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Fighting dirty data, UI veterans unveil GetSalesDone app for a better Salesforce front-end

David Meyer — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:00:35 +0000

Enterprise software is, traditionally, not terribly user-friendly. It’s not as though the companies involved never make an effort to provide usability — it’s just that we’re usually looking at monolithic systems that try to cover a lot of bases rather than thinking through each facet of their functionality.

It is therefore very interesting to see a new Swedish company called Dexplora get involved in enterprise user interface design, starting with an app called GetSalesDone that aims to be a more attractive and functional front-end for CRM systems such as Salesforce than the apps put out by those vendors themselves. Why so interesting? Because these people have serious heritage.

Dexplora’s founders were after all behind The Astonishing Tribe (TAT), the firm that licensed user interface (UI) software to handset manufacturers from Nokia to Samsung – and shaped early iterations of the Android UI – before being bought by RIM a couple years ago. And, according to co-founder Hampus Jakobsson, it was during the TAT days that they spotted an opportunity in the enterprise sector.

“When we came to use CRM systems at TAT, we were shocked they were designed for management, not for the users,” Jakobsson said. “It struck us that it’s the same thing we felt in the mobile world, that software was designed for internal use, not for humans.”

Jakobsson maintains that salespeople hate using Salesforce’s front-end, even the whizz-bang HTML5-based Salesforce Touch apps that came out last September. The Dexplora founders considered developing their own CRM system, but blanched at the thought of competing with the hundreds that are already out there. Still, they saw an opportunity in the “abysmal” UIs of market leaders from Salesforce to SAP and SugarCRM, realizing that the problem here was more than cosmetic:

“If the salespeople don’t love it and don’t use it, their reports get worthless. Most people told us they put stuff into the CRM system just before the weekend or just before a meeting, and doing it last-minute means the quality is really low, so the forecasting is really bad. It’s dirty data, and we came to the conclusion that that needs to be fixed at the source.”

So they built GetSalesDone – not a CRM system in itself, but rather an easier way to use the existing market leaders. The first iteration is an iPhone app for using Salesforce’s CRM product. The app, which uses the same APIs that Salesforce does for its own mobile apps, isn’t just (arguably) prettier than Salesforce’s own effort; it also adds new features, such as the ability to generate tasks with full context.

There will also be future versions for the others, in each case trying to fill in the deficiencies of the existing platform – better overviews for users of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, for example. To get a flavor of what the Salesforce version is all about though, here’s a handy video:

How does Salesforce feel about this? “We have a dialog with Salesforce — we feel that they like us,” Jakobsson told me, pointing out that Salesforce has a platform strategy that might make them not so worried about users consciously interacting with the platform, as long that they’re using it.

Apple gave the go-ahead this morning to launch the app, and Dexplora will do so in around a week’s time. GetSalesDone will be free for salespeople to pick up and use, and the firm will make its money doing customizations for specific enterprises.

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Live blog: RIM hopes for a revival with BlackBerry 10

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:40:41 +0000

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Not RIM’s fault this time: Router error downs BlackBerry services for Vodafone EMEA users

David Meyer — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:17:57 +0000

UPDATED: Vodafone really doesn’t seem to have much luck with BlackBerry services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After an outage as recently as September – which Vodafone lost no time in revealing was RIM’s fault – today there has been another, but the tables are reversed.

This time, with emails and instant messaging suffering for an unconfirmed number of Vodafone-using customers in the EMEA region, Research In Motion’s UK Twitter account was quick to point the finger at the carrier:

Vodafone service issues are impacting some BlackBerry customers in Europe, Middle East & Africa. We are supporting their efforts to resolve.

— BlackBerry UK (@UK_BlackBerry) January 11, 2013

Vodafone’s EMEA operations cover 15 European countries, several Gulf states and a couple of African countries. According to The Wall Street Journal, the outage lasted five hours.

After releasing an anodyne “we are aware of issues” statement earlier in the day, Vodafone came back a few minutes ago with a fuller explanation:

“Vodafone can confirm that some BlackBerry customers experienced issues with their data services this morning in Europe, Middle East and Africa. The issue was caused by a router error.

“Services are in the process of being restored and we continue to monitor the situation closely. We apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused and we will provide updates as necessary.”

That September outage had misfortunate timing, taking place on the day that the iPhone 5 went on sale in Europe – already stung by the catastrophic downtime of 2011, it’s safe to say that a few BlackBerry stalwarts gave up defending their chosen smartphone platform on that occasion.

This time, the outage comes just a few weeks before RIM is due to launch its first BlackBerry 10 handsets. That platform is make-or-break for RIM, so the company must be relieved that its EMEA customers can vent their anger at Vodafone instead.

UPDATE: Vodafone has come back to me with a couple more details. Firstly, the outage hit some, not all, of its BlackBerry-toting customers in the EMEA region. Secondly, it affected their BlackBerry services usage over both cellular and Wi-Fi connections.

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Avoiding potential sales block, RIM settles patent dispute with Nokia

Kevin C. Tofel — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:28:39 +0000

Nokia announced Friday that it came to an agreement with Research In Motion to resolve all current patent litigation between the two companies. Detailed terms weren’t disclosed, but Nokia says RIM will pay a lump-sum as well as ongoing royalties under the agreement. This development follows only a month after Nokia requested enforcement of a sales ban on Research In Motion devices that use Wi-Fi radios.

The timing of this cross-patent licensing agreement couldn’t come at a better time for either company. Amid relatively slow-growing sales of Lumia smartphones, Nokia’s bank account could use both the one-time payment as well as royalty revenue going forward. And Research In Motion is in no position to have its devices kept off the shelves: On Jan. 30, it plans to introduce the first BlackBerry handsets to use its new BlackBerry 10 platform; the first iteration of RIM software that appears can compete with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms.

Although the payment details are confidential, RIM shouldn’t have a problem transferring funds. Yesterday during its quarterly investor call, the company reported $2.9 billion in cash on hand. Of course, some of that is surely going to go into marketing the new BlackBerry 10 devices in order to generate sales.

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RIM gets thrifty as it looks ahead to BlackBerry 10 launch

Ryan Kim — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 23:32:06 +0000

As Research in Motion prepares for a big quarter with the January launch of BlackBerry 10, it’s trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of its operation, which it plans to use to help get its new platform off the ground. That was the big theme on RIM’s third quarter earnings call Thursday, in which it posted revenue of $2.7 billion with an adjusted net loss of $114 million or $0.22 cents per share, beating analyst expectations of $2.66 billion in revenue with adjusted loss per share of $0.36.

The results are down from the same period a year earlier when RIM reported revenue of $5.2 billion with adjusted income of $667 million or $1.27 per share diluted. The company shipped 6.9 million BlackBerry smartphones and 255,000 Playbook tablets in the latest quarter, also a steep drop off from the last year when RIM shipped 14.1 million smartphones and 150,000 BlackBerry Playbook tablets.

But the bright spot that RIM kept coming back to was the fact that it was able to boost its cash on hand to $2.9 billion, up from $2.3 billion for the previous quarter. That came from a mix of favorable working cash flow, better efficiencies and tax benefits in the quarter. This stockpile of cash is essential for RIM, which will need to turn it into working capital and use it for a big marketing spend for BlackBerry 10.

RIM plans to debut BlackBerry 10 at a New York event on Jan. 30. The devices will be key to RIM’s turnaround as it looks to get back into the smartphone race against Android and iOS.

While it prepares for a big battle, RIM is remaining thrifty with its money and believes it’s gotten better at managing its costs, hoping that will help power it through its comeback to profitability. A key sign of that was RIM’s restructuring plan, which was supposed to net $1 billion in savings by the end of the fiscal year. But CEO Thorsten Heins said Thursday that RIM had already achieved the savings one quarter early. He said the total cost of the restructuring will cost $250 million compared to $350 million originally announced.

Even as RIM ratchets up its spending in the coming quarters, it still expects its cash on hand to remain well above $2.1 billion, which it started the year with. It’s all part of righting the ship and instilling a new culture at RIM, said Heins.

“We believe that the company has stabilized and will turn the corner in the next year,” he said.

But challenges are mounting for RIM. It saw its first decline in its subscriber base, which slipped to 79 million, down from 80 million in the previous quarter. The biggest reason for the drop off was losses in the U.S., which doesn’t bode well for the future. RIM also said Canada and the U.K. made up a smaller percentage of sales in the latest quarter. That’s a concern because these markets are where RIM can expect to sell the most BlackBerry 10 devices.

RIM is also facing more uncertainty with its service revenue fees as it moves to offer enterprise customers different service packages. Some may actually spend less because they don’t need as many BlackBerry enterprise services. Some may elect to spend more, trusting RIM to manage not just BlackBerrys but all of their devices. That will be a key area to watch to see if RIM can be successful going forward. And a lot will depend on whether BlackBerry 10 gets traction, both with consumer and enterprise customers.

That, in the end, is the biggest question: how well RIM’s new phones will be received. If it can’t move those, even with good backing from carriers, it’s pretty much game over.

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Indian giant Wipro beats outs HP, Apple as it tops Greenpeace’s gadget guide

Katie Fehrenbacher — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 05:00:23 +0000

For the first time in the history of Greenpeace’s green gadget guide, an Indian electronics firm, Wipro, has taken the lead in the rankings ahead of American tech companies like Apple, HP and Dell. Greenpeace released its latest (18th) Guide to Greener Electronics on Monday and announced that Wipro topped the sustainability rankings out of 16 companies.

First launched in 2006, Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics looks at environmental conditions for electronics manufacturers like if companies use toxic materials in their gadgets, if they take back old products for recycling, how much energy they use to produce and ship their gadgets, and how clean their energy sources are. Companies also score points by setting carbon emissions reductions goals and for advocating politically for sustainability. The top companies in the latest guide are Wipro, HP, Nokia, and Acer, while the bottom companies are Sharp, Toshiba and RIM.

This was the first time that Indian firm Wipro was on the list, and its debut at number one, was prompted largely by Wipro’s “climate leadership,” says Greenpeace. Wipro says it plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 44 percent by 2015 and achieve 85 percent of those emissions reductions through the use of clean power. Wipro also has worked closely with the Indian government on solar and clean power policies.

The Indian government has itself developed an aggressive clean power plan, which might be more aspirational than realistic. But India is hoping to install 3 GW of solar by 2016, compared with the 54 MW of solar installed in 2010. And to meet the growing demand for power — as the country’s economy grows — India plans to add 100 GW of power generation over the next five years, and that will be made up by mostly coal and clean power.

While Wipro is willing to be aggressive on clean power and greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals, the Greenpeace rankings find that in contrast almost all of the other electronics giants “are still heavily dependent on climate changing dirty energy sources in their supply and manufacturing chains.” A Greenpeace spokesperson writes:

Most consumers would be surprised to hear that many devices consume more electricity before they’re ever purchased just in their manufacturing than they do after we buy them and charge them every night. This “embedded energy” is the next big frontier for consumer electronics companies who want to be green.

Apple came in at the 6th spot on Greenpeace’s guide, down from its 4th spot in 2011, but up from a former ranking at number nine. Greenpeace has blasted Apple in the past, despite its massive solar and fuel cell farms being built in North Carolina.

Image courtesy of fraboof.

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RIM CEO hopes carriers do for BlackBerry 10 what they once did for Android

Tom Krazit — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 21:27:47 +0000

If you think you had a crazy year, put yourself in Thorsten Heins’ shoes. The CEO of Research in Motion was dropped into the middle of a “crisis” (his word) in January when he assumed control of one of the pioneering mobile companies of our time in the midst of a downward spiral. He was immediately presented with plunging sales, consumer and press apathy, and the need to remake a company that was terrified of making a decision unless 24 people agreed on a direction.

As the year winds down, Heins is feeling better. “It’s fascinating to see how RIM has evolved in the last 10 months,” he said in an interview Thursday in downtown San Francisco.

BlackBerry 10 handsets, delayed several times already as RIM tries to perfect the device that will have to save the company, are on track for a January launch. New, decisive leaders are in place throughout the organization who are “being honest” with employees — a new concept at RIM — and a semblance of a plan for 2013 has emerged that banks on Heins’ belief that wireless carriers are sick of Apple and Samsung dominating the smartphone market.

RIM hopes to keep up its strong but low-margin performance in countries outside the U.S., regain the confidence of the US smartphone buyer with the BlackBerry 10 handsets, and eventually transition into a true “mobile computing” company that offers phones, tablets, medical devices, connected cars, and all manner of smart connected devices we commonly refer to as the internet of things.

It sounds good on paper. But the challenges are mighty: even assuming that RIM launches BlackBerry 10 handsets without incident in early February and they are well received by the critics, it has been a long time since most people in the U.S. with even a passing interest in smartphones thought about buying a BlackBerry. Unless those folks spend their money with RIM, Heins’ dreams of a mobile computing future may never get off the ground.

So what’s the short-term plan for recapturing the US? “You cannot be a leader without being in the U.S.” Heins said, hastily adding “North America” in a nod to his company’s home country. He thinks that U.S. carriers are salivating at the chance to offer RIM handsets because they offer “choice” that carriers currently don’t have; wireless carriers aren’t crazy about getting the lion’s share of their smartphones from just two companies.

“Android is mostly dominated by Samsung,” he said, adding “my prediction is that Samsung will basically be the strongest player in Windows 8.” Other handset makers can’t compete with Samsung’s in-house advantage in sourcing processors and displays from corporate siblings, Heins said.

RIM is the only other smartphone company that offers unique hardware and software in one package, Heins said. Microsoft may be poised to change that equation should it release its own smartphone, which seems more and more likely, but Heins believes that carriers are happy to see RIM back with a competitive product, and that the same kind of aggressive promotion that made Android a success can help BlackBerry 10.

The details of how that plan will unfold are apparently not ready for public consumption. RIM has spent a great deal of time and money this year convincing software developers that it is ready and willing to help them become successful on BlackBerry 10, but it’s these carrier relationships that will be crucial to RIM’s chances of coming back in the market. Heins declined to share 2013 shipment goals for BlackBerry 10: obviously, RIM has internal goals for the product, but a lot of what will happen with device shipments is “governed by our carriers. It’s not all in our hands.”

Heins drew some flak earlier this year for being quoted as saying “we have a clear shot at being number three” in the smartphone market, as if he weren’t setting his goals high enough.

“Make no mistake, my aspiration is to win,” he said Thursday. “But I can’t sit here in front of investors and partners and say we will be number one.”

What Heins is trying to do is shift the mobile playing field away from smartphones and toward the internet of things, or the spread of intelligent hardware, software and connectivity into everyday devices. That’s the market in which he thinks RIM has an advantage:

“iOS is five years old. At the end of the day it is a downsized PC OS. Look, they did a great job. My point is I’m ahead of them, I have a true mobile computing platform.”

If Heins is to ever make that claim stick, however, he’s going to have to convince a lot of people who have been buying that downsized PC OS for years to switch back to the BlackBerry in 2013.

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RIM prepares for comeback bid with Jan 30 launch for BlackBerry 10

Ryan Kim — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:12:03 +0000

There have been some doubts whether Research in Motion would even get its BlackBerry 10 platform to market after delays. But the one-time smart phone leader is following through on promises to launch BlackBerry 10 and has now announced a January 30 launch event to unveil the first two devices and more details about the platform.

As we’ve mentioned before, this is desperation time for RIM, which is quickly losing ground to Apple and Google and is in danger of getting passed over by Microsoft’s Windows Phone. RIM needs to field a winner and reverse its sales declines. IDC reported last month that RIM shipped 7.7 million units in the third quarter, down 34.7 percent from the year ago quarter.

It’s unclear where the main launch will actually take place. RIM said it be held simultaneously in multiple countries.

RIM unveiled BlackBerry 10 at a developer event in May, prompting my colleague Kevin Tofel to express some guarded optimism. But in June, RIM pushed back the release of BlackBerry 10 until early 2013, setting off a wave of doubt about RIM’s ability to compete. Even with a firm Q1 launch for BlackBerry 10, RIM will have missed out on an important holiday season and will have to try to pick up ground against some hot-selling devices like the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S III. RIM said the platform is in testing with more than 50 carrier labs.

Still, RIM remains upbeat that it can compete. Here’s what CEO Thorsten Heins said in a statement:

“Our team has been working tirelessly to bring our customers innovative features combined with a best in class browser, a rich application ecosystem, and cutting-edge multimedia capabilities. All of this will be integrated into a user experience – the BlackBerry Flow – that is unlike any smartphone on the market today. Thanks to our strong partnerships with global carriers and a growing ecosystem of developers, we believe our customers will have the best experience possible with BlackBerry 10. We are looking forward to getting BlackBerry 10 in the hands of our customers around the world.”

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Samsung keeps smartphone sales crown, Nokia drops from top 5

Kevin C. Tofel — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:15:31 +0000

Samsung not only retained its top spot in worldwide smartphone sales, it set a record for the most smartphones sold in a single quarter by any vendor. IDC reported the data on Friday with Samsung moving an estimated 56.3 million smartphones in the third quarter of this year. Total number of smartphones for the three month period for the industry as a whole totaled 179.7 million units; a spectacular number when compared against the 87.8 million PC sales in the same quarter, per IDC.

Not coincidentally, The Verge notes that Samsung reported a record $7.4 billion in operating profits for the quarter, with the company’s mobile business unit accounting for half of all revenues. Although Samsung may have lost a preliminary judgment to Apple for $1.05 billion, it’s almost starting to look like a good investment both in terms of market share and profits.

Apple retained the second smartphone sales spot with 26.9 million handsets sold while Research In Motion, ZTE and HTC round out the top five. ZTE actually showed the most second-highest growth — behind Samsung with 82.9 percent growth over the year ago quarter. RIM and HTC had lower sales than a year ago, but even that wasn’t enough to help Nokia which fell out of the top 5 for first time that I can recall.

IDC didn’t break out platform sales, but with Windows Phone still not catching on, it’s reasonable to assume that most of the sales from Samsung, HTC and ZTE represent Android, while Apple’s and RIM’s clearly represent those of iOS and BlackBerry respectively.

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RIM invites its developers to test drive the connected car

Kevin Fitchard — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:32:17 +0000

BlackBerry developers may be losing enthusiasm for RIM’s newest operating system, BlackBerry 10, which has yet to make its way into a commercial smartphone, but on Tuesday RIM presented its developers with a new option: write code for the connected car.

At the SAE Convergence conference, RIM’s software subsidiary QNX unveiled the new software developer kit (SDK) for its forthcoming connected car application platform, which QNX simply calls Car 2. The platform is an extension of RIM’s BlackBerry WebWorks HTML5 framework, so a developer building an app for the BlackBerry 10 platform could use the exact same HTML and JavaScript tools to create apps for Car 2.

Emulating the smartphone development environment, QNX plans to expose connected car application programming interfaces (APIs) such as to GPS and navigation, car stereo and multimedia functions and even the climate control systems. Finally, QNX plans to launch the equivalent of App World for the car – a central marketplace where developers can upload their apps and buyers can purchase them.

The big difference: in the case of the connected car, those buyers aren’t car owners. They’re the automakers. Because of safety issues of a device platform moving at 60 mph, all connected car platform makers are putting up a lot more barriers between developer and consumer.

While the policy makes sense, as highly distracting apps could cause highway accidents, it’s also slowed the pace of development in cars to a crawl. Most connected car platforms out there only have a handful of apps, and for the most part automakers have leaned toward audio streaming apps like Pandora and Stitcher, as well as navigation and mapping services.

Still, by creating a development platform that bridges the smartphone and car infotainment worlds, RIM is making it easier for potential developer partners to experiment in the connected car space. And while RIM’s fortunes are declining in the smartphone market, QNX is still a powerhouse in automotive. Its software powers the infotainment, instrument and telematics systems of over 200 makes and models of vehicles.

Car 2 is meant to be the next generation of its automotive strategy, opening up its software to a much larger development community and creating a much more powerful platform for apps and services. On Tuesday, RIM also announced it was working with Nvidia to integrate the latter’s Tegra processors into Car 2-based infotainment systems.

BlackBerry developers hoping to take a crack at Car 2 will have to wait a little longer though. The platform itself will debut among automakers in the fourth quarter. In the first quarter of 2013, RIM will launch the app marketplace and make the SDK available to “qualified” developers. There’s no word yet if it plans to open up the program to all comers.

Mouse car image courtesy of Shutterstock user Mopic

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