Advance Notice:

The inaugural event for Start Up 2.0 will now be held on 23rd Nov 06 at IoD Manchester. It will run from 18:30 to 20:30 and doors will be opened after 18:15. Those who wished to continue networking could do so at nearby pubs thereafter.  This event will also coincide with BEX 2006 – B2B NW which runs from 10:00 to 17:00 at G-MEX, which is next door to IoD. Why not make a day out in Manchester by attending both.

The event is to bring entrepreneurs who operate in the IT and software industry and those who invest in this sector together. Those who gets involved in putting deals together in this sector are also invited. We are trying to attract about 50 people for this event. The second event will be held in Brighton in Jan 07. Details are yet to be worked out.

This event came about as a result of one of my comments on Techcrunch. Both Sam Sethi of TechCrunch UK and Ivan Pope of Snipperoo suggested I start an event. So here is the result. The Brighton event will be titled SE Start Up 2.0 and will be organised by Ivan. Both Sam and Ivan will attend the event.

Ivan will set up a blog to promote these events. Please do register once this is set-up. I will advice the URL in the near future.

We are currently seeking sponsorship and please do spread the word around.

We are also looking for a suitable speaker (well known local entrepreneur to perhaps say few words of encouragement).

Technorati Tags: IoD, TechCrunch, SE Start Up 2.0, NW Start Up 2.0, SaaS, Web 2.0, B2B North West

We have appointed Autus HR to find, interview and short list candidates for above role.

Head of Sales – A highly ambitious IT Sales Manager or Sales Director is required to lead the sales function and be responsible for taking the whole ebdex solution to market.  You must have a proven track record of selling Solutions at Board level to Medium Size Enterprises and Corporates.  You must also have the ability to build and manage a team around you.  Sales and Management experience relating to ERP or Financial Software Solutions would be particularly interesting.  Experience in both Direct Sales and Channel Sales would also be advantageous.  You will be set demanding targets and can expect to be very well rewarded for your achievements.  Interested parties should email a current version of the CV in the first instance and quote ref: HSEB/2352/EW.  Should you wish to have a discrete conversation, the contact at our Recruitment Partner is Paul Roberts 0151 677 2445. Email CVs to cv@autushr.com

Above will appear later on the website. We also have opportunities for Head of Operations and Head of Development/Technogy. All three positions will be given equity as well as board director position after serving a minimum period (obviously they need to perform!).

Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY) announced today that it has acquired FormScape Group for $22 m ($17 m in cash and $5 m stock). Bottomline Technologies has been in our radar since inception of ebdex but I have not come across FormScape before.

FormScape offers two solutions, these being Covus (ERP document lifestyle management system) and FormScape V3 (document output, storage and retrieval system). Not quite a direct competitor to ebdex, but nonetheless now one less company in the fragmented market place. Interesting to note that Oracle, SAP, Sun Microsystems, IBM, HP and Microsoft are identified as ISVs. With more than 8,000 customers and 50 partners, certainly a major strategic acquisition for Bottomline Technologies.

Technorati Tags: Bottomline Technologies, FormScape

I recently came across few Sri Lankan web 2.0 companies and thought of sharing the information with you:

1. WSO2: run by Sanjiva Weerawarana, ex IBM Researcher. Products: WSO2 Tungsten is an application server for Web services. Sanjiva disagree that he runs a web 2.0 company.

2. blinkx: run by Suranga Chandratilake: blinkx is the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine.

Perhaps the most successful company run by a Sri Lankan is Virtusa, which was set-up by Kris Canekeratne and his wife.

Technorati Tags: WS02, blinkx, Virtusa

I have been revisiting all grounds recently. ebdex started because of the following compelling business case:

• 27 bn paper invoices are processed annually in Europe (Swiss Post)
• It costs around £9 to process an invoice (IOMA) – it cost UK government £75 to process an invoice – how much does it cost you?
• Document Exchanges can produce savings up to 90% (LogicaCMG) – We know achieving 50% is easier.
• This results in savings of £218bn (based on 90%) to European businesses. How much would you like to save?

Let’s go out and get a portion of this business – sounded like a good strategy. So we partnered with Affno (took me five months to meet them) to develop ebdex Document Exchange and now it has been available for trading since 1 Sept 06.

Why not trial it today without any obligation? See how much benefit we can bring. We believe in making your life easier and not complicating things further.

Technorati Tags: ebdex, business case, strategy

Is dot.com 2.0 here? Well we call it by different names just to confuse the market, e.g. web 2.0, enterprise 2.0, xx 2.0. Some of the deals I know of:

1. Google buying You Tube for $1.65bn in stock – $22 per visitor
2. ebay buying Skype for $2.6bn
3. News Corp buying Myspace for $580m – $10 per visitor
4. Facebook in talks with Yahoo – $1bn – $67 per visitor

What other silly money deals do you know of?

Technorati Tags: Google, eBay, You Tube, Skype, Facebook, News Corp

Below is a list of 50 fastest growing publicly held business software companies, based on year-on-year growth compiled by Baseline. According to Baseline, most of the companies at the top, do not sell software in the traditional sense – they follow the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, similar to ebdex. As you would have expected, all of these companies are US based.

Click company name for summary of financial and competitor details.

Jane Harrad-Roberts of Marketing Projects spent few hours this morning with us to simplify our message. Let’s hear what you think about this?

ebdex enables accounts payable systems and accounts receivable systems to communicate easily.

Then we received a comment from John Clough on my previous article on what is ebdex, which got us to refine the sentence on our corporate website.

ebdex provides a secure, scalable, managed and hosted Business-to-Business (B2B) electronic document exchange that increases the operational efficiency and profits of our clients whilst improving their cash flow and their competitiveness, with almost zero capital expenditure.

Then Jane helped me to clarify our vision further:

ebdex’s vision is to be the owner and operator of the largest transaction hub in the UK and EMEA by 2016 providing document exchange solutions and related value-added services to all sizes and manner of companies.

Are above better or worse than the previous?

Technorati Tags: ebdex, marketing, transaction hub, vision,

Having said what ebdex is, how does ebdex help you improve your profitability and cash flow?

Technorati Tags: ebdex

I am constantly attempting to simplify our message. What do you think about the following? Can you improve this?

ebdex is an innovative organisation that helps CEOs, MDs and FDs of small and large companies improve their profitability and cash flow by leveraging existing investments in technology. 

Technorati Tags: ebdex