Posts by DrSalonen
Partner or die – that is the question for you to ask
I run into an excellent blog by Bill McComb, CEO of Fifth & Pacific Companies, Inc. The blog gives examples of failed enterprises that did not understand when to partner and examples where it has worked tremendously well. One very well-known example is Barnes & Noble’s failed strategy in its eBook reader business where it should have partnered with…
Read MorePricing alone does not make your business model
Most software vendors (ISVs) struggle how to price their solution, specifically when moving the cloud. Many vendors are trying to “retrofit” the current model to the new cloud model, but this just does not work. You just can’t make your pricing to reflect your current business model where everything is based on higher cost structure…
Read MoreAligning your business with your ecosystem
Your business is always part of an ecosystem. So is mine. I am completely aligned with Microsoft business cycle that starts 1st of July and ends last of June. Therefore Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) is the most important event for me and my TELLUS team. Why? Because during WPC I will get the first…
Read MoreKeep it simple stupid! Building solutions that people want to use.
I wrote yesterday about the need to read manuals, and today I wanted to talk about the need to build simple and elegant solutions. My popular example is from my own life when I used to run a business intelligence software product development team and we did lots of exciting innovation, but some of this…
Read MoreRead the manual stupid!
I wanted to shock my readers with the topic, as that is really how I feel every now and then. My role is to educate whereby I need to learn myself something new every single day. I create educational content (videos, quizzes etc.) and I use tools that can be complex to use specifically if…
Read MoreIt is no longer about the cloud only, it is about innovation of new generation solutions
I feel a bit ashamed of not having blogged for a while, even if there has been so many different things that I should have shared along the way. The first 6 months of 2013 has been an amazing time for me professionally. I believe in life-long learning and I hope to keep up with…
Read MoreSoftware vendor: Have you even had the problem of discontinuing a software solution?
There has been an outcry the last few days due to the decision of Google to drop its Google Reader application. Jim Aley concludes in his article that life will continue even without Google Reader, but it is painful to a lot of people that have relied on the service. Google has announced that Google…
Read MoreWhat can we learn from SolidWorks Channel Program–Conclusions
This is the final blog about the case SolidWorks and the channel program and success that that David Skok describes well in his series of blog entries. SolidWorks grew their revenue from $135M to $400M in 5 years and one of the key elements was the channel. In my first blog entry, I described SolidWorks…
Read MoreWill it help to accelerate your channel by scoring your VAR Channel Partners?
I wrote about the creation of an effective channel program for VARs in my previous blog entry and explained how SolidWorks made a decision to really understand its channel partners, their strengths and weaknesses. What SolidWorks also did was to rank its partners and the question that we of course have is how to make…
Read MoreIs a Solid Channel Program the foundation for increasing your sales?
This is the fourth blog posting about VAR Channel programs.In my first blog entry I claimed that the ISV needs to realize that it works for the channel, not the other way around. In the second blog entry, I initiated the discussion of why it is important for an ISV to really pay attention for…
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