CODA agrees to Agresso’s terms
January 31, 2008
I’ve been waiting to see if an announcement would be made as I had previously heard that CODA and Agresso had agreed on terms which see Agresso buy CODA at a price of 205p per share or £158 million. What I didn’t realise was that they’d jointly put out a statement before market opening this morning confirming they have received offers that effectively put CODA in Agresso’s hands.
This is a great move for both companies and I warmly congratulate both boards of directors for making this happen. My understanding is that both see this as an opportunity to consolidate their position in the market - they would say that though - and capitalise on their relative strengths.
I was particularly interested in discovering how this will impact CODAs Force.com development. Word is that Agresso are very interested in this aspect of the CODA business. That makes sense because some of the best on-demand work is coming out of the nordic countries where Agresso has its roots.
As always with acquisitions, there will be roadblocks and issues to navigate but it is quite a while since I saw two companies that are quite as attuned to one another as these. They should do well.
Technorati Tags: agresso, CODA
HMRC site is down
January 31, 2008
It’s 31st January which is otherwise known as Panic Day in the UK when last minute tax filers try to get their returns filed before the deadline which is midnight. HMRC Is Shite tells me the site has crashed. HMRC’s official site says:
Thursday 31 January
We are currently aware that some customers may be experiencing problems with this service and are working with our IT service provider to give this our urgent attention. If you are experiencing problems please try again later. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Please note this does not affect users of Third Party Software.
This was reported to me at just after noon. It’s now 1310 GMT. With 11 hours to go before the filing deadline, one can only wonder how much worse it will get.
Technorati Tags: HMRC
MYOB to Excel: 71 steps
January 30, 2008
I read this piece from David Carter and could not believe what I was seeing. I lost count at around 71 steps. And oh by the way, who’s paying for this? There is an alternative.
From FreeAgent → 1. Click ‘Export P&L to Excel’. No Step Two.
Disclosure: I have a tiny stake in FreeAgent.
Blist: database as a spreadsheet
January 30, 2008
Demo 2008 is where all the cool new technology toys are showcased. If new technology interests you then Chris Shipley’s Demo show is the place to be. I’ve met Chris on a couple of occasions and she’s a seriously smart people connector.
I can’t be at Demo in person but it doesn’t stop me getting a front row seat courtesy of BitGravity’s excellent streaming video. How the world is collapsing? My colleague Dan Farber wrote up Blist, a database that behaves like a spreadsheet:
Blist allows you to store lists of infinite length in a cell, store documents, and set photos, checkmarks and ratings as column types. You can even have a table in a cell, create pick lists with icons, and show thumbnails of Web URLs. Searches can be initiated by dragging and dropping items for the query.
First glance suggests this is a welcome addition to the stable of applications that endeavour to take 20 year old technology paradigms and turn them on their head.
As a profession, we should be at least aware of these developments. Despite the Microsoft hegemony, many potential users avoid this kind of application because they’re just too hard to understand. Simply because vendors like Blist are outside the mainstream does not mean we should dismiss their efforts. If anything, we should try them and see where they add client value. That’s the essence of innovation.
