What a pain. I'm in San Francisco today and tomorrow, and beyond having tons of client calls to go on, the WiFi here was a complete pain to connect to. Having taken an early flight yesterday from Boston, what I can tell you is that while I am no longer a fan of travel (having racked up enough frequent flyer miles in my day), the good part about a long flight is that I can catch up on work – especially now that I have my new extended battery (BTW, when did I get so boring that having an extra five hours of battery became a good thing???) While I was jealous that the seven year old next to me is playing Lego Star Wars (it looked pretty fun!), I did have the time now to ponder a recent event in the mobile enterprise application space.
As you probably read in the news a few weeks ago, Antenna Software announced it had acquired Dexterra. This acquisition was the second one for Antenna in the last 12 months, where it acquired Maryland-based Vettro. If you want an intelligent analysis of the acquisition, you should check out what my colleague Andy Brown wrote in his most excellent insight on the deal. I had the pleasure to speak with Jim Hemmer, the CEO of Antenna Software, last week to talk about a broad range of issues, including of course, the acquisition.
Overall, I agree with Andy’s views that the acquisition made sense for both parties. I’ll take it one step further and say that I think the acquisition makes sense overall for enterprises looking to deploy mobility solutions. If you think back to what I said in my January blog entry when Tangoe acquired Internoded, I was already discussing the inevitable trend of consolidation in a market that is beginning to mature – the need for one throat to choke. That still holds true – and in fact is only getting more important – when you look at the context of managing enterprise mobility. The Dexterra acquisition is similar in one context, but for different reasons.
Let’s start off however with why it’s different. Application development and deployment is less about “one throat to choke” as it is about architectural choices regarding scalability, object re-usability and user flexibility. I’m not here to advocate one vs. the other because each has their pros and cons:
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Scalability: I’m talking technology here. Think “should I write my own applications directly in .Net or Java or do you pick a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform such as an Antenna, or do you just purchase the mobile editions of other back end solutions. This then plays into
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Re-usability: I’m no developer but I know that Object Oriented languages made application development a lot easier and faster than before. Middleware MEAP solutions take that one step further by letting you use the platform’s hooks to tap in to disparate systems more easily. That can be very useful depending on what you are trying to do with a mobile application, as well as for
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User flexibility: What devices is this application going to run on? Windows Mobile only? Or is this something that needs to run on BlackBerry, iPhone and webOS? This of course goes back to the IT policies your company has put in place.
So again, most of the above issues have little to do with one throat to choke, but they are important issues in the context of mobilizing applications beyond PIM functionality for your workforce.
What this acquisition however does have in common with the other deals happening in the enterprise mobility ecosystem is maturation and consolidation. While I am a strong advocate of choice, there does need to be a limit in terms of how much choice there is in the market. Think about when you go to the grocery store and you check out the salad dressing aisle. Talk about choice! I don’t know about you, but I get so overwhelmed, I don’t know what to pick and end up going home without anything. (Actually, I’ll make my own with some Maille Balsamic vinegar I bought on my last trip to Paris.) CTOs and CIOs are however going to need to buy from a brand they trust, that they know will be there in 5 years. It’s like the old saying “No one ever gets fired for buying from IBM.” With the acquisition, Antenna has gotten bigger and stronger and is now better positioned for further growth. That creates confidence for CIOs and CTOs. It also makes their decision making process easier. Now, once they have made the decision that they want to use a MEAP solution, they are less likely to get bogged down with the myriad solutions available, because there are now less players (that’s OK for now).
So if you agree with me (and you should!) that consolidation is good for now, and should continue….the question is who’s next? Who do you think is the next acquisition target? Who’s going to cough up the cash and/or stock? Is it in the MEAP space (like Pyxis) or is it in the mobility management space (I, for one, think we need more consolidation in the Wireless Expense Management space).
