Europe’s 4th Entrepreneurship Day

An interesting invitation arrived overnight. Microsoft is organising Europe's 4th Entrepreneurship Day in Brussels on 11th June. Microsoft's vision for engagement in Europe is clear.

'The investor community remains a critical component of the European Innovation Ecosystem and together we aim to establish Europe as a major innovation cluster that parallels that in Silicon Valley.

We’re keen for you to understand how Microsoft programs and initiatives are helping to build better Education solutions, see some examples of R&D and Academic partnerships, incubation and funding solutions – such as the Start-up Accelerator, Imagine Cup and Entrepreneurship Forum.'

It's a tad far for me to travel for one day from Tauranga. However the invitation does reinforce the globalisation of Pingar.

Rod Drury recently posted a blog here in NZ on 'If I was in Charge of Microsoft'. The posting included some good stuff. There is however a catch. One the problems I find being based in NZ is that so many Microsoft programs exist offshore that do not appear to exist in godszone.

The agenda for the Brussels meeting is testament to that. I do not pretend to understand Microsoft's own global Ecosystem of internal organisation. It does seem to me though that NZ-based Microsoft developers are sometimes disadvantaged if they cannot engage with all of Microsoft Corp's global programs.

I believe NZ Microsoft developers punch above their weight in terms of technology development. They face additional commercialisation challenges though in terms of domestic market size and distance to the global market. Direct access to more of Microsoft's global programs would help.

Investment Options

This week began with a couple of important meetings. One was with a Corporate Finance house and the other was with a Bank. Welcome to 2008!

Both related to the establishment and development of Pingar in the UK market and both reflected some of the 'opportunities' I identified in the previous blog. The timing is interesting.

I was reading Rod Drury's excellent blog from New Zealand a couple of days ago and he has written a series of 3 - 4 articles on establishing a successful IT business in NZ. He has chosen to identify some of the key issues particularly impacting on the funding of the said businesses.

Heresy I know at home, but with 12,000 miles between us, I can say that I do not agree with every point made, but Rod's post on the 5th January does make one sobering point.

'You only need to look at the very few angel or venture capital deals done in New Zealand during 2007........'

Being exposed to the angel and venture capital industry here in only a few short weeks has emphasised Rod's point. Whilst I have slightly taken his quote out of context, the limited number of deals closed in New Zealand says as much about the state of the 'risk-adverse' NZ capital markets as it does by the paucity of great investment opportunities in the country. Taking a global view of opportunity, I do sometimes wonder whether some of the limited NZ investment sources really do 'get it'.

Engage UK

Wellington Today. The sun actually shone....

I've blogged before about the need for greater engagement between NZ ICT companies and the UK. I prefer the concept of 'engagement' than the concept of 'export'. It is much more embracing and reflects the reality of working with a global mindset.

On Friday, I had the chance to meet up and discuss this briefly with Rod Drury in Wellington. Apart from doing great things with Xero Live, Rod is a Kiwi software entrepreneur who understands the importance of global engagement. He has been there, done that and is now doing it again.

I am in Auckland on Monday for a couple of days and will be taking up the case for a more formal 'Engage UK' strategy with UK T&I and NZTE. It is important to ensure that key agencies buy into the concept. The drive to make this work however will not come from government. It will and must come from the private sector. I believe that process will happen soon.

Updating Smart Analytics

Overnight, I received an email from Girish Kulkarni, Head of Content at HBI Software in Bangalore.

It contained the latest quarterly financial updates for nine mobile companies which Smart Analytics track for competitive intelligence. Over the next few weeks, Girish and the team at HBI Software will update further Competitive Intelligence reports to companies in both the electronic document and print, and the software company sectors.

We started building Smart Analytics over three years ago. It can now be accessed via Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office 2007 by downloading a web services utility from the Smart Analytics page on Microsoft Office Marketplaces.

All that changes when Microsoft launch Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2007 Suite in the next quarter. Microsoft are then integrating Smart Analytics into the core Research ribbon in Microsoft Office 2007 Suite. All Office users will then be able to access Smart Analytic's research and analytics sources directly from within their Office applications.

It's been three years in the making. The end game is just a few weeks away.

From a New Zealand perspective, our relationship with Microsoft globally follows pretty much the same path as described in one of Rod Drury's blogs yesterday. A Microsoft partnership is a valuable technology tool as well as being a great potential route to market. It needs working at though. Microsoft have their own route map and it is important that partners understand that and align part of their own development and marketing strategy to map that. Then the potential can be realised.

It's 7.35am in Tauranga

I still find the idea of watching midweek soccer (Liverpool v AC Milan - Champions League Cup Final from Athens is live on Sky at present), whilst eating breakfast weird. Back in London right now, it would be Wednesday evening, the Black Lion in West Hampstead and a pint of Fullers.

I had the same feeling earlier, reading Rod Drury's latest diary entries from Wales. He talked about the revelation of speaking to people focused on building a Knowledge Economy, co-ordinated Agency planning, digital infrastructure and the fact that people don't use the word 'Export'. In the UK, he says, all the talk is about participating in the global economy. Sound familiar? - (see previous blog posts)

New Zealand exports. Things like logs, dairy, beef and sheep body parts.

In a Knowledge Economy, you do not export. You do not disengage from the global economy and say - 'hey, this is a great New Zealand SaaS application...let's export it'. In the global Knowledge Economy you engage, you partner, you participate. In the global Knowledge Economy, you access a market of hundreds of millions of users. That's as it should be.

Sitting in Tauranga right now, eating a bowl of weet-bix, London really does seem a long way away.

It's Global, not Export

I have enjoyed reading Rod Drury's travel diary from Wales. It is putting New Zealand's investment in ICT infrastructure into perspective.

Over the past few months, I have realised more and more, the depth of the challenge facing the software development sector here. And it is not just about investment, broadband and attitude.

A key challenge facing Pingar in New Zealand is that some of the key global players we might want to partner with have no direct representation in the country.

We are lucky. We have a strong presence in the UK, so meetings can be organised there. Without that presence, building a global platform from New Zealand alone would be a much greater challenge.

I have been a strong supporter of the motives behind 'NZ Export Year 2007'. But to export, software developers in NZ must first connect with offshore partners to grow. Without that connection, that global approach, exporting becomes very hard.

Xero 12 - PlanHQ 8

Last night's BOP ICT Cluster meeting attracted a large crowd of software developers to hear Rod Drury speak. Is it my imagination, or are the number of software developers attending BOP ICT meetings increasing? I think that might be the case.

Rod talked about his background, SaaS and the way ahead. Ah yes, and he did manage to mention Xero and PlanHQ - a few times.

A good meeting, some good questions, a good night.

Xero Ahead

I met up with Rod Drury in Wellington on Friday and he gave me a brief demonstration of the Xero Accounting system that he and a highly talented team of designers and developers are currently taking to market through a limited public release.

Rod is perhaps best known in New Zealand for the successful development and eventual sale of the enterprise email archiving system, AfterMail. Xero is an entirely different proposition however and is probably one of the best examples of a NZ-inspired SaaS solution in the public domain at present.

The interface itself is based around a Dashboard, which hosts a number of essential small business accounting functions. Some clever proprietary graphics create some great visual effects allowing the user to assess data through a multi-dimensional view. Enough of the product however.

What makes this a standout proposition from my perspective is the high quality team that Rod has built around the business. He has contracted some of the brightest and smartest that NZ has - and not just on the development side. This is what makes it such an interesting project to follow.

Xero is currently only available to New Zealand businesses. The Xero website says that the company is looking to develop the core application for both the UK and the Australian markets. Clearly because of the nature of the product, compliance reporting for local tax requirements and integration with local banks means that different versions need to be developed for different markets.

It is how the Xero management team manage this process from New Zealand that is of greatest interest to me. From earlier posts, anyone who has read this blog will understand that most of my own focus is on developments and relationships with partners offshore. This brings its own special challenges in identifying the most appropriate models to follow when entering different overseas markets.

With the collective brain power that sits behind the Xero team, it will be very interesting to follow its progress. I suspect that it will create a great case study for other NZ-based software entrepreneurs and businesses, as well as being one that gives us all something valuable to learn from.

I left Wellington feeling pretty impressed.

My Favourites

Being based in NZ means that much of the news I listen to on mainstream media relates to local domestic news. i.e. Cat gone missing in Matua (Monday headlines), Cat found in Matua - Neighbours rejoice (Tuesday headlines).

To keep in touch with things overseas, I rely on my Favorites menu. So these are the sites that I use to interface with the rest of the world.

For news, I check out BBC Online, CNN, Times of India (Bangalore) and the Daily Telegraph (London Edition).

For business, I check out FT.com, Reuters and Bloomberg.

For sport, I check out BBC Online, Blackpool FC, Fylde RUFC and Rivals.net.

For Technology, I check out 3 or 4 Blogs. Although I work in the technology space, I prefer not to write about it from a techie perspective. Having first experienced 'New Media' in 1979 when I joined Brunnings Advertising in Liverpool - 'New Media' was then commercial radio, I have experienced so many 'New Media' moments, that I no longer predict their future. I prefer instead to refer to others and let them do the hard work.

I am indebted therefore to those Bloggers who I habitually visit. There is a Microsoft bias, but this perhaps reflects Microsoft's strategy of encouraging their employees to blog in company time. There also appears to be a new generation of Microsoft employee that is more open to non-M/S speak and more aware of the bigger picture. Could be of course, just a good disguise.....

Steve Clayton, CTO of the Microsoft UK Partner Group has a good blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/. Steve does cover some technology issues but also looks at the wider impact of emerging technologies. His blogs usually contain some good links to both Partner and non-Partner sites.

Claire O'Halloran works with the Microsoft UK Partner Group and heads up the 'Partners of the Future' team. Since we are one, it is good to catch up with her thoughts. Like Steve, some great links to Partner sites doing amazing things in the Web 2.0, SaaS area, etc. etc. Check Claire's blog out at http://blogs.msdn.com/armadillo/default.aspx.

Frank Arrigo is responsible for all Microsoft Australia's Technical Communities in Australia, which includes Developer, Architect, IT Professional, Academic and ISV. He is also brother of Rita who I met during a Business Australia meeting in Melbourne back in March 2006. He is also related to John Beer's wife Elvy. John is my partner in Pingar. So for a taste of Aussie M/S thinking, I occasionally drop into http://blogs.msdn.com/frankarr/

In NZ, a name that has cropped up several times in recent months is Rod Drury. So I checked out his blog and then bookmarked it. It's got some techie stuff, but also links to some NZ-based companies and developers. I check it out at www.drury.net.nz.

New Zealand does have some of its own sites, though particularly in the News and Business area, they all appear to publish the same NZPA news feeds at the same time. Two of the better online sources for news are Stuff and NZ Herald. For business, I occasionally check out the New Zealand Stock Exchange and National Business Review.