Enterprise software might not be dead after all. . . at least not in early April
M.R. Rangaswami is a venture capitalist who produces one of the best enterprise software publications. I'm a big fan of his online magazine Sandhill.com, and also his conferences, with one coming up in early April. He just sent out his latest edition of the Software Pulse newsletter, with an interesting opinion piece by Geoffrey Moore. (More here. . .)
M.R.'s interest in the subject of enterprise software comes from a different direction than traditional publishers, he's interested in the trends and issues so that he and other investors can better understand the deal flow and improve on their funding decisions.
A traditional trade publisher such as an IDG with Computerworld, or a ZDNet, takes a different approach to the subject--writing from the users/customers/decision makers' points of view. Both approaches, it turns out, produce equally high-quality editorial products.
I tend to favor M.R.'s approach: I like to look at companies and products as existing within a framework of business models; pulled by trends in markets; and all bobbing around within the fluid dynamics of their capital markets.
And that's what M.R. does with Sandhill.com which looks at the business of enterprise software, its trends, and with lots of high-level advice on funding and business strategy. I think his focus is right on the money :-)
BTW, M.R's Software 2006 Conference is April 4 -5 in Santa Clara is worth going to. It was my second one and I thought it was one of the very few conferences worth going to last year. Every time I attend this conference I'm reminded that maybe the enterprise software industry isn't dead after all, or dead-boring.
