QlikTech named as one to watch in Intrinsic Search Enterprise Software Survey 2012

During February 2012, Intrinsic Executive Search surveyed 209 CXO, VP and Director Level Executives across 11 different countries working within the European Enterprise Software and eCommerce markets. We asked for their opinions on the performance of various technology areas and feedback on the European market in general.

To the best of our knowledge, the vast majority of respondents currently work at CXO, VP or Director Level in the European Enterprise software market across 11 different European countries. We surveyed a cross section of Executives, specifically targeting Enterprise software sectors within the European market.

Within this report, we have provided a snapshot of some of the major findings and we would be delighted to discuss the results in detail.

Download your copy of The research Intrinsic Executive Search 2012 now.

The Objective of the Survey mainly points towards Different People Opinions about Jobs, there posts and on which position they like to work.

The individuals of survey would prefer to work in following types of firms

Toughest Country to find great Sales Reps according to the survey are

Best UK location for a Software Company

Best Software Companies to Watch keeping in mind that these are the most fastest emerging companies with lot of potential in them

Salary / Performance Trends

and last but not the least Salary Levels Guide

About Intrinsic Executive Search Ltd

Intrinsic Executive Search Ltd is a leading European Pan-European Executive Search Firm specialising in the identification, attraction and retention of Vice President, Director, Senior Sales, Pre-sales, Channel, Marketing and Board Level personnel for enterprise software and e-commerce related companies.

For further details, please visit:- http://www.intrinsicsearch.com

NVIDIA CEO hints at $200 Tegra 3 tablets

Here’s a nice side choice to compliment your main course of Nexus Tablet rumors this evening: NVIDIA CEO spoke with the New York Times about lowering the price of Android tablets. Quote mister Jen-Hsun Huang: ““We took out $150 in build materials, things like expensive memory. At $199, you can just about buy a tablet at a 7-Eleven.” That’s a long way from any sort of confirmation, but it shows that NVIDIA is as anxious as we are to lower the price of Android tablets, especially those with high-end components like the Tegra 3 processor.

Most of the mainstream manufacturers out there seem intent on fighting Apple on its home turf, i.e. the $500+ market. To be blunt, that hasn’t worked in the year or so that Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich have been available… and it’s given Apple time to hit back with the reduced $399 iPad 2. ASUS seems to be the only company having any luck with high-end tablets, and even then they don’t hold a candle to the $200-250 “reader” tablets in terms of sales volume. A combination of power and rock-bottom price could finally break Android tablet sales out of the doldrums to join Android’s lead in smartphones.

We had previously hoped that the ASUS MeMO 370T would be the tablet to do just that, but the current scuttlebutt is that it’s been scrapped in favor of an even cheaper Nexus Tablet. None of this is confirmed by anybody at the moment, so consider it firmly in the rumor category. As for NVIDIA, who knows: they’re a component supplier, not a manufacturer. If OEMs won’t find ways to lower the prices of tablets, there’s not a lot that anybody else can do about it.

Google Planning To Sell Tablets Straight To Consumers

Here we go again: the rumors of Google branching out into the tablet space have been floating around for what seems like ages now, and the Wall Street Journal has jumped into the fray. They cite the usual handful of unnamed sources, who this time say that Google is planning to open up their own online store à la Amazon to sell Android tablets.

Not just any Android tablets, mind you — co-branded ones that bear Google’s name along with that of the manufacturer. Google does many things (some better than others), but they’re definitely not in the consumer hardware production game. Instead, Google is said to be working with hardware experts at Asus and Samsung (and presumably Motorola at some point), and is also considering the possibility of subsidizing the tablet’s price to fall in line with devices like Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

If these whispers hold true, then Google could be onto something. That theoretical store could already have a flagship if the oft-rumored $199 Nexus Tablet actually materializes, and the package only gets sweeter if it ends up running Jelly Bean, which the WSJ reports will hit in mid-2012. To date, the only Android tablet to give the iPad a run for its money is the Fire, but if Google can get close in price while beating them out on specs, Amazon could be in trouble. The formula may not exactly prove to be an iPad killer, but a strong second place in the tablet race is nothing to sneeze at.

What gets me though is how Google is reportedly thinking of selling these things. Google has toyed with this sort of online retail model before — the Nexus One was sold unsubsidized by Google, even though T-Mobile provided the network for it. By the time Google’s next Nexus made the rounds though, the search giant wised up and tapped Best Buy to help put the Nexus S into people’s hungry hands. Getting those tablets out into meatspace could do wonders for visibility, and brick and mortar retail certainly has a sense of immediacy about it — there’s little delay between seeing something you want and owning it.

Still, the direct-to-consumer approach has its advantages. By cutting out the retail middleman, Google gets to retain that much more control over the situation (not to mention the revenue they don’t have to share with stores). The Nexus One seems like a dicey precedent, but people who shied away from it didn’t do so because it was a bad phone, they did so because it was $529.99 without a contract. With potentially aggressively priced tablets and a decent payments system in tow, Google should be able to lock up this new revenue stream pretty tightly. That is, of course, if they can keep on top of demand for a cheap, Google-approved tablet.

Manually update your GSM Galaxy Nexus to 4.0.4

Are you a GSM Galaxy Nexus owner, but for whatever reason you can’t pull down the much-anticipated 4.0.4 update? Maybe you’re stuck in a low coverage area or you just don’t want to spend the data before (or after) you reach your cap. For whatever reason, you no longer need to wait: Google has posted the full ZIP update for earlier versions. Installing is simple, even if you’ve never done this sort of thing before – but you will need the proper Android ADB tools and drivers installed on your computer. Before you begin, click here to download the English GSM Galaxy Nexus update file, or check this XDA thread for localized versions in other languages or older updates.

Once you’ve finished the download, go to the Settings menu on your phone. Tap Developer Options, and make sure USB debugging is enabled. Connect your Galaxy Nexus to your computer and unlock it. Copy the ZIP file to the Internal Storage folder in your device. If you’ve downloaded it on your phone, use a file browser to copy it to the /sdcard folder. Open a Command Prompt or Terminal window in the same folder as your ADB install. Type “adb devices” and make sure that your Galaxy Nexus appears in the list.

Now type “adb shell”, press enter, then “su”, then press enter again. Type exactly the following, without quotes: “cp /sdcard/7f97fbc19417.signed-yakju-IMM76D-from-ICL53F.7f97fbc1e.zip /cache/7f97fbc19417.signed-yakju-IMM76D-from-ICL53F.7f97fbc1.zip” (If you downloaded another language update, change the name of the ZIP file appropriately.)

Type “exit”, then press enter. Type “exit” and press enter again. Now remove your Galaxy Nexus from the USB cable and power it down. Now press the Power, Volume Up and Volume Down buttons together to bring it into Bootloader mode. Press Down Volume twice, then the power button to enter the stock recovery. Use the volume buttons to select “Apply Update”, press the power button, and you’re golden. Once it finishes, reboot your phone.

XOOM Wifi and Nexus S owners can follow the same basic guides if you find links for the official updates, though the exact method of getting into the bootloader and recovery varies. If you need a non-English update, check the XDA link above; it should have just about everybody covered. Galaxy Nexus LTE owners, you’re out of luck for the time being… unless you’d like to try your hand at some custom ROMs.

Why learning CSS3 & HTML5 should NOT be your primary focus!

Here is what most web designers think their first priorities are.

1. Having a kick-butt computer
2. Having every possible graphic and web development program
3. Creating THE best portfolio ever
4. Getting lots of traffic to their website
5. Setting up a good office space
6. Learning every possible cutting edge Photoshop or jQuery trick
7. Being the first ever to do ___________ in HTML5 and CSS3

And so on and so forth…

So, which do you think is the right answer?  What is most important? The correct answer is… none of the above.  They are all dead wrong.  You can have a mediocre 5 year old computer, you can code everything using Notepad, and design graphics with Paintshop and still be a wild success if you have put the first priority first.

On the other hand, you can create the most amazing portfolio ever, traffic can flow into your website like tourists at Disney Land, you could have prime office space downtown, know every photoshop and jQeury trick, and you can even write a book on HTML5 and CSS3… but if you don’t have the number one priority first, then you will fail.  In fact, at this point, it will be an Epic Fail.

all of your knowledge,
all of your state of the art hardware,
all of your HTML/CSS/Javascript tricks,
all of your cutting edge software,
all of your photoshop tweeking,
all of your hard work, time spent, and plans made will come to nothing.  They are pointless…. useless… distractions…

Have I made my point enough?

Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come!

So what IS your number one priority as a web designer or developer?

Your first priority as a web designer or developer just happens to be the same as any business… to make sales, in your case, to sell websites!  Without making sales, you are just spinning your wheels.

This is especially important in your first year or two, or until your business machine is somewhat self-sustaining.  The 80/20 rule is a good guideline.  You should be putting 80% of your time into selling and 20% into everything else.  Sounds crazy, huh?  When will you ever get anything done?

Most new web development businesses spend most of their time on brushing up their skills and learning new technology or techniques.  This is good and important, but most never break out of learning into doing; but if you want to make a living out of it, there is no point in doing it if you aren’t getting paid.  This is where sales comes in, remember?  Getting paid?  Making money?

Your website isn’t like a baseball diamand that you build in a corn field.  Just because you build it doesn’t mean that they will come.

In order for your business to become self sustaining it is vital that you reach a Critical Mass of Qualified Customers as quickly as possible.  Until then, your business will be a daily struggle just to survive.  Once you reach that Critical Mass of Qualified Customers (CMQC), you will finally have the momentum to relax a bit.  At that point, you will have built up enough steam to be able to focus more on doing the actual work of creating sites.

So, before you start running ads in your local newspaper or put a bunch of money in your Google Adwords account, consider the last half of CMQC, “Qualified Customers”.  Not just any customer, paying customers.  Customers who are willing to pay more in the future.  I may write more about CMQC later.

“We Show Every Day that We Can Do It” – Lars Bjork

Last Friday, QlikTech CEO and President Lars Björk was interviewed on Fox Business News following QlikTech’s Q3 earnings announcement. Here’s a link to the video. I’ve also pulled out some of the highlights from Lars’ comments. My favorite one is his answer to the question about his confidence in continuing to compete with software companies that are much bigger than we are: “Of course we can. We show every day that we do it.”

 

Fox Business: What is the secret of your success?

 

Lars Björk: I think the secret is a piece of software that we developed. We put a great team together. We target the common challenge of businesses. How can you make better decisions with all the facts that you have, drive up and drive down expenses? More important now than ever.

 

Fox Business: Companies are dealing with a lot of pressures. What’s your elevator pitch to get clients to make that outlay for your software?

 

Lars Björk: It’s focusing on what their specific problem is, whatever that industry is. Is it gaining insight into something? Is it gaining  time? Or is it reducing cost? It’s being very, very specific. And most importantly, being able to deliver in a short of time.

 

Fox Business: You are competing with a lot of big boys like Oracle and SAP. What’s your biggest challenge? You only have 2% share of the market. What do you see as the landscape as you grow?

 

Lars Björk: I think we have a great opportunity. What we have ahead of us is more of an execution game. I think what we benefit from is we sell something that is self-service in our space. We sell something that is quick time to value. And we’ve shown over the last 10 years that we can outgrow competition. So we are catching up to them.

 

Fox Business: Do you have any concerns about trying to compete with other companies that have bigger budgets?

 

Lars Björk: Not at all. We show every day that we do it.

 

Fox Business: You have some big customers. As you talk to executives in these companies, what is your sense of the outlook? What is your sense of the level of optimism right now?

 

Lars Björk: I think the sense that you see in news that there is a big problem out there isn’t what I hear from customers. Whether you are in Europe or the U.S, I think the sentiment is still that, yes, “I want to run my business efficiently.” But it’s an optimistic view. I’ve just traveled in Europe. And what you see on the news in the U.S. isn’t represented in what you see in general in European business life.

 

Fox Business: A lot of people have been very bullish on the technology industry. A lot of people have been bullish on it. What’s your outlook going forward? What makes the growth prospects of your industry so attractive?

 

Lars Björk: I think we are sitting on top of one of the biggest challenges in business life today. Everyone knows that the future competitiveness with your business lies in managing your data, your information, and making better decisions than competition. I don’t think you can see an end to that problem.

 

Enjoy!

BlackBerry maker RIM abandons battle with iPhone and Android

Research In Motion has conceded its BlackBerry smartphones cannot compete with iPhone and Android in the consumer markets. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty

The BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion, is to pull back from trying to compete with Apple’s iPhone and the Android mobile platform and instead return to its original focus on business users.

The shift in strategy came with a management shakeup that includes longtime executive Jim Balsillie leaving the board and severing ties with a company he helped build.

RIM said it will focus its consumer efforts on targeted offerings that tap the company’s strengths. That included devices that employees would want to buy on their own and bring to the corporate environment. The company was exploring partnerships and other opportunities for consumer products that were not deemed central. Those products could include software and features that were then incorporated into RIM’s own offerings.

“We can’t do everything ourselves but we can do what we’re good at,” said RIM chief executive Thorsten Heins.

RIM has had limited success trying to enter consumer markets in recent years, particularly with high-end devices that have the touchscreens popular with consumers.

Heins said a turnaround required “substantial change”.

“We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we tried to be everybody’s darling and all things to all people,” Heins said. “Therefore we plan to build on our strength.”

Heins, who joined RIM four years ago and was most recently its chief operating officer, replaced co-CEOs Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis in January after the company lost tens of billions in market value. Lazaridis founded the company and Balsillie joined in its early years.

RIM said on Thursday that Balsillie has resigned from its board after 20 years with the company. David Yach, chief technology officer for software, and Jim Rowan, chief operating officer for global operations, are also leaving.

The company said it was undergoing a comprehensive strategic review. Heins said he was open to selling the company, but “it is not the main direction we are pursuing right now”.

The Canadian company has long dominated the corporate smartphone market. Its BlackBerrys are known for their security and reliability as email devices. Barack Obama has been an avid user.

RIM has sought to expand its appeal to consumers but has had trouble because the phones aren’t perceived to be as sexy as its chief competitors’. RIM has been counting on improvements with its forthcoming BlackBerry 10 system but that has faced multiple delays. BlackBerrys also lag iPhones and Android phones when it comes to running third-party applications. Its touchscreen models that lack physical keyboards have largely flopped.

For that reason BlackBerrys are even losing ground in the business world, as employees demand iPhones or Android devices over BlackBerrys.

Apple sold 37m iPhones in the last three months of 2011 – more than what RIM shipped in the past three quarters combined. RIM shipped 11.1m BlackBerrys in the latest quarter, which ended on 3 March.

RIM also bombed in its efforts to produce a tablet computer to compete with Apple’s iPad. Among other things the PlayBook received negative reviews because it launched without an email program and the popular messaging service BlackBerry Messenger. In December the tablets that originally cost $500 were selling at $200, below the cost of making them.

BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said of the latest announcement: “They are conceding the high-end consumer market with all these services that are wrapped around the platform. At least there’s some reality here. Are they going to compete against iTunes? No way.”

Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies & Co in New York, said RIM should have recognised three years ago it was a niche player and had lost the battle with Apple three years ago. It should have looked at partnering with other companies last year rather than now.

RIM announced the changes as it produced quarterly results that fell short of Wall Street expectations. Net loss was $125m, or 24 cents a share, in the fiscal fourth quarter. This compares with $934m, or $1.78 per share, a year ago.

After excluding one-time items, adjusted income was 80 cents per share, a penny short of expectations from analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue fell 25% to $4.2bn from $5.6bn. Analysts had expected $4.5bn.

For the full fiscal year RIM earned $1.2bn, or $2.22 a share, on revenue of $18.4bn. That compares with net income of $3.4bn, or $6.34 a share, on revenue of $19.9bn in fiscal 2011.

In extended trading after the results came out, RIM shares fell 33 cents, or 2.4%, to $13.40. During the regular session the stock increased 6 cents to close at $13.73.

iPhone & iPads to be used for top secret info

THE Australian government’s peak adviser on information security has given the tick of approval for iPhones and iPads to be used for storing and communicating classified government information.

Acting director of the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), Mike Burgess, said the department has led the way in developing means to enable devices running the latest Apple operating system, called iOS version 5, to handle secret information up to Protected level.

He said DSD had worked closely with industry to develop practical instructions for government to securely use the latest technology.

“Embracing new technologies, such as smartphones and tablet PCs, provides government with a genuine opportunity to conduct its business more efficiently,” he said.

“However, the threat of government information being stolen or compromised is also very real.”

 

Mr Burgess said DSD worked continuously to help agencies better protect valuable government information, while still enabling them to benefit from the advantages of these devices.

 

He said iOS5 had successfully passed an evaluation using a stringent and intensive security assessment to ensure it met Australian Government information security requirements.

This security evaluation, the first of its kind for iOS5, covers devices owned and managed by Australian government agencies that have implemented specific DSD security advice.

Just how that can be done is spelled out in a detailed security hardening guide available at the DSD website.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/iphone-to-be-used-for-top-secret-info/story-e6frfku9-1226314706546#ixzz1qZtXkbrC

Gartner Says New Relationships Will Change Business Intelligence and Analytics

Analysts to Discuss the Future of BI at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2011, January 31- February 1, in London and May 2-4, in Los Angeles

Egham, UK, January 6, 2011—   Business intelligence (BI) and analytics leaders need to embrace four trends that are set to challenge traditional assumptions about these technology areas, according to Gartner, Inc.

“The market for BI and analytics is undergoing gradual evolution,” said Neil Chandler, research director at Gartner. “By 2014, the metamorphosis of BI from IT-owned and report-centric will be virtually complete for a large number of organizations. These organizations will change what types of BI and analytics they use. They will change how they procure them and where they procure them from, and they will modify how information feeds decision making. BI and analytics leaders should embrace the technology, market and management trends that will transform this field within a few years.”

As part of its Predicts 2011 body of research, Gartner has identified four key BI predictions to help organizations plan for 2011 and beyond:

1- By 2013, 33 percent of BI functionality will be consumed via handheld devices.

Current adoption rates and the broad availability of current-generation devices, paired with BI vendors’ development and marketing efforts, are promising to quickly generate a strong wave of mobile BI users. At first, mobile BI will largely consist of existing reports and dashboards ported to the mobile device but by 2012, Gartner predicts that organizations and vendors will develop mobile analytic applications for specific tasks or domains. Mobile BI will significantly expand the population of BI users to include a more mainstream audience and this opportunity will attract significant investment.

Gartner advises organizations to work with the marketing department and product management to create customer-facing mobile BI applications, and with the supply chain group for supplier applications. They should recognize that users will want to use mobile devices to access corporate BI data. They also need to ensure that the current BI infrastructure supports these demands while promoting the use of tablets to improve the BI experience of the mobile workforce.

2- By 2014, 30 percent of analytic applications will use in-memory functions to add scale and computational speed. By 2014, 30 percent of analytic applications will use proactive, predictive and forecasting capabilities.

The growing use of sophisticated analytic functions will accelerate the growth of the performance management and analytic application market. Packaged applications will incorporate data and text mining, forecasting and regression, optimization, scoring and simulations using complex business rules and data modeling. As the speed of response and data volumes increase, organizations will look for columnar data repositories and in-memory online analytical processing (OLAP) that is faster and easier to architect.

Organizations should evaluate trade-offs between build and buy approaches to meet a diverse range of use cases and consider making integration a top selection criteria rather than creating a new information silo.

3- By 2014, 40 percent of spending on business analytics will go to system integrators, not software vendors.

Traditionally, organizations bought products almost exclusively from software companies and system integrators then helped the buyer to implement them. However, the growth of user-driven initiatives, external information sources and the integration of unstructured content make this traditional approach increasingly risky and potentially uncompetitive. Buyers can now evaluate solutions – for example marketing campaign effectiveness in financial services – as total packages and select a lead provider, often a service provider to deliver it.

Gartner recommends that organizations allow business users to participate in any decision to purchase a software-only or services/software solution. They need to broaden their evaluations to include service providers, and evaluate them based on industry expertise and best practice in addition to functions and architecture. Finally, they need to consider how solutions will tie into existing investments.

4- By 2013, 15 percent of BI deployments will combine BI, collaboration and social software into decision-making environments.

Organizations are starting to piece together collaboration technology, social software and BI to create collaborative decision making environments. During the next 12 to 18 months, these efforts will continue to grow as organizations start to more proactively manage, capture and optimize decision processes and outcomes to improve performance beyond the decision inputs such as BI. Collaborative decision environments will drive investment in new BI and analytic applications, particularly those that link with collaboration and social networking functions. Gartner has already noticed that a number of vendors are beginning to address this challenge.

Gartner counsels organizations to find a senior executive to sponsor cultural change in support of fact-based, transparent decision making who understands the value of specific collaborative decision-making use cases to the organization. The value of collaborative decision making can then be demonstrated by focusing on departmental, line-of-business or process-specific decisions such as forecasting.

Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Predicts 2011: New Relationships Will Change BI and Analytics.” The report is available on Gartner’s website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1478114.

About Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2011
The Summit will provide Gartner’s latest insight on how to make BI in organizations meet the new needs of business after the recent economic shift. Business strategies, organizational structures and BI and performance management (PM) architectures are being ‘reborn’ to reflect changed priorities – helping organizations maximize the potential of these new opportunities by providing the insight that business leaders need.

For further information on the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2011 taking place on January 31- February 1 in London, please visit europe.gartner.com/bi. Follow news from the event on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Gartner_inc and using #GartnerBI. Members of the media can register for this event by contacting Ben Tudor at ben.tudor@gartner.com.

LG’s Flexible E-Paper Display Is Coming to Europe in April

LG has announced it has started mass production of its electronic paper display (EPD) product, with a planned launch in Europe next month.

LG’s EPD is a 6-inch, 1024×768 e-ink plastic screen. It’s 0.7mm thick, it weighs 14g, and LG claims it’s resistant to scratches and drops from a 1.5 meter height.

Of course, its biggest claim to fame is its flexibility: LG claims the screen allows bending at a range of 40 degrees from its center.

“With the world’s first plastic EPD, LG Display has once again proven its reputation for leadership and innovation with a product we believe will help greatly popularize the E-Book market,” said Sang Duck Yeo, Head of Operations for LG Display’s Mobile/OLED division.

There is no word on a US release, but LG says the EPD will first be supplied to ODM companies in China, with completed products hitting European shores at the beginning of April.