Monthly Archives: July 2007

July 18, 2007 Posted in Business, Governance, IT, New business, New Zealand, SaaS, Strategy 2 Comments

Xero @ 92 cents….. bet Rod et al aren’t losing any sleep about it…

By Ben Kepes

Lance posted over here about the fact that Xero’s share price has trended downwards since listing. Sorry Lance but the analysis is shortsighted and simplistic. 1) Volumes traded are miniscule – in the few thousands and as such, the price of trade is an aberration and not indicative of the

July 18, 2007 Posted in Business, Governance, IT, SaaS, Strategy Leave a comment

Cost of customer acquisition for SaaS businesses…

By Ben Kepes

An insightful post over here that plots the cost of acquiring extra revenue for SaaS businesses. In essence Bob has found through a statistical analysis that once SaaS businesses hit around USD20m-USD50m, they reach a critical mass at which point the cost to acquire extra business falls rapidly. A similar

July 18, 2007 Posted in Business, Governance, IT, New business, New Zealand, Strategy Leave a comment

Telco power struggles…..

By Ben Kepes

Seems a little dirty laundry may be aired through the courts. From a very brief glimpse it would seem that Malcolm Dick/CallPlus have made the typical forced exit play – set up a new business using the ascendant technology (VOIP) minus the troublesome shareholder (Annette Presley). Slowly move revenues from

July 17, 2007 Posted in Business, IT, SaaS 1 Comment

Profit models of SaaS versus traditional software….

By Ben Kepes

An interesting post this morning made me think about the differences between EBIT models for traditional and SaaS businesses. If we look at the expenditure side of the equation, we can see that SaaS tends to smooth expenditures for developers. Rather than creating a product in its entirety prior to

July 17, 2007 Posted in Business, Governance, New business, New Zealand, Strategy 4 Comments

Burger Fuel didn’t make minimum subscription level…

By Ben Kepes

Announced this morning that the Burger Fuel IPO period will be extended – it didn’t meet the minimum $8mill they had set (remember they were aiming for $15mil) so they’ve extended it and guaranteed that the existing shareholders will make up the shortfall (between the uptake and the $8mill figure)

July 16, 2007 Posted in Business, Economic Development, IT, Society 2 Comments

Intel comes to the party for the good of mankind…

By Ben Kepes

News this morning that Intel has finally decided to come to the party and help the One Laptop Per Child Foundation. OLPC was set up by Nicholas Negroponte of Wired Magazine and MIT fame. Basically it seeks to produce a rugged, multi powered and simple laptop that sells for around

July 15, 2007 Posted in Branding, Business, Governance, New business, New Zealand, Strategy Leave a comment

Vehicle security product from NZ…

By Ben Kepes

In the SST this morning was a piece on recent graduate of the Icehouse, BlackHawk tracking systems. They seem to be an example of what sort of business we should be aspiring to create in NZ. Basically the BlackHawk system allows mobile phone tracking and immobilisation of a vehicle. In

July 13, 2007 Posted in Business, Design, Efficiency, IT, New Zealand 1 Comment

Helpdesk outsourcing done right

By Ben Kepes

This evening I continues my long lasting quest to get my Google calender completely two way sync-ing to my smartphone (Symbian or WM5 – I have one of each). I decided to trial a product called syncmycal. Having installed it and got it going in Outlook (unfortunately it’s always a

July 12, 2007 Posted in Business, Business and the Environment, Design, Economic Development, Governance, New Zealand, Society, Strategy, Waipara Leave a comment

Waipara growth and development….

By Ben Kepes

I took part this morning in a strategy session for the Waipara Valley. The session pulled together tourism, viticultural, local government and local resident interests. Broadly speaking we are trying to create a body with an all-encompassing view of development in the valley – that thinks and acts at a

July 12, 2007 Posted in Business, Business and the Environment, Governance, New business, New Zealand, Strategy Leave a comment

Solid energy going solar…

By Ben Kepes

News this morning that Solid Energy have purchased Nelson based solar energy company sensible heat. This move makes sense from a diversification point of view and even more so considering their recent acquisition of a bio-diesel company. SE have obviously done some strategic planning and define themselves as an energy

The Author

Ben Kepes is an analyst, an entrepreneur, a commentator and a business adviser. His business interests include a diverse range of industries from manufacturing to property to technology. As a technology commentator he has a broad presence both in the traditional media and extensively online. Ben covers the convergance of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users. More on Ben

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