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TechRadar Verdict
- +
Android 4.4
- +
Compact build that feels great
- +
Stock Android experience
- +
All day battery
- +
Low on carrier bloatware
- +
Clever Motorola apps and enhancements
- -
Inconsistent camera
- -
No removable storage or 64GB option
Why you can trust TechRadar
Check out the new Moto X 2014 review for our take on the updated handset.
Update: After living with the updated Moto X, we've made the decision to bump the phone up from 4 stars to 4 and a half. Why? Numerous updates that have improved the phone's speed, photography and software tricks, and it's available at a new low price.
The Moto X was the long-awaited collaboration between Motorola and Google. Google became Motorola's owner and parent company over a year ago, which had many thinking that Moto would make the next Nexus phone. Instead we got the Moto X, a compact, stylish handset with decidedly mid-range specs.
With an emphasis on battery life, contextual services and easy one-handed operation, it seems Motorola has the iPhone 5 in its sights, not the big screen Android powerhouses like the HTC One or the Samsung Galaxy S4
Google swallowed up Motorola at a time when it was treading water in the smartphone market. It pushed out three solid Android phones for Verizon - the Droid Razr M, the Droid Razr HD and the Droid Razr Maxx HD - and then fell silent within the belly of the beast.
After a year and a half of relative radio silence, Motorola resurfaced. First doing the three Droids for Verizon deal - the Droid Mini, Droid Maxx and Droid Ultra. Now we have its long awaited flagship, the Moto X.
And then not long after that Motorola ceased to be a Google company. Its been bought by Lenovo in a bid to enter the U.S. and European smartphone markets. This may spell trouble for the speedy Android updates the Moto X has been enjoying, and could put the kabosh on the phone's stateside manufacturing. Only time will tell.
Unlike Verizon's Droids, the Moto X is coming to all major American carriers. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, U.S. Cellular and T-Mobile all carry it. And unlike any other phone on the market, the Moto X offers a lot more choice than just storage size, 16 or 32GB in this case. It comes in nearly every color you can imagine, as well as eclectic patterns like the wood paneling of an old Woodie station wagon.
Motorola has also opted into second place in the spec sheet game: the Moto X has a dual-core processor and 720p screen, lower than the quad-core and 1080p combo that the HTC One and Galaxy S4 have taught consumers to expect from flagships.
While it looks lesser on paper, will it really make a difference day to day? Motorola is betting on no. Instead of going for all the gigahertz, its loaded the Moto X up with thoughtful features like hands-free Google Now voice commands, a clever notification system and camera access with the flick of wrist. It's also claiming twenty-four hour battery life on a 2200mAh cell, thanks to those lower wattage internals.
Can services trump specs? Has Motorola built the best Android phone for the "everyman" user? Or will it be lost in a sea of bigger screen phones with bigger specs and bigger names? Only time will tell. But as to whether or not it's a phone worth your money, just read on for the answer.
At 5-inches, the Moto X is diminutive compared to the current Android leaders. This is good news for anyone who's felt like the HTC One or Galaxy S4 were going to rip out of their pocket, or slip out of their hand. The X is also built from a polycarbonate plastic that gives it a different feel from other phones on the market.
Its materials make it feel dense and well built; it actually feels a little bit ceramic. It's a marked contrast to the Galaxy S4, which feels plastic and hollow. The Moto X is solid and well balanced. Weighing in at 130 grams, it's on the heavy side, but the weight isn't too much, and gives the phone a substantial, premium feel.
The rear of the phone is curved slightly, letting it nestle easily in your hand. Our review unit was a white model, with a slightly holographic woven pattern. The Motorola logo on the rear is dimpled, giving your index finger a perfect place to rest. Like an iPhone 5 or HTC One, the back is a little bit slippery, the only thing that detracts from a build otherwise perfect for one-handed use.
The Moto X's full measurements are 5.09 x 2.57 x 0.41-inches. It's easy to operate in one hand, due to its moderate size as well as a power button and volume rocker on the right side, right where your thumb can get at them.
Those are the only physical buttons on the phone. They're metal and raised and therefore easy to press, but do feel a little bit loose in their sockets. Shake the phone and you can faintly hear them rattle; this is something I encountered with the last Motorola phones I reviewed, the Droid Razr M and Droid Razr HD, a slight oddity that detracts from the otherwise excellent feel of the phone. It's no matter though, since the buttons protrude nicely and are very easy to find and press.
The Moto X has a sealed design, with no microSD expansion. That's a bit of a bummer, but easier to stomach now that the Moto X's price is so low. The on-contract 32GB model is $100 on AT&T and Verizon, $150 on Sprint - T-Mobile customers have to go with the $379 unlocked model. The $50/$329 16GB model will get full fast if you load up on music and apps, so we recommend splurging for bigger storage.
While the lack of removable storage is disappointing, at least its given the Moto X a pleasing unibody design. Despite a seam running along the side of the phone, it feels like one solid piece of high quality plastic.
The phone's screen is a 4.7-inch AMOLED display, with a resolution of 720 x 1280 aka 720p and a pixel density of 312 ppi. As we mentioned, that's a peg below the full HD 1080p resolution of the leading Android devices like the HTC One and Galaxy S4.
Compared side-by-side to the HTC One's 1080p display of the same size, the Moto X is noticeably less sharp. It really does take that sort of comparison to notice the difference though. While the One's mind boggling pixel density renders crisper text, and slightly nicer HD video, the Moto X's display is still far from fuzzy.
Colors are strong, a bit saturated, but never dull. The auto brightness regulates the display well in indoor light and in a dark room. It's no better at avoiding sunlight washout than an iPhone 5 or Galaxy S4.
As we mentioned, the Moto X can be customized to a ridiculous degree. When you buy it online through the Moto Maker, you can choose colors for the front and back as well as highlights like the ring around the lens and the buttons. There's also an option to add a signature, like the engraving offered by Apple on the iPhone.
Your phone will still be subject to a carrier's logo, so expect AT&T's globe and Verizon's red check to blemish the rear of your device.
When I first reviewed the Moto X, I recommended that non-AT&T customers hold off until they could design a Moto X of their own with the Moto Maker. Now that waiting period is finally over and customers from every carrier can customize a phone to their heart's content, and those fancy wood backings, which were teased at launch but not actually available, are finally here, for an extra $25.
Even if a lot of the options come out as rather garish, it's great to see a device accommodating people's desire for color and customization. Many customers pony up an extra twenty bucks for a third-party case to make their phone distinct as well as protect it. Motorola has really cut out the middleman here, allowing people to deck out their device without the extra bulk cases often add.


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This blog contains good motivational and inspirational stories. Take a moment to browse around, grab your favorite beverage and bask in the warmth of these beautiful stories. Take away a lesson, some inspiration and let yourself believe that you have the full right to go after your heart's desires and dreams!
Motivational Stories:
01: The important things in life
02: Live and work
03: Give time to our family
04: The last cab ride
05: The little boy
06: Hospital window
07: The story of a blind girl
08: A glass of milk – paid in full!
09: Don't hope, decide!
10: Keep your dream
11: My mom only had one eye (mother's sacrifice)
12: Face difficulties positively
13: Determination and persistence
14: What goes around comes around
15: Temper control
16: The cookie thief
17: A gift of love
18: Helpless love
19: Positive thinking
20: The story of a woodcutter
21: A bowl of noodles from a stranger
22: Marriage – very touching!
23: Let go of your Stresses!
24: I have learned…
25: The weight of the glass
Inspirational Stories:
01: Learn from mistakes
02: The fat lady
03: Success depends upon maturity!
04: The lost wallet, great love story!
05: You are unique!
06: The elephant rope
07: The greatest gift is Love
08: The pretty one, very inspiring
09: To let go
10: Believe in yourself
11: Never quits
12: Juggle balls
13: The smell of rain
14: Don't be afraid
15: Learn and earn
16: How the poor live
17: The mouse trap
18: A box of kisses
19: Mom's last laugh
20: Be content about your life
21: Words of encouragement
22: Funny short stories
23: Enjoy your life at every moment
24: Love in action
25: A simple gesture
26: The doll and white rose
27: Mother Teresa quotes
28: Benefits of struggling
29: Value and invest in yourself
30: Life
31: A smile
32: In honor of women!
True Stories:
01: True story: real winners don't give up!
02: True story: the power of determination
03: True story: the loser who never gave up
04: True story: the miracle of love
05: True story: the miracle of $1.11
06: True story: Christmas miracle
Military Stories:
01: Military story: true friend
02: Military story: a beautiful true love story
03: Military story: the marine's father
04: Military's love… in sickness!
Please continue on to the archive page for a full list of all of the stories available on the blog. Take care!

subset: commoncrawl


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Avila's El Ranchito 2800 Newport Blvd Newport Beach, CA 92663 (949) 675-6855 Listing on Yahoo! Local Listing on Ask.com's Citysearch Official Site |
Taco Tuesday Photo Shoot
On this leap year day I present some photos from when I met up recently with some co-workers at Avila's El Ranchito (for some reason a lot of people think it's called "Avila's Mi Ranchito" or "Avila's el Ranchero") in Newport Beach for Taco Tuesday.
Admission is $5 which gets you unlimited food from the Taco Tuesday-only Taco Bar and good deals on drinks. I think my soda was $3 and it came with free refills. The taco bar has tacos with three different kinds of meat, chips and salsa, burritos, taquitos and quesadillas. The servers even get into the theme with special Taco Tuesday t-shirts.
When you make your trip to the Taco Bar the server there scoops your choice of meat into a corn tortilla (probably Mission brand) and from there you can top it off with fillings such as lettuce, tomato, cilantro, onion, shredded cheese and avocado sauce. I had one chicken taco and one carnitas taco. Since you get to make the taco yourself it'd be hard to complain if it wasn't to your liking. The meats were all tender and moist and spiced just enough for the predominantly gringo crowd. The burritos, taquitos, and quesadilla wedges are pre-made and they seem to move enough so that anything you grab will generally be pretty fresh. Definitely a good deal for five bucks (tax included) but I'd even pay $6 or $7 if they'd start using handmade tortillas.
It's not really part of Taco Tuesday but I ordered the strawberry churros that I'd seen on the menu at another location. These come with lots of whipped cream (couldn't eat hardly any of it) and there's hardly any (if any) crumbly cinnamon/sugar mixture. The neat freak streak in me actually kind of liked that and they were certainly sweet enough with the strawberry filling.
My rating is just based on the Taco Tuesday aspect of this Avila's location and taking into account that this is quite possibly the first Taco Tuesday I've officially taken part in since beginning the blog, so, without further adieu, I grant the Taco Tuesday at Avila's El Ranchito in Newport Beach a five Speedy Gonzales rating:
Here's some more pictures:
Click here to see the whole photo album at flickr.


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Quartersawn Oak
Kindling Relic
Product photography and illustrations have been reproduced as accurately as print and web technologies permit. To ensure highest satisfaction, we suggest you view an actual sample from your dealer for best color, wood grain and finish representation.
Door Shape: Square
Material: Quartersawn Oak
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - United States congressional leader Eric Cantor took to the airwaves on Sunday to try to rebuild his political reputation after a stunning primary election loss that has shaken the Republican Party, and refused to rule out a future run for public office.
The House of Representatives majority leader, who since 2011 has held the No. 2 job in the 435-member chamber, will step down on July 31 after losing his bid to be his party's candidate for an eighth two-year term as a congressman from Virginia.
Mr Cantor will also be forced to leave Congress at the end of this year, which would seem to end his dream of eventually becoming speaker of the House.
But on two Sunday television talk shows, Mr Cantor left open the door to rekindling his political career sometime in the future and defended his work as majority leader. "I want to take what I've been doing here... and be able to really look towards the future so I can really continue to promote and be a champion for the conservative cause," Mr Cantor said in an interview on ABC's This Week. "I do want to play a role in the public debate," he said.
Asked in an interview on CNN's State Of The Union whether he might run for governor of Virginia some day, Mr Cantor responded: "I'm not ready to close out any options right now."
Virginia, long a conservative stronghold, has been evolving into a swing state as more and more Democrats move into heavily populated northern regions near Washington, D.C.
Mr Cantor was toppled in Tuesday's Virginia primary by college economics professor David Brat, who had the support of small-government Tea Party activists.
The outcome came as a shock to Mr Cantor and political observers and marked the first time that a House majority leader has lost a primary election. The majority leader's job is to develop his party's legislative initiatives for passage by the House and act as a bridge between various political factions of the majority party.
Mr Cantor's loss kicked off a scramble for Republican leadership positions in the House. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, who now holds the No. 3 majority whip job, is expected to win Mr Cantor's position in a vote of House Republicans set for Thursday.
Mr Cantor's defeat also highlighted deep divisions within the party, especially over immigration policy and how deeply government spending should be cut.
Mr Cantor angered many conservatives by backing a softer policy toward foreign-born children brought into the United States illegally by their parents.
On Sunday, Mr Cantor skated over that conflict, telling CNN, "I have always said that I was for the kids who due to no fault of their own find themselves here and know no other place as home."
Some leading House Republicans downplayed the idea that Mr Cantor's loss was bad news for their party, arguing instead that it was a harbinger of problems for the opposition Democrats. "What you have is conservatives at the grassroots level who are fired up like they were in 2010 and it's going to play out in the fall and it's not going to be good for the Democrats," said Representative Greg Walden of Oregon during an interview on"Fox News Sunday."


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copyright the Chronicle, July 15, 2012
The Body in the Butter Churn: a Green Mountain Whodunit, by Elaine Magalis, self-published, softcover, 280 pages, $11.95, available online at www.createspace.com/3715414 or www.amazon.com
Reviewed by Bethany M. Dunbar
Anyone looking for a summer mystery to read should take a look at Elaine Magalis' new book, The Body in the Butter Churn: a Green Mountain Whodunit.
As you might discern from the title, the opening scene is pretty grim when a group of people find an old lady's very recently murdered remains crammed into a butter churn. The butter churn is in a museum patterned after the Old Stone House Museum in Brownington, where Ms. Magalis used to work. In fact the book is dedicated to "The Old Stone House and all who have loved her."
No murder ever took place there so far as I know; in fact, not even a crime of any note. Nevertheless, the kids I worked with knew the place was not quite right: they caught sight of ghosts walking in the hallway; they knew the past was more alive there than the present.
These days the present is more alive than it probably was then — still there is no doubt the old building has an aura of mystery about it. Who knows what might have happened there over all the years?
Ms. Magalis created two memorable characters in The Body in the Butter Churn. They are 12-year-old Alex Churchill and Tasha Mulholland, an older woman, who pair up to solve the crime. Alex is a bit of a nerd who helps with odd jobs at the museum, and Tasha Mulholland is the elderly caretaker who plays the cello to relax and teaches Alex a vocabulary word each day.
Mrs. Mulholland's son is a police officer. He doesn't recruit the duo to help on purpose, but they start to think about the circumstances and the people involved, get curious about certain aspects of the situation, and before you know it they are a team of amateur detectives, flying under the radar which turns out to be a good place to be to find out certain details. It's the old Columbo phenomenon. The television detective's signature style was a ruffled up raincoat and shabby haircut, which belied a brilliant mind who shuffled his way into solving case after case, accompanied by a pet cockatoo. Most murderers would not suspect an elderly lady and boy on a bicycle of being a threat — and therein lays the pair's chief strength.
Although this is her first murder mystery, Ms. Magalis is not a new writer. In 1973 she wrote a book called Conduct Becoming to a Woman: Bolted Doors and Burgeoning Missions, published by the United Methodist Church — a history of women in missions in that church. That book was republished in 2003. She is the author of a blog about art and writing at an older age called Late Fruit, which people can read at latefruit.wordpress.com.
Her self-published book is graced with cover art by local artist Lila Winstead, and professionally edited and proofread by some of her friends including the Chronicle's own Jeannine Young.
Ms. Magalis' writing is vivid but clean, simple and satisfying. Here is her description of the daughter of the murder victim:
Ms. Mulholland knocked and Mrs. Hamilton's daughter swung the door open and stared down at Alex. Dressed in a not-quite-shocking purple kimono, with red hair to her waist and a big chin like Jay Leno, she reminded him of the redheaded witch in a book about English werewolves he'd found in the library. She didn't look like Mrs. Hamilton at all. Just as well.
Later, in a conversation about the eBay bids for what turns out to be a painting with some critical clues to the crime, one of the characters mentions that the bids have gone quite high. The man turns to his wife and asks for her confirmation:
"Aren't they, my dear?"
"They are high," Abigail managed to say, her thin frame wavering like a shallow planting by the car.
Ms. Magalis' debut mystery — in what is going to become a series — is well worth picking up. A good opportunity for it is coming up — she will do a reading at the Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick on Thursday, July 19 at 6 p.m.
contact Bethany M. Dunbar at [email protected]
For more book reviews, visit the Reviews page.


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Sizzurp-addicted rappers are going to have to find a new drug of choice because one of their favorites has been taken off the market for purchase.
Due to it's growing reputation as a popular drug whose abuse is commonplace, the maker of the product, Actavis, removed the cough syrup from the market. A representative for the company released a statement explaining the voluntary discontinuing of the illegally used medicine.
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"Given [recent media attention], Actavis has made the bold and unprecedented decision to cease all production and sales of its Promethazine Codeine product. This attention has glamorized the unlawful and dangerous use of the product, which is contrary to its approved indication," the rep said.
When the cough syrup was in production, the street value of a pint hovered around eight hundred dollars. Now that the product has stopped being made, sources are saying rappers are offering their dealers astronomical amounts of money to get as much cough syrup as they can before the street supply really dries up.
Like TheUrbanDaily.com on Facebook to stay updated with the latest entertainment news and original interviews!
Troubled rapper Souljah Boy needs not worry about his supply of cough syrup running out any time soon. The twenty-something rapper posted a photo on his Instagram page on Monday that showed he was in possession of six bottles of cough syrup. The caption to the photo read, "Soulja got the juice. They say the streets dry. I say you gotta be kiddin me. I serve everybody."
Upon hearing the recent news about codeine, we're sure Lil Wayne reacted like this:
Brian Williams Kicks Gangsta Flow For "Gin And Juice" Cover [VIDEO]
What Mos Def's Mom Taught Phonte About Hip-Hop [VIDEO]
Love & Hip Hop Atlanta Cast Members Speak On MiMi and Nikko's Film

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The market value of your property is one factor in setting the amount of tax you pay. However, the assessor does not determine tax amounts. The amount of taxes is determined by the budgets of the taxing districts in which your property is located. There are many kinds of taxing districts in Idaho. Some, like cities and counties, provide a wide range of services. Other districts levy taxes for specific purposes like highways, schools, or fire protection.Each taxing district is administered by officials who determine how much money the district needs to provide services. After a district's budget is set, the budget is divided by the total taxable value of all property within the taxing district to arrive at a tax rate. The tax rate is multiplied by the taxable value of your property, resulting in the amount of taxes you owe.Each property is located within several independent taxing districts. This means your property tax bill includes taxes for all the districts in which your property is located. This combination of taxing districts is known as a "tax code area." Each of these areas is assigned a number that appears on your assessment notice and tax bill. Within each tax code area, the total tax rate is the same for all classes of property.
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All personal property in Idaho is subject to assessment and taxation unless the law specifically exempts it.
The following list includes some of the major categories exempt from taxation:
There are other exemptions are allowed by law. Contact your local county assessor for more information.
The lien date is the date taxes are secured by the property being taxed. Nonpayment of taxes that are secured by property may result in the owner losing the property.The lien date for real property and most personal property is January 1. For personal property brought into Idaho after January 1, the lien date is the first day of the quarter in which the property was brought into Idaho.
All personal property is assessed by the county assessor of the county in which it is located.
If you have taxable personal property, you are required to report it to your county assessor. This is done by using a personal property declaration, a form available from the county assessor. The form has sections for listing personal property by make, manufacturer, serial number, year acquired, and cost.
You must return your personal property declaration to the county assessor by the date indicated on the declaration or, in any case, no later than March 15. A different deadline is given if your personal property is missed or your business starts after January 1.
The county assessor is required to assess property that is not declared. The assessment is estimated based on the best information available. Idaho law provides that county officials must double the assessed value of any personal property they discover was willfully concealed in order to avoid paying tax. The assessment is doubled for each year the property escaped assessment.County officials may sell personal property immediately after taxes become delinquent and pay off the tax lien from the proceeds of the sale.
Personal property is assessed at market value. This value includes shipping and installation costs. Several methods are used to arrive at the value. Depreciation tables, sales information, cost guides and other resources are used in this process.
Market value is the value that property would sell for in the open market. It is the amount of U.S. dollars or equivalent for which a property would probably exchange hands between a willing seller and an informed buyer.
The value of personal property is included on the assessment notice the county assessor must mail to you by the first Monday in June. When you get your notice, look at it carefully to make sure all the information is accurate.If you start a new business after January 1, the assessment notice for your personal property is usually mailed by the middle of November. The assessment notice for transient personal property is also mailed in November.
Contact your county assessor if you disagree with the assessed value. Your assessor maintains a file of information on your personal property. If you have any questions about your assessment, you should review this information with the assessor to ensure its accuracy.If you cannot resolve your disagreement with the assessor, you may appeal to the county board of equalization, which consists of your elected county commissioners. Your appeal must be filed with your county clerk by the fourth Monday in June. If you received your assessment notice in November, your appeal must be filed by the fourth Monday in November.Be prepared to document your reasons for requesting a change in your property's assessed value. You will need to prove that the assessor's value is not the current market value of the personal property.
You should usually receive your tax bill by the end of November. Contact your County Treasurer if you have questions about your tax bill.For December assessments, you should receive the bill in January of the following year.
Taxes are delinquent if not paid by the due date. Delinquent taxes accrue interest and penalty, which are also a lien against your property. At this point the county sheriff can seize and sell your property.
If you sell or close a business, you should notify the county assessor in writing as soon as possible. The assessor will explain how your assessment will be handled.


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If not a match made in heaven, Lawson Software and its CFO, Rob Schriesheim, are at least a solid fit. To keep its footing in a market dominated by two much larger competitors, the company must have a very strategic orientation. And the finance chief, far from an accounting geek, has spent most of his career at the high end of the strategy spectrum, embroiled in complex restructurings and the analysis of capital-allocation options.
That harmony notwithstanding, taking the CFO chair was not part of the plan when Schriesheim joined the company's board in 2006. Lawson — the third-largest publicly traded vendor of enterprise resource planning systems behind Oracle and SAP, according to Schriesheim — had recently merged with Intentia, a Swedish ERP supplier. The company's board and CEO decided that the newly constituted company needed a different type of CFO than the incumbent, and Schriesheim was charged with finding the replacement.
Before long, though, several board members urged him to take the role himself. They were motivated by observing the strong relationship Schriesheim had quickly developed with the CEO and the two executives' complementary skills. "It wasn't in my business plan at the time, but I did think it was an exciting situation," Schriesheim said during an interview with CFO editors in New York City on November 5. "It was a chance to fundamentally transform the company and a substantial intellectual challenge. There were a lot of strategic and operational issues where I felt I could add value."
Not the least of the challenges was helping to engineer a shift in the Lawson culture to heighten the focus on profit growth. That involved seismic cost-cutting and, on the product side, paying more attention to evolving customer needs rather than "falling in love with" the company's existing technology.
An edited version of the interview follows.
So what's it like competing with Oracle and SAP?
Everyone asks that! They're formidable competitors. We tend to be very selective in the verticals in which we compete. Most software companies go to market in a vertical way, so it's not like that is unique. But we have become very disciplined about how we allocate our financial and human capital among our six key areas. We try to compete on our ground — in verticals in which we have leading positions.
We're the third-largest publicly traded ERP company in the world, but on the other hand we're not that big. We're $760 million in revenue, 4,500 customers, and 3,500 employees. So we have to be very judicious about how we invest, and that's been the whole theme behind how we've transformed the company over the past three years. We've gone from a 3% operating margin to 15%, and from a nickel in earnings per share to 35 cents in EPS. We've actually grown on a constant currency basis in a recessionary environment by being very focused.
"When I look at businesses, I like to develop an analytical framework that allows me to understand how we should optimally allocate capital."
— Robert Schriesheim, Lawson Software
By "focused," you mean focused on your specific niches?
I wouldn't call them niches, but yes. Here's the interesting thing: two years ago, we derived about 35%–40% of our revenues from five vertical markets — health care, public sector, fashion, food and beverage, and equipment-service management and rental — and one horizontal market, strategic human-capital management. Now it's 65% from those areas. That's important, because the way we've allocated our capital is in markets where we know we can win.
And we've gotten very vertical within those verticals. It's very different selling an ERP system to a hospital than to a fashion manufacturer, but it's also different selling to a jeans manufacturer rather than a sports-footwear manufacturer. An ERP application is a relatively large, complex sale, and you have a lot more credibility if you really understand the issues the customer deals with. We've developed a great deal of intellectual capital in those particular verticals.
How did you arrive at them?
The merger with Intentia created a company of global scale and critical mass. But we found that we were spread too thin. We didn't have a sufficient focus in a targeted number of verticals. So we made an assessment of which verticals we were the strongest in and which had the highest growth prospects over the next three to five years.
One of the areas, equipment-service management and rental, was completely new for us. The customers are large distributors of heavy equipment, like Caterpillar dealerships. Now we have 8 of the 10 largest Caterpillar dealerships in the world as customers. It then becomes much easier to sell to other Caterpillar dealers, as well as Komatsu dealers.
Each one of these environments does business a little bit differently, and that dictates a certain degree of customization in the application. I'm not saying that Oracle and SAP don't do that. Where Lawson does well in competing against them is with companies between $250 million and $3 billion in revenue. About 75% of our customers are in that range, and our software tends to be architected in a fashion that's more suitable for that size customer because it requires less in the way of internal resources to do the implementation.
You also have a consulting business, but it has been significantly downsized. Why?
We made a strategic decision to move more of the services business to our third-party partners, like IBM and Deloitte. Expanding the third-party network allows us to supplement resources and meet customer demands. In our revenue mix, over the past three years our maintenance revenue has gone from 39% to 46%, and our services revenue has done exactly the opposite, from 46% to 39%. And in the same time period, our gross margin has gone from 51% to 59%, and our operating margin from 3% to 15%.
Historically we differentiated ourselves by doing the great majority of our own implementations. You maintain quality control better that way and it's a closer relationship with the customer. But we also wanted to push more of our consulting work to third-party providers. We'll continue to do most of the implementations ourselves, but there's other ad hoc consulting-services work that we want our third-party network to provide.
Your costs have been falling sharply for quite a while. The downsizing of the services business is part of that?
Yes. Over the past three years, we've taken about $100 million of cost out of the business. We standardized a lot of processes and took a lot of complexity out, particularly in Europe. We introduced shared-services centers. We moved about 25% of our worldwide workforce offshore to Manila. We viewed that more as a strategic source of capacity than a cost-cutting tool, but it has that impact because a person in Manila is about one-fifth the cost of a person in Europe or the U.S.
What do you mean by "a strategic source of capacity"?
We spend about $80 million a year on research and development. While we've taken out the $100 million in costs, we have not diminished the spend committed to R&D. It has held roughly constant, between $82 million and $85 million a year. It still represents about 11% of our revenues, yet head count has grown by one-and-a-half times since 2007 and is now 20% of our worldwide head count. The reason is because half of that head count is Manila. So we've been able to increase our capacity and as a result roll out new products and service offerings, but at lower cost.
How did the economic downturn affect you?
We used to have about half of our business outside of the United States. Now it's about 40%, because Europe has been hit very hard by the recession and is lagging the United States in recovery. We had a $96 million revenue decline in fiscal 2009, and $94 million of it was outside the United States. Of that $94 million, $45 million was due to foreign-currency exchange rates. Of the remainder, about $50 million, the great majority was due to the purposeful resizing of the services business.
But we're actually generating the highest operating margins in the history of the company. In fiscal year 2007, we did $760 million in revenue and $56 million in operating profit. In 2008 our revenue was $854 million, but in 2009 it was back down to $760 million — and yet operating profit was $91 million. [Lawson's fiscal year ends May 31.]
Where do you see sustainable revenue growth occurring?
We see sustainable levels of growth in health care, where we've got 60% market share in the United States. A lot of the debate in health care is focused on making it more affordable. The reason large health-care organizations buy ERP systems is to take costs out of the supply chains.
There are also significant growth opportunities in the relatively new vertical that I described, equipment-service management and rental. The public sector has continued to grow this past year, and I'm not sure why. The other area that we view as having [the potential for] higher-than-average growth is human-capital management, where we've got customers like Wal-Mart and McDonald's.
As an employer, how do you see the health-care debate looking from a cost perspective?
Our health-care costs represent about 8% of our total employee costs. Like any other employer, we're concerned about the continuing escalation of the costs. And you wonder, although it's nowhere near this point yet, whether if we don't do something about changing the health-care system it could crowd out investment in other areas.
How does the market you're in, the ERP software market, shape what you do as a CFO every day?
As in any technology business, you are constantly focused on how changing technology alters the way people use your products and thus the way you need to allocate your capital. Because the pace of change is so rapid, you have to be very careful about continuing to appropriately invest and reinvest in your product.
Can you give an example of a capital allocation change that you made in response to changing customer behavior?
People don't fall in love with technology for the sake of technology anymore. They want technology that is easy to implement and use. Now, to say that any ERP system is easy is an oversimplification, but we have invested heavily in making our technology architecture flexible. For example, we rolled a new product called QuickStep that shortens the implementation time. That required investment in people and programming.
How has your career background shaped your views of the CFO's role?
I spent 20 years in technology, mostly in software, telecommunications, and semiconductors. I spent a lot of my career working with large institutional investors at private-equity firms in highly stressed environments where we took companies through [prepackaged bankruptcies] and restructured their balance sheets. There were complicated Rubik's Cube–type restructurings that involved a lot of constituencies.
I also have sat on a fair number of publicly traded technology boards. One of them, Dobson Communications, we sold to AT&T for $5 billion. It was a 19-to-1 return on equity.
So as I moved to a prior CFO role in a billion-dollar publicly traded company that went through a complex restructuring, GlobalTel Systems, I brought the lens of an investor and a director as much as that of an operator. When I look at businesses, I like to develop an analytical framework that allows me to understand how we should optimally allocate capital. You have to be able to understand the business strategically to understand where you're going to generate the highest investment returns.
I'll also tell you that Intentia was a really distressed business. It was a highly decentralized operation that had grown by acquisition. When they put the two companies together and I walked in the door as CFO, I found out we had a material weakness. We had to spend two years remediating that. That included cash management, offshoring, shared-services centers, and a more efficient tax structure, as well as taking a much more strategic approach to the business.
How did it come about that you took the job?
The merger agreement stipulated a reconstituted board that included two independent directors who didn't have any prior affiliation with either Intentia or Lawson. I was Lawson's pick. Harry Debes, who had been brought in as CEO concurrently with the announcement of the merger, decided with the board that we needed to bring in a different type of CFO. I was asked to lead the search committee.
At the time, I was sitting on three public boards and was a partner at a venture firm. Several board members called me up and asked if I would consider being the CFO, because I had developed a very good relationship with Harry. We worked together very well, and we had complementary skill sets. His background is in sales and marketing, rising up in the ERP industry itself. My background is in strategy, deal making, capital markets, and public enterprises.
So now you're the CFO of a company that's selling products to chief information officers, but also CFOs. Do the product-development people run things by you?
Not usually, no. They've been at the business a long time. We've got user groups. But we tend to use an expression, "we eat our own dog food." One of the issues we had after the merger, which is not uncommon, is that we didn't have a common financial system throughout the company. That's one of the reasons we had an inherent weakness that we had to remediate. So over the past year and a half we implemented the latest version of Lawson's ERP products companywide — the HR system as well as the financial system.
So you're a living test.
Yes. Believe me, we gave them a lot of feedback when we were going through the implementation because we were living through what our customers live through. ERP implementations are not a panacea. You don't implement it and voilà, you can just press a button to get more timely and more accurate access to insightful information. It often requires organizations to change their behavior in addition to implementing new software. And we had to do a lot of that internally at Lawson.
How so?
The biggest challenge we faced was to continue the company on the path we had chosen. Three-and-a-half years ago, Lawson had 3% operating margins and hadn't introduced a new product in a few years. There was a holistic set of issues that had to be addressed — strategic, product, cost structure, culture. It's always the most difficult thing for a CFO, or a CEO or division head, to get the entire organization on the same page and aligned towards the same goal. Sometimes you have really good people who for whatever reason don't buy in, and you have to part ways with them.
Cultural change is hard. We had to get the organization to buy into the notion that we are a customer-centric company that can make money. That it is possible to be customer-centric but still have a good economic profile. And that's the way we ought to run.
So before that the customers led the company around by the nose?
I wouldn't say that. I think a lot of technology companies fall in love with their products and don't pay enough attention to what the customers are saying they want and need. I think that we are now much more focused on that. It's the first thing we do. And then we think about how we are going to provide that in a way that is profitable. At the end of the day, we're very focused on profitable growth. Those are the two most important words we live by now. The only way we can do that is by focusing on the needs of our customers.
What would be your biggest nightmare as CFO?
Well, I've been through liquidity crises and taken companies through bankruptcy — I did that for a living. But the biggest nightmare for me would be a fraud issue. Anything can be remediated, and I'm someone who welcomes any surprise. Tell me everything that's wrong. I just want to know about it. The sooner I know about it the sooner we can figure out how to fix it. But for someone to come and tell me that we've got a fraud issue, that would be the thing I would dread the most.
Why, exactly?
Because a fraud issue indicates something is wrong with the institution itself. Integrity in the CFO position, and the CFO organization, is extremely important. Investors have to feel that you've got a lot of credibility. It's nice if you're really smart and hard working, but integrity is the most critical attribute.
You know, you're in business to manage challenges. There's always going to be situations where you've misjudged, you've made mistakes, you've got to downsize. I certainly don't look forward to having another credit crisis or liquidity crisis. But you can manage your way through that, so it's not the thing I dread the most.