A Software Insider's Point of View

PEOPLE WHISPERS: MOVES, PROMOTIONS, AND MILESTONES*
As always, thanks for your emails and alerts. If you’ve got a change or know of a promotion, keep dropping me a line! If you need a referral, and we’ve worked together in the past, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via Linked In.
Paul Alessi is now a Buyer [...]

IBM Adds A Leading Customer Data Integration/MDM Pioneer To Its Master Information Management Arsenal

With arguably 10 master information management acquisitions since 2003, IBM continues to push towards its goal of adaptive master data management (MDM) (see Figure 1).  The recent acquisition of Initiate Systems comes after the heals of Oracle’s purchase of SilverCreek Systems in [...]

Informatica Enters The Battle For Master Data Management Dominance

As with any best of breed market, only a few will survive and even fewer will succeed.  Despite a leading offering, Siperian’s faced a rocky financial situation over the past 12 months.  Many suitors pursued Siperian but in the end Informatica’s $130M acquisition of Siperian took one [...]

PEOPLE WHISPERS: MOVES, PROMOTIONS, AND MILESTONES*
As always, thanks for your emails and alerts. If you’ve got a change or know of a promotion, keep dropping me a line! If you need a referral, and we’ve worked together in the past, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via Linked In.
Roger Bottum became VP of Marketing [...]

(Photos by R Wang & Insider Associates, LLC.   Copyright © 2009 All rights reserved.)
Re-innovation Now At The Heart Of SAP’s Focus And Strategy
SAP has faced a rough two years.  From the continuing market pressure on new license revenue, false-start launch of Business By Design (ByD), management restructuring, and issues with [...]

Competition Intensifies For The Small And Medium Organization’s Software Budget

Software vendors such as Oracle and SAP can no longer rely on their large enterprise customers for double digit year-over-year growth.  In fact, their customers have not only reached a saturation point in being able to consume new solutions, but have also faced demands to cut [...]

Microsoft Dynamics Demonstrates Continued Industry Solution Investment

Today’s announcement focuses on the Microsoft Dynamics AX product line.  Key facts include:

IP acquisition only. Microsoft acquires the intellectual property (IP) for three four industry solutions.  These solutions build on the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform.  Microsoft has not acquired the companies or personnel.   Fullscope, Inc.; Computer Generated Solutions, Inc.; [...]

On-premise vendors still see SaaS as a loss leader due to huge ramp up and punishing revenue recognition rules

When it comes to the topic of SaaS, many on-premise vendors appear to be living in denial, hoping that SaaS fails, and/or creating confusion in the market place.  These tactics have merit as a shift to SaaS [...]

Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g launch starts countdown to 100 days of innovation until Oracle Open World
In short, Oracle is putting forth a suite of middleware solutions that not only enable developers and software publishers to build their future solutions, but also deliver the middleware tools that will serve as the foundation for its go forward [...]

CORPORATE WHISPERS AND MONTHLY MARKET TRENDS*
Starting this month, we’ll be splitting the trends in Corporate Whispers from the People Whispers series.  Catch the latest monthly random thoughts, trend points, and corporate trends.  Hearing from twitterati, software execs, and industry experts about:
User trends

Recent win by SUSEN Software over SAP enhances validity of the used software [...]

A new secondary market for used software has emerged
Some time back in December 2006, we wondered why enterprises could not resell unused and used software and transfer related services to a willing buyer under a perpetual license.  Enterprises could resell hardware, telecom equipment, and other services contracts.  So why couldn’t a licensee retain the [...]

Blogosphere highlights broken software vendor business models
What a crazy few days in the blogosphere!  Economic pressures force clients to become more attuned to the business models of software vendors.  Vendors have amped up sales tactics as they face earnings pressures.  Fellow colleagues in the analyst/blogger/media world have responded in full force to the observations we [...]

(Photo: Convergence banner in the New Orleans Convention Center.  Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved)

Over 7000 customers, partners, Microsoft staff, and paparazzi made the pilgrimage to New Orleans to hear the latest and greatest from the Microsoft Dynamics team.  The great band, surface computing demo, and festivities in New Orleans wiped out most [...]

Title: Vendor Event: 2009 Worldwide Partner Conference
Location: New Orleans Convention Center, New Orleans, LA
Link out: Click here
Description: Join us in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the 2009 conference, July 13–16, to celebrate the year’s accomplishments and map a path to continued success for the future.
About New Orleans
New Orleans, one of the most vibrant cities in [...]

Now’s The Time To Assert Your Rights
With the market now in favor of the enterprise software licensee, its now time to update the Enterprise Software Licensee’s Bill of Rights to include newer topics such as virtualization, SaaS and subscription pricing, newer usage based pricing models, open source, and vendor lock-in avoidance.  As mentioned in a [...]

Usability and User Experience Matter in Enterprise 2.0 Apps
Welcome to the first in a series of Friday’s Features showcasing the latest and greatest in enterprise apps usability.   Many ERP software vendors including Epicor, IFS, Infor, Lawson, Microsoft Dynamics, and Syspro have made significant progress in improving usability as they progress to Enterprise 2.0 apps.  [...]

Thursday, February 19, 2009, 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Eastern time (18:00-19:00 UK time)
Presented By:
R “Ray” Wang
Vice President, Principal Analyst
Forrester Research, Inc.

Cost:  Please check the registration page
Who should attend: Business Process & Applications professionals, CIO’s, Application Delivery and Program Management Professionals.
Description:
Declining sales, shrinking operating margins, and labor force reductions, drive Business Process & Applications professionals to [...]

Title: Vendor Event: Microsoft Convergence 2009
Location: New Orleans Convention Center, New Orleans, LA
Link out: Click here
Description: Convergence is the premier Microsoft Dynamics event, bringing customers, partners, team members and industry experts together in an environment created for you to discuss solutions, address business needs and establish a true community that can be leveraged throughout the [...]

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 [...]

Software Ownership Remains Unusual, Onerous, and Restrictive
Software licenses are truly unique.  Licensee’s can not resell, reuse, or share their licenses with others. For example, enterprises easily reuse, resell, or share tangible assets such as hardware, telecom equipment, and storage. From both a replacement and life-cycle perspective, leases for assets such as telecom equipment incorporate a [...]

After more than 350 conservations with customers about the maintenance and support issue in the past 4 months, it’s becoming quite clear what users expect from their software vendors.  While those issues can be broken into tens of categories, three themes have emerged that include:

Choice. Customers want to choose between tiered plans.  The best plans [...]

Emerging SaaS platform wars akin to on-premise middleware wars
With consolidation in the middleware market fairly under way, adoption of SaaS platforms (i.e. PaaS) by solution partners represents the next land grab in the enterprise software space. Current key players include industry leaders and specialists such as Salesforce.com, NetSuite, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Magic [...]

(Copyrighted 2008. Photo by R Wang. All rights reserved)

New Management Shows Long Term Commitment to Business Solutions Group

Recent Microsoft Business Solutions departures have brought into question whether the Redmond , WA giant is serious about the business applications market. Estimates of year over year growth from 2006 to 2007 have fallen from [...]

I guess I won’t be selling my Microsoft stock this year. I was having some doubts, but then today I stumbled across this article on Microsoft Surface on the Popular Mechanics website.
Finally, a computer that my pre-kindergarten kids can use to print their own digital photos, instead of asking me!
Microsoft Surface computers will be available [...]

Walking out of the SalesForce.com Event on Tuesday the 10th had me thinking about the promise of Web 2.0 for the enterprise via middleware, SaaS platforms, and this notion of Applistructure. The thing that really struck home was not the utility computing model that Marc rants and raves about, nor the great drag [...]