Open is the New Cool - Open breakfast with Sun and SIME in Stockholm

I attended the Sun Open Breakfast event that took place at the IVA conference center in Stockholm on April 2. Map of location. This was the first in a series of 'open' breakfast events hosted by Sun Microsystems and SIME. The event was introduced by Ola Ahlvarsson from SIME introducing Stefan Alariksson, the CEO of Sun in Sweden.

Open is the new cool

Stefan explained how and why Sun has moved from being mainly associated with server hardware to an open software and solutions company. Sun has with their packaged solutions of open source software been growing and gaining more customers. Sun in Sweden has about 2B SEK in revenue out of about 200 employees. Stefan also talked about the fact that despite what a lot people think, how can you make any money with open source?, you can, by getting faster and bigger penetration on the market, you classify customers into different segments. The individual user who downloads a copy of MySQL will not want to pay for the software or services but a successful corporate customer needs and wants to pay for qualified professional services. So even if only 10% of the customers pay, Sun is making money.

Open Minds panel discussion

Henrik Torstensson, head of strategy at Stardoll - http://www.stardoll.com a site targetting tween girls and general manaer Piczo, http://www.piczo.com a social networking site where you can easily design your own site, blog, avatars and use games, music, quizzes...

Ulf Ekberg, music entrepreneur from the group Ace of Base and into new business models for the musicians.

Fredrik Runnquist, former IT boss at Swedbank and board member in several corporations.

Stefan Alariksson, CEO Sun Microsystems

Good information was presented, nothing new if you are in this business, but talk about efficient business models, penetration of market share, having real customers, working relations, scalability, value of partnering...

An open table discussion followed. My personal take on this was that there is not enough time to actively start such a discussion, I think for the next event, it would be better if the organizers
focus on a theme and have branch specific people giving their feedback with a possibility to let people participating in the event have a chance to do select networking.

Anders Carlsarv, head of sales, Sun Microsystems, concluded by announcing next Open Breakfast event, May 7 which will focus on Cloud Computing. Monitor http://www.sun.se/breakfast for coming events. Sun has recently published a white paper on Cloud Computing, for more info about this area, see http://www.sun.com/solutions/cloudcomputing/index.jsp

Thanks to the sponsors also for an excellent breakfast.

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for select reprensentation and management of outsourcing services!

Outsourcing and 2009 - Some interesting thoughts, Neev It with Neev Nordica

Neev Nordica Explore Benefits Safe Outsourcing

View more presentations from Thomas Lidforss. (tags: denmark norge)

Neev Nordica, a Neev Technologies company is an outsourced product development company providing flexible methods for development and partnership. Rich internet applications, Java, Flex, AWS, Web 2.0, mobile applications, web portals and SNS software.

I read an interesting report from http://www.equaterra.com regarding the expected development for outsourcing and in particular ICT areas (software and communications).
India will still be the lead due to their competence, language, culture and experience regardless of pricing.

I think that management at companies getting into outsourcing really need to think wider than just money or cost. It is a choice where you can make strategic advantages to outbeat the competition in particular during a recession we have now in the world.

Here's a presentation about the creative new Neev Nordica available in the nordic region of the EU area.

Please contact us for further discussions and information about what we can do to your bottom line and competitiveness now in 2009.

PS. A quick update; was told the following about this presentation; "Your slideshow has been featured on the SlideShare homepage by our editorial team.
Cheers,
- the SlideShare team"

Starting up your startup company - Cool and realistic tips from John Buckman

Employees Suck

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: bookmooch magnatune)

This is a very interesting and thought provoking presentation by John Buckman at http://www.magnature.com about what you can do to eventually succeed in making your own business.

Contact Thomas Lidforss International for your startup business services

Shared services outsourcing? - What is that and why bother

I think now when we are getting closer to 2009, it is time to look ahead and get creative instead of just getting down and out and thinking about global financial crisis. Companies who are smart will outdo the competition in times like now. To kick off your budget thoughts for next year, I am here presenting what you can do if you think about outsourcing.

Outsourcing is not about saving costs only. That is what most people think when they hear the word "outsourcing". Instead you should think strategically, what can you do to outsmart the competition, do more with less and gain a competitive advantage the way you are working. As a little teaser for your thoughts, help yourself to the presentation below;



And contact Thomas Lidforss International for a discussion about outsourcing your non core business functions.