If you’re contemplating adopting a Enterprise 2.0 strategy keep this in mind (from Sameer Patel’s Pretzel Logic blog):

It’s a myth that we can get by with process laden technology since it solves 70%, 80& 90% of repeatable process tasks. The other 10%, 20%, 30% is where things can go horribly wrong and cost millions. Weaving in a social fabric to deal with those exceptions to standard process outcomes is barely tapped today.

Great point.

OK, so it’s April already.  But you still should take note of these articles.  I promise next week’s post will be Monday.

1. Novell rejects $2B takeover bid.  It’s nice they feel the company is worth more, but it’s never a good sign that the board is “looking for alternatives”.  I hope the company makes it. I hear their new social enterprise platform Pulse is very strong.  I can’t wait for the beta.
2. Fantastic article about who might buy Palm that includes profiles of the 13 potential suitors with rationale.
3. Google Testing Hotel Prices in Google Maps.  I guess it’s no longer a question on whether or not Google’s entering travel meta-search…they’re in it.  They’re also excellent analysis on the move by travel industry blogger Robert Cole here.
4. TravelClick to add sales and marketing services to Central Reservations Systems software platform. http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_nshw.php?mwi=7107
5. WSJ reports that hotels are most vulnerable to data breaches.  This is on the heels of the news that Wyndham was hacked for the 3^rd time in the last several years.  For those who didn’t know, PCI-DSS compliance is important.
6. Everbread emerges from stealth mode and launches a new search platform that claims to be significantly faster than other travel search engines.  The fare and pricing engine named Haystack is being targeted to airlines and OTAs.
7. Yahoo releases 2 new iPhone apps for search.  The Sketch-a-Search capability is really cool.
8. The Open Source and PaaS Paradox http://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/15160/open-source-and-the-paas-paradox/
9. Tnooz to launch Travel App portal in association with Capterra. http://www.tnooz.com/2010/03/22/news/tnooz-to-launch-tsoftware-a-unique-software-store-for-travel-technology/. Pretty interesting development to see a news organization become a marketplace. I guess they’re going the CNET route.  At the very least this will probably be the best way for me to build a travel technology prospect database J
10. Valyn Perini, Executive Director of Open Travel, asks “Why do car rental agencies make it so easy for me to stiff them?” She makes good points about how car rental agencies are basically the only part of the travel food chain that doesn’t ask for at least some payment up front or charge penalties for no shows.

Sorry for the delay in posting, but I’m been flat out here in India as I am getting further up to speed with my new role at Ness Technologies Software Product Labs. Now that the excuses are out of the way, let’s get to the Top 10.

1. I’d be remiss if the first one out of the gate wasn’t the public announcement of Ness SPL’s relationship with travel IT giant Amadeus.  For the past year Ness has built an engineering team in Bangalore, supporting Amadeus’ continued investment in building industry leading software products for the travel industry.  It also signals Ness’ focus on providing software product engineering services to the travel industry.  If we can deliver for Amadeus, we can deliver for anyone.  Call me!
2. GM’s Augmented Reality Windshield: This is potentially very cool. Nice that it can highlight road signs, but better if it could superimpose hi-fi versions of signs I can’t see clearly.  Also the ability to check out where the drivers eyes are looking could be potential liability issues for drivers who crash while texting, dialing or otherwise distracted.
3. Google May Leave China on April 10. I can’t imagine they want to really do this, but their public stand has kind of boxed them in a corner.
4. Priceline Introduces Pay-at-Checkout for hotels.  I guess I didn’t realize that with online travel agencies (OTAs) that you had to pay the hotel fees at the time of booking.  I guess I never booked a hotel through an OTA because this seemed like standard operating procedure.
5. Musings from the Mobile Upfront: Recap from Mobile Upfront and insights from mobile guru @tgruber
6. Security Risks of Multi-tenancy.  Just goes to show that architecture in the wrong hands is dangerous and usually that’s at the core of bad software.
7. Cloud killing the enterprise software market? Hold that thought. I agree that there will probably be a lot of private/hybrid-cloud implementations, although don’t believe that’s a very good strategy, other than trying to recoup existing infrastructure investments.  It’s one thing to get leverage from what you already have, but let’s hope that few are actually thinking about buying a bunch of hardware to build-out new private cloud infrastructure.  This makes me think back to a post from last summer: Who will be the first to offer cash for infrastructure? I still think it’s a good idea.
8. Why RedMonk’s @sogrady is against patents – the system is broken.  But what if the system could be fixed. Then again this is an awful lot like tort reform. Too many special interests to make it happen and too many frivolous lawsuits/patents.
9. Webciety and Enterprise 2.0: A snapshot of today’s social computing conversations.  Notes and perspective from CeBIT on the opportunities and concerns about E20 by the one and only Dion Hinchcliffe
10. Enterprise 2.0: efficiency, effectiveness, blame and responsibility.  More good hard truth from Dennis Howlett.

A little late, but here’s your weekly bit of curation:

1. Mashable: Google v. Yahoo. Who has the right social strategy? It may not be who you think. Build or Buy revisited.
2. From RedMonk’s @sogrady: “What Sports Can Teach Us About Analytics: The MIT Sloan Conference“  Great post about Dorkapalooza. Wished I could have attended.
3. TechCrunch: Windows Slate preview. Yes it has flash, and some custom work to accommodate a touch interface, but still seems to hold too tightly to the traditional windows paradigm…and not just because it runs Windows7
4. “When the platform changes, the leaders change”. Great post by Seth Godin
5. Benioff’s Facebook Imperative Part 2.  Is he trying to change the conversation, buddy up to Facebook (the enemy of my enemy is my friend) or just trying to promote Salesforce Chatter?  Or could it be all three?  Read the initial post here.
6. Great post on design nuances for iPad
7. The Revolution at Work (the industry reacts to Salesforce’s moves) from Robert Scoble [Video]
8. From @compete: Lost Bookings Where Are You?
9. Good post on possible impact of Twitter Geo-Location — Red Giant Consulting: High Tech Marketing Consultant
10. Extraordinary review and perspective on the latest research and understanding of Social CRM from Paul Greenberg of the Enterprise Irregulars.

Let’s see what came up:

1. Forrester analyst John Rymer’s take on Oracle’s Cloud strategy. And for a bonus, a slightly different interpretation by fellow Forrester analyst Stefan Reid.
2. Dion Hinchcliffe, ZDnet: The Facebook imperative for enterprise software.  Hinchliffe is great. Longish articles at times, but good insight. Riffing off Benioff’s recent proclamation that enterprise software should look like Facebook (not sure I want my enterprise software UI changing every 3 months), he asks important questions like “Should Enterprises be Social” and has a Top 5 list of why IT should be social (I certainly won’t limit to IT).  But I think that social is critical for organizations, particularly global organizations, who want to innovate.  R&D has gone global and the best way to harness that is to make sure those teams are social with each other, collaborating and sharing.
3. David Linthicum: Cloud Provider Roulette.  Bottom line: If you are evaluating cloud computing technology today, you have to consider that your choice could be bought up this year or next. That means you need to make sure your legal agreements are rock-solid and spell out what happens if your provider is acquired
4. Wyndham Hacked for Third Time. Not good. Wyndham please talk to me about security testing.  Related article noting that recent research shows that the hospitality industry is hit hardest by hackers, with the natural focus on payment card information.
5. Tnooz: Will Priceline come back to the field?  The concentration of revenue in the OTA (online travel agency) business is pretty staggering.  It’s the Pareto Principle on steroids.
6. Tnooz: TripIt maps employee travel with TripIt groups.  Pretty cool way to keep tabs on the organization. Would be very helpful in case of a crisis and there was a need to know/get in contact with employees at a moments notice.
7. Daring Fireball: Thoughts on Windows Phone 7 by John Gruber (not related, but I’d be somewhat glad if people confused him with me. Would certainly help me get gigs on the speaking circuit)
8. Keeping in the iPad theme this TechCrunch article on Apple’s HTC patent Lawsuit indicates that the real focus of Apple’s ire is (spoiler alert) Google’s Android OS (ok, not really a spoiler).
9. Three theories why Google pushed Buzz out the door.  What’s more interesting to me is that it seems that the Buzz experience is vastly different on an Android device, with all it’s location-based goodness, than on a web client. Is this really targeted more at Foursquare than Twitter?
10. And last but not least: Ballmer’s really committing Microsoft to the Cloud. Yet somehow I still don’t quite believe it.

Each week I’ll be providing a list of 10 items that caught my eye during the past week, in no particular order. So if you missed it, here’s your chance to find what I thought was interesting. Please provide feedback good or bad so I can improve the relevancy…well at least understand what you’re interested in.

• Switched On: Making it different versus making a difference Impressions of Windows Phone 7. Story is just like it sounds, but this new mobile OS from Microsoft will either seriously impact the mobile landscape or will be the final chapter in Microsoft’s attempt at participating in the mobile market.
• Scobleizer: Marc Benioff’s enterprise ambitions (first look at Salesforce Chatter) Tech blogger extraordinaire Robert Scoble’s take on Salesforce.com’s social enterprise app.
• Tnooz: Yapta to integrate Kayak Meta Search Engine.  Another interesting move my travel meta-search leader Kayak.com as they evolve their business.
• Tnooz: Orbitz launches travel agent website, commission program for hotels, packages Interesting move by leading OTA Orbitz to try to get traditional travel agents to book on their platform. You always hear that  Sales people are coin-operated, I guess we’ll find out as Orbitz increases commissions by 20%.
• Singularity Hub: Minority Report Interface Is Real, Hitting Mainstream Soon (Video).  Usability is so interesting to me.  The guy who designed the interface concepts for the movie “Minority Report” is trying to build a real business out of it.  I think that this tracks very nicely with the move away from mouse and keyboard interaction.  Perhaps life will imitate art after all.
• Tnooz: How the travel industry can thrive rather than just survive in 2010 Coming out of a brutal 2009, there is muted optimism for a recovery. Technology to support dynamic packaging can enable both travel suppliers and intermediaries to create demand.
• Tnooz: A genuine “awesome” – Microsoft new visual eye candy on Bing Maps. Story covering Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ TED talk on Bing Maps and Augmented Reality.  tNooz’s ever-intelligent editor Kevin May links to amazing insights by…wait for it…ME! on how such technologies may impact the travel market.
• TechCrunch: My Bloody Valentine: Expedia.com Semi-hilarious and well chronicled story of TechCrunch’s MG Siegler’s misadventures with a booking on Expedia.com.  Expedia finally made good (at least economically), but the lag in response time is stark contrast to Southwest Airlines’ response to “Silent Blob” being tossed off a flight for being to fat to fit in a single seat.
• Travel Trends – Travel 2.0 Blog: The Future of Visitor Guides, 2009 Internet Usage Stats. Another look at how the iPad may revolutionize travel and some good stats on Internet usage, et al.
• Sameer Patel’s Pretzel Logic: The Enterprise 2.0 Parallel Universe Start to Merge.  Sameer’s blog is a must read.  This post provides some insight on how the Social Web and Unified Communications markets may start to merge.

A couple of article caught my eye and thought to make sure you saw them:

• 14 Reasons Why Enterprise 2.0 Projects Fail: Good post by Dion Hincliffe, who’s one of my favorite E20 reads.  There were a couple of no brainers on the list like picking the tools before you have a strategy, but also a few that stimulated some thought.  #6 related to delays by IT.  Even at my current company, we started our blog using Hubspot rather than Wordpress because I couldn’t get IT to install it.  Yet it took me all of 6 minutes to get this blog up using BlueHost.  Why can’t IT departments help enable E20 activities by creating automatic scripts to install and provision instances of Wordpress, T-Wikis and other tools the way BlueHost and others do it?  It can’t take that much effort up front, but it would remove a lot of hurdles that slow down E20 adoption.  Seems like that would be a no brainer too.
• Forecasting the Winners in the Cloud Computing/SaaS Market by InterWest Partners’ Bruce Cleveland
• Packaged software, an accident of history: Who new? Interesting. What might the software industry have looked like otherwise. Once again, activist judges at work

Well many software and Internet companies have had their heads between their legs the last 8-10 months as credit markets tightened, the recession worsened and the future became more cloudy.  Well there’s signs that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not an oncoming train.

TechCrunch’s Sarah Lacey talked about a coming IPO boom, noting that IPO registrations are up, but it isn’t only for the uber-platforms like social networking giants Facebook and LinkedIN, but a broader rally that includes smaller companies like OpenTable.

In talking to clients and prospects we’re also seeing a thaw in the market and companies are gaining confidence and visibility into the future, bringing projects back on line that have been on hold for a while.  Are you seeing the same positive signs at your company?