Ivan’s blog

I attended Lotusphere 2008 this january, and it’s obvious that there is an overall trend towards promoting (and ultimately selling) social software solutions.

I’m not going to review the ins and outs and advantages of the 2.0 model (or whatever they’ll call it next year) - this has been covered by people way more capable than me on the subject.

But I am faced with 3 different problems. First, I am a VAD (read : Value Added Distributor - I sell stuff that I get from the vendor to resellers that themselves sell to the end users).. Meaning I have very little interaction with the final solution users.

Second, it seems more and more obvious that the problem with selling Social Software solutions is that.. well.. you can’t ! Not directly. There are preliminary steps involved which include promoting a shift in the enterprise’s paradigms, and that’s not easy.. We’re talking about going from an all formal process to a partly non formal methodology - and rely on the social software infrastructure to provide that formalization.

Third, most of my partners customers are SMBs (SMall Businesses) - and not in the IBM sense of the term - But really small <100 employees businesses which makes it even harder. After all, those Fortune 500 companies may have an “Enterprise 2.0″ commission or task force, but that’s not going to happen for those very small businesses.

So here I am, having to convince a 2nd tier entity of the opportunity of laying the ground for Social Software *WITHOUT* even trying to sell the tools (at first) to small legacy companies.

The solutions I believe is to take a multi step approach. My first baby step involves convincing my own management of the advantages of going 2.0. The advantage here is that it’s a whole lot easier to promote something that you are doing internally.

I asked about that to one of the 2.0 evangelists at Lotusphere and he advised me to start by taking even more small steps. He told me the best possible approach was to start by implementing a small subset of the Social Software spectrum of tools. Maybe start with some profiles and activities tools. If everything is done right, before long, they’ll ask for more.

Now, assuming this works as planned (and that’s a big if), the next step is obviously to start pulling my partners into the loop and get THEM to take the same approach - I’m always going for the assumption that it’s easier to sell something you use everyday - and teach them from what I’ve learned. Mind it, at that point, I still haven’t made a penny yet !

There is also some nice incentives for the partners. Besides the obvious licensing sales, huge up sell opportunities exist - consulting, service, possibly recurring SAAS revenues - and if everything is done right, some good word of mouth to help enroll more customers.

I am at a starting point here, and I am the middle man - or rather - my company is - but there are some opportunities, I just want to make sure I can make something out of it.

Ok.. So now I have a blog. I just can’t figure out what layout looks the best.

I’ve tried several of the wordpress themes offered here and there, but none that satisfies me. So maybe I should write my own.

Ok.. This is going to be my first blog entry..

Trying out wordpress.. doesn’t look bad !