The Wave/Safeboot dilema.
As some of you may have seen this weekend, the State of Ohio has decided to go with Safeboot for the state's computer security. This was the lead story on the 50,000 watt blowtorch of a radio station on every half hour today from 6am til as I type, not to mention the TV coverage as well. As I made the rounds today, 4 companies that I see on a daily basis have there IT departments looking into the solution the state just deployed. A banking corp, health care system and insurance provider that account for over 50,000 jobs in our area- not small potatoes. This was the scenario I thought could damage Wave the most outside of the fund shortfall. The longer it takes for them to deploy, other soltuions gain traction and others follow suit.
Once these solutions are in place, as long as it does just enough, the chance they will replace these systems is slim to none. The security will operate in the background, there are many examples of companies who shelled out huge sums of money for software programs that don't work the way the need them to, but the continue using it- because of the cost, and these are in their face everyday. These amounts can be measuresd in huge dollar amounts and not the spare change Wave stock is selling for today. If Wave dosen't have traction via the FDE drive- traction that can be measured on the balance sheet- the next PP is only delaying the inevitable. The total cost for the state of Ohio was in the 600- 800K range. I know we cannot know how much the cost would have been to deploy the ETS alone or the FDE solution, but one must wonder if cost is going to be a consideration going forward- especially if they want security now and don't have new PC's in the budget for the FDE equipped machines.
While some brave souls may look at this level as a great buying opportunity, I will gladly sit on the sidelines here. SKS said once before that the sales staff would expand when it was needed, I don't believe it has. This is an indicator that I will be watching with greater interest than the shareprice.
Dave
