Bluewolf Co-Founders Reveal Agile Consulting Best Practices in New Book: "Iterate or Die: Agile Consulting for 21st Century Business Success"
New York City, Sept. 30, 2008 - The conventional business consulting process and model is dying fast and its remaining practitioners are dead men walking about to be superseded by a radical new approach to business software consulting, called Agile Consulting. In their new book, "Iterate or Die: Agile Consulting for 21st Century Business Success," authors Eric Berridge and Michael Kirven lay bare the fallacies of conventional business consulting as they introduce Agile Consulting, a bold manifesto built around their revolutionary Bluewolf Laws of Consulting Economics, laws that are sure to jar the readers even as they help them to navigate the new era of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Cloud Computing.Garnered from their eight years experience running Bluewolf (www.bluewolf.com), the world's largest provider of consulting services for Cloud Computing, Open Source, and Software-as-a-Service solutions, Berridge and Kirven walk readers through the wild last days of the mega business software initiatives, the costly failures, and the dotcom implosion. Along the way, they point out the failures of big name players, such as Arthur Andersen and KPMG, mining a failing business software model for all they could before making their own hasty escapes. Berridge and Kirven remember all too well - they were right in the thick of things. From this experience, they emerged from the rubble with a totally new approach to business software consulting, called Agile Consulting. For this trend-setting consulting work, Bluewolf has received numberous industry awards from such organizations as VARBusiness, CRN, Inc Magazine, Ernst and Young, and the Software Industry Association (SIIA).
"Our new book provides a concise, three-step approach to software implementation with the goal of delivering business value fast," said Eric Berridge, principal and co-founder of Bluewolf. "The key to our model is Time-to-Value. Our Agile approach can be summed up as Translate, Transform and Transcent."
According to Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora Inc. and formerly chief strategy officer of salesforce.com, "I've worked with Eric and Michael over the years in our effort to transform the software industry. They've written a book that I think every CIO should read,"
Marc Benioff, president and founder of salesforce.com, comments in the book's forward, "In witnessing the rise of Consulting 2.0, we are also witnessing the rise and success of these new agile methodologies. Companies like salesforce.com, eBay, Google and Bluewolf all rely on agile development to make cloud computing transparent, productive and successful."
In "Interate or Die: Agile Consulting for 21st Century Business Success," it reveals how Agile Consulting delivers fast results and fosters client self-sufficiency. "We defined a new approach that will let customers shape their businesses in ways that simply have not been possible before," according to Berridge.
Agile Consulting has three major tenets:
- Focus on success criteria instead of functionality
- Focus on client self-sufficiency
- Focus on change management
- A successful business process trumps cool technology
- Every project must start with a specific success plan
- There is no ROI on business software without widespread user adoption
- Expect change
Bluewolf is the leading Software-as-a-Service consulting company focusing on deployment, development and adoption of enterprise software applications. With eight years of SaaS experience and deep vertical expertise, Bluewolf is defining a new style of consulting based on their Agile Consulting model that guarantees success and delivers on the promise of Cloud Computing. Bluewolf clients include Dow Jones, ADP, General Electric and Fox Interactive Media. www.bluewolf.com.
About the Authors
Eric Berridge
At the end of the dotcom bubble burst, Eric Berridge saw an opportunity. Layoffs, consolidations and bankruptcies raged all around him. Amidst the chaos, Eric took a risky gamble and co-founded Bluewolf, which today is the world's largest provider of professional services for on-demand software applications. Berridge's vision to leverage a marketplace need for enterprise consulting services that were affordable, added measurable value and were iterative led to the birth of Bluewolf, which turned a profit in six months. Prior to founding Bluewolf, Berridge held various sales and management positions at The Oracle Corporation and The Interworld Corporation. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from U.C. Berkeley and a MBA in Entrepreneurial Finance from New York University. Berridge lives with his wife and three children outside of New York CIty.
Michael Kirven
For more than 15 years, Kirven has expertly navigated many companies through complex technology implementations, with a focus on coaching them to implement software better, faster and more economically, as well as building effective internal models for the long-term support of mission critical applications. Kirven is also committed to the development of the Bluewolf Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to awarding college scholarships to New York City public school students pursuing careers in technology. He also sits on the board of Virtual Enterprises that brings private sector innovation and resources into the New York Public School System. Kirven received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Georgia. He lives with his wife Emily and two children in Brooklyn, New York.
About the Book
Title: Iterate or Die
Subtitle: Agile Consulting for 21st Century Business Success
Authors: Eric Berridge and Michael Kirven
Publication Date: Spet., 2008
ISBN - 10: 1438912234
ISBN - 13: 978-1438912233
Price: $24.49 hardback (available from Amazon.com)
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