ZDNet
Earlier today I caught up with Narinder Singh, co-founder Appirio and a great sounding board for cloud consulting and implementation topics.
As background, Appirio has around 500 consultants and an ecosystem of around 42,000 developers on Cloudspokes. The company recently raised $60 million in its bid to become a one stop cloud integration and implementation shop.
This video is a prequel to a video conversation I shall be recording between Jon Reed and myself tomorrow evening (7pm CET. 6pm GMT, 1pm ET, 10am PT.) I want to put Jon on the spot to discuss what needs to happen and especially around the skillset and change management required. Both of us are very familiar with the SAP ecosystem as an example but this is not just about that company. The same challenges are going to hold true for other players like Oracle which is set to announce its public cloud offerings on 6th June. I wonder what they will have to say about this topic?...
Appirio in the News
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
In One Adjective, Please Tell Me Who You Are
The New York Times
This interview with Chris Barbin, chief executive of Appirio, an information technology company that focuses on cloud services, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.
Q. What are some important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. I would start with transparency — it is a huge part of our culture, and what I think makes a company and team really thrive and work. You should never surprise an employee. I’ve had experiences in my career where you’re building something, you think everything’s great and all of a sudden there’s a layoff. That should never happen. The team should know. We have meetings every other week in the company, and we use a system of red light, yellow light, green light on the key attributes of the business, like financials, customers and team.
From my experience at bigger companies, I think there’s a tendency to overanalyze, with too many metrics. It can be confusing, so you have to boil it down to simple, crisp goals that you hammer and repeat. That’s part of transparency, too...
This interview with Chris Barbin, chief executive of Appirio, an information technology company that focuses on cloud services, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.
Q. What are some important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. I would start with transparency — it is a huge part of our culture, and what I think makes a company and team really thrive and work. You should never surprise an employee. I’ve had experiences in my career where you’re building something, you think everything’s great and all of a sudden there’s a layoff. That should never happen. The team should know. We have meetings every other week in the company, and we use a system of red light, yellow light, green light on the key attributes of the business, like financials, customers and team.
From my experience at bigger companies, I think there’s a tendency to overanalyze, with too many metrics. It can be confusing, so you have to boil it down to simple, crisp goals that you hammer and repeat. That’s part of transparency, too...
Thursday, May 17, 2012
10 More Hot Products From Interop 2012
CRN
Cloud provider Appirio introduced new features for its CloudFactor application, which is a part of its Cloud Enablement Suite of applications, analytics and a crowdsourcing community for managing enterprise cloud initiatives.
CloudFactor brings Salesforce.com information into Google Apps and allows users to access Salesforce CRM information in Gmail. CloudFactor was first introduced in 2010 as CloudWorks.
CloudFactor allows users to access and manage relevant customer information to improve data quality and decision making. The application supports Group and Professional Edition Salesforce tenants and is available to install via the Salesforce AppExchange and Google Apps Marketplace.
The CloudFactor upgrades include Salesforce.com Chatter integration, an embedded Twitter search widget, and customization and administration options.
Cloud provider Appirio introduced new features for its CloudFactor application, which is a part of its Cloud Enablement Suite of applications, analytics and a crowdsourcing community for managing enterprise cloud initiatives.
CloudFactor brings Salesforce.com information into Google Apps and allows users to access Salesforce CRM information in Gmail. CloudFactor was first introduced in 2010 as CloudWorks.
CloudFactor allows users to access and manage relevant customer information to improve data quality and decision making. The application supports Group and Professional Edition Salesforce tenants and is available to install via the Salesforce AppExchange and Google Apps Marketplace.
The CloudFactor upgrades include Salesforce.com Chatter integration, an embedded Twitter search widget, and customization and administration options.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
6 Tools to Build a Mobile App on the Cheap
Mashable
Dave Messinger, chief architect of CloudSpokes, says his company is "the first developer community that matches the cloud with the crowd — a true market where businesses tap into skills and pay for results versus effort, and where developers get access to a new world of opportunity to earn money for cloud development.”
The service, built by cloud solutions brand Appirio, allows companies to outsource any form of public cloud development work — entire mobile applications, Facebook pages and technical components for enterprises — in the form of a competition. After customers post a deadline alongside technical specifications, developers in the community submit entries, which are then judged by the customer or the CloudSpokes team.
“For developers, this approach creates a market for their talents, lets them develop new skills with real world assignments and transitions their careers to the cloud while establishing street cred as skilled practitioners,” Messinger says. “For companies (including Appirio), this means tapping into a developer ecosystem and paying only for the components of work that meet pre-agreed upon requirements.”
The success of CloudSpokes reflects the effectiveness an entirely unique approach to app development: A gamified network of freelance contributors. Current challenges range from the bizarre — a Python-based app that can create a route guiding users to every train station on a given system within 24 hours — to the highly practical, including an app to facilitate financial aid application processes by extracting information from existing tax files. (Original Article)
Dave Messinger, chief architect of CloudSpokes, says his company is "the first developer community that matches the cloud with the crowd — a true market where businesses tap into skills and pay for results versus effort, and where developers get access to a new world of opportunity to earn money for cloud development.”
The service, built by cloud solutions brand Appirio, allows companies to outsource any form of public cloud development work — entire mobile applications, Facebook pages and technical components for enterprises — in the form of a competition. After customers post a deadline alongside technical specifications, developers in the community submit entries, which are then judged by the customer or the CloudSpokes team.
“For developers, this approach creates a market for their talents, lets them develop new skills with real world assignments and transitions their careers to the cloud while establishing street cred as skilled practitioners,” Messinger says. “For companies (including Appirio), this means tapping into a developer ecosystem and paying only for the components of work that meet pre-agreed upon requirements.”
The success of CloudSpokes reflects the effectiveness an entirely unique approach to app development: A gamified network of freelance contributors. Current challenges range from the bizarre — a Python-based app that can create a route guiding users to every train station on a given system within 24 hours — to the highly practical, including an app to facilitate financial aid application processes by extracting information from existing tax files. (Original Article)
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Appirio at a glance
Introduction to Appirio
pr@appirio.com
