Tag Archives: crm

Amazon, Comcast Content Delivery Network Push Could Hurt Akamai

Comcast ( CMCSA ) and Amazon Web Services, part of Amazon.com ( AMZN ), are becoming bigger players in the content delivery network market, posing a challenge to CDN leader Akamai Technologies ( AKAM ), according to Goldman Sachs. CDNs increase the speed of e-commerce transactions, business software downloads and video streaming to mobile devices. “Amazon is growing its Cloudfront CDN to an estimated $1.8 billion in 2016 revenues and shifting its own video delivery from independent CDNs to its own network, and startups like Fastly are growing share,” Goldman Sachs analyst Heather Bellini said in a research report. AWS is part of the e-commerce giant’s fast-growing cloud computing business. Amazon stock surged to an all-time high  on Tuesday, as the Wall Street Journal reported that Salesforce.com ( CRM ) was building a new service that uses AWS. AWS was a big reason Amazon reported its highest sales growth in nearly four years when it posted first-quarter earnings on April 28, sending the stock up nearly 10% the following day. Amazon is an IBD Leaderboard stock, with a strong IBD Composite Rating of 95, where 99 is highest. Akamai has a 59 CR. Bellini, who has a sell rating on Akamai stock, attended the 2016 Content Delivery Summit in New York on Monday, gaining views on market trends. “A key takeaway was that the competitive landscape remains intense, as Comcast looks to triple its CDN capacity next year,” wrote Bellini. Comcast, the No. 1 cable TV company, has been expanding commercial services to businesses. Comcast  moved into CDN services in late 2014, Bellini noted. One market trend could work in Comcast’s favor, said the Goldman Sachs analyst. “Multi-CDN deployments were a key theme of the conference,” she wrote, “with new startups making it easy to route traffic across multiple CDNs.” Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai is the No. 1 provider of CDN services. Worries that big customers such as  Apple ( AAPL ) and  Facebook ( FB ) are shifting more of their data traffic to their own CDNs have pressured Akamai stock. Aside from AWS and Comcast, Akamai competes with  Level 3 Communications ( LVLT ),  Limelight Networks ( LLNW ), and Verizon Communications ( VZ ), as well as startups Fastly and CloudFlare.

Apple Must Step Up In ‘Bots’ As Facebook, Microsoft Advance, Says UBS

Apple ( AAPL ) needs to jump into “bot” platform development or its app-based software ecosystem will be threatened, says a UBS report. Facebook ( FB ) recently introduced “chatbots” built into its messaging service while  Microsoft ( MSFT ) launched its “Bot Framework” software tools for developers, putting pressure on Apple to respond, says the UBS report. Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google, like Apple, has lagged amid a flurry of bot announcements. But Google plans a bigger push into artificial intelligence , its CEO recently said. A bot is software that automates tasks. Consumer applications for bots include buying movie tickets or making hotel reservations. Businesses are using bots to handle things such as customer service or scheduling meetings. Chatbots, meanwhile, are software programs that simulate conversation about a range of topics. The UBS report is based on a meeting with Bruce Wilcox, director of natural language strategy at Kore, a startup developing bots for enterprise platforms such as Salesforce.com ( CRM ). Apple has been moving into the enterprise market — large companies and government agencies — by partnering with IBM ( IBM ). According to Wilcox, bots will displace apps in many tasks if using them is made simple. “Do I think that Apple’s in trouble if it doesn’t do something in a bot’s world? Sure, because why would you want to download and install all sorts of apps from the App Store when you can get access to bots effectively through one app?,” Wilcox told UBS. “ iPhones have had a charisma of a better user experience,” he added. “Bots are going to be wiping out user interface distinctions. The App Store will sell fewer things. People will have less reason to buy an iPhone. So yes, Apple’s going to have to do something.” Apple may be able to use its Siri voice recognition technology along with artificial intelligence to catch up in bots, says the UBS report. Amazon.com ( AMZN ) is expected to forge ahead with its virtual assistant, called Alexa. “Apple’s Siri is a question/answer bot. You ask it a question, it gives you an answer. End of discussion. She finds the answer to questions but does not control the world. Bot platforms try to do both,” said Wilcox. “Alexa is sort of a bot platform. You can route your requests through her to some specific bot effectively. So it is a bot platform. Facebook is in a good position because they have a dominant messaging platform. Facebook has zillions of users. Developers have a strong incentive to get that user base available to themselves.”

Zendesk Investor Day: How To Hit $1Bil Rev. Vs. Salesforce, Oracle

Zendesk ( ZEN ) is expected to elaborate on plans to compete with bigger rivals Salesforce.com ( CRM ) and Oracle ( ORCL ) when the provider of customer-support software holds its investor day on Tuesday. Zendesk in November expanded a partnership with Microsoft ( MSFT ), whose Office 365 is the most widely used cloud app by businesses. Providing support for Microsoft’s cloud platforms could help Zendesk vs. Salesforce.com and Oracle, analysts say. Oracle acquired RightNow in 2011 to boost its efforts in customer-support software. Zendesk, which aims to sell more to larger companies and enterprises, as well as to its longtime base of smaller and midsize businesses, also competes with Freshdesk and Desk.com. Research firm Gartner estimates that 80% of Zendesk’s customer base has 20 users or less. With $209 million in 2015 revenue, Zendesk has touted a $1 billion target by 2020. “We expect much investor interest around the trajectory of Zendesk’s path toward their $1B revenue goal in 2020,” wrote Stan Zlotsky, a Morgan Stanley analyst, in a research report out Monday. “With the unveiling of the new CFO, Elena Gomez, we think investors will be looking to better understand her thinking around the $1B target and any potential upside/downside risks. “Given the renewed market focus on profitability, in addition to growth, we believe an update on the company’s plans for cash generation and reaching positive operating margins would be very helpful in framing investors’ expectations.” Zendesk stock jumped last week after the enterprise software company reported a smaller-than-expected Q1 loss and raised its full-year 2016 revenue guidance, breaking out of a cup-with-handle base at a 23.87 buy point. Zendesk stock was up more than 1% in early afternoon trading in the stock market today , near 23.75. Zendesk, with its shares up less than 3% in the past 12 months, has a so-so IBD Composite Rating of 64 out of a possible 99.