It’s been awhile since I’ve updated my blog and I figured some kind of information would probably be a good idea on what’s going on. If you follow me at all you’ll know that I’m very active on my business blog Unleashed Technologies Blog.

However you wont find this EXCITED AND DYNAMIC information about my personal life that EVERYONE (nobody) cares about. Just in case I’ll leave some very serious updates:

1. Parker Alexander Spinosa (my first son) was born exactly 5 months ago on August 11th, 2010. He’s kind of a big deal and the Chief Operation Officer at Unleashed Technologies!
2. Unleashed Technologies, LLC in this year has already surpassed the entire previous year in growth, revenue, etc. It’s an exciting time and seeing which companies are really coming out of the recession stronger for it.
3. Football is about to start and I once again will have the void that is in my soul filled with that sweet goodness that is bone crunching grid-iron action. Still no time for fantasy football but I know one day… it will happen.

• We focus on your success
• Our talent is superior to our competitors
• We want to be partners with you for the long term

This is just a few examples but the message is obvious and anybody reading this that’s in a decision making position or a business owner has heard this from someone trying to get their web related business. The irony is I say these things myself as they’ve almost become a standard within our market. So have brutal undercutting and taking projects at a loss for no apparent reason other to say, “you’ve got work”.

What I’m currently battling with is how can a web firm clearly differentiate it’s service offerings over their competitors without boring a perspective client to death. Make no mistake this is a business of “one on one” relationships and while the web might be a driving vessel for small business contracts nobody signs the $50k ++ deal off of a Google search. Websites built for 5k or under, typically serve no other purpose but to provide credibility back to the client in which they inevitably will become displeased with lead generation, search engine placement amongst numerous other items.

I know at my company our culture has changed dramatically over the past two years and has switched gears to only develop web applications and commerical websites that fill a tangible goal whether it be to automate processes, expand lead generation, increase revenues, or offer new value add services to clients. The only way to truly manage and survive in this business where there are an untold number of new entrepeneurs entering the market is to make sure each company you engage has a clear guideline for success and your services/culture is perfect for getting them their goal. You can’t lose when doing this.

Perhaps this in itself is a new standard? Is this a nothing approach as well? Questions to ask myself. I’m pleased to say that our strategy has yielded terrific growth for the 2009 year and Unleashed Technologies, LLC is stronger than ever. This is based on a stable organic growth pattern that we all enjoy, I’m looking for the hockey stick pattern if you know what I mean <wink wink nudge nudge>.

Everyone in the country is broke but there is money for this nonsense? I also received a link today from a good friend that absolutely through me over the top. RIDICULOUS STORY FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

I love the justification for wasting millions of dollars in Michael Jackson’s unsustainable lifestyle in the hopes of some future profit which TO ALL OF OUR SUPRISE never materialized. Even Congress had a moment of silence for Michael Jackson, a man that was allegedly a child molester (yeah, yeah I know.. never convicted) and certainly outwardly displayed a large amount of mental instability.

Nobody is arguing his genuis as a recording artist but even his home town had a special memorial for him in which he hadn’t returned to since he was a child… not one time. Remember this man’s favorite past times were climbing trees and having water balloon fights with children. I’m all MJ’d out and quite frankly I think I’m just saying what alot of people are thinking and saying to each other behind the privacy of closed doors.

The last time I saw a frenzy like this was when Kurt Kobain killed himself many moons ago. The joy of liberty is that people have the right to express themselves and set their own priorities. That doesn’t make this any less creepy for me and that the priority of our masses is in the death of a recording artists that they’ve never met.

I’m looking forward to this closing out completely and the nation looking towards the future and the restoration of sensible values and priorities.

His recent success story in creating REAL transparency can be found at the link below:

FEDERAL RESERVE AUDIT

I’m torn as many have said this will further cause a rift in the country but it’s way beyond accountability at this point. This isn’t meant to be a long or drawn out disertation rather a gateway for people to see that a real movement to a light weight federal government, power to the states, and a restoration of libery is in motion.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
- Thomas Jefferson

The founders of this country never meant for the country to be run this way. They always protected the civil liberty of every citizen preferring the risk and headache of it’s existence over the temporary veil of safety behind a “good natured” government. True Story.

I think it’s fair that we need to start by resetting what we know back to the truth of the matter.

1. Money Isn’t Free. Never has been and never will be. Those bailout dollars used to stimulate the economy are to be invoiced to… YOU. Everyone usually responds with “Yeah, I know.” but they’re not really seeing it on their paycheck yet. This additional debt will be monetized in the form of increased federal taxes and taken out of your check. Small businesses will also be punished limiting the ability for new opportunities and positions to become available.
2. The Federal Government Has Never Run a Successful Business. During the Nixon Administration Amtrak was nationalized and taken over by the federal government. The official statement went like this, “We only intend to be involved with Amtrak for the next 3 years so we can restore it to a profitable state before turning it back over.” HOLY CRAP, HUGE SURPRISE, TOTAL FAILURE. Here we are and not only is Amtrak not profitable it’s a horrible anchor around the neck of every American citizen.
3. The Federal Government Is You and I. I can tell you what it’s not… This all knowing, all being entity. Think about how many people you know that work for the federal government. Are they motivated and driven individuals? Do they understand if they don’t perform they’ll no longer be employed? The answer is “No”. They’re on average, individuals more concerned about there vacation days if they’ll have to work when a single snowflake falls from the sky. Why? Because it’s an environment not built to encourage excellence. It’s sole purpose is to maintain the mediocre status quo.

GM A federally funded company.

If General Motors becomes owned by our Federal Government they simply can’t maintain or streamline the infrastructure. Successful business isn’t run by adding 400 more positions to address checks/balances along with unenforcable policy and procedure. Amtrak gauges progress by how many people they employ to create the largest administrative structures focused around quality control for a demand that barely exists.

They should have focused to a freight focused or technology driven model long ago creating trains like the ones used everywhere else in the world. How does this relate to GM? GM needs to innovate right now, they need to re-invent the company from the ground up. New ideas, new personnel, and a cultural adjustment on what’s fair compensation for certain roles. In my opinion this industy giant should have failed. I believe that the millions and millions impacted financially would be freed to pursue new opportunities instead of praying to god that GM will mail the check this month. I sincerely believe in personal accountability and the resillience of the American people. If GM is to be fully managed and financed by the federal government we resign a free market and sacrifice our libery for temporary safety. A wise man once wrote…

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. – Benjamin Franklin

The thing about a simple quote that presents plain truth is that it can’t be dismantled in details. Easy and Right rarely work in the same sentence especially when your talking about the future of the country, the employment (direct/inderect) of millions, and the management of business. I say let this ship sink so the American people don’t get hung for 30 years…. just like Amtrak.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Even today I have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to manage, maintain and get one time custom solutions for standard web presences. Even custom solutions with extended needs is better left in the hands of a web firm that can manage and monitor your environment plus any software issues that may arise.

Certainly I’m sure there are moments when “Software as a Service” is offered but doesn’t make sense for the client but those moments are certainly rare (especially this day in age). Off the top of my head I can’t think of one reason outside of protecting very private and proprietary information in which the organization maintains a policy or promise to its clients that said information will never leave it’s facility (which is the case for some companies I know of).

The only way to really look at “Custom On-Site Solutions” vs. “Software As A Service” is to a breakdown of each and then compare advantages against disadvantages.

Software As A Service

Advantages (6)

1. 24/7 Monitoring
2. Fully Managed Hosting
3. Standard Software Support & Free Issue Recognition/Repair
4. Reduced Start-Up Costs
5. 100% Ownership of Data
6. Continual Upgrades and Enhancements based from user experience

Disadvantages (3)

1. Software is licensed and source code is non transferable
2. Canned solution (customization may be available but could incur extra costs)
3. Not as customizable for cross internet integration into very enterprise deployments

Custom On-Site Solution

Advantages (3 1/2)

1. Made to order solution that’s customized
2. Portable solution in its entirety including source code
3. Good for creating protected interfacing to enterprise deployments that might help with Single Sign-On or other resources (financial systems, Active Directory environments, in house database apps)
4. Avoid monthly software licensing costs? (This is a big maybe in both directions!)

Disadvantages (7)

1. Costly maintenance bills and paid for issue resolution
2. Quickly falls out of date and expensive feature enhancement
3. Maintain your own hosting environment & software
4. Setup your own monitoring tools
5. Tough to port from developer to developer
6. Double the cost up front for creation and complicated SoW
7. Low scalability

To me the decision is completely clear. Even as I write this I’m not putting any real analysis into weighing cost benefits, performance metrics, or any of the other statistical data that would truly give this argument teeth. It’s my genuine belief that the future of technology services will be to turn IT/Software into a 100% managed solution which will reside in what the world can easily reference know as the “cloud” (the cloud is one of those hippie terms internet people invented!).

The larger concern is finding a way to create reliable and secure connections back to enterprise deployments with VERY private data such as finances or customer information. Beyond accomplishing that goal we need success stories in getting people to commit into really giving it the old college try as they say. Time will help bridge this gap and a solution will become apparent in the near future.

You’ll see much more to come from me on SaaS as I want to make a true statistical business case for why it’s the ONLY solution for organizations/companies looking for cost efficient, go anywhere, easy to manage, agile software.