Dell’s Boston Think Tank: Big Ideas for Small Business

Posted on March 7, 2013 by lauriemccabe

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to participate in Dell’s Boston Think Tank for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses (#smallbizboston) at the Cambridge Innovation Center. Dell billed the session as a chance for business owners, startups and others to come together to listen, learn, collaborate and share.

dpictInstead of talking heads, the day was interactive from start to finish, with speakers who realized that they have as much to learn from attendees as the other way around. And instead of PowerPoint slides, dpict.info’s scribe captured the story as it unfolded, building this great infographic to sum up the day’s key conversations and insights.

Dell_Boston_2013_printDell’s Entrepreneur in Residence, Ingrid Vanderveldt (who I spoke to in this video interview) kicked off the event some interesting stats about how Boston small businesses view the current business environment and their ability access to capital, talent and technology. Whitney Johnson (@johnsonwhitney), Author of Dare, Dream, Do and Harvard Business Review Blogger and event moderator, introduced the 4 different themes for the day, each facilitated by a local small business expert:

Dell sessionFrom my perspective, some of the most interesting takeaways from the day were that small business owners:

  • Struggle to find qualified people who are also a good fit for the company’s culture. Although small business owners believe that talent and expertise are the most important contributors to business growth, they find it difficult task to access the talent they need. The investment required to recruit, hire and train someone looms large for small business, and the risk of hiring someone who doesn’t work out is a big one. While people have had success outsourcing smaller jobs to contractors via sites such as Elance, TaskRabbit and Zirtual, “you reach a point where you need talent that you can trust, commit to and hire.” Practical advice included to “go where the talent is,” for example, check out http://www.meetup.com/ and go to meetups where you’re most likely to find the types of people you’re looking for, and learn some of the lingo they use so you can engage in a meaningful conversation. Other suggestions included writing down and codifying your corporate values so that you can clearly articulate them to the candidates you interview. Finally, look for people with complementary skills to yours, and those who can do the job as well or even better than you can.
  • See technology as both a blessing and a curse. One the one hand, the Internet and mobile solutions have made it much easier for people to collaborate and connect. On the other hand, small business owners are in information overload when it comes to sorting through all the thousands of available technology solutions and determine which can really help them achieve their business goals–growing revenue, being more productive, and operating more profitably. Dell’s survey indicates that 41% of Boston small businesses see technology needs as becoming increasingly complex, yet only 1 in 10 have full-time dedicated IT people. This mirrors SMB Group’s North America research findings. Most small businesses see the value of technology in making their businesses successful, but need a lot of help to identify which solutions will have the biggest impact on business results.
  • Believe telecommuting and working remotely enables productivity. Sorry, @Yahoo Melissa Mayer, but I think its fair to say that you are swimming against the tide. The general sentiment seemed to be that although live, face-to-face meetings are ideal for some things, the ability to work remotely has given small businesses more flexibility and access to talent. For instance, Sharon Kan, an entrepreneur with four successful start-up exits, kicked of the Access to Technology session by saying she runs her businesses with “a phone and a laptop.”
  • Typically pull their businesses up with their own bootstraps. Only 3% of Boston small businesses relied on venture capital and angel investors to get off the ground. Personal savings are the top source of funding at 44%, followed by banks and credit unions at 23%. Amy Millman of Springboard Investors, which has funded a raft of innovative start-ups, including Zipcar, iRobot and Constant Contact, gave business owners insights into what investors are looking for. First, you must be able to clearly articulate how your company is going to make money, and “learn the language of funders and investors”. More pointedly, when a prospect says “wow”, take it a step further. Find out the “why and how of the wow” and use that in your pitch to investors.
  • Need to get more strategic about using social media. According to Chris Brogan, who led the social media breakout, all businesses must think like “fledgling TV stations and create their own media” and “build trust at a distance.” The challenge is how to do this effectively. SMB Group’s 2012 Social Business survey indicates that of the 53% of small businesses using social media, less than half use it in a strategic way. According to Chris, small businesses need a home base, such as a web site or blog, and two “outposts.” One outpost should be the social media site that’s the best fit for your story and how you want to tell it (I would add that it also needs to be a place where your prospects hang out) and the other is email marketing: bad email marketing may be dead but good email marketing isn’t. Don’t try to spread yourself too thin–concentrate on using these three to help you “articulate, reach, trust, engage and echo” to meet your business goals.

dell session 5Overall, the interactive format, access to experts and eclectic mix of small business owners added up to an event that gave attendees information and inspiration, and new connections with people to get help from and vice versa.

Dell put a lot into the event. In addition to Ingrid and a number of Dell marketing and AR staff, Dell product strategy, management and technology teams were also well represented. With its listening ears on at events such as this, Dell is taking the right steps not only to help small businesses succeed, but to also ensure that it has the insights it needs to provide small businesses with the solutions they need to move ahead.

The Boston event was the last stop on Dell’s inaugural Think Tank tour of nine cities, but I’m told that Dell intends to follow-up with a new tour schedule soon.

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Dell World 2012: An Update on Dell’s Journey

Posted on January 2, 2013 by lauriemccabe

Just before the holidays, I had the opportunity to attend Dell’s second annual Dell World user conference. Here’s my take on  Dell’s progress towards becoming an end-to-end solutions company, and its directions in the small and medium business (SMB) market.

To put things in context, Dell has been on a journey for a couple of years to transform from a hardware company provide businesses with open, flexible and easier to use IT solutions that can scale up or down as needed. Dell is leveraging cloud computing, open standards, and a blend of hardware, service and software offerings to build more comprehensive solutions. And, Dell has pegged midmarket business requirements as its design focal point to ensure scalability for organizations of all sizes. As I discussed in The New Dell and What it Means for SMBs: Takeaways from Dell’s 2011 Solutions for a Virtual Era Event, Dell has also made many acquisitions to turn this vision into reality, including KACE, Boomi, Wyse, SonicWall, Quest and AppAssure and others.

On Track for Transformation

Dell has taken a lot of heat for not turning around fast enough to please some analyst and pundits. But, at the event, Dell provided a status report on its progress, and unveiled several new strategies, products and services that I believe will continue to propel it forward.

For example, Dell reported that cloud revenue has increased 30% year for Q3 FY 2013, and that its x86 server shipment growth outpaced the industry overall (and HP and IBM in particular) according to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Q3 2012 Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker. In addition, security revenue for Q3 FY 2013 rose 16% year over year. Dell now processes more than 30 billion events every day, and is growing its footprint in the security area. Perhaps most importantly, services and consulting now account for roughly one-third of Dell’s sales.

Among the many announcements that are part and parcel of any vendor user conference, several highlighted how Dell is turning its vision into reality, including that Dell has:

  • Chosen OpenStack as its open source cloud platform of choice for public and private cloud. This extends Dell’s commitment to open, standards-based solutions. While it will still provide customers with solutions on other cloud platforms, the vendor has endorsed OpenStack as the most open, flexible way to implement a hybrid environment and move workloads between private and public clouds.
  • Added new solutions to its Active Infrastructure converged infrastructure portfolio. Dell announced new blueprints for VDI and unified communications and collaboration applications and workloads. This builds on Dell’s goal of helping customers to streamline IT deployment and management with Active Infrastructure solutions. These combine servers, storage, networking and infrastructure systems management into integrated solutions that zero in on specific workload requirements to speed deployment, cut costs and energy consumption, and simplify operations.
  • Unveiled the CIO Powerboard. Using Boomi, Dell has knit together management tools from Quest, KACE, SonicWALL and AppAssure to provide IT with a unified view and metrics across their IT environment–another proof point of Dell’s ability to provide more integrated, end-to-end solutions.

We also got a glimpse into the strong potential that Dell’s Wyse acquisition has to propel Dell into the mobile management space from the very energetic Tarkan Maner, Dell Wyse President and CEO. Maner demoed the Pocket Cloud web service, which allows users to search all of their physical, virtual systems and clouds. As I discussed here, Dell recently launched Dell Wyse Cloud Client Manager (CCM), which incorporates Pocket Cloud technology, and provides businesses a centralized mobile management platform with an SMB-friendly price tag.

Stepping Up Support for SMBs

Beyond new solutions and technology directions, Dell took the wraps off of two new initiatives designed to help entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses.

For starters, Dell launched the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs, headed up by its Entrepreneur in Residence, Ingrid Vanderveldt. In this video interview,  Ingrid discusses how the community is built by and designed for entrepreneurs. One of the program’s key goals  is to help entrepreneurs secure capital to invest in the technology they need to grow. Dell Financial Services and the Dell Innovators Credit Fund supply credit and leasing options, and the site also offers webcasts, videos and case studies from Dell, industry experts, and a community of entrepreneurs sharing their experiences.

With former President Bill Clinton on hand as the event’s marquee keynote speaker, Dell also announced that it is sponsoring this year’s Clinton Global Initiative University and support the entrepreneurship theme at CGI U 2013, which will be held at Washington University in St. Louis in the spring. The track is designed to help students and young entrepreneurs get the grounding they need to launch, run and grow a business, and the increasingly vital role of technology in building a successful business.

Quick Take

Yes, Dell still has to figure out how (or maybe even whether) to really differentiate and innovate in the client and particularly the mobile device battle.

But Dell World served to highlight that Michael Dell has crafted a strong vision and is sticking to it, building it through a series of strong acquisitions (compare this to HP’s Palm and Autonomy debacles) and solid technology directions. Combined, Dell has assembled many of the building blocks it needs to achieve its vision. And, Dell will keep filling in missing puzzle pieces, as evidenced just a few days after Dell World, when Dell completed its acquisition of Credant Technologies to fortify its data protection capabilities.

Meanwhile, Dell’s continuing commitment to provide solutions that scale up and down from the midmarket bode well for growing its footprint in the SMB market. In addition, Dell’s new initiatives to support entrepreneurs are a natural, given Michael Dell’s credentials as a poster child for entrepreneurial success. Through these programs, Dell will not only help young companies benefit from technology, but forge engagements with entrepreneurs that will fuel future directions with fresh insights.

Overall, Dell World 2012 demonstrated while Dell still lacks a magic bullet for the client device side of its business, it is making steady progress in its goal to supply the end-to-end IT infrastructure solutions and services that businesses need to support them.

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Dell Cloud Client Manager–A Wyse Move For Mobile Management

Posted on November 20, 2012 by lauriemccabe

Earlier this year, Dell acquired Wyse, arguably the pioneer in thin-client computing. Together, Dell and Wyse have wasted little time in putting Wyse expertise to work to launch Dell Wyse Cloud Client Manager (CCM), which is designed to help companies address the increasingly vexing problem of managing mobile devices and applications.

Dell is delivering CCM as a cloud-based, self-service offering that gives businesses a centralized mobile management platform from which they can:

  • Manage thin client and mobile devices. Supported devices include Apple iOS, Android, and Dell Wyse thin clients, whether they’re using 3G, 4G or wi-fi networks.
  • Provide users with secure remote access to content on servers, laptops and desktops. Using Wyse Pocket Cloud technology, mobile users to remotely and securely access and manage content stored on home or office computers.
  • Set rules and policies to automate provisioning. CCM enables IT to create rules and permissions to streamline provisioning, and ensure that appropriate policies are applied to devices and users.
  • Real-time monitoring, analytics and reporting. The solution provides real-time feedback on users’ mobile activities, and the ability to send alerts in case of user non-compliance.

Since CCM is a cloud service, you don’t need to install any additional hardware or software, and can be up and running with CCM in less than an hour. As critical, CCM works regardless of your company’s mobile procurement and provisioning policy. Whether your business provides and manages all employee mobile devices, supports a BYOD program, has an employee self-service model, or some combination of these, CCM enables you to centrally manage how employees access corporate data and apps from their mobile devices, and create containers to separate corporate and personal apps.

The price is right for cash-strapped SMBs: Dell offers a free Starter Tier for smaller companies, which has all CCM capabilities except for group-based management. The Pro Tier comes with granular group management capabilities, and pricing starts at $5.50 per month for one user and up to three devices.

Mobile Management is a Top SMB Challenge

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that the growth trajectory for mobile solutions is soaring. So it’s not surprising that SMBs are going mobile: SMB Group’s 2012 SMB Mobile Solution shows that 83% of small businesses (1-99 employees) and 76% of medium businesses (100-999 employees) already use mobile solutions in their businesses.

Much of this growth has been driven by consumer demand for new and better devices and apps. As we use mobile more in our personal lives, our expectations for applying mobile solutions in our business lives also rises. But this rapid escalation of mobile use combined with a dizzying proliferation of devices and apps has led to a management dilemma.

As they go mobile, SMBs are taking different approaches in terms of how they provide mobile devices to their employees (Figure 1).

Figure 1: How SMBs Provide Mobile Devices to Employees

Source: 2012 Small and Medium Business Mobile Solutions, SMB Group

The velocity of mobile adoption and the convergence of mobile device use for personal and business needs has led to a rash of security and management issues for IT, who must manage a mushrooming and increasingly hybrid mobile environment which extends beyond devices to apps and services (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Top SMB Security-Related Challenges In Using Mobile Solutions

Source: 2012 Small and Medium Business Mobile Solutions, SMB Group

The result is that many SMBs have yet to address the mobile management challenge (Figure 3).

Figure 3: SMB Use of/Plans for Mobile Management Solutions

Source: 2012 Small and Medium Business Mobile Solutions, SMB Group

Dell’s Answer to Managing the Bright and Shiny Mobile Challenge

The mobile management challenge will only intensify, especially given the industry’s proclivity to churn out bright and shiny new devices and apps–and users’ desire to get their hands on them. Dell CCM gives companies a secure, affordable and accessible way to manage through this inevitable churn, regardless of mobile policies, virtualization technologies or device choices.  CCM offers both device and app management, and supports Citrix, Microsoft, VMware and other virtualization environments.

CCM also offers management tools to automate and streamline management and offload routine chores. IT can create role-based rules and permissions for users or user groups, which allow or prohibit the use of specific apps. Once a user’s permissions are set up, the user can register devices on their won via the self-service portal. New devices automatically inherit the appropriate policies, configurations, and apps of the user. Employees also can use the portal to reset system passwords, and, if a device goes missing, lock or wipe corporate data. The platform delivers analytics and reporting, including audit trails to help IT monitor user compliance.

CCM provides added through virtual desktop capabilities in Wyse PocketCloud Remote Desktop (a new web-based version is in beta now), which lets users securely access and manage content stored on home or office computers from their mobile devices.

Perspective

CCM doesn’t have everything in it yet, and it competes with many other MDM and mobile management platforms, including other DIY services and fully managed services. But Dell’s approach is solid, and it has removed pricing as a barrier to entry for budget-conscious SMBs with its free version.

Over time, Dell intends to evolve CCM into a one-stop shop for device-agnostic, all-inclusive management of whatever combination of mobile and traditional devices companies choose to use. If it stays true to putting flexibility, ease of use and affordability at the top of the priority list, CCM will provide a very good answer for the mobile management challenges that SMBs face.

Furthermore, CCM represents another step forward for Dell’s vision to transform from a product-centric to a solutions centric company. Although achieving the vision is still a work in progress, Dell’s Wsye acquisition (as with Boomi) demonstrates Dell’s ability to assemble the right building blocks and expand its footprint in cloud computing and remote services.

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Drinking From the Dreamforce Fire Hose: Part 1, The Big Picture

Posted on September 25, 2012 by lauriemccabe

Dreamforce, like Salesforce.com’s ambitions, just keeps getting bigger. This year’s event in San Francisco claimed 90,000 registered attendees and 250 media, analysts and bloggers. The pageantry surrounding the event—from MC Hammer to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and from Tony Robbins to Colin Powell—is also on the rise, seemingly in direct proportion to Salesforce’s enterprise ambitions. Anyway, with so much erupting from Mt. Salesforce, I need to write a two-part blog post. This first post covers the Salesforce.com’s vision and announcements, and my perspective on them. The second post, which will be up in a few days, will cover how Salesforce’s ever-expanding ambitions translate and apply to small and medium businesses (SMBs).

The Big Picture

CEO Marc Benioff’s keynote featured the success stories from marquee customers, including Activision, Burberry, Coca Cola, Commonwealth Bank, GE, Virgin Atlantic and Rossignol. Through these customer vignettes, announcements, demos and, interestingly, IBM’s 2012 CMO Study, Salesforce made its case for enterprises to buy into its version of the social enterprise. While Salesforce isn’t the first vendor to come up with any of the ideas put forward, Benioff and team continue to aggressively extend the Salesforce footprint along cloud, social, and platform themes, and its push beyond CRM into other functional areas. A drink from the fire hose includes a slew of new directions and offerings. A few are available now, but most are slated for general availability later in 2012 or in 2013. They include:

  • Added social selling capabilities. Salesforce Touch and Data.com Social Keyadd new social and mobile oomph for sales people. Salesforce Touch puts Salesforce on any mobile device, giving reps anytime, anywhere mobile capabilities. Salesforce Data.com Social Key integrates data from social networks with company data to provide companies with a more comprehensive view of their customers.
  • Social marketing. Salesforce Marketing Cloud brings social listening, content, engagement, advertising, workflow, automation and measurement into one place through the combined technologies of (recent acquisitions) Buddy Media and Radian6.
  • Platform Push. Salesforce announced Salesforce Identity, touting it as the “Facebook for the Enterprise.” It will provide a single, social, trusted identity service to manage multiple apps and includes single sign-on across apps; social identity to enable Chatter to push information from multiple apps to a user in one feed; and centralized identity and access management to make it easier for administrators to provision and manage users across applications.
  • Work.com: Rypple is now Work.com, and Salesforce is positioning it as a social performance platform to manage performance reviews and provide recognition, rewards and feedback to employees.

As important, in just a few years, Salesforce AppExchange has grown to become a mature ecosystem for developers. Over 350 partners attended Dreamforce 2012, and Force.com development partners such as FinancialForce, BMC Remedyforce and Xactly Express are enjoying a great growth ramp on Salesforce’s coattails. In the analyst Q&A, Benioff explained that Salesforce is trying hard to move from geek speak to talk and walk like the new breed of IT customer, the CMO. In both the keynote and the Q&A, he reiterated that IT spending will increasingly shift from IT to CMOs. He also underscored that Facebook has become the most popular app on the planet because it is so intuitive, and his belief that all business apps will eventually need a Facebook-like activity stream because that is the interface users know and will demand.

Perspective

Really, what could play better into Salesforce’s hands as it tries to expand its enterprise footprint against stalwart ERP vendors? Larger enterprises have pretty much taken care of business in the back office. And smaller companies top priorities most often center on revenue growth and customer acquisition. With a CMO-centric view of the world, Benioff & co. can position Salesforce as chief mentor and leader in the next wave of IT innovation—in the front office, collaboration and user interface arenas. For example, I think that Benioff is spot on with his statement that all business apps will need a Facebook-style feed interface to take the friction out of using them and facilitate user adoption. Meanwhile, compelling customer success stories and strong partner growth underscore that Salesforce is ready to take its game to the next level. Unlike some of its competitors, Salesforce also has social in its DNA from the top down, which should prove to be an enormous advantage. However, rivals are not going to yield turf easily. In fact, it’s ironic that, in addition to helping to fuel Benioff’s agenda with its CMO research, IBM already walking much of the Salesforce talk. IBM coined the “social business” term before Benioff coined “social enterprise,” and many of the solutions that are in the works at Salesforce bear a close resemblance to IBM solutions such as IBM Connections, Smarter Commerce and SmartCloud—all of which are available now. Meanwhile, many of Salesforce’s newly announced offerings won’t be ready for several months or more–and are somewhat lightweight compared to comparable offerings from the competition. But sometimes, lightweight is better. Some apps are so clogged with feature bloat that they actually hinder getting work done instead of enabling it. And, I’ve said many times, Benioff is a marketing genius. He has an uncanny knack for winning by articulating a new value proposition better than anyone else in the industry. While he may need to play catch up in terms of getting his solutions to market, it’s likely that his messages will be the first to come through loud and clear in many corporate boardrooms.

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Mobility for SMBs: An Interview with Dell’s Ron Hyde

Posted on May 29, 2012 by lauriemccabe

I recently had a chance to talk to Ron Hyde, Enterprise Technologist from Dell. Ron has a strong background in mobile management and security, and I got his perspective on what SMBs need to be thinking about as they mobilize their businesses. If you’d like to listen to the recorded podcast, click the link below.

Laurie: Ron, the SMB Group recently completed our 2012 SMB Mobile Solutions Study, a survey of 750 SMBs, to find out about how they’re using mobile solutions in their businesses. We found that while SMBs are increasingly taking advantage of mobile solutions to help improve productivity and better serve customers, many of them don’t have a program or tools in place to manage and secure these mobile apps. What are you hearing from Dell SMB customers about how they are using mobile solutions, and what are the challenges they face in managing them?

Ron: That’s a great question. Our SMB customers are embracing the consumerization of IT devices. Put simply what that means is that employees are bringing in their own personal devices, such as iPads, tablets and such into the workplace. It’s simply good business. They want to bring these devices into the mix because they help their employees communicate, collaborate and get the job done. But at the same time it adds a layer of complexity for IT to manage.

There is a new social attitude, which accounts for the most significant drivers for adoption of a mobility strategy. Some examples are flexible working arrangements, where companies wish to hire and retain key talent, and by embracing remote working and smartphone technologies companies appear more attractive. This helps retain key talent and provides a differentiator when hiring new people.

Work-life balance is another, to help reduce commuting time, increase productivity, improves the work-life balance of employees, and lets employees access data anytime, anywhere.

Environmental impact, which we’re all aware of, to reduce the amount of physical infrastructure, and reduce commuting for employees by having them work at home. All of this creates a layer of complexity that IT needs to address.

Laurie: Right, we’re seeing the same thing. Especially in smaller businesses, the “bring your own device” to work scenario is a very frequent choice. But, while its nice to let employees use what they want, you’ve got to manage all of the variations.

In the study we did, we found many SMBs already provide mobile access for productivity and collaboration apps–email, calendars, contacts, etc. So this is already mainstream among SMBs. The next thing SMBs are looking to mobilize are business applications–things like CRM, social media marketing, time management, expense management, and field service for their employees (Figure 1). Do different considerations come into play as companies mobilize business apps as opposed to personal productivity apps?

Figure 1: SMB Use and Plans for Internal Mobile Business Apps

Source: SMB Group 2012 SMB Mobile Solutions Study

Ron: Absolutely. There are several areas customers need to focus on when providing mobile business applications to their employees. Let’s look at several of the top considerations.

First of all, security for the mobile application is a major concern. The ability to implement policies on your mobile workforce devices is critical to protecting precious business data. These are the keys to the kingdom, regardless of company size. When I refer to a policy, I’m referring a written procedure within the company that gives guidance to employees on the use of those devices, as well as a policy for how those devices are secured for use in the mobile workforce.

Also, one of the hazards of a mobile workforce is the risk of employees losing the device. Having the ability to remotely locate and wipe that device should not be looked at as a ‘nice to have’ but an absolute requirement.

Another thing to look at is effectively managing mobile devices within the environment. It all starts with keeping an accurate inventory of the devices connected to the environment. Also, making sure those devices have an unlock code installed, and if not, some type of automation to put a lock code onto the devices to prevent them from being used by an unauthorized person. Finally, the ability to prevent ‘unapproved’ software from being installed on the devices connected to the business.

The other thing to consider is expense management for telecom. This is sometimes overlooked, but can easily become a large, variable expense based on employee’s usage, roaming charges, having multiple devices, relying on different carriers or international travel.

Laurie: Yes, we found in our study that the biggest obstacle to mobilizing employees is the cost of voice and data services. There are a lot of companies, especially with bring your own device–and bring your own service–that are not really taking advantage of any type of volume discounts or shared pooling or anything like that.

Ron, these are a lot of things to manage and take care of. And as you know, most SMBs don’t have a lot people. So how can they realistically get all of this done?

Ron: You know, it seems like an overwhelming task to take on. But it is critical to embrace a mobility strategy. Don’t feel like you’re alone–Dell can provide guidance and strategy to manage mobility, and affordable solutions for any size environment.

Laurie: The other big area I wanted to touch on is that in addition to asking SMBs about how they’re mobilizing their employees, we asked them about what they’re doing to provide customer-facing apps and mobile-friendly web sites. We found that in many cases, SMB use and plans for customer-facing mobile apps are even more aggressive than for employee apps. SMBs want to use these apps to grow their businesses, and give their customers ways to use mobile devices to research, shop and buy their products and services. So what kinds of management and security precautions should SMBs be putting in place for customer-facing apps?

Figure 2: SMB Perceived Obstacles to Mobile-friendly
Web Sites and Mobile Apps for External Users

Ron: So let’s take security first. Nothing will damage a company’s reputation or their ability to conduct business faster than a security incident. So SMBs and their customers need to ensure they do not expose their customer data or customers to undue risk. Do not overlook the fact that sensitive data can be stored or shared on Wi-Fi networks or even on mobile devices.

For instance, you can be at Starbucks or at the airport, and see an open hotspot labeled free Wi-Fi. Make sure you are connecting to their Wi-Fi. There are a lot of open Wi-Fi connections but many can be rouge hotspots specifically set up to harvest data and use it for nefarious reasons. Keep a keen eye on authentication and encryption between the mobile device and the source.

Application functionality and the end-user experience is another thing to think about. Make sure the apps function correctly, regardless of the device, and take into consideration how the devices and apps are connecting, meaning is it on W-Fi, or a 3G connection or whatever. Make sure it behaves as expected.

Laurie: Again, this is important. But what services exist to help smaller companies do this?

Ron: Dell can help with this, when you’re starting the journey of developing your own mobile apps. Again, you don’t need to go it alone.

Laurie: Okay, you wanted to touch on that end-user experience. Are there ways the SMB can monitor and see if there are problems?

Ron: Yes, there are best practices, and they are available on the Dell Tech Center web site as well as other technical sites.

Laurie: Of course they can also buy off-the-shelf mobile apps from their application vendors. So for instance if they’re using business solutions from Intuit, or Sage or SAP or whomever, they provide out-of-the-box mobile apps for SMBs that don’t want to develop their own.

Ron: Absolutely. Also the apps stores, for Apple iPhone and Google Android, they are commercial off-the-shelf that have already been tested.

Laurie: Might be the best option for a lot of the small companies!

Just to wrap up, based on our study, there’s no doubt in my mind that SMBs are looking to mobile solutions to boost productivity and help them grow their businesses. As their reliance on mobile solutions grows, what can Dell provide to help them manage their mobile solutions and ensure that they’re secure?

Ron: We have several mobility management offerings that SMBs can use to balance the need for access and productivity against the need to maintain the integrity and security of their resources.

For example, Dell’s Mobile Device Management solution can automate and streamline the deployment and management of or SMB customer’s mobile devices and middleware infrastructure, regardless of the device OS. The solution provides real-time monitoring and management of mobile voice, data, and messaging as well as a central management console for security and application control.

Laurie: Where can SMBs go to learn more?

Ron: We have some wonderful resources on our website:

Managing Mobile Computing

Dell Mobility Management Brochure

Dell Tech Center

Laurie: Ron, it was great to talk to you today. Thanks so much for your time, and for joining us to share your knowledge and perspectives.

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Dell Extends its End-to-End Storage Story for SMBs

Posted on March 19, 2012 by lauriemccabe

–by Sanjeev Aggarwal and Laurie McCabe, SMB Group

Storage is a key requirement for today’s small-to-medium business (SMB) and mid-market enterprises. As the amount of data multiplies, and the need to protect critical data grows, SMBs now require many of the same data storage capabilities as larger enterprises.

With these requirements in mind, Dell recently announced the acquisition of AppAssure–the company’s first acquisition since launching its new Software Group. AppAssure will be part of Dell’s enterprise storage and software line-up, and underscores Dell intent to extend its footprint in the storage solutions market. The acquisition helps Dell take another big step in its enterprise solutions strategy and deliver a Fluid Data architecture that automatically and intelligently optimizes and protects data everywhere.

AppAssure’s software solution, billed as next generation data protection, provides continuous backup protection across physical, virtual, and cloud-based storage environments and includes the following capabilities:

  • Snapshot and replication
  • Data de-duplication and compression
  • Backup and restore
  • Archiving

Market demand for this type of solution is reflected in AppAssure’s success to date. Since its launch in 2006, AppAssure has expanded to 230 employees and more than 6,000 customers worldwide, with 194% revenue growth year-over-year for 2011.

PERSPECTIVE

The top four technology challenges for the SMB and mid-market companies are (Figure 1):

  • Containing technology related costs
  • Implementing new solutions and upgrades
  • Keeping my systems up and running
  • Integrating different applications

Figure 1. SMB and Mid-market Top Technology Challenges

Source: SMB Group 2011 Small and Medium Business Routes to Market Study, November 2011

As the complexity of storage requirements rises, these challenges have become more pronounced in the storage space as SMBs have tried to piece together disparate solutions from multiple vendors to ensure data protection and business continuity/disaster recovery.

With AppAssure, Dell can provide SMBs with storage capabilities not only for their physical servers but across to virtual and cloud computing environments–which are increasingly the environment of choice for SMBs. Regardless of the data environment, AppAssure Backup and Replication provides backup/restore, archiving, and disaster recovery, simplifying administration with near instant, reliable data recovery. AppAssure also protects application software in both virtual and physical environments.

AppAssure is part of Dell’s broader “fluid data” architecture (Figure 2), which is designed to put the right data in the right place at the right time, at the right cost. It provides a unified storage architecture to manage data more cost-effectively and efficiently–thereby addressing the key technology challenges that SMBs face. At a high level, the Dell Fluid Data architecture can help SMBs manage the growing data avalanche in a more intelligent and streamlined way. In addition to the capabilities enabled by AppAssure, Dell’s storage architecture and solutions (Figure 2) address a broad range of storage management needs including:

  • Ability of handle file, block and object-level data to support a variety of applications, from Microsoft Exchange to virtualization solutions to databases to social media applications.
  • Automated support for multi-tier storage (primary, backup and archive data) to control rapidly escalating storage costs and compliance requirements.
  • Automated data protection and replication, eliminating the need for daily manual intervention.
  • Support for business continuity and disaster recovery.
Figure 2.  Dell Unifying Storage ArchitectureSource:Dell

Rapid data growth driven by new applications such as rich-media, social media, 64-bit architectures and compliance solutions requiring availability of data for very long time-periods is causing increases in storage system costs, storage infrastructure complexity, and power and cooling costs. Dell’s end-to-end storage management solutions help SMBs get some of these storage costs under control, for instance:

  • Data reduction technologies such as data de-duplication and compression allow SMBs to control data growth rates by eliminating redundant data. This enables more efficient use of existing storage assets and helps users defer capital expenditures for new storage systems as they reduce disk capacity requirements. They also help decrease bandwidth requirements for data transfer.
  • Tiered storage architectures allow users to control storage hardware costs based on business value and frequency of access. Higher performance, higher cost storage resources can be dedicated to mission critical initiatives, and lower performance and cost solutions can be allocated for back up and archiving.
  • Storage virtualization helps address storage costs by improving resource utilization, data mobility, information availability and related IT resources required to manage storage environments.
  • Business continuity and disaster recovery solutions reduce the impact of unexpected outages. By helping to keep the business up and running, they protect against potential revenue loss and brand damage due to outages.

QUICK TAKE

Dell’s acquisition of AppAssure and its continued focus on end-to-end storage management solutions provides several benefits to SMBs in addition to cost savings:

  • Ability to manage a mixed environment of physical, virtual, and cloud-based storage in a unified storage management solution.
  • Reduced IT resources needed for data storage management.
  • Ease of doing business with a single vendor for an integrated storage management solution.
  • Significant storage capacity savings afforded by storage consolidations and sophisticated deduplication/compression technologies.
  • Support for the most widely adopted virtual solutions – Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware, vSphere and Citrix XenServer.

And, with SMB market adoption of virtualization and cloud solutions rising, Dell’s timing couldn’t be better. The interest among SMBs to acquire/upgrade IT infrastructure management and virtualization solutions is very high (Figure 3), driven by the need to address IT environment complexity and increasing costs.

Figure 3. Solutions Purchased/Upgraded and Future Plans

Source: SMB Group 2011 Small and Medium Business Routes to Market Study, November 2011

That said, SMBs need better guidance in this area. Dell can significantly strengthen its story–and sales–by making it easier for the SMBs to easily understand the scope of it storage systems and end-to-end storage management offerings and pinpoint the “best-fit” solution(s) for their needs through the following:

  • Comparative information and visuals on Dell’s web site-replacing pages of detailed information and specs that illustrate Dell solutions and provide guidance on when and why different systems are relevant
  • Web-based tools for needs assessment and recommendations.
  • Proof points in the form of customer references, return-on-investement and total-cost-of-ownership calculations that illustrate the financial and efficiency benefits of Dell’s integrated approach.

By providing education to SMBs and clarifying its storage story, Dell can make the most out of its push to extend beyond the hardware business to provide business computing solutions that are innovative, yet practical–and geared to both SMBs as well as large enterprises.

Filed under: cloud computing, SMB, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Beyond the Hype—What You Need to Know About the Cloud: Recap from Small Business Summit 2012

Posted on March 14, 2012 by lauriemccabe

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel at the always-enlightening Small Business Summit 2012. This was the seventh annual Summit, a terrific event coordinated by Ramon Ray and Marion Banker.  As always, the energy in the crowd of 500 or so attendees was high, and I think everyone attending gained valuable insights in the information exchange. I know I did!

I was part of the keynote panel, Beyond the Hype—What You Need to Know About the Cloud (stayed tuned for slides and video link!), which was sponsored by Dell, and moderated by Rhonda Abrams, small business author and columnist for USA Today. Fellow panelists included Bill Odell, Marketing and Product Management Executive, Dell Cloud Business Applications, and Kathy Fable, CEO and President, Quinn Fable Advertising. The goal of the panel was to cut through the hype surrounding the cloud buzz, discuss what’s driving cloud adoption, and provide guidance on how small businesses can best leverage cloud computing for their businesses. In this post, I’ll discuss the conversation around three key topics of the session.

The Cloud IS the New Normal

The theme of the panel was similar to one of our SMB Group 2012 Top Ten Technology Predictions for SMBs, Cloud Becomes the New Normal. As we shared with the audience, small businesses need now—more than ever–to harness new technology-based solutions (social, mobile, analytics, etc.) in order to maintain a business edge. As a result, demand for cloud-based solutions is accelerating in almost all solution areas (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Source: SMB Group 2011 SMB Routes to Market Study

Those areas showing the biggest potential for cloud gains are marketing automation, business intelligence/analytics, and desktop virtualization solutions and services. But even solution areas that have lagged in moving to the cloud are starting to see a good growth spurt. For instance, while in the past 24 months, only 7% of small businesses purchased or upgraded cloud accounting/ERP solutions, 13% plan to purchase cloud accounting/ERP solutions in the next 12 months.

Small Business Summit attendees affirmed these data points. Early in the session, Rhonda asked for a show of hands to see how many attendees are currently using cloud solutions in their businesses—and everybody except one person raised their hands!

Our panelist Kathy Fable discussed how Quinn Fable Advertising uses cloud computing to run virtually every aspect of its business, including support for many client campaigns. For example, Quinn Fable is running a campaign for Girl Scouts USA to help troop leaders connect with girls across the United States. Like most of Quinn Fable’s clients, the Girl Scouts don’t have the hardware and software to turn something like this on quickly. In this case, print pieces and email marketing will all drive to an online toolkit, which will also serve to capture emails, build databases, and generate engagement via a cloud-based solution—which allows Quinn Fable to quickly and flexibly turn these campaigns on and off to meet client requirements.

This spike in adoption of and enthusiasm for cloud computing doesn’t surprise me. Although cloud computing solutions (aka software-as-a-service, or SaaS) have been around since the late 1990s (when companies such as NetSuite and Salesforce.com were first launched), much has happened in the last few years that has spurred the momentum that is resulting in a hockey stick effect:

  • High-speed broadband has become pervasive.
  • The advent of the “great recession”—and continued economic uncertainty-the no upfront capital, has made the subscription-based cloud computing model almost irresistibly attractive from a financial perspective.
  • Early cloud applications have matured and at the same time, a new generation of cloud applications has launched that incorporate social and mobile technologies from the get-go—which enables these solutions to provide small businesses with even more access and value.

As Kathy discussed, Quinn and Fable use their cloud-based collaboration solutions to make sure that they’re all on the same page, even if they’re not talking to each other or in same time zone, whether on a laptop or a smartphone.

Bill also shared research that Dell just completed which echoed the growing momentum for cloud computing. Study data revealed that among small and medium businesses with 50 to 500 employees that use cloud applications, the average number used has doubled since 2010. This year, Dell expects these SMBs to be using an average of 7 cloud applications.

Small Businesses Need “No IT Staff Required” Solutions

Marc Benioff created and made the “no software” symbol famous. I think “No IT Staff Required ” is probably an even more compelling mantra for small businesses. As evidenced in Figure 2—as well as another show of hands at the Summit—most small businesses simply don’t have any IT staff, let alone the IT expertise or capital budgets needed for do-it-yourself IT. As important, they can’t afford the time it takes to get business payback from a solution that they need to vet, buy, install and deploy in-house. They need to focus their attention on other things, such as making sure the salon’s customers leave looking their best, or that the legal firm is winning cases for its clients.

This reality makes cloud computing even more appealing for small businesses than for larger companies that have the luxury of IT staff.

Figure 2. Source: SMB Group 2012 SMB Mobile Solutions Study

Integration—the Link and the  Missing Link

Cloud computing makes it easier for SMBs to deploy new applications—and more applications—to help their businesses grow. The panel discussed that as SMB adoption rises, integration requirements rise too. Ideally, different apps should be able to share data or “talk to” each other.  For example, if you’re running Intuit QuickBooks, a CRM solution and an email or social media marketing application, the best scenario is to have data flow from one application to the next. This not only increases data accuracy, but gives a company a much more complete picture of things such as conversion rates, order to cash, business performance and other key metrics.

But integrating business solutions with each other and with other applications shouldn’t cost more than the business solutions themselves. Cloud computing takes a lot of cost and complexity out of the application deployment equation, but integrating cloud apps with both existing on-premise software and other cloud applications can still be difficult, expensive and “one-off.”  Lacking IT staff, expertise and budget, SMBs often go without integration and the benefits it provides, both in streamlining business processes and providing the foundation to easily pull in data from across different business applications.

Bill discussed how Dell’s Cloud Business Applications address this issue by providing SMBs with cloud applications, along with turnkey integration services and built-in, cross-application analytics and support. Today, Dell’s analytics dashboard incorporates data from both Salesforce CRM and several SMB accounting solutions (with additional applications on the way).

Dell is one of several vendors (others include IBM Cast Iron, Informatica, Pervasive and Scribe) making big investments in the integration space—for good reason. Cloud-based “integration-as-a-service” solutions can help make integration more affordable and accessible for SMBs. And some, including Dell’s solution, are geared specifically for SMB requirements and budgets.

The Net-net

Small business adoption of cloud computing is on the upswing–and for good reason. But, integration is the missing link that can help small businesses get the most value from these solutions. Targeted integration can help companies operate more efficiently, reduce errors, get a better view of the business and make better decisions. While Integration may not be as exciting to talk about as the latest social media app, in the greater scheme of things, it may be much more important to the overall health of your business.

Filed under: Small Business Computing Articles, SMB, Software as a Service, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Dell Boomi: A Microcosm of Dell’s New Virtual Era

Posted on November 2, 2011 by lauriemccabe

After attending Dell World, Dell’s first ever user conference a couple of weeks ago, it’s apparent that Dell’s progression towards becoming a pivotal vendor in what it terms the “virtual era” is well underway. And, last week’s announcement of Dell Boomi’s Fall 2011 release provides a prime example of how Dell is crossing the chasm from a product-centric hardware vendor to a solutions and services provider.

Dell World—The Big Picture

For the past few years, many pundits have derided Dell as a one-trick pony. Sure, it totally disrupted the PC and then server markets with its direct model, and redefined operational efficiency in the hardware industry. But could it ever hope to compete in higher value, higher margin software and services businesses?

With Michael Dell back at the helm, the vendor began publicly charting its path to the virtual era in 2010 (see my March 2010 post Dell 2.0: Top Takeaways from Dell’s Virtual Era Event) and has been executing on this strategy via both organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Most of these acquisitions (Perot Systems as the exception) have been smaller companies with innovative products and high-growth rates.

To make the Virtual Era vision a reality, Dell has been executing on four key and inter-related objectives:

  • Moving from product to a solutions orientation. In the past, Dell’s identity has revolved around boxes—from PCs to servers to Streaks to big screen TVs. While Dell vociferously reiterated its ongoing commitment to the PC, it put the spotlight on its growing ability to provide businesses with end-to-end, heterogeneous solutions, not just piece parts—and to satisfy market demand for better, more cost-effective and easier to deploy, use and manage IT solutions.
  • Building out its cloud-cloud-cloud plan (my phrase). The shift to cloud computing—public, private and hybrid—features prominently in Dell’s solution equation. Dell’s sales team has been using Salesforce.com for a few years now, and is also a major user of Chatter and Radian6. Dell has become a cloud convert, and figures plenty of other companies will want to make this move too. Dell has invested $1 billion dollars to build and buy a cloud computing portfolio to help customers take advantage of cloud computing. Dell’s portfolio includes public cloud, private cloud and service solutions (such as Boomi, which I’ll get to in a minute!) so customers can move to the cloud and still leverage their existing IT investments. In Michael Dell’s words, Dell wants to “give them the bridge to the past and a path to the future.” One example is the new enhancements Dell has made to its Virtual Integrated System (VIS) Architecture, which helps extend virtualization benefits within a customers’ existing infrastructure.
  • Transforming from snubbing the channel to become a channel-friendly vendor. In the past, Dell’s most unique characteristic was its successful direct sales model. But, while that works fine for selling hardware, it won’t allow Dell to move up the solutions stack. Dell has recognized the important role that local partners play in creating value-added solutions that work with customers’ existing investments. It has been actively seeking partners that add solution value, and will have over 100,000 by the end of October.
  • Pioneering in social media. Dell has been breaking ground in using social media for input, dialogue and interactive marketing. After getting badly burned in the Dell Hell support crisis in 2005, Dell licked its wounds and has moved on to become a leader in building extensive social media capabilities to help it tune into customers and become a social media poster child. Dell just keeps raising the bar in social media, as evidenced by its Social Media Command Center.

Dell Boomi—A  Microcosm of the Virtual Era

Dell’s latest release of Boomi highlights Dell’s execution on its Virtual Era strategy.  Boomi, which Dell acquired in 2010, is an 11-year old integration company that has been steadily moving to expand its cloud integration services. Boomi’s cloud integration service helps companies more efficiently and affordably integrate cloud and on-premise applications—across different locations, networks, clouds and companies (see Dell and Boomi: Doubling Down on Integration for more details).

Boomi’s approach features a cloud-based integration hub that provides customers with integration as an online service. With Boomi, companies can integrate different cloud and on-premise applications across geographically dispersed locations. Boomi’s visual interface relieves customers from complex code-writing and scripting.

With this release, Boomi has added several new capabilities that correspond directly to Dell’s broader overall Virtual Era vision, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Boomi Fall 2011 Release and How it Highlights Dell’s Virtual Era Themes

Source: SMB Group 2011 (click image to enlarge)

Quick Take

Dell is moving beyond its direct, hardware-centric comfort zone and making good progress on its Virtual Era strategy, as exemplified by Boomi. Serendipitously for Dell, HP has been pre-occupied with and increasingly defined by PC unit flip-flopping and a game of CEO musical chairs. HP’s diversions not only help boost Dell’s current client and server opportunities, but also give Dell more running room to move ahead with its long-term strategy.

While some out there may still view Dell as one-trick pony, I see ample evidence that Dell is well positioned to succeed in its next race.

Filed under: cloud computing, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

The Impact of HP’s New Direction—An SMB Market Perspective

Posted on August 25, 2011 by lauriemccabe

–by Sanjeev Aggarwal and Laurie McCabe, SMB Group

After HP’s announcement that it would ditch it’s new Touchpad and put WebOS in mothballs, rumors leaked about it’s intentions to spin-off or sell it’s Personal Systems Group (PSG) PC business and acquire information management software vendor Autonomy for $10.2B. Combined, these moves confirm HP’s CEO, Leo Apotheker’s strategy to get out of the low-margin device business and create a bigger footprint in the higher margin software and services arena.

On the surface, perhaps, not a bad plan. After all, margins in the PC business will only continue to shrink, HP has a (very expensive) white elephant on its hands with WebOS, and Apotheker is of course a software wonk. Furthermore, IBM made what turned out to be a great decision when it sold its PC business to Lenovo back in 2004— and it seems like HP has been an IBM-wannabe for at least the last 20 years, so why not follow suit?

But, there are some very significant reasons that the outcomes resulting from HP’s decision are likely to be very different from IBM’s— many of which revolve around the SMB market.

Being in the Right Place at the Right Time, with the Right Strategy

Unlike IBM, HP has had a significant presence in the SMB and consumer segments. Although PSG accounts for less than 15% of profits, it comprises about one-third of HP’s revenues. In contrast, IBM has always been an enterprise-focused company, with no intentions to make a big play in the consumer market. IBM had been selling off PC-related assets, and had already tipped revenue and profit scales in favor of services and software before it sold its PC division as part of a long-term strategy to exit commodity markets. The Lenovo deal also provided IBM with a partnership opportunity to make huge inroads into selling higher-value products—software, servers and services—into the burgeoning Chinese market.

There’s also the matter of being in the right place at the right time. This is 2011, not 2004. The consumerization of IT is well underway. Employees (whether in small, medium or large businesses) are increasingly choosing to spend their own money to BYOD (bring your own device) instead of using a company-issued brick. And more companies are giving employees an allowance to purchase their device of choice.  This trend will only accelerate as younger employees—who expect cool gadgets—graduate and enter the workforce.

What’s HP’s SMB Entry Point Now?

To be truly successful in the SMB technology market—especially at the low-end—vendors need both a compelling entrée and solutions that can help these businesses grow. You can do it with a must-have business solution—ala Intuit—or with a solid line-up of IT infrastructure products and services. But, on the infrastructure side, PCs and notebooks have historically been one of the first IT products that small businesses buy. This is changing with the rise of smartphones and tablets, but these too are client devices. And SMBs will continue to buy PC and notebooks for the foreseeable future.

Which begs the question, what entry point HP will have into small business without PSG? HP lacks compelling small business solutions and has scrapped its plans for mobile devices. Printers—which HP will presumably hold onto—are even more of a commodity solution at the low-end of SMB than PCs.

HP’s Weak SMB Prognosis

Our prognosis is that without PSG, HP’s value proposition will be much weaker in SMB with this exit. PSG not only provided an entrée to upsell servers and services, but has been, for all intents and purposes, HP’s major marketing arm and “voice” to these businesses.

Meanwhile, since SMBs lack IT resources, they typically don’t want or can’t deal with multiple vendors supplying different pieces of the puzzle. This means that when HP hands off its PC business, both SMBs and the HP VARs that serve them—many of whom are small businesses themselves—will have the opportunity to rethink whether they want to stick with HP on the server side.

Who Gains

PC makers such as Lenovo, Acer, SONY and Toshiba should get a good bump, but Apple and Dell are the big SMB winners.

  • Apple basically owns the tablet space until someone comes up with a way to beat them at their own game (which obviously is tough to do!). But its not just iPads. IDC reports that Apple sold 1.66 million Macs and reached an 8.5 percent share of the market, up from 7 percent in Q1 2010. While a lot of these sales are a result of the BYOD to work movement, more SMBs are also buying them because of their reputation for reliability and security. With HP’s imminent departure,  Apple which has the cool factor and typically affords  higher profit margins than PCs–may be very appealing to some VARs.
  • Dell is now clearly poised to be the #1 SMB infrastructure brand. Since Michael Dell came back in 2008, Dell has surged in the SMB market. Not only will Dell take advantage of market uncertainty, but it is well-positioned in its ability to serve the end-to-end IT needs of SMBs, from PCs to servers to managed services. In the last two years, Dell has made a significant investment in listening to and understanding the needs of SMB customers, and it’s paying off. At the Dell Take Your Own Path event we attended in December 2010, SMB business owners told us that they selected Dell precisely because it could provide the broad range of infrastructure solutions and services that have enabled them to out-perform their peers. Dell continues to extend its SMB strategy and portfolio, with acquisitions and solutions such as it’s KACE infrastructure management appliance; Boomi, for application integration; and storage solutions, such as EquaLogic.  This gives it a solid foundation for extending its SMB footprint beyond PCs and servers.

While it hasn’t fared as well in the mobile device area to date, Dell is building a range mobile devices–laptops, tablets and smartphones–layered with a consistent user-interface called Stage. Over time, and allowing for mid-course corrections, this strategy has more potential to pay off for Dell with HP out of the picture. And, just as Apple will appeal to some disgruntled HP VARs, Dell will appeal to others, particularly those that want to pitch a complete solution from a single vendor rather than piecing together a patchwork of components from several vendors—not only because it’s easier, but because they’ll get better margins by concentrating their business with one supplier.

HP’s departure also opens the door wider for some less likely suspects. For instance, a vendor that already has an ongoing relationship with a large swath of SMB customers, a focus on mobility and the cloud, and willing  to place a strategic bet on the huge SMB technology opportunity. Perhaps a telco, such as Verizon? Finally, the ambitions of Amazon and Google, and their potential to disrupt the SMB market with whatever they have up their sleeves can’t be discounted.

Summing Up

HP’s move to increase its focus on high-margin software and services solutions will definitely impact its ability to maintain a strong position in the SMB market. Unfortunately for HP, it is also likely to find itself outflanked by IBM and hunted down by Oracle in the large enterprise space. Ironically, after growing to be the largest technology vendor in the world by acquiring vendors from Compaq to 3Par to Palm, and now Autonomy, HP appears to be headed back where it started from when it made the Compaq acquisition in 2001: in an uncomfortable middle ground with formidable competitors ready to pounce on all sides.

Filed under: Small Business Software, SMB | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Dell KACE M300 Appliance Enables Small Businesses to Take a Proactive Approach to IT Asset Management

Posted on August 3, 2011 by lauriemccabe

–by Sanjeev Aggarwal and Laurie McCabe

Dell KACE recently introduced a new series of System Management Appliances targeted at small businesses with 20-200 employees. The Dell KACE M300 Asset Management Appliance is designed to deliver an affordable, plug-and-play IT asset management solution that reduces the repetitive, time-consuming task of managing PC inventory and software licenses. The M300 qualifies as a robust yet easy-to-use asset management solution—saving these businesses time and money, while at the same time addressing their compliance and inventory management issues.

Perspective

Dell acquired KACE, which designs and builds systems management and deployment appliances, in February 2010. KACE solutions are available both as physical appliances (delivered as a pre-packaged hardware and software appliance) and as software-only virtual appliances, which customers can buy and load onto servers they already own. Dell’s KACE appliances are designed to perform processes ranging from initial computer deployment to ongoing management and retirement.

Higher-end Dell KACE products (K1000 and K2000) have been available for some time. Since Dell acquired the company, sales have spiked considerably year-over-year. However, the existing KACE offerings are designed for companies with 100 to 10,000 employees, and cost more than most small businesses are willing to spend in this area.

With the introduction of the M300, Dell is making a play in the true small business market, targeting customers that want a simple plug-and-play appliance to meet both hardware and software asset management needs. The M300 is designed for smaller businesses that often have a part-time IT manager, typically overloaded with installing software and keeping systems and client devices up and running, and frequently unable to keep up with the detail-oriented task of tracking hardware and software assets.

Many small business IT managers are still trying to manage assets and software licenses manually with spreadsheets. While manual tools provide a point in time snapshot of a network, the information rapidly becomes obsolete as computers are added or additional software is installed on existing systems. IT managers either end up spending too much time trying to keep this up-to-date, or end up with outdated asset inventories. Offloading the labor-intensive minutia involved in this job can free them up to focus on more important things.

Although there are some free and small business oriented solutions available, Dell’s strong market footprint and direct relationships with existing small business customers provide it with a significant go-to-market advantage, and the opportunity to educate small businesses about the benefits of investing in IT asset management (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Benefits of IT Asset Management

In line with small business requirements to keep it simple, the M300 features easy set up. The IT manager plugs the M300 into the network, and the device automatically scans and discovers all the attached devices, obtaining information like system names, IP addresses, vendor, models numbers, memory and disk space, etc. In addition to the hardware configuration, the M300 keeps track of all the software licenses, on what systems the software is installed, versions of the software and level of patch updates, etc.

The M300 continuously tracks computers and software, and can report accurate information in real-time and for compliance purposes at a specific point-in-time. The appliance’s web-based intuitive user interface shows real-time information on all of the monitored parameters. It can match the installed software with the number of software licenses purchased and authorized users. It provides online or sends out reports and/or alerts on any monitored parameters. For example, an alert will be issued if an unapproved application is downloaded and installed on a monitored PC or whenever a new PC is connected to the network.

Priced at $2,498, the M300 includes a one year warranty and supports a maximum of 200 nodes. Assuming the useful life of the M300 to be 3 years, we estimate the cost to monitor each node (desktops and servers) on the network at approximately $0.49 per month per node in a company with 200 nodes. Figure 2 shows the estimated cost per node in companies of various sizes (according to the number of nodes deployed). Given the cost of a employing an IT admin to manage systems full-time (approximately $75,000 per year), the M300 will pay for itself in about one month. In addition, the M300 can relieve the pressure and any additional costs related to non-compliance in terms of number of software licenses, etc.

Figure 2: Tracking Cost Per Node, Per Month with the M300
Source: SMB Group

The M300 is compact–measuring just 1.52 x 5.79 x 5.79 inches, connects to the network via a single gigabit Ethernet port, and is currently available in the U.S. only, both direct from Dell and via Dell partners.  KACE has added about 100 new certified partners since Dell acquired it and currently has 143 channel partners in North America.  KACE is aggressively recruiting new partners to help it expand its footprint and reach Dell’s large customer base in the small business segment.

Dell’s future plans for KACE small business solutions include additional appliances that can be stacked on top of the M300 and will address time consuming IT management functions like OS installs, remote management, mobile devices, service desk, etc. As the systems management needs of these small businesses expand, Dell intends to help them manage this growth without the need to rip and replace their current solutions and investments.

Quick Take

Cost-efficiency, productivity benefits, ease of installation and peace of mind benefits—aided by Dell’s strong clout in the market—should enable the company to make significant inroads with KACE in the lower end of the SMB space. And, the company’s plans to incrementally build on the current M300 offerings with additional appliances for other repetitive tasks make sense.  However, Dell can significantly strengthen its story–and sales–by:

  • Offering small businesses options to add at least some new functionality via M300 software upgrades. Although the small business KACE appliances have a small form factor, some companies will balk at buying additional boxes (not to mention that Dell wants to move away from its “box-provider” image!)
  • Incorporating capabilities to manage non Windows-based systems, clients and networked storage devices.
  • Enabling remote management features to allow channel partners to offer incremental value-added IT infrastructure management services. This would not only have appeal for customers, who like to have a one-stop shop, but for partners, that can build higher margin services on top of the M300.

Looking at the larger picture, the KACE M300 provides further evidence of Dell’s deepening commitment to small businesses. The company continues to invest in and build innovative yet practical solutions that address real small business pain points without breaking the bank. Small businesses increasingly rely on technology to run their businesses, and Dell’s focus on supplying them with easy-to-use solutions such as the KACE M300 to help manage this technology is on the mark.

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