The personal contents in this blog do not necessarily reflect the opinions, ideas, thoughts, points of view, and any other potential attribution to any contributor's, commentator's, or author's current, past, or future employers.
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Begin Apps Strategy Projects With Bite-Sized Entry Points
Complexity often plagues today’s apps strategies. With tight budgets, limited resources, and little time, organizations need to find bite-sized entry points. The need to meet ever changing complex business requirements requires a four-step, basic (A,B,C,D) approach:
Align your business requirements with the hierarchy of business needs.Every project and initiative can be placed into one of the five stages. Use the organizational hierarchy of needs to classify and prioritize the importance of each project. With a clear sense of how the priorities stack up, you can begin crafting your apps strategy around organizational readiness, business process optimization, technology strategy, and vendor ecosystems.
Base decisions on the identification of 3 major types of business processes. As organizations begin that process of documenting business processes, they must differentiate among the 3 major types of business processes. In key flows such as order to cash, hire to retire, incident to resolution, procure to pay, etc, remember to categorize key processes into three buckets: mission critical, commoditized, and innovative.
Choose your entry points to business value. It makes no sense to boil the ocean. Clients often start with departmental and work there way to cross-departmental initiatives. Advanced customers focus on external entry points such as customers and partners. Keep in mind processes cross functional fiefdoms but you do have to start somewhere. (see Figure 1.)
Define the metrics that matter. Begin with the end in mind. This Coveyism always rings true in transformational activities. Metrics should be aligned with your entry points. Quantify the baseline and determine the effort. Adjust your ROI targets to align resources with efforts to move the needle. The goal - drive business value. (see Figure 2.)
Figure 1. Choose Your Entry Points To Business Value
The Bottom Line - Sketch The Big Picture, But Paint By Number
With the pace of adoption much slower than the pace of technology innovation, organizations will have to complete small tactical projects that build out the larger picture. Apps strategies should include tactical road maps that achieve strategic goals. Don’t hesitate to plan ahead and build in flexibility. Plans will change, so apps strategies must take an “agile” approach. Iterate every 6 months as business needs change and new disruptive technologies emerge. Keep focused on the goal in mind - business value.
Your POV
Have you planned your 2010 strategy? Which entry points have you prioritized? How are you defining business value? Got a scoop or something to share? Please post or send on to r at softwareinsider dot org or rwang0 at gmail dot com and we’ll keep your anonymity.
DSAG project team and project leader departure could signal disagreement with methodology not SUGEN
SAP embarked on an ambitious program to prove value in its Enterprise Support fee hike last year. As planned, SAP should announce the results for the first set of SUGEN KPI’s in early December. However, two key SUGEN KPI project sponsors (revised 11/30/2009) team members have left from the German SAP user group (DSAG). Confirmed by a spokeswoman to IDG News Service on November 27th, 2009, both project leader Andreas Oczko and project sponsor Otto Schell resigned from their roles on November 18th. Several outcomes may potentially have led to this departure:
The methodology used by the auditing firm (Gartner Consulting) could be quite inconsistent
Teams may not have had enough time to review the data to check for statistical errors.
The KPI’s measured were only the first set, not the complete set.
A few months does not provide enough trending data
SAP’s attempting to announce results prior to when 90%+ of its maintenance renewal occurs in Q4
To be clear, DSAG remains a SUGEN member and has not pulled out of the group or project. The leadership members have just left the project and have been active with the SUGEN group on other projects and issues.
SAP Should Still Be Given Credit For Undertaking A Huge Endeavor
Despite attempting to raise get away with a large (revised 11/30/2009) maintenance fees hike in the middle of one of the worst global recessions, the SUGEN agreement with SAP is a good faith gesture and a step in the right direction. While this is not a legally binding agreement, the deal calls for SAP to limit increases until demonstrable results from the KPI’s have been achieved. This is not an easy challenge but a few props should go out to SAP because:
SAP’s embarking on a risky but unique program to show value
Benchmarking 100 global customers against 10/11 KPI’s creates data consistency challenges
Agreeing to present results in the face of public opinion takes courage
The Bottom Line For Users - Remain Vigilant And Compare SUGEN Results With Your Own
SAP customers should work with their user groups to understand the methodology used and gain access to the underlying data with these 100 customers. Keep in mind SAP’s Value Academy already has benchmarking data for a broader set of customers. The result - selection of the 100 customers by the user groups will significantly impact the outcome. Users should see how their situation fares compared to the benchmarks to gauge their own potential value achieved from SAP’s Enterprise Support
The Bottom Line For Vendors - Provide Customers With Tiered Maintenance Plans
Pressures from SaaS deployments and mid-market competitors will erode the 70 to 80% margins in maintenance fees. Customers will begin to demand third party maintenance options and include such protections in future contracts. Those vendors who keep tiered maintenance based on the life of the product in production will engender the most loyalty by providing customers with the right balance between sustaining maintenance and incentives to upgrade. At the end of the day, customers have to migrate on their own terms. Maintenance fees should reflect the value that customers receive and not be an impediment in the client - vendor relationship.
Your POV.
If you get a chance, let us know:
Which SAP products do you use?
What do you think about the progress on SUGEN KPI’s?
Are you considering alternatives to SAP?
Do you feel SAP is innovating fast, ok, or slow enough?
Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.
Location: Manchester CentralAuditorium
Date:23/11/2009
Start Time: 16:25
End Time: 17:00
Speaker: R “Ray” Wang
Company: Partner with Altimeter Group
Keynote summary:
Pace of change continues to increase in market forces, work dynamics, business models, and pace of technology adoption.
Innovation is essential in this market.
There’s a tonne of innovation at SAP. Management and politics keep it from coming out.
Users need to tap into innovations from SAP and also help SAP prioritize what should go to market.
Users need to know what you want to do before you even talk to SAP. Get your act together.
Use the user group to build the linkages to SAP. This is a better, more productive approach, especially if you are not a top 400 customer with private access.
SAP isn’t bad or good. You can’t view them that way. Management is confused at the moment on leadership, direction, and innovation so figure out what you need from them early and fast.
If SAP can’t do it, you don’t have time to wait for them, especially if there’s no commitment. SaaS is an option, other providers are out there. Come back to them later when they figure it out.
The pace of change is too fast. Technology adoption too slow. Companies need to keep moving in innovation.
Invest in innovation even if it hurts. Find money to optimize and pay for this. There are a number of vendors that can assist.
The SAP user group hosted its annual event. Conversations with 37 clients reflect the following broad trends in the UK and Ireland:
SAP users remain skeptical about benefits promised by SAP due to lack of delivery over the past 5 years (See Figure 1.)
SAP has spent more time reaching out to customers to understand pain points
Knowledge gaps continue to exist between what SAP users know about SAP and what SAP sales people communicate to clients
A show of hands in the audience validates conversations that SAP users have not adopted NetWeaver, Duet, ByD, Solution Manager, and Enterprise Support.
Many customers have budget but need trusted advice as to what is possible in including SAP in their future roadmaps
Customers seek innovation from SAP but find a difficult time understanding what SAP has to offer
Many customers have turned to other providers for innovations via SaaS or cost optimization
Figure 1. What SAP Customers Want
The bottom line.
SAP users and their user groups have a unique opportunity to put in the right infrastructure to engage in productive partnership with SAP. The management team has shifted their outlook. Early signs indicate a more customer focused approach may be on the way. Customers seeking to innovate within their SAP investment should ask hard questions about what is in the SAP Labs portfolio. User groups will play a key role in helping to prioritize future SAP product road map investments. Users and their user groups should push for frameworks that monitor customer reuqests and increase transparency in the prioritization process. Customers can not allow SAP to squander any more of the 10’s of billions in maintenance fee and license fees “invested” with SAP.
Your POV.
If you get a chance, let us know:
Which SAP products do you use?
When will you migrate to BS7 or ECC 6.0?
What do you think about the progress on SUGEN KPI’s
Are you considering alternatives to SAP
Do you feel SAP is innovating fast, ok, or slow enough?
Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.
Purchasing in Q3 reflected both economic downturn and summer doldrums. While on-premise vendors continued massive double digit declines in year-over-year new license revenue, SaaS vendors faced some pressures in keeping up with tremendous growth. However, long term economic outlook still favor SaaS players and early indications on Q4 budget flush indicate that SaaS and Cloud are top of mind. Major themes in the 2009 Calendar Year Q3 include:
On the SaaS front, RightNow continued to lead the pack in maintaining stellar growth with another 40+% gain (44.47%) followed by Salesforce.com (19.55%), and Blackboard (18.44%) (see Figure 1). While SaaS vendors still experienced growth, Concur (12.94%), Ultimate Software (9.76%), and Taleo (8.77%), NetSuite (3.22%) experienced drops in rate of growth. Taleo and NetSuite faced the biggest drops in Q3.
The Bottom Line For Users - Expect Continued Discounts in Q4
A poor Q3 will bring good news to buyers in Q4 as vendors will continue to heavily discount licenses and professional services while delivering more value to retain maintenance margins. Conversations with 41 CIO’s indicate that a Q4 budget flush is in the works. The conditions favor end users as poor economic conditions, realization by vendors, and need to invest will yield a great buying season.
The Bottom Line For Vendors - Start The Subscription Revenue Model Shift
It’s time to go on a SaaS offensive. The train has left, but its not too late. Expect hardware vendors, telecom providers, and other companies looking to gain software multiples to enter the market via SaaS. 2010 will bring significant acquisitions in this space as well as more proliferation of SaaS offerings and PaaS delivery models. Best of breed solutions delivered via SaaS will cut into on-premise market share. Cloud computing will not be an end all be all. Hybrid deployment will continue to be the norm.
Your POV.
Ready for some great renewal conversations in Q4? Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com for any assistance in contract negotiations with your vendor or the development of a software licensing and pricing strategy for 2010.
* Not responsible for any math errors or erroneous revenue information. Calendar year estimates based on the quarter nearest the calendar year. Exchange rates as of November 189th, 2009. Not responsible for currency flux. Please read the quarterly filings yourself =)
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Epicor hosted over 1500 partner, customer, and employee attendees at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, NV. Conference highlights include:
Update on Epicor 9 adoption. Epicor has (deployed 11/19/2009 ) shipped 30,000 seats to 60 customers since GA in December 2008. More than 890 customers have purchased the product with 590 implementations in progress. The company hopes to be in 50 countries and 30 languages by end of year.
POV:
With over 22,000 customers worldwide, product adoption may at first appear below average. But given the recessionary factors, Epicor has done well in taking its time to ramp up and build customer references for this next generation app. Epicor’s success will require a future specialization into verticals and indirect partner channels.
Shared benefits program. Epicor launched a new program to improve implementation outcomes with shared risks and benefits. Vendor and customers will own project scope definition and agree on outcomes and ROI. If the project is under budget, Epicor shares the savings with the customer. If the project runs over budget, the customer pays for half the contracted professional services hourly rates.
POV:
Epicor builds on its previous program where it targeted a 1:1 license to implementation ratio. While there may be open issues about unintended consequences (i.e. as raised by fellow Enterprise Advocate Frank Scavo), Epicor’s intent to change the relationship is a great step towards improving outcomes for clients in the enterprise software world.
New eCommerce solution. Epicor launched an all-in-one eCommerce solution that covers design to delivery. Users of Epicor Commerce can synchronize master data elements such as products, pricing, customers, and inventory levels while managing website content and delivery. Other features include support for payment options, merchant account/gateway integration, and tax calculations via Avalara.
POV:
Commerce customers at Perspectives were expressing interest in the new SaaS-ready options as well as hosted options. Prospects should take a close look at the Order Hub integration from retail activities to the back end ERP systems as this will prove the greatest integration value.
Feedback from 37 customers remain mostly positive
Conversations with 17 Vantage, 12 Enterprise, 5 Avante, and 3 Vista customers showed quite positive customer sentiment. Most (15/17) Vantage customers expected to move to Epicor 9 in 2010. Key drivers:
Key functionality addressed in newer release
Better usability
Newer technology
Greater ROI
However, only 3 Enterprise customers, 2 Avante, and 1 Vista customers expected to make the move in the next 12 months. Key drivers for not making the upgrade include
Economic recession
Waiting for functional parity
Over customization of existing product
Your POV.
If you get a chance, let us know:
Which Epicor products do you use?
When will you migrate?
What do you think about the shared benefits program?
Will you look more closely at Epicor as an alternative to SAP and Oracle?
Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.
Rapid SaaS Adoption Will Lead To A Repeat Of 1990’s Best Of Breed Integration Challenges
The proliferation and rapid adoption of SaaS solutions stems from 7 key benefits: richer user experience, rapid implementation, frequent cycles of innovation, minimal upgrade hassles, always on deployment, subscription pricing, and scalability (see Figure 1). Despite these benefits, organizations head full circle towards the same best of breed dilemma they faced in the late 1990’s. In that era, organizations sought innovation from more nimble and agile competitors. The result - a concerted effort to deploy a number of on-premise, point solutions. Willing to sacrifice not having a single instance for functionality, they invested heavily in integration. Almost a decade later, organizations will encounter similar challenges with harmonizing a plethora of SaaS entry points in the next 2 to 3 years. Given the growing number of SaaS solutions at cost-effective price points and easy adoption, today’s organizations face problems in a geometrically larger scale.
Figure 1. Seven Benefits of SaaS Deployments
Modeling How To Make A Peanut Butter And Jelly Provides Key Insights Into The Integration Challenge
Today’s integration challenges move beyond data integration to include process level and meta-data requirements that span across a range of business processes and relevant key performance indicators (KPI’s). As more solutions are added, organizations will want to model their end to end business processes as web services and support synchronous and asynchronous communication protocols across hybrid deployments. Organizations can expect canonical data models play a key role in harmonizing business objects. To put this in real world terms, imagine describing how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich using a hodgepodge of solutions. Let’s take a look:
Example 1: Modeling in a .NET application
Bread: take 2 slices of bread
Peanut butter: spread peanut butter on one slice
Jelly: spread jelly on the other slice
Assembly: put the bread together
Assembly: slice down the middle
Delivery: serve on plate
Example 2: Modeling in Force.com
Bread: take 2 slices of bread
Bread: determine whether or not to toast the bread
Peanut butter: choose chunky or creamy
Peanut butter: spread peanut butter on one slice
Jelly: choose type of jelly
Jelly: spread jelly on the other slice
Assembly: put the bread together
Assembly: determine if the slices is in half or diagonal
Assembly: slice down the middle
Delivery: choose type of plate (e.g. paper or plastic)
Deliver: serve on plate
Example 3: Modeling in NetWeaver
Bread: take 2 slices of bread
Bread: determine if the bread is organic or not
Bread: determine whether or not to toast the bread
Bread: determine how light or dark the bread should be toasted
Peanut butter: determine if the peanut butter is organic or not
Peanut butter: choose chunky or creamy
Peanut butter: spread peanut butter on one slice
Peanut butter: determine thickness of spread
Jelly: choose type of jelly
Jelly: determine if the jelly is organic or not
Jelly: spread jelly on one slice
Jelly: determine thickness of spread
Assembly: put the bread together
Assembly: determine whether you want the crust or not
Assembly: determine how to slice the bread (e.g. diagonal, half, 4 cubes, etc.)
Delivery: choose type of plate (e.g. paper or plastic)
Delivery: determine garnishes with the sandwich
Delivery: serve on plate
In these examples, notice how they granularity of processes become deeper and deeper within more complex solutions. How would you take the peanut butter web service from the .NET example and harmonize this with the NetWeaver example? Now take this real-life example at a hypothetical global pharma:
SAP financials (on-premise)
Oracle JD Edwards manufacturing (on-premise)
Salesforce.com CRM (SaaS)
Workday HR and Payroll (SaaS)
Concur Expense Management (SaaS)
Xactly Incentive Comp (SaaS)
NetSuite OpenAir Project Management (SaaS)
Ariba Spend Management (SaaS)
Gmail and Google Docs(SaaS)
Jive Community Platforms (SaaS)
SocialText (SaaS)
WebEx (SaaS)
Recommendations
As organizations consider SaaS adoption they must put into place an integration framework to support the competing forces of innovation and harmonization. These integration frameworks must consider not only data, but also process, metadata, and business intelligence. Key suggestions include:
Begin with the end in mind. Identify the key performance indicators. Determine how to measure business value
Understand your key business processes.Classify your business processes into 3 buckets: commoditized, mission critical, and innovative. This way you’ll know which processes can be put into an outsource, shared service, or internal ownership.
Map the granularity of the business processes. Group similar processes across different solutions and understand the levels of granularity. Identify points for harmonization.
Determine the data integration requirements. Identify the key business objects associated with the business process. Ensure that the right data arrives to the right process at the right time for the right person. Map key meta data to process and business objects. Build out your canonical data models.
Build loose frameworks for evaluation of SaaS solutions. Give line of business teams guidelines to determine how SaaS solutions fit into existing processes. Use this to jump start integration and proactively identify integration challenges.
Determine approach and SaaS adoption policies. In some cases, point to point will make more sense. In others, greater levels of integration and control may be required. Avoid a one-size fits all methodology in setting up policies. Consider the business case first and foremost.
The Bottom Line - SOA’s Not Dead And Integration Is Key To Successful Hybrid Deployments
Given these scenarios, CIO’s and line of business apps will need to rely on stronger enterprise architecture and integration in hybrid deployments. In fact, au contraire on the death of SOA! Introduction of next generation social enterprise apps will only accelerate the need for good architecture and services design. Expect solutions from Boomi, Cast Iron, Informatica, Pervasive, SnapLogic, and Talend to play a key role going forward.
Your POV
Where are you with your SaaS deployment strategy? Have you considered SaaS integration tools? What are you using and why? Do these issues resonate with you? Who owns the larger integration problem in your organization? Let us know how we can assist or please post or send on your comments to rwang0 (at) gmail (dot) com or r (at) altimetergroup (dot) com and we’ll keep your anonymity.
Title: Vendor Event: Tibco Tucon 2010 Location: The Palazzo, Las Vegas, NV Link out: Click here Start Date: 2010-05-10 End Date: 2010-05-13 Description: TUCON® 2010 - Save the Date! May 10-13, 2010 - The Palazzo Las Vegas
We\’re excited to be taking TUCON® 2010 to Las Vegas! Registration formally opens in September, but you can sign up here to receive TUCON 2010 alerts.
Be sure to check back soon for the agenda and upcoming highlights of TUCON 2010!
Title: Vendor Event: Microsoft Dynamics Convergence 2010 Location: Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA Link out: Click here Start Date: 2010-04-24 End Date: 2010-04-27 Description: Convergence 2010 is set for April 24 – 27, 2010 in Atlanta, GA at the Georgia World Congress Center. To be sure that you’re one of the first to register for this premier Microsoft Dynamics customer event, sign up for
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 their large maintenance bills. With nowhere to go, enterprise apps vendors now turn to the small and medium sized market to drive their growth plans. Consequently, billion to multi-billion dollar SMB stalwarts such as Infor, Microsoft, Sage, and Lawson are not standing still. In fact, they seek opportunities to take market share from the industry leaders while fending off challenges from sub $500M SMB vendors such as Agresso, CDC Software, Deltek, Epicor, Exact, IFS, NetSuite, QAD, and Syspro.
Small And Medium-Sized Organizations Seek Enterprise Class Solutions Without The Resource Overhead
Globalization, regulatory compliance, and economic demands results in similar market pressures for all sizes of business. Size no longer plays a relevant role in business requirements. In fact, a recent survey of over 100 small and medium sized organizations, shows similar needs as large enterprises. However, small and medium-sized organizations can not afford the resource overhead required to maintain large and complex software systems. The 10 areas that drive vendor selection decisions include (see Figure 1):
Figure 1. Small and medium sized organizations seek enterprise class solutions without the resource overhead
The Bottom Line - Ten Lessons Learned Emerge From Recent Vendor Selection Trends
Invest in last mile industry focused solutions.Customers expect their vendor to speak their language. Solutions that lack vertical fluency and limited industry customer referencability will be relegated to the ERP graveyard. Lessons learned: Demonstrate thought leadership in each vertical and lead industry discussions. Focus on a handful of verticals.
Focus on rapid implementation and realization. Gone are the days of 12 to 18 month deployments. Customers seek deployments times with less than 3 months. Lessons learned: Consider SaaS and OnDemand options. Templates and productized roll-outs improve time to market but can’t compete with SaaS solutions and onDemand offerings in demonstrating value to customers.
Expand the number of trusted partners and vendors. As SMB’s expand across the globe, they expect vendors to invest in trusted partners for both delivery and product footprint. Customers expect partners to assist with localization in new geographies, extend vertical solutions, and integration. Lessons learned: Build partner ecosystems to geometrically expand reach while meeting customer needs. No vendor can deliver on all customer needs.
Deploy easy to use reporting tools and BI. Value out of the box requires BI and reporting tools to be proactive and pervasive. Users should have access to relevant and timely information along business processes. Lessons learned: Design reporting tools with the end in mind. Start with the value of information and embed throughout the business process.
Reduce administrative complexity and ownership costs. SMB’s seek enterprise class capabilities sans the resource overhead of traditional large ERP products. Business users need to be able to make changes and extend the system. Ownership costs such as maintenance should deliver value or be reduced. Lessons learned: Design self-service administration capabilities from the get-go, not an afterthought. Software maintenance needs to deliver value or be offered in tiers based on perceived value.
Apply Web 2.0 style usability. Solutions should not require extensive training. New generations of work expect the simplicity and ease of use from consumer based web applications. Lessons learned: Invest in user experience and user interaction. Design process flow based on role-based personas.
Improve stakeholder access. Employees, partners, and customers must gain access to key business information. Value should not be locked away from users when disconnected. Mobile remains a future growth area. Lessons learned: Allow information to be accessed by everyone, everywhere, and at anytime. New stakeholders will need access so apps should be designed with bullet-proof role based security.
Embed Microsoft Office Integration. Ability to use productivity tools should be a given. Customers seek the ability to seamlessly integrate. Lessons learned. Success requires the design Office integration to be both a user interface and gateway into applications. Clunky interfaces into Microsoft fail in adoption.
Deliver worry free updates. Customers should be able to update and upgrade software without significant time spent testing integrations and taking down the system. Lessons learned. Design application management into the system design. Consider the business impact of down time.
Provide financing options. Customers now expect vendors to provide financing to facilitate license purchases. In many cases, clients seek financing to preserve cash position and add additional services such as training and implementation. Lessons learned. Use financing as deal enabler to drive not only license growth, but also larger deal sizes. Financing is a weapon.
Your POV
Prospects and customers - do these requirements ring true? Vendors -where are you with your SMB strategy? Let us know how we can assist. Please post or send on your comments to rwang0 (at) gmail (dot) com or r (at) altimetergroup (dot) com and we’ll keep your anonymity.
Market pressures and organizational maturity drives new master data management (MDM) trends
Conversations with 31 leading edge organizations seeking business transformation highlight shifts in the MDM trends of the past. Organizations awash in data need to move beyond the clutter and get to the information. More data does not equate to more information. In order to make sense, MDM initiatives now move to align with a new set of focus - business transformation and optimization. Seven key trends now drive the new world of MDM as we enter a new decade.
Master data management must go vertical to succeed in business. Customers no longer want horizontal solutions. MDM must tailor to industry specific requirements. Results must be relevant to how an industry works.
Structured and unstructured content will evolve into the MDM ecosystem. Customers seek tools to tie hierarchies and relationships back to unstructured data in the effort to achieve value in information.
Data in the cloud and SaaS will force hybrid approaches. Cloud based and SaaS models change where and how data becomes augmented. MDM systems must support hybrid models in real-time. Proven data integration must be a given not an afterthought. Data integration must be event driven.
Master data management styles no longer matter, just the results. Issue of styles get relegated to the IT owner. Business users seek results and actionable insights.
Data governance and stewardship more important than ever. Processes must align with use cases. Data hygiene needs to be omnipresent but not cumbersome
Social CRM creates demand for trusted profiles.Organizations now need to understand their advocates and detractors Today’s social and connected world requires more targeted marketing, sales, and service/support programs.
Business optimization and transformation will require MDM to cover more data types. MDM moves beyond customer, product, accounts, and employees. New forms of content such as location, images, video, and tweet streams will enter the equation.
Expect to see more details on each one of these trends in the coming year.
Your POV
Where are you with your MDM strategy? Have you deployed? Are you redeploying? Do these trends resonate with you ? Let us know how we can assist or please post or send on your comments to rwang0 (at) gmail (dot) com or r (at) altimetergroup (dot) com and we’ll keep your anonymity.
Epicor Succeeds On Delivering A Converged Product Line
Epicor’s latest release, Epicor 9, provides a proof point that an acquisition intensive vendor can keep their promises to both acquire and deliver on innovation. Under the themes of “Protect, Extend, and Converge”, the Irvine, CA based mid-market software provider committed to its customers to support prior releases, standardize key apps and infrastructure to deliver common solutions, and complete a super set solution.
Epicor 9 became generally available (GA) as of December 10th, 2008. After almost 11 months in the market, most customers and prospects confirm that Epicor has delivered on their three promises. More importantly, they have achieved a converged super set of solutions from Avante, Clientele, DataFlo, Enterprise, Manage 2000, ManFact, iScala, Vista, and Vantage. Key suites in Epicor 9 include:
Financial management
Customer relationship management (CRM)
Sales management
Production management
Supply chain management (SCM)
Planning and scheduling
Product data management
Service management
Human capital management (HCM)
Enterprise performance management (EPM)
Point of view (POV): Epicor’s business strategy to grow via acquisition may seem to mirror the business models of Oracle, Infor, and Sage. However, Epicor is the first to deliver on a converged solution while supporting all existing releases. This is no small feat as the first phase of convergence brings together the largest base of its acquired products. In addition, Epicor consolidates a multitude of Microsoft and Progress technology platforms via ICE 2.0, an SOA based foundational middleware. Epicor rolled out Epicor 9 with significant beta testing from 70 customers and 13 partners.
Phase 2 of the convergence strategy will most likely involve the Epicor Retail line and Epicor’s Enterprise Services Automation. Other details of Phase 2 may involve greater adoption of the Azure platform for delivery in a Software plus Services model.
ICE Architecture Bridges The Gap Between Web 2.0 Innovations And Enterprise Class Requirements
ICE 2.0 is Epicor’s business architecture built to SOA design principles and Web 2.0 sensibilities. As a next generation middleware, ICE 2.0 separates the applications layer from the presentation and logic layers - enabling flexibility to update and modify the middleware and presentation layer at separate times from the applications through different release cycles. Server and client logic outputs as business services that can be made available and modified by users. These loosely coupled business services improve connectivity and integration and carries critical XML metadata. Users benefit from much desired Web 2.0 capabilities that support application to application integration and business to business collaboration (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Epicor Innovations Stem From Strong Middleware Foundation In ICE 2.0
Consequently, ICE 2.0 delivers on many of the 10 elements of Social Enterprise Apps and includes dynamic user experiences, business process focus, and community connectedness. Key tools include a technology platform based in Microsoft .NET and business logic via Progress’ Open Edge offering. On the usability front, Epicor 9 addresses role based design, consistent experiences, and contextual and relevant delivery of information through:
Improved user experience. Epicor 9 takes advantage of new Microsoft Office UI/UX paradigms and portal design elements to provide themes, styles, skins, tooltip controls, drag-and-drop designs, and floating palettes & previews. Users may also drill into and around reports and data.Key personalization features include favorite groups, sheet and toolbar layouts, options windows, short cut bars, and a theme maintenance wizard.
POV:
Users immediately gravitate towards the Office- styled ribbons. Leveraging the XML schema, Epicor Portal enables role specific content and allows users to craft queries and personalize access to information. Personalization capabilities smartly tie back to the user ID and persist throughout all solutions.
Consistent user experience. Regardless of the user interface, customization and user personalization remains intact because everything starts from the same meta data. Consequently, Epicor 9 can run on a C#.NET Smart Client, any web client, and mobile devices on platforms such as Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Apple iPhone
POV:
Epicor’s Everywhere Framework smartly stores client business logic as XML metadata and generates AJAX base forms. This allows client agnostic rendering of the apps in any UI presentation layer and personalization format using the same source code. The result - a consistent user experience across any channel and even operating system.
Business Activity Management (BAM). BAM tools enable users to track changes, create even triggers, and send alerts based on parameters and rules. Out of the box, Epicor 9 supports auto print reports or labels, BAM rules, change logs, custom global alerts, and custom procedure extensions.
POV:
BAM tools provide contextual and relevant delivery of information across the enterprise. By being able to monitor changes to database fields and tables, useful alerts can be set up for scenarios such as a customer exceeding a credit limit, a workflow approval that’s on hold because of a approver’s vacation, or the automation of defined and common outcomes.
Software-as-a-Service. Customers can choose among various deployment options from on-premise, hosted, to multi-tenant SaaS. Epicor 9 is designed to support multi-tenancy and metadata configuration.
POV:
Today’s mid-market organizations share strong opinions on whether or not to take a SaaS deployment option or stay on-premise. For this reason, Epicor wisely offers a choice to its customer. Unlike most of Epicor’s competitors, Epicor 9 delivers a true SaaS solution because it supports multiple customers sharing a single shared instance.
On the business process side, Epicor 9 meets key criteria in configurability and adaptability, outcome focused & results oriented, and proactive - predictive - actionable categories with:
Business process management (BPM). Epicor BPM exposes all business services so customers can apply business rules, monitor actions, and modify processes. The system uses a Microsoft Outlook style rules engine which allows business users to make changes without painful customization or coding.Users can define actions, condition statements, holds, and set data triggers.
POV:
Next generation apps utilize BPM tools to enforce controls and enhance policies and processes. Epicor provides a rich BPM tool that not only extends base capabilities without customizations but also saves time and money by reusing common established processes. Existing users find the system easy to use and note the ease of use with HTML e-mail formats, Microsoft .NET Action Content, Property Bag Support, and XML Data Nodes.
Epicor Service Connect. Using the graphical workflow designer, users can map out and modify business processes. The system automates business processes such as task assignments, logical routing, and human interaction points. Epicor Service Connect delivers on message based SOA through XML messages and mapping and leaving a complete audit trail.
POV:
Customers who have used Service Connect rave about the ease of use in copying and sharing common processes. The system makes these changes without modifying source code and the Visio-like usability is key to its successful adoption. Customers benefit from BPM without the complexity.
Role based dashboards provide actionable insight.Users are treated to a series of role based interactive dashboards. Dashboards take advantage of Microsoft UI metaphors such as the outlook navigation pane and ribbons. Users can drill into and around data, export to excel, make changes, and come back to the same screens. Role based security at the field level ensures the protection of confidential information. More importantly, the dashboards support offline disconnected scenariosas well as mobile EPM delivery.
POV:
Users immediately find value in the support for ad-hoc reports, monitoring tools, workbenches, and alerting capabilities. Existing Epicor users will take for granted the large number of out of the box reports. New customers will be surprised by the quality and relevance of the 100 dashboards and 250+ key performance indicators (KPIs).
On the community connectedness end, Epicor 9 meets many of the key criteria to engage stakeholders, foster collaboration, and provide enterprise class security via:
Epicor Information Worker integrates with Microsoft Office technologies. Information worker usability leverages Office Business Applications. Users improve access to business data through this desktop productivity solution and can work in native applications such as Outlook, Word, and Excel.Other key features include disconnected lists and offline transaction support.POV: Most users expect Microsoft Office integration but remain disappointed with what’s been delivered by most vendors to date. Clients express amazement with the ability to use Epicor Portal to work within Office and execute actions that propagate into Epicor 9.
Epicor Enterprise Search. The solution builds off of Microsoft Search capabilities such as SQL Full Text indexing to return structured results such as Epicor data and unstructured information such as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.Search results can be ordered by relevance and tuned to meet role based requirements and priorities. Key features include advanced searches, business activity query searches, named searches, and user configurable quick searches.
POV:
Users gain quicker access to information resulting in increased productivity and knowledge sharing. Existing clients enjoy the tag clouds and ability to directly access the application from the search results.
Epicor Presence and RSS. Out of the box support for really simple syndication (RSS) feeds gives users the ability to consume information at their own pace. Support for presence will enable collaboration via tools such as instant messaging (IM). Key containers include the Windows Gadgets and the Outlook Syndicated Content Directory within Microsoft Office.
POV:
With growing use in mobile form factors, expect presence capabilities to play a greater role as next generation apps incorporate this design element. Support for RSS feeds delivers on a key Enterprise 2.0 capability representative of next generation apps. Most users will access this via the Epicor Portal or Outlook to monitor any changes to subscribed topics or sources.
Layered Client Stack In ICE 2.0 Provides Flexibility Across Markets, Sizes, and Industries
The Epicor layered client stack provides a key framework for organizations and partners to make modifications regardless of business size, country and industries. The seven levels include:
Base Form - provides the foundational source
Productization - allows different editions of Epicor 9 to be created
Verticalization - stores industry specific functionality and terminology
Localization - delivers geo specific capabilities and terminology
Extension - gives partners and orgs the ability to change look and feel
Customization - supports standard customization capabilities
Personalization - allows end users to make modifications to their environment
POV: Through the layered stack, Partners and companies claim that Epicor 9 is easy to modify and provides a strong framework to deliver last-mile solutions. Technically inclined business users can also use Epicor Composite Applications to create mash-ups that bring web forms, analytical web parts, search queries into a portal served up in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Key industries with deep support include:
Aerospace and defense
Automotive
Consumer goods
Distribution
Electronics and electrical equipment
Fabricated metals
Financial services
Furniture and fixtures
Industrial machinery
Measuring and controlling devices
Medical devices
Primary metals
Rubber and plastics
Stone, clay, glass, and concrete
Epicor 9 Designed For Organizations With Global Requirements And Ambitions
Epicor 9 provides growing mid-market companies, subsidiaries of large enterprises, and aspiring ventures capabilities to conduct global commerce. Key capabilities include:
Global Engines. Epicor ships a number of global engines designed to support global deployment and adoption. Using a series of interlocking global engines, configuration rules determine postings, regulatory support, tax rules, rounding, books, and multi-currency. For example, the global posting engine provides rule based capability. The global tax engine supports country and local specific tax rules.
POV: With each country roll-out and localization, Epicor enables the mid-market organization to span geographies while meeting key regulatory and local requirements. Even domestic companies with expansion aspirations will gain the capacity to truly conduct global business.
Global Capabilities. On the localization front, the solution currently supports 18+ languages for 30+ countries delivering unicode and double byte support throughout the product. Mulit-currency addresses exchange rate effective dates and multi-book integration. Multi-company supports intercompany requirements. User’s can determine their language as a personalization preference.
POV
: Epicor currently supports a limited number of localizations with a goal of 30 languages in 50 countries by 2010. However, partners have been able to cost-effectively and rapidly deliver on localizations due to the configurability of Epicor 9.
Global Multisite Management. Organizations with federated production or distribution capabilities and centralized shared services can take advantage of the multisite capabilities for key areas such as financial consolidation, forecasts, inter-company trading, plant scheduling, and global customer management. Multisite management allows customers to synchronize master data and goods across multiple sites.POV: Multisite capabilities are often provided as workarounds. Epicor’s approach applies an SOA philosophy to supporting this level of complexity. Support for visibility across multiple facilities gives Epicor 9 the ability to move into the large enterprise space over time.
Customer feedback to date has been mostly positive.
As with each new release, beta customer often find the bugs and unexpected deployment issues. Most complaints about Epicor 9 come from clients who chose to self implement or provide a considerable amount of implementation resources. Not surprisingly, early issues focused on a need for more detailed documentation, best practices, and Microsoft technology skill sets required to self deploy. With almost a year under their belt, newer customers have mostly expressed satisfaction with the productivity gains, ease of use, and ability to scale up as their business expands.
The Bottom Line For Customers - Consider Epicor 9 For Mid-Market Organizations And Subsidiaries/Divisions of Large Enterprises
Continued enterprise software vendor consolidation has resulted in limited choices for enterprise. Vendors such as Epicor who acquire, streamline, and adequately reinvest will most likely emerge as leaders in their markets. Epicor 9 provides customers seeking an alternative to large enterprise apps force fit to meet mid-market requirements. As customers consider replacement strategies for old generation enterprise apps, Epicor 9 should be considered in short lists for vendor selection. Organizations betting on Microsoft platforms will also want to evaluate other offerings built on Microsoft .NET tools and technologies to gauge their level of adoption and sophistication. In general Epicor meets the key needs that SMB organizations have expressed (see Figure 2.)
Figure 2. Mid-market organizations seek enterprise class solutions but lack the resources to support complex deployments
The Bottom Line For Vendors - Middleware Matters, Invest or Perish
Enablement of Social Enterprise Apps and their related Enterprise 2.0 capabilities require rich middleware platforms. In each advancement from mainframe, mini-computer, client server, web based, to this current phase of social enterprise apps or social business solutions, vendors who wait to late to invest will relegate themselves to the has-been pile of vendor companies who failed to make it. (e.g. Burroughs, Wang, Control Data, MSA, McCormack and Dodge, etc.). Success and survival requires a software vendor to deliver across the 10 elements of Social Enterprise Apps in the next 2 to 3 years.
Location: HQ in Irvine, CA, globally located in 50 countries
Founded: 1984
Revenues: FY 2008 $495M
Employees: 2,800
Customers: 22,000
Your POV
Are you on Epicor 9? In the midst of a vendor selection for a mid-market ERP solution? Any problems and issues? Let us know how to assist or please post or send on your comments to rwang0 (at) gmail (dot) com or r (at) altimetergroup (dot) com and we’ll keep your anonymity.
PEOPLE WHISPERS: MOVES, PROMOTIONS, AND MILESTONES*
Congratulations to all! Good to see that the job scenarios continue to improve in software/tech as a number of individuals made organizational changes and promotions. 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.
Steve Apfelberg is now Vice President of Marketing at Yammer, Inc. Steve brings a wealth of marketing experiences from serving last as Chief Marketing Officer, SVP of Business Development at Callidus Software Other software experiences include time with Siebel, Remedy, and Oracle.
Rose Aulik was recently promoted from strategic business development manager to Outsourcing Business Solutions Manager for Epicor.
Jim Bozzini has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Operations and Services for Workday.
Jim Dellamore joins Deltek as Executive Vice President for Global Services from GXS where he served as a Senior Vice President of Global Solutions Delivery. Prior to working at GXS, Mr. Dellamore was Group Vice President, Consulting, at Oracle Corporation, where he managed the $450 million PeopleSoft consulting business.
Phil Fehrst left AMR Research to become an AVP for strategy with Cognizant Technologies. The former star analyst brings significant experience in the IT BPO and outsourcing contract space and will be reporting directly to the CEO.
Tim Fortiernamed IFS North America Vice President of Sales. Fortier brings 20 years of sales management experience from J.D. Edwards, PeopleSoft, AFS Technologies and most recently Borland Software.
Chuck Gillespie is now Adjunct Professor at IUPUI. Chuck was responsible for HR technology at Peoplebase and served as President of Vigor.
Simon Griffiths joined SYSPRO as a Product and Industry Marketing Consultant. Griffiths previously served as a SYSPRO reseller in South Africa. Other roles include stints at JD Edwards and a Microsoft Dynamics NAV partner.
Ray Grigsby joins Rimini Street as Vice President of Global Support Services Delivery for JD Edwards Software Products. Grigsby’s served previous roles as a Vice President for JD Edwards Support services. Grigsby was the executive overseeing the implementation, upgrade, and support of a full range of World and OneWorld (EnterpriseOne) releases for the largest and most complex domestic and global implementations.
Tony Kender rejoins SAP as a National VP Sales at SAP America. Tony served roles as a Senior VP at Oracle, Director at SAP, and Senior Director at ADP.
Alex Koshy is now Business Development Executive at Synaptris. Koshi served previous roles as a Pre-Sales Consultant for MS Dynamics ERP and Resource Lead for Microsoft Dynamics Competancy atMahindra Satyam.
Kirk Laughlin became Founder/ Editorial Director at Nearshore Americas in June 2009. Kirk’s served senior roles as Managing Director/ VP of Live Events, Senior Editorial Director, Custom Media atZiff Davis Enterprise, Editor in Chief at America’s Network Magazine, and Editor-in-Chief atCygnus Business Media
Leighanne Levensaler joins Workday as Vice President, HCM Strategy. She formerly served as a principal analyst covering Talent Management for Bersin & Associates. Prior to joining Bersin & Associates, she led the Learning Consulting Practice at SystemLink Enterprise Solutions. Leighanne has also held positions at SmartForce, Edutrek International/AUI and Deloitte Consulting.
Emily Marchant is now Cofounder | Investor Relationship Manager at the FundingPartnership. Previous roles include a stint as Global Business Development Manager FLB at Forrester Research, Business Development Manager at Dianomi, Sales Manager at Emedia, and various roles at Informa Telecoms and Media.
Milind Padalkar has updated their current title to Global Practice Head - Oracle at HCL America. Padalkar previously served as the Senior Vice President & Head of Enterprise Applications atPatni Computer Systems.
Mahesh Rajasekharan is now Chief Operating Officer at SumTotal Systems. He served 12 years at i2 with roles ranging from Vice President of High Tech Industry Group, Senior Director Operations and Solution Sales, and Senior Director for High Tech Industry Marketing.
Mike Stankeyjoins Workday as president and COO from Greylock Partners. Mike spent five years as chairman and CEO of PolyServe, a storage virtualization software company. Prior to PolyServe, Mike was senior vice president of North American sales for PeopleSoft, driving more than $1 billion in sales and services revenues.
Jason Zintak became the Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing at JDA Software on August 18th, 2009. Zintak most recently served as the executive vice president of sales at HCL Axon. Other senior-level software sales executive and management includde roles at Capgemini, SAP and Blue Martini Software.
Your POV
Got a scoop or something to share? Please post or send on to rwang0 at gmail dot com and we’ll keep your anonymity.
* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions. However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.
Oracle’s Fusion Apps Addresses A Broad Set Of Horizontal Modules
Oracle’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Larry Ellison announced the code completion of Fusion Apps in today’s late afternoon keynote. Though Ellison did not give precise guidance on general availability (GA), he did hint that the product would be available, “sometime in 2010″. The product currently undergoes extensive testing and will comprise of key modules including:
The Bottom Line - Oracle Takes A Two Prong Strategy And Seeks Domination Of The Apps Market
Oracle’s continues to prove success in its business model. By acquiring the leading companies with significant recurring revenue streams, it can drive economies of scale to make above average R&D investments. The result - enough innovation in existing product lines to compel customers to pay maintenance and upgrade; and the time and resources to build a next generation product. Should Oracle successfully deliver on Fusion Apps to customers in 2010, SAP will have to play catch up in mind share as many sources state that there are no plans for a new product until 2013/2014. Other vendors will have to leverage or partner for middleware and PaaS options in order to sustain key Web 2.0 innovations in the enterprise.
Your POV.
Is seeing believing? As an Oracle customer will this compel you to stay on Apps Unlimited or make a move to Fusion Apps? If you aren’t a customer, will you now consider Oracle in your short lists? Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.
Connect. Collaborate. Innovate.
Welcome to the first of many Altimeter Group research reports. Before you dive deep into the Customer Bill of Rights: Software-as-a-Service report, we wanted to share with you a bit about the research process and how we work within the community.
Connect. We strive to bring new people together and share our knowledge. Knowledge has no value unless others can put it to use.
Collaborate. We believe in open collaboration with the market and ecosystem of thought leaders, influencers, solution providers, and implementation experts. In collaboration do we foster new relationships and opportunities to solve client problems.
Innovate. We are thinking about what’s next. SaaS deployments and web-based solutions represent the future and we’ll be looking for the next set of innovations.
Customer Bill of Rights - Software-as-a Service
Enjoy this report. It’s been placed in Scribd for shared use.
We’ve created a group that you can join now that will carry the conversation further. Sign up now and stay tuned for when the report goes out. Look for more Bill of Rights to come. Customer Bill of Rights
Your POV.
Want to be part of the collaborative research process? Got ideas for topics that should be reports? Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.
Oracle tells SaaS providers they can use a new SaaS/Cloud computing model to purchase a limited number of Oracle products in a “pay as you grow” manner.
Attendees propagating rumors about Fusion Apps being announced on Wednesday in Larry’s keynote.
Customers discussing how Oracle now leads CRM sales with CRM OnDemand before any other on-premise product.
Dell confirmed to be selling SalesForce.com products in the SMB channel.
EBS customers who have upgraded to 12.1 still having a tough time getting the new account and multi-org structures down right. Many system integrators suggest that its best to do a reimplementation.
PeopleSoft customers buzzing about the new 9.1 release.
Oracle waiting for Sun deal to close to make next set of acquisition. Charles Phillips tells partners, there’s more to buy.
The roving Rimini Street billboard is back!
Your POV.
We’ll be roving around asking some questions during Open World. If you get a chance, let us know:
Which Oracle products do you use?
What release of Oracle DB are you on? When will you migrate?
Are you using Oracle BI Tools with non-Oracle data? or vice versa?
Do you use RAC? Do you use RAC? Do you know about Exadata and would you consider it?
When will you consider Fusion Apps?
Is the delay in Fusion Apps, affecting your timing for software upgrades?
Are recent maintenance price hikes having an impact?
When do you plan to adopt Fusion Middleware?
How much will Fusion cost you in reimplementations?
Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.
Oracle Open World kicked off today with major announcements that beef up the 21,000 member strong Oracle Partner program. Throughout the day, Oracle executives kept reminding everyone that path to success would be specialization and that Oracle partners played a key role in driving revenue. In fact, partners contributed to 59% of North American Revenue in fiscal year 2009. Key takeaways include:
Oracle PartnerNetwork Specialized Program. Oracle revamps its program to create four partner levels including Oracle Remarketer, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Status must be earned across Oracle’s 35 apps, middleware, database, and industry solutions. The higher the status, the more engagement Oracle will provide.POV: Partners and customers will benefit from a distinct status program. OPN Specialized will force partners to invest in a few differentiated competencies. With 3000 products, Oracle feels partners wlll need to go deep in order to win in the market place. However, forcing partners to stay specialized will leave them vulnerable as Oracle Consulting Services will still have capacity to provide a full service of solutions. At least Oracle eases the transition by smartly decoupling education from certification. Partners can opt to take the certification exam without having to take unnecessary training. This should help some larger partners to keep their competencies.
Oracle Partner Business Center. Oracle demonstrates its commitment to supporting customers by expanding the Partner Enablement 2.0 program. Key features include a global Twitter support channel, 24/7 support in 24 different languages, and access to partner business consultants. Access to support will be based on partner levels with Platinum partners receiving inbound call and e-mail assistance, support service request logging, pro-active outbound engagement including business and administrative support and priority renewal, and dedicated virtual account management and channels to assist with joint business plans and top priority renewals.POV: Oracle’s putting its money where its mouth is. No longer an all hat no cattle partner program, last year Oracle claims to have conducted 44,530 apps and 16,423 tech training sessions. Partners expect the new business center to serve as a key enablement resource and a significant improvement over the patchwork program of previous years.
Oracle Exadata Partner Program. Partners will be able to resell Exadata Storage servers and Sun Oracle Database machines starting December 1st, 2009. Oracle will be providing enablement resources to expand the solution offering into verticals as well as key horizontals such as data warehousing and business intelligence. Oracle plans to provide training materials via a new Exadata Knowledge Zone that will include Guided Learning Paths.
POV
: At the partner keynote, Charles Phillips reemphasized how Oracle will be the first company to go from apps to disk. As Oracle attempts to attack TCO by owning the wh0le stack, expect its competitors to respond to this new stack play with more diversified partnerships among Oracle’s competitors. Oracle’s strategy is brilliant but they will not be left to their own devices by its new competitors in hardware and software.
Your POV.
A few questions to partners:
Are you a partner with Oracle?
How do you feel about the changes to the partnership program?
As an acquired partner what do you think Oracle does well, poorly?
Are you a Sun Partner moving to Oracle?
Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.
On October 5th, D&B Purisma Solutions group announced its first hosted business data management app. When generally available in November 2009, Complete Customer will deliver a customer database that will be self managed by organizations departments. Organizations and their departments will take ownership of their data in a hosted offering. The solution provides much needed relief because customers must:
Reduce the time to market of deployments. Customers can no longer afford years let alone months for deployment. They seek impactful solutions with little deployment risk.
Leverage existing investments. Customers own a patch work of CRM, trusted information, BI, legacy ERP, and other solutions. If they can consolidate their solutions, they save money on integration costs and potentially reduce long term ownership costs.
Acquire solutions at lower price points. Solutions must past through more rigor in the budget approval process. Line of business executives seek swipe and buy solutions, OpEx over CapEx, and minimal commitments in contracts.
Complete Customer Provides Hosted Offering
D&B’s Complete Customer solution delivers three key features (see Figure 1):
Data management - D&B data enrichment, double-byte fuzz match, master record construction, and custom hierarchies.
Data maintenance - data stewardship, source system, syncing, data purification at entry, customer life cycle management.
Hosting services subscription pricing model - online secure access, hosted, D&B data and subscription pricing.
Figure 1. Complete Customer Data Steward Screen Shots
(Source: D&B )
The Bottom Line - MDM And CDI Solutions Will Move To The Cloud
D&B’s hosted offering will help existing D&B users leverage their current investments without making significant upfront investments in traditional on-premise customer data integration (CDI) and master data management (MDM) solution offerings. While this solution only addresses a small footprint of a traditional CDI or MDM solution and focuses on B2B, these first steps towards a toolkit will provide immediate benefits such as:
Improving lead management
Targeting cross sell and up sell opportunities
Monitoring credit exposure
Maintaining accurate sales account credit
Customers must move to hybrid models as today’s innovative solutions live beyond the on-premise world. Today the focus will be on faster results and leveraging reference data. Tomorrow, the issues will focus on managing the proliferation of channels and entities. Concepts such as B2B or B2C will no longer matter as we move to P2P. Organizations will need to resolve identity in order to deliver the critical insight required for social businesses.
Your POV.
Are you looking for bite sized MDM/CDI? Are you currently a D&B customer? Did you know you can augment your D&B data? Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com if you need assistance with your MDM project or other topic areas.
A New Way Of Creating Research - Collaborative Input And Review
Some time early next week, we (i.e. Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang and I) will be publishing a Customer Bill of Rights - Software-as-a-Service. Through the generous input of 57 collaborators and organizations, this document will serve as a reference, checklist, and point of discussion with SaaS vendors for prospects and clients who have made the decision to begin a SaaS deployment.
Why A Customer Bill of Rights for SaaS?
SaaS deployments have entered the heart of the business and now deserve to be treated with all the rigor and due diligence of on-premise licensed software. Client - vendor relationships in SaaS are perpetual and it is imperative that these agreements provide a chance for a new slate. CIO’s, CMO’s, LOB execs, procurement managers, and other organizational leads should ensure that the mistakes they made in licensed software aren’t blindly carried over. The SaaS Bill of Rights (BoR) provides a tool for clients and vendors to change the tenor of contract negotiations from subservient to equal partnership. Though not all these rights may be provided by the SaaS vendors today, these rights represent the best practices in over 250 SaaS contracts and reflect the general spirit and intent of most SaaS vendor’s executive management teams.
Thanks To Creative Commons For A Great Legal Platform For Collaboration
Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright. They provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof. We’ll be setting up the license as a Creative Commons | Attribution| Shared Alike. This means anyone can remix, tweak, and build upon this work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit us and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to open source software licenses. All new works based on this one will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. If you get a moment, please donate to these guys!
Props To Collaboration And Great Ecosystem Input
The Customer Bill of Rights: Software-as-a-Service report could not have been produced without the generous input from these individual influencers and the following vendors who have shown a keen interest in transforming the client-vendor relationship. Please keep in mind, input into this document does not represent a complete endorsement of these rights in total by the individuals or vendors listed in this report.
The Thanks List: Star Influencer And Guru Inputs
Nenshad Bardoliwalla
Naomi Bloom, Bloom and Wallace
Kevin Dobbs, Montclair Advisors
Bob Evans, TechWeb
Dennis Howlett, Enterprise Irregulars
Phil Fersht, Horses For Sources
Christian Gherorghe
Paul Greenberg, The 56 Group
James Governor, Red Monk
Erin Kinikin
Esteban Kolsky
Amy Konary, IDC
Michael Krigsman, Asuret
Frank Scavo, Computer Economics
Josh Weinberger, CRM Magazine
The Thanks List: SaaS and Solution Vendor Input
Agresso
Appiro
Boomi
Blue Wolf
Cisco Systems
CODA
Demand Media
Epicor
Everest Software
Flexera
GetSatisfaction
HelpStream
IBM
Infor
Informatica
Infosys
Intacct
Intuit
Jive Software
KickApps
Lithium
M-Factor
Microsoft
Mzinga
NetSuite
Panaya Inc
Patni
Pervasive Software
RightNow Technologies
Rimini Street
Salesforce.com
SAP
Social Text
SoftBrands
SuccessFactors
Sugar CRM
Telligent
Tenrox
Ultimate Software
UserVoice
VMWare
Workday
Continue The Discussion On Linked IN
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Your POV.
Want to be part of the collaborative research process? Got ideas for topics that should be reports? Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.
Title: Vendor Event: Sterling Commerce Customer Connection Location: Gaylord Texan Hotel & Convention Center, Grapevine, Texas Link out: Click here Start Date: 2010-04-12 End Date: 2010-04-14 Description:
Help your organization thrive
Sterling Commerce Customer Connection 2010, which will be held at the Gaylord Texan Hotel & Convention Center, Dallas, Texas, April 12 - 14, is your opportunity to learn about technology innovations and trends, network with peers, and catch up on best practices. Customer Connection will help your organization strengthen its Business Collaboration Network so that you can accelerate revenue and reduce costs.
Take advantage of every opportunity
* Gain more value from your current Sterling Commerce solutions through a training curriculum offered before and after the main event.
* Take advantage of the educational opportunities of more than 80 sessions led by industry analysts, customers, and representatives from Sterling Commerce Product Marketing, Engineering, and Customer Support.
* Examine best practices and innovations across all industries.
* Discover technical trends and emerging opportunities for 2010 and how your organization can capitalize on them.
* Exchange ideas and experiences as you network with peers to learn how others are addressing key challenges.
Go for valuable educational sessions
Choose from a wide range of educational topics. Here’s a sampling:
* Learn about the changes companies are making to help weather the economic storm
* Discover how to obtain a secure, reliable and flexible file transfer management system to optimize business process integration and data transfer
* Find out why VANS are “out” and Business Process Networks are “in”
* Learn how to provide a unified, cross-channel experience for your customers
* Plus 80 more sessions and topics
Title: Vendor Event: Lawson CUE 2010 Location: Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, TX Link out: Click here Start Date: 2010-04-25 End Date: 2010-04-28 Description: The key to organizational and personal success is information that helps you solve problems and continually improve…ideas…sparks of inspiration…innovative approaches to challenges can all lead to powerful results.
inspire.
Lawson CUE is designed to provide you with relevant, actionable information. Over 300 educational sessions, hands-on labs, interactions with your peers and Lawson experts, and partner exhibits will produce tangible benefits that you can bring back to your workplace.
Be inspired…get in…
Register Now!
influence.
Share your knowledge and experience with your peers by presenting a session at Lawson CUE 10. Submit your proposal today and you may qualify for a free registration.
intensive.
Get hands-on, accelerated training from Lawson Learning by adding a Power Training course to your Lawson CUE 10 experience. Sign up for a Power Training course by October 31 and save 10%!
Title: Industry Event: AX Decisions 2009 Location: Virtual Event Link out: Click here Start Date: 2009-10-14 Start Time: 06:00 End Date: 2009-10014 Description: Be a Part of This Year’s Most Exciting Dynamics AX Conference!
It’s FREE and it’s virtual…with all the benefits of an in-person event including a keynote presentation, educational sessions, networking and exhibitor booths.
REGISTER NOW!
About the Event
AX Decisions 2009 is a virtual conference & tradeshow for Microsoft Dynamics AX Professionals seeking implementation strategies, thought leadership, and best practices for maximizing the value and effectiveness of their organization’s AX platform and initiatives.
Attend AX Decisions 2009 from the convenience of your desktop to:
Get up to speed on the latest trends, technologies and strategies for Dynamics AX
Listen to real-world customer success stories
Discover the secrets to establishing priorities and gaining commitment across the organization for your AX strategy
Explore which AX tools will bring you the most success
Learn how to navigate your way through a successful AX upgrade
Drive greater efficiency and productivity from your dynamics system during tough times
Economic pressures and a growing litany of regulations add to the list of challenges businesses face. Users need to balance among existing investments and new projects. Join R “Ray” Wang, a Partner at Altimeter Group in finding out how Microsoft Dynamics ERP users should take advantage of this time to maximize their investments by:
* streamlining how they are organized;
* optimizing key business processes; and
* improving their technology strategy
Recently, readers and clients have been approached by on-premise vendors offering free software modules to incentivize new license purchases. However, free should not be confused with the Open Source (i.e. Freeware) movement, where source code is provided with minimal copyright restrictions. Free should not be confused with any other obligations upon receiving license to that software. Free should not be confused with… well - free! In fact, a closer evaluation of free software should include the following 9 test questions:
Are you required to purchase a minimum amount of some other module?
If you are required to buy a minimum amount, what’s the discount off list for that required module?
Could you get the paid module on its own for less than the discount?
Could you get the free module on its own for less than the discount?
Do you have to pay maintenance on the free module?
What value will be assigned to the software licenses when maintenance is calculated?
Do you get a discounted value for the maintenance on the free software license?
Can you return the free software without any charges?
Can you trade the free software for other products?
The Bottom Line - Calculate The Total Account Value (TAV) When Comparing Software Ownership Costs
Total account value (TAV) provides a methodology to calculate the true cost of ownership over a period of time, typically 10 years. TAV represents what your worth to the vendor and your total costs. Components for a side to side comparison should include the following 10 elements:
License fees
Maintenance fees over a fixed period of time (e.g. 10 years)
Implementation costs
Patching, bug-fixing, and upgrade costs
Testing costs
Training costs
Internal support-related staffing costs
Hardware or hosting costs
Retirement costs
Cost over-runs and that miscellaneous bucket
Use this methodology to compare costs as you figure out your enterprise strategy. This includes total account value cost comparisons such as:
Vendor X vs Vendor Y vendor selection
SaaS versus On-premise ongoing- costs
Third party maintenance versus extended support
Your POV.
Did you really think you’d get free software? Have you done a comparison of your existing costs versus scenarios for a new apps strategy? Need some guidance on TAV? Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com.
*standard disclaimers apply. always check with your legal counsel and procurement experts before taking any action with your vendor contracts.
Title: Industry Event: Sapience 2009 Location: Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Cambridge, MA Link out: Click here Start Date: 2009-12-08 End Date: 2009-12-09 Description: In 2008, SAP announced a 30% maintenance increase. For the first time in history over, 100 SAP customers spoke out publicly, organizing a press conference to express their deep frustration not only about the increase but also about SAP’s attitude; the high costs of operation; the overly complex product structure; and the treacherous pricing concept.
Many or these customers regretted their past one-stop-shopping strategy that had them over-exposed to the actions of their key application vendor. Few of them had explored the market and application sourcing alternatives. In many cases, they discovered that their SAP-bundles contained immature and lower quality products, which required expensive and time-consuming migrations with no positive business impact. The negative side of this lock-in became painfully apparent.
It’s not too late!
Sapience 2009 will present you with viable alternatives to an SAP controlled environment. We will specifically present application strategies that are customer centric and have a positive bottom line impact. Not only will we address multiple ways to reduce cost but we will inspire you to use past investments as a base for a new application strategy that focuses on your business not your vendor’s business. Enterprise support? Definitely – for YOUR enterprise.
Information at Sapience 2009 will be presented in a series of thought-provoking sessions designed to encourage open discussion and debate on the pros and cons of different strategies and alternatives.
Featuring Panels of industry veterans and experienced SAP users representing a broad spectrum of views on the viability of ERP-suites, as well as Keynotes that inform and educate on alternative strategies, Sapience 2009 will arm you with information that will enable you to move to a more cost-effective, heterogeneous environment.
INFORMATION YOU CAN PUT INTO ACTION IMMEDIATELY
* The SAP Cost Cutter\’s Roadmap
* ERP Trends
* Legal Aspects of SAP License and Maintenance Agreements – what does and does not hold water
* Third Party Maintenance
* Second Hand Licenses, how they work, and implications on maintenance and hardware changes
* Open Source Strategies for SAP Users
* Augmenting SAP Installations with Cloud Offerings
* Extending SAP Hubs with other ERP-systems Register
Title: User Group Event: SAP UK & Ireland User Group Conference and Exhibition Location: Manchester Central (GMEX/MICC), England, United Kingdom Link out: Click here Start Date: 2009-11-23 End Date: 2009-11-24 Description: The largest most comprehensive UK & Ireland conference for SAP users, the SAP UK & Ireland User Group Conference and Exhibition will take place at Manchester Central (GMEX/MICC), on 23rd & 24th of November 2009.
Designed by SAP users for SAP users this 2 day conference will feature the most far reaching programme of any SAP event comprised of over 80+ presentations, many by users sharing their experiences and best practice, workshops, a 75 exhibitor exhibition and a networking dinner – all included in the astounding £400 early bird fee (£385 if you book as a group of 5 or more before 30th September).
With no SAPPHIRE (Europe) in 2009, SAP will be showing their full support for this event with keynote speakers, involvement in the new Senior Executive Forum (a one day discussion forum for top executives) and numerous SAP staff available throughout the 2 days
Furthermore, for the first time this conference will include programme sessions and exhibitors catering for the specific needs of SAP Business One and BusinessObjects users too.
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ated a group that you can join now that will carry the conversation further. Sign up now and stay tuned for when the report goes out. Look for more Bill of Rights to come.
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