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> They have many suppliers and different arrangements to cover the risks Doesn't that push up integration costs ? For every new product there is data migration
by thecleaner 8y ago
> They have many suppliers and different arrangements to cover the risks
Doesn't that push up integration costs ? For every new product there is data migration from the old one, installation costs, API changes (maybe not this) and just cost due to downtime.
- ethbro 8y agoIn my experiences, large enterprises make decisions based on integration surety over integration cost (if it's competitive within an order of magnitude). A ridiculous number of integrations fail. If you can convince someone with authority (either technically or via relationship) that an integration will be successful, you're in. This is IBM and SAP's greatest asset: knowing that, if shit hits the fan, management can write a check for $x,000,000 and a team of engineers will be on-site tomorrow to fix the effort. Not having that is exactly what scares management about open source and/or startups.
- beat 8y agoThis is also part of the enterprise startup system... an enterprise startup doesn't need to and probably shouldn't build a whole enterprise sales chain. They just need enough to get a handful of enterprise sales - enough to prove their value proposition is high enough that enterprises will put up with startup shortcomings in order to get that technology. Then, sell the company to a big player like IBM, Salesforce, Atlassian, etc, who just add it to their sales/support portfolio.
- ethbro 8y agoI think all things considered, large enterprise sales probably aren't the best idea for a startup... IF you can avoid it. The power and financial disparity is too great. When one customer is >25% of your revenue (and they know it), bad things ensue.