Understanding the Microsoft – LinkedIn Acquisition

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Acquisition, Big Data, Cloud, Google, Innovation, Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reid Hoffman, Social Media, Strategy, Technology

Every now and then I keep an eye open for things that would make even someone averse to technology, sit back, take notice and discuss that topic. This post is a short one on the Microsoft-LinkedIn acquisition. Short not because Jeff Weiner already did his bit and explained to his employees, but because this whopping 26Billion$ this deal has some interesting facets which are still unexplainable.

Sonic Boom – Still to hear that…

The Bad Part – Economics

I don’t want to bring in the Skype or Nokia acquisition. Simply because LinkedIn is an entirely different ballgame. Neither do I want to compare it financially to the Facebook – Whatsapp deal, because Facebook got Whatsapp cheap! Whatsapp had one thing Facebook was missing critically – phone numbers.

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The Convergence of Social Media, Mobility, Cloud & Analytics

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Analytics, Big Data, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Mobile, Social Media, Strategy, Technology

Apart from being online, 2014 has started well 🙂 2013 was a year of many high’s and some lows! It’s quite amazing to see how I began writing about cloud computing, big data, and gamification and moved on to writing a few posts on Oracle and SAP particularly HANA 🙂 Companies like Yahoo, Google, Workday and NetSuite continued to capture my interest. In 2014 I thought I will give my views on the future of technological companies and trends! In this blog post we will discuss a little about the convergence of Social Media, Mobility, Cloud and Analytics!

S-M-A-C : Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud!

The question is not about “What’s next for the Cloud / Social Media etc?”. I think we will see a convergence of these ‘pillars’. Why do I say this? Cloud is becoming a platform, a norm, which the enterprise and consumer world will depend upon. A little over a year ago, while I was still studying at the TU Delft we had a group discussion on a rather famous article in the HBR “Does IT Matter” (I would highly recommend you to read the article) 

The Future of Google+

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Google, Innovation, PaaS, SEO, Social Media, Strategy, Technology

Less than 2 weeks ago, I met my dear friend and former colleague from Capgemini – Balt Leenman in the beautiful city of Utrecht. It’s always exciting to have Balt around – our discussions range from business to spirituality, from things that are going in our family life to observations of the world around us in general! Despite that he was amidst closing a deal for gcompany where he is the Salesforce Practice Leader and working on his startup on Social Inclusive Business, we managed having a good discussion around Collaborative Software and Google+ in particular! This made me think of ‘What is the future of Google+’?

Let’s begin by answering “What is Google+“?

In my previous post I outlined “What is Google“. Most people look at Google as an advertising company – I don’t. I see Google as an innovative company who knows how to use the data it has aggregated from billions of users!

Based on this “information collector” lens I view Google+. In essence Google+ is a social network. But it differentiates itself by tying together a number of services from Google has to offer. Google+ is already integrating itself around Google Maps, Google Now, Hangouts, and bringing users and business’s together. This we can see from a very high-level from their concept of Circles, and, Communities!

Current Technological Landscape – Disruption Vs. Recurrence

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Big Data, Cloud Computing, Disruption, Google, Innovation, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce.com, SAP, Social Media, Technology

With rapid developments in Social Media, Gamification, Cloud, Enterprise software, Big Data and Analytics I feel awful to stay away from the blog for over a month and not share my thoughts, although it’s not like I have a 1,000 followers who hold their breath in anticipation to read my blog 😉 Recent business-as-usual and business-as-unusual events kept me preoccupied and I kept pushing writing the next post for ‘later. However a certain event (no, not my master thesis kick-off) got me excited to write again!

Last week while I was returning from Amsterdam to Delft after facilitating a YES+ workshop (the participants decided to support an existing service project and create a new social project specific to the Netherlands), I met a very interesting girl on the train and we got into a discussion on technology in today’s world!

We shared similar views on many points until she said “… and Oracle, SAP and Microsoft are all finished”.

Social Media Strategy

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Dashboard, Return on Investment, Social, Social Media, Social Media Strategy, Strategy, Technology

I’ve been wanting to write something on Social Media since the last couple of weeks, but I couldn’t find a specific, really challenging, ‘that-something’ which made my mind and heart go “Yeah, this is it!” topic to write about. When Nicky de Koning and I met at one of my Yoga & Meditation sessions at TU Delft we spoke about a number of things until she casually mentioned her interest in Social Media. Next thing I know, she’s the founder of Soulymedia, a company that helps with social media marketing. Given our mutual interest in this area, we decided to meet over coffee and talk a little more. After a fantastic discussion at a little cafe in the beautiful city of Delft (despite some incredible changing weather), I thought why not write a little piece on Social Media Strategy.

It’s surprising how many people look at social media as just Facebook or Twitter. I am unaware of a “formal” definition of Social Media. I usually refer to Gartner but this one from Gartner seems fairly lengthy. I do not completely agree to a certain part of it, but that doesn’t really matter does it 😉 I like the definition from Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein. They define social media as a group of Internet-based applications/platforms [that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0], which allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.