In the cloud or On-Premise? This model discussion sounds much like many of the model or technology discussions of the past. These discussions are usually driven by investors, and rightly so, as they are searching for the next great model so they can drive a high return for their investments! Or, they are driven by visionaries that are changing /morphing the technology landscape, and again, rightly so! Thank goodness for capitalism.

That stated, our customers are not asking about SaaS (software-as-a service or hosted services, also called on-demand), Multi-tenant, On-Premise or in-the-cloud.  What they are asking is how we can solve their business pain. They're asking about time to productivity. They're concerned about how to improve their business, to grow their business.  They're concerned about security and who owns their data, total cost of ownership, ease of use, customization to their business, and much more at a granular level.

We see several models in the midst of convergence. The Internet was built for a one-to-one model - a capitalistic model. When I shop at Amazon they try to personalize my experience. Small business owners want the same thing for their own business operations around ERP, accounting and finance, supply chain management, and so on. Software should be built in a multi-tenant architecture that provides flexibility and scalability. And, software should leverage open technology and platforms wherever possible, that's what the Internet is all about. One-to- many has its place, but not if it propagates more control and lack of flexibility. When we say to customers "one size fits all and we know best for everyone, trust us," then we are probably not listening to them.

At Everest, we are building software in a 30-day agile development cycle utilizing the SCRUM methodology. We provide customers with ease of use, price, IT outsourcing, and time-to-productivity COMBINED with control they manage, customization, data integrity, ownership and total cost of ownership. We are building software as fast as any SaaS-model company while delivering what our customers say they need - what helps their particular business. While doing so, we never support more than two code bases. These are not customized platforms that all are different. Our customers are able to take advantage of speed and consistency. 

There are many technologies or solutions, such as CRM and e-commerce that are best delivered from the cloud. There are also many software offerings that are best delivered on a LAN or SAN environment, such as point-of-sale, inventory and supply chain management, so that the customers can drive their business their way. These worlds are coming together and will provide value to the customers who rely on software to improve their business.

We should allow the customer to decide versus what model we, as developers of business software, propose as the best business model. Right?  In the end, if we are customer-focused and the customer sees value, the business model will be good for the shareholder!

There is nothing more important than having a great culture! At the onset of any leadership role I strive to have the team collectively understand what culture really means at their organization. How is it manifested as both an internal and an external personality? Meaning, where are we as a company, how do our customers feel about us, what is our market position, and for internal qualities, how do we measure up for attitude, motivation, teamwork, cooperation and problem-resolution capabilities? Once we, as a company determine this, we can collectively understand where we are, and therefore, establish where we really need to be. We identify goals that become more clear and universally understood. We start to acquire the necesssary accountability. From that moment forward, everyone understands they own the progress-or the failure that ensues. Everyone becomes aware that we each, personally, own the wins and losses and how projecting a winning, positive attitude affects our customers. The tone becomes one of a customer-focused organization that holds one another accountable.  True customer focus is still an unbeatable differentiation in any marketplace. If this is done correctly,employees can rise to the challenge. Transparency, accountability, trust, resilience, tenacity all begin to show themselves and a winning culture is built!

CEOs should work hard to ensure they are in touch with all the ways a company enacts customer communications and understand "the buzz" from the customer base. At Everest, we strive to make customer satisfaction, and therefore good customer communications, the responsibility of every employee. We all own it, we are empowered, and accountable. We just introduced our latest channel of customer communications, our first user conference. It's a recognized fact, one of the greatest benefits of holding a customer or user event is a venue for networking with other businesses that are the same or similar to their own. It's often appreciated as an extra service provided by a company, particularly with software products. Users are able to exchange ideas firsthand and find out how their peers are solving similar problems or building special customizations. It's a time for them to meet face-to-face with company executives and product managers to put a personality with their telephone and email experiences. It's seen as a platform to make their voice heard to company executives who have especially allocated time to listen. 
 
Our first Everest World was held in New Orleans April 22-24, and what an event it was!  It was incredibly rewarding to see our customers learning, interacting with each other, and providing feedback real-time to the Everest team.  We found ways to capture much of it, including some customer video testimonials that were volunteered by some of our attendees. In the keynote we discussed talking AT, TO, or WITH our employees to build a culture of customer responsiveness. The same is true for our customer base, with whom we believe we're building a mutual culture and synergy of purpose.  We had some fun, we worked hard to spend as much time as possible with each of our interest groups. The overwhelming feedback we've had so far is-they can't wait for the next user group meeting.  We look forward to our next event and being WITH our customers!

Capital formation for a small business is one of many paradoxes you will encounter.  As you bring in equity, you share ownership and must provide proper insight and oversight for these new shareholders. If this is the first time raising capital for the small business owner, this will lead to new challenges in sharing the "power," and in fact, create new levels of accountability with which you are probably unfamiliar. On the other side of forming capital, a small business owner can incur debt, but often the conservative nature of bankers doesn't understand growth capital.  If they do make the investment it can have unforeseen and seemingly restrictive covenants attached. The best capital formation I have seen occurs when a business owner unquestionably understands their business model and can propose successful replication of a measurable model. The business owner must understand all the life cycle milestones of their customer, from prospect to end of life-and all the points and motivations along the way.  If the business owner understands this in persuasive detail and can demonstrate how capital affords growth as a sustainable rate, then capital formation becomes quite simple. It's a much easier proposition when the business is predictable for the investors.