esofto

The Next Generation of Leadership in Enterprise Software

Once the economic engine that created enough wealth for Larry Ellison to become the richest man in California, Azim Premji, the richest man in India, and Bill Gates the richest man in world, no sector of the economy has been as out of favor as long as enterprise software. Their success created excess as entrepreneurs, visionaries, dreamers, and con men rushed to follow in the same foot steps. The result was a bubble every bit as historically significant as the Tulip Mania in 15th century Holland (when one bulb sold for $35,000 in today's dollars), or the South Sea Bubble in 17th century England (when shares in South Sea Company rose from £75 to £1,000 in 7 months).

Yet enterprise software is showing signs of a remarkable come back. Some of the investment in research and development made during the boom is beginning to bear fruit. In turn, a new generation of leadership is emerging poised to take advantage of new business and technology trends.

Who will be in the next generation of leaders in enterprise software? First, we know that some organizations have a track record for growing leaders of character and capability. Second, we know that leaders are grown not by the lessons in classroom but by the lessons of experience--lessons gleaned from challenging and varied job experiences.

Drawing on our many contacts and highly subjective view of the world, we are presenting in this issue an unscientific, non-inclusive list of 25 people, in the hopes of helping readers identify those executives who promise to have an impact on the industry as dramatic as an Ellison, a Gates, or a Premji.

We asked most of the people on this list the secret of their success. Some were generous enough to include it, others opted to keep that secret to themselves.

Any list of this nature is bound to have missed some people who should have been included. If you believe there are any significant errors or omissions in this list, please don't hesitate to email us directly at editor@esofto.com.

---

2005 Enterprise Software Leaders

---

Chris Baker
CEO
Group 1 Software

Allen Bonde
Senior Vice President, Strategy & Marketing
eVergance Partners

Pete Cittadini
Chief Executive Officer and President
Actuate

Lars Dalgaard
CEO
SuccessFactors

Joe Davis
President & CEO
Coremetrics

Jeff Fried
Chief Technical Officer
Empirix

Greg Gianforte
CEO, President, Chairman & Founder
RightNow

Patrick Grady
Founder, Chairman, & Chief Executive Officer
Rearden Commerce

Peter Graf
Executive Vice President
SAP

Parker Harris
Executive Vice President
Salesforce.com

Paul Johnston
President & CEO
Entellium

Tom Kawalec
CRM Partner
Accenture

Dave Kellogg
President & CEO
Mark Logic

James Lee
Vice President Business & Product Line Management
Princeton Softech

Court Lorenzini
CEO
DocuSign

Anthony Lye
Group Vice President of CRM Applications
Siebel Systems

Barbry Mcgann
Vice President of CRM
Oracle

Rory O'Driscoll
Managing Director
BA Venture Partners

Natalie Petouhoff
Senior Manager, Customer & Channel Solutions
Hitachi Consulting

Seth Ravin
President & CEO
Rimini Street

Gordon Ritter
General Partner
Emergence Capital Partners

John Roberts
Co-Founder & CEO
SugarCRM

Lisa Joy Rosner
Vice President, Worldwide Marketing
BroadVision

Jim Hagemann Snabe
General Manager, Industry Solutions
SAP

Philippe Zighmi
Partner
Accenture - Gallia

Tony Zingale
President & CEO
Mercury Interactive

What is ENUM?

"ENUM was developed as a solution to the question of how to find services on the Internet using only a telephone number, and how telephones, which have an input mechanism limited to twelve keys on a keypad, can be used to access Internet services.

The word "ENUM" refers to the IETF protocol that takes a complete, international telephone number and resolves it to a series of URLs using a Domain Name System (DNS)-based architecture. "

From the ENUM.ORG web site.

Jeff Howard, industry expert and one of our correspondents writes:

"Obviously, this is a fantastic idea that could revolutionize the entire communications industry if implemented properly. Given that the current standard allows VoIP providers of all kinds to circumvent paying local access charges, conventional carriers will certainly try to influence how and when it is implemented. It should be interesting to watch as it rolls out. "

Siebel Acquisition Given Green Light

The U.S. Department of Justice has cleared the proposed acquisition by Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL) of Siebel Systems (Nasdaq: SEBL). The transaction still requires clearance from the European Commission. Current thinking within the company is that the transaction is on track to close in January.

Highlights of the Siebel Transition Summit

An influential group of Siebel’s leading system integrator partners gathered in Denver recently to discuss how Oracle’s impending acquisition of the company. Although the participants were drawn from a number of different disciplines – founders, CEOs, and executive management representing finance, sales and marketing – their common interest was to predict what the future holds for the new entity. Almost from the beginning a sharp contrast was drawn between Oracle’s acquisition of PeopleSoft and its likely acquisition of Siebel Systems. Although some parallels between the two transactions may be drawn, especially in how Oracle is likely to integrate Siebel within its folds, most participants felt circumstances were very different and boded better for Siebel customers, partners, and those Siebel employees who remain with Oracle. Whereas Oracle’s acquisition of PeopleSoft was a hostile and actively opposed by PeopleSoft management, employees, and much of its customer base, Oracle’s offer to Siebel was accepted by management, acquiesced to by employees, and welcomed by most Siebel customers.

At the time, many PeopleSoft systems integrators reported a dramatic drop off in business in the quarter following the acquisition (Q2 2005). The group felt this was due to a number of factors including the delay in PeopleSoft sales representatives receiving their account plans, the significant amount of budget spent on products in Q4 of 2005 to take advantage of aggressive discounts orphan sales reps offered, and a wait-and-see attitude on the part many customers. Consensus among the group was that most Siebel systems integrators would not see any, or at least not nearly as dramatic, a drop off in business as the PeopleSoft integrators saw.

The morning began with a projection of the demand for consulting services by Andrew Fletcher and Mike Harvath of Revenue Rocket. Based on historical data and current IT spending trends they expect the current growth in the consulting business to continue until 2010 and then to drop off sharply. They felt comfortable making the prediction that the market was about to enter a “gold rush” for services based on IT spending trends going back to the 1960s. They also speculated that with a maturing market, the cycle was growing worse. The number of good years in the cycle were fewer, and the number of bad years between cycles was growing.

Executive Tim Chou, the former President of Oracle On-Demand, spoke to the group about the trends he is seeing in the technology business. Dr. Chou is perhaps best known for his literate advocacy of the on-demand business model in his book “The End of Software”, but his recent experiences teaching a course at Stanford University have led him question the historic distinction between enterprise and consumer software. He pointed to Sun Microsystems’ President and Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Schwartz’s on-line blog as an example of consumer software being adapted for the ends of the enterprise. He also made an interesting analogy between Oracle and an F15 fighter plane. The F15 was designed to be the aerodynamic instable. On-board computers compensate for the instability but without them the plane would crash. The rational for this design is that fighter planes are most maneuverable when they are flying on or near the edge. He reasoned that Oracle is designed the same way and is much more nimble, opportunistic, and flexible as a result. He cautioned that anyone expecting intuitional consistency or a consistent message from Oracle was likely to be disappointed.

The next presentation was given by the CEO of China TechSource, Dean Stevens. He spoke about the potential opportunity for consulting services firms both within the domestic Chinese market and as destination for outsourcing work. Among the most striking slides he presented was one which showed the growth in Chinese engineering graduates. From 350,000 in 2001 the number will grow to 1.2 million next year. He pointed to the fact that, unlike an Indian engineering graduate, many Chinese engineering graduates will go unemployed this year as a factor in keeping rates there relatively low.

After an extended discussion of the opportunities in China, Attorney David Roos, from Moye & White reviewed the steps in a merger from a legal process. Human Resources Manger Cindy Goyette talked about how not to do a merger and regaled the audience with many stories and anecdotes about mergers gone wrong. Finally John Couzens and Scott Murray of Trinity Capital Services reviewed recent acquisitions in the software and services space from a financial perspective.

The event ended with a roundtable discussion of some of the best ways to profit from the coming transition. This discussion is likely to be continued but not concluded in early February at The Enterprise Software Summit.