Five Things Corporate Communicators Must Consider Pre- and Post-IPO

Though stronger than last year, almost six months into the year and the U.S. IPO market has been nothing to write home about.

Yesterday, Zipcar -- the Cambridge, Mass.-based car-sharing service company -- became only the 108th U.S. company to file an S-1 in 2010. Although the active IPO pipeline boasts 153 companies, it includes companies who have filed registrations or amendments with the SEC in the last two years, according to Renaissance Capital, an independent provider of IPO research. Another 18 companies recently withdrew or postponed their IPO vs. six companies who did the same by this date one year ago, also according to Renaissance.

As of this posting, Zipcar is the only U.S. company in the month of June to have registered for an IPO.  Of course, it's only June 2 so there's still plenty of time for other companies to follow suit before the next round of holiday cook outs after which time the U.S. IPO market will likely take a summer hiatus.

Filing an S-1 prior to the kick off the summer holiday fun is actually a great strategy because the mandatory "quiet period" is easier to uphold during the summer season than during other "busier" times of the year.  Perhaps it's what the communications strategists at Zipcar had in mind.

So with Zipcar's filing as a back drop, here are five things corporate communications executives must be aware of pre- and post-IPO:

• Evaluate the company's communications capabilities.  Diverse skill sets and deep experience in navigating the pre - and post-IPO waters are required and differ greatly from the needs of a private company.
• From the moment a company whispers a plan to file for an IPO, new rules and expectations on how it communicates kick in.  The cost of noncompliance with quite periods and other restrictions, including Regulation Fair Disclosure and Sarbanes-Oxley, could break a company's back.  Communicators must be able to build company awareness while playing within the lines.
• Adopt a communications approach that addresses all stakeholders and encompasses all pertinent communications disciplines. 
• Function as strategic counselors to management; help them understand what "safe" media activity is inside of pre- and post-IPO quiet periods.
• Train company employees on the behavioral changes and expectations within a pre-IPO and newly public company.  A fully-informed employee is typically more motivated to put the needs of the company before the needs of the individual.

We Built It and They Came

Silicon Valley

My esteemed colleague Jim wrote on this blog just a couple of days ago that he is tired of hearing about how Bay Area is the end-all, be-all of technology innovation and that for his money Boston is every bit as tech savvy as the nerds in Silicon Valley.

Ironically, that very day, Apple – a Silicon Valley based company – surpassed Microsoft as the most valuable technology in the world! That’s right, a company from Cupertino, CA #1 in the tech industry.

But as strong as Apple has become over the past few years, it is far from being the only formidable technology company here in Silicon Valley. You may have heard of some of them -- Google, Facebook, eBay and Intel. And literally tens of thousands of other companies too. But we’re not just about the Internet and semiconductors any more. No siree!

Just this past week President Obama was in Fremont, another Silicon Valley city, touring Solyndra, a maker of solar panels, where he touted the new factory as an example his administration's efforts to encourage job growth in innovative technologies. Green tech comes to Silicon Valley.

And Solyndra is not alone. There are dozens of new companies developing green technologies here in Silicon Valley, and a number entrenched semiconductor companies, such as Intel and National Semiconductor, are spending big amounts of R&D money on new photovoltaic and solar projects.

Biotech is another area of growth for Silicon Valley. In fact, hundreds of Valley-based biotech firms are expected to vie for $1 billion in new federal tax credits and grants aimed at boosting medical research and generating jobs.

Boston is certainly a vibrant and important market for a number of diverse technologies. But Silicon Valley, like Apple, isn’t going to give up its #1 tech ranking easily. That’s why 3Point Communications is located in both Boston and the Bay Area. We know that if you’re going to provide world-class communications counsel to technology companies, you have to be in both places at once.

Built It and They Will Come...ah, I Don't Think So.

I'm sick and tired of surveys and self-proclaimed pundits claiming that the Bay Area is the end-all, be-all when it comes to technology innovation.  I'm willing to bet a week's salary (no jokes) that Greater Bostonians appreciate technology innovation as much, if not more, than our Bay Area brothers and sisters.

Just eavesdrop on a conversation or two at the Starbucks at 755 Boylston St., Boston or during business breakfast hours at Henrietta's Table at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge, MA and you'll be witness to Boston's appreciation for technology innovation.

What has me fired up is this:  a research consultancy -- Penn Schoen Berland -- did a pretty clever thing this week when they announced the findings of an online survey, focused on the Bay Area, to herald the opening of their new San Francisco office.  They called the research "The Bay Area Future of Technology Survey" and not without some pandering to their latest host city, called out attention to the "fact" that Bay Area residents are generally more tech savvy than non-Bay Area U.S. residents.

So right away, to me, it's a west coast vs. east coast thing.

While the survey results show Americans-at-large "are embracing the future of technology" and are generally excited about innovation and technology trends including cloud computing and convergence, they also show that the the good citizens of the Bay Area are "different."  Yes, that's the word the firm uses in it press release-- different, as in special. 

Different how, you're thinking?

Well, according to the results of the survey, more Bay Area residents vs. the rest of the U.S. population are excited about future technologies, hold more dear the "latest and greatest" shiny objects that are introduced and desire a greater level of engagement  in "making new technologies possible and accessible."

So do Bay Area residents really appreciate technology more than folks in the rest of the U.S., including greater Boston, which when I last checked (and I check every 30 seconds or so) was still considered to be one of technology's global centers of gravity?  It's really hard to say and one certainly has to to take with a grain of salt the results of a survey that queried only 501 people and was issued, in large part, to condition the Bay Area market for Penn Schoen Berland's arrival.

I will go out on a small limb to say greater Bostonians likely appreciate diverse technologies more than Bay Area residents because we are no longer the IT-centric region we once were.  Instead, greater Boston is now home to a very diverse community of innovative businesses in pharma, bio-tech, life sciences, nano tech, semiconductor manufacturing, defense as well as IT (including cloud and mobile/convergence). 

The survey results aside, I think there's at least one area where Bay Area residents separate themselves from greater Bostonians and everyone else in the U.S.  And it is this:  they do the best job of promoting their offerings, likes and dislikes, while Bay Staters have had, at least historically, more of an engineering attitude about technology and innovation:  "build it and they will come."

Bill Shander of Tippingpoint Labs recently asked if Bostonians really have an "overriding lack of confidence" about their "place in the world of innovation and business?'' Do Bostonians really have a "perpetual chip" on their shoulders despite their history of innovation, he wonders.

Perhaps Bill is right on this.  Perhaps we'll conduct a survey to find out.

Can't we all just get along?

The previous two posts to this blog asked the questions, will the cloud save journalism, and is old (traditional) media dead?

I’d like to expand on this discussion by recounting the experience of a friend of mine who joined the San Francisco Chronicle a few years back to head up the “traditional” newspaper’s new online department, dubbed www.sfgate.com.

At first, she describes, “everything went well.” The traditional print side of the business didn’t fully respect, nor fear, the upstart online editors and reporters, so they simply went about their business as usual.

But soon, the online part of the paper started scooping the print-version of the Chronicle on important local stories by virtue of being able to distribute the stories electronically, i.e., instantaneously. Suddenly, the stories that would have been fresh and exciting in the morning paper were old news.

And, because some of these young, hungry online reporters were willing to get out of the office and actually talk to people, they were coming up with stories on their own that were being missed by the print version.

“Soon, our daily editorial meetings were becoming very contentious,” my friend told me. Rather than working together to provide a comprehensive view of the news – immediate and top level via online and more thorough but a little later in the print version – the two sides of the organization were locked in a ferocious battle.

“The print guys still owned the bulk of the advertising dollars,” my friend said, “so we (the online team) were always playing second fiddle.”

After a couple of years of doing this tiresome dance my friend had had enough and decided to strike out on her own.

“I knew that there was a market for an online paper in San Francisco, so I decided to start one of my own,” she told me.

Using her own money, she started the fledgling www.sfappeal.com online paper focused exclusively on local stories. “It was a lot easier than I thought,” she said.

She hired a few reporters and paid them by the stories they wrote. There weren’t any printing or distribution costs because she set up the entire operation in the cloud. She pays only a few dollars a day to have her entire enterprise housed on computers, as she puts it, “somewhere out there.” And the online ads she sells cover her costs and allow her to stash away a little for herself.

She went on to tell me she doesn’t have physical office space because she’s found that when people don’t have to go into the office they find their way onto the streets where the news is being made. As a result she gets better content and is now getting 700,000 unique visits to her site every month.

This is not to suggest that traditional newspapers, or magazines, are completely obsolete.

The way we look at it here at 3Point is akin to a pebble in a pond. The initial pebble, in this case the story in traditional media, often makes a small splash, but the ripples it causes, the tweets, the blog posts, and the online news stories expand out to cover a great distance.

Slowly these two forms of communication are finding a comfortable working relationship and will together serve to keep us apprised of the important events that occur around us each and every day.

That’s why, as Jim put it yesterday, “we believe in the intersection of traditional media and new media.”

Old Media is Dead, Long Live Old Media

Old media is dead. 

Isn't it?

Well, that's what many of the new media folks are saying, so it must be true.  That old media has been completely and utterly usurped by new media -- by all things digital and by what is "social."

If you don't believe me, just take a look at a handful of marketing or PR agency web sites, or take a look at the marketing job boards.  It's new media or die, no exceptions, no excuses.  If you still don't believe me, take a look at reports such as "State of the News Media 2010" as referenced earlier this week in a blog post by my esteemed colleague Bill Bellows.  5,900 newspapers jobs were lost in 2009 alone, Bill reports.  And since 2001, 450 jobs at the local TV level were also lost -- and lost forever more than likely.

So old media just doesn't matter anymore. Please don't waste time building relationships with journalists at the Wall Street Journal or Fortune or eWeek.  THEY SIMPLY DON'T MATTER ANYMORE!   Instead, spend 100 per cent of your time building relationships with and pitching only new media channels -- because old media is dead.

Well ... maybe not so fast.

There's a pertinent and lively discussion on this topic taking place right now on LinkedIn in the "Network of PR Professionals" group, of which I am a proud card carrying member.  Most of the communications professionals who have weighed in on the question, " Are the 'old media' relevant?" -- and they hail from all over the world -- believe that old media are still relevant and still play an important role in integrated public relations. 

Reinforcing this point of view is a report released just today, "2010 Edelman Trust Barometer," which reports that next to a stock or industry analyst report, articles in business magazines are deemed to be the most credible.  Thanks to Mike Holland of Smye Holland Associates for sharing this report.  "So, 'old media' seems to be doing ok," Mike says.

Studies aside, plenty of senior PR pros from around the globe seem to agree with the "Barometer" and with Mike, who adds, "People tend to value information that they pay for. So coverage in paid-for 'old media' is still regarded as having a higher value than coverage in free 'new media.'"

A media advisor at NaoriComm International takes the point a step further.  "Ye Olde media is now going back to be more relevant than ever.  Many people are looking to the good ol' media to get in-depth coverage on a topic that would otherwise get a Tweet of 140 characters or less, missing the actual point," said Sharon Levy-Matzkin.

Yes, new media channels are turning our industry on its head and are playing an ever increasing role in the reputation of companies.  And yes, newspapers and magazines and radio and Cable TV are struggling mightily against the tsunami of new media challengers.

But to declare old media dead before its time?  Well, it's just not right, if for no other reason that coverage in  old media channels just might keep you in your job for a while longer, and that's worth much more than any number of tweets.  "No CEO will want to frame their Twitter stream or blog postings...a CEO values the validation that coverage in a newspaper or magazine provides," says Brian Kennedy of Allen and Caron.

In terms of integrated public relations campaigns, old media can and should co-exist with the plethora of opportunities provided by new media.  I believe the facts and the opinions and experiences of PR practitioners bear this out.

At 3Point, we believe in the intersection of traditional media and new media. Maybe that's why so many tweets include references to traditional media articles.

Will the Cloud Save Journalism?

Do you ever struggle with defining the line between content and news?

I could justify the blurring border easily if I look only through my commercial lenses. But that seems self defeating, because the question ultimately brings into play the foundation of democracy:  What happens to the press' role as the Fourth Estate when the news media experiences the kind of rapid decline we've witnessed over the past decade?  

The emerging void in journalism should worry all of us. The Project for Excellence in Journalism's recent annual "State of the News Media 2010" report, indicated 5,900 newspaper jobs were lost in 2009 (in addition to a similar number in 2008). The overall impact is a 33% reduction in newsroom employment at newspapers since 2001.  In the same time, there have been 450 jobs lost at local TV news operations.  We've seen major dailies shutter their doors and major news magazines like Newseek placed on the auction block.  We've seen this offset with an incredible number of bloggers -- only a handful of whom are legitimate journalists.  But can a disaggregated array of bloggers -- many of whom represent corporate interests rather than independent, objective journalists -- serve as the new Fourth State?  And if not, what is THEIR role? 

Not surprisingly to regular readers of this blog, we believe the cloud will serve a valuable function in rebuilding the Fourth Estate, enabling the high costs of printing, publishing and physical distribution to be contained while restructuring advertising models. We see an interesting new vision that integrates journalism and neojournalism in projects like Newsflash from Future News: What Will Journalism Look Like?, published last year by the design experts at IDEO.  We see exciting possibilities for media in new technologies like HP's MagCloud, and we see user friendly delivery systems emerging with the new generation of eReaders like Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle. Technologies and ideas like these involve audiences, diversify content, expand ideas, accelerate the creation and delivery of information into a continuous two-way stream and provide us with relatively familiar formats for accessing information with the touch of an icon regardless of where we are in the world.  

But journalism doesn't exist without journalists. The question that worries us most is whether news media can shed the crushing costs of traditional brick and mortar publishing overhead and embrace these new models fast enough to begin reinvesting in their depleted editorial staffs?  


Image reprinted from Newsflash from Future News: What Will Journalism Look Like? © 2009, IDEO 

Cloud Apps Come Up Short In Support Of Globally Ambitious Small Business

As a small business, 3Point Communications has embraced the cloud-based applications and has enjoyed many benefits such as lower costs and easy, anywhere, anytime access. Many lists of excellent tools, of which many are subscription-based or pay as you go, for small business are readily available, including this list from Refocusing Technology that covers applications that help with communications and administrative functions for small business.

With lower barriers to entry and enablement by cloud applications, Going Global is a dream of many small businesses. Business can reach customers where ever in the world they happen live and work. Laurel Delaney, CEO of http://www.globetrade.com/, recently penned an article which contains some solid ideas on how to expand business abroad. Tools like Skype and Gmail make it easy to stay connected with customers and partners, and there are many applications for sharing information and collaborating, such as Google Docs.

However, cloud-based applications fall short in supporting small businesses that seek to actually establish operations abroad. Selling products via the internet to customers internationally is one thing, but the complexities of establishing a base outside the U.S. requires a level of sophistication that apparently many vendors have yet to solve.

3Point Communications is on a path to expand internationally itself this year, and we have hoped to leverage cloud applications to help run our business, achieving cost savings and the flexibility that SaaS applications afford. Structurally we are geographically diverse, with associates spread across the country, collaborating daily via various cloud apps. And, as our teams are increasingly multinational, we need internet-based applications to enable easy input and access for team members wherever they happen to be.

Unfortunately, as we move to create a presence in both Europe and Asia, we have encountered limitations to some of the applications we use. Time tracking and accounting software are two areas where significant improvements could be made. For example, QuickbooksOnline, which we have successfully and happily used to manage the company's finances, does not accommodate multiple currencies.

In our business, we need to track time priced at local hourly rates in local currencies and consolidated into single currencies to invoice clients. Currently QuickbooksOnline is unable to accommodate this.

Some same limitations are found with time tracking software such as Freshbooks which states on its website “Every customer should look like a Fortune 500 company, based on the image sent by invoices, bills, or other accounting communications, no matter what size the company is.”
This is not quite so, as in the case of the small business who wishes to send a consolidated invoice covering activities in multiple countries, for multiple currencies, Freshbooks is not able to comply as Freshbooks can only support one currency at a time. So, all employees regardless of location would need to use a mutual currency or each employee would need to manually convert the hourly rates from local currency to the rate billed to the client. An unnecessary loss of time.

This may sound picky and certainly not all business would require the same level of capability, and I am assuming that most vendors are focusing on products for the domestic market. However, there are companies like 3Point out there that have ambitions beyond the borders of the U.S.

We will continue to audit applications that we can utilize with our business and will pass along our thoughts through this blog. Please provide us comments to this post and any leads to great small business applications.

We Love Apple

I am not an Apple customer.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I do own 3 iPods. But for a variety of reasons I own a Motorola Droid smartphone and have used PCs since my days at IBM. I have nothing against Apple products per se, in fact, when I’ve encountered them I have found them easy to use and of the highest quality.

While I may not be an Apple customer, I do like the company. My kids attended school in Cupertino, where Apple is based, and benefited from the company’s tax dollars and generous gifts to local schools. And who can argue with the stock performance during the past few years!

So I am sympathetic when Apple finds itself being attacked. In the past two days, Apple has found itself being attacked on several on several fronts at once.

A few weeks ago I posted to this blog about the young Apple engineer who lost his prototype 4G iPhone in a bar in Redwood City. Believe it or not, it looks like it’s happened again.

On Wednesday, a Vietnamese web site posted pictures and a video of a prototype 4G iPhone, complete with Apple logo and 16 Gigabytes of storage written on it. The video shows the inside of the phone that includes the new A4 processor from Apple. The company has not yet responded to the incident, but it’s clear another prototype has been lost.

Back on this side of the Pacific, Apple wasn’t talking about its most recent lawsuit either. On Wednesday, Taiwanese cell phone maker HTC filled suit against Apple for the violation of five key technology patents. While the lawsuit wouldn’t block the sale of Apple’s iPhone, if the ITC rules in HTC’s favor, Apple might be required to pay millions in fines and licensing fees.

And if that weren’t enough, Adobe, Inc., maker of Flash, took out a full page ad in Thursday’s edition of the major newspapers including The Wall St. Journal and the San Jose Mercury News criticizing Apple for blocking application developers from using Flash for apps that run on Apple’s iPhone and iPad product lines. Part of the copy reads, “What we don’t love is anybody taking away your freedom to choose what you create, how you create it, and what you experience on the web.”

Ouch.

Yes, it’s been tough couple of days for Apple. But with more than a million iPads already sold, 7.8 million expected to be sold by the end of the year, and more than double that number sold next year, Apple will probably do just fine.

Even if they don’t have me as a customer. Yet.

PR 2.0 - North Shore Style

Defining the North Shore of Massachusetts has been a subject of debate for as long as I can remember. My childhood summers, for example, were spent on Salisbury Beach -- a beautiful stretch of dunes and salty air lying just south of the New Hampshire border. To those of us who were fortunate enough to spend summers splashing in the waves on Salisbury Beach, the much more famous Cape Cod might as well have been on Mars. We knew where it was, generally, but we had no reason to go there. We had our own beach, and the Cape people had theirs. North Shore residents, by the way, also have their own cape -- the lesser known but still striking Cape Ann.

The North Shore used to be primarily defined by the coastal towns just north of Boston. Towns like Rockport, Gloucester, Ipswich, Marblehead and Manchester-by-the-Sea, for example. But today, the North Shore is generally used to describe all of the coastal communities north of Boston and south of New Hampshire. So Newburyport, the towns of Rowley and West Newbury, Salisbury Beach (of course), and also the town of Beverly, which is located in the heart of the North Shore.

It is in this quaint, relatively quiet town of 40,000 people, where there's something peculiar brewing -- and it's not just the coffee at The Atomic Cafe on Cabot Street.

Mainly by chance, this home to the Cabot Street Cinema Theatre -- host to the longest running magician show in the U.S. -- is where PR 2.0 practitioners of the North Shore come to meet on a regular basis to talk shop, share best practices and new ideas, discuss trends in social media, the best ways to pitch a particular blogger, who's hot, who's not, newer technologies such as cloud computing and tablets, their best clients and their clients from hell. And all of this high octane conversation fueled by the delicious lattes, cappuccino and chai concoctions thoughtfully prepared by the baristas at The Atomic Cafe.

Participating in today's meeting of 3Point associates were several experienced PR pros whose careers span the broad spectrum that includes global PR agencies, smaller highly focused firms, the corporate side and on their own as solo PR practitioners.

The discussion touched on Twitter as a "news feed." "I don't even need to read the trades as religiously as I used to," said one associate. "I use Twitter to follow the writers and influencers important to my clients. The ideas and links they are posting are what's most important."

There was more discussion of Twitter. "It's not a competition," said another associate. "It's not about the number of followers. It's about having the right followers, the ones who influence the business of your clients."

"You know what's hurting our industry," chimed yet another. "It's the PR person as 'rock star.' It shouldn't be about us being the rock stars or about our number of followers. It should be about us helping our clients become the rock star. I like to tell the stories. But I'm not the story. I'm the broker."

And, finally, yet another seasoned pro said, "Some clients are so concerned about 'where' to have the 'conversation' with their customers and prospects -- Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. -- that some are missing the opportunity to have the conversation at all."

Nearly two hours had elapsed since the group sat to sip their first cup of coffee and started to tackle the challenges and opportunities facing our clients and our trade.

It was time to get back to the office and to other work.

For Thursday is another day, when another group -- The North Shore PR Coffee Meetup -- comprised of North Shore-based communications professionals, will meet at the same spot and will refuel with that great java to take on -- once again -- the industry's hottest issues.

Hey, There's a Cloud in my Car!

Few things are as central to our daily lives as the automobile.  Yet car manufacturers have traditionally been slow to integrate new computing technology into vehicles.  That is changing rapidly -- due in large part to the power and potential of the cloud. 


Motor Trend magazine predicts passengers in cars will soon integrate with social media networks, streaming Pandora, YouTube and other content, play online games from the car and control home lighting and home heating and cooling systems. This can all be done today on a smart phone. So, even more interesting is the idea that the cars themselves will become sensors, passing on information via the cloud about traffic, weather conditions and potholes as the vehicle encounters these and other obstacles.  This is part of the the growing Internet of Things  we discussed in a recent post.


Intriguing as these applications are, there are more immediate applications of the cloud in our cars.  One of these is a combined development effort by Ford and Microsoft.


Ford SYNC
First introduced at the North American International Auto Show in 2007, Ford SYNC lets you use voice commands to control your Bluetooth mobile phone and digital media players.  Today, customers who own 2010 Ford vehicles with SYNC already also have been using hands-free, voice-activated cell phone and digital media player integration, 911 Assist and Vehicle Health Report. 


The latest innovation offered on the SYNC platform is called TDI (Traffic, Directions and Information).  Considered by Ford to represent the integration of navigation systems and smart phones, TDI lets you download this latest app the same way you would download a song from an online media store such as Apple’s iTunes or App Store.


Using voice commands, SYNC TDI connects a customer’s Bluetooth-enabled cell phone to Ford’s Service Delivery Network voice portal delivering turn-by-turn driving directions, real-time traffic, business searches and news, sports and weather.  Similar to GM’s Onstar, a driver can ask for traffic information, turn-by-turn directions or information.  But, then magic happens behind the scenes through the interaction of several technologies in the cloud.


When you make a request, it is translated in the cloud by the Tellme voice portal.  Say “Traffic,” for example, and you receive a text message on your phone and a message broadcast over the vehicle’s audio system in real-time, with the location and severity of accidents or new road construction. This is produced by INRIX, a company that gathers real-time speeds, directions and locations from nearly 1 million commercial trucks and cars driving America’s roadways.


Say “Directions,” and a turn-by-turn route is downloaded from Telenav and  spoken to you, again, through the vehicle’s audio system and displayed on the central information display near the radio. Directions incorporate real-time traffic information thus offering the best route.


Airbiquity translates data for transmission over a voice channel, making sure that the coverage is widespread and the size of the transmission is limited to avoid delays.


Using an online location called syncmyride.com,  customers can personalize sports, weather and news. And Ford can create its own app store to let customers download other SYNC applications and updates.


Ford's application of the cloud is ahead of the curve -- both in what it can do and in its integration of multiple cloud technology vendors. It is a vivid and practical illustration of what is here today and foreshadows how we all soon will be dealing with the cloud in our cars  -- hopefully with our eyes on the road.

Tablet Wars

Early in my career I had the good fortune to work with Dick Hackborn while he was still running the LaserJet printer business for Hewlett-Packard. Hackborn was a very smart guy, and one of the business and marketing strategies he most often employed was “never attack a fortified hill.”

What he meant was that it’s rarely a good idea to enter a market that has many competitors, with mature product lines and lots of loyal customers.

I thought of Hackborn’s fortified hill this week when I read that Apple had sold more than 1 million iPads in the first month they were on the market. That’s a lot of tablets. And Apple’s users are among the most loyal in any industry. So you think that competitors would think twice about entering the tablet market. Wrong.

Instead, competitors are entering the market as fast as they can.

Already in the market with Apple is the WeTab from German-based Neofonie, Fusion Garage’s JooJoo, and France-based Archos 9. Other expected entrants into the tablet market are Toshiba, Dell and other PC manufacturers. HP has already given sneak peaks at its Slate, which is Flash enabled (unlike the Apple iPad) and runs Microsoft’s Windows 7. Google also is rumored to be working on a tablet.

Google, Microsoft and the Palm OS (recently acquired by HP) will all vie for the operating system of choice on the new tablets.

But the question remains, what will it take to avoid getting slaughtered as these companies attack Apple’s fortified hill.

The key to success will most likely lie in their ability to create easy to use APIs designed to attract as many application developers possible. Apple has an unbelievable head start with more than 140,000 apps. Most industry analysts are betting that HP will have the best shot at battling Apple for tablet supremacy, while others are leaning toward Google.

Here at 3Point, we provide our clients with business and marketing strategy, so when we view the “tablet wars” through our marketing lens, it’s hard to bet against Apple. After all, they beat all odds when they attacked the fortified hill of MP3 players with their iPod, and won with an all-out marketing campaign. I’m betting they’ll be just as fierce protecting their iPad fortified hill.

Little Johnny, Say "Hello" to the Cloud -- Your New Classroom

I've lived in Massachusetts my entire life and I've never heard of Greenfield, Mass., a town of less than 20,000 souls situated in the western part of the state and home to the Franklin Country Fair, the Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra, Greenfield Community College and its newspaper --The Greenfield Recorder. Technically, Greenfield is part of Franklin County, and frankly, as a native of eastern Massachusetts it might as well not exist at all. No offense to Franklin County and all the other counties west of Suffolk and Essex counties in Massachusetts. But if you're from eastern Massachusetts, you know what I mean.

But hold on a second. The Greenfield of 2010 isn't your grandfather's Greenfield.

This week, Greenfield announced that it will be the first town in the Bay State that intends to open, as early as this fall, a virtual school catering to children in grades K-8. The virtual school, and others that are sure to follow, will be allowed to operate via a state-wide education law that went into effect in January. The law encourages innovation in the classroom and gives the authority to local school leaders to develop public schools that are virtual.

Little Johnny, say "hello" to the cloud, your new classroom.

Virtual classrooms aren't entirely new. States such as Colorado, Texas and Arizona have been experimenting with virtual public schools for some time and have been attracting an increasing number of students for reasons that include convenience as well as students' desire for a curriculum that is more challenging that what is offered in some of the brick and mortars.

And what makes all of this possible is technology, and in almost all cases it's cloud computing technology that is responsible for delivering the classroom to the bedroom.

Less than a month ago, for example, the Oregon Department of Education announced that any school in the state is free to use Google Apps for Education, a free suite of applications (email, calendar, online documents, etc.) based on cloud computing technology. Google claims more than seven million students are using Google Apps. And as you might imagine, Microsoft is right there as well with it's own suite of cloud-based services for education - Microsoft Live@edu.

It will be sometime before virtual schools are widespread. Many school districts question the viability and effectiveness of virtual schools, especially at the elementary school level when children are still developing social skills. My wife, a public middle school teacher, echoes this same concern.

For now, students enrolled in a virtual school still have to spend some number of hours inside a school building. However, overtime, I'm sure these restrictions will also ease as advancements in cloud computing technology will one day allow the watchful eye of a caring teacher to be right there with the student slogging through another MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) exam -- right there, virtually.

How Hard Can the Federal Government Drive the Cloud?

While many of us automatically equate the phrase App Store with Apple's iPhone, there is another App Store that may have far more importance.  It is Apps.gov, the app store launched last September within the federal government.  Created collaboratively between federal CIO Vivek Kundra and the General Services Administration, the store was one of several steps undertaken by the Obama administration to introduce cloud computing and a more modern IT infrastructure in general to the federal government.  The app store was established as a storefront (it is still very limited in its offerings) to let federal agencies quickly identify cloud-based solutions.  It offers four simple choices to the visitor: Social Media apps, Productivity apps, Business apps and Cloud IT services.  Click on one and you are taken to a list of free and paid solutions.  In addition to serving as an introduction to the power of the cloud, the store is intended to make procurement easier and cut acquisition cycle times.

Wait a minute!  Speed, simplicity, ease...we know these are touted as benefits of the cloud, but clearly they are not attributes of government  -- a place where new technologies evolve slower than fine wine ages and end up a generation behind by the time they are selected, funded and deployed. So what's the rush?

First, there is a new administration with a greater emphasis on technology innovation.  Second, money to procure technology is tight and the potential of the cloud is fast approaching a level of maturity that the government finds acceptable.  Further, other nations are moving aggressively to use the cloud and finally, by adopting the cloud in various forms, the government can reduce IT costs and invest or help lead the way in deploying new technology.

Apps.gov may be more symbolic of a greater push throughout the administration and its agencies to move to the cloud.  Cloudbook Magazine cites seven different federal agencies directly engaged in one form of cloud initiative or another.

In addition to Apps.gov from the GSA, these include:

• Federal Chief Information Officers Council
• Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
• US Department of Energy (DOE)
• Department of the Interior
• National Business Center (NBC) Cloud Computing
• NASA Nebula
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

The adoption process envisioned by government observers will seem familiar to those of us in the private sector:
1. Start by virtualizing data centers, consolidating data centers and operations, and then adopting a cloud-computing business model.
2. Use test beds to demonstrate capabilities, satisfying major concerns about security and privacy protection, and
3. Allow pilots to grow from test beds into agency capabilities.

This represents significant economic opportunity. While federal IT spending is projected to grow at a compound rate of 3.5% to $90 billion by 2014, federal cloud spending will grow almost 8X faster.  Input, an analyst firm tracking the public sector, forecasts 30% annual growth rate in cloud spending during the same period!  Input believes federal spending on cloud computing services will triple over the next five years, growing from $277 million in 2008 to $792 million annually by 2013, reaching more than $1billion by 2014.

The evolution is not without obstacles. Speaking at the University of Washington in March,  Kundra said the federal government, which has 1,100 data centers and more than 24,00 websites, needs to pool buying power rather than work as a loose knit federation. Standards need to evolve faster and security concerns need to be better addressed, but it seems hard to imagine that the efforts underway will be derailed.  But now, the only questions seems to be how quickly will the train leave the station and how many cars will it pull.

Cloud Computing and The Internet of Things

What if things could talk to us?  What if your garbage could tell you it was ready to be emptied?  What if a soda machine on the second floor of Building 7 could tell the supplier it needed more Diet Dr. Pepper for slot D2?  What if a river could tell us it was choking on PCBs that were excessively high and could show us the highest levels occurred next to a particular factory?

Once the domain of science fiction, many of these are happening today.

In a 2006 paper titled, A Manifesto for Networked Objects — Cohabiting with Pigeons, Arphids and Aibos in the Internet of Things, Dr. Julian Bleeker of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California, conceived the Internet of Things: 

"The Internet of Things has evolved into a nascent conceptual framework for understanding how physical objects, once networked and imbued with informatic capabilities, will occupy space and occupy themselves in a world in which things once were quite passive." Dr. Bleeker goes on to ask a fascinating question, "When it is not only “us” but also our “Things” that can upload, download, disseminate and stream meaningful and meaning-making stuff, how does the way in which we occupy the physical world become different? What sorts of implications and effects on existing social practices can we anticipate?"

This is a world envisioned by Joel Birnbaum, head of HP Labs in the 1990s, who spoke often about armies of sensors automatically providing ongoing data to ubiquitous networks to monitor everything from homes to rivers.  That vision is becoming a vibrant reality, if you read Kevin Novak's blog.

Kevin writes Cloud Feedback, Monitoring the Real World with Cloud Computing. It is a terrific source of real time applications of things that talk to us through the cloud.  He begins with the understanding that we can understand things that we once knew nothing about because they were neither measured nor controlled. But when the data is available and reliable, individuals, businesses and governments can achieve greater cost savings, great energy and water efficiency, reduced pollution, and higher levels of cooperation and productivity.

One example Kevin recently cited is  Cantaloupe Systems, a San Francisco company founded in 2002  that provides vending machine operators a device to install inside a vending machine to communicate every transaction the machine performs.  Kevin explains that "The data is sent over cell phone data networks to Cantaloupe’s data centers, allowing operators to schedule visits to the replenish the machines exactly when needed."  The result is cost savings for customers, lower fuel consumption by delivery trucks, improved delivery logistics and more accurate inventory management.

Cloud Feedback also recently looked at BigBelly Solar -- a Needham, MA, company that makes a garbage can for city streets with an enclosed motorized compactor.  Their cans "power the compactor from solar cells, so it doesn’t need an electricity connection.  It also uses sensors to detect and transmit how frequently it is used, and how full it has become.  A cloud computing service records the data and schedules trash collections. The combination of compacting and just-in-time collection saves a lot of fuel and labor; Philadelphia estimates a 70% reduction."
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This is dynamic, groundbreaking change being generated through new ways of looking at ordinary problems.  Armed with the right tools, really smart people can change the world quickly and reverse years of neglect, selective listening and downright ignorance.  When billions of objects -- both organic and man made -- starting talk to us, we can do a better job monitoring and protecting the planet AND improve efficiency and profitability. This could not be accomplished without the cloud.

Here at Beyond the Arc, we sometimes get as overwhelmed as the next person when looking at the massive amount of information about the cloud.  While we are staunch advocates, at times we have to fight our way out of what Gartner Group calls the "the Trough of Disillusionment" and remind ourselves that the future of IT is intrinsically tied to cloud computing  But the magic of the cloud is that just when you think you have had enough, something amazing crosses your path -- something that can only happen through the cloud.

A priest, a rabbi, and a minister...

It happens thousands of times a week all over Silicon Valley. Friends gather after work for a drink at a bar, swap stories about bad bosses or the cool things they’re working on, then they head home. And many times each week, some of these patrons accidentally leave behind a mobile phone on the bar, or at their table.

Unfortunately, when one young engineer from Apple exited a bar in Redwood City last month, it wasn’t just any phone he left behind, it was a prototype of the new Apple iPhone; due out later this summer.

The person who found the prototype phone apparently made several attempts to find the owner, and when he couldn’t, he offered it up for sale to a handful of technology-oriented web sites. Gizmodo.com bought the phone for $5000. That’s their story anyway.

After thoroughly examining and testing the phone, reporter Jason Chen published a long story about it on the Gizmodo web site. Apple was not happy, and demanded the phone be returned. When Chen and Gizmodo initially refused, San Mateo County investigators broke into Chen’s apartment and seized computers, other electronics and credit card statements.

I’m not going to comment on the legality of this action, although I will say that the search warrant used said that the law enforcement officials who stormed Chen’s home were investigating a theft. From what I can tell, there was no theft, only a lost cell phone.

The entire case is getting a lot of attention in legal and journalistic circles regarding what is protected under the First Amendment.

What is more interesting to me about this story is, why is Apple so upset? For decades, Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs have used controlled leaks and sneak peeks, crafting these techniques into a communications art form designed to build buzz and excitement around pending product announcements. So why get so upset this time?

Maybe it’s because the stakes are higher now than ever before. Just today, Microsoft announced a deal with Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer HTC. Apparently, Microsoft holds certain patents that are used in devices running Google’s Android operating system. So rather than sue HTC, the way Apple did a month early over similar patent issues, Microsoft chose to make HTC a partner. Why?

HTC started out as a maker of phones that ran Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software. But because the Windows Mobile phone didn’t sell well in the market, HTC dropped the Microsoft operating system in favor of Google’s Android OS. Microsoft knows from its past success that he who owns the OS calls the shots. Losing HTC to Google surely left a bad taste in Microsoft’s mouth. So rather than sue HTC over patent violations, Microsoft convinced HTC that partnering was a better path for both companies.

To no one’s surprise, HTC has announced that it will produce new mobile phones that run Microsoft’s next mobile OS, Windows Phone 7.

And in other news this week, Hewlett Packard announced it was buying Palm for $1.2B. It may seem like a curious move at first, but if you look a little deeper, HP has its eyes set on the Palm operating system, webOS, also known as the Garnet OS. The Palm OS is generally considered to be one of the most powerful and innovative operating systems for mobile devices currently in the market. HP, which has already made it clear that it wants to be a major player in mobile computing with netbooks and tablets, needed an OS to compete with Google, Microsoft, RIM and Apple.

Which brings us back to Apple. One of Apple’s core strengths (no pun intended) with the iPhone is its app store. Those apps are developed by third parties, live in the cloud, and are downloaded for a fee by customers. Being able to dictate how those apps are developed may end up being the difference between who wins and loses the mobile phone wars.

So maybe that’s why the bigwigs at Apple are so wound up over the phone that was left at the bar in Redwood City. Just what’s in that new OS anyway?

Time to Cut Through the Cloud Computing Mania

Every few years a new idea representing a fundamental shift in how a task is accomplished or how a certain category of problem is solved, is introduced. Today, in marketing communications this fundamental shift is represented by social media. Social media has turned marketing communications on its head. Communications agencies everywhere are running hard and fast to stay ahead of the opportunities that the new social media channels present. For most agencies, staying ahead of what's new in social media is like drinking from a fire hose. It's exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. But mostly, it's exhilarating.

Today, in the world of technology this fundamental shift is represented by cloud computing. Cloud computing is the big new idea for how companies access, pay for and deploy technology -- from applications, to infrastructure, to computer power, etc.

Cloud computing is turning the technology world, and the business of technology, on its head.

Cloud computing, to me, is the single most exciting thing happening in technology today. Staying ahead of the cloud computing advancements being announced on a daily basis is also exhilarating and exhausting. But mostly exhilarating, if you're a cloud computing bigot like me.

Yes, the advancements in the mobile technology segment are electric. It's a segment that is growing faster than any other and is more imaginative and lucrative than most. And let's not forget the advancements and opportunities that are ongoing in the more established segments that include enterprise IT and semiconductor manufacturing.

But what these technology segments all have in common is the cloud. Whether it's a mobile technology company selling to other businesses or directly to consumers or both, or a global B2B enterprise IT solutions provider or a manufacturer of semiconductor components, they are retrofitting their existing offerings to leverage a cloud computing environment or they are developing new solutions optimized specifically for the cloud.

Some have referred to the cloud computing market as the "Wild West" or another gold rush on the heels of many before it, like the Internet gold rush of the mid-to-late 90's and the networked multitasking operating systems shoot out of the late 80's and early 90's.

At 3Point, we write a lot about cloud computing because we believe that cloud computing represents a broad transformation of the information technology industry. It's a seismic shift in technology and business, like the Internet was 15 years ago. Heck, local small circulation daily newspapers are even mentioning cloud computing on their business pages.

Cloud computing will be around long after many of the companies who are betting the farm on cloud computing will be around. I'm not talking about the big players, like Salesforce.com and Oracle and Microsoft, but the outcrop of new companies who are building their businesses on the cloud computing mania.

The companies that will survive, I believe, will be the ones who battle test their offerings -- of course. But they will also be the companies who communicate most effectively through the hype. They will be the companies who will communicate new ideas that break through the clutter. They will be the companies who educate their markets rather than hype the news. They will be the companies that start with a strong point of view and find ways to take a different perspective. They will be the companies who exploit the new social media channels appropriately and intelligently and not just because it's new and cool.

In the next few weeks, we'll be writing more about cloud computing marketing communications and how cloud computing companies can put social media to work for them.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear your ideas or examples of how you're using social media to cut through the cloud computing hype.

My Top 5 Cloud Computing Apps for the Droid

Earlier this week when the NHL Stanley Cup playoff game I was watching ended in overtime, I started channel surfing. I came across one of my favorite movies from the late 1980s – Lethal Weapon starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.

I happened to catch the part where Danny Glover’s character is driving and needs to make an important phone call. He pulls the over to the side of the road on an LA-freeway overpass and gets out of the car to make the call – no hands free in those days.

Glover proceeds to take out a mobile phone the size of a vintage WWII walkie-talkie. The only thing mobile about this contraption was that it could be carried around in a car. Of course in 1987, that was state-of-art mobile technology.

Watching Glover struggle to make a simple connection got me thinking about how dependent I have become (all of us really) on our mobile phones. Like all of you, using my mobile phone for making calls and sending text messages has become only part of how I use it. I use my mobile phone more and more like a laptop than I do a phone.

So I thought I’d list for you my Top 5 cloud computing based applications for my mobile phone (which happens to be a Motorola Droid running the Google Android operating system version 2.1 update 1, over the Verizon network).

In reverse order:

#5 Evernote. This a relatively new application on my Droid, but I can tell already it’s going to be one of my favorites. It allows me to type a note, copy a web page, take a photo, grab a screenshot and then store for easy access later (and it's FREE). I can organize my info into different “notebooks” where it is processed, indexed and searchable. Then using key words I can find my information quickly while on the go. I’ve only used it a couple of times, but I can tell already it’s going to be way more useful than my Three Stooges sound effects app. Well, maybe.

#4 Google Docs. Since the Droid runs on a Google operating system I have access to all of Google’s fantastic cloud computing apps, and I take full advantage of them. Google Docs is one of the handiest ways to access information – from plans to presentations to RFPs – from my mobile device. And the beauty of all Google cloud apps is that I can access my information from any wired PC too. Write a plan at the office, access it while waiting for a plane. Remind me again why I need a laptop?

#3 Google Maps. Yep, another Google app. In addition to owning a Droid I also drive a Prius (I’ll only admit that on Earth Day, however). Even though my car has a built-in GPS system, I find that Google Maps on my Droid proves to be more accurate. Plus, it’s handy when I'm walking around a city where I might be visiting because it will find my exact location and plot a path to where I’m trying to go. A very helpful feature when my Prius is stuck in a parking garage somewhere.

#2 Google Calendar. Yes, that’s now three Google cloud applications in a row. But hey, they’re good and I use them a lot. Calendaring typically isn’t a mind-blowing feature, but having access to it anywhere at anytime is certainly useful. And it is the feature on my phone – minus voice and SMS – that I use second most often.

#1 Gmail. Trust me, I do not work for Google. The thing I absolutely love about accessing email on my Droid is that I can configure the feature so I can open all of my email accounts on one screen (a feature I hear Apple is working to bring to the iPhone). This enables me to check my Gmail, Yahoo, work and other email accounts all at once without having to flip between screens. Since most of my written communication is done via email – including RSS feeds and web site updates – being able to look at all of my email at once is a godsend.

I’d be interested to hear what your favorite mobile cloud computing apps are. You can bet I’ll be checking your replies on my Droid.

For Cloud Computing, the "Plateau of Productivity" is the Light at the End of the Tunnel

Finding trusted information sources on your favorite technology can be a challenging undertaking these days with so many options to choose from. And even more so when your favorite technology is one of the most hyped in the galaxy. The "over-enthusiasm" or hype associated with an emerging technology has almost always been accompanied by an army of people or firms who over night somehow became "experts" in the field.

Today, if you're a devotee of e-book readers, social software suites, microblogging, wireless power, Internet TV, 3-D printing or green IT, then you know exactly what I am talking about.

All of the aforementioned technologies are nearing the top, or are at the top, or are just over the top of The Gartner Group's famous Hype Cycle (now in its 15th year for those of you keeping score at home).

Subsequently, one can easily drown in the fire hose of information that is available on technologies such as these, that are in the "technology trigger" or "peak of inflated expectations" stages of The Hype Cycle.

For many of these technologies, things quiet down when they enter the dreaded "trough of disillusionment" phase of the hype cycle -- the phase when a technology fails to meet the unrealistic expectations the market established for it. Technology categories such as online video, home health monitoring, public virtual worlds, RFID and others are currently trudging through the "trough" phase, hoping to rise yet again once they sled through the "slope of enlightenment" to hopefully live happily ever after in the "plateau of productivity."

Today, the poster child of the "peak of inflated expectations" however, is none other than cloud computing. And it's fitting that cloud computing earned this status this week, for this week is when Cloud Expo takes place in the Big Apple at the convention center everyone loves to hate -- the Javits Convention Center.

It's the same convention center, after all, that hosted the conferences of a number of "overly-hyped" technologies that preceded cloud computing. These include but are not limited to various UNIX conferences (remember UNIX?), such as UNIX/EXPO, and too many Internet and IT expos (like INTEROP) to remember. It's also the same convention center where trying to get a cab back to your hotel following a day on your feet had been next to impossible.

Aside from the vast number of announcements cloud computing companies are making this week at Cloud Expo, and aside from the industry alliances that have been formed and announced at Cloud Expo, it will be interesting to see what tangible customer benefits result from all of this business.

From all appearances, it seems that Cloud Expo has been well attended this week despite corporate America's lock down on business travel. The purveyors of "trusted" information about cloud computing are getting the job done at Cloud Expo and it does appear that cloud computing, given its status as the "peak of inflated expectations" poster child, is living up to expectations.

So far. So good.

With any luck, cloud computing -- like many of its predecessors --will find peace and harmony and practical adaptation in the "plateau of productivity" in the not too distant future.

In the meantime, it will be fun to to pay close attention to the cloud computing paparazzi to learn what they take back from New York City.

Four Cloud Applications Help Level the Playing Field for Small Business

It wasn't long ago, that the idea of a point to multi-point broadband video conferencing system was the exclusive domain of the Fortune 1000.  A low-end system cost at least $10,000 and required specialized videoconferencing hardware from companies like PictureTel and Compression Labs along with widescreen monitors, cameras and controls and networking equipment all tucked into a dedicated room whose layout probably tipped the scales at another $10,000.  Of course, your system only worked with other sites that had the same expensive system installed, and both sides usually required someone from IT to get you set up and stand by throughout the call. 

Today, thanks to the cloud, you can do a point to multi-point call to six separate people or locations with a $20 webcam on your desktop or laptop.  And it is easy enough for a fifth grader to use it. This isn't an instant-message-based system with postage stamp video, but a full-screen, cloud-based videoconferencing system from a company called ooVoo.  Like so many cloud-based apps for small business, it is easy, affordable and it works as promised.  We use ooVoo here at 3Point and have found the video to be smooth, the audio clear, and the experience of working with remote colleagues vastly improved. Our business is not among the Fortune 1000 -- or even the Fortune 5000.  But we can work like them and look like them for pennies with cloud apps like ooVoo.

So that got me to thinking what else is out there that gives small business the outward appearance of big business and helps level the playing field?  I could have listed at least 20 companies, but I'll start with three more in addition to ooVoo and come back to add others in a later blog. 

2. Cloud Collaboration and Project Management
What is so interesting about this topic is that some of the apps we think of as the toolkit of small business are now being adopted by large businesses as well. One such example is Basecamp.  I don't know about you, but I have a hard time believing a person who lives by a Gantt chart.  Life just doesn't work that smoothly, even if you are a certified project manager, of which there are thousands here in the Washington, D.C. area. To make a Gantt chart the essence of management is sort of like making an elaborately crafted grocery list the essence of your family values.  Lists change and evolve, deadlines slip, ideas evolve, budgets get cut, and people like to talk to each other and come up with new ideas. All those nice boxes, colored lines and finely tuned schedules may work in an autocratic command and control system, but in the Collaboration Economy there aren't many autocratic businesses I know that are cited in lists of best places to work. Basecamp is built on a concept of project management focused on communication and collaboration -- the way most of us actually work.  As their website says, "pictures and numbers don't get projects done."  Amen. 

Companies like ours need to collaborate with colleagues around the world and people inside and outside our walls. We need a sophisticated project collaboration tool to set goals, manage and measure projects and collect a whole lot of information to guide our analysis and decision making.  We found Basecamp at the recommendation of our friend, Jay Murphy, founder and CEO of Trionia in Boston. Jay is a really smart digital marketer who uses Basecamp for web projects, software development, client collaboration and a whole list of other core business activities. We got hooked on it quickly in developing a massive proposal for a client prospect that included teams from around the country. It was seamless.  We shared a range of research articles, ideas, drafts, edits, calendars and task ownership and put together a terrific RFP that succeeded in moving us to the next level of the competition. We could not have completed this without Basecamp, and we are not alone. Kellogg's, Patagonia, Adidas, USA Today, National Geographic, Warner Brothers and others are all Basecamp users. At $24 a month, the entry price is well worth it.

3. Ex WebEx
When we first started out, Jay also pointed us toward DimDim.  Have you ever tried WebEx? DimDim is WebEx for the rest of us.  Easy to use and free for up to 20 users, and the people you invite to your meeting do not have to install anything to join!  DimDim lets us do webinars, internal training, shared whiteboard, online conferences and a host of other applications.  We are satisfied customers who look and act like a much larger company thanks to DimDim's use of the cloud.  (But we'd really appreciate a name change to something that doesn't sound like the name of a cartoon character.)

4. Google Apps
Much has been written about Google Apps. Rather than repeat it all, let me just cite a statistic that should make you feel comfortable if you are considering the move: more than two million business run Google Apps and more are joining every day. They use it for email, company calendars and as a replacement for word processors, spreadsheets and other basic needs products. First adopted by individuals, then small businesses, Google Apps is being used by more and more enterprises at the expense of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes.  The free versions will handle most basic needs of small business. With Google Apps Premier Edition (annual fee of $50 per user), a customer gets inboxes that store up to 25 gigabytes of messages, a video chat system (not equal to ooVoo in our estimation), anti-virus/spam protection, disaster recovery and a 99.9% uptime SLA. That is why Google can boast enterprise customers like Motorola Mobile Devices, Salesforce.com, Genetech and the District of Columbia. 

So, there you have it.  Four ways the cloud lets you level the playing field and look like a billion bucks for less than your monthly coffee budget.  They may not get you from the Inc. 500 to the Fortune 500, but the playing field is becoming more level every day.