a blazing dual core A5 processor.   iPhone 5 will be the Phone of the Holiday season.  Boring.   I do hope they introduce that new  NFC digital wallet technology.  A bit soon for the market for Apple’s taste.  Yet when your ahead in the market, there’s no better time to innovate with some fancy new moves.

6. HP + WebOS.     HP is a big unknown right now.  They have the skills and athleticism to make the final show.   Apple, Samsung/RIM and ?    The post-Palm Pre devices are still sitting on AT&T shelves, gathering dust I’m afraid.   They look too much like the Kin.   I know HP is extremely savvy when it comes to brand management.  The Compaq Presario is still being used in their PC business.   The Pre on the other hand is worth retiring now.  Maybe an intentional ankle sprain is in order.   WebOS could be a new star or yesterday’s news. This one is worth watching till the end.  HP announced it was jettisoning the WebOS and TouchPad business.  Maybe a bit premature, but with emphasis on its enterprise business the move  makes sense to cut the losses now.  HP announces the firing of Leo Apotheker and hiring of Meg Whitman (with Ray Lane).  Maybe the one can still bust a move.   Got any extra Touchpads?

During this same period we launched our End-User Computing (EUC) Centers.   Physical store fronts like an Apple Store is today with genius bars included, located on site at many AT&T corporate locations across North America, but mainly in New Jersey.   Through a managed vendor selection process, we consigned every known PC application for end users to choose from.   No waiting to get their software or peripheral device.    A corporate IT concept that was way ahead of its time.  But ultimately failed because we forgot to maintain our core mission of servicing the end-user.  Even though we were way ahead of the CAPEX to OPEX evolution, our EUCs mutated from IT Cost Centers to Profit Centers.  You have to remember “Greed was Good” in the 1980s.   A nice business with a captive market.

Today the PCOE or COE for short is considered a less efficient and costlier IT model for managing desktops in large organizations.   Rapidly being replaced by the even more efficient and arguably effective profile-based model.    I’ll come back to the effective argument.  The profile-based desktop model has helped create more targeted services for end-users.  But today even this model is beginning to fail to serve the desktop needs of a predominantly mobile and tech savvy end-user base.   Like most COE environments, profiles were designed to address desktop configurations for multiple standard personas.  Yet like the markets that many of these enterprises serve, corporate desktop users are now fragmented into dozens of user personas with overlapping use cases. As an example,  the enterprise knowledge worker is no longer a single persona or profile, but more a mobile/consumer characteristic included in virtually every desktop user profile.   Up to 80% of all corporate desktop users work at least one day out of the physical office. Utilizing their laptops, smartphones and tablets as appropriate.

In the desktop world, the Consumerization of IT  means users now expect the right to bring their own devices and applications to the workplace.  This is driven by expectations placed on them to achieve higher levels of productivity by using self-selected tools.   Thus creating the growing demand to integrate existing enterprise applications and cloud-based software and platform services (SaaS and PaaS respectively).

Today I believe the enterprise desktop can be best described as a “destination device”.     Services delivered on demand to the appropriate workspace form factor, as desktop users are no longer constrained by any device or physicality.  For example, if you’re a corporate Marcom user working on a major creative project with a customer or partner and they want you to use a non-standard SaaS-based creative proofing tool, then your department will undoubtedly expense this tool under the IT radar, or in some cases obtain free access.   Just across the hall,  another department maybe running a completing separate SaaS tool, driven by their customer requirements.   At some point if either of these SaaS tools are adoptive en masse,  then integration services like directory synchronization, user authentication (SSO) and data management will require IT intervention.  But until then, its the wild wild west again.

The fact is desktops as we once knew them will no longer be desktops solely managed by IT as assets.  These new desktops will be devices with a virtual capacity to serve up any application.   I can’t argue that COE is dying, replaced today in large enterprise deployments by virtual desktop images that are centrally maintained by IT or external service providers.   Utilizing either newer VDI technology from Citrix, VMware and Quest, or more mature OS streaming and remote desktop terminal services.  Yet this is a vendor-driven agenda.   Remember Enterprise Java (e.g. J2EE).

The Consumerization of IT is one of the major trends that I believe diminishes the effectiveness of profile-based desktop services.  Granted profiles are good starting templates, but as users continue to socialize with their peers and customers, self-service will become the model of choice.   So for IT it means losing the central authority to govern a standard computing environment while carrying the responsibility for managing and supporting new services.

Our EUC model 2o years ago was way ahead of it’s time, offering end users instant access to their desktop tools.  Using the storefront concept AT&T IS became a true service provider.  If the future desktop continues to evolve back to this form of self-service and control, IT will need to rethink its role of the gate-keeper to one of open service provider and self-service consultant.   This is not complicated.  We provided the expertise to unlock enterprise desktop services 20 years ago without any XaaS.

Consider the Web as one massive Walmart always low prices, and some apps for free! Keeping that image, how does a consumer-oriented SaaS product on isle 7, shelf 2 with about 12 inches of shelf space get noticed.   The answer is merchandising.  Wikapedia defines Merchandising as: the methods, practices, and operations used to promote and sustain certain categories of commercial activity. In the broadest sense, merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to the variety of products available for sale and the display of those products in such a way that it stimulates interest and entices customers to make a purchase. The key operative is display and where best to locate your application in a web world to simulate customers to purchase.

Here are three basic marketing tactics associated with merchandising.

Advertising

The first merchandising tactic is advertising via trade, banner, video etc. This may cost, but will be necessary to get noticed and to draw your consumer into the promotion. Especially if your application is one of a hundred or even a thousand. Yes, most SaaS applications for large consumer markets are competing against at least 100 qualified apps all providing the same basic features and benefits. Spending a few dollars in advertising to draw your consumers in is a must.

Point of Purchase Device

Is your SaaS targeted for smartphones, tablets, desktops or all?  Just remember devices are what consumers buy first.  No one has gone out and purchased Angry Birds, Salesforce.com or the new Office 365, and then make a device purchase.   We know our SaaS is the sizzle that  sells (say that 3 times fast!).  Yet you need to embrace your targeted device and create a physical (box package) or virtual point of purchase display that positions your app with this device.   If your targeted device is packaged and sold mainly at Amazon, the Apple Store or a Best Buy, then that’s where you need to be.   Your point of purchase will be somewhere within the site or store (e.g. shopping cart or cash register). Use a retailer’s store or site map to develop your point of purchase location.

Promotions

Merchandising is all about managing a promotional calendar. In today’s retail world over 70% of all main category goods are purchased during a special promotion. This could be a seasonal promotion or an every day Buy-One-Get-One free sale (BOGO). If you’ve created an educational application for students, then you need to target the weekend in July/August that might be designated tax free. In 2010 there were 16 states participating in tax free weekends for the back-to-school shoppers.   If you are targeting municipalities then you might think June. Holidays, end of quarters, etc.  These are all timeframes you need to identify within you market and add to your promotional calendar.

As the consumerization of IT trend continues, SaaS and other more prodominat B-to-C web technology companies need to embrace merchandising. Ten years ago you might never expect to see computers and software at WalMart.  Today the fear is being lost amongst the WalMart tech merchandise with no means of discoverability.  Ending up in the “SaaS bin” at your local Big Lots.

Over the years of working with software and hardware enterprise companies on both new and mature products,  I found that successful partner selection depends on two key variables: the complexity of your products and the market maturity.  Based on my own primary research,  I created a partner selection continuum across both variables.

Partner Selection Continuum

Product Complexity
Product complexity, which goes beyond the technology,  encompasses such areas as product design, pricing models, SaaS/on-premise licensing, supportability, warranty and supply chain logistics.  All these elements determine your product’s complexity, and ultimately which partners line up and which ones do not.   Take product design, for example. Products intended for integration, bundling, or further solution development must have well-documented, extensible programming interfaces and tools enabling quick adoption for partners like OEMs, System integrators and Application Providers. Resellers are not as likely a candidate for such a highly complex product.

Market Maturity
Market maturity affects demand generation, which in turn determines the partners most likely to be interested in selling your products. Most sales partners prefer the scenario in which an enterprise product is sold into an established market, such as the Hewlett-Packard Integrity Server line.  HP Integrity Rack and Blade servers sell into a market where customers already recognize the product’s value proposition.   A great example of a Reseller match.  The simple reason is that resellers look for demand generation, not new market development. However, such sales partners may make an exception and adopt new products if the market is viable (growing, not declining), and does not disrupt the partner’s current offerings.  Those of course are big ifs.   But don’t expect such risk taking in today’s current economic environment.

Where Product Complexity and Market Maturity intersect the HP Integrity Servers are well-established platforms with mature supply chains.   Product complexity issues including supportability, warranty, and pricing are virtually eliminated. The HP TouchPad Tablet, on the other hand, is a new platform.  The design might be simple, but because it’s based on the WebOS platform, the HP TouchPad Tablet introduces a whole new set of supply chain, supportability and product integration complexities.  Based on market maturity alone, you would expect Hewlett-Packard’s traditional resellers and solution providers  to be appropriate partners for both products. But with WebOS development a cornerstone to the HP TouchPad Tablet, the nuances of dealing with HP’s relatively new Palm Software group may dictate otherwise.

Other Variable Impacting Product Complexity and Market Maturity
Companies like HP with multiple product lines and hundreds of partners will want to consider two more variables (in addition to product complexity and market maturity).  The level of partner investment and maturity of the existing direct-sales team.

Partner investment goes beyond technical product expertise and includes the programs and resources to market, sell, and support your product.  Partner investment requirements clearly need to span the entire sales and service life-cycle.  Investments come in the form of a comprehensive certification program (e.g. HP PartnerOne).  However, partner certifications most go beyond technical competence.  In today’s growing services marketplace, I’m a strong proponent of a full-scale “service factory” certification.  Covering all the areas of customer interaction, from pre-sales, delivery to post-sales support.

A mature and often entrenched direct sales organization can prove the greatest obstacle in your drive to hire new partners.  The more highly developed sales organization you have, the greater the difficulty in recruiting and retaining new partners.  Enterprises focused primarily on direct sales are more likely to be caught off guard when confronted with some of the unique, initial “hard dollar” costs of a partner channel (such as reseller margin, training costs, and support costs) and incremental or “soft dollar” costs such as re-training or hiring channel-ready sales, marketing, and service personnel.

A Successful Approach to Partner Selection
When selecting partners,  consider each of these variables; product complexity, market maturity, the level of partner investment, and the impact of your existing sales channel.

Perhaps a one-product company can afford to be transaction oriented, aligning their business opportunistically with those partners who help them close a deal.  I strongly encourage the enterprises with multiple product lines and partners to actively audit their partners’ capabilities across the sales cycle to ensure a continuous fit for each product and market.   Don’t rely on past history to indicate future success.

Yes, hire a partner as you would an employee but unlike your employees, your partners have their own businesses to run.  So how you manage the relationship from start to finish can make all the difference.

I love to use the example of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda.   Originally used for baking, this product has been extended many  times from baking supply to odor absorber to personal hygiene.   This is the ultimate value creation formula.   Extending  the benefits of a product, quantifying them in real terms via the price of the products they displace,  minus the price of the product and you end up with a value that far exceeds the original.

The simple VCR was intended to provide personal recording of original content later became an entertainment device for the home. Later DVD players  were launched as players before recorders, not because of the technology, but because the player benefit far out weighed the recording benefit. So the next time you start thinking value proposition or how to create more customer value, remember the formula:  Benefits Quantified –  Product Price = Value.  

Don’t be blind-sided by the opportunity to extend your existing hardware and software technology in the same vein.  Features or not. Just continue to watch Apple work its magic with the iPhone and iPad and you’ll catch on.

Honoring the approaching July 4th fireworks, I thought I would compile a few of my favorite tech-centric put downs.

1. Oracle’s Larry Ellison comment about HP firing Mark Hurd. “The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs.”

2. Steve Jobs on Apple’s iTunes running on Windows – ” Is like giving a glass of ice water to someone living in hell.”

3. Scott McNealy the legendary founder of Sun Microsystems often referred to Microsoft as a “hairball” and to Bill Gates as a “convicted monopolist”.

4. As an industry anointed the iconic CEO of Novell, Ray Noorda as the grandfather of networking”, Bill Gates simply referred to him as the “grumpy grandfather”.

Going left to right top to bottom, first up is  my “prada” phone.  The Nokia 8800.   This phone has class and I absolutely love its unique ring tone.  I use it when I go out at night for special occasions. Which with 3 kids, I don’t do a lot of these days.   Yet when I flip this beauty out, I get a many eyes upon me.    One thumb is all it takes to expose the keypad and begin dialing.   And the way cool illuminating charging base is still one of a kind.

Next is my Nokia N95.  When this phone first came out it was the hottest selling “digital camera phone” in Europe.   Yep, 5 Megapixels with full Carl Zeiss optics.   Nowadays Nokia churns out 8 Megapixels.  But in its day it turned a lot of heads.   Most of my friends and associates thought this was a camera.  My 15-year-old son loved this phone. His first one.   But because I could never get the N-Gage gaming service to load, he moved on to his Samsung.   So I took it back and found a perfect resting place for it.   Right in the middle of my collection. Sometimes I bring this phone with me to client meetings.  I use the camera (video and still) to capture workshop relics.  And with a direct AV cable link I can plug this into any TV or monitor for instant viewing.

The last on the right was intended to be the RIM Killer,  the Nokia E61i.   A phone that was launched to take North America by storm.   Then came the RIM Storm and many other devices.   Yet I can remember when.  Before Good Software was killed by Motorola,  I used Good on this device for all my Email/PIM.  It was awesome.   The battery life on this baby was unbeatable at the time.  Yet with no native messaging app and a surging RIM/Blackberry dominating the North American Market, this phone was probably Nokia’s best phone that never was.   If only the world used SIP clients and WiFi.     I can’t say that I use this phone on any special occasions other than as a back-up qwerty device.

The bottom row is saved for my sentimental favorite,  the Nokia 9300. When this phone first came out in 2005, it was the premier smartphone when smartphones were for enterprises only.  With its wide qwerty keyboard, hefty memory capacity (80MB at the time), tri-band support optimized for GSM/Edge networks, the phone was built for enterprise application access.   It even had a built-in mobile VPN.   Which unfortunately ended up being it’s only true successful app.  Yet it saved the world in Live Free or Die Hard.  Remember the lovable Justin Long using his 9300 to hack into the wireless operator network while all of Washington waded in mobile darkness.  My fondness for this phone goes back to my days at Nokia.  This was the device I spent most of my long hours planning and releasing with a bundled software package.  A first for Nokia at the time.   I even visited the factory in Finland and watched how it was made.   Which came in handy when I dropped mine in a trout stream that summer.   In minutes I could disassemble and reassemble this phone,  like a Navy Seal in the dark.

So as you see, I will always consider myself a Nokia phone lover and perhaps vintage collector.  I do occasionally use them. Unfortunately those days are few and far between.   The picture above was taken from my iPhone 3.   Yes, I love my iPhone.  But because I love my Nokia phones too, I’m not ready to move to the iPhone 4.   Requiring me to trade in my full-size SIM for a micro-SIM and relegate my Nokia phones to paper weight status.   That I can’t do.

No… Nokia chooses the Mango, a forbidden fruit that will save them.   Nokia, the once great global giant in mobile phones and rising star in smartphones.  A real tragedy one ex-Nokia BOD member says.   This can’t be happening.   There is no 2011 guidance coming from Nokia, as it’s market share and hold on the smartphone market continues to slip into the abyss.

So now they take the fruit and a billion dollars too.   Is it unfair to once again cast Microsoft as evil?  Of course not.  They have worn that title so many times.   It’s just business to them.   Yet seducing the good Nokia into a new world reaches a new level.  A world without any chance of eternal market dominance.    That is the world Microsoft pulls it’s partner into.

The mortality of these two companies has never been more in question till now.     For Microsoft it may be a failed strategy.  Yet another strike in mobile.   For Nokia it is everything.   There are no transitional businesses awaiting. From plastics to mobile phones, from mobile phones to….?   Nokia has become a mere mortal.   To the mobile phone market they are mortally wounded.   To the country of Finland they are too big to fail.

Yes, Mango is the forbidden fruit that Nokia now consumes.   Recognizing your own mortality is what every company needs to experience.  Standing at the edge and then returning to form.  The first step in the turn-around.    Nokia will not recreate its corporate being by continuing to partner with Microsoft.   No, it must use this experience to break free and realize that it is no longer the innovator, but a worthy contender.   North America may be lost, but the world is still waiting for Nokia to chart a new course.   Yet if Nokia merely consumes the fruit with no compass,  then evil will eventually consume Nokia.

First, let’s clear up the notion that too many features  is a sign of an internally focused team.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.   Most SaaS applications were born from the inadequacies of their on premise fore fathers.   SaaS start-ups intend to change the world by creating software customers want.  Despite the best intentions, too many features are the result of several bad practices that can be fixed.   Here are a few tell-tale signs that your SaaS is moving towards feature overload, and several techniques that might help you fix the problem.

SaaS Feature Over-Load

Sign #1.  Uneven Sprints -  As your product matures and more features are considered in the sprint plans.  Most sprints contain a healthy balance of new features, platform maintenance and re-factoring, and updates and fixes.    If a two-week sprint cycle starts to fluctuate too much, say between two and four weeks,  you’re probably deviating from these cycles to accommodate feature builds.

Sign#2 Customization is on the Rise –  If you’re SaaS application is a platform, then custom configuration will happen.   Sales and engineering are always driven to close a sale and satisfy a customer.    Every feature request to engineering becomes a can do build-to-order exercise.   Which unfortunately will lead to  symptom #1.  As feature requests come in with limited pre-planning and story boarding,  even mock-ups are rushed and in the end a two-week sprint becomes a four-week sprint.   This further exasperates your main stream customer base when a new custom feature suddenly appears.   Not to mention your marketing and support teams that have to respond to the inquiries.

Sign #3 Hidding Features -  You figured right.  Tell tale sign #2 leads to the quick fix of hidding features.   A close anecdotal story on this is how Microsoft asked customers of MS Office what features they’d like to see in the Office 2010 release.  80% of the “new” feature requests were already available in Office 2007.    So in the MS Office 2010 release Microsoft spent less time on feature adds and more time on revamping feature discovery using a new contextual user interface (e.g. the Ribbon UI).  For smaller SaaS players,  hiding features is the short-cut that leads to greater complexity and longer-term code issues.  The  bottom-line is features built for one, need to be available to all within the same package.   Hiding a feature won’t solve the problem.

Sign #4 Your Founder is also a Lead Engineer – The good news is  most SaaS start-ups with a technical founder are more likely to succeed.  The bad news is your technical founder will always want to tinker with the product and build.  It’s a passion that you cannot extinguish.   It just needs to be re-directed.    As such, using some of the tips below will help you manage this persons best intentions.

SaaS Feature Overload Prevention 

Here are a several tips that can help prevent feature overload without going to the extreme.

Tip #1.  Involve Engineering in your Customer Discovery –   Your customer discovery process enables you to immerse yourself in customers and prospects asking the right series of questions about use cases and usability.  The point is engineering needs to hear this stuff first hand.   Plus you need to execute a proper customer discovery process.   A single question may yield a result that creates a feature for a single customer.   A series of the right questions may yield a feature that solves the problem for multiple customers.   Or better yet highlights a current feature that needs some elevation in the UI.

Tip #2.  Measure Feature Useage -  A feature useage ratio is simply the percentage of customers that utilize any given feature.   Make sure you engineer this metric into your super admin console.  Sharing some of this data with customers makes this even more valuable.  Rule of thumb, if the useage ratio drops below 50% then you might want to investigate with your customers.   Especially if this is a major feature that consumes a lot of engineering resources. Don’t assume you know.   Perhaps a feature update might be in order.   Or in some cases you might want to consider tip #3.

Tip #3.  Discontinue a Feature -  PBWorks, the wiki guys have been building out their collaboration and project management solution.   Earlier this year in one of their release notes they announced the discontinuation of several features.   What a refreshing concept.   Customers were notified that due to low usage, certain features were being dropped from the platform.   Presumably they took the time to measure feature useage before making this decision.    More importantly they notified customers.    Unlike some SaaS providers that I know, remove features without notification.

Tip #4. Use Prototyping -   Prototypes are great ways to build out and test the features and UI visuals before committing to build.   Many proponents of prototyping will also tell you this a “throw-away” exercise.   Some engineers spend too much time building prototypes with the intent on re-using the code for production.   Then there are engineers that believe prototyping wastes time if not to build code for re-use.    The middle ground I support is to use the prototype as your “sandbox”.     If you find an upcoming sprint is light on feature stories,  don’t give in to the need to build.   Use the sprint to clean up the back-log or to re-factor.  Then use your prototype to build out the next set of features.