Few companies if any, have strong partnerships with MSFT, IBM, ORCL, SUNW, NSCP and SAP all at the same time.
Possibly, although I think you are being generous when you describe the partnerships as "strong". The commercial basis of those relationships is the key to their value.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I view the MSFT relationship to be largely beneficial to Microsoft - "Borland endorses MFC 4.2 and the Active Template Library (ATL)", says Microsoft.
The others come under the heading of "mutually beneficial", I suppose, but I'd be interested in seeing how Borland will derive revenue from them. The important thing to bear in mind is: who has the mindshare, and why? E.g. in whose interest is it within those companies to promote the Borland approach over any other?
This is all part of the main outstanding question: "what is Borland's market?" For example, who are their competitors, now that they have moved "into the enterprise"? I have seen no comments from Borland on this since Del stated that he was going after Forte's market - which is a little like saying "I'm going to base my business on competing with Betamax"
I've seen many assertions on this thread that Borland's move "into the enterprise" is a good strategy, but that's like saying motherhood is a good thing. The devil is - as always - in the detail.
david |
