Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Adam Miller, CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: That’s not entirely fair. These are not ERP solutions; they are best-of-breed solutions as well.

Adam Miller: Well, they used to be.

SM: They’re not ERP solutions. They’re best-of-breed talent management solutions. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Adam Miller, CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand (Part 2)

SM: OK. What was the evolution of those situations?

AM: Typically in these private equity rollups of software companies, they’re not all that effective. The top talent will leave right away. Those two companies still exist [but] neither is competitive in the marketplace today.

SM: OK. All right. Those are on the private equity side, and then you’ve got the two big acquisitions by Oracle and SAP, and then you have the independent companies. What do you think is happening in this space now? >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Adam Miller, CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand (Part 1)

Cornerstone OnDemand is a company that provides cloud-based talent management software solutions to nearly eight million people in 179 countries. The company boasts such heavy-hitting clients as Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Turner Broadcasting System, Virgin Media, and Save the Children, among others. Based in Santa Monica, California, Cornerstone has office locations in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and Brazil.

Seven months ago, I sat down to talk with Cornerstone CEO Adam Miller for my Entrepreneur Journey series. The company has grown a bit since then, as has the talent management space.   >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: David Guthrie, CTO of PGi (Part 5)

SM: I heard you say a few things that I’d like probe into. Transcription, automatic transcription, is that a requirement that your customers are asking for?

DG: No, it’s not a requirement. Henry Ford said that what he would have given his customers if they’d asked for it would have been a faster horse.

SM: You’re not exactly building a new car here. You’re basically extending functionality. If you look at the use cases of video calls and Web meetings, I think it’s not so far out to think that transcription may be something that people may be looking for. For instance, for our video conferences that we do, transcription, auto transcription would be very helpful. I could tell you as a customer that yes, this is a functionality that would help me. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: David Guthrie, CTO of PGi (Part 4)

SM: I’ll defer to you on this. This whole game is going to come under tremendous margin pressure. Everybody innovates. Everybody will continue to innovate. There will be new players that will apply more pricing pressure, but anytime it becomes a major telecom game, including cloud storage, these are all pricing games, and they’re going to come under tremendous margin pressure.

DG: Yes, I can say that about any technology. It does over time, but you have to continue to enhance, make new versions, bring new value to the users to justify price and upgrades, and that’s what we do. We recently released a new version of GlobalMeet that adds new features and functionalities that we believe brings value to our customers. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: David Guthrie, CTO of PGi (Part 3)

SM: I understand the motivation. I’m asking more for a state of the union in that market. Since you’re an insider in that marketplace, it sounds like one of your strategies is to sell through these telecom providers.

DG: Yes. It’s not our only strategy, but we believe it’s a great opportunity for the reasons I stated. We have a direct salesforce as well. We have SMB online sales. We go to market through lots of channels.

SM: I got that, but what is the state of the union on the telecom provider side? Is this a major trend? Are all telecom providers offering virtual conferencing services? >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: David Guthrie, CTO of PGi (Part 2)

SM: Point taken. But the products in the market also have very large user bases.

DG: Sure. So, did other wireless phones that you know about before the iPhone came out, before the Droid came out with their OSes that changed the way you interact with phones. But there were other phones like Samsung and Motorola that had very large market shares but less than desirable interfaces … and less than desirable user interfaces. So, we’re trying to follow the same path in the communication technology arena and change the way people interact with services. >>>

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: David Guthrie, CTO of PGi (Part 1)

Remote workforces continue to grow and telecommuting becomes more commonplace every day as modern technologies like Web conferencing and video chats make it easier for people from all over the world to collaborate on projects or simply work from home. These types of conveniences save money for everyone, and companies like PGi strive to make Web conferencing and video chats less bothersome than some of its closest competitors as my interview with CTO David Guthrie quickly reveals.

Sramana Mitra: Hi David. Please give our audience some context about you and PGi. >>>