It’s 11:14 PM and I’m far into a dense vendor proposal for a corporate software solution.  My Xobni account indicates I’ve sent and received 321 emails to various stakeholders and vendors in relation to this proposed software purchase. Thanks to Cloud Computing, future IT leaders will never know of the Sisyphean task at hand when dealing with in-house IT implementations.

Forrester recently reported that 9% of IT buyers will purchase a cloud-based solution in 2010. Although that percentage might seem insignificant, I look forward to looking back someday and having a difficult time believing the lengthy infrastructure assessments and painful procurement processes I had to go through.

Here is some of the impact I expect to see as software continues to move online:

• Try before you buy – Remember back to 2001 when the supply chain software company i2 was blamed for causing Nike to miss its revenue forecast? Although risk cannot be eliminated, using SaaS solutions often enables you to try many competing services for free, in your live work environment, before seriously committing.
• Buy now – Limited infrastructure needs often means lower prices and simpler approval processes. Swiping a credit card online will help us distance ourselves from lengthy software evaluations that require executive approval before buying.
• Use or cancel – Spreading SaaS services throughout your organization can be fast and simple. In fact, it might be too easy. Luckily, cancelling can be just as easy. Make sure you chose SaaS vendors with functionality and friendly policies for obtaining your data.

It’s now 11:32 PM, and more emails have arrived that require urgent attention.   The storm can’t arrive too soon.

There’s been no shortage of flashing bold statements about “Top Ten CES Trends” and “Biggest Tech Predictions For 2010” over the last week. In an effort not to add to that list, here’s what all those tech innovations and new devices mean for consumers and the role that agencies like LEVEL play in helping create desirable consumer products.

Let’s start by narrowing all the major trends into the two underlying and consistent themes in consumer electronics:

• Manufacturers are focused on creating multifunctional, web-enabled devices that can share content with other devices.
• New content ecosystems are becoming differentiators for manufacturers while simultaneously changing business models for manufacturers, service providers and content developers.

What does all this mean for consumers?
As product categories continue to overlap, consumers will require additional information to ascertain why they should buy one product over another. Tablets, e-readers, smartphones, netbooks, notebooks and more all offer some similar functionality. With so many product similarities, consumers will start evaluating them less on their individual features and more on the content available, the ease of product integration and the overall user experience. Price will also still be important when evaluating several similar products.

New content ecosystems include components like cloud services for media storage, content development platforms and application storefronts. Consumers will become more adept at searching for and purchasing on-demand content and will increasingly want to access media (music, video games, apps, etc.) across their own devices and even on remote, public devices. Manufacturers that facilitate these interactions in a seamless way will stand out.

These major changes are meant to make technology adoption easier for consumers by reducing the number of devices they need and allowing them to access content on all devices. In reality, there are so many technology options and so much content out there that consumers are inundated with both. This makes the purchase decision, product integration and content search more difficult. Agencies like LEVEL (specializing in cross-channel experiences on connected devices) are positioned well to ultimately help manufacturers develop intuitive product interfaces and market the products in a crowded market.

Committed to the consumer electronics space, we recently launched a new resource for CE manufacturers. For more insight and better ways to connect, please visit: www.level-studios.com/connected.

“Who do you work for?” It seems like an innocuous question, so I respond with a simple answer. “LEVEL Studios.” My inquisitor looks at me, upper lip juts up, eyebrows narrow, a slight nod of comprehension. Unfortunately, he is unfamiliar with LEVEL. “I do user interface development, CSS, HTML, JavaScript. I’m based out of their San Jose office.” More nodding ensues. He still has no idea what I do for a living. “I work mostly on [SiliconValleyGiantProtectedUnderNDA.com] and other [SiliconValleyGiantProtectedUnderNDA] projects.” “Ah ha!” He then replies, “Wow, really? That’s awesome! Do you know a guy named Joe? He works for them…or at least he did.”

This is a common interaction, and similar to the ones I encountered at the most recent An Event Apart . AEA 2009 was held at The Palace Hotel in bustling downtown San Francisco. This 2-day conference for web designers, developers and other technorati is organized by Happy Cog and the folks who publish the famed web-journal, A List Apart .  The event covers topics like “Seductive Interface Design” and “Gems from Amazon.com”. Moreover, it’s a place where web geeks like myself can make jokes about IE6 and everyone LOLz; even the newbies.

Most of the attendees come from a web or publishing background and are well abreast of the issues facing web standards, accessibility and browser compatibility. As one would expect, the web is not just a Silicon Valley phenomenon; I met people from all over the US and Europe, most of whom work for well-branded dot coms. In short, they are the ones who literally “make the web”. AEA co-founders and speakers, Eric Meyers and Jeffrey Zeldman , have literally written the books on standards for the web and are credited with fathering modern web development.

Working as a web developer in Silicon Valley is much like a sous chef working in Paris – you are surrounded by people that ooze creativity and innovation, who exist on the bleeding edge of new technology. You learn to speak the lingo and to tread carefully on certain subjects, such as Flash development and accessibility.

I attempted to describe the overall sense of living and working in Silicon Valley to one guy; I’ll call him Missouri Jim. Unfortunately, my conversation with Missouri Jim took place at the AEA after party, and I had already taken full advantage of the open bar.

I said something like, “You’re, like, HERE, man! This is it! This is where it all goes down, ya dig?”

What I meant to say was that the Bay Area has a pulse, and for those who work in it, who live in it, there is no greater place on Earth. The Bay is where “VC” is a household acronym, and start-ups rise and fall like the Pacific tide. It’s where Titans of the web battle for online supremacy. One long draw of the air here, and you’ll get that raw, competitive energy that flows through Valley and pushes you to work better and faster than the next guy.

Unimpressed, Missouri Jim was less than amused after I told about the median price of homes in Silicon Valley. Jim was mortgaging a house in Missouri for about as much as a room with a bunk bed rents in Sunnyvale. This got me thinking about the cons of living and working here.

One downside is the secretive nature of the business, and the fact that, generally speaking, all work is done under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). This is obviously done to protect the intellectual property of certain companies, but it often means the designer or developer feels unaccredited after months of hard work. After all, the best part of working hard on something is sharing it with your peers and co-workers. NDAs can feel like a dark and dirty secret. Even when my wife asks, “How was work?”, I have developed this gag-like reflex to obfuscate my answer. I reply, “Who do you work for?”. I believe this paranoid sense is contagious and is something I caught during the past few years while working in the Valley.

Judging from the folks who attended AEA 2009, I’m not the only one; I found that people were more responsive to “What kind of work do you do?” than “Who do you work for?”. The latter implies something like, “What websites have you built, and what are you working on now?”. Maybe that’s just more paranoia.

All of the attendees at AEA, both Valley natives and from abroad, could agree that the future of the web is undefined. And if history is any teacher, the next big thing will come from someone who thinks big, innovates and has a working prototype [http://aneventapart.com/speakers/jeffveen/]. Whether or not Silicon Valley will produce the next Facebook or Google is unknown. Maybe it’ll be Missouri Jim.

With the holidays in full swing, LEVEL has begun to spread the holiday cheer. Nothing says holiday season more than digging through your closet for that ugly Christmas sweater your aunt gave you 8 years ago that you swore would never see the light of day again. Today, LEVEL peeps are dressed in their ugliest of sweaters to celebrate the great things that LEVEL has done for the community this holiday season. LEVEL hosted its first Ugly Holiday Sweater Competition and Santa Chance made an early appearance to judge the competition. Check out some of the ugly sweaters on Flickr.

LEVEL got the band back together and is proudly supporting VH1 Save The Music. Here at the agency many of us have grown up with music being a huge part of our youth, and we firmly believe that Music Inspires Innovation. By supporting VH1 Save the Music, we can assist in contributing to schools and school districts and improve the current state of education by bringing the music back. We have sent out our own “Band-in-a-Box” toys (www.melissaanddoug.com) to 300 recipients so they also can have the chance ReGift the gift of music.
To view the LEVEL 2009 holiday microsite, please visit: http://level-studios.com/holiday09.