Earnings Respect

SAP and IBM post strong software quarters; plus, Google wants into wireless, Microsoft takes on Salesforce.com, EMC plans to blanket China and more software news of the week.

After spending years fighting against Oracle's consolidation frenzy, SAP's second quarter earnings prove it is possible to fight back with organic growth.

SAP revenue grew 10 percent to $3.34 billion and earnings rose 8 percent to $620.6 million - not bad for a company that has had a challenging year. CEO Henning Kagermann reported double-digit growth in all regions. The company also projected full year software and services revenues will grow 12 to 14 percent.

SANDHILL.COM BLOG POST OF THE WEEK:

10 Steps to Getting Your Software to "PMF" (Product/Market Fit)

Marc Andreesen writes about startups in his blog, but his post applies to companies of all sizes. He states that "The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit (PMF)."

I almost fainted when I saw this, because very few people involved in technology (except maybe Andy Rachleff) have ever publicly acknowledged this.

So HOW does a software company get to a PMF? THAT is the question.