ThinkNick

In the last stages of building a supporter database for a fundraising client.  The platform is internet-based software-as-a-service (SaaS), so the infrastructure cost is tiny, there’s no hardware.  Almost all of the value is in the intellectual property – the way it’s built, the user guide, the thinking and experience that informs it, and the programming ability to make it work.

Another project for a financial servcies organisation provides an online collaboration tool for viewing and approving proofs.  The cost of the software (again it’s SaaS) is just a few hundred dollars a year; for this client the real value lies in i) finding it for them and showing them how it works so much better than their current process, and ii) tailoring the implementation for their own situation.

It’s not long ago that the total cost for these projects would have been a multiple of the purchase cost of some expensive software.  Now it’s the cost of some very specific intellectual property.  For the client, the value is in those parts of the project that make it work in their own office, now, with as little risk as possible, and negligible long-term financial commitment.

It’s a very different mind-set, both for the client, and for the service provider.

Picture: James Cridland

There’s been a lot of talk in the UK about the Republican choice for Vice President in this year’s US elections (see here for one of the more interesting commentaries, especially about Ms Palin’s media training). Whilst there has been much debate about the maverick McCain (and ‘maverick’ is one of those words that’s supposed to be neutral but is almost always taken to be a negative), there’s one thing I’ve not seen mentioned.

McCain appears to have made a choice based on limited information, instinct, and the need to move things forward. And guess what, for much of the time in office, a leader operates in a complex and changing environment, with incomplete information. Instinct, experience, luck, call it what you will, but they cannot just sit there waiting for perfect data in a perfect world.

Mr McCain, I admire you for taking a lead, and a risk. I think that shows you qualify for the big job.