Pyalla Technologies to miss out on eBITUG in 2017

All roads – well, perhaps all flight paths – lead to London. In only a matter of a few days the eBITUG event will kick off around the Tower. This location brings back so many memories for me as it was the early 1970s when I accepted a transfer from Sydney to London when working for the container shipping company, OCL. Upon arrival in London, I moved south and settled in New Addington, just outside Croyden, where IBM maintained a major education center. My daily commute saw me taking southern rail to London Bridge where I then walked past the Monument, around the Tower and into Braham Street where OCL was headquartered. The upcoming venue, the Hilton DoubleTree, didn’t exist all those years ago but a brief visit to the venue last year brought with it a flood of memories from that time.
If you missed some of my commentaries from that time then check out the post to the NonStop community blog, Real Time View, of May 11, 2016, “London Calling” to which I can add, “Anchors Away!” as well as the very next post of May 22, 2016, NonStop on forward path – and it’s just not stopping! Both of these posts highlighted just how valuable it is for the NonStop community to participate in RUG events whenever they are held and as the upcoming event represents a pan-European event, I am expecting it to pull a very large crowd. Unfortunately, circumstance dictate that I will have to remain in Boulder, Colorado, as it is a time of moving home and office and it would not be wise to leave the responsibility totally in Margo’s hands.

On the other hand, both of us were really looking forward to hearing Tandem Computers founder and original CEO, Jimmy Treybig, address the audience. While I cannot put my finger on it exactly, each and every time Jimmy has made it onto the agenda I haven’t been able to attend. I missed Jimmy at a Boot Camp several years ago as I missed him at CTUG and at N2TUG – all of these events I support wholeheartedly but somehow, the stars haven’t lined up such that Margo and I could make it. If you read this article and happen to run into Jimmy, give him our fondest regards. For decades, Jimmy was able to influence the industry in a manner few other companies could match and indeed, for a while, had IBM really concerned about its communications business. After all, it was IBM that invented the Front End Processor and Tandem essentially killed that product line.
Of late, Pyalla has been revisiting “times past” spent with industry analysts. An opportunity has arisen thanks to a very special client whereby I am managing analyst relations as part of the consultancy I do supporting business development. In my former times with Nixdorf, Netlink / Systems Technology, Tandem and Insession, I spent a lot of time in the New England region with the likes of Giga, Forrester, IDC, Meta and Gartner. I also lobbied such publications as Computer World and Network World and all the time, it was all about adjusting expectations (of the analysts) in order to gain greater visibility as well as to influence research that they were undertaking. I wasn’t always successful, but when Gartner produced a Magic Quadrant featuring companies working to connect the world of objects (ORBs) with transactions (OLTP), Insession with its TransFuse product made it to the top right-hand quadrant taking the industry completely by surprise.

Industry analysts actively look for new and up-and-coming vendors in areas that they find interesting. And this is a challenge for all members of the NonStop vendor community – it’s not impossible to sway the opinions of even the most seasoned industry analyst. Like everything associated with IT however, you just have to do your homework, remain credible and have something interesting to talk about. Again, memories of Jimmy’s past presentations bring this all flooding back to me. There is absolutely no reason why individual vendors developing NonStop solutions should ever be fearful of addressing industry analysts – the story we have to tell is as relevant today as it has ever been.

Perhaps not surprising for any of us, after multiple presentations to two different analysts the common response has been “We didn’t know of your product and no, we didn’t know users were buying NonStop!” So yes, find creative ways to make presentations of interest to industry analysts and you can always pull a crowd and isn’t this something everyone in the NonStop community wants to see? Surely, our CIOs would be impressed to read research note providing favorable opinions about NonStop pertinent to their marketplace?

To everyone beating a path to eBITUG for the Pan-European event, Pyalla Technologies wishes you all safe travels and hopefully, you will find the agenda both entertaining and enlightening. And I look forward to hearing from you and yes, make sure to make your way to Daniel Craig’s presentation “Adapt or Die; The NonStop Skills Cap” at 1:20 PM – it proved quite lively at last year’s Boot Camp as I recall!

Richard Buckle
Cofounder and CEO
Pyalla Technologies, LLC