The Web has been aflutter with the news that through its new BizSpark program, Microsoft is seeding startups with its software to entice them to steer clear of open source. That's the view from OStatic and others that I've read, and it's probably true, at least in part.
Will it work? No. Good startups are always looking to save money, and will appreciate the "free production licenses for application hosting and management servers, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, BizTalk Server and Systems Center and soon, Microsoft Dynamics CRM," as OStatic suggests. But they're unlikely to move to Windows from Linux, for example, because Linux is a long-term performance and cost choice, not a three-year "I'll use it because it's free...for now" choice (which is all that BizSpark gets new startups.
Interestingly, in the same week that Microsoft started doling out the software, collaboration vendor Jive started taking it away from open-source projects. As Orion Addis, Jive Software's sales representative covering the Bay Area, wrote to an open-source peer of mine:
We no longer offer free licensing of Clearspace, Clearspace Community, or Jive Forums to open source projects. We are only selling licensing moving forward. Clearspace Community licensing is listed at $xx,xxx per application server CPU per year or $xx,xxx a year in our hosting facilities for <500,000 page views a month.
Does this suggest some nefarious design on Jive's part, charging for software it used to give away gratis? No. I suspect it is simply an indication that Jive is looking to make money where it can, and probably incurred more cost than benefit in supporting open-source projects free of charge.
The two companies - Microsoft and Jive - arrived at very different conclusions as to what would drive sales for them. This will ever be the case, and it's what makes open source, in particular, so fascinating. One person's cancer is another person's freedom, as it were. The value of 'free' shifts and changes over time.
TechCrunch is reporting that Jive Software, an emerging collaboration leader, has cut one-third of its headcount. Sam Lawrence, Jive's chief marketing officer, has confirmed the news. Normally this wouldn't be inspiring news for Jive customers and prospects, but in this case I think it's actually a reason to be optimistic if you fall into one of these camps.
Jive is backed by Sequoia, the same firm that recently warned its portfolio companies to manage cash prudently through the downturn. Jive grew at a frenetic pace over the past year--this move is a way to return to prudent, more profitable growth. Jive has been profitable since its 2001 launch.
Jive, while not an open-source company, has dabbled in open source and makes good products. I'm glad to see the company managing its business to survive and thrive in the downturn. Had Jive made this announcement six months from today, it would probably portend bad news. But this strikes me as Jive getting its financial house in order in advance of potential problems.
The only open question for me is why Jive would can its vice president of Sales if things are going well. I've heard that Jive is doing well financially, but you don't fire your sales head when money is pouring in. Anyone have any insight into this?
There's a great article in Forbes about Jive taking a collaboration fight to Microsoft's SharePoint play. Its primary weapon? Ease of use and ease of integration.
[Jive's] strategy for competing with giants: work alongside them. Oracle and SAP bundle Jive's discussion forum software into their portal applications. The version of Clearspace released in April lets users search for and link to SharePoint content from within Clearspace and sync their Clearspace and Microsoft Outlook calendars. For customers who use both, Jive becomes the user-friendly portal for SharePoint's sophisticated but clunky file system.
Earlier this week I heard the same said of Atlassian by at least two companies with whom I was meeting. Atlassian makes excellent products that are easy to use. People want to use them rather than being forced to use them. In both cases business users are as likely to recommend the product as IT.
Jive and Atlassian, like Google and Apple, demonstrate an absolute essential for winning the software wars of the 21st Century: You've got to have easy distribution, and you've got to be mind-numbingly easy to use.
... Read moreMicrosoft's SharePoint has now topped $1 billion in licenses and is perhaps the fastest-growing product in Microsoft's history. What is driving that growth? The same thing that has driven all of Microsoft's most successful products: Microsoft removes complexity (and cost) from existing markets, as Craig Roth notes:
To a certain extent, the excitement about SharePoint has really been a reflection of disillusionment with existing collaboration, content management, and portal products. The people that are interested in SharePoint - despite already having incumbent alternatives - see at first glance a product that may finally provide easy-to-use, inexpensive, web-based collaborative solutions.
Love them or hate them, Microsoft does lower the bar to computing. Its products can be shoddy (SharePoint is no winner in that department - just try scaling it) but that's a trade-off many are willing to make in order to have something, anything that works reasonably well at a reasonable price.
... Read moreI've always liked Jive Software. My company, Alfresco, is used in conjunction with Jive's products in a range of accounts, and so I've had the chance to talk directly with Jive's customers. They all say the same thing: Jive's "lightweight" collaboration provides heavy-duty benefits at a significant cost advantage.
Now Jive is getting $15 million from Sequoia to expand and grow its business. It couldn't have come at a better time.
... Read more
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