My Bad (blog and blogging habits)

I received a nudge from a reader I respect who suggested I need to post more regularly to be taken seriously. 

“To be perceived as a blogger with time sensitive market insights, you need to have more frequent postings .”

Ouch.  The good news and bad news about blogging is unlike old school print magazine column-writing, you can see in real time how many people are reading your blog, where they’re coming from, what they searched to find you, and of course, who’s commenting and the quality of the comments. 

The A-list tech bloggers are doing a phenomenal job beating some of the major media to the punch with major developments.  There’s even a bit of a sea change going on in the analyst world with leading independent bloggers usurping the stranglehold on influence that the leading industry analyst firms have always wielded.  See this story in InformationWeek. 

When I told a friend I had all but abandonned the blog of late, he recoiled,

“Abandoned the services market– no way!  There’s too much action there!”

Personally, I don’t know how the A-list bloggers do it.  Take one of my favorite bloggers, Rod Boothby, who happens to also be a senior guy at E&Y.  I’m interviewing Boothby for a story I’m doing right now for GITS, and he told me he’ll be wrapped up with a client all next week.  So in addition to some sophisticated management consulting day-job work, he’ll squeeze in my interview (and I’m probably one of many), keep up with everything else going on in the blogosphere, and keep posting terrific content on his blog.  It’s superhuman. 

Until I learn how to manage my time better, I’ve opted to accept an offer to VLOG– a video blog with a large outsourcing community.  Details are coming.  I’ll keep you posted.  In the VLOG, I’ll be reporting on news, trends, adds/moves/changes in the outsourcing market, some rumors and general musings. 

Wikis, Ajax, Mashups, Mashets, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and if all else fails… Joe Kraus

The tech blogosphere is all about what’s hot. Clearly. There is a bit of “who’s hot,” but I love the collaborative engine that moves the blogerati.

Because I’m steeped in client work at present, I’m compelled to write about how web applications stand to reinvent how information gets disseminated at work. Is Web 2.0 forging yet another tech revolution for the Enterprise? My good buddy, Josh Greenbaum, who is a long-time writer in the ERP sector takes umbrage with the all the giddiness surrounding Web 2.0. You can read his thoughts on ZDNet or two excellent columns from Intelligent Enterprise here and here. Even Phil Wainwright, whom I knew before he was the rock star he is today, wrote a somewhat damning post last week on web 2.0’s readiness for prime time.

Oh, Joe Kraus. He’s become the poster child for Web 2.0. I just threw him in the headline to see if I could boost my blogstats. Kraus is CEO of installed enterprise app killer JotSpot.

Keane settles

I issued a press release this week, so I've been a little busy catching up with old contacts.  I saw this today on InformationWeek's outsourcing newsletter.  Keane settled with Georgina Fisk, the firm's VP of Marketing for $1.4M on alleged charges of sexual harassment.  This is a huge victory for victims of sexual harassment.  And so fast…!  Keane's board ought to be commended. 

Don’t count out the Big Guys…

A press release issued today from my old friends at EDS caught my eye. EDS announced the company built a secure, web-based portal for its long-time outsourcing customer, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA). According to the release, EDS integrated several of BCBSMA's internal systems in order to provide convenient and simple access to a host of administrative information and provider processes to BCBSMA's network of 35,000 physicians and healthcare providers.

I was just talking yesterday to Larry Bissinger who leads analyst relations for EDS, making the point that veteran IT Services players and outsourcers are in an enviable position to bring next generation technology to the best customers. Take the BCBSMA relationship for EDS. I remember a DATAMATION column I wrote in June of 1994 where employees who were outsourced to EDS sued BC/BS and received $9M in a class action law suit. It was a landmark case at the time. EDS and BCBSMA survived all the spectacle and strain that must have put on their relationship, and the relationship has been renewed and extended a few times since the first deal-signing. Joe Fraser, the EDS client delivery executive, has been there for 15 years. With those roots, it's logical that BCBSMA would turn to EDS first when they want to investigate technology improvements. Granted, some of the improvements are already in scope of their existing agreements, but EDS is more than the sum of its contract parts. My point here is, we should expect to see innovation and business model reinvention coming from old, familiar places. Not everyone will abandon their preferred vendors for the "hot shop."

Trust, Communications, Relationship-management…

Frank Casale invited me to co-moderate a workshop yesterday at his Outsourcing Institute NYC Roadshow on "Outsourcing's Bad Rap: Playing Politics." Throughout the day, although the outsourcing market has changed so much over the past ten years, I heard the recurring themes of trust, communications, and old-fashioned relationship management. Buyers and sellers all have their war stories.

The day was excellent. A comfortable and informative series of workshops and presentations. OI holds a series of these workshops. If you're interested in outsourcing, definitely worth attending.

Back to Sapient…

I've been pestering Sapient with a few questions. Craig Endicott from Ad Age who did the Top 50 Interactive Agency ranking told me that Sapient did not submit an application last year. I thought, humm, that's odd. "Absent" to "#2" in just one year, eh? So, I asked Sapient if they were ever listed in the ranking before.

The answers unfold this way: Sapient ranked in the Ad Age rankings in 1999, 2000, and 2001. The company did not submit a response for four years. Remember the Ad Age ranking is US-based interactive revenue. In the U.K., however, the company has consistently ranked 1 or 2 interactive agency in the U.K.'s New Media Age leading interactive magazine. But, a corporate spokesperson describes the sudden reappearance on the Interactive scene in the US this way:

"Following the Internet bust, while Sapient continued to do great design and brand work for marquee clients such as Hilton and United Airlines, our external marketing focus shifted to outsourcing and other complex business and IT solutions which were big pain points for our customers.

As we started getting increased demand for our web services and recognized the early shift towards digital media, we opted to round out our capabilities very rapidly withthe acquisition of Planning Group. This move also reinvigorated our focus on Experience Marketing. Moving forward, you will be seeing much, much more from Sapient in the area of Experience Marketing."

Now. What's at issue here still remains, is Sapient deserving of the number 2 ranking… ahead of, Digitas and Agency.com? Then again, does it matter? I think it does matter and each of these firms bring unique capabilities to the market and deserve to be niched where they belong.

In 2000, I gave Sapient the only 5-star classification and commented the company existed in a "class of its own" in my ITSA research report on the e-services providers market. Sapient was also awarded "most admired competitor" from the other firms profiled in the 300+ page report. I am not, not a Sapient basher. In fact, Sapient, with its full breadth of capability has a tremendous advantage in today's market.

But, let's give the real Interactive Agencies their due… Does Tribal DDB and AKQA look like Sapient?