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INTRODUCTION
By Sue Taylor, Editor
Welcome to the re-launch of SCribe, the regular newsletter
brought to you by the Software
Council of Southern California, an organization focused
on making the region's software and information technology companies
more successful.
The purpose of Scribe is to provide valuable information
targeted specifically to software and information technology
companies doing business in Southern California.
I want to personally thank each of our contributing authors
for their submissions. If you are a Software Council member
and would like to submit an article for consideration, please
contact me for submission
details.
We hope that Scribe will be a valuable resource for you.
We recognize that everyone's inbox is full, so we welcome feedback
that can help us deliver future content that is highly valuable
and relevant to you. Please share your ideas about SCribe
and our initiatives through our online
survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=86895406427
to give us your feedback and suggestions.
You can expect to see Scribe around the middle of every
other month, with the next issue arriving in May. Archives will
be available online.
Best regards,
Sue Taylor, Editor
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR UPDATE
By Lee Shaeffer, Executive Director
First,
I want to thank everyone associated with 2004 Software Industry
Awards for making this the biggest and best ever! My special
thanks to the organizing committee, sponsors, judges, finalists
and recipients, as well as the nominees (all of whom were outstanding)
and each of you who attended. Special recognition also goes
to Catrina Gruver-Luedtke, our amazing event director, and Kristen
Messineo, for their unparalleled dedication and passion, and
for the extraordinary effort invested to make this event a smashing
success.
While
the Software Council will continue to produce over 40 events
annually that provide opportunities to establish critical business
relationships and receive invaluable information from experts,
we are also expanding our scope. You already may have already
seen details on the initiatives I discussed my previous update,
including a resource center, mentoring program, and training
events. Now, in addition, we will be developing position papers
to give a collective voice to the Southern California Software
Industry. The first of these will be a position paper on the
highly-charged topic of offshore outsourcing.
We
want your input for this offshore outsourcing position paper.
If you have not yet responded to our email on this subject,
please respond today. Or access our on-line
form at http://www.scsc.org/outsourcing_survey.html
Either way, I look forward to including your input in this position
paper!
FULL
COURT PRESS FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
By Tim Lovoy, Managing Partner,
Deloitte & Touche
The
number of intellectual property (IP) lawsuits in the news seems
dizzying. Currently, the highest profile is SCO Group's $3 billion
suit against IBM, which it claims moved Unix code into Linux.
This past summer, IBM filed a countersuit and Red Hat also filed
suit against SCO. Meanwhile, Cisco is suing Huawei Technologies
of China for blatant copying of software code, user manuals
and other intellectual property.
While all these announcements make it seem as though the lawyers
are the only ones doing business anymore, in reality lawsuits
are usually seen as the last resort among companies that want
to protect their IP. It's costly and time-consuming, and a jury
verdict can be unpredictable at best.
So, when a company believes that there is a problem-unpaid royalties,
a misuse of a patent license or a suspected copyright infringement-there's
a lot of evaluation and preparation that takes place to determine.
MORE
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8
STEPS TO INCREASING SALES MEETING ROI
By Stephen Botte, Principal, Technology Marketing Group
Nowhere
are the challenges of the economy felt more strongly than on
the brave warriors of the Sales Organization. In the trenches
every day doing battle, it is critical to arm the sales force
with the motivation, information, and training they need to
win.
Smart companies know the power of a strategically planned and
flawlessly executed sales meeting. Just a few days spent together
can impact the entire year.
This article focuses on the steps to ensure the resources invested
in sales meetings yield great results, measurable ROI and some
fun along the way.
Step
1 - Get executive buy-in
From the top down, Senior Management must agree that a sales
meeting is a company priority and commit the resources from
their individual organizations to make it a success.
Step
2 - Develop a strategic vision and plan
Too often, we get caught up in the details and forget to stand
back and ask the important questions such as, "Why are
we doing this meeting", and "What do we want to achieve?"
Your sales meeting must have specific objectives (i.e., motivation,
education, networking, product training) identified. Senior
Sales Management must be involved so that the meeting actually
meets the needs of the field. With the objectives clearly defined,
the tactics will flow smoothly.
MORE>>
YOU
ARE THE CEO...AND YOUR SYSTEM HAS BEEN HACKED
By Gavin G. Galimi, Attorney, KMZ Rosenman
You
are feeling pretty good. It's a three day weekend and you are
skiing at Mammoth. Your company just rolled out a new web based
CRM system that interfaces with your accounting system, finally
giving your customers real time access via the web to their
account information. The roll out went off without a hitch,
ahead of schedule, and under budget. Hopefully, it's the first
of many successes with implementing the 2004 strategic plan.
Your cell phone rings. It's your IT manager and the company's
outside counsel. "We think there's been a breach. The new
CRM system may have been hacked. We're still assessing the situation.
There's a chance whoever did this got access to our customer's
personal information."
What do you do?
MORE>>
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