This document discusses ReadyForTheNet's SME Clustering concept to enable small and medium enterprises to leverage information technologies. The concept involves grouping SMEs together geographically and providing shared IT infrastructure and applications as a service to achieve economies of scale. This reduces costs for SMEs while also generating revenue from tenants for building owners. ReadyForTheNet plans to be the dominant IT provider for these SME clusters by removing barriers SMEs face in adopting IT.
Big business in small business: Cloud services for SMBsMadeline Titcomb
Cloud services are gaining ground in all segments, but small and
medium-sized businesses present a unique opportunity. Understanding and addressing what sets them apart is the key to success.
The communications software market is undergoing a dramatic shift from legacy hardware- and network-centric systems to more efficient cloud-based tools that enable businesses to have more meaningful and informed contextual conversations with their customers.
Catalyst has seen this first-hand through its investment in Weave (recently named to the 2019 Forbes Cloud 100). For example, a common phone call between a dentist office using Weave and their patient has been transformed from “while I have you on the phone, is there anyone else in your family that needs an appointment?” to “while I have you on the phone, I see your children haven’t had appointments in over a year – should we get them scheduled next month as well?”
Weave’s solutions are just one example of how contextual communications are having an impact on how businesses communicate internally and with their customers – Catalyst believes we’re in the early days of a generational transformation and is excited to partner with more vertically and functionally focused businesses enabling contextual communications.
At Catalyst, we employ a proactive, research-based approach to investing, targeting sectors experiencing outstanding growth. If you are an owner, operator, or investor in a growth stage company innovating the way businesses communicate either with their customers or internally, we would like to hear from you. Please send inquiries and business plans to kyle@catalyst.com.
Big business in small business: Cloud services for SMBsMadeline Titcomb
Cloud services are gaining ground in all segments, but small and
medium-sized businesses present a unique opportunity. Understanding and addressing what sets them apart is the key to success.
The communications software market is undergoing a dramatic shift from legacy hardware- and network-centric systems to more efficient cloud-based tools that enable businesses to have more meaningful and informed contextual conversations with their customers.
Catalyst has seen this first-hand through its investment in Weave (recently named to the 2019 Forbes Cloud 100). For example, a common phone call between a dentist office using Weave and their patient has been transformed from “while I have you on the phone, is there anyone else in your family that needs an appointment?” to “while I have you on the phone, I see your children haven’t had appointments in over a year – should we get them scheduled next month as well?”
Weave’s solutions are just one example of how contextual communications are having an impact on how businesses communicate internally and with their customers – Catalyst believes we’re in the early days of a generational transformation and is excited to partner with more vertically and functionally focused businesses enabling contextual communications.
At Catalyst, we employ a proactive, research-based approach to investing, targeting sectors experiencing outstanding growth. If you are an owner, operator, or investor in a growth stage company innovating the way businesses communicate either with their customers or internally, we would like to hear from you. Please send inquiries and business plans to kyle@catalyst.com.
Marketplace as a Supplier - Transforming Indirect ProcurementMarkit
To complement Markit’s recent report Optimising Indirect Procurement With Marketplaces, Andres Agasild, Markit CEO & Co-Founder, gave a presentation (MARKETPLACE AS A SUPPLIER: TRANSFORMING INDIRECT PROCUREMENT) to more than 100 CPOs and other procurement experts from around the globe at the World Procurement Congress Virtual 2020. This is the slide deck that accompanied the presentation.
Restaurants in 2019 continue to face several challenges, including everything from attracting and retaining customers to hiring and training staff. These challenges, both customer-facing (“Front of House”) and operations-focused (“Back of House”), keep restaurant profit margins low at 6% and contribute to the industry’s high failure rate. Increasingly, restaurants are more attune to these pain points and seek out restaurant-focused software and tech-enabled outsourcing solutions to increase sales volumes and reduce costs. As a result, the restaurant tech stack continues to evolve, providing restaurants with more options than ever to help them improve and grow their businesses.
Catalyst has a wealth of experience backing vertical-specific businesses, including one currently in the Restaurant Tech space (ChowNow). We believe restaurants will continue to actively seek out best in-class restaurant-specific solutions, and are eager to partner with more of these businesses seeking growth equity capital.
At Catalyst, we employ a proactive, research-based approach to investing, targeting sectors experiencing outstanding growth. If you are an owner, operator or investor in a growth stage Restaurant Tech company, we would like to hear from you. Please send inquiries and business plans to kapil@catalyst.com.
HOW KEY PROCUREMENT PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 IMPACT THE INDIRECT IT CATEGORYMarkit
In this report you will discover the 9 key procurement predictions for 2021 - based on research published by Deloitte, Gartner, McKinsey, The Hackett Group and others.
Additionally we propose how these predictions are related to, or potentially impact, IT procurement in 2021.
Industry 4.0 is the name of the next industrial revolution which is fueled by the advancement of digital technologies. It
is dramatically changing how companies engage in business activities. As a result, the disruptive nature of Industry 4.0
demands a reassessment of the requirements for IT. On the one hand, there is the possibility that the responsibilities of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) could be taken over by other executives such as the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) or the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). On the other hand, this
recent development creates entirely new perspectives for positioning themselves and their IT departments
within the business.
The impact of digital technologies is reaching a magnitude at which IT is considered a substantial
business driver, potentially placing CIOs in the driver’s seat.
In the world of E/CTRM software much is changing and at a fair pace. Driven by a plethora of new business needs, massive shifts in technology, and changes in software procurement behavior, it is a software category that is ripe for a true paradigm shift. In a paper written a few years ago, Commodity Technology Advisory (ComTech) outlined a potential solution to some of the issues that have plagued buyers of E/CTRM software for decades.
In that paper, the authors proposed a different approach to architecting E/CTRM solutions – that is creating an ecosystem of software capabilities rather than relying on the monolithic applications that have, or invariably will, become increasingly expensive and difficult to deploy, update and maintain.
ComTech noted that such an approach was both technically feasible given the advent of cloud technologies and desirable as it helped solve the myriad of business issues buyers face today. Since then, business trends have continued to evolve in directions around data management, digitalization and automation, and collaboration. More recently, lockdowns and the need for business continuity have only served to push the envelope faster and further.
MSP Industry Brief - From Break / Fix to Recurring Revenue Madeline Titcomb
This industry brief highlights the industry and technology trends impacting MSPs now and in the future. It highlights ways for MSPs to take advantage of the cloud to create new revenue streams, address customer needs, and grow recurring
revenue for greater profitability and less volatility.
Key Take - Aways
This study will help to:
1. Identify the compartments of demand for different products/services of SMB type
2. Understand the behaviour of SMBs towards ICT adoption through various parameters like geography, vertical, age of company, ownership generation, employee size and revenue
3. Identify drivers & inhibitors as well as influencers affecting the IT purchase decision by SMBs
4. Identify the social media behaviour amongst SMBs
5. Understand current and future buying plans for specific categories of IT product/service (Cloud, enterprise mobility and PC based software)
6. Understand the current buying pattern as well as future buying preferences
Increasing Business Productivity in Connected Enterprises and an Always-On Di...Cognizant
To remain competitive, businesses must enhance productivity through a connected enterprise set of solutions. We offer a roadmap and set of tools for insuring that Gen-Now workers obtain the stateless, limitless and boundaryless computing that they need and expect in an always-on digital business world.
State of the SMB Market | For IP Communications and Cloud ServicesMetaswitch
New York-based consultancy GrowthMark has recently completed a comprehensive research study
of the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market for IP Communications and Cloud Services. The
study included a survey of more than 850 SMB owners and decision makers across North America,
telephone interviews with more than 100 of the survey participants, and mystery shopping of
products from nearly 20 leading service providers.
Big Tech winners in 2015 can be identified as FANG (Facebook/Amazon/Netflix/Google) - The new Morgan Stanley Tech theme for 2016: think SMAC (Security/Mobile/Analytics/Cloud)
Marketplace as a Supplier - Transforming Indirect ProcurementMarkit
To complement Markit’s recent report Optimising Indirect Procurement With Marketplaces, Andres Agasild, Markit CEO & Co-Founder, gave a presentation (MARKETPLACE AS A SUPPLIER: TRANSFORMING INDIRECT PROCUREMENT) to more than 100 CPOs and other procurement experts from around the globe at the World Procurement Congress Virtual 2020. This is the slide deck that accompanied the presentation.
Restaurants in 2019 continue to face several challenges, including everything from attracting and retaining customers to hiring and training staff. These challenges, both customer-facing (“Front of House”) and operations-focused (“Back of House”), keep restaurant profit margins low at 6% and contribute to the industry’s high failure rate. Increasingly, restaurants are more attune to these pain points and seek out restaurant-focused software and tech-enabled outsourcing solutions to increase sales volumes and reduce costs. As a result, the restaurant tech stack continues to evolve, providing restaurants with more options than ever to help them improve and grow their businesses.
Catalyst has a wealth of experience backing vertical-specific businesses, including one currently in the Restaurant Tech space (ChowNow). We believe restaurants will continue to actively seek out best in-class restaurant-specific solutions, and are eager to partner with more of these businesses seeking growth equity capital.
At Catalyst, we employ a proactive, research-based approach to investing, targeting sectors experiencing outstanding growth. If you are an owner, operator or investor in a growth stage Restaurant Tech company, we would like to hear from you. Please send inquiries and business plans to kapil@catalyst.com.
HOW KEY PROCUREMENT PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 IMPACT THE INDIRECT IT CATEGORYMarkit
In this report you will discover the 9 key procurement predictions for 2021 - based on research published by Deloitte, Gartner, McKinsey, The Hackett Group and others.
Additionally we propose how these predictions are related to, or potentially impact, IT procurement in 2021.
Industry 4.0 is the name of the next industrial revolution which is fueled by the advancement of digital technologies. It
is dramatically changing how companies engage in business activities. As a result, the disruptive nature of Industry 4.0
demands a reassessment of the requirements for IT. On the one hand, there is the possibility that the responsibilities of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) could be taken over by other executives such as the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) or the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). On the other hand, this
recent development creates entirely new perspectives for positioning themselves and their IT departments
within the business.
The impact of digital technologies is reaching a magnitude at which IT is considered a substantial
business driver, potentially placing CIOs in the driver’s seat.
In the world of E/CTRM software much is changing and at a fair pace. Driven by a plethora of new business needs, massive shifts in technology, and changes in software procurement behavior, it is a software category that is ripe for a true paradigm shift. In a paper written a few years ago, Commodity Technology Advisory (ComTech) outlined a potential solution to some of the issues that have plagued buyers of E/CTRM software for decades.
In that paper, the authors proposed a different approach to architecting E/CTRM solutions – that is creating an ecosystem of software capabilities rather than relying on the monolithic applications that have, or invariably will, become increasingly expensive and difficult to deploy, update and maintain.
ComTech noted that such an approach was both technically feasible given the advent of cloud technologies and desirable as it helped solve the myriad of business issues buyers face today. Since then, business trends have continued to evolve in directions around data management, digitalization and automation, and collaboration. More recently, lockdowns and the need for business continuity have only served to push the envelope faster and further.
MSP Industry Brief - From Break / Fix to Recurring Revenue Madeline Titcomb
This industry brief highlights the industry and technology trends impacting MSPs now and in the future. It highlights ways for MSPs to take advantage of the cloud to create new revenue streams, address customer needs, and grow recurring
revenue for greater profitability and less volatility.
Key Take - Aways
This study will help to:
1. Identify the compartments of demand for different products/services of SMB type
2. Understand the behaviour of SMBs towards ICT adoption through various parameters like geography, vertical, age of company, ownership generation, employee size and revenue
3. Identify drivers & inhibitors as well as influencers affecting the IT purchase decision by SMBs
4. Identify the social media behaviour amongst SMBs
5. Understand current and future buying plans for specific categories of IT product/service (Cloud, enterprise mobility and PC based software)
6. Understand the current buying pattern as well as future buying preferences
Increasing Business Productivity in Connected Enterprises and an Always-On Di...Cognizant
To remain competitive, businesses must enhance productivity through a connected enterprise set of solutions. We offer a roadmap and set of tools for insuring that Gen-Now workers obtain the stateless, limitless and boundaryless computing that they need and expect in an always-on digital business world.
State of the SMB Market | For IP Communications and Cloud ServicesMetaswitch
New York-based consultancy GrowthMark has recently completed a comprehensive research study
of the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market for IP Communications and Cloud Services. The
study included a survey of more than 850 SMB owners and decision makers across North America,
telephone interviews with more than 100 of the survey participants, and mystery shopping of
products from nearly 20 leading service providers.
Big Tech winners in 2015 can be identified as FANG (Facebook/Amazon/Netflix/Google) - The new Morgan Stanley Tech theme for 2016: think SMAC (Security/Mobile/Analytics/Cloud)
SEO Fundamentals for Wordpress and Beyond #wcctRafiq Phillips
WordPress is the perfect platform to allow you to achieve excellent SEO results. It is only a tool though. Without SEO fundamentals in place you may not achieve the expected results no matter what plugin or tool you choose to use. This session will delve into the evolution of SEO from 1999 to present day and leave you with practical guidelines to apply to your WordPress blog before you’ve selected a theme, installed a plugin or published your first post
Παρουσίαση του βιβλίου "Χάρης και Φάρις" της συγγραφέως Γιώτας Αλεξάνδρου, με εικονογράφηση της Κατερίνας Χαδουλού, από τις εκδόσεις Βιβλιόφωνο (Αθήνα, 2013), από τη μαθήτρια Ειρήνη Καρλατήρα για τις ανάγκες της Φιλαναγνωσίας τη σχολική χρονιά 2016-2017 στο Δ1 του 7ου Δημοτικού Σχολείου Χαλκίδας.
The retail industry in the past few years has been a witness to an exponential rise, a recessionary downfall and a subsequent comeback. The industry today is thriving and has been recording new heights and opening up new business avenues and channels. The growth of the industry however has been plagued by several challenges. This whitepaper attempts to clarify these challenges, predominantly the IT challenges, by offering an understanding of cloud computing, and the business benefits it can bring.
The Strategic Route To E Procurement Success 2001Julian Curtiss
It is sobering to think that many of the eBusiness decisions that
have taken place appear to be been done in abject isolation of
standard corporate strategy principles.
Digital Telcos leverage a Cloud ,Software infrastructure and excellent customer service, aimed at disseminating premium services and digital content within a customisable platform, accessible anywhere and on any device.
The next wave of SMEs breathe digitalizationeTailing India
Digitally empowered SMEs are able to increase revenue, lower risks, decrease cost and diversify consumer segments over a short period of time as compared to offline businesses. Technological solutions such as Data Analytics, cloud-based platforms and ERP systems will shape a company’s strategy and growth enabling it to extract more insightful information for informed decision making.
Building it infrastructure framework that drives innovation and business perf...GlobalStep
Whitepaper on Building IT infrastructure framework that drives innovation and business performance by GlobalStep.
The first trend is the buyer’s increased perception of IT Infrastructure service as a commodity which lowers perceived value and forces cost reductions. The second trend is that of increased complexity which is driven by disruptive technologies like cloud, virtualization and others along with innovative service models such as software-as-a-service and desktop-as-a-service.
The challenges of cost, complexity, and compliance are nearly overwhelming today's CIOs. Instead of devising business aligned IT programs, they are forced to concentrate on maintaining and managing a sloppy infrastructure. To tackle these challenges and to align with business goals, IT must shift its focus to become a business-centric line of business. From the large variety of our clients and our interaction with their IT Infrastructure leaders, we understand that they strongly believe that consistent innovation is their only means of meeting user expectations and rapidly evolving business demands within budgetary constraints. This innovation is not just about using a new technology but also about doing the same thing differently, which involves new way of interacting with the customers and vendors.
www.globalstep.com
The Digital Disruption Wave_ How Can IT Firms Ride It_ - Techwave.pdfKalpins
With disruption to business models facing almost every industry, organizations are focusing on making digital strategy their centerpiece. Going “digital” requires a coherent approach to ensure all parts of the organization follow the digital approach and the organization is perceived as being digitally savvy. How can organizations be sure their strategy is coherent? Porter’s model offers a good starting point. In the colloquial approach, the organization marshals its unique set of activities to help deliver a value proposition to the customer.
Technology Challenges Encountered by Small & Mid-Sized Business (1).pdfSmartinfologiks
Invest in technology to build a remote and hybrid office work culture to enhance operational efficiencies in SMBs.
Market fluctuations, an increase in consumer demands, and cut-throat competition with marketing giants have been never-ending challenges for small and mid-sized businesses. The outbreak of the pandemic did wreck the backbone of Small & Mid-Sized Business and with the economy trying to recover, SMBs are likely to witness upcoming oddities.
With inflation witnessing a rise in February 2022 by 2.47 percent, it has turned out to be a major challenge for SMBs in recent quarters. Small businesses need to tighten up their seat belts to change the game by offering exceptional customer services, enhanced customer relations, and ensuring operational efficiencies.
Having backed up by appropriate technology is the only key to sustenance and plasticity for small businesses. However, 70-80% of small businesses still lack the available technology.
This piece of writing will highlight a few challenges that small businesses are likely to witness while adjusting technology in 2022 and avenues to keep pace with the same. But before this, let’s have a glance over a few benefits of how small businesses can benefit from a technology solution.
How codeless enterprise paas installs agility to business itNewton Day Uploads
This White Paper introduces the role of codeless enterprise PaaS software as an enabler to achieving agile IT for businesses seeking a competitive advantage from their IT investments.
The pervasiveness of digital technologies is reshaping aftermarket. e-tailing is gnawing away the market for spare parts as more people are buying online, social media is influencing the consumption of aftermarket services and customers are demanding deeper 24*7 experiences. In this article Browne & Mohan consultants showcase the drivers of digital transformation and adoption for aftermarket.
Reincarnating traditional infrastructure outsourcingNIIT Technologies
Ever since Traditional Outsourcing has gone almost extinct, enterprises are focusing on investing more in next-generation service providers that can provide them flexibility and agility to match the ever changing dynamics of business. This paper highlights how and why traditional infrastructure outsourcing market is shrinking dramatically. It also explains how the new age vendors can adapt to new technology to provide benefits to Gen 2.0 clients.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
2. ReadyForTheNet Solutions for Business Without Limits R4N White Paper
INTRODUCTION
Many people have proclaimed the Internet as a self-contained revolution. A revolution in changing the foundation of the
global economy and in fact they have declared that a “New Economy” has emerged. A distinction has been made between
companies that conduct business on the Internet (“New Economy” Businesses) versus those who have partially embraced the
Internet or not at all (“Old Economy” Businesses).
The reality is that the Internet is not revolutionary, nor are the so-called “New Economy” companies destined to replace the
“Old Economy” businesses. The Internet, in a broad definition, is a tool that can help create significant efficiencies and
economies of scale where none exists in the non-Internet world. To achieve these benefits, the Internet needs to be supported
by new business processes that are tuned to take advantage of Internet Technology. The Internet itself cannot create these
efficiencies; it can only be a business process enabler.
If we look at the overall market for IT and segment the market by size, there is a substantial gap between large enterprises
and the small/medium enterprises (SME). The large enterprises have used their ability to achieve economies of scale to
leverage IT in many areas of the value chain. The SME market has lagged behind in exploiting technology. The large
enterprise market segment is rapidly maturing with established buying cycles and little turnover with respect to preferred
vendors amongst this segment. This contrasts with the SME market, where there are no dominant suppliers and acceptance
of IT is rapidly on the rise.
Clearly the most pressing issues facing IT today, and into the early years of the 21st century will be the cost of acquisition of
equipment and the costs of supporting that equipment. The total cost of ownership of computing equipment has increased 3
fold over the past 5 years. This increase to SMEs was related to just maintaining market share, not increasing. We anticipate
this trend to increase, with the small/medium company struggling to maintain revenues and profitability.
Along side this issue is the continuing pressure on IT management to retain staff. IT staff are motivated by a number of
factors including the challenge of the position, careers prospects, training offered, the facilities they work in and not least of
all their paycheck.
Further, as the world rapidly adopts the web as a key instrument in commerce there is increasing pressure on IT management
to deliver application solutions to the market in a rapid approach. ReadyForTheNet is positioning itself to remove these
pressures from small to medium sized companies so they may concentrate on their particular core of specialty.
To fuel continued growth we must look at creative ways of developing the SME market. Until now, there have been major
barriers for technology suppliers to enter this market including:
• No traditional channel to leverage
• IT requirements are different from the large enterprise
• IT skills are virtually non-existent
• The lack of awareness of the IT market and trends
At the same time, the risks associated with IT have been substantial for SME companies including:
• High technology acquisition costs
• Cost of operations can be unpredictable
• Low economies of scale leads to marginal ROI
The concept of clustering looks to mitigate these risks and in fact can enable us to become the dominant supplier of
technology to the SME market, regardless of specific vertical segments.
MISSION
The mission of SME Clustering is to be the enabling force allowing Small and Medium sized businesses to leverage
Information and Internet Technologies on par with larger Institutions. When successful, this initiative will level the
technology playing field for the target market. Manufacturers, retailers, and suppliers who subscribe to the Cluster services
will be able to maximize distribution efficiencies and streamline accounting functions and business processes using Internet
technology as the primary transaction mechanism.
In the Cluster marketing campaign we will seek to establish that ReadyForTheNet Clusters will accomplish 3 specific goals
for the user. First is to support the customer’s current IT requirements while reducing the IT Cost of Ownership. Second, we
will deliver these services according to a defined Service Level Agreement (SLA). The SLA will be defined so the customer
will have better levels of service than their current model. Last, the service will enable value to the customer. This will come
ReadyForTheNet Confidential Information/Protected Under NDA
3. ReadyForTheNet Solutions for Business Without Limits R4N White Paper
in the form of supporting applications and services not feasible under their existing model. For example, low cost, high
quality videoconferencing to their suppliers and/or customers.
We can achieve this goal through a creative use of existing technology and creating quality partnerships when applicable.
Using a technology consolidator model, we can achieve large economies of scale, passing the resultant cost savings to the
customer. We also become the primary source for support to the customer.
Customers within this market have used technology, but not leveraged it. These customers have been reluctant to overly rely
on technology due to a lack of confidence in the typical 5 to 6 vendors they work with. Their fears are justified given the
current sales and support model that is the norm in this market segment. Vendors that address this market typically work on
low margins and are generally focused on a niche area, like voice services, PC maintenance or Internet access.
The Cluster model will change all this. The Cluster marketing and the execution of the service will provide these customers
with the confidence to rely on Information Technology for a competitive advantage. Clusters can do this, even with the price
sensitivity normally associated with this market segment. ReadyForTheNet Clusters is the ultimate competitive edge for
small businesses thinking big.
ReadyForTheNet Clusters - Technology for Business Without Limits.
CLUSTER DEFINITION
The concept of a cluster involves a large group of diverse private and/or public enterprises that are set in a geographically
close setting. The setting would typically be an area that could be served by a common central office or they are in the same
physical structure (office building, shopping mall, etc.). The businesses within the cluster are usually low consumers of
technology, primarily due to cost factors associated with servers and high-end software. Last they buy some services from a
common third party like a landlord or systems integrator or BLEC.
The implied opportunity is to add value by providing some shared information technology infrastructure. The operation of
that shared infrastructure can enhance the value of the space, and also equip a service provider with valuable knowledge of
customer behavior, which can be the basis of further added value services. This is a generalization of several opportunities
we are currently involved with.
The economic significance of the cluster is that we can achieve significant economies of scale in delivering shared
Information Technology services to the enterprises within the cluster. With these economies of scale, we can create a unique
balance between acceptable price points for the customer along with generous margins for our products and services.
CLUSTER APPLICATIONS
As previously stated, the cluster needs to create efficiencies through the delivery of IT services to a grouping of enterprises.
The driving force is the applications that would be delivered. Applications are to be delivered using the ASP model of a
software lease with charges on a per unit basis. Applications can be industry specific, or applicable across industry segments.
In a typical cluster we may experience more than one industry segment to be supported. It is not expected that
ReadyForTheNet will support all applications. In many cases it is preferable that we partner with ASPs to deliver
applications.
Examples of horizontal application services can include:
• eMarketplace
• eBarterExchange
• Unified Messaging
• Decision Support
• Knowledge Management
• Customer Relationship Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Point of Sale
• Internet Access
• VPN
• Telephony
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• Video Conferencing
• Data Warehousing
• Enterprise Portal
• SAN
• Tenant Services
• Building Management
• Purchasing
• Document Management
MARKET DEFINITION AND VALUE
Definition
The market we are targeting is the small and medium sized business. We further qualify this by stating that during the initial
stages of the initiative, we will primarily sell to those businesses that are located in a multi-tenant, airport or cam-
pus/community environment. This does not significantly impact the overall size of the market, but does bring a focus on
lowering the cost of the sale, reducing the impact of potential account turnover and minimizes the complexity of the Informa-
tion Systems needed to support the customer base.
Property owners and managers can enhance property value and increase building revenue by offering high-speed Internet
access and other voice and data services to tenants. An advanced communications infrastructure in commercial office
buildings is a value-added amenity that helps attract and retain premier tenants. Because it can utilize existing copper
infrastructure, the service in the MTU facilitates rapid turn up of multiple revenue-generating services
The current trends that affect our business plan are:
• Companies are focused on lowering their cost income ratios. Increased focus on Internet use for business-to-business
transactions.
• Relocation to new premises, upgrade of underlying IT technologies and applications will occur.
• Higher security, more construction for campus style office parks.
• Rents have increased by less than 2% with a reduction of .9% in real dollars.
• Customer expectations for newer technology options are on the increase.
• In many cities there is a trend toward creative conversion of buildings into hotels, condos, apartments (in particular Class
B buildings in Class A areas).
• Average age of buildings is 28 years for downtown, 14 years for suburban.
• Top locations are NY, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, San Jose and Dallas
Building Market Attributes
There are more than 118,000 multi-tenant office buildings in the U.S. housing business customers that are prime targets.
According to Department of Energy building surveys, there are approximately 31,000 skyscrapers, 26,000 mid-size
buildings, and 61,000 small buildings in the United States.
The number of potential customers in each category of building is as follows:
• Skyscrapers or other buildings with an area of more than 300,000 sq. ft. typically house 50 or more establishments.
• Mid-sized buildings range in area from 75,000 to 300,000 sq. ft. and house 20 to 50 organizations.
• Small buildings with an area between 25,000 and 75,000 sq. ft. typically have 6 to 20 business tenants.
Buildings are further classified into 3 Classes:
• Class A Buildings - have ideal locations with state of the art facilities, accessibility and market presence. This is 48% of
market (BOMA).
• Class B Buildings - buildings with a wide range of users with average rents. Average locations with adequate facilitates,
accessibility and market presence. Class B rents average 53.7% lower than Class A, with only 17.9% lower expenses.
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• Class C makes up the rest of the market with inadequate everything.
Small End User Profile
The small business market is loosely defined as companies with fewer than 100 employees with average annual sales of less
than $50M (US$). By some estimates, there are close to 10 million businesses in this category. The large majority of these
businesses are not in a position to take advantage of the service offerings from ReadyForTheNet. The cost of sale will be
prohibitively high for us in these areas. At the present time, our best estimates are that we could serve 30% to 40% of this
market, but to maintain a high gross margin we will only target the upper 20% of the market. Currently there is little reliable
information regarding the network equipment and services expenditures for this market. IDC estimates that the average small
business spends approximately $250 to $300 on IT applications, services and connectivity per month. These expenditures
only include a minimum set of applications that are often inadequate to sustain market position.
Medium End User Profile
The medium sized business is loosely defined as companies with 100 to 500 employees with average annual sales of between
$50M and $250M (US $). There are approximately 135,000 companies in this category, with the total network equipment
and services market size of $24.5B, with a CAGR of 27% (Infonetics study on medium business market in North America).
Consumer Profile
At the present time we will not target the consumer market, however according to our research in the future this may be an
area that our service can provide value, while maintaining reasonable margins.
Sources of Value
In any initiative of this nature it is important to understand the value proposition to the customer. The cluster needs a bit
more definition here since we provide value to three entities, the consumer (end user), the channel (landlord, property
manager, etc.) and the technology service provider (carrier, ASP, etc.). The following is an example of the value proposition
to Clusters that involve a channel involved in real estate.
The technology consumer will see the following value:
• Lower Total Cost of Operations for an IT infrastructure
• Low risk solution that maintains cost predictability
• Deliver higher levels of service, particularly in the areas of application availability and response time, fast time to market
for new business initiatives and knowledgeable technical support.
• Gain access to applications and services that are currently not feasible to deploy, yet provide great business value. Such
applications include e-commerce, customer relationship management, streaming multimedia and knowledge
management. This will also provide the customer with instant scalability.
• Knowledge management. This will also provide the customer with instant scalability.
• Ensure that all software, systems and other infrastructure components are up to date with the latest releases of software
and bug fixes.
• ReadyForTheNet will have a Testing, Integration and Staging laboratory to ensure that all IT components operate to
customer expectations and are tailored for maximum performance, scalability and resiliency.
• The ReadyForTheNet technology infrastructure is well managed and secure, providing business continuity and Disaster
Recovery services on par with any large enterprise.
The building owner/manager will see the following value:
• New source of revenue. Rents have increased by fewer than 2% with a reduction of.9% in real dollars.
• Creative conversion of buildings into hotels, condos, apartments (in particular Class B buildings in Class A areas).
• Customer expectations for newer technology options are on the increase.
• Adding new Internet technologies and a robust communications infrastructure can significantly enhance the value of a
building.
• Revenue can be increased with little effect on the operating expenses of the building, therefore increasing operating
margins.
• Building managers can leverage services to attract and retain premier tenants, and offer these tenants a large choice of
revenue generating services.
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• Greatly enhanced security is an additional benefit, using the latest in digital cameras and intelligent building systems.
• Overall, 36 percent of the respondents of a recent BOMA study said they use e-commerce to manage their facilities. The
top use of e-commerce – cited by 55 percent – was to purchase supplies and materials from a specific vendor.
• Other uses include accessing facilities manuals on the Web; publishing static project information on the Internet;
purchasing supplies and materials through an Internet service that connects buyers and sellers; and taking online
interactive training courses.
• The survey also found that 51 percent of facility managers said it was "somewhat" of a problem to implement e-
commerce. Another 10 percent said it was a "big" problem.
• The top barrier to implementing e-commerce was the difficulty in integrating legacy systems with e-commerce. Other
problems include the lack of a budget to invest in e-commerce; hard-to-customize software packages; cost of software
upgrades and the cost of keeping building data current.
• A total of 55 percent of facilities managers said they have noticed a decrease in the cost of purchasing supplies and
materials through e-commerce. This is expected to be a benefit for 85 percent of the respondents in the survey within the
next two years.
• Other e-commerce benefits listed in the survey include a reduction in the time required to complete projects; a reduction
in the cost of facility maintenance and operations; a decrease in the cost of space management; and a reduction in the
cost of new construction projects. Sources of Value (technology suppliers):
The third party technology supplier will see the following value:
• On the supply side, ReadyForTheNet Clustering will offer emerging ASPs, and new wave software companies the
opportunity to offer their products to a broader spectrum of potential customers, fully resilient facilities and a pricing
model that is based on recurring license fees.
POTENTIAL CLUSTERS
During the initial stages of developing the Cluster business strategy, we will need to identify a list of potential Cluster
opportunities and fine-tune the list to one or two where we can establish early wins. The following is a list of potential
Cluster opportunities. The list has not been fine-tuned and therefore needs to go through selection criteria prior to
establishing the final list. The selection criterion includes the following: size, expected growth, our competitive position, cost
of reaching the segment, and the significance of our value proposition within each Cluster.
The table below is a list of potential Clusters with each column representing a Vertical Industry that may or may not have
influence in the Cluster. This list is meant to be a beginning and is subject to change.
Government Education HealthCare Transportation Retail Manufacturing Finance Media/Entertainment
Wired
Communities
X X X X X X X
BLECs/Intelligent
Buildings
X X X X
Intelligent
Highway
X X X X X
Airport X X X X X X
Financial
Exchange
X X
Community Care
Center
X X X
We will need to establish the correct foundation for this effort for each Cluster so that we can quantify buying trends
(including who, when and how much), and the decision process by which companies purchase. Using this information we
will create the correct sales strategy that will win and sustain mind and market share.
The plan for each Cluster will be fine-tuned over the course of this fiscal year. This fine-tuning will be done in response to
capitalize on emerging opportunities and new application windows. In addition the plan will undergo consistent results
measurement to evaluate the correct focus on the plan.
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VALUE TO READYFORTHENET
The Pre-Sales Benefit
Many of the barriers we face in competing in any industry occur in the early stages of the sales cycle. We have the
opportunity to use the Clusters program to remove some barriers and limit the others. Pushing the concept of vertical
solutions changes the way in which customers approach their projects and the best use of their suppliers.
Selling a Cluster solution will address the business problems as much, if not more, than just a pure technology sale. The
paradigm we are defining here will change the customer’s perception of ReadyForTheNet from a pure technology company
to a business consultant offering focused solutions to their specific business requirements.
This type of strategy provides entry into areas where we have traditionally been weak, senior IT management. When we
combine the business solutions based discussion with applications and network technology, we have successfully covered the
entire spectrum of the IT decision process. We have then become a strategic provider, rather than relegated to provide
equipment to niche areas of the customer’s infrastructure.
The Post-Sales Benefit
Once the sale has been consummated, the benefits of the solution continue. It is important to remember here that all
customers want a customized, risk free solution to their specific business challenges, at the price of a generic solution. The
challenge for us is approach this without eroding gross margins. The closer we come to this type of solution, the more benefit
we derive after the sale.
Customer satisfaction is one of the most important benefits derived from the solution-based sale. Increased customer
satisfaction will help us in sustaining the account, but more importantly, will help in obtaining additional business from the
customer, likely without high sales overhead.
The Cluster strategy will help us in organizing and understanding our customer base. In general, we have a difficult time in
leveraging our wins effectively. The key to leveraging our customer base is to understand their challenges and what were the
key areas we provided value. This knowledge helps in subsequent opportunities and helps in obtaining focuses references.
As business is closed and our customers derive real and measurable business value, our visibility within the industry will
increase dramatically. This visibility will occur at all levels of IT management, and more importantly will increase at the
individual business unit level. This will provide us with additional opportunities that we are not currently in a position to
take advantage of now.
READYFORTHENET COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Some of the significant advantages that ReadyForTheNet has are as follows:
• High Barrier to Entry for competition. The current competition and the conventional wisdom in this industry are to
provide single application solutions with a focus on a direct sales model. Little or no thought is given to facilities
management and network management.
• Proven Resources with Significant Knowledge Capital. The current team and potential team members have com-
plementary skills with the individuals reading like a who’s who in their respective field.
• The market for our services is large and growing quickly. The technology part of the market is fairly mature, but the
overall business is very much in its fetal stage.
• Highly differentiable product/service. In a world of standardization, we leverage standard products and services better
than anyone else in the world.
• At the present time there is little competition. Most competitors are marketing point products with the customer needing
to manage 5-6 technology suppliers, or more.
• Our strategy is well thought out and we have a team who are fast thinking and willing to act aggressively in respond to
the dynamic nature of the business.
• At the present time, there are no regulatory risks associated with this business. This is true worldwide. We anticipate that
regulation may be loosened in the next 18+ months, this will increase competition, however our plan is to negate this
with a strong marketing campaign that identifies ReadyForTheNet as the solutions leader.
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CHANNELS TO MARKET
We have several channel to market, each Cluster type will have one or more channels. This may involve the following:
• Local governments looking to improve businesses districts
• Emerging Building LECs
• Builders/Managers of Tele-Hotel facilities
• Utility companies
SALES STRATEGY
Overview
Our sales strategy is to deploy an aggressive channel program driven by generous margins for the channel and comprehensive
marketing programs designed for a low expertise salesperson. For the purposes of balancing an upwardly scalable channel
sales force with one that is manageable and replicateable, we have limited the types of channels to three primary types. First
is the building managers/owners, second is the emerging area of Application Service Providers (ASPs), and last are systems
integrators. Details on this plan are given in a later section.
Our edge is defined in two areas. First is the owners and manager of multi-tenant buildings. Adding new Internet
technologies and a robust communications infrastructure can significantly enhance the value of a building. Revenue can be
increased with little effect on the operating expenses of the building, therefore increasing operating margins. Building
managers can use ReadyForTheNet cooperative marketing dollars (and marketing programs) to attract and retain premier
tenants, and offer these tenants a large choice of revenue generating services. Greatly enhanced security is an additional
benefit, using the latest in digital cameras and intelligent building systems.
Tenants within a Cluster building will enjoy the ability to use advanced Internet Technologies with no up front costs, and low
monthly operating costs. Enabling applications such as Knowledge Management (KM), Customer Relationship Management
(CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and E-Commerce are typically not deployed in these companies due to
significant up front costs and a high Cost of Ownership of these products. The Cluster service brings the enabling power of
these applications to these businesses, without the complexity and high Cost of Ownership.
Solutions Sales Guide
The most effective way for ReadyForTheNet to execute its market strategy is to provide a virtual SWAT team to produce a
Sales Guide that is in the style of a cookbook. The “cookbook” style Sales Guide provides several key benefits including a
guide to target account selling, customer presentation material and separates the product technology from the business value
proposition of the Cluster service. The cookbook will allow us to have a non-technical sales force, focusing on business value
of a commodity service (like the copier and fax sales model).
The “cookbook” guide consists of some general material with solution specific material woven in, producing a guide that
appears to be specifically focused on each individual customer. A team comprised of subject matter experts across all the
appropriate business units within ReadyForTheNet will develop the guide. Each solution guide will have a solutions expert
who will act as the team leader. The team leader would be responsible to bring the input together and construct the
cookbook.
Once a cookbook has been completed, the team leader will construct a sales program and execute a pilot of the program in a
specific geographic market. Results from the sales program can be easily measured and the program can be tuned based on
the success of the pilot.
Once the pilot has been successfully completed, the full-scale sales program can be delivered. Each sales program will be
evaluated as to its appropriateness in the various ReadyForTheNet geographic markets. The full sales program would then be
rolled out to the appropriate regions. This would involve the team leader providing focused training for each of the target
regions.
Solutions Sales Guide Contents
This section is a companion to the Overview section of the Sales Guide. The Overview section gives sales information, while
this section gives information on the solution. A solutions brief includes trends, applications and a solid business case on why
a ReadyForTheNet Cluster solution makes sense. Details are given on positioning both ReadyForTheNet and its partner
products. A companion PowerPoint presentation is included in the presentation section.
A specific table of contents is provided below:
1. Executive Summary (for RFP response)
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2. Sales Tools
2.1. Define the Challenge
2.2. Value Proposition
2.3. Usage guidelines for corporate collateral
2.4. Any new collateral when necessary (spun off the standard corporate collateral)
3. Typical Applications/Systems
3.1. Value Proposition
3.2. Support Packages
3.3. Application Notes for Specific Partner Applications
4. Reference Solution (Technical in scope)
4.1. Solution Components and positioning
4.2. Solution Strengths and Justification
4.3. Solution Reference design and configuration
4.4. Best Practices for Deployment
4.5. Migration
5. Technical Notes
6. References
COMPETITIVE RISKS
We believe that the most significant risk in this venture is market acceptance of this service offering. In the broad market
(which incorporates small/medium/large companies worldwide), outsourcing is an acceptable method of operating an IT
practice. It is also accepted that not all companies will derive benefits, but some will gain a competitive edge using this
model.
The Cluster differentiator here is the moving of high-end server equipment and applications to a secure, fully resilient site
with a contingency site. This is a significant differentiator with respect to lowering the cost of delivering services and
applications, minimizing the cost of downtime and eliminating many of the “hidden” costs of operating an full service IT
business.
We believe that this type of service is inevitable. Acceptance in any market is related to demonstrating a positive ROI to the
business with a lowering of the TCO as the secondary factor. Through our marketing programs, we will manage the risk, and
look to drive the acceptance of this model down to the smallest business and application where maintaining margins is
feasible.
The other major risk for us is the entry of unknown competitors, or from well-capitalized competitors. We feel that this is
also inevitable. At the present time we believe that we have an 18-24 month lead time to develop strong brand name
recognition. In conjunction with the brand name recognition, we will continue to focus our efforts on supporting new
technologies, applications and services that the market will require, before they require it.
Currently there are no direct competitors to this service offering. There are many reasons for this, but the primary ones are
related to the evolution of product and service strategies to the customer and the evolution of the buying trends of the
customer. The fundamental problem with this model is that the customers need to manage many different vendors in addition
to managing multiple technologies and a combination of off-the-shelf and custom software applications.
Customers in this market are typically forced into buying products and services from different vendors who are typically
focused on delivering a niche solution. Some of these vendors include systems integrators (usually data only service without
managed services), consultants, LEC/CLEC, long distance carriers, equipment resellers, a variety of application software
companies, systems software companies, etc., etc. All this with a high probability that only a fraction of the real advantage of
technology will be harnessed.
The evolution of this industry is to provide application services to the customer on a monthly basis, typically on a fully
outsourced basis. These classes of companies are known as Application Service Providers (ASPs), and provide their niche
application to the customer. This is a logical progression of the industry, but only provides marginal benefits to the customer.
Many of the high-end applications (as previously discussed) are still too costly to be delivered in this type of service model.
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