Archive for December, 2008

Spotcha….

Published by Ben Kepes on December 23, 2008 in New Zealand. 0 Comments

Yeah gidday.

So we’re off – a couple of days in glorious Wellington and then close to three weeks road tripping and camping in the North Island. Heading up through the Wairarapa, through Hawkes Bay and up around East Cape to the Coromandel Peninsula. Then as quickly through Auckland as possible to head north as far as we can go – we’ll try and give Tane Mahuta a hug on our way to Kaitaia and Cape Reinga.

Or we might just spend two weeks at Castlepoint – who knows?

Either way I’ll be somewhat out of touch for a couple of weeks. My trusty co-founder Ruth will keep the fires burning at bizchat, Zoli and Krish will do the same at CloudAve, Pete is manning the fort at Cactus and guy will sort out the buildings should they need it.

The sheep, chooks, orchard and veggie garden are taken care of as well so everything is, as they say, ship-shape.

I’m an agnostic sort of a guy so I’ll refrain from wishing you all a happy Chanukah, Christmas, Sylvester or whatever festival takes your fancy – suffice it to say that I hope you’ve all had a great 2008 and will join me in having what I’m sure will be an even better 2009.

Catcha on the other side!

Ben

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Another Global SaaS Accounting Player

Published by Ben Kepes on December 20, 2008 in Business, IT, New Zealand, SaaS and Strategy. 4 Comments

Xero promised a global version in 2009. They’ve just announced that as of Monday, over a week earlier than the promised earliest date, they’ll be releasing their international version.

Read the full details here.

Let’s observe how this Kiwi battler takes on the world!

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SageLive – Yet Another SaaS Accounting Product

Published by Ben Kepes on December 19, 2008 in Business, IT, SaaS and Strategy. 1 Comment

Sage has just released the first iteration of their new on-demand accounting product.

Names SageLive, the product has some really smart features, along with some glaring holes.

The biggest question is whether a traditional vendor can really commit to a subscription based product on an ongoing basis – Sage are adamant that SageLive won’t cannibalise sales but I’d not be so sure.

Check out the complete article here.

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Running a School – Who Does It Best…

Published by Ben Kepes on December 18, 2008 in Efficiency, Governance, New Zealand and Society. 0 Comments

I’ve got two school-age sons and I’ve spent a fair amount of time observing the way New Zealand schools are run.

By way of background, the Labour government of 1984 put in place the “Tomorrow’s Schools” ethos. Part of this new way of thinking was a move to Boards of Trustees being formed to govern schools. The thinking went that it is the parents of the children at a school who are best placed to run that school – regardless of their knowledge of education, finance, governance or employment.

It’s a model that has come under a fair amount of criticism, clearly running a business is a difficult job. Running one with dozens of employees, sometimes hundreds of students, funding constraints and a robust central Government regulatory structure all conspires to make it a difficult job.

My brother is the chairman of a primary school board of trustees, and he also has two sons at a high school that is in the process of coming through a $1.7million budget deficit. yesterday on National Radio he and a couple of other people were interviewed about the high school issues in particular, and school governance in general.

It’s a really interesting interview – check it out here (it’ll probably only be available for the next week)

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Facebook Goes Mainstream!

Published by Ben Kepes on December 17, 2008 in SocialMedia and Society. 5 Comments

For those who believe that Facebook has no utility, here’s a story that’ll warm your heart (or chill the blood of those “ice in the veins” lawyers out there).

It seems the Australian Supreme Court has decided that Facebook is a suitable medium on which to serve court papers. Yes indeedy – no longer do bailiffs need to hunt down unsuspecting citizens at home, at their workplace or elsewhere – they can now serve court papers at the same time as they poke them and throw sheep or other livestock at them.

The Diversity blog top pick for 2009? The first ever charge of Grievous Bodily Harm stemming from a virtual sheep throwing incident on Facebook.

Oh lordy lordy me….

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What Part of Rampant Consumerism do People Not Get?

Published by Ben Kepes on December 16, 2008 in Business, Business and the Environment, Economic Development, Efficiency, Manufacturing, My businesses and Society. 2 Comments

Doing the rounds at the moment is a UK Sunday Star Times story about an undercover operation at an Amazon warehouse. Basically the reporter discovered terrible working conditions, very high demands on staff and not allowance for sick days off.

The thing that caused the shock for people (we all seem to have grown accustomed to near-slave labour in Eastern countries) was that this warehouse was in the UK – Milton Keynes to be precise.

Dennis Howlett posted about the incident saying;

If companies like Amazon can get away with this kind of exploitation then what next? Is this something that a civil society should tolerate? I don’t think so.

Reputation matters and to date, Amazon has ridden a wave of enthusiasm for its innovative approach to product distribution. But if exploitation is what it take to keep prices low then I’d rather pay a few coppers more if it ensures that workers are offered decent conditions.What the Times discovered does not qualify, even if it is technically within the law. What is the matter with Amazon management? Are they becoming the latest victims of excuse based decision making where if the law says it’s OK, then it’s OK?

Dennis is a fantastic guy and I bow down to his enterprise software pedigree but when it comes to the downstream effects of international trade and a consumer society, he is hopelessly naieve. As I said by way of comment on his post;

Dennis – I hate to say it but the fact that you’re surprised completely floored me. This Amazon story is a natural result of relentless downwards pressure on price. The move of (almost) all production to the east, and the rise of the super-consumer society has created a demand for low cost/high efficiency operations like Amazon – and how do they remain efficient and drive prices down? By sourcing goods from the lowest cost manufacturing countries and treating staff like disposable commodities.

Don’t people see that this is our fault? Amazon are just fulfilling a demand…

And that from someone who still proudly owns a business manufacturing 100% in the West (in this case http://www.cactusclimbing.co.nz and production entirely in New Zealand – well paid staff, clean /light/airy workplaces and a fun environment all included)

Of late I’ve bitten my tongue while those around me espouse the undeniable benefits of international trade. I too am a proponent of trade – but there is a difference between trade per se and fair trade. This is borne out by comments like this one;

The prices Amazon chooses to offer should have no bearing on whether they operate like slave camp owners. That’s a well understood business principle. People don’t realize this kind of thing is going on. That matters.

Price charged and cost structure are inextricably linked. As a society we have driven down the price we are wiling to pay but tried to ignore the social toll that the cost reductions needed to achieve that price have caused.

We shouldn’t blame the vendors for that.

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Worker Available…

Published by Ben Kepes on December 15, 2008 in New Zealand. 0 Comments

I’m a firm believer in the theories espoused by Malcolm Gladwell in Blink. To paraphrase, Gladwell contends that first impressions are generally accurate and gut instinct is worth following.

A chap I’ve had a little bit to do with (virtually it must be said – never me him in person) is looking for some work. With  BCA and having come through Wellington’s CreativeHQ Activate course, he describes himself as strong on business process, sales and client liaison. He’s not a web developer but is keen to learn and has an affinity for all things Web 2.0.

He’s looking for something that works with his Wellington location – so either a Wellington company or one that could use a remote Wellington-based worker.

Anyway – if you’re interested drop me a line and I’ll do the connecting

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Diary of a Site Owner – Chapter 1; Breathe deep, breathe deep

Published by Ben Kepes on December 12, 2008 in Humour and SocialMedia. 9 Comments

no mucha da memory hadda to shifta da database
shiftid da database, site waz not workingz
coz not workingz had too doo some sugeriez on da database
da surgery not soo good – database kind of dies
so maybe waz no good decision too move da database in da first place
so now we move da database back like it waz originally
maybe we should test diz thing before making da changez in da future?

Ah the joys of webmastery – luckily I’m a philosophical kind of a chap…..

Bizchat will be back shortly

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Take Some Leave Now Paul

Published by Ben Kepes on December 12, 2008 in Business and IT. 1 Comment

Paul Brislen, PR man for Vodafone New Zealand is a really nice guy – I sympathised with him earlier in the year when Voda released the iPhone in New Zealand – the public outcry over the pricing plans was massive – it was interesting that Paul took a weeks annual leave over the launch – smart planning on his part maybe?

Now there is another controversy – one that is possible less visible in the public eye but one that is even more contentious.

Miki gives his usual excellent analysis over here but the gist of it is that Voda are essentially rewriting the truth in an advertising campaign – using somewhat underhanded techniques to claim that their mobile data coverage is better than Telecom New Zealand’s.

Given the heated exchanges taking place over on Geekzone, it might just be time for Paul to take some more annual leave. Or maybe go work in a role that doesn’t result in him being part of the collateral damage. It’s not worth the stress Paul!

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Sold – To the Company With the Biggest Chequebook

Published by Ben Kepes on December 11, 2008 in Business, Efficiency, IT, SaaS and Strategy. 0 Comments

I posted about a month ago about the suitors for accounting software company MYOB. I’ve just been told that MYOB has accepted an offer from Manhattan pending shareholder approval. Details below.

As I said to another accounting software industry player, I guess the saying “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is Manhattan’s rationale…. I wonder if now MYOB will build a real on-demand product instead of the horrendous Business Basics Online (review here)

The board of MYOB Ltd says it intends to accept a takeover bid from private equity consortium Manhattan after it raised its offer by about $14 million.

The new offer from Manhattan, a joint venture between private equity firm Archer Capital and US investment firm HarbourVest, values MYOB at about $451 million.

Manhattan’s previous offer of $1.1215 per share for full company control valued MYOB at about $437 million, but was rejected by the software company as opportunistic.

Under the new two-tier offer, Manhattan is offering MYOB shareholders $1.0564 per share.

If Manhattan receives acceptances reaching 90 per cent its offer will increase to $1.1564 per MYOB share, valuing the company at about $451 million.

MYOB chairman Simon McKeon said the board intended to accept the latest offer in the absence of a higher bid.

“The board is pleased that we have been able to agree an improvement to the bid structure, which now allows shareholders to gain a higher price for their shares without risking being forced into accepting the lower price,” Mr McKeon said.

“We encourage shareholders to think carefully about the options presented to them.”

MYOB has also agreed to pay a special fully franked dividend of 8.15 cents per share, subject to Manhattan declaring its offer unconditional.

The takeover bid will only proceed if 50.1 per cent of acceptances are received before December 18.

Andrew Gray, Chairman of Manhattan, urged MYOB shareholders to act quickly on the offer.

“In terms of timing of acceptances, MYOB shareholders should have the last Qantas takeover attempt top-of mind,” he said.

Qantas was the target of a controversial $11.1 billion private equity bid in 2007, which had board approval but failed to receive the required shareholder approval.

MYOB shares closed up 8.5 cents, or 8.76 per cent, at $1.055.

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