Over the last few months I've been adopting more and more high end software on my iPad. I started with OmniGraffle and it blew me away. Truly an impressive piece of software with great capabilities for charting processes and doing flow design. Omnigraffle is now indispensable in my regular work life on both my iPad and MacBook.

The last few weeks I've adopted Pages and Keynote on my iPad. Apple software is expected to work better on iPads then most other first generation tablet software, and my expectations were met and surpassed. Pages being able to natively export to PDF and Word is great. Keynote carries the same functionality for PDF and includes PowerPoint. The new Office 2011 PowerPoint is sick, so I don't expect to replace that with Keynote on my MacBook, but on my tablet.... It's Keynote all the way.

Being able to work on presentations while traveling without lugging out the computer is worth it all by itself. But the functionality and interface leave very little more to be desired. Great app.
Now glue it all together with Dropbox connected via DropDav and you're golden. Everything shares, connects, links for easy access and even maintains versioning.

Apple you've made me more entertained each day with your devices and access to content and now my productivity level is off the charts. If you're not a member of the cult of Mac or the living in the Apple ecosphere, maybe its time you booked yourself a trip and took the full suite for a tour. Worth every penny (so far under $100 not counting the iPad).

With a travel schedule like mine, being productive between flights, on board and everywhere else is a must.

A little bit of work and hot glue and I turned it into a cool Coltrane wall clock. If you like you can even buy it on Etsy. Click here and I'll even give you a discount!]]>http://www.caseypotenzone.com/potenzone-blog/rss-comments-entry-14577224.xmlCasey S. PotenzoneWed, 13 Jul 2011 16:34:31 +0000http://www.caseypotenzone.com/potenzone-blog/2011/7/13/what-will-the-software-industry-look-like-in-3-5-even-10-yea.html484977:5507684:12106455One of the last things I helped write at Avangate before making the career move to arvato was recently published.  I contributed a signifcant part of the language behind Carmen's interview in the SIIA "Vision from the Top" interview series, and its a pretty solid read.  I stand behind everything in here:

The full set of interviews can be found here. 

What will the software industry look like in 3, 5, even 10 years from now? 

Over the past 10+ years we have watched the outsourced, hosted application model evolve from ASP to SaaS and Cloud Based computing.  The key differentiator between the hosted application service provider models of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s and today’s SaaS applications is the coupling of subject matter and technical experts to the product.  Most of us are aware of this evolution and I believe this path will continue.  Along with this continued evolution will be an increased amount of commercialization with focus on leveraging Cloud based services and other SaaS foundations into user consumable products and services.

The Cloud computing models of today, namely elastic processing models and storage provide little opportunity for broad scale consumption.  Over the next 3-5 years it is my prediction that the software solutions that emerge will be based on the commercialization of these models.  Essentially this is the continuation of the trends we have seen in SaaS: the emergence of solution providers that couple a variety of technologies and services into useable products.  In our business, for example, we couple payment processing and gateway services, electronic software distribution, Cloud based hosting and email fulfillment (among other things) with human driven process such as anti-fraud and customer support.  In this manner Avangate has created a commercialization model coupling all of these services and more into a useable product for software and digital product vendors.

What customer demands and business trends will drive changes in software products, how they're developed and the industry that provides them?

Mobile devices and platforms will continue to increase their market penetration and by doing so create significantly more customer touch points.  As these touch points gain greater adoption customers will demand access to services on their terms, whether that is through a smart phone, tablet, set-top device, power /grid control or any one of the many forthcoming smart devices.   Software vendors will expand their product offerings to allow access to their services via many if not all industry touch points.  These access points will result in an interconnecting mesh of services while further growing data stores.  The large variety of access points will also result in customer data being segregated across a number of independent data stores vs. a centralized facility or services.

The software market will respond by creating layers of technology that sit on top of each touch point and allow access to multiple data stores.  An easy model to visualize this scenario is Mint, a very successful SaaS alternative to QuickBooks.  Mint aggregates data from your credit card, mortgage, checking and savings accounts, gas cards, car loans, etc. into one, central application.  You can see how in this model many if not dozens of data stores were required to build the complete overview.  These application layers will continue to be defined allowing customers to interact how and when they need.

Another example to consider:  growth in the online retail sector will require the ability to couple customer information with social network data and trends.  We are starting to see the emergence of these services with operations such as Amazon integrating Facebook stores with recommendations powered by “friends” and network connections vs. artificial intelligence.  Purchase recommendations driven by the social network will carry significantly more weight than those of anonymous shoppers or shopper trends.

Even though I predict the application layers will start to truly unify relevant data, the data-stores themselves will continue to be segregated if not becoming even further segregated as security concerns reinvigorate the markets love for silos.  The requirements to integrate applicable social network data with consumable software services and an ever emerging number of touch points will keep software companies on their toes.  Those companies who are capable of visualizing and understanding these interactions will lead the market.  Product managers will be required to understand how third party systems with no current interactions to their existing product lines will be needed to drive consumption and adoption down the road.  This is how I believe we will see companies commercialize their technologies and how the customer will drive the market.

Well played AT&T and good job following the social media space.

Three days ago I called AT&T to cancel that data plan, I just stopped using it.  The agent, who first made a distinct point to greet me as a "Welcomed and Loyal iPhone Customer," was pretty awesome.  She really seemed to have no idea how to help me, but then she got it and I ended up with a free and awesome MiFi.

They replaced my crappy device with this: MiFi.  It's a 4G mobile hot spot that is this big:Right now Alana is connected to it on her Mac watching Hulu (its not skipping) and I'm uploading pics and writing this.  Here's what gets me: Why does this thing have such awesome service but my cell phone SUCKS?

Here's the original post and the Publitweet Link:

Have you ever wondered about embedding a Twitter directly into your page, but doing it with a little style, more control and even some flair?  If you're willing to share some of your stats, it is really quite easy to do.  Just remember that going through a middle man will sharing your page hit data.  To get started make a visit over to these guys: PubliTweet.

"A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan." 

If individually purcahsed, the bundle would cost nearly $500.  Through the marketing savy and connections of Bits du Jour and Avangate we are able to offer the bundle at a RIDICULOUSLY low price of $49.95.  

Part of a selling strategy is to highlight how you are different.  Almost every RFP ever written contains a matrix of features/functions that will presumably be used to tell bidders apart.

The Software eCommerce market is full of competitors and we are often ranked in a feature/function matrix, checking off who processes in what currencies, languages, payment methods. etc., etc., etc.  Our businesses run primarily on SaaS platforms making it even easier for evaluators to create checklists.

When I find myself in these sales situations, where the next big, potential partner is trying to identify what differentiates Avangate from the herd, I have but one answer: our people.  

There are a dozen different ways to accomplish a task, some easier, some fancier, some with more bells and whistles.  When you have key people in your relationship really caring and involved your outcome is almost certainly a success.  

In a world of automation and computer driven process it's necessary to offer more than the most feature rich platform or shiniest interface.  A good service provider gives you a set of tools, a great service provider adds artisans to your team so you can use them.  The people behind the platform are how we are different.