Crafting a mobile cloud company

I had to first convince myself, that the current cloud buzz is not only smoke and mirrors before I can make my customers buy the idea about business process as a service. So, I decided to convince myself by testing the cloud with my own start-up.

Initially, I did not have a deep understanding of what is existing out there, yet I felt confident, that I will be able to craft a company fueled by cloud enabled infrastructure and software offerings, which

a) Can be accessed from anywhere in the world (basically coffee shops in Vienna)

b) I don’t have to invest into capital expenditure and monthly subscription fees are minimal, and

c) I can immediately shut down the services, in case I find out that the business idea is not worthwhile pursuing.

Now, the self-convincing period is over, I am positive, that my customers will love the BPaaS services, however here is what works and what does not work for me in the cloud world:

• ·    Communication: Robust, stable, sophisticated. Gmail, Twitter, Blogs all seemingly interconnecting with each other and it is great to work with from my Android phone. In addition I can manage my mobile phone and internet connection functionalities and bills online. 5 stars.
•      Organization: A real eye opener. Google calendar and contact functions (why does Google not offer these offline?) provide all the functionalities I need, with Evernote and other small apps I capture ideas on the go, and I use SugarSync for automatic back up of my files in the cloud and all the apps in the Android market place, which make my life really easier. And above all the monthly bill compares to a pennywise restaurant visit. 5++ stars.
•      Standard office applications: I tried Google docs for a while, the collaboration piece in the cloud is nice, yet the functionalities for an addicted of presentations and calculations are not sophisticated enough. Yes, I bought MS office and installed it on my computer. I give it another 2-3 years until I will get rid of it. 2 stars.
•      Applications supporting the operations: To operate the start-up I defined the following application requirements: CRM tool, Call center infrastructure (PBX, IVR, ACD), accounting application, document management system, and a workflow solution. My research revealed mixed results: CRM: there are plenty of cloud based CRM tools out there offering more functionality than I will ever require. Salesforce.com is certainly the hyped star among the applications. Call center infrastructure: It took me some time, but I found them and they are called Five9. However these guys operate their infrastructure in the US and it did not make much sense to me to route a call back and forth from the US to address a request of a client, who sits only a few hundred kilometers away. Seems that Oracle operates also a virtual call center infrastructure in Europe, but after speaking with representatives in Austria, Germany, Ireland and India, nobody ever bothered about me. So, I decided to offer non-voice solutions. Accounting application: This was a real long search and the solution was just under my very nose. I found brilliant anglo cloud systems (Xero is really cool) and tried to convince their CEOs to tap fast into the German opportunity, however without success. I ran through many half-baked German systems, which either do only part of the job or you need a PhD in computer science to use it and was close to surrender. Finally, I came across DATEV, the supposed to be conservative and lethargic quasi-monopolist in the German accounting software market. But hey, they are really innovative, have in Germany unrivalled accounting cloud applications, integrate even DMS and workflow solutions and have a smart management team. Job done! Overall: 3 stars.

My personal conclusion on cloud offerings: If you want to craft a mobile cloud company you certainly have an advantage being a US based company these days and there remains one unresolved issue- all the apps in the cloud act as their own data islands with no interconnection.

The tedious search for solutions strengthened my faith into the bigforsmall idea: it is high time that we start offering business service based on cloud applications where the end user does not have to fool around with searching, selecting and running infrastructure or software.