Archive for Ovum

2014 Is The Year To Address The Cyber Security Time Bomb: Ovum

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 26, 2013 by itnerd

According to Ovum’s latest Security 2014 Trends to Watch report, attack volumes will continue to rise and no business should consider itself immune; any type of organization can be targeted. Even the best-protected government, military and business systems have already been breached, and in 2014 they will to be put under further pressure.

Security 2014 Trends to Watch:

  • More proactive protection is needed to address the cyber security time bomb.
  • Security-as-a-service will be the way forward for a growing number of organisations.
  • Cloud and mobility will change the way we approach IT security and user protection.

The author of the report Andrew Kellett had this to say: 

“In 2014, cyber espionage and state-sponsored threats will continue to make headlines, but the concerning underlying trend is that similar technology can and will be used against ordinary businesses.”

“Security experts recognise the rise in use of sophisticated malware, and this is driving the need for better and more proactive security,” says Kellett. However,  he adds, “organisations will be required to fundamentally shift their approach to security from a mainly static defensive posture to one of taking positive action before or as an attack takes place.”

Check out the 2014 Trends to Watch which speaks to this and other insights here. 

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Ovum Has Recommendations For Mobile Network Operators In Emerging Markets

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 21, 2013 by itnerd

According to Ovum, the next wave of mobile Internet users will be from urban areas of emerging markets. They’ve done their homework and here’s what their research indicates.

The lack of fixed Internet infrastructure in these markets and the significant purchasing power of urban residents are pushing both end users and service providers towards mobile. Operators and content providers should therefore step up to help the next billion progress to a smarter mobile Internet experience. Here’s what Shiv Putcha, principal analyst, consumer telecoms at Ovum has to say on this:

“The rising ownership of smart devices is not just giving some consumers access to the Internet for the first time; the wide availability of these devices will also increasingly divert traffic to the mobile web. Operators and content providers now have an important role to play in helping the next billion transition from basic voice and SMS functionality, to their initial steps with mobile browsers, and ultimately to smart experiences on the mobile Internet.”

Mobile network operators (MNOs) need to embrace the prepaid user base for mobile broadband and also highlight the importance of simplified data access pricing. Continues Putcha:

“The next billion consumers are typically highly value conscious; tariff complexity combined with potential bill shock will deter prospective mobile Internet users. These consumers will expect variety and simplicity in access packages and look for unlimited, time-based, and content-based packages,”

Finally, localization of mobile content services is essential due to the strong cultural identities and preference for local languages in emerging markets. According to Putcha, content providers partner with operators for billing support to enable users to spend smaller amounts over a larger period of time, particularly considering the limitations of current payment methods.

We will see the next billion users of mobile Internet appear faster than the first billion. Ovum has done their homework to see what needs to happen to accommodate them.

 

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OVUM Comments On SalesForce Acquiring ExactTarget

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on June 10, 2013 by itnerd

Last week, SalesForce acquired cloud marketing platform ExactTarget for 2.5 billion. Here’s why SalesForce pulled the trigger:

Salesforce.com’s acquisition of ExactTarget will further its mission of being the world’s leading CRM platform—one that enables companies to transform how they connect with their customers across sales, service, and marketing. By combining ExactTarget’s leading digital marketing capabilities with salesforce.com’s leading sales, service and social marketing solutions, salesforce.com will create a world-class marketing platform across email, social, mobile and the web.

The question is, how much of a fit is this for SalesForce? To answer that question, Gerry Brown, senior digital marketing analyst at Ovum analyzed the key points of the deal, what it means for enterprise customers and the vendor ecosystem.

Key points:

Price: “Expensive. ExactTarget’s revenue for year-end 31st December 2012 was $292m. It has never turned a profit, but its revenue growth has been high (c. 40% per annum) and its renewal rate is in the high 90s (%). The price was c. 8.6X revenue, which aligns with the multiple (X 9.2) Oracle paid for ExactTarget’s peer Eloqua in December 2012. The Eloqua acquisition set the benchmark. Likely also there was a bidding war (Adobe is another obvious acquirer) which fuelled the high price paid.

“The value of the company and its shares increased 52% as a result of the acquisition, so shareholders should be happy with the acquisition, especially as this price has been languishing close to the $22.50 mark of ExactTarget’s IPO in March 2012.” 

Product Fit: “Good. ExactTarget’s Interactive Marketing Hub is a Cloud / SaaS email-based multi-channel management solution for managing email, mobile, social, web site marketing channels and providing analytics across these channels. Exact Target is already a prominent partner of SFDC with a strong presence on Salesforce’s AppExchange, so product integration is already strong and there is already a well-established joint customer base. In addition, ExactTarget’s 2012 B2B sales lead management acquisition, Pardot, also provides seamless integrations with salesforce.com.

“ExactTarget’s offer includes the multi-tenant SaaS platform called FUEL, and social marketing capabilities, for which they name Salesforce’s Buddy Media and Radian6 as competition. In these two areas the joint Salesforce and ExactTarget product offer will need to be consolidated. Outside these two areas Salesforce gains significant new product functionality which it has been sorely missing from the acquisition. Integration of the two Cloud-based models should not be too challenging, and expect integration to be largely completed by the end of 2013”.

Customer Synergy: “Middle-ing. ExactTarget has 6,000 customers, but its enterprise footprint is limited. SFDC will sell ExactTarget’s product into their own considerable enterprise customer base. SFDC certainly adds credibility to ExactTarget’s proposition for the enterprise. However, both companies are heavily US-centric. Only 18% of Exact Target’s customer base is outside the US, and most of this is in the English-speaking nations of the UK and Australia. The acquisition does little to further salesforce’s position in high growth Asia and Latin-American markets. SFDC’s sales channel and business partners will be attractive to ExactTarget which currently does not have a strong partner channel, preferring to sell direct.”

Cultural Fit: “Potentially challenging. ExactTarget’s Orange culture is full-on and in-your-face. It is a little different from SFDC’s smart dressed sales-oriented culture. Compromises will have to be made on both sides to ensure an exodus of key executives does not occur.”

What it means for enterprise customers

“Salesforce will shortly be able to offer enterprise customers a cloud-based marketing suite of relative completeness. Expect the suite to come head-to-head in competition with Adobe’s Marketing Cloud. A combined salesforce / ExactTarget offer should be available by Q4 2013 – the product integration required is minimal. Expect aggressive pricing and for this acquisition to be the centrepiece for Salesforce’s new ‘Customer Company’ branding, which will have Marc Benioff’s full attention and support in the Dreamforce conference for the faithful in Q4 2013, which will attract 100,000+ attendees”.

What it means for the vendor eco-system

“Likely the catalyst for more market consolidation with Responsys, Silverpop, and Marketo high on the target list for those vendors lacking core marketing automation functionality, such as Adobe. Expect similar high prices to be paid for such vendors as the c. 9X revenue acquisition price point is likely to become standard.”

I think the net result is that we will have to watch this to see how this plays out given this analysis.

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Survey Says BYOD Is Here To Stay And That May Not Be Good: Ovum

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 6, 2013 by itnerd

One of the big trends in business is BYOD or bring your own device. According to a recent survey by research group Ovum shows that this trend isn’t going away. Nearly 70% of employees who own a smartphone or tablet choose to use it to access corporate data. The personal tablet market continues to grow, and with personal tablet ownership by FTEs rising from 28.4% to 44.5% over the last 12 months, more businesses will see these devices on their networks. Moreover, this activity will continue whether the CIO wants it to or not. Ovum’s study shows that 67.8% of smartphone-owning employees bring their own smartphone to work, and 15.4% of these do so without the IT department’s knowledge and 20.9% do so in spite of an anti-BYOD policy.

That’s the problem. All these personal devices have access to personal data. 25.6% of employees discovered their own enterprise social networking apps, while 22.1% and 30.7% of employees discovered their own file sync and share apps and IM/VoIP apps, respectively. All done without the knowledge or assistance of a corporate IT group. That puts companies at risk as they wouldn’t know where their data could go seeing as they don’t know or control the devices that the data is used on.

So if you’re a company, you might want to get a handle on your BYOD strategy. Because if you don’t do that. your employees will define it for you without you knowing about it.

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Mobile Applications In Emerging Markets Poised For Growth: Ovum

Posted in Commentary with tags on May 27, 2013 by itnerd

A survey done by research group Ovum has uncovered an interesting trend relating to mobile apps. Over two thirds of consumers do not download apps. That implies that there’s room for upward growth in this market. Now what about those that do? Well, those that do would likely be in what are called “emerging markets” and the penetration is huge:

A report based on Ovum’s latest Consumer Insights Survey reveals that users in emerging markets show the greatest enthusiasm for application downloads. In China 91 percent of respondents said they download applications, followed by India (84 percent) and Brazil (67 percent). Consumers in emerging markets are also more willing to pay higher premiums for application downloads. In India 21 percent of respondents said they spend over US$15 each month on application downloads, while 13 percent said they spend between US$8 and US$15 each month.

Eden Zoller, principal analyst at Ovum, comments: “These findings from emerging markets reflect the positive impact that the large and growing middle class, coupled with strong demand from young, urban dwellers in both China and India, are having on the app economy. Even less-affluent users in emerging markets can justify the purchase of an application if it is a key source of information or entertainment.”

This is interesting as it validates why BlackBerry is spending so much time trying to get and keep customers in that market. It also explains why Apple wants a piece of this market too. Clearly emerging markets are where app developers among others are going to make their money in the next few years.

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