Category Archives: My businesses

11/07/2008 Posted in Business, Collaboration, Design, Economic Development, Efficiency, IT, My businesses, New business, New Zealand, Society, Strategy Leave a comment

Some things are best left to private industry…

By Ben Kepes

A couple of announcements of late have me scratching my head in wonderment. First comes the post by Bernard Hickey about MissionOn. I posted about MissionOn back in February (yes, you saw it here first) and my appraisal was that it was a good example of how not to do

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23/06/2008 Posted in Business, Design, Efficiency, IT, My businesses, New Zealand, SaaS 6 Comments

SaaS in a twilight industry!

By Ben Kepes

One of my businesses is a design and manufacturing operation. Cactus manufactures backpacks and outdoors clothing. For years we’ve been using PAD which is a CAD/CAM software package to make patterns for the apparel industry. PAD works well but has always been a little backwards in terms of development, online

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16/06/2008 Posted in Business, Business and the Environment, Economic Development, Efficiency, Manufacturing, My businesses, New Zealand, Society, Strategy 3 Comments

Ethical manufacturing is great, until it hits the bottom line…

By Ben Kepes

I normally refrain from commenting on the domestic vs Asian manufacturing issue on this blog for two reasons; The focus here is on tech, not hard goods Given my ownership of a domestically manufacturing business I’m reluctant to whine But this morning I can’t resist. I read Icebreaker, the former

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10/06/2008 Posted in Efficiency, IT, My businesses, SaaS, Web x.0 Leave a comment

HR getting to grips with Web 2.0…

By Ben Kepes

For those in the HR field, the latest issue of Employment Today has an article by yours truly discussing the generalities of Web 2.0, the impact it will have on the HR field and specific tools available to HR practitioners. Check it out at your local magazine store (or wait

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15/05/2008 Posted in Collaboration, Design, Efficiency, My businesses, SaaS, Web x.0 Leave a comment

And google responds

By Ben Kepes

Call it observed parallelism, call it different ways of getting to the same place but either way, hot on the heels of Zoho opening up it’s services to Google and Yahoo account holders, Google has just advised that it is now possibly to view a spreadsheet directly from the URL

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06/05/2008 Posted in Design, IT, My businesses, Strategy 1 Comment

Omnidrive just the beginning…

By Ben Kepes

I’ve talked before about Omnidrive – the dead, then reincarnated, then dead again and now in some sort of limbo – online backup application. RWW has the latest on the Omnidrive saga itself – seems there are some disgruntled ex-staff and angel investors calling for blood. I’d like to look

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28/04/2008 Posted in Design, IT, My businesses, New Zealand, Strategy 5 Comments

Building successful online communities….

By Ben Kepes

Astute readers will know, or have worked out, that I’m involved in a couple of projects that seek to build communities of interest. I really believe in the power of the network and the efficiency to be gained by creating a place where individuals, joined by a common interest, can

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28/03/2008 Posted in IT, My businesses, SaaS, Strategy 6 Comments

ICT Outsourcing conference over…

By Ben Kepes

I’m sitting at Auckland airport waiting for my flight home after an interesting two days at the ICT Outsourcing conference. My presentation was entitled “The Place of Software as a Service (SaaS) Within An Enterprise”, and I think it went off well. I had a number of responses from attendees

18/03/2008 Posted in Design, IT, My businesses, New business, Strategy, Web x.0 Leave a comment

What LinkedIn should do…

By Ben Kepes

Over on Smoothspan Bob has an interesting ten point plan for LinkedIn to become the true killers platform. Bob’s recomendations include; 1. Build, Buy, or Partner with Xobni and Nail Down the Outlook Connection 2. Start a Coffeehouse with WebEx to Foster More Interaction between LinkedIn’s Members 3. Expand LinkedIn’s Premier PeopleSearch

14/03/2008 Posted in Design, IT, My businesses, New Zealand, SaaS 3 Comments

SaaS Summit flier released…

By Ben Kepes

I received an email this morning with the flier for the May 19th 2nd annual SaaS summit. It looks like a good line up with presenters from the following; Salesforce.com ActionThis OneNet Results Group Fronde PlanHQ Telecom X Change Diversity Full program details and registration form here.

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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