Friday, 15 April 2011
Levering Faster Time To Market in Europe
Time to market is one of the most important aspects for any technology company exploring the European market. How does an SME technology company achieve this without compromise?
Commercial factors identify a potential opportunity and now you need to lever & exploit it before your competitor does. Keeping up with evolving technology standards and contstantly changing regulations adds even more pressure into the mix.
Supporting the European market from abroad just simply isnt an option. The timezone differences, language demands and limited market intelligence almost always rules this out as a serious option.
Levering existing internal resources can bring early initial successes, however cannot be sustained without compromising core focus activities in the home market. Hiring a dedicated European resource makes sense, but raises too many commercial questions that adds even more risk to the venture. In the meantime your European window of opportunity begins closing.
Utilising offshore/outcourced talent already based in Europe brings the highest benefit and minimises the risk. Working with proven professionals with existing technology experience in your product or service brings strategic advantages and even greater cost savings.
No product training required, no expensive hiring needed, no costly delays in ramping up. Hence, Faster Time To Market.
Significantly reducing lead time by removing the need to properly set up and staff a business in the right geographical European country, utilising these senior outcourced talents with existing proven relationships and the right channel partners in the marketplace, means reduced risk and earlier revenue success.
When an SME technology company integrates effective outsourced operations into its existing Sales & Business Development activities it can achieve much much more than trying to make do with already swamped internal resources.
Does your SME business have a faster time to market strategy for Europe?
Val Jelinic
Supporting the European market from abroad just simply isnt an option. The timezone differences, language demands and limited market intelligence almost always rules this out as a serious option.
Levering existing internal resources can bring early initial successes, however cannot be sustained without compromising core focus activities in the home market. Hiring a dedicated European resource makes sense, but raises too many commercial questions that adds even more risk to the venture. In the meantime your European window of opportunity begins closing.
No product training required, no expensive hiring needed, no costly delays in ramping up. Hence, Faster Time To Market.
Significantly reducing lead time by removing the need to properly set up and staff a business in the right geographical European country, utilising these senior outcourced talents with existing proven relationships and the right channel partners in the marketplace, means reduced risk and earlier revenue success.
Does your SME business have a faster time to market strategy for Europe?
Val Jelinic
Friday, 8 April 2011
So what is Business Development?
Many people are confused as to what the definition of Business Development actually is. And therein lies the rub, there is no singular definition that encompasses the wide range of activities and techniques that can be considered to be in the Business Development repertoire.
Akin to trying to measure distance without a fixed reference point, so too Business Development cannot be defined unless given a reference point to start from. Generally, this varies depending on the size of the company, its level of maturity and its market strategy.
Typically, Business Development is an operational function that greatly supports the selling function of a company. It goes hand-in-glove as a complimentary and amplifiying function of Sales.
From a Sales perspective, Business Development takes on the role of evaluating and nurturing leads that lead to possible sales, building a collection of ecosystem partnerships (including strategic ones) that lead to win-win opportunities and, managing channels to identify & exploit new business opportunities.
Whether the focus of your business is to grow market share, increase customer base, penetrate markets or expand business footprint, Business Development is a business-critical tool that has a direct impact on the revenue growth of your business.
Business Development functionality and skills are heavily captilised within Account Management roles also. With prime access to key decision makers, real-time market dynamics information and the opportunity to guide and advise the direction and choices of these decision makers, Business Development becomes a precision tool working in favor of your business.
Every business regardless of size needs to have and deploy a Business Development strategy for its survival. Whether this functionality falls under the umbrella of Sales, Account Management or even Marketing is not important. What is important is the significance and importance of ignoring Business Development has serious repercussions on your company's bottom lines.
How healthy is your company's Business Development strategy?
Val Jelinic
Typically, Business Development is an operational function that greatly supports the selling function of a company. It goes hand-in-glove as a complimentary and amplifiying function of Sales.
From a Sales perspective, Business Development takes on the role of evaluating and nurturing leads that lead to possible sales, building a collection of ecosystem partnerships (including strategic ones) that lead to win-win opportunities and, managing channels to identify & exploit new business opportunities.
Whether the focus of your business is to grow market share, increase customer base, penetrate markets or expand business footprint, Business Development is a business-critical tool that has a direct impact on the revenue growth of your business.
Business Development functionality and skills are heavily captilised within Account Management roles also. With prime access to key decision makers, real-time market dynamics information and the opportunity to guide and advise the direction and choices of these decision makers, Business Development becomes a precision tool working in favor of your business.
Every business regardless of size needs to have and deploy a Business Development strategy for its survival. Whether this functionality falls under the umbrella of Sales, Account Management or even Marketing is not important. What is important is the significance and importance of ignoring Business Development has serious repercussions on your company's bottom lines.
How healthy is your company's Business Development strategy?
Val Jelinic
Posted by Val Jelinic on Friday, 8 April, 2011 | 0 comment
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Thursday, 10 March 2011
Smart Pipes, SIP trunks and .Tel Domains
Unified Communications, Smart Pipes, SIP Trunks and .tel domains, it can only mean UC Expo in London and 2 intense days of over 100 exhibitors, thousands of visitors and hundreds of discussions about VOIP communications.
A key event in the technology calendar for businesses who are looking to mobilize their workforces and bring together disparate communications platforms, this years UC Expo is deemed a success.
Unified Communications Expo targets, challenges and educates how IP-based communications are changing the way businesses operate today and what that means for users(employees & customers alike). With many businesses seeking to reduce costs, increase connectivity & presence as well as lever online services & applications not previously accessible, UC is more and more becoming an integral part of business life and companies like voipGATE are at the leading edge of it.
voipGATE S.A, a Luxembourg based SIP & VOIP Operator with global Tier 1 peer-to-peer relationships, took full advantage of being the only representative of its industry present at the show. Chief Operations Officer Jorge Marques was extremely happy with the level of interest being taken in voipGATE products and services.
"We are always interested in collaborating with companies of all types within the UC space of VOIP & SIP" Mr. Marques commented. "Traditionally VOIP providers have been seen as a "dumb pipe" providers, connecting SIP pipes with no real value-added-services to compliment them. voipGATEs "Smart Pipe" philosophy, an ecosystem of SIP connectivity and innovative VOIP services, allows both partner and end-customers to benefit from some excellent business tools as well as having a truly global SME-focused telco partner."
voipGATE prove this statement by bundling powerful services like .tel (a digital business card and so much more) with their softphone offering, providing SMEs with instant presence and the ability to "shape" the way their business is seen, its visibility and how its contacted.
UC Expo proves that online communications is here & now. Companies like Telnic and voipGATE are only happy to showcase at UC Expo to take full advantage of the market space where many businesses are slow to wake-up to this fact.
Val Jelinic
A key event in the technology calendar for businesses who are looking to mobilize their workforces and bring together disparate communications platforms, this years UC Expo is deemed a success.
Unified Communications Expo targets, challenges and educates how IP-based communications are changing the way businesses operate today and what that means for users(employees & customers alike). With many businesses seeking to reduce costs, increase connectivity & presence as well as lever online services & applications not previously accessible, UC is more and more becoming an integral part of business life and companies like voipGATE are at the leading edge of it.
voipGATE S.A, a Luxembourg based SIP & VOIP Operator with global Tier 1 peer-to-peer relationships, took full advantage of being the only representative of its industry present at the show. Chief Operations Officer Jorge Marques was extremely happy with the level of interest being taken in voipGATE products and services."We are always interested in collaborating with companies of all types within the UC space of VOIP & SIP" Mr. Marques commented. "Traditionally VOIP providers have been seen as a "dumb pipe" providers, connecting SIP pipes with no real value-added-services to compliment them. voipGATEs "Smart Pipe" philosophy, an ecosystem of SIP connectivity and innovative VOIP services, allows both partner and end-customers to benefit from some excellent business tools as well as having a truly global SME-focused telco partner."
voipGATE prove this statement by bundling powerful services like .tel (a digital business card and so much more) with their softphone offering, providing SMEs with instant presence and the ability to "shape" the way their business is seen, its visibility and how its contacted.
UC Expo proves that online communications is here & now. Companies like Telnic and voipGATE are only happy to showcase at UC Expo to take full advantage of the market space where many businesses are slow to wake-up to this fact.
Val Jelinic
Posted by Val Jelinic on Thursday, 10 March, 2011 | 0 comment
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Friday, 4 March 2011
Square Peg Round Hole (a.k.a ignoring the obvious)
Living in an insular & secular country where almost 75% of the population do not hold a passport (or even recognise the need for one) it is no surprise that US businesses wishing to expand into Europe find it difficult to recognise & handle such things as diversity, flexibility and compromise.
Given the country’s population of just over 307 million, a little over 25% of Americans have a passport. This means that 3 out of 4 Americans can’t even enter Canada!, let alone travel to anywhere else in the world! So why are we so surprised when we see so many American businesses making naive, classical, cross-cultural business faux pas in Europe?
Political correctness may be partly to blame here: In business in the US, one usually doesn't comment on the language skills, citizenship, nationality, family history, education, economic status, social abilities, behavior, beliefs, or other personal traits of another person. In Europe this point certainly is almost always one of the first discussion to take place in a meeting!
But this is where things get interesting.
European languages (and therefore cultures) often always have a polite form and an informal form. To Europeans this is the most basic and classic sign of respect and their culture. The great US/European business divide begins to rift here.
Failing to recognise, respect & employ these cultural nuances, and every country in Europe has them, conveys a message of arrogance, ignorance and disrespect to your European counterpart. And Americans as well as Australians and the English often fail this simple initial hurdle. Your business has hit a brick wall.
The US Commercial Services in its 2011 Country Commercial Guide for US Companies has this to say about market entry strategy:
- Express commitment to the market & establish long term relationships
- Be prepared to implement language diversity to cover most regions
And that just about sums up European Business 101: create relationships & be flexible to your partners needs. Overcoming these two basic but critical points can be an easy exercise if more US businesses would utilise trusted, local, outsourced professionals.
A team of people experienced and conversant with the multitude of nuances and differences so that getting to the nuts & bolts of doing business in Europe is smooth and efficient.
Using the right combination of experienced business professionals with existing European savvy and contact networks, your business could be focused on shaping an ever expanding market share in Europe rather than trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
Given the country’s population of just over 307 million, a little over 25% of Americans have a passport. This means that 3 out of 4 Americans can’t even enter Canada!, let alone travel to anywhere else in the world! So why are we so surprised when we see so many American businesses making naive, classical, cross-cultural business faux pas in Europe?Political correctness may be partly to blame here: In business in the US, one usually doesn't comment on the language skills, citizenship, nationality, family history, education, economic status, social abilities, behavior, beliefs, or other personal traits of another person. In Europe this point certainly is almost always one of the first discussion to take place in a meeting!
But this is where things get interesting.
European languages (and therefore cultures) often always have a polite form and an informal form. To Europeans this is the most basic and classic sign of respect and their culture. The great US/European business divide begins to rift here.
Failing to recognise, respect & employ these cultural nuances, and every country in Europe has them, conveys a message of arrogance, ignorance and disrespect to your European counterpart. And Americans as well as Australians and the English often fail this simple initial hurdle. Your business has hit a brick wall.
The US Commercial Services in its 2011 Country Commercial Guide for US Companies has this to say about market entry strategy:
- Express commitment to the market & establish long term relationships
- Be prepared to implement language diversity to cover most regions
And that just about sums up European Business 101: create relationships & be flexible to your partners needs. Overcoming these two basic but critical points can be an easy exercise if more US businesses would utilise trusted, local, outsourced professionals.
A team of people experienced and conversant with the multitude of nuances and differences so that getting to the nuts & bolts of doing business in Europe is smooth and efficient.
Using the right combination of experienced business professionals with existing European savvy and contact networks, your business could be focused on shaping an ever expanding market share in Europe rather than trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
Posted by Val Jelinic on Friday, 4 March, 2011 | 0 comment
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Monday, 28 February 2011
The Largest Tradeshow in the World: CeBIT
The world's largest marketplace, conference and exhibition for digital business solutions, trends and innovations in the international information and communications technology (ICT) industry. CeBIT attracts approx. 500,000 attendees from 100 countries, 5,100 exhibitors and over 7,000 members of the press and media.
CeBIT is the world's largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments. In just five short days, the CeBIT provide a panoramic view of the digital world's mainstay markets: ICT and Telecommunications, Digital Media also Consumer Electronics.
This years keynote theme "Work and Life with the Cloud" is very pertinent.
Currently no other IT topic is as hotly debated as this major IT growth market, and leading experts expect the Cloud to assert itself across the board in the coming years.
“Cloud computing is gathering speed and is well on its way to revolutionizing the entire IT sector,” declared Ernst Raue, Member of the Board at Deutsche Messe, the organizer of CeBIT. According to the market research and consulting firm Gartner, global revenues for Cloud services will reach USD 68.3 billion in 2010 – a growth rate of 16.6 percent year on year – and USD 148.8 billion by 2014.
High bandwidths and increasingly easy Internet access via mobile end devices are the essential drivers of Cloud computing. Growing demand for Cloud offerings will dictate that many IT enterprises significantly restructure their business processes. Accordingly, experts predict a sea change in the international IT sector that will subsequently lead to far-reaching changes in the associated user industries.
“Providers of IT solutions and services are challenged to revise their business models and take advantage of the enormous potential offered by Cloud computing,” commented Raue. “With its slogan of ‘Work and Life with the Cloud’, CeBIT 2011 offers an ideal platform for highlighting Cloud concepts and informing visitors about the myriad application opportunities in both the business and private spheres,” he concluded.
Whichever way you look at it Cloud computing is upon us and will become even more so in the near future. I am looking forward to the evolution of communication and technologies that should be accessible from anywhere I am, anytime I want.
Val Jelinic
CeBIT is the world's largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments. In just five short days, the CeBIT provide a panoramic view of the digital world's mainstay markets: ICT and Telecommunications, Digital Media also Consumer Electronics.This years keynote theme "Work and Life with the Cloud" is very pertinent.
Currently no other IT topic is as hotly debated as this major IT growth market, and leading experts expect the Cloud to assert itself across the board in the coming years.
“Cloud computing is gathering speed and is well on its way to revolutionizing the entire IT sector,” declared Ernst Raue, Member of the Board at Deutsche Messe, the organizer of CeBIT. According to the market research and consulting firm Gartner, global revenues for Cloud services will reach USD 68.3 billion in 2010 – a growth rate of 16.6 percent year on year – and USD 148.8 billion by 2014.
High bandwidths and increasingly easy Internet access via mobile end devices are the essential drivers of Cloud computing. Growing demand for Cloud offerings will dictate that many IT enterprises significantly restructure their business processes. Accordingly, experts predict a sea change in the international IT sector that will subsequently lead to far-reaching changes in the associated user industries.
“Providers of IT solutions and services are challenged to revise their business models and take advantage of the enormous potential offered by Cloud computing,” commented Raue. “With its slogan of ‘Work and Life with the Cloud’, CeBIT 2011 offers an ideal platform for highlighting Cloud concepts and informing visitors about the myriad application opportunities in both the business and private spheres,” he concluded.
Whichever way you look at it Cloud computing is upon us and will become even more so in the near future. I am looking forward to the evolution of communication and technologies that should be accessible from anywhere I am, anytime I want.
Val Jelinic
Posted by Val Jelinic on Friday, 4 March, 2011 | 0 comment
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Levering Faster Time To Market in Europe
Time to market is one of the most important aspects for any technology company exploring the European market. How does an SME technology company achieve this without compromise? Commercial factors ...So what is Business Development?
Many people are confused as to what the definition of Business Development actually is. And therein lies the rub, there is no singular definition that encompasses the wide range of activities and tech...Smart Pipes, SIP trunks and .Tel Domains
Unified Communications, Smart Pipes, SIP Trunks and .tel domains, it can only mean UC Expo in London and 2 intense days of over 100 exhibitors, thousands of visitors and hundreds of discussions about ...Square Peg Round Hole (a.k.a ignoring the obvious)
Living in an insular & secular country where almost 75% of the population do not hold a passport (or even recognise the need for one) it is no surprise that US businesses wishing to expand into Europe...Our Clients Technologies
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Posted by Val Jelinic on Sunday, 17 April, 2011 | 0 comment
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