ForbesOnTech

Gwabbit Software Hops Into New Markets-- Making a Good Thing Better

Some of the best entrepreneurial startups are those that are not microwaved in the media spotlight, but instead allowed to simmer to develop their entire flavor.

That’s the case of a called Gwabbit, launched earlier this year at Demo09.

Gwabbit is one of the biggest improvements in contact management software I’ve seen in years. It lets its user quickly update contact information with little user intervention, thus turning simple contact records into valuable content.  Initially focused on Microsoft Outlook, its Gwabbit’s developers have beefed up their stock recipe by adding new platforms while expanding the application's underlying capabilities.

When I first saw Gwabbit I didn’t limit my focus to a technology that helped me keep my contact data for my cousins’ current email addresses. Rather I thought, “this would be the secret ingredient distributed work forces could use to improve their productivity and target objectives.”

And since its introduction at Demo 09, Gwabbit has steadily been enhanced to make it more suited for the enterprise, by adding underlying support for popular platforms such as the enterprise version of Research In Motion’s popular BlackBerry communications/address books.

Enterprise

blackberry is just one of several corporate standard and other distributed platforms Gwabbit is supporting, according to the firm’s founder, Todd Miller.

One of Gwabbit’s new features could be make life a lot easier for sales and other professionals whose business transactions may involve multiple people at different tiers within an organization;. Called “Network ID Trace,” the new feature lets Gwabbit users associate friends from diverse “networks,” which lets Gwabbit’s installed base develop layers of associated contacts connected to an original data record.

In addition to enterprise BlackBerry contact management, Gwabbit is also adding Facebook as another of its supported platforms.

In an industry where entrepreneurs scramble for diminishing venture funding, Gwabbit is somewhat unique: it was funded by the sale of its founder’s, (Todd Miller), previous concern, a web-based office automation suite used by legal professionals called “Webfeat.”

When I first saw Gwabbit, the first thing I thought was: “it could be a boon in the SMB market where field professionals live and dye by the\ accuracy of their contact data for all members of an organization involved in the purchase of goods or services.

More recently I’ve come to believe Gwabbit could be a strategic bundle for netbook or cell network providers that want to drive a deep stakee in the SMB market, which according to some recent studies hasn’t seen as much of a slow down in sales as the enterprise market.

Initially Gwabbit has met with widespread success among trial users, an astounding 35 percent of which have converted from 14-day free trial to paid subscriptions, according to Mr. Miller.

The best thing about getting back in touch with Gwabbit was the chance to get the company’s founder to do his Elmer Fudd imitation---Jim Forbes 07/26/2009.

Rethinking Bundling-- Cloud-Based Bundles Could Drive Netbook Success!

Dominance in the emerging netbook category could be subject to an old, overlooked play by manufacturers:software bundling. Bundling is as old as the computer market but an adverse reaction to so-called shovel-ware has cast a pall over the practice. Despite this, well thought out bundles designed for persistently connected netbooks could be a determining factor in the long term success or failure of this category.

Let’s look at where netbooks are today. Superficially, most of the news driving netbook coverage has been entirely too predictable and based on the mundane: manufacturers releasing machines with the latest processor and core logic; incremental enhancements such as larger keyboards and screens, the addition of discrete graphics, or support of WAN cellular modems and deals with national cell networks.

What’s been overlooked; however, is usability and suitability, areas where netbooks designed around one or more cloud-based software suites can assume leadership positions.

Today, netbooks are not pitched at corporate IT except to the extent that corporate IT has deployed individual test systems or in limited evaluations of web based applications. The market netbook manufacturers miss right now are medium sized organizations using Software as application-based solutions (SAAS) such as those provided by entities like SalesForce.com. And there’s a lot of light space in Sales Force.com’s cloud, because it’s never tried to be an office automation software supplier.

This is where Google or (a mightily revamped Microsoft) can shine through. Both have stakes in office automation software. And Google’s cloud-based word processing, spreadsheet and presentation graphics have been evaluated by most major corporations (which represents the figurative pot of gold at the end of the cloud-based SAAS and netbook rainbows).

Google may be the most obvious supplier of such a suite, but even that company has patchy holes in its cloud cover when it comes to software as an application. While Google has a strong SAAS suite, there’s enough wiggle room in its strategy for other companies to squeeze in and grab Google while profiting from the net book phenomena. Specifically the opportunity for Google is sales automation software that includes rugged contact management with rock solid synchronization.

Another part of the equation belongs to the cell networks. By definition, persistent connectivity is the backbone of mobile workforces equipped with netbooks. Any hardware maker that wants to succeed in netbooks will need a cell network partner. And it’s those partners who can assemble the alliances needed for an effective cloud-based strategy to large, medium-sized or other businesses.—Jim Forbes 09/13/2009

Cloud Storage and Netbooks-- Follow Dexin on Twitter now

One of the primary purposes of my blogging has been to keep abreast of mobile computing trends. And one of the most important trends in mobile today is the development and evolution of netbooks.

As I’ve discovered, netbooks have the potential to reshape how, when and where we use computers.  Their diminutive size and shape seem ideally suited for all types of professionals, but the size also means that this new class of computers creates a real demand for emerging technologies such as Software As An Application (SAAP) and moving features that were once local up into the clouds.

If you talk to netbook product managers you find they’ve already compiled and are ready to recommend various cloud-based applications. But there is still a couple of flies in the cloud-based ointment. The most obvious may be the search for secure, reliable long-tern cloud-based storage solutions.

I have yet to have a netbook product manager answer a fundamental question:  “What cloud-based storage provider can provide storage for remote employees and provide corporate managers who want to deploy netbooks with assurances that the data will be both secure and available when it’s needed in the years to come?”

The answers to these straight forward questions may provide key marketing messages for any future cloud-based storage provider. They also could force such providers into incredibly transparent relationships with customers.

I’ve turned to twitter searching for background information on strategic issues in cloud computing and found someone whose posts have helped me gain a better understanding of what’s on the horizon and how various vendors and analysts are defining this important category.

The best resource I’ve found so far is a young Chinese woman in Silicon Valley with a master’s in public administration who's on  top of cloud computing. She posts under the twitter name of Dexin here. If you want great information on cloud computing, I recommend you follow her, now.—Jim Forbes 02/19/2009