E-Business Winners and Loosers - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[german]

Hallo, bei www.upside.com findet man eine interessante, in den nächsten Tagen fortgesetzt werden Analyse über die Top-E-Business-Firmen. Einfach auf das Banner "Special Report" (blau in der Mitte der Seite) klicken.

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[german]

Hier ein Auszug:
 



   E-Business Winners and Losers: Platforms and Tools
page 4: The Stragglers
 
Critical Path
Market Share: 4
Innovation: 4
Overseas Strength: 2
Alliances : 3
Growth: 3
Early into the IPO mania of 1999, Critical Path leveraged its huge market cap to rapidly capture new technology and customers in the e-mail outsourcing market. As the fastest-growing player in hosted e-mail -- one of the simplest of applications -- it is in a strong position as it enters 2000. However, its bigger challenge is now to compete more broadly in the ASP marketplace with more-complex applications, including e-commerce, ERP, and CRM. The opportunity is there, but Critical Path needs to move quickly.

USA.Net
Market Share: 4
Innovation: 4
Overseas Strength: 3
Alliances : 4
Growth: 3
The first player in outsourced e-mail, USA.Net has maintained its lead against Critical Path`s moves -- and partnerships such as with America Online`s Netscape have helped. The challenge going forward lies in the company`s maintaining its lead against the more aggressive competition. As with Critical Path, this is true not just with e-mail, but in the broad and wildly competitive ASP marketplace as well.

Novell
Market Share: 3
Innovation: 3
Overseas Strength: 3
Alliances : 1
Growth: 2
If Eric Schmidt is such a genius, why have all of Novell`s marketing people quit? Maybe the CEO figured out he didn`t need them -- or perhaps the company`s "comeback" may have been called a bit too early. By the way, has anybody bought a copy of NetWare lately? (We didn`t think so.) While Novell`s new offerings, including NDS and Digitalme, hold promise, customer adoption still lags. We wouldn`t be surprised to see these products acquired if the dogs don`t start eating the dog food -- and soon.

Compaq Computer
Market Share: 3
Innovation: 2
Overseas Strength: 3
Alliances : 4
Growth: 2
Yes, it`s easy to second-guess, but Eckhard Pfeiffer drove this company almost all the way into the ground with ill-advised and poorly executed acquisitions -- particularly of Digital Equipment. Restructuring, management turnover and reorganization have drawn focus away from innovation and growth. However, Michael Capellas was a brave choice for the new CEO, and he is itching for an opportunity to prove the doubters wrong. Compaq`s powerful brand -- although somewhat tarnished -- still shines, and there is a window of opportunity to rebuild.

Sybase
Market Share: 2
Innovation: 3
Overseas Strength: 3
Alliances : 3
Growth: 3
The big news of 1999 for Sybase was, well, that there still was a Sybase. After Oracle just about leveled the smaller database and application tool company in 1998, Sybase came back in `99 with a tightened focus and a strategy centered around portals. All right, our "turnaround of the year" call in `98 was premature, but it has happened. Portals leverage Sybase`s database strengths, but in such a competitive market the company needs to expand on its resurgent momentum to make sure the turnaround sticks.

Informix
Market Share: 2
Innovation: 2
Overseas Strength: 3
Alliances : 3
Growth: 3
Like Sybase, Informix also has a focused new message, although in this case it`s on commerce systems. Chief financial officer Bob Finocchio did a tremendous job of turning this mess around, but his departure from operating duties could have been better-timed (for the company, at least). Nonetheless, the turnaround seems to be on track, as financials are looking up. But also like Sybase, Informix focuses on a very, very competitive market, and this could well be its last chance -- so the company had better get it right.

Plumtree Software
Market Share: 1
Innovation: 3
Overseas Strength: 2
Alliances : 3
Growth: 2
Chances are you hadn`t heard of Plumtree 18 months ago, and maybe you still haven`t -- but you will. It is now everywhere because it has virtually defined the corporate portal space. Look for new partnerships with business-intelligence vendors as Plumtree becomes the de facto standard for user interface to applications, content and data throughout the extended enterprise. The biggest risk is that the company is too early to market, since this market has yet to really emerge.

Viador
Market Share: 1
Innovation: 3
Overseas Strength: 2
Alliances : 3
Growth: 2
Here`s another corporate portal play with a strong presence in an early market -- but one with tons of promise. Viador has been quite nimble: Starting with its business-intelligence applications in 1999, the company morphed itself into an enterprise information portal. A slew of partnerships with the likes of Hewlett-Packard, IBM and others should help Viador as the portal market begins to gel this year.

Storage Technology
Market Share: 3
Innovation: 2
Overseas Strength: 3
Alliances : 4
Growth: 3
StorageTek has some solid offerings, including storage-area network capabilities, storage-management services, and "by the drink" outsourced storage. However, the company has been substantially weakened by other missteps and by an overall lack of product vision. Like EMC, StorageTek has almost no presence in new markets such as caching and NAS. The storage market is being dramatically changed by the Internet, but StorageTek has missed most of the revolution. There`s still time to awaken, but the clock is ticking.

VA Linux Systems
Market Share: 2
Innovation: 4
Overseas Strength: 3
Alliances : 2
Growth: 3
So this unprofitable company produces a few relatively inexpensive hardware form factors bundled with Linux and support services -- and that warrants its $7 billion market capitalization? It must be the name. We wonder how its IPO would have fared if the company were still called VA Research. You`ve got to hand it to Larry Augustin, though: He has established VA Linux as an innovator with first-mover advantages, especially in the regional Internet service provider market. The question we still ask ourselves, however, is how long the company can maintain this advantage with the likes of Dell, Compaq, and Sun following right behind? The answer: Probably not very long.

Caldera Systems
Market Share: 3
Innovation: 3
Overseas Strength: 3
Alliances : 2
Growth: 3
Caldera is the second most prominent vendor in the Linux market. Its Linux distribution competes with those of Red Hat, SuSE, and TurboLinux. Like these other vendors, Caldera faces the risky business model of packaging and selling support services, applications, tools and documentation around a free operating system kernel. Smaller companies may find its "Linux for e-business" pitch appealing, but for larger companies it is just noise. The key factor in determining Caldera`s success rests on whether the VAR channel buys into its story. Caldera does not have the presence that Red Hat does among OEMs -- and let`s remember that the key word here is not "Linux" but "distribution." That said, Caldera has been very successful in the channel so far, particularly among VARs that cater to small and midsize businesses.