Your SpotOn the IBM Cognos Edge

Hello all,

We’re going to shake this blog thing up a bit.  We had some good reasoning behind the decision to launch multiple topic-related blogs.  However, when you boil it all down to its essence, SpotOn exists to help organizations make their Cognos BI “fit”.  Lately the most prominent “fitting” that has been taking place is the inclusion of the spatial perspective (GBI) through the integration of ESRI GIS solutions with the Cognos BI foundation.  At other times its about integration with environments, authentication providers, performance tuning, or just helping clients to understand “how the damn stuff actually works under the covers!” 

Also, we didn’t post enough to make it work…  

So we’re going to bring everything together under one blog cover. 

A couple of mandates:

• Showcase some of the wizbangery that we’re putting together for clients and prospects – and the “why it might matter to you” business value
• Delve into Reporting Excellence and advanced charting and visualization in Cognos reports
• Explore the value of GBI solutions while recounting the interesting GBIS conversations that we find ourselves in
• Discuss BI integration and custom solutions: the good, bad, and everything in between

Plus all the other interesting things (read: shiny objects) that grab our attention and are (arguably…) worth sharing

Most of all, we want to have a conversation.  In our capacity as a IBM Cognos ISV Partner with a specialty niche and a decent reputation, we are exposed to some interesting (cool, wild, sometimes amazingly stupid, etc) stuff.  We’re going to try sharing more. 

Feel free to let us know what you’d like to hear about.  Tell us if you like something we’ve said, and tell us if you don’t.

We hope you enjoy the journey!

Hello all,

Apologies, it has been a while since our last update in the GBI blog - the marketing department keeps reminding that October was a long time ago.  Seems we (probably I) have been too busy with our "SpotOn Vantage World Tour 2009-10".  Rock On! (enterprise software style).

Highlights from the past 6 months:

• Webinar: Introduction to GBI
• IBM Information on Demand (IOD) Conference in Las Vegas
• Awarding of the IBM CTO Innovation award at IOD
• Sponsoring of IBM Cognos Performance Events:
  • Washington DC; Toronto; Los Angeles; Boston; Chicago
• Speaking at the ESRI Canada User Conference (see related post re: when the audience know more...)
• Newly minted ESRI Partnership: Developer and Reseller
• Webinar: Integrating Maps into IBM Cognos
• Exhibiting with IBM at the ESRI Federal Conference in DC
• Gold Sponsor of the IBM Cognos Federal Forum in DC
• Attending the ESRI Business Partner Conference in Palm Springs (see picture)

"Seriously, I'm at a conference... I told you these GIS guys are different!"

We've had whirlwind trips to Europe, and more trips to Redlands, CA than you can shake a stick at.  We have new people in the virtual shop, a newly minted partner tearing up the UK, and our good friend Freddy is about to light up another corner of Europe (stay tuned).

Most importantly, we've delivered - and are delivering, at an accelerated pace - on the promise of achieving a complete information perspective with our customers.  Bridging the geographic and the business dimensions to deliver the complete picture.

And boy, have we learned a bunch along the way!  Looking forward to sharing. 

co

Hi folks,

There is a whole lot of new going on around SpotOn these days.  We've got (still relatively) new awards on the wall, new faces around the office, and a freshly minted website - check it out!

We're also introducing a new blog, and relaunching the current Edges blog.  Based on the popularity of the Javascript Prompts and FM on the Web posts, we're going to focus the blog you are reading on the work we do on the edges of the Cognos BI solution; SDK development, customizations, extensions, and application integration.

We're also very excited to be launch our blog focusing on the value of integrating spatial awareness with your IBM Cognos reports.  Geographic Business Intelligence (GBI) is something that will be on your radar in short order, if it is not already.  Please join us in the conversation.

Chris

Hi all - we're now two weeks removed from what might be referred to as the last "old school" Cognos Forum in Orlando, FL.  We won't lie, there was much trepidation going in.  Having decided to invest as a Gold Sponsor in the Performance World for the second year in a row, there was much hand-wringing over the ability to recoup this year's investment going into the event.  News was that registration was hovering at less than a 1/3 of the last year's numbers going in.  A molasses-like economy and swine flu rage - which I believe was a news epidemic more than anything else, but what do I know - had folks anticipating disaster going in.

Guess what, it was a fantastic event!  I'm confident that this will end up being SpotOn's most profitable Forum in the four we've attended as partners.  When they started throwing IBM Cognos staff out of the fancy hotel, it was a positive sign that there was a rush on last minute registrations.  And when you think about it, when times are tough and dollars are tight, if companies send people to a conference you know that they are looking for tangible information and likely have budget and a buying agenda.  This was reflected in the nature of the conversations we had with Cognos customers. 

I've also become a firm believer that you can only "be" one thing at a conference like this - unless you are a household name.  Yes, SpotOn can do many things (some would say "anything" with our SDK prowess) but at this event we were the people that put ESRI map into Cognos reports.  How do you know?  Because it is on the 42 inch monitor at our booth, in your face when you walked through the door.

We also had tremendous access to senior Cognos and IBM personal this year.  I met, and had tremendous conversations, with executives from Services, Worldwide Cognos Sales, Cognos Partners and Alliances, and leaders of the IBM Software Group.  Already these meetings are proving very fruitful with several ongoing dialogs.

Also it didn't hurt to have some major "hardware" sitting on our booth.  And I'm not talking about servers and storage here, my friends.  But we'll save that story for next week.

Great to see old friends - and make some new ones.  I'm interested to see how the Cognos Forum we know and love gets folded into the Information On Demand event in October 2010.  I just hope we don't lose that Forum Magic.

Here is the deal; we have been very active recently in helping folks integrate high-end enterprise mapping (GIS) with Cognos 8 BI.  We've come to the conclusion that there is real value in bringing the geographic perspective to your core BI.  Hence we have gravitated to the following definition of GBI.

Perhaps influenced by the backgrounds and experience of the folks at SpotOn, we believe that BI is the foundation for GBI.  BI has been the top technology priority for CIOs for almost a decade now.  Companies count on BI for their mission-critical operations.

However, the impact and power of spatial analytics and GIS solutions are staggering.  These tools can deliver unprecedented insight into businesses, and the key operations relation to location.

The goal of this blog will be to share the learning and adventures as we collectively explore the world where Geography and BI meet.

Let get past the "why" and "what", and start digging into the "Where"!   

Every organization supports their clients. Few organizations succeed with their clients. That's the "ah-hah!" moment I had recently while Chris and I were discussing how to handle client issues. As a former Cognoid, I know how large organizations manage calls from customers. There are several key metrics used in call centers such as AHT (average handle time) or call cost per minute, to measure the efficiency of an operation. I think these are very beneficial tools to use when dealing with huge numbers of calls on many different products.

In a small organization like ours, we deal with client calls regarding product issues as well. The difference is that we know our clients much better than someone staffing a 24 hour terminal. That's why we no longer want to reactively support our clients but rather, proactively succeed with them. How did we pinpoint this? In a recent revenue opportunity with one of our trusted partners, an issue arose around a particularity with their client's environment. I'm sure we've all encountered this before. So, the partner followed our support process, our staff responded exactly the way they should have responded - if we were a large call center. That is to say, SpotOn assessed the issue, requested the required information, and delivered the solution. The problem with that was, the solution didn't solve the problem and an entire day went by.

So here it is: The line in the sand. SpotOn clients and partners, we're going to succeed together, rather than solving individual issues as they pop up!

- Darren

You Win Some, you Lose Some...but why?

As software companies we are very familiar with the competitive nature of our business. As a startup company, winning a deal is very significant on many levels. Unfortunately losing a deal is equally significant. So what do you do when you win? You celebrate! High fives, kudos all around and you start planning for the work ahead. Seems logical enough. What do most people do when they lose?

Well...most companies walk away and chalk it up to the nature of the software beast and take an attitude of you win some, you lose some. The truth is, you DO win some and you DO lose some. The little known truth is that losing a deal well...it not only builds character...but it can also be a valuable tool in understanding, improving process, identifying and discontinuing bad habits and most importantly building strong customer relationships. Yes, even if you lose a deal and a customer has chosen not to go with your firm, you can continue the relationship and if you do it right, you can make it stronger than ever.

Ok so you lost the deal, now what? You need to find out some key things:

• How did the customer reached the decision they did, what was the evaluation process?
• What didn't work for them and in what way did our organizations not meet the customers' needs?
• Was this a competitive situation? If so, what are we lacking that our competitors have?
• How can you work better with this customer moving forward? 

Yes all very interesting things to find out after the fact but this could be an uncomfortable situation. So suck it up, get rid of the discomfort and proceed without fear to your win/loss analysis! Odds are customers may also feel a level of discomfort discussing their decision with you. Some organizations outsource these conversations to ensure that there is not a direct connection between the customer and organization which encourages the customer to speak freely. If you are a large organization I would strongly consider this approach. If you are a smaller organization like us, it's just a matter of handling it delicately, gracefully, not taking it personally and understanding the decision so that your organization can do better next time.

Ask the customer if they wish to participate in a short and confidential discussion to help you understand their decision and to improve your organization. If the answer is no, accept it. If the answer is yes, stay positive and most importantly, remember you are no longer selling but rather gathering information for improvement and continuing the relationship with your customer. You may hear some things you weren't expecting and you may be told some things you don't want to hear. All of this is important to the growth of the organization and your relationship with the customer. Did I mention stay positive, keep it light and look at the process as a learning experience. Don't let the conversation deteriorate even if you are getting bad news. Don't forget to thank the customer for their time and valuable feedback and tell them you look forward to working with them at some point in the future. Most customers will be impressed that you took the time at all to gain an understanding of what is important to them. It may (this is not the objective btw) even get them to reconsider their decision or consider your organization in the future.

At the same time, don't end your win celebration with a high five and a beverage at the pub either. Ask your customer the SAME questions as you would in a loss scenario. It's equally important to understand how you were able to win the deal so you can repeat the process next time!

I recommend the follwoing resource if you are interested in additional information about performing a win/loss analysis. Pragmatic Marketing offer a plethora of courses, webinars and resources including coverage of win/loss analysis techniques, interviews and more.  They even offer certification in a number of key areas related to product management and marketing!

Stay tuned to our blog for some new and exciting conversations from the SpotOn Team!!

Anastasia

The SpotOn executive team recently had breakfast with a senior software executive.  What a great morning.  First off, I love breakfast!  But the dialog has had me thinking for several days now.  I'm hoping to be able to relate aspects of the discussion in these blog posting. 

The purpose of the breakfast was to catch up with this individual, let him know a little bit about what SpotOn is up to, solicit some advice in the area of Customer Advisory Boards and Board of Advisors, and to establish an ongoing dialog.  We also had a fantastic discussion on the role of partners to large software vendors, and the future of business intelligence - both technology and the licensing models to support the deployments of the future.  What do you want to hear about?

One analogy that was particularly apt to the partner reality was that of the "streak in the windshield".  Picture if you will a set of windshield wipers as the pass over the glass on a rainy day.  Sometime a streak gets left on the glass.  However there is a good chance that the streak will be removed on the next pass, and if not quite probably it will be gone on the subsequent pass.  Huh?  Stay with me...

Now picture a sharp partner company in, let's say, the Cognos space.  They go about their business drumming up services and doing good work for their clients.  The partner recognizes that they have, in short order, solved the same problem with three successive clients.  The "aha" moment; we can solve this for all clients by developing a product.  Time, effort, and money go into the development; hopefully the partner is able to get the offering to market and effectively promote the solution. 

But look out, here comes the wiper blade!  Cognos announces new administrative feature in the next release eliminates the originating issue.  The Partner's market has just been dead-ended, current sales cycles screech to a halt.  Partner screams bloody murder.  But is Cognos not supposed to fix the obvious issues?

Interesting scenario; who's right and who's wrong?  Is there a right and wrong?  Couple of thoughts that I've been chewing on:

• As a Partner, you had better know if an opportunity has long-lasting potential, or is a streak on the window.
• Identified streaks likely can be profitable, have legs, and earn a decent return - but don't forget that it is a streak.
• Is there any value to the Wiper in the equation (say Cognos) to not addressing the issue and promoting the partner solution?  Does this promote a thriving partner ecosystem?  Is this outweighed by customer frustration?
• What are the options for "steak" partner offerings? Let them continue to exist independently? License the technology for distribution of core product integration?
• What is the true cost of swapping out partner technologies for core software technologies when customer switching costs are considered?

At SpotOn are goal is to identify greenfield opportunities with Cognos customers where we can rapidly deliver high impact technology solutions with staying power.  The reality is that somewhere in the walls at Riverside, smart people are thinking about the same opportunities.  We believe that the SpotOn secret weapons in the equation is speed and agility.  Not only in bringing technologies to light and to market, but also to keep moving when our own "streaks in the windshield" disapear.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

It's Anastasia here from SpotOn and I wanted to introduce myself as the newest member of the SpotOn team and Vice President of Innovation and Market Development. 

Innovation is such an important part of software development.  The fun part of dev is fueled by creativity, finding how you can mold technology to suit your desired purpose without letting the technology mold you.  It can indeed be a lovely power struggle.  Perhaps it's the geek and the artist in me that see's how both art and technology are very similar.  It's a way to express, to inspire and to bring value to another.  Some technology makes you more productive, some technology lets you have a little fun.  Art can make you happy, inspire you and ...  A little too deep hmm? 

Ok, let's try this...Software development is about constant change, challenge, adoption, exploration.  While it does have some drawbacks like bug fixing, conformance and maintenance, that part of software development can be fun as well!   Now you may be wondering if I've gone completely mad. Did the team at SpotOn really mean to adopt HER?  Listen, bug fixing can be tedious unless a developer is given the freedom to create even when creating means fixing a problem.  It's called creative problem solving and is applicable to any aspect of life and even technology. In fact, I firmly believe that creative freedom in development is a secret sauce of being successful in technology.  

This week the SpotOn team has been been trying our products in new environments like  Firefox 3.0 and Google Chrome and even on an OLPC (http://laptop.org/) to test how robust SpotOn products are.  This type of work can be and IS exciting. 

Making sure your software works in a constantly changing technology environment, well that is exciting too.  It's like being a sleuth trying to solve the mystery!  Hearing from customers is great, even if they need to give you a piece of their mind. Making sure we are able to maintain their satisfaction is paramount. 

Technology is constant evolution and establishing that balance of evolving with your customers and leading the way into new territory is very exciting! Maybe that's why the SpotOn team invited me on board. 

I am completely aligned with SpotOn's notion of "solving the unsolvable" and view this new gig of mine as being able to hang out with some really amazing and talented people and do some very creative things while at the same time delivering high quality software products for our new and existing customers.   If someone tells us it can't be done, the team at SpotOn will always tell you how many ways it CAN be accomplished.   

So keep tuned as we have a very busy Fall , 2008.  We'll be exhibiting and attending various Cognos Performance events, hosting regular webinars, updating our web site...including this blog and of course we have some exciting new products to announce...possibly in the area of visualization....but that's for another blog...

Thanks for tuning in to my first in what will be many blog entries, come back often, stay tuned!

Introducing Anastasia Valentine!  Read all about it here. 

I'm going to let Anastasia tell you what she's up to at SpotOn.  Drop her a hello in the comments, or email her at anastasia.valentine@spotonsystems.com.

Feel free to refer to her as SpotOn's Inflection Point!