Although I am already on holidays, I would like to mark this day and to share my excitement with you all!
:-)
After about six months, we have reached a a great team-achievement again.
More “explicit information” to share with you in the coming time!
(and no, this has nothing to do with the fact that we are going to St Barth in some hours!)
Labels: business, communication, innoveo, insurance
via Seth Godin
Seth is comparing both search engines, not on a functional or on a “index-size” level, but on an “icon” level.
Interesting, and, in my opinion, true!
Markets love icons. We seek them out. […]
Once there's an icon in place, it's there because it's working. It serves a purpose, it carries useful information and performs a valuable function. There will never (or not for a generation, anyway) be the next Marilyn Monroe because this Marilyn Monroe isn't broken.
Google, of course, is the Marilyn Monroe of search. […]
The challenge for organizations is this: the easiest projects to start and fund are those that go after existing icons. The search for the "next" is easy to explain and exciting to join because we can visualize the benefits. But success keeps going to people who build new icons, not to those that seek to replace the most successful existing ones.
The current claimed differentiations (privacy, size of index) are perhaps not so evident, so that cuil can win enough market-shares against google.
Labels: business, entrepreneurship, strategy
Wow, again, a big consolidation in the Software industry!
IBM and ILOG today announced they have signed an agreement regarding a proposed acquisition by IBM of ILOG to be implemented by way of concurrent cash public tender offers in both France and the United States. Through this proposed transaction, IBM will combine its business process management (BPM), business optimization, and service oriented architecture (SOA) technologies with ILOG’s Business Rules Management Systems software. This will enable IBM to help clients deliver critical business information in real-time, allowing them to make better business decisions faster.
The cash tender offer will be at a price of €10 per ordinary share and the U.S. dollar equivalent per American Depositary Share (“ADS”) based on the Euro/U.S. dollar exchange rate as of the settlement of the tender offers, amounting to an aggregate purchase price of approximately €215 million or approximately $US340 million on a fully diluted basis. This price represents a premium of approximately 56 percent compared to ILOG's one month average of closing share prices prior to July 28, 2008, and a 37 percent premium to the closing price of Friday, July 25.
ILOG’s board of directors has approved the transaction between the two companies and, subject to the receipt of a satisfactory fairness opinion regarding the financial terms of the offer, is expected to give a final recommendation prior to September 15, following which the offer should be filed with the French stock exchange authority (AMF).
You can find the press release here.
Charles Nouÿrit (I have met him at the last leweb3 – cgs dinner last year) kindly asked me to join the private pre-alpha-test of MyID.is.
MyID.is trying to answer a simple question, how can we provide our users with a digital ID that have been certified with the same level of trust as if we met in real life with a valid ID delivered by a government administration but without the need to actually meet in real life?
By certifying your ID you’ll be able to certify all of your online presence, such as your blogs, your Facebook, LinkedIn… profiles, your comments,… and any kind of online presence that is part of your Identity 2.0.
After months of developing our solution, we are now ready to open our platform to the public.
Since Friday, July 25, I am a certified user and I have a certified Digital Identity :-)
The whole certification costs some EUR and is very simple to follow. So, till now, everything is fine.
Congrats to the MyID team for the preparation work.
I have already started to play around with the badges and I could already certified my blog ;-)
You can follow the project on their blog here and on twitter here.
PS: and yes, MyID is clearly supporting interoperable data portability (dataportability.org)
Labels: business, entrepreneurship
Today, July 25 2008, is … the System Administrator Appreciation Day!!
A sysadmin unpacked the server [...] from its box, installed an operating system, patched it for security, made sure the power and air conditioning was working in the server room, monitored it for stability, set up the software, and kept backups in case anything went wrong. [...]
A sysadmin installed the routers, laid the cables, configured the networks, set up the firewalls, and watched and guided the traffic for each hop of the network that runs over copper, fiber optic glass, and even the air itself to bring the Internet to your computer. [...]
A sysadmin makes sure your network connection is safe, secure, open, and working. A sysadmin makes sure your computer is working in a healthy way on a healthy network. A sysadmin takes backups to guard against disaster both human and otherwise, holds the gates against security threats and crackers [...]
[...] A sysadmin is a professional, who plans, worries, hacks, fixes, pushes, advocates, protects and creates good computer networks, to get you your data, to help you do work -- to bring the potential of computing ever closer to reality.
So, now, as you see again what we are talking about, what is this sysadmin appreciation day?
Consider all the daunting tasks and long hours (weekends too.) Let's be honest, sometimes we don't know our System Administrators as well as they know us. Remember this is one day to recognize your System Administrator for their workplace contributions and to promote professional excellence. Thank them for all the things they do for you and your business.
So for us at Innoveo, we have Olivier, our sysadmin :-)
Olivier: this is your day. Umh, already finished, but anyway!
Olivier, as usual, kissing his servers ;-)
Network cable sorting exercise
Sometimes, you have to be alone to solve some prod issues…And, at the same time, others are just eating a great dinner. Pfffuuuu….
But, after the effort, some comfort…and cigars. Guess with whom ;-)
It seems that we still have some “room for improvement”. Gosh!
OLIVIER HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD SYSADMIN DAY ;-)
via CAOS Theory
Marc Fleury, the founder and former CEO of jBoss, has left RedHat after some months of incorporation. He seems now again to be quite busy with his next project called OpenRemote.
The OpenRemote team also includes the creator of Asterisk Mark Spencer, JBoss veterans Juha Lindfors, Christian Bauer, Java X10 project creator Wade Wassenberg, and Linux Home Automation founder Neil Cherry.
Together they, and others, plan to create a complete open source home automation including the OpenRemote Controller hardware, OpenRemote Console Applications to make use of the iPhone and iTouch as a universal remote (although any device with browser will work), the OpenRemote Manager, and the Beehive Database.
“Figuring out the business model, this is one thing I can help with. But for right now, let’s focus on a community. Without a community, there is no OSS model. The community is what you do with it.”
Exciting idea and project!
Labels: business, entrepreneurship, open source
Dear customers, partners and friends
After 9 exciting and successful months on the market, we are proud to introduce our new corporate identity. It now represents our personality, culture, spirit and soul in a more appropriate way, as it has been built on our company’s…
VALUES /
MISSION /
VISION /
Find below our new Logo and get additional information about our CONSULTING SERVICES and our insurance framework INNOVEO SKYE by visiting our new company WEBSITE.
We are looking forward to a continuous successful co-operation and collaboration with you all under our new brand!
For the Innoveo Team,
Didier
PS1: a BIG THANK to Laurent for the great and efficient .Net implementation.
PS2: another BIG THANK to Andreas Koch, our absolutely great designer, for his support, commitment, and creativity.
PS3: another THANK to evaluant for their great Open Source product, EUSS (Evaluant Universal Storage Services).
PS4: and the last THANK to wygwam for their great help in the field of CSS.
Labels: blog, business, communication, innoveo, insurance
So, it seems that my preferred watch brand, Hublot, is joining LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton), i.e. the Group which owns my preferred champagnes (among others: Dom Perignon, Veuve Clicquot, Krug and Ruinart!) and my preferred perfumer (Guerlain)!
Indeed, the LVMH Group has just announced yesterday the acquisition of the Swiss watchmaker Hublot. You perhaps remember, I have just published some news about Hublot for about 14 days.
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s leading luxury group, announces
that it has signed an agreement to acquire the Hublot group, a top of the range
watchmaker enjoying very strong growth.
LVMH will acquire Hublot from Mr Carlo Crocco, who founded the group in 1980, and a company controlled by Mr Jean-Claude Biver, who has managed Hublot since 2004. [...]Having grown at a rapid pace since 2004, the brand achieved net revenue of more than CHF150 million in 2007 with an excellent profitability. A very significant increase in revenue is expected in 2008.
Today, Hublot has a very selective and efficient distribution network which is limited to 300 stores worldwide. [...]Jean-Claude Biver, the architect of the success of the Big Bang collection and the recent strong growth of Hublot, commented: “I am delighted that Hublot will be able to benefit from LVMH’s support and strategic leadership in the luxury goods industry and so maximise its growth potential in the years to come. I am happy to be pursuing this adventure and to be able to contribute to the development of LVMH’s watchmaking division alongside Philippe Pascal.”
The Hublot company was founded in 1980 by Carlo Crocco, who owned 80% of the shares, 20% being acquired by J.-C. Biver, when he joined Hublot as CEO in September 2004.
The acquisition price was not published but, based on different interviews and articles, it seems that the deal looks like the following:
Let's see now how this merge will work, and especially if Mr. Biver, the current CEO of Hublot, will stay at his position. He has recently stated in one of his interview, that he was not able to block the acquisition of Hublot by another company because he hasn't reached the level of shares which would has allowed this control... On the other hand, it seems that he has some guarantees concerning his freedom and the one of his team.
And, it is funny to observe that Mr. Biver is one of the top5 worldwide collector of Château d'Yquem, Château which is owned by ..... LVMH!
I like more and more (high-end) watches. The role of the brand, the incredible high technological sophistication - but still manually produced and 100% mechanical ! -, the emotion generated by this kind of watches...
I have discovered in the last time three great brands, quite different from each others: Hublot, Panerai, and U-Boat. I have published an article about Hublot last year.
As the BaselWorld Show is now taking place in Basel / Switzerland (the biggest luxury conference in the world), a lot of interviews and reports are going on in the media. A good opportunity to listen to Jean-Claude Biver, the CEO of Hublot, who is very well-known in the high-end watch industry because of his huge success with BlancPain (he successfully re-launched this company and its brand in the 1980's, before sending it to Omega and being integrated in the Swatch Group) and now with Hublot. A visionary, full of energy and ideas, very people-oriented. So, a lot to learn here on leadership ;-)
So, first, in the last "Bilanz" newspaper (April 2008, in German), you can find a great interview of Mr. Biver. He is giving the some business figures concerning Hublot in this interview:
I was also happy (and not surprised) to read that Mr. Biver's preferred watch is the "Big Bang 44mm All Black" model, which is actually absolutely fantastic!
During our last stay in St Barth beginning of this year, I also had the chance to see the Hublot Saint Barth special model. But I cannot find any information or picture online for this model. Arrrgggg :-)
Another interesting interview, this time a video in English with Mr. Biver, for the Herald Tribune. Quite funny. He is explaining that Hublot is offering a piece of his own cheese to its guests at BaselWorld! And, somebody saying that his four passions are his family, watches, cheese and wine, cannot be a bad guy ;-)
Labels: business, saint barth
via 451 CAOS Theory
Great post about some impressive figures from the Linux kernel development.
- There have been almost 10,000 patches in each recent quarterly Linux kernel release.
- Releases include work from ~1,000 developers and ~100 companies.
- Since 2005, Linux has had more than 3,600 individual developers and more than 250 companies contributing to the kernel.
- The individual development community has tripled in the last three years.
- The top 10 developers have contributed 15% of changes, and the top 30 developers have contributed 30% of changes to the kernel.
- Linus Torvalds is 27th on the list of contributors with most changes over the last few years. He has 495 to his name.
- More than 11,500 or 14% of kernel changes have come from developers with no commercial entity backing their Linux development.
- Another 13% of changes come from developers with ‘unknown’ commercial affiliation.
- When we get to actual companies, Red Hat leads with 9,351 kernel changes, or 11.2%. Next is Novell with 8.9%, IBM with 8.3% and Intel with 4.1% of kernel changes.
- More than 70% of all kernel development is demonstrably done by developers who are being paid for their work.
- From the 2.6.11 kernel to the 2.6.24 release (1,140 days), there were an average of 2.8 accepted patches applied to the Linux kernel tree per hour.
- An average of more than 3,600 lines of code is added to the Linux kernel tree every day.
- Since 2005, the kernel has grown at a steady rate of 10% per year.
Gosh, if this is not showing the incredible health and dynamism of the Linux community!
cross-posted on the innoveo blog.
Labels: business, linux, open source, statistics
Beginning of this week, Nick and I were able to assist to a business meeting with some people in Amsterdam - Holland, based on the last TelePresence system from Cisco. Below a picture taken just before the conference start in Zurich.
This experience, I must say, was absolutely great! You really feel the presence (good product name ;-) of the other participants thanks to the high-quality video (1080p), the fact that the 3 screens are reproducing the real size of the participants, and because of the quality of the sound (CD quality). The oval form of the table with each half-part on each side of the table is also a good idea.
More information: cisco TelePresence 3000 (pdf).
Below another picture from cisco. You see the both parts and a presentation projection just below the table (another good idea!).
Cross-posted on the innoveo blog.
Labels: business, cisco, communication
We are very proud at Innoveo to announce that we are now officially a Business Partner of HP (Hewlett-Packard) since about one month.
We are member of the Developer & Solution Partner Program (DSPP). Our front-end solution for the Insurance Industry and our company are listed in the worldwide partners and solutions catalog!
innoveo solutions is a software company whose products, services and technologies enable its insurance industry clients to create business value. It provides high-level expertise in software, multi-channel e-business platforms, SOA, architecture, open source, infrastructure in combination with insurance industry knowledge.
This membership is concretizing a solid, trustful and already quite long common partnership. And also the fact that quite a lot of us are former HP employees ;-)
All this was possible thanks to the great and constant support of Petra Wildemann, Worldwide Director Financial Services / Insurance at HP.
cross-posted on the innoveo blog.
Our business colleagues from logix-tt (a Swiss company specialized in tracking & tracing solutions, navigation systems and security techniques) has just launched their new modular Navigation System, which is not only incredibly cheap (99 EUR incl. VAT) but also seems to be very easy to use. On top, the system is very modular and is delivered with its own SDK!
From the press release:
GoTo® is not only unique regarding the price-performance ratio, it is the only navigation system with a complete module concept.
By simply adding modules, the navigation system turns into a TV (DBV-T), an internet terminal (GSM, 3G), a DVD-Player, a hands free mobi le phone and lots more.
The software is modular, too. Based on eCos1, Swiss company logix-tt has created its own operating system lbcs2-that enables you to fit additional software to your GoTo®.
Scripting language Pawn 3 (based on Javascript or C) makes it possible to create your own software to be run on the device. GoTo® uses Enlightenment as user interface, so the device is not only available in many colours - but the user interface will fit perfectly.
More about the product at http://goto.ag.
Labels: business, entrepreneurship
via Wikipedia
In about one week, we will have the pleasure to go to India, and more precisely to Chennai, for a business trip. Wow :-)
Chennai, formerly known as Madras, is the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, Chennai has an estimated population of 7.5 million (2007), making it the fourth largest metropolitan city in India and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world.
The city was established in the 17th century by the British, who developed it into a major urban centre and naval base. By the 20th century, it had become an important administrative centre, as the capital of the Madras Presidency.
Chennai's economy has a broad industrial base in the automobile, technology, hardware manufacturing, and healthcare industries. The city is home to much of India's automobile industry and is the country's second-largest exporter of information technology (IT) and information-technology-enabled services (ITES), behind Bangalore. The city is served by an international airport and two major ports; it is connected to the rest of the country by five national highways and two railway terminals. Thirty-five countries have consulates in Chennai.
Absolutely impressive! This city has actually more inhabitants than Switzerland! The weather is also quite different as by us: 32°C during the day and a minimum of 20° at night. With 90% humidity...
via 451 CAOS Theory and AlwaysOn
First time I am reading some explanations (apart from the $1bn deal ;-) coming directly from Marten Mickos, MySQL's CEO, concerning their decision to sold out to SUN, instead of going for an IPO.
The fact that it all happened so quickly makes it obvious that Sun's and MySQL's organizations have a cultural affinity that enables such fast convergence on a major strategic deal. What was it that justified the deal to start with?
Here is my entirely personal view of the factors that made the deal happen:
- Jonathan Schwartz is a brilliant CEO and he has a great team. Who wouldn't want to work for him?
- Sun has always had the same focus as MySQL on the networked world. Focus and alignment!
- Sun has become the world's strongest proponent of free and open source software. We are happy to be part of that!
- Sun has changed its strategy to include partnerships with former competitors. Hey, coopetition is what we always did!
- Sun has never stopped innovating or stopped investing in technology. Impressive!
- Sun has a huge field operation that can bring MySQL to more customers faster. Thank you!
- MySQL would be a great complementary fit in Sun's product portfolio. We like being useful! We love being uniquely useful!
- Sun's corporate culture is among the best a startup can ask for. We can work from home! We can innovate. We are thrilled!
- Sun is a bold and fun disruptor again, and we see a huge upside in its strategy. I am not saying that success is a given, but I am saying that Sun's new strategy is one of the most exciting this industry has to offer. We are all in!
- Sun was really eager to get us on board and we were treated with the greatest respect from the start. (And I hope we did the same in return)
In light of the above, the decision ultimately was easy. Initially it was not easy at all, because we all had such a strong commitment to go public and continue life as an independent company. It was hard work to change our minds. But once we saw that within Sun we would get the same benefits as going public, but with more resources and operational backing, we realized that Sun was for us like an IPO, only better.
Comprehensive, pragmatic and courageous decision!
Labels: business, open source
Very interesting insides about how Loic has launched and founded seesmic.
I like very much this way of making business, which has more something to do with trust, with support & help, and with commitment of people concerning a vision.
I understand also Loic who is saying that being in a positive environment - which knows the risks und doesn't underestimate them - is great. I hope that this will be also the case at a time in Europe... It is still more or less a pain to found a new venture here, and mostly because of the negative spirit around new founding and the risks taken...
Thanks Loic for sharing this piece of business and, at the end, much more this piece of your life!
And good luck with seesmic!
Labels: business, entrepreneurship, leadership
Very good news today!
Innoveo will have one employee more in 2 months. And what for a new colleague!
First, we have won one nationality more, i.e. we will have 8 nationalities represented in the company (Swiss, French, German, Italian, Austrian, Indian, Slovenian, and Dutch!). Not bad.
Secondly, we have won a very very nice guy.
Thirdly, he is such a great professional, with a huge experience in Software Engineering and Architecture! Incredible :-)
We are extremely proud and honored that, among a vast spectrum of options, such an expert has his choice finally felt on Innoveo.
Thanks ... and see you soon!
Philippe and Nick reminded me about the hammer's story of Paul Watzlawick, and Philippe just sent an email with this "hammer's story" from the book The Situation is Hopeless, but not Serious.
Cool illustration....of quite a lot of real situations ;-)
a man wants to hang a painting. he has the nail, but not the hammer. therefore it occurs to him to go over to the neighbor and ask him to lend him his hammer.
but at this point, doubt sets in. what if he doesn’t want to lend me the hammer? yesterday he barely spoke to me. maybe he was in a hurry. or, perhaps, he holds something against me. but why? i didn’t do anything to him.
if he would ask me to lend him something, i would, at once. how can he refuse to lend me his hammer? people like him make other people’s life miserable. worst, he thinks that i need him because he has a hammer. this has got to stop!
and suddenly the guy runs to the neighbor’s door, rings, and before letting him say anything, he screams: "you can keep your hammer, you bastard!"
Reminds you something?
Labels: business, communication, leadership
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