A Software Insiders Point of View

Blogging Platforms Provide A Good Showcase For The Power And Benefits Of Open Source
Over the past 3 years, I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of experimenting with a variety of blogging platforms.  For my day job, I use TypePad and at night I build this blog with WordPress.  (Prior to that, I used Blogger.)  Without [...]

With a few days left in the year, it’s hard to believe that 2008 is almost over.  Just like our paltry .401K’s and lowered gas prices, it’s like we reverted to the Dot Com bust.  Extreme contrasts in positions and tremendous change made 2008 both exciting, suspenseful, and frankly sobering like 2002.  In fact, it [...]

FORWARD AND COMMENTARY
In the second update to the industry’s only business process-focused assessment of its kind, we evaluated eight leading order management hubs in a 152-criteria evaluation. The Forrester Wave provided head to head comparison of which order management hub solution would best support the 20 steps in a perfect order.  Importantly, the end [...]

Exclusive Webinar Invitation

Guest Speaker :
R “Ray” Wang, Forrester Research, Vice President & Principal Analyst
Project-based solutions (PBS) adoption continues to be driven by specific microverticals in professional services, construction, real estate, and the public sector. A worsening economic climate ups the ante [...]

Sponsored by Fujitsu Consulting
December 9, 2008

2:00 - 3:00 pm ET / 11:00 am - 12:00 pm PT
Featuring:
R “Ray” Wang, VP and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
Joel Hoffman, SVP of CRM and Online Delivery, Citigroup MyFi
Join us to learn:

How SaaS and cloud computing is impacting the enterprise
How to successfully integrate SaaS solutions into your business
SaaS in Action [...]

Current Model Lopsided Towards the Large ISV’s
Rapid enterprise apps vendor consolidation over the past 5 years leave end user enterprises with fewer vendor choices and less competition.  The impact to services firms is a continued and increased dependency on the fortune and “good will” of the software vendor by IT Services firms.  However, ISV’s [...]

(Photo: The “new” modern and spacious Bengaluru (BLR) airport.  Copyright © 2008 R Wang. All rights reserved.)

New airport symbolic of Bengaluru’s on-going transformation.

Arrival into Bangalore was quite a treat with mild 75 degree (25C) weather, less humidity, and a spanking new airport built by Zurich Airport, Siemens and India’s renown Larsen & Toubro for a [...]

(Photo: The “average” tree in the middle of a recently constructed Mumbai highway.  Copyright © 2008 R Wang. All rights reserved.)

Terrorist attacks impact business travellers but not locales and battle hardened road warriors

The trip to India was a tough decision to make.  After intense discussions with the family, I left for the airport just as [...]

Consumer Price Index clauses represent additional costs of ownership that should be avoided.  Maintenance typically represents 2 times the cost of the original license fees after 10 years of ownership.  Many customers have these CPI clauses in their contracts.  In the worst cases, customers may have signed CPI + X%.  CPI adjustments provide very [...]

So it’s that time of year for holiday cheer and pundits to tempt fate and pontificate.  Here are some very very draft predictions for 2009 in order of most likely to least likely to pan out:
End user predictions

Heavy discounting continues for new license. Discounts include non-monetary concessions such as training, implementation, integration, and other [...]

Tuesday
2nd December 2008
9:00 am to 11:00 am

Mumbai
Greetings!

As part of NASSCOM Speakers Club, we take pleasure in inviting you to attend the session on “The Emerging IT Services & Software Ecosystem: Seven Strategies For IT Services Firms To Shift The Balance Of Power” and the speaker for the session is Mr. [...]

Forward and Commentary

With my esteemed colleagues John R. Rymer and Paul D. Hamerman, we recently updated our Oracle Versus SAP In Enterprise Applications: Let The Battle Of Architectures Begin! report published in May 31st, 2006.  This new update was released October 31, 2008 and highlights a shift in direction and vendor vision [...]

As competition intensifies for new license deals and users are under pressure to be cautious with new spending, all parties should expect increasing pressure for quality customer references.  Customers seeking references should focus on the following areas of relevance:

Industry - expect to get down to the micro vertical level
Market size - focus on [...]

Seven Recession-Proof Packaged Apps Strategies
Monday, November 17, 2008, 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Eastern time (19:00-20:00 UK time)
Presented By:
Paul D. Hamerman
Vice President, Principal Analyst
Forrester Research, Inc.
R “Ray” Wang
Vice President, Principal Analyst
Forrester Research, Inc.
Register
Who should attend: Application Development & Program Management professionals
Description:
As the global economy enters into a recession, enterprises must not only respond to this change but [...]