Conshohocken's eMoney Advisor an important (but quiet) Philly software firm




Tom Paine



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I hadn't heard much about eMoney Advisor, the Conshohocken-based provider of web-based investment management software for financial advisors, recently. Founded by Edmond Walters in 2000, eMoney Advisor was acquired by Vernon Hill's Cherry Hill-based Commerce Bancorp for $32 million in stock in 2006, at which time its revenue was reported to be $10 million, but was sold back to Walters and other investors some time before or around the time of Commerce Bancorp's acquisition by TD Bank in 2008. While there has been plenty of coverage of eMoney Advisor in the investment management trade press, locally there hasn't been much.

So I got an update on some of what's been going on from Mark Constan, Vice President of Recruiting at eMoney Advisor. He told me during a phone interview that headcount was now around 200, up from about 120 at the beginning of 2011. Some 50 of those are considered tech employees, including a group of 30 engineers. While he didn't have precise figures, he said revenue had been growing at about 20% annually. eMoney Advisor's architecture is built around the Microsoft .Net framework, though Constan said that in recruiting engineers the company is less concerned with an applicant's narrow field of experience than in the versatility and talent the individual possesses. And yes, they are looking for people.

Until now virtually all of eMoney Advisor's employees, except for a small number in the field, have been based in Conshohocken. But eMoney Advisor has just opened a California office in La Jolla, a toney San Diego suburb on the ocean. Philadelphia tech firms sometimes open offices in places such as San Diego in order to recruit more engineering talent, but Constan said that wasn't part of the company's current plans. Rather, the office will house a west coast customer contact (call) center that will give eMoney Advisor more time zone flexibility and ease the burden on call center personnel in Conhohocken, as well as other client-facing personnel to serve its growing California customer base. A few are moving west from Conshohocken, and some were already out there or are being hired.

eMoney Advisor recruits at the major tech schools in the Philly area, and Constan says they are able to fulfill their needs through the local talent base, though he says eMoney's high standards make it more challenging.

eMoney Advisor has a strong Philadelphia pedigree. Walters, a Villanova graduate, ran a Main Line investment advisory firm before starting eMoney. Looking through profiles of senior management, several worked for BtoB online pioneer VerticalNet and some came from another local financial planning software startup, Reality Online (acquired by Reuters).

eMoney Advisor's recently released version 8.0 of its flagship 360 Series web-based software. Another area where the company has made progress in recent years is in building its enterprise business, gaining more accounts with major financial services institutions, although smaller, independent financial advisors remain an important part of its customer base. eMoney Advisor's offices are in what might be considered Conshohocken's tech corridor on East Hector Street, not far from companies such as Monetate and NextDocs, and Constan says there is a real sense of community in the tech scene there.

Walters apparently holds a large stake in eMoney and there are other investors, although its something eMoney Advisor has been quiet about. I couldn't find a single news citation about the sale of eMoney Advisor by Commerce Bancorp/TD Bank.

While eMoney Advisor may be well known to many in the investment advisory trade, outside of that area its identity may be less clear. Some may think it is more of a financial services business. While knowledge of that domain is obviously essential to eMoney Advisor's success, the company wants more people to recognize that it is also a technology-driven enterprise, Constan says.






Daily Links 7/31/2013: Comcast profit beats estimates; Dow to open Collegeville innovation lab









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Comcast Profit Tops Estimates on Subscriber Additions
(Bloomberg)

More customers, more revenues: For Comcast, broadband is gift that keeps giving (Gigaom)

Comcast CFO says M&A possible, but not at debt levels John Malone is comfortable with (FierceCable)


Sprint extends LTE coverage to 41 new markets (CNET News)
Including Philadelphia.

Doylestown's Brick Simple building apps for wearable Google Glass computers (phillyBurbs.com)

Uh oh: SEC questions if IBM’s cloud math is water vapor (Gigaom)

Pennsylvania won't renew IBM computer system contract after study finds problems (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Dell's buyout teeters as it rejects voting change (Reuters)

SAP’s partner paradox – race to the cloud (Diginomica)


Air Products Faces Modern Form of Hostile Takeover (New York Times: DealBook)

Dow Inaugurates Northeast Technology Center Innovation Hub (Business Wire)
Huge Collegeville facility will support innovation efforts for Dow's Advanced Materials
businesses.

CardioNet, Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2013 Financial Results (Globe Newswire)
BEAT shares up 38% today after results reported late yesterday. Tomorrow corporate name becomes BioTelemetry, although ticker symbol remains the same.



Daily Links 7/30/2013: CBS, TWC halt brief blackout; Dell CIO questions HANA scalabilty








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CBS, TWC Halt Programming Blackout(Broadcasting & Cable)

Comcast: Belle of the Media Ball? (Bloomberg TV)


Fab Lays Off More Than 100 Employees in Europe, as It Continues Retreat From Flash Sales (All Things D)

Boomi co-founder looking to start new firm in same space (Philadelphia Business Journal)


Student ventures FTW: Dorm Room Fund-backed Firefly announces Olark patnership

(PandoDaily)

OLED: OpCo, Wedbush Dismiss Fears of Samsung Novaled Buy (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
Universal Display (OLED) is based in Ewing, NJ. Samsung is reported to be close to buying
Novaled, another OLED tech firm, but analyst says Novaled complements, not competes with,
Universal Display.

SAP platform head: We’re not interested in buying ‘overvalued’ Tableau (VentureBeat)

Dell Says SAP’s HANA Has ‘Scalability Issues (Wall Street Journal: CIO Journal)



SAP Channel Chief Kevin Gilroy: Partners Reaching Revenue Faster (The VAR Guy)

Prepare now for a 7-year famine in IT services (Diginomica)


Publicis Omnicom merger puts healthcare clients under one roof
(Medical Marketing & Media)

RES Software Rounds out First Half of 2013 with a Resounding Performance
Says its planning move to larger Philadelphia area headquarters later this year.


Daily Links 7/29/2013: CSC partners with ThingWorx; iMomentous wins best unknown business in America competition








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Avoiding Detroit's crash (Opinion/Philly.com)

NBC Chief Bob Greenblatt: 'There's Still Room for Improvement' (Hollywood Reporter)

Cable TV Subscriber Losses: Will Q2 Be Replay Of Q1? (Investor's Business Daily)

SC Unveils New Machine-to-Machine Solution
Developers in Manufacturing Industry Can Build Custom M2M Applications within Days
(Business Wire)
In partnership with Exton-based ThingWorx.


Forget Pagers, Philly Startup Seratis Wants To Bring Hospital Communication Into The 21st Century (TechCrunch)

Bessemer Venture Partners Launches $100 Billion Cloud Index
(All Things D)

Is Silicon Valley Losing Out on Business Software Companies? (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
OpenView Ventures Partners Managing Director Adam Marcus (OpenView investments include Monetate, NextDocs, and Xtium) points out that many of the most successful cloud enterprise software companies are located outside Silicon Valley.

SAP expands partner program for application development (PC World)

NetSuite’s improbable growth steams cloud froth (PandoDaily)

Dish is likely eyeing new acquisitions after losing Sprint (PC World)

Gregory FCA and Safeguard Scientifics Name Best Unknown Businesses in America (Business Wire)
Horsham-based iMomentous and Lehigh Valley-based Bridgeway Academy the winners.







Publicis, Omnicom agree to merge; would become world's largest agency





Tom Paine



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Publicis and Omnicom announced this morning (pdf) that they have agreed to merge, creating the world's largest advertising company. Publicis is based in Paris, Omnicom in New York.

Publicis Omnicom Group had combined 2012 revenue of $22.7 billion and would have a market capitalization of $35.1 billion. It will move far ahead of WPP, which until now has been the largest agency. The deal is expected to face regulatory scrutiny in both the US and Europe.

In the Philadelphia area, Publicis has a heavy concentration of digital agencies, particularly in healthcare. They include Philly-based Digitas Health and Razorfish Healthware, and other units operating under the Publicis and Saatchi & Saatchi names based in Yardley. Publicis acquired Princeton-based digital agency Rosetta, which also has a strong healthcare practice but serves a broader spectrum of industries, for $575 million in 2011.

I don't have a complete reading on what assets Omnicom has in the Philadelphia area. TPG is a direct marketing group based here. Omnicom's DDB Health acquired Philadelphia-based healthcare communications agency Synergy in 2011. CDM Princeton is a healthcare marketing agency. I'm sure other Omnicom brands have offices or people in the area, although I haven't spotted anything else significant yet.

Ad Age provides more information on what the combined agency would
look like.
.



Philly Tech People News 7/28/2013










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OKI Data Americas Names Carl Taylor Vice President Of Marketing (Business Solutions)

HIT Application Solutions Announces New CMIO (Business Wire)

Tonic Life Communications Promotes Five and Hires Seven (Philly Ad Club
News)


FreedomPay Appoints Rodney Bowen-Wright as Chief Business Development Officer (Business Wire)

RackWare Names Steve Daly to Board of Directors (Marketwire)


Develop Your Own Growth Framework, Sparta CEO Martinson Tells NJTC Audience


Esther Surden
Publisher & Editor, NJTechWeekly.com



Eileen Martinson CEO of Sparta Systems delivered the keynote at the NJTC CFO Awards Breakfast in June. | NJTC


Eileen Martinson — who was brought to Sparta Systems (Hamilton) in 2011 to lead the company from status quo to accelerated growth — told several hundred attendees at the New Jersey Tech Council (NJTC) CFO Awards Breakfast on June 12, 2013, to shake up their sleepy middle-market companies and grow.

She then provided the framework that had helped her implement strategies to deliver more than 20 percent top-line growth year over year at Sparta, a middle-market company in business for 18 years.

Speaking to the group who had gathered at the Forsgate Country Club in Monroe Township, Martinson called herself a “framework type of person,” explaining that hers will not work for everyone. “You have to come up with your own framework and adjust it according to your style and what you are trying to accomplish with your particular business,” she advised.

Growth should be a bit easier in this economy, Martinson indicated. “We are seeing some recovery in the housing market and the unemployment rate,” she said.

She pointed out that middle-market companies — those with annual revenue of between $25 million and $1 billion — fuel much of the country’s economic growth, generating $6 trillion in revenue each year and employing 20 million Americans. If middle-market companies concentrate on growth, the whole country will benefit, she said.

Companies start down the path toward growth by defining the customer value proposition, Martinson said. “I have some of my team here today, and they know I always say it’s all about the customer.”

The book Blueprint to a Billion by David Thomson has been particularly helpful to Martinson as she has sought to lead Sparta. In it, Thomson presents three types of value propositions. One describes companies that are leading a market, creating something entirely new. Within that segment are subcategories, one of which is the gap filler. “Where we are going with Sparta Systems is towards filling the gap around enterprise quality,” a new market, Martinson said.

The next step in growing is to determine the total addressable market for your company. Martinson said making this assessment is not easy when you are filling a gap in a new market. You have to know the total market opportunity, which includes learning the market size and who the competition is. You must ask if there is enough growth available for the size company you want to be, she said.

While many businesses can obtain market size information from analyst companies, in Sparta’s case there really isn’t any data on the enterprise-quality market “because we are creating it,” Martinson said. “What Sparta had to do … is look at the companies it believed it should serve, look at the number of employees in these companies as well as Sparta’s historical contracts, and then determine the revenue opportunity,” she said.

Martinson said she had done her due diligence before moving to Sparta. The company was “a little sleepy,” and she had thought she could do great things with it. “I started out at 8:30 a.m. [on] day one in a webcast to everyone, saying, ‘We are going to double in size during the next couple of years.’

“You have to go out there and set the bar high,” she noted, because if you set the bar at 10 percent growth, you’ll probably struggle to achieve 7 percent.

The next step is to understand your internal capabilities, including those of your management staff. “We had a great management team in 2011, but we had  to make some really hard decisions … because sometimes you have really good people but … they don’t fit the vision of where you are trying to take the business …” It takes a lot of time to find the right people and close the deal with them, but if you don’t get the right team in place, you won’t move ahead, Martinson said.

Alternatively, your employees may be the right people who are missing skills, so you have to help them obtain them. “For example, we are running a first-line leadership program this summer for our first-line managers. I believe if you want to scale a company, first-line managers are critical,” noted Martinson.

Sparta surveys customers, the company’s most critical resource, to find out how it is doing. “If we get a detractor, we call them immediately, find out what the issue is and solve it immediately,” Martinson noted. The company studies trends to determine whether it needs to adjust its customer strategy.

It’s important to understand your employees, Martinson pointed out. “We are in a competitive job market. We work really hard to recruit the right people into our company. It’s not easy. We have a tough standard for the kind of people we want.” Sparta surveys its employees to determine how the company relates to them. It also runs employee outside enrichment programs, such as female managers’ networking opportunities and charity golf events.

Growth company CEOs have to ensure their product portfolio aligns with the customer value proposition and the firm’s growth strategy, Martinson said. Don’t build things because they are cool, she advised; make sure customers will actually pay you for them. “This does require continuous innovation,” she said, noting that “if we don’t continue to innovate and change and add more value for our customers, we are not going to continue to grow.”

Don’t be afraid to partner for innovation, Martinson advised. “We had a little bit of the ‘invented here’ syndrome going on. Unless we invented it at Sparta, it wasn’t good enough,” she said. Now the company partners with others in the market.

Martinson said she believes in cash flow, and Sparta is funding its growth out of operations. “We’ve actually reduced our EBITA [earnings before interest, taxes and amortization] to be able to support our go-to market, putting more salespeople out there and investing in the product. I told my investors, ‘We are going to be real slackers this year … we are only going to have about 26 percent EBITA,’ ” she said, eliciting a chuckle from the audience.

Another action key to growth is recognizing critical employees who deliver value to your customers. They may be individual contributors tending to customers in services and support, or employees delivering innovation at an R&D organization. “Find those people and take really good care of them,” Martinson advised, because other companies want them.

You must also ensure your compensation plan is aligned with the growth plan, she noted. Sparta ties a bonus program to profitability and revenue targets, but it also has an accelerator tied to licensed revenue growth, a leading indicator for the firm. Everyone in the company is eligible. Everyone’s bonus is also tied to customer satisfaction, Martinson added.

Martinson advised that companies break down the overall growth plan into quarters so the management team can “wrap their arms around it.” She holds yearly strategy and twice-monthly operations meetings that review critical accounts, product plans and other operational imperatives. “This is how you stay on target,” she said. “It’s really important.”

When you are growing quickly, you are also hiring and adding people quickly, and “there may be some people you need to pull out every year,” noted Martinson. “Those are hard decisions, but that is a good way to protect … your profits. If you don’t take care of this year by year, you may wake up one day and find you have to lay off a lot of people because your business is stalled,” she explained.

Finally, it’s all about execution, Martinson pointed out. “We use a scorecard approach to run the business. Having worked in public companies, you tend to get focused on quarters. But when you use the balanced scorecard approach, you look at all the aspects of your business that help you drive those numbers,” she said.


Esther Surden is Publisher and Editor of NJTechWeekly, and a contributor to Philly Tech News. This article originally appeared in NJTechWeekly, and is republished here with her permission.


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Saturday Highlights 7/27/2013: Announcement of Publicis/Omnicom deal expected tomorrow (reports)



Publicis Said to Be in Late-Stage Merger Talks With Omnicom (Bloomberg)
Publicis has a major presence in the Philadelphia area, particularly in healthcare.
Update: Publicis-Omnicom Deal Expected to Be Announced in Sunday Press Conference (Ad Age)


Germany's SAP seeks economy measures after sales warning (Reuters)

Why Does SAP Make Big Announcements on Sundays? (ASUG News)

Oracle OpenWorld: What to Expect (PC World)


Osage University Partners invests in Bill Gates-backed portable satellite antenna venture Kymeta





Tom Paine



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Bala Cynwyd-based Osage University Partners and The Kresge Foundation participated in a $50 million Series C financing alongside prior investors including Bill Gates, Lux Capital and Liberty Global in Kymeta Corporation, a Redmond, Washington-based maker of satellite communication antennas and systems. The investment was announced earlier this month.


Kymeta's first product, a portable satellite terminal, is expected to be available in 2015. It can be used to replace a satellite truck for news gathering, or to provide high-speed data communications for industries such as mining and energy exploration. The company says it is "pioneering the use of patented metamaterials technology that dynamically steers antenna beams with no moving parts, resulting in flat, thin, light, and highly adaptable antennas and communication terminals."

Kymeta was spun off from IP portfolio company Intellectual Ventures in August 2012.


Osage University Partners (OUP) is a $100 million venture capital fund that invests exclusively in startups that are commercializing university research. The fund is associated with VC firm Osage Partners.


Daily Links 7/26/2013: Bjork talks QLIK strategy; Britt to retire as Time Warner Cable chief









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Reactions to SAP co-CEO Snabe's departure range from cool to concerned (SearchSAP)

Glenn Britt to Retire as Time Warner Cable Chief (New York Times)

Publicis Said in Late-Stage Talks on Merger With Omnicom
(Bloomberg)

NewSpring Capital Leads Equity Investment in VidSys, Inc (Business Wire)
$15.65 million round in Virginia-based software company.

QLIK: Look Past Higher Expense to ‘.Next,’ Say Bulls (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Xtium Named to Lead411's 2013 “Hottest Companies in Pennsylvania” List (PR Web)

Hybrid Cloud Means Slower Sales Growth for Equinix (Data Center Knowledge)

What’s the Cloud’s Role in Tier-2 ERP? (ERP Cloud News)

NetSuite beats Q2 expectations as revenue climbed 35 percent
(ZDNet)


REVEALED: Hungry termites nibbling at Oracle's foundation
(The Register)

After demo day, incentivizing startups to settle down and stay awhile (Med City News)





Daily Links 7/25/2013: Bain Capital exec now CEO at Wilmington-based SevOne







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Jack Sweeney Leaves Bain Capital Ventures for CEO Slot at SevOne (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
Former CEO Phelan stepped down due to health reasons and will become strategic advisor to
SevOne, according to WSJ.
SevOne's Press Release


Fast Car: Uber Funding Auction Could Reach a $3.5B Valuation
(All Things D)

QlikTech Delivers Another Quarter of Strong Growth (Business Wire)
Radnor-based BI vendor reports 26% increase in revenue to $108 million.

Qlik Off 5%: Q2 Net Loss Misses; Q3, Year Views Light (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)


Safeguard Scientifics Announces Second Quarter 2013 Financial Results (Business Wire)

Quality Systems, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2014 First Quarter Results (Business Wire)
Parent of Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare says revenue down 7% and EPS off 16%, but the
all important "lead generation" metric increased by 172%.

Amazon files court complaint over CIA cloud deal (Federal Computer Week)

Business Insider Gives Advertiser [SAP] Veto Power Over 'Future of Business' Edit Mix (Ad Age)

User Group praises SAP’s new on-premise to cloud flexible licensing mode (Computerworld UK)


Dorm Room Fund-Backed Skillbridge Is A Freelance Marketplace For High-End Professional Services (TechCrunch)
Founded by Wharton School guys.

Many cloud computing services not subject to New Jersey sales tax
(Lexology)

TWC’s Britt To Retire At Year End
Board Selects COO Rob Marcus To Step in As Chairman CEO
(Multichannel News)



Daily Links 7/24/2013: Federal appeals court won't block Dish's Hopper








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IBM throws its weight behind Pivotal’s open source Cloud Foundry (VentureBeat)

Michael Dell raises bid for Dell (Fortune: Term Sheet)
Slightly. Shareholder meeting pushed back to August 2.

Unisys Announces Second-Quarter 2013 Financial Results (PR Newswire)
Revenue down 7%, earnings down more than 50%. However, results beat analyst expectations,
and the share price rose almost 6% today.

TE Connectivity net up 68% on lower expenses (MarketWatch)
TE Connectivity, formerly Tyco Electronics, has its North American headquarters in Berwyn.

Strange bedfellows: Aereo gets help from Time Warner Cable and Comcast (The Verge)

Federal Court Won't Block Dish's Hopper
Says lower court did not abuse discretion in denying preliminary injunction
(Broadcasting & Cable)

CBS Interactive Boss, NBCUniversal Top Executive Talk Hulu, Netflix, Apple (Hollywood Reporter)

Nascar Shifts TV Rights to NBC Starting In 2015 (Ad Age)

Chromecast Is Google’s Miracle Device (Wired)

Exclusive: Cox digs in on first FTTH project in O.C. (CED Magazine)

IBC, Penn Medicine, and DreamIt Ventures host first 'Demo Day' for DreamIt Health entrepreneurs (Globe Newswire)



Nucci departs Dell Boomi; Chris McNabb new GM







Tom Paine



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I just came across something that may not be news to many in the Philly Tech community, but on which I haven't seen any reporting or an announcement (and nobody sent me the memo).

Rick Nucci has left Dell Boomi as of May, where he was GM. Rick was co-founder of Boomi in 2000 and served as CTO up until then-GM Bob Moul's departure at the end of 2011 (Moul is now CEO of Artisan Mobile). He then became GM of Dell Boomi. He was the architect of Boomi's cloud app integration offering, the foundation of Boomi's success.

The new GM of Dell Boomi is Chris McNabb, who joined Dell Boomi as Director, Product Management in June 2011. Prior to that he was Senior VP of Software Engineering at SunGard Higher Education (now part of Ellucian), where Moul had previously been a top executive.

Dell announced it was acquiring Berwyn-based Boomi in November, 2010.

It will be interesting to see what's up next for Nucci.


Highlights from SAP conference call yesterday; McDermott says he has no political ambitions, will try to learn German







Tom Paine



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From SAP's conference call yesterday on its leadership transition, explaining Sunday's announcement that Jim Hagemann Snabe will step down as co-CEO in May 2014, leaving Newtown Square-based Bill McDermott as sole CEO. Snabe will be proposed for election to the SAP Supervisory Board in 2014.

(Transcript provided by Seeking Alpha)



Bill McDermott responds to question about whether he has political ambitions:

"First of all, I'm not exactly certain as to where this political rumor comes from. But I must admit, I've heard it enough times now that I'm happy you asked the question so I can set the record straight. The real passion of my professional life is SAP. And I have no plans nor have I ever had plans to run for public office. So we can take that completely off the table."

McDermott on staying at SAP for the term of his contract, which runs through 2017:

"I love working with SAP and the role that I have here and I fully intend to honor my contract, which runs through 2017. And who knows, I'm a young enough guy that I don't intend to head to a beach after 2017. So should the Supervisory Board want me longer, I'm not in any rush."

McDermott on spending more time in Germany, and learning to speak German:

"In terms of Germany and spending time in Germany, one of the magical parts of the co-CEO, combination of Jim and I, is we were very thoughtful about dividing our time, where it could be the best in service to our customers, our partners and of course, our employees. And you're absolutely right. With this new structure, when it does set in place, I'll absolutely spend more time in Germany, very committed to Germany. I've been with this company since 2002. I know a little bit about its heritage, its culture and the brilliant engineers that we have in Germany and the great workforce that we have in Germany. And I'm really looking forward to spending more time. I'm also at a point in my life where my wife and I are almost empty nesters. And when that happens, you just have a little bit more freedom, where you don't have to make it home every weekend. And I certainly will look to spend my fair share of times in Germany and Europe as well. In terms of learning Germany -- German, I certainly accept that challenge. It's something that I'd like to do a lot better at."

Snabe, on whether he is a lame duck:

"I think we have proven over 3 years now that we are very effective together. There's no reason why that shouldn't continue. We will continue to divide and conquer. Of course, we will use the 10 months to transition things as well. I think you'll see the company accelerating its pace, which is already very high. So no ducks here."


McDermott on Vishal Sikka (member of the Executive Board of SAP AG and the Global Managing Board, heading all SAP products and innovation) and Rob Enslin (president of Sales):

"And clearly, as you mentioned Vishal, I've said and Jim has repeatedly said as well, we think he is one of the great innovators in the world. So I would expect Vishal to jump in on the development and technology side in a huge way and lead us forward. That's his role. Now on the field and the go-to-market side, we have a guy by the name of Rob Enslin. So I see this beautiful connection between Vishal and Rob innovation immediately transferred to customer success, and that's much in the same way that Jim and I work. So we have really built the management team and the next generation of leaders in the company, and they're ready for that challenge."

McDermott, in closing remarks:

"It is our time, and we really have a great future in front of us and we're not going to let anything stand in the way of that."


Daily Links 7/22/2013: Unisys snares $460 million Fed contract for border protection systems; Edison Ventures invests in two firms








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Women in the Workplace: Comcast CFO talks candidly about juggling personal life, work (Glenside News Globe Times Chronicle)

Comcast's X1 availability widens, mass-deployment still planned by year's end (Engadget)

Comcast & TiVo Hit Pause (Zatz Not Funny!)

Sprout Adding 3 New Series (Multichannel News)
Sprout, which is owned by Comcast's NBCU, is based in Fort Washington.

Netflix Q2 results are in: close to 30MM US streaming subscribers, $1B in revenue
(Gigaom)

Netflix Subscriber Growth Falls Short of Projections (Bloomberg)


TV tech: SeventySix sells Omek to Intel; Mass.firm moves to Radnor (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Unisys scores $460M contract to modernize border protection systems
(Washington Technology)

Edison Ventures Announces Investment in RealMatch (PR Web)
Leads $7 million round with $6 million investment.

Edison Ventures Invests in eSentire Provider of Network Security as a Managed Service (PR Web)
Leads $5.5 million investment in a $7.0 million total financing round in Ontario, Canada based eSentire.

RightCare Solutions, Inc. Reports Positive Topline Results with D2S2 in Reducing All-Cause 30-day Readmissions from Pivotal Study (PR Newswire)


SAP: McDermott to become sole CEO in 2014







Tom Paine



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SAP announced yesterday that Jim Hagemann Snabe has decided to step down as co-CEO as of May 2014. He will then join SAP's supervisory board, if 25% of shareholders approve. Snabe,47, said in a statement: “After more than 20 years with SAP, I have decided that it is time for me to begin the next phase of my career, closer to my family. What the entire SAP team has achieved since 2010 is remarkable, and the momentum we have built is now driving the transformation of the industry.”



This change will leave an American, Bill McDermott,51, as SAP's sole CEO for the time being, at least. McDermott has been based out of Newtown Square; SAP hasn't said whether this will continue to be the case. Perhaps SAP's next most important executive, Vishal Sikka, the board member responsible for technology and innovation, is based in Palo Alto, California. SAP is based in Walldorf, Germany.

Co-founder Hasso Plattner, who chairs SAP's supervisory board, has a stake of about 10 percent in the company and plays an important role in providing strategic guidance.


More information is expected from SAP in a conference call today.


SAP' s latest Sunday bombshell: Snabe leaving co-CEO role







Tom Paine



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I had just posted about Sanjay Poonen's Friday night tweet that he was leaving SAP:





and wondering whatever existential meaning it might have when this popped out on my alerts:

SAP Co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe Proposed for Election to the SAP Supervisory Board.

Actually, the release goes on to say that Snabe will step down from his day to day role to spend more time with his family.

What the timing of SAP's latest Sunday surprise (it often drops bombs on Sundays) means is beyond me to guess at for now. It does seem to resolve, at least for the present, a conflict some perceived that needed resolution: sooner or later Bill McDermott was going to run his own show, if not at SAP then somewhere else.

A bit more context from this Bloomberg article. SAP
is expected to have more to say tomorrow.


Philly Tech People News 7/21/2013










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Sanjay Poonen, President & Corporate Officer, SAP, Technology & Innovation Products, announced on Twitter Friday he is leaving SAP after more than 7 years. No word on what's next.





Albert Wiegman Joins Safeguard Scientifics Deal Team
(Business Wire)

John Swartley Appointed Associate Vice Provost for Research at Penn (Penn News)


Quintiq appoints Liz Monahan as global head of human resources
(Quintiq website)

Former big firm lawyer starts tech-centric solo practice (Philadelphia Business Journal)

NBCUniversal names new general counsel (LA Times: Company Town)

Verizon Names Manuel Sampedro to Lead Wireline Operations Serving Residential, Small-Business Customers in the Mid-Atlantic Region (PR Newswire)

EPAM’s Elaina Shekhter Recognized by CRN as One of the Top Women of the Channel (EPAM website)


NextGen Healthcare (Horsham) parent Quality Systems settles with activist investor; Could sale be in the future?






Tom Paine



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Quality Systems, Inc., the Irvine, California-based corporation whose primary business unit is Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare, may be looking for a buyer, according to some reports.

Speculation was heightened by an agreement announced on Wednesday between Quality and activist investor Clinton Group, in which Quality is expected to add three of the investor's nominees to its board, two of whom will also serve on a transaction committee which will evaluate Quality Systems' strategy and direction.

Quality Systems, which provides electronic health record (EHR) systems and related services, was riding the wave of "meaningful use" funding authorized by the Federal stimulus program to incentivize medical practices to adopt electronic record keeping. The stock hit $48.50 in September 2011, but closed at $22.01 (NASDAQ: QSII ) on Friday as growth has lagged behind several other EHR providers, giving it a current market value of $1.3 billion.

Qaulity reported revenue of $460.2 million for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, an increase of 7% over the prior year. Net income was $42.7 million, a decrease of 44% from the prior year. Revenue generated by NextGen's operating units account for well over 90% of Quality's total revenue.

An analyst quoted in an Med City News article names Siemens, whose Malvern-based Healthcare IT unit already partners with NextGen in certain areas, as one possible buyer should it be sold.

Patrick B.Cline co-founded Clinitec, based in Horsham, in 1994; it was acquired by Quality Systems two years later and became the foundation of NextGen Healthcare. Cline retired from NextGen and Quality at the end of 2011, and is currently CEO of Irving, Texas-based Lightbeam Health Solutions.






Weekend speculation – SAP, IBM and Accenture in 2015. (Dennis Howlett/Diginomica)


Quintiq: The largest Philly-area software firm most people have never heard of





Tom Paine



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Bob Eastman of Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) has written an informative blog post on Quintiq, the supply chain software firm with dual headquarters in The Netherlands and Radnor.

Eastman says Quintiq's revenue is approaching $100 million and employment has nearly doubled in the past 18 months to 700. Quintiq brings considerable brainpower to the task of helping companies solve complex logistical and scheduling issues; its CEO and co-founder, Victor Allis, earned his PhD in artificial intelligence. Quintiq not only builds software, but also incorporates sophisticated quantitative tools as well. It focuses on process and service industries, rather than discrete manufacturing.

About 40% of Quintiq's customers run on SAP, Eastman says, probably one of the reasons the company set up its North American base in the Philly area in 2005. SAP serves as a starting point for many enterprises' supply chain systems, but is often supplemented by other vertical vendors providing more comprehensive solutions for specific applications. In February, SAP acquired Pittsburgh-based SmartOps, which is much smaller than Quintiq and seems focused on a different application set revolving around discrete inventory planning. A big part of SAP's stated plans for SmartOps is to give it more real time capabilities by putting it on its in-memory HANA platform.

Largely because of SAP's presence and also because of legacy industries located here that involve sophisticated supply chain challenges, the Philadelphia area has several supply chain software firms, including Exton-based Elemica, Wilmington-based Arkieva, and Marlton-based Acsis.

Quintiq sold a 48% stake to LLR Partners and NewSpring Capital two years ago. At the end of last year, Quintiq announced it was tripling its space in the Radnor Financial Center, where CEO Allis is primarily based. Quintiq is a truly global company with several international offices, most recently announcing the opening of an office in Seoul.


Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly said that Quintiq received a $48 million investment from LLR Partners and NewSpring Capital. The amount of the investment was never revealed, however; only the percentage of ownership was.



Daily Links 7/19/2013: Charter said to be working with Goldman on Time Warner Cable offer








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SAP vs. Oracle: Let's play dueling BS banjos (ZDNet)

SAP reveals road map details for its HANA in-memory platform (Computerworld)

Charter Said to Work With Goldman on Time Warner Cable Offer (Bloomberg)

Exclusive: John Malone bets on broadband in return to U.S. cable (Denver Post)


How Google or Apple Could Make Web TV a Reality: Spend Billions on the NFL (Peter Kafka/All Things D)

Cable's pay-TV share falls as satellite and telecom grow, FCC says (LA Times: Company Town)

VC investment continues to rebound in Q2 (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Microsoft Experiences Its Biggest Drop Of The Century As Shares Fall 12 Percent (TechCrunch)

ModCloth’s Vintage Threads Lift Sales Past $100 Million (Bloomberg)


Daily Links 7/18/2013: Dell postpones buyout vote: SAP software sales soft on China concerns











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SAP warns China's slowdown is hurting software sales (Reuters)

SAP Second-Quarter Software License Sales Miss Estimates (Bloomberg)

SAP’s Q2 shows core weakness (Dennis Howlettt/Diginomica)

Dell Buyout Vote Delayed (All Things D)

Verizon Shares Fall After Wireless Demand Boosts Expenses (Bloomberg)

Verizon Crosses 5M Video Subscribers
FiOS, Wireless Fuel Strong Q2
(Multichannel News)

Pushing the Right Buttons
Apple’s Move Into TV Relies on Cooperation With Industry Leaders
(New York Times)

TOA raises $66M to eliminate hours spent waiting on the cable guy (VentureBeat)


Ebay Marketing Arm Unites Companies, Rebrands (Ad Week)

Quality Systems, activist firm reach settlement on board nominees (Reuters)
Quality Systems' primary business unit is Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare.

Philly manufacturing index surges to two-year high (MarketWatch)



Daily Links 7/17/2013: Red Tettemer rebrands, opens LA office








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Red Tettemer Rebrands, Opens Outpost in Los Angeles
Shop Changes Name to RTO&P
(Ad Age)

Quintiq—The Biggest Supply Chain Vendor You May Not Have Heard Of (Technology Evaluation Centers)

Johnson & Johnson starts to 'harmonize our ERP landscape' (ZDNet)

SAP's Q2: The hot topics
Cloud software growth, HANA, rival Oracle and the global economy will be in the spotlight
(Computerworld)

Salesforce.com launches Sales Performance Accelerator (PC World)

The Microsoft Reorg and Microsoft Dynamics: Odd Man Out or Shining Example? (Josh Greenbaum / EAConsult)

A Microsoft Reseller Explains A Big Fat Reason Why Microsoft's Surface PC Hasn't Sold Well (Business Insider)
Downingtown-based Softmart is one of a handful of resellers able to handle Surface products.


Aereo Spat Could Prompt Fox Supreme Court Challenge (Time)


Verizon Q2 preview: FiOS TV may crack 5M-subscriber mark, but has it lost its edge? (FierceCable)

X1 Marks the Spot (Cable360)

PeopleLinx Triples Revenue, Launches LinkedIn Sharing for Companies (PR Newswire)





Daily Links 7/16/2013: Aereo survives another challenge, as Appeals court refuses to review case








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Artisan Unveils New Features and Capabilities for Mobile App Optimization in Summer 2013 Release
New features include Android support and advanced targeting for A/B testing
(Business Wire)

MediaMath Invests In TiqIQ As CEO Ponders IPO
(Business Insider)
Safeguard Scientifics has been a major investor in MediaMath.


The Next Holy Grail for Financials in the Cloud
(Sandhill.com)

Lockheed's Newtown plant ships antennas for first GPS III satellite (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Meet Philadelphia's top CFOs (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Exclusive: Apple Pitches Ad-Skipping for New TV Service (Jessica Lessin)

Google reportedly wants to launch its own online pay TV service (paidContent)


Appeals court refuses to rehear Aereo case, service will keep streaming (Gigaom)

Going a la carte would destroy pay-TV industry, analyst says (LA Times: Company Town)

Level 3, Comcast call truce in peering fight (FierceTelecom)

Netflix: Battle Road Scrutinizes Earnings Quality, Puffed-Up Margins (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Dell Said to Consider Delaying Shareholders’ Vote on Buyout (Bloomberg)


Daily Links 7/15/2013: More pokes at Big Cable plans








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Big Cable’s Sauron-Like Plan for One Infrastructure to Rule Us All (SusanCrawford/Wired Opinion)
Don't agree with everything Crawford says (never do), but an interesting read.

Pay-TV consolidation won't necessarily be good for consumers (LA Times: Company Town)

Is This the Beginning of the End of Overpaying for Sports on TV?
(The Atlantic Wire)

6 reasons you can’t ignore the new SAP, and 1 huge caveat (Donnie Berkholz/RedMonk)


Oracle ups memory, storage of Exalytics analytics appliance
Version X3-4 doubles the RAM, adds flash and boosts disk capacity
(Computerworld)

Oracle to halt development of Sun virtualization technologies (ZDNet)

Google wants to own enterprise, but it’ll do it Google style (PandoDaily)

NBCU's Fandango, Pacific Theatres in deal (LA Times: Company Town)






Google Explains Why Its Cloud Service Is Different When It Comes To Lock-In (TechCrunch)

SAP Center in San Jose: Tech giant gambles $3.35 million a year on naming rights (San Jose Mercury News)


Philly Tech People News 7/14/2013








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Gerry Fasano To Lead Lockheed Martin IS&GS Strategy And Business Development
(PR Newswire)
Will remain GM for Valley Forge operations.

SAP Overhauls Canadian Leadership (Computer Dealer News)

Omar Hamoui: from starving entrepreneur to VC (VentureBeat)

Boardman appointed dean of Temple's School of Media and Communication (Temple University News)

New Hires (Garfield Group Blog)




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Saturday Highlights 7/13/2013: Hulu owners still talking with Time Warner Cable about possible investment




Hulu Owners [still] Talking With Time Warner Cable for Investment (Bloomberg)

Corbett signs bill to provide $75M for PA tech companies
(Philadelphia Business Journal)

CIOs Open to Hybrid Clouds, But Worry About Security, Integration (ASUG News)

Oracle joins dots in private cloud release
Slots Coherence into WebLogic for cloud upgrade
(The Register)


Daily Links 7/12/2013: No Hulu sale: Trio of owners - including Comcast - to invest $750 million more








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Hulu’s Owners Call Off Auction, Plan to Invest $750 Million (Bloomberg)

Hulu’s New Plan: Compete with Netflix and Amazon. How is Hulu Going to Pay for That? (All Things D)


Scoop: Intel’s upcoming TV service is going to be called OnCue
(Gigaom)

Tennis Channel Seeks Full Court Review Of Carriage Complaint Decision (Multichannel News)

AT&T to Acquire Leap Wireless (Business Wire via MarketWatch)

Bentley Announces Immediate Availability of the Bentley Map Mobile App, Further Enhancing Information Mobility
New App Empowers Infrastructure Professionals to Share Bentley Map Geospatial Information With Field Technicians via Android-based Mobile Devices
(Business Wire)

Rajant Corporation Sets the Standard for Mobile Wireless Networking with New Data Routing and Network Management Release
New InstaMesh and BC|Commander version 11.2 include features that dramatically improve the functionality, performance, and security of Kinetic Mesh Networks
(Business Wire)

Jim Sheward/Fiberlink
(Keystone Edge)

As Promised, Icahn Adds to His Bid for Dell (New York Times: DealBook)

Uber Confirms It is Talking to Investors (Wall Street Journal: Digits)




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Conshohocken-based NextDocs raises another $5 million





Tom Paine



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Conshohocken-based NextDocs has apparently raised another $5 million in venture capital, according to an SEC filing reported on by MarketBrief.com .

NextDocs, a provider of Microsoft SharePoint-based software for the management of regulated data collected during clinical trials, had previously raised $10.3 million from OpenView Venture Partners in August 2011.

Also, see this recent article from FierceBiotechIT on NextDocs' introduction of its Windows 8 mobile app.




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