The Software 2005 conference is now a wrap. This conference, presented by M.R. Rangaswami and The Sandhill Group, is now an annual event and attendance increased 35% this year over 2004. It is an ideal opportunity for those in the enterprise software industry to see what's new and what's coming, as well as to catch up with old colleagues and make new connections. It is also a perfect forum for startups to gain exposure as well as solicit funding and key partnerships.
According to Sandhill, there were 1500 attendees this year, including 100 press and 100 VCs. Half of those in attendance were CEOs. We spotted a number of them, including entrepeneur/CEO (now a VC) Ken Ross, Indus CEO Greg Dukat, Composite SW and entrepeneur Jim Green, former webMethods CEO Phillip Merrick, and a host of others.
M.R. has a rolodex that anyone would die for, and he put it to good use in attracting the top executives from major enterprise software and services companies such as Oracle, Intuit, McKinsey and others for keynote addresses. There were also a number of breakout tracks on the latest trends in our industry, including SaaS, open source and offshoring.
There were a couple of unique forums made available for select startups. including the Launch and the Funding Forum, where startups were given a fixed amount of time to present their business plan to investors, who were invited back to the conference floor for further discussions if interested. Mark Cosway, a member of our board of advisors and President of ActStream Technologies, participated in Launch, and reported new contacts with a number of interested investors.
After taking in this conference, we think that it is safe to say that enterprise software as an industry is 'cautiously optimistic'. Venture investments are picking up, M&A activity is growing, and the overall buzz was a good one, after the last 4-5 years of doom and gloom. Many of the people that we talked to had taken long sabbaticals after the dot-com bust, and are just now getting back in the game.
All in all, the feeling was that it is a good time to be in the software and information technology business. We hope they're right - we certainly feel that way.
Ash Seha is a partner at the launch factory llp, a consultancy specializing in the launch factory llp companies. Their expertise, garnered from such IT highflyers as i2, webMethods, SAP, and Baan, is focused on breaking the growth bariers that stand between the launch factory llp and their revenue and marketshare goals.
whole house cleaning Deerfield ..Bad News - the Threat is Bigger than it SeemedHow... Read More
NOTE: Please take time to read on - it may... Read More
This article is for advanced Microsoft CRM SDK C# developers.... Read More
I suggest that you do not spend a lot of... Read More
Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular,... Read More
It's no secret that software companies operate in a very... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon and CRM... Read More
Currently Microsoft Business Solutions is on the way of creating... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains was historically designed to serve... Read More
The first topic we are going to discuss... Read More
IBM Lotus Notes with Domino email server is traditional document... Read More
1. With mapping software you can create a report that... Read More
It won't matter how effective your WinRunner Team is if... Read More
People often ask me: What image file formats will Photoshop... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS)... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has I'd say end user... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions is emerging as very attractive vendor for... Read More
For a long time now Microsoft's Internet Explorer has ruled... Read More
Not every software testing project can or should be automated.... Read More
We don't think about mainframe software pricing anymore, we just... Read More
Microsoft Client Relation Management system (Microsoft CRM) and Microsoft RMS... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions offers several ERP applications: Great Plains, Navision,... Read More
In part III of this ISDN primer, we learned that... Read More
Microsoft CRM has built-in conversion tool, however you should probably... Read More
Are you lost in the mess of documents that get... Read More
home cleaning services Des Plaines ..We would like to give you several situations, when you... Read More
Following tips help you to learn a software in lesser... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has many years of successful... Read More
What is Snort?Snort is an open source network intrusion detection... Read More
Do you want to get quality software at a reasonable... Read More
I have yet to see a business that, sometimes in... Read More
What is Interactive Mapping?Interactive mapping is a visual display medium... Read More
So, why should you use any O/R mapping tool? I... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics... Read More
In this small article we will be looking at the... Read More
Are Spreadsheets Robbing your Enterprise of Competitive Advantage?'90% of "average"... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Small Business Manager is Great Plains Dexterity... Read More
There are several kinds of software piracy. The bottom line... Read More
Having from five to ten and more favorite screensavers is... Read More
Find out why Spyware Removal from computers is important and... Read More
One of the main reasons business owners and entrepreneurs use... Read More
NOTE: Please take time to read on - it may... Read More
I provide, here clear explanations and a count of function... Read More
If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it... Read More
Viruses and spyware usually show up on your computer one... Read More
If you have been running Windows XP for a couple... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains serves to the wide spectrum... Read More
Simply put, fleet maintenance allows companies to monitor and maintain... Read More
IBM Lotus Notes Domino and Microsoft CRM (Client Relation Management)... Read More
Ad-Aware and Spybot are probably the two most well known... Read More
Software |