What is Happening?  A recent article in The New Yorker by Columbia University professor Tim Wu, author of The Master Switch, once again raises the question of whether technology providers perform better when they are “open” or “closed.” In his New Yorker article, Wu makes the claim that a tech provider generally does better when it is open, unless it is run by a genius (e.g., Steve Jobs) who can make faster, more proactive decisions that enable the company to move more nimbly and make fewer market mistakes.

While we agree that companies have historically exhibited the characteristics and capabilities Wu describes, overall we believe that a confluence of market shifts, changes in buying patterns, and the emergence of a new master Business and IT architecture - driven by Cloud, Mobile, Social, and Analytics (CMSA), stitched together with Integration - presents a means of bypassing this debate of open vs. closed in a very real way – in short, Saugatuck’s Boundary-free Enterprise™ (BfE) model.

In a significant re-ordering of its business org and product portfolio, global SMB software Master Brand The Sage Group is selling off seven product lines that it considers non-core.

In a multi-faceted deal including cash, private equity, seller financing, and shifting ownership stakes, Sage North America is selling contact management software products Sage ACT! and Sage SalesLogix to Swiftpage, a US-based digital marketing platform provider for SMBs. Swiftpage has received capital from Sage and from private equity investment firm Accel-KKR to finance the acquisition and fund future growth. Sage will also end up with a 16% ownership stake in Swiftpage. Accel-KKR itself will purchase Sage Nonprofit Solutions outright. And Sage has received a binding offer from private equity group Argos Soditic for the acquisition of C&I, ATL, and Automotive in France, and Aytos in Spain. 

What is Happening?  Saugatuck recently held a roundtable discussion event in Frankfurt with executives from 20 ISVs and regional small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs), or as they are referred to in Germany – KMUs (Kleine und mittelgrosse Unternehmen).

The goal of this event – and of a series of planned similar events worldwide – was to develop and facilitate dialogue, understanding and interaction regarding the growth, evolution, and business promise of Cloud, between the executives responsible for IT in SMEs, and the ISVs serving these firms. The event was co-sponsored by IBM.

To compete in Cloud services, telcos need to address nine new capabilities. If they can add these to their infrastructure and service offerings, they will be able to compete in Cloud-driven businesses.

Find below nine important capabilities telcos will need to have to compete and win going forward:

One of our ongoing research programs that manifests the greatest interest among enterprise IT leaders and Cloud IT providers alike is where, when, how, and why Cloud is changing the roles, responsibilities and value of enterprise IT leaders, groups, and resources. It’s our position that the real value of enterprise IT groups will always be there; but the inability of enterprise IT leaders to translate and apply that value will cause unnecessary (and probably large) changes in IT org size, budgets, and influence.

The basic challenge facing enterprise IT leaders today is not a diminishing of their value to the enterprise, but a lack of awareness regarding how and why that value is changing due to Cloud. That lack of awareness keeps IT leaders from seeing and implementing innovative ways of using, and managing, Cloud and hybridized IT and business resources.