It’s the pricing model, stupid!
In a prior post, I identified the right pricing model as one of the key success factors for "industry in the cloud" (IC) providers. Pricing is critical for all businesses, but it is especially critical (and complicated) for IC providers. Every company understands...
Media Ocean to take on Google in digital advertising
In an exciting announcement, Donovan Data Systems and MediaBank today agreed to merge, subject to regulatory approval. If you are not an ad agency executive or a major advertiser, you may not have heard of these private companies (each reportedly with $500 million in...
Liquidity Services: A Public IC in Surplus Assets
I've been following Liquidity Services, Inc. (LQDT) for about a year now, but the company recently caught my eye when their stock price ran up after announcing an acquisition. It's unusual to see the acquiring company's stock increase 20%+! Liquidity Services is...
DealerTrack: Auto Retailing in the Cloud
About every other week, I come across an example of an Industry in the Cloud (IC) provider that I had not known about at all or whose business I did not fully understand. An example this week is DealerTrack (TRAK). I was turned on to this company by Peter...
Managed Service Providers vs. ICs
According to Wikipedia, a Managed Service Provider (MSP) are "is typically an information technology (IT) services provider, who manages and assumes responsibility for providing a defined set of services to their clients either proactively or as they (not the client)...
Industry in the Cloud Providers (ICs) are not the only businesses I love
Okay, I admit to being to being a business wonk. I like to study all kinds of businesses, understand patterns, understand profit drivers, learn from strategic successes and failures, and see how this learning can be applied to whatever business I am currently working...
“Industry Cloud” (IC) Providers’ Typical Services
Regardless of industry, Industry Cloud providers tend to provide a relatively consistent set of services, though the importance of these services differs greatly by industry. 1. Document Exchange and Collaboration. This is, of course, the core offering of most...
The Stock Market Decline and Industry Clouds
I had intended the next blog post to be about the typical services that Industry Clouds offer to their communities--after all--I'm still just introducing the idea of an Industry Cloud. But the recent (and continuing?) drop in stock market prices compels me to write...
Part 3: Final Key Success Factor for Industry Clouds
In the prior two posts, I covered the first four key success factors for Industry Cloud providers, now let's cover the fifth KSF: choosing an industry with high concentration on one side (e.g., buyers) and fragmentation on the other (e.g., sellers). Successful...
