The Innovation Capitalist

Trouble Searching Outlook or Notes Email? Try this.

Let's face it, many of us use email as a database for all our email. Those that are really organize tend to have folder after folder of very specific topics that hold their email. Searching thru all that email in Outlook and Notes can be a challenge.

To help with this email search problem, IBM has just released a product innovation on their AlphaWorks site that helps you find those needles in the proverbial email haystack. I've got a big haystack and using the standard search capabilities in Outlook is no longer cutting it. After giving the product a test drive for a week now, I've found it much better than the standard search capabilities in Outlook.

Once you download and install the product, it will go to work and index your email. It may take some time but have patience as it will be worth the wait. Once you have the plug-in installed in Outlook (I have not used the Notes version), you can simply pump in your query into the text box, hit find and see the results of your search in a browser window almost like you were using a standard search box that produces results.

I've found it to be quite valuable and if you want to give it a try, here is the link to get more information on the product along with download information.  http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/emailsearch

Preventing Holiday Fires

The Red Cross recommends following the below tips to help prevent holiday home fires, please take their advice and be careful this holiday season.

Christmas Tree Care

• Purchase flame retardant metallic or artificial trees.
• If you purchase a real tree, make sure that it has fresh, green needles that aren’t easily broken. Keep live trees as moist as possible by giving them plenty of water.
• Use a sturdy tree stand designed not to tip over.
• Keep trees at least three feet away from heat sources, including fireplaces, portable heaters, radiators, heat vents and candles.
• Make sure that any light strings or other decorations for the tree are in good condition and follow manufacturer’s instructions for their use. Do not use anything with frayed electrical cords.
• Be careful not to drop or flick cigarette ashes near a tree.
• Never put tree branches or needles in a fireplace or wood burning stove.
• Safely dispose of trees as they become dry and needles begin to drop.
• Dispose of trees through recycling centers or community pick-up services. Dried-out trees should not be left in a house or garage, or placed against the house or garage.

Holiday Lights and Decorations

• Always unplug tree and holiday lights before leaving home or going to bed.
• Inspect holiday lights each year for frayed wires, bare spots, broken or cracked sockets, and excessive kinking or wear.
• Avoid overloading electrical outlets by not linking more than three light strands.
• Use decorations that are flame-resistant or flame-retardant.
• Place decorations at least three feet away from fireplaces, portable heaters, radiators, heat vents and candles.

Holiday Candles

• Always extinguish candles before leaving the room or going to bed. Do not leave a room before extinguishing candles.
• Never use lit candles to decorate a tree.
• Keep candles at least three feet away from trees, evergreens, holiday decorations, and other items that can catch fire like clothing, papers and curtains.
• Use candle holders that are study, won’t tip over easily, are made from a material that cannot burn, and are large enough to collect dripping wax. Remember that even glass holders can shatter and explode from the heat of a candle flame.
• Place candles where they cannot be reached or easily knocked over by children and pets.

For more Red Cross fire safety and preparedness information please visit www.redcross.org/homefires.

Rock Band Better Than Guitar Hero III??

I asked my 17 year old son which he liked better, Rock Band or Guitar Hero III. His response, Rock Band. We picked up Rock Band a week ago for his birthday and frankly, I like Rock Band better also as I'm a drummer. Call me biased. The other cool thing about Rock Band is the multiplayer aspect of the game. Makes you feel as though you and your friends are part of a band trying to get your act together. What would make it even better? A few more instruments. What about a few more guitars. Would be a lot more fun if you could have 3 guitar players, a drummer and even a keyboard. What about a harmonica. I sense we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to interactive musical games of the future. If you haven't tried out Rock Band, if you can find one, give it a try. I think you will enjoy it.

Data Integration Companies To Watch

In my last post, I spoke about several BI companies that are well worth keeping an eye on, especially those that are offering much lower cost, easy to use SaaS based solutions that are helping enterprises overcome the complexities found in legacy BI solutions. Like these new BI players, a new round of Enterprise Data Integration companies are emerging that are definitely worth keeping an eye on. Again, just like the new BI players, these data integration players are providing lower price and easier to use solutions that are gaining rapid adoption. These include open source players Talend and Apatar. In addition, there is word on the street about a brand new player emerging in this space called Expressor Software. Some say it is a next generation Ab Initio, a high end data integration player that has been around for quite some time. They are in stealth mode, so one will find it difficult to find out many details about the company and specificially what they are working on. However, they are worth watching.   

Business Intelligence Companies To Watch

With the two leading BI players, Cognos and Business Objects being acquired over the past year, it's now time to keep a close eye on the next generation BI disruptors in the market. Companies including Qliktech, Oco-Inc, SeaTab, and Lucid Era have an opportunity to capitalize on the changing landscape in the BI market. Why?

1. Low cost, fast deployment - Most of these disruptors offer a SaaS based BI solution at a much lower cost and with faster deployments. Oco-Inc has several customers that have replaced their current  BI solutions with the Oco-Inc SaaS based offering. These customers include juice maker Welchs, Dunkin Donuts and Casual Male. Seattle based Seatab has a very impressive list of customers including REI, Brooks, Birkenstock and CarToys.

2. Easy to Use, Less Complex - Qliktech is a standout when it comes to ease of use and flexibility. You might think of the Qliktech product called Qlikviews as "Rapid Analytics". No OLAP or complex schema to deal with. The analytic application design environment is very intuitive and provides the BI professionals with the ability to rapidly navigate, slice, dice and drill down on analytic data without the complexities typical found in hard core OLAP systems. Qliktech has the added benefit of being an In-memory solution which results in rapid response times for analytic results.

3. Small and Nimble - Although these companies would be considered early stage, I would hesitate to call them "pure startups". They are well funded and seem to be delivering products releases at a much faster clip that the larger acquired players.

4. Great customer service and response times - Its just much easier to pick up the phone and speak to the CEO's of these companies than it is with the larger players who are in the midst of their respective acquisitions. Great customer service will also be a differentiator for these companies.

5. Easier to influence future capabilities - Although growing pretty rapidly when it comes to bringing on new customers, being an early customer means you  have strong influence when it comes to driving new capabilities into these products. This is normally the case for most early stage companies but with a SaaS based approach that some of these companies are taking, the new feature might show up the next day.

6. No need to deal with product rationalization and integration - When IBM acquired Cognos, they also ended up getting Applix (acquired by Cognos),  Temtec (acquired by Applix), Celequest (acquired by Cognos), Adaytum (acquired by Cognos). The most recent being Applix. Above and beyond the acquisition integration efforts, seems like a great deal of product rationalization will need to get done over the course of the next year. These BI players simply don't have to deal with these complexities.

We will see lots of analysis over the next few months on the acquisitions that have taken place in the BI space and no doubt we will see plenty of mention of Oco-Inc, SeaTab, Qliktech and LucidEra.

Don't Put The Amazon Kindle On Your Holiday List

The new ebook reader from Amazon, called Kindle just doesn't do it for me. It's very expensive, has a poor design and frankly has limited capabilities from what I've been able to learn over the past day. I don't have hands on experience but I can tell you, I don't plan on getting any either. I've written about the Sony Reader in the past and was pretty impressed with its form factor, design and excellent digital ink support. In fact, it has a very good form factor. Yes, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the Kindle, but if your looking for a good ebook reader and the only thing you are interested in doing is reading a good book, then I would recommend it over the Kindle. Use the approximately $400.00 and go out and buy yourself an iPod Touch instead this holiday and a couple of good paperbacks instead.

Hot Holiday Gifts For 2007

Yes, a little late this year with my hot holiday gift list. Its been a busy few months at EnterpriseDB and I also wanted to look around for a few stand out "green" related gift this year as this seems like one of the top gift topics this year. So, here it goes, enjoy your shopping and please give a little to charity this year.

1. One Laptop Per Child - Feeling like giving green, contributing to a charity and getting a very cool laptop at that same time while also providing one to someone less fortunate? Head over to the Laptop Giving website and take advantage of the "Give One Get One" program. Better make it fast as the offer ends November 26, 2007.

2. HYmini - Another green gift for your gadget lover. The HYmini is a universal charger that uses either wind power or solar power to get that gadget lover on your holidy gift list all charged, along with their gadget also.

3. Super Mario Galaxy - If you have a gamer on your list, no doubt Super Mario Galaxy will also be on their list. Continuing the legacy of Mario, Super Mario Galaxy combined with a WII, you will keep that gamer in front of your new LCD/Plasma tv for hours.

4. Tomy i-SOBOT - Considered to be the worlds smallest robot and an amazing piece of technology for a pocket sized robot, but you can bet any robot fanatic will absolutely love this one.

5. Jakks EyeClops Bionic Eye - For the kids that loves science. Hooked this device up to your TV and you will be saying WOW many times over.

6. The Pleo - Tell me you have heard about Pleo? Another robotic gift but with a dino spin to it. Great animatronics in this one.

7.AT&T USBConnect 881 - The latest from AT&T, a usb device that gives you 3G HSPA support. What's HSPA? High Speed Packet Access or simply lightning fast over the air upload and dowload speeds.

8. Box of Zapps Potato Chips - Everyone that knows me, knows I'm both a french fry fanatic and a potato chip fanatic, so this year, I'm recommending you buy a box of Zapps Potato Chips. They are sooooo good and come in a variety of flavors. Great for teenagers that can't get enough junk food. Teenagers will definitely get jazzed about opening a box of these crunchy delights. My favorite flavor, Cajun Dill.

9. Custom Tailgating Trailor - OK, I always have to have an exotic vehicle on my annual list and this one your going to love if you are a tailgator. Check out the folks at Gameday Customs for that special one on your list.

10. Temperature Controlled Faucet Light - Just simply a fun gadget for your water supply.

Take care and have a great bunch of holidays, no matter what you are celebrating.

Spirit of Innovation at TechCrunch Boston Meetup

Well, it's been a while since my last post and thats primarily due to be kept flat out busy at my new gig as CTO at open source database company EnterpriseDB where we are making strong progress in the market as an alternative to Oracle and other open source DBMS systems.

Friday night, I had a chance to hang out for a while at the TechCrunch Boston Meetup held in downtown Boston. The event was quite busy. At around 8:30 PM, one of the security folks told me that there were about 450 folks there. It was quite packed. With an open bar, good discussions and a bunch of emerging startups, venture capitalist along with industry vetrans, which sounds strange as I probably fall into that category, I found the event quite good. The spirit of innovation and experimentation was certainly alive and kicking, even though you get this feeling that some of the startups are just that, an experiment. The good news is that we can spin up businesses faster than ever before by using open source, remote workers, and creative thinkers, all collaborating over the internet using everything from low cost SaaS based project manager, BaseCamp to instant messengers. I suspect that this TechCrunch event probably served as a catalyst for generating some new ideas just thru the networking that took place at the event. It was great running into some folks I haven't seen for a while like Reed Sturtevant who is now running Microsofts product development center in Boston. I also had a chance to chat with another local Microsoft friend, Don Dodge and some of my former colleagues at Powersoft as well as executives, entrepreneurs and venture professionals from the Boston area.

IDG Ventures also with the other sponsors did a terrific job and I hope to attend more of these events in the future. The Tech Cocktail that was held in Boston, near Fenway Park this past Fall was another great networking event with emphasis on Web 2.0. Finally, we seem to be aligning with the types of events that happen out west.

YouTube should help schools.

Grammar and high schools frequently have videos that are produced for students, for example curriculum information, band concerts or plays.  With this in mind, folks like YouTube should consider creating private subsites that school officials can use to load up the videos so that students and parents can watch them at home on their computer and which are protected by security. The subsites should be protected with a login for the school along with students and parents. Doing so will provide a nice extension for YouTube and the school communities worldwide.

Weakness in economy will drive open source adoption

The 2007 economy is clearly not looking good. It is showing signs of experiencing the slowest growth in five years and the forecasters are predicting sluggishness  for next year at around a 2.8 percent growth. As our economy slows, many predict cut backs in the overall IT budgets for next year. Looking to lower its costs, I predict that IT will be taking a serious look at ramping the use of more and more open source software in order to help reduce costs. With many years of success using Linux and other core open source solutions, enterprises are becoming more and more comfortable with replacing expensive proprietary and closed solutions with their open source equivalents at a much lower costs and with higher reliability and quality. This should be good news for established open source companies in addition to  emerging open source based businesses such as EnterpriseDB, MuleSource, Talend, Pentaho, Cleversafe.

Although costs will be a driving force behind an accelerated adoption of open source, other factors including proven reliability, flexibility, openness, continuous innovation and excellent customer service and support will help overcome any previous hesitations with going down the open source road.