I’ve been a bit quiet for the last couple of month. That’s because I was leading an ambicious project at my new job - migration of a Microsoft Dynamics CRM version 3 to SugarCRM Community Edition version 5.0.0. There were only three people involved, non of us could afford to work full time on the project, and we only had three weeks to do it.
Read on for a story on why it took us longer, how we did, and if it was a success at all.
→ 8 CommentsTags: crm, experience, management, microsoft, migration, software development, sugarcrm, work
Web Worker Daily reports:
With Microsoft’s announcement this week that Outlook and Outlook Express will no longer support desktop access to Hotmail accounts raises some interesting questions on data portability.
After 30th June, Microsoft’s Windows Live Mail application will be the only means by which desktop and offline access to Hotmail accounts will be supported. This effectively means that a Hotmail user’s messages continue to be imprisoned within a closed ecosphere of services and applications. OK, smart people won’t be using Outlook, Outlook Express or Hotmail, but millions do and many have years of messages archived that they may wish to continue accessing outside a web-based interface.
I guess some people never ever learn. Microsoft has screwed its users times after times, and yet there are still millions of them who either trust it blindly or are too lazy to spend a few moments of their lives to look for alternatives. I have no pity for them anymore. They deserve what they are getting.
→ 5 CommentsTags: email, hotmail, microsoft, outlook
gapingvoid, a blog well known for cartoons drawn on the back of business cards, has this post about monetizing on open source software - a very old discussion, as we know it. In that post, one IT guy is quoted saying:
“If something goes wrong with Microsoft, I can phone Microsoft up and have it fixed. With Open Source, I have to rely on the community.”
What’s your first thought after reading that? Mine was “Have you ever even called Microsoft support?“. It seems that a lot of people believe in this notion of Microsoft support magically fixing whatever problem they might have with any of the Microsoft product.
The question really is - will they? Myself I never had any experience with Microsoft support, but I know quite a few people who did. Most of them seem to agree that Microsoft support is pretty much like any other technical support service of any other company. Meaning that to get anything good out of it, you have to know how to get through to knowledgeable people and you have to know how to convince them to spend some time with your case. Otherwise, you’ll get into an endless loop of answering machines, checklist questions, and advices like “Please, reboot your computer and call us back“.
I have to say that that makes sense to me. Microsoft is the biggest desktop software vendor. Desktop computer users tend to be the most uninformed and untrained category of users (no offense intended). If even half of them believe in magic of Microsoft support, imagine what Microsoft has to go through to keep their support costs reasonable. If you have a serious problem, you’d probably need to get through all that protection and prove that you know what you are doing and that your case deserves attention. Getting through requires knowledge, experience and patience. How many people of those who believe in Microsoft support actually have the knowledge, experience and patience to get through? I don’t think many do. Am I wrong?
P.S.: By the way, there is an interesting discussion in the comments to that original post.
→ No CommentsTags: Business, microsoft, myth, Software, support
The other day I wrote a post about possible Yahoo acquisition by Microsoft. There have been some developments to the story. If you haven’t followed it elsewhere, here is a brief summary for you:
There are a couple of posts at Mashable (one and two) which tell how the story unfolds in more details.
What Microsoft does this time, is what they have always been doing. This time it’s just on a slighter bigger scale. And if you ever had any fantasies about how Microsoft cares about you as a customer or partner, take a closer look at what happens now. If they don’t give a flying fork about major players on the Web, who are creating an ecosystem, what do they care about you as an end user?
My extremism years are long over, but I still get to hear “Boycott Microsoft!” scream in my head once in a while. Whatever the case, I believe in natural balance and the equilibrium of all things. I think that Microsoft has been rocking the technology boat for far too long and that things are slowly turning to where they should be. It will take a few more years to make them more obvious to general public, but the trend is there.
In regard to this particular situation, there is a slight chance of Yahoo getting away from this acquisition through an alliance with Google. It’s not as good as if they could just be, but it’s by far better than if they get acquired by Microsoft.
→ No CommentsTags: acquisitions, Business, google, microsoft, yahoo
The big news of last week were of yet another attempt by Microsoft to buy Yahoo. If you missed all the buzz, Web Worker Daily has a really nice round-up with separate links to facts (read: press releases) and opinions (read: speculations). If that’s not enough for you, you can always find more with Google, Slashdot, and Digg.
Many online news sources continue to be completely dominated by discussion of Microsoft’s hostile bid to acquire Yahoo! And no wonder: a deal of this magnitude has the potential to touch the lives of pretty much everyone living and working online. It’s a rare web worker indeed who doesn’t use something from one or another of those two companies in their daily lives.
So, first, can it affect me personally? Yes. I don’t use any Microsoft/MSN/Live services, but I can’t live without Flickr and del.icio.us, both of which belong to Yahoo now. Also, I do occasionally use Upcoming.
Now, what do I think about this whole thing? Well, I think it shows how desperate Microsoft is. The general trend is towards the web, not the desktop, where they still rule. Most of their own web services turned out to be pretty lousy. They want to get online, and they are willing to pay a lot of money to get their fast. Mostly, of course, this is a war for a place under the advertising sun.
From the Microsoft view point (I think), Yahoo looks to be online. More than so. Yahoo is the second most important company online after Google. And Google is giving Yahoo some rough time. And Microsoft realizes it clearly, that Google is partially to blame for this whole trend towards the web. And it also realizes that if it is serious about moving online, it’ll have to compete with Google in one area or another. So it makes even more sense to acquire Yahoo. From the Microsoft point of view (again, I think), Yahoo appears to know what they are doing.
And that’s where I see their biggest mistake. Yahoo is indeed the second most important company on the web after Google. But it struggles to be there, and it struggles even more to keep Google in sight. Because it is falling pretty far behind.
A little side note: I think there is a war of concepts between Google and Yahoo. It’s bigger than just advertising space or anything else.
End of side note.
Overall, I think that this is a bad move on Microsoft part. If the acquisition will happen, I think, it’ll damage both companies, and, maybe even, drive at least one of them into the ground (eventually, not immediately). Yahoo, being at the position it is now, needs more flexibility. The online space is getting more and more competitive. That’s where you need to move fast. Yahoo made some really good acquisitions before, and I’d say that they have some sense in this area, but they need more speed with integration of their acquisitions into their backbone. With Microsoft on board, I’m afraid, everything will get a lot slower.
Also, I think that Yahoo won’t win much from this acquisition. Surely, some money will come their way, but it’s not always a good thing. And I don’t think that it’s good in this particular case and at this particular time. I believe it would do much more good for Yahoo to get smaller, faster, and “hungrier”. Hunger (think: limited resources) makes one’s mind sharper. That’s exactly what they need now. Not more “fat”.
As for Microsoft, I think there strategy should be more directed towards entertainment. If they really want to buy something, they should buy some entertainment companies. Those that produce content. Disney studios maybe? Or some sort of a deal with AOL/Time Warner (they had a few frictions in the past, but they seem to managed to work out a solution together). With more and easily accessible content they can reinforce end users interest in their Windows desktop, as well as their gaming platform (Xbox thing), and their mobile platform (Windows Mobile). And, entertainment content by itself is a rather popular thing among the end users, which makes advertising much easier. And rich advertising too - not just text-based relevant web ads, but audio and video media.
What do you think about all this?
→ 3 CommentsTags: acquisitions, announcements, Business, google, microsoft, news, opinions, Technology, web, yahoo
