Late yesterday I received a Technology Evaluation email with a link to this analysis of Jeeves ERP as a competitor to the big boys like Microsoft, SAP and Oracle. Usually I find P.J. Jakovljevic’s analysis to be spotty at best but on this occasion, he’s hit a homer as the Americans are fond of saying. He talks about the alternative business model used by Jeeves, a tiny Swedish vendor. He says:
But we should also note that some lesser-known vendors have long delivered Mendocino-like features even more pervasively throughout their product suites. As far as small specialist providers are concerned, a case in point is the ongoing success of Sweden-based Jeeves Information Systems AB (JIS).
Ah-ha…got my interest. So I finished the piece, interest still maintained. Jeeves says it is the first vendor to fully integrate Microsoft Office into its offering. It has also integrated Skype. Mendocino by the way was a project between SAP and Microsoft. I clicked over to the Jeeves website and almost immediately went to its annual corporate report.
What an incredible story. This company is focused on development. It believes in the indirect model of going to market. It spends most of its revenue on development with a relatively small number allocated to GSA. Will that make it a world beater? I have no idea but its stellar financial performance tells me it is a very well run company. Does the fact it relies on the on premises/at desktop model like Sage Line 50 (as far as I can tell) matter? I think it probably does in the long run but not now.
What I do know from a careful reading of its annual statement is this is a vendor that deeply cares about putting customers first. All it really needs to complete the picture is a blog site of some sort. I could see that as an exciting move because then they could create a public face to the VARs it lists in its annual report. they could then communicate to the outside world about how great (or otherwise) Jeeves really is. A bit like Sigurd Rinde is already doing.
Another small vendor to keep in the crosshairs methinks.
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