Hi Steven,
<Seriously, I would be very skeptical about investing in a new company in the RMDY/VNTV/SCOP space>
I have to take issue with the above, and I almost wonder if you really meant it. If the reasons you gave were valid, shouldn't Dun & Bradstreet have dominated the sales force automation market instead of having to liquidate Sales Technologies and direct their customers to Aurum? Shouldn't IBM, AT&T, DEC, and all the people who had worked since the late 60's on RDBMS have been the big winners instead of Oracle and Informix? Of course not-they were too big, lacked focus, had installed bases to protect, etc, and as a result left openings for the more nimble players to exploit. As RMDY/VNTV/SCOP grow, they are vulnerable to the same issues-if they try to do everything, they will be doomed to doing an average job, and if they focus, they leave opportunities for others, particularly in a market growing as rapidly as CIS.
Two examples of companies doing just that (both private) are Metrix and RTS, both enterprise-level vendors focused on field service (I suspect they are responsible for some of your Astea heartaches). Clients include SunService, Data General, rumored to be shortlisted at cisco, based in part on their ability to manage the global enterprise. My bets are that the entrepenuers and VCs will continue to be the drivers of getting technology to the market.
That being said, I have enjoyed your posts here and at the VNTV, Astea, and Informix threads, although I agree with Shege about Astea. |
