Discussing software/information techology investments

[TheMotorcycleBoy]

Hi folks,

Can anyone point out the best board here for discussions on software firms (e.g. Softcat, Sophos) and on the kinds of the products+services they provide (e.g. SaaS) and whether they are any good or just hype?

Many thanks
Matt

[dspp]

Share ideas is fine.

regards, dspp

[Alaric]

Can anyone point out the best board here for discussions on software firms (e.g. Softcat, Sophos) and on the kinds of the products+services they provide (e.g. SaaS) and whether they are any good or just hype?

If there are those who even know what SaaS stands for, or have ever heard of Softcat or Sophos, they might be welcome to enlighten the rest of us. Share ideas then.

[TheMotorcycleBoy]

Thanks people!

I might post some FA in "company analysis", and start a "share ideas" thread discussing S/W investments. To be honest, despite being a software engineer for the past 25+ years, I'm really struggling with the SaaS idea!

Anyway will try to post something later on.

FWIW Shouldn't Lemon Fool have a s/w + tech sector board?

Matt

[Gengulphus]

Can anyone point out the best board here for discussions on software firms (e.g. Softcat, Sophos) and on the kinds of the products+services they provide (e.g. SaaS) and whether they are any good or just hype?

If there are those who even know what SaaS stands for, or have ever heard of Softcat or Sophos, they might be welcome to enlighten the rest of us. Share ideas then.

SaaS = Software as a Service.

Wikipedia is always worth trying if one encounters an acronym one doesn't know - just typing it into the 'Search Wikipedia' box and looking to see what it throws up is rather less time-consuming than posting to ask and waiting/monitoring for responses! The same also goes for meanings of acronyms one isn't familiar with - for instance, I recently encountered "CGT" in a mathematical context in which its "Capital Gains Tax" meaning made no sense whatsoever...

Not guaranteed to work, of course, but if it doesn't, one can easily fall back on posting to ask - or indeed on the old "Google is your friend" principle, though IMHO that should often be rephrased as "Google is a 'friend' who is liable to waffle on about a lot of rubbish as well as what you want"!

Gengulphus

[PinkDalek]

FWIW Shouldn't Lemon Fool have a s/w + tech sector board?

I think there was resistance against having too many Sector (and other) boards.

This is perhaps borne out by Pharmaceuticals & Bio-Pharma, which was created in December 2016 and since when there have been 9 Topics in total viewforum.php?f=79. A quick look there suggests the companies mentioned (such as AZN, GSK, Indivior) are mainly nowadays discussed elsewhere.

[gbjbaanb]

We did have one- I suggested it ages ago, and everything thought it was a good idea and strange that we didn't already have one.
so one was created, and nobody posted in it so now its gone.

I'd suppose the only way to find if something needs its own board is to have a "everything else" board and wait to see if a particular sector gets a lot of discussion, and when it does, all those threads get shifted over.

[PinkDalek]

We did have one- I suggested it ages ago, and everything thought it was a good idea and strange that we didn't already have one.
so one was created, and nobody posted in it so now its gone.

I can see mention of the opening viewtopic.php?f=21&t=10747#p126454 but not the closing.

[gbjbaanb]

It just disappeared one day, merged into Share Ideas. i have no problem with that, it was a sound idea, but a neglected board. Maybe i was just ahead of my time

[PinkDalek]

It just disappeared one day, merged into Share Ideas. i have no problem with that, it was a sound idea, but a neglected board. Maybe i was just ahead of my time

Yes I was kidding to a certain extent but mention of the closure on the Biscuit Bar may have been apt - assuming there was no mention - perhaps even on the opening topic.

It looks like it was similar to the TMF UK personal boards of old. The wording was something along the lines of tending to the garden or some such, in order that it wouldn't wither and die.

[dspp]

My recollection is that when we did a tidy up of a few oddities, we noticed that it was not being used at all, so we merged it across. Use it or lose it, especially where there is more than one option I guess.

regards, dspp

[TheMotorcycleBoy]

Can anyone point out the best board here for discussions on software firms (e.g. Softcat, Sophos) and on the kinds of the products+services they provide (e.g. SaaS) and whether they are any good or just hype?

If there are those who even know what SaaS stands for, or have ever heard of Softcat or Sophos, they might be welcome to enlighten the rest of us. Share ideas then.

SaaS = Software as a Service.

Wikipedia is always worth trying if one encounters an acronym one doesn't know - just typing it into the 'Search Wikipedia' box and looking to see what it throws up is rather less time-consuming than posting to ask and waiting/monitoring for responses! The same also goes for meanings of acronyms one isn't familiar with - for instance, I recently encountered "CGT" in a mathematical context in which its "Capital Gains Tax" meaning made no sense whatsoever...

Not guaranteed to work, of course, but if it doesn't, one can easily fall back on posting to ask - or indeed on the old "Google is your friend" principle, though IMHO that should often be rephrased as "Google is a 'friend' who is liable to waffle on about a lot of rubbish as well as what you want"!

Gengulphus

Hi G,
Thanks, I already know what SaaS means. Just wanted a good place on TLF to discuss it. I've heard SaaS being a little hyped myself of late, and being a s/w engineer myself, I think it's just that, i.e. hype. I wondered if anyone here could convince me otherwise!
Thanks Matt

[TheMotorcycleBoy]

My recollection is that when we did a tidy up of a few oddities, we noticed that it was not being used at all, so we merged it across. Use it or lose it, especially where there is more than one option I guess.

regards, dspp

Fair enough. Seems a shame.

But it only opened in April last year. Surely these boards need time to bed in?

Bunging everything in "share ideas" seems like a mess IMHO. Not a criticism, on you, dspp, the messenger, but the fact that such moves of board consolidation make TLF a less useful and interesting place, I think. I'm not trying to rock the boat, but I just think it suppresses users' desires to post diverse comment.

Matt

[dspp]

If I recall correctly traffic was verging on nil. I am pretty sure it was open for a tad longer than that but I am happy to be corrected.

A personal observation is that there are insufficient such companies in the UK to want to constrain search to the UK.

regards, dspp

[TheMotorcycleBoy]

A personal observation is that there are insufficient such companies in the UK to want to constrain search to the UK.

I know what you mean.

[Gengulphus]

If there are those who even know what SaaS stands for, or have ever heard of Softcat or Sophos, they might be welcome to enlighten the rest of us. Share ideas then.

SaaS = Software as a Service.

Wikipedia is always worth trying if one encounters an acronym one doesn't know - just typing it into the 'Search Wikipedia' box and looking to see what it throws up is rather less time-consuming than posting to ask and waiting/monitoring for responses! The same also goes for meanings of acronyms one isn't familiar with - for instance, I recently encountered "CGT" in a mathematical context in which its "Capital Gains Tax" meaning made no sense whatsoever...

Not guaranteed to work, of course, but if it doesn't, one can easily fall back on posting to ask - or indeed on the old "Google is your friend" principle, though IMHO that should often be rephrased as "Google is a 'friend' who is liable to waffle on about a lot of rubbish as well as what you want"!

Thanks, I already know what SaaS means. Just wanted a good place on TLF to discuss it. I've heard SaaS being a little hyped myself of late, and being a s/w engineer myself, I think it's just that, i.e. hype. I wondered if anyone here could convince me otherwise!

Your thanks are inappropriate, I'm afraid - I was replying to Alaric, not to you... And of course it was pretty certain some readers of this thread were going to know what it meant, and they were highly likely to include you as you'd used the term in your OP!

Gengulphus

[TheMotorcycleBoy]

SaaS = Software as a Service.

Wikipedia is always worth trying if one encounters an acronym one doesn't know - just typing it into the 'Search Wikipedia' box and looking to see what it throws up is rather less time-consuming than posting to ask and waiting/monitoring for responses! The same also goes for meanings of acronyms one isn't familiar with - for instance, I recently encountered "CGT" in a mathematical context in which its "Capital Gains Tax" meaning made no sense whatsoever...

Not guaranteed to work, of course, but if it doesn't, one can easily fall back on posting to ask - or indeed on the old "Google is your friend" principle, though IMHO that should often be rephrased as "Google is a 'friend' who is liable to waffle on about a lot of rubbish as well as what you want"!

Thanks, I already know what SaaS means. Just wanted a good place on TLF to discuss it. I've heard SaaS being a little hyped myself of late, and being a s/w engineer myself, I think it's just that, i.e. hype. I wondered if anyone here could convince me otherwise!

Your thanks are inappropriate, I'm afraid - I was replying to Alaric, not to you... And of course it was pretty certain some readers of this thread were going to know what it meant, and they were highly likely to include you as you'd used the term in your OP!

Gengulphus

Sorry Geng! Yet another knee-jerk post from me!

[JamesMuenchen]

A personal observation is that there are insufficient such companies in the UK to want to constrain search to the UK.

I know what you mean.

I tend to agree that the US is the bigger pond but if you want to avoid currency risk then there should still be plenty of opportunity in the UK

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevorclaw ... b97050d46f
13 new unicorn companies (valued at $1 billion or over) have been created in the U.K. over the past year, bringing the national total up to 72....With a total of 18, London has more fintech (financial technology) unicorns that San Francisco (15), although marginally fewer than the Bay Area as a whole. And across the whole tech sector, the capital’s 45 $1 billion companies trumps both Berlin (10) and Paris (9).

After all, its not the number of winners you pick that matters.

For US stocks, and for learning about valuing SaaS stock I would recommend Saul's board on TMF
https://boards.fool.com/sauls-investing ... 20980.aspx

[dspp]

For US stocks, and for learning about valuing SaaS stock I would recommend Saul's board on TMF
https://boards.fool.com/sauls-investing ... 20980.aspx

Crikey, my profile is still there !
- dspp

[PinkDalek]

For US stocks, and for learning about valuing SaaS stock I would recommend Saul's board on TMF
https://boards.fool.com/sauls-investing ... 20980.aspx

Crikey, my profile is still there !
- dspp

Not merely yours. I have on occasion pointed TLFers to their old TMF Interview and quite a few have amended or deleted.

As is your post at Ask A Foolish Question regarding the UK discussion board closure.

Fuskie's replies included:

Who can't speak for FoolHQ or the company's finances but from what he understands, it was a technology reasons that led to the UK boards being shut down, not the financial cost... and The UK boards are closing because the site is moving to a new platform.

I only mention those extracts as we are often told here (on TLF) that the closure was a matter of costs.