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March 18, 2008 1:38 PM PDT

Executive moves: Barry Klawans leaves JasperSoft

by Matt Asay

And things were going so well, too.

On the day that JasperSoft proclaimed itself the king of Business Intelligence with 8,000 paid customers and 80,000 active deployments, I found out that Barry Klawans, its CTO, had left the company. When I asked him why he had left, he responded that he had "left simply to unwind, no reflection on the company at all."

Fair enough. After 25 years of relentless startup life, it's not surprising that he'd want to revisit his family and life. (I'd recommend skiing in Utah. We got another two feet last week. :-)

As for JasperSoft, I also talked with a Business Objects executive today who mentioned that he never sees JasperSoft, Pentaho, or Actuate in any of his accounts or sales opportunities. To this I responded, "It's just a matter of time." Fortunately for him, he'll get a reprieve from Barry for awhile. :-)

Best of luck to Barry in whatever you choose to do, my friend.


Disclosure: I am an advisor to JasperSoft.

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay.
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by ShaunRConnolly March 19, 2008 5:16 PM PDT
"I also talked with a Business Objects executive today who mentioned that he never sees JasperSoft, Pentaho, or Actuate in any of his accounts or sales opportunities."

Kind of reminds me of how Alfred Chuang and his execs used to insist to anyone who would listen that they never saw JBoss in any of their accounts. He could never wrap his head around the fact that the open source business model follows a different customer engagement model. The ability to try the software out is not gated by a sales process.
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by bklawans March 22, 2008 10:08 AM PDT
Shaun, your comments are spot on. I know for a fact that JasperSoft has taken business from Business Objects, and I've heard from folk I know who work there that their sales team has been briefed on how to compete with both JasperSoft and Pentaho. There is a difference between their reaction and BEAs though - I think Alfred actually believed what he was saying, and the folks at BOBJ are too smart for that.

On a personal note, Matt, you will be glad to hear I've already taken the family skiing twice since I left, though not in Utah. What can I say, as a native Californian I like to support my local resorts.

-Barry Klawans
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About The Open Road

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to the Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is general manager of the Americas division and vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

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