Posts Tagged ‘best practices’

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Monday’s Musings: Seven Basic Privacy Rights Users Should Demand For Social Business

Published on January 15, 2012 by R "Ray" Wang

Public Outrage Grows Over Lax Privacy Polices At Popular Social Networking Sites

Recent actions by social networking leaders in the market place have brought new attention to a user’s privacy rights.  Despite the fact that these sites provide a freemium service to users, abuse and arrogance of a user’s privacy rights combined with user ignorance has led to not only a public outrage, but also increasing action from privacy advocacy groups to petition government agencies.  Three public examples include:

Figure 1. US Social Networking Sites Market Share By Page Views

More…

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Tuesday’s Tip: Five Cloud/SaaS Contract Negotiation Tips For 2012

Published on January 10, 2012 by R "Ray" Wang

Business Leaders Often Poorly Prepared For Cloud/SaaS Contract Negotiations

Business leaders often take great care in building their Cloud and SaaS strategy, only to have many of the benefits of flexibility and agility hampered by overlooking details in their cloud contracts.   In conversations with over 200 cloud customers in 2011, key reasons include:

  • A common belief that SaaS and Cloud contracts are simple
  • Lack of software contract negotiations and procurement experience
  • Failure to review previous departmental contracts now in renewal mode
  • Limited access to SaaS and Cloud contract expertise

Avoid These Common Mistakes In Cloud Contracts

While SaaS/Cloud contracts are considerably less complicated, buyers should remember that even Cloud/SaaS software contracts still require some careful planning.  Lessons learned from over 1200 software contract negotiations highlight five common mistakes made in cloud contracts.

  1. Blindly including support costs with the contract. While Cloud/SaaS contracts automatically bundle maintenance and updates into the subscriptions, customers often do not realize that they do not have to buy support.  In fact, vendors are not allowed to require customers to buy support with subscription.  Avoid going for the highest level support upon initial contract signing.  This option can always be added at a later date.
  2. Failure to negotiate flex up provisions. Most contracts begin with a small number of users in a departmental setting.  However as usage grow, most enterprises just add additional users without securing upfront discounts potentially leaving 1000′s of dollars on the table.  In contracts, remember to secure discounts for 2x, 3x, and 4x, your initial usage.
  3. Forgetting to negotiate flex down. As with securing discounts for adding usage, the true test of elasticity occurs when companies flex down usage.  Negotiate the ability to reduce usage by 10%, 20%, and 30% without incurring penalties.
  4. Paying upfront without a discount. While many Cloud/SaaS vendors prefer annual agreements and annual payment upfront, savvy Cloud/SaaS buyers prefer to pay in more frequent cycles such as monthly and quarterly.  Should a Cloud/SaaS provider seek upfront payment, negotiate a discount commensurate to your hurdle rate.
  5. Not trading refrenceability for success. Customers often jump at the ability to serve as a referenceable client without ensuring that the software has been deployed.  Agree to serve as a reference only after the software has been deployed.  One common strategy, trade referenceability for prioritization of key features into the next release.

As Cloud/SaaS contracts emerge as the norm, buyers should keep abreast of other changes.  Stay tuned for the 2012 Cloud/SaaS Customer Bill of Rights to be published Q1 2012.

Your POV.

Need help with your software contract?  Contact us throughout the vendor selection process.  We can help with a quick contract review or even the complete vendor selection.  Let us know your experiences.  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.

How can we assist?

Buyers, do you need help with your apps strategy and vendor management strategy?  Trying to figure out how to infuse innovation into your tech strategy? Ready to put the expertise of over 1200 software contract negotiations to work?  Give us a call!

Please let us know if you need help with your next gen apps strategy efforts. Here’s how we can help:

  • Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
  • Evaluating SaaS/Cloud options
  • Assessing apps strategies (e.g. single instance, two-tier ERP, upgrade, custom dev, packaged deployments”
  • Designing innovation into end to end processes and systems
  • Comparing SaaS/Cloud integration strategies
  • Assisting with legacy ERP migration
  • Engaging in an SCRM strategy
  • Planning upgrades and migration
  • Performing vendor selection

Related Resources And Links

20100419 Tuesday’s Tip: Dealing With Pesky Software Licensing Audits

20090714 Research Summary: An Enterprise Software Licensee’s Bill of Rights, V2

20101214 Tuesday’s Tip: Dealing With Vendor Offers To Cancel Shelfware And Replace With New Licenses

20100308 Monday’s Musings: Decoupling Support From Maintenance – What Apps Vendors Can Learn From Microsoft Dynamics

20100222 Monday’s Musings: Why Users Should Preserve Their Third Party Maintenance Rights

20100104 News Analysis: SAP Revives Two-Tier Maintenance Options

20090210 Tuesday’s Tip: Software Licensing and Pricing – Do Not Give Away Your Third Party Maintenance And Access Rights

20090709 Tuesday’s Tip: Do Not Bundle Your Support and Maintenance Contracts!

20091222 Tuesday’s Tip: 10 Cloud And SaaS Apps Strategies For 2010

20091208 Tuesday’s Tip: 2010 Apps Strategies Should Start With Business Value

20091102 Best Practices: Lessons Learned In What SMB’s Want From Their ERP Provider

20091006 Tuesday’s Tip: Why Free Software Ain’t Really Free

20090504 News Analysis: Oracle Waives Fees On Extended Support Offerings

20080909 Trends: What Customers Want From Maintenance And Support

20080215 Software Licensing and Pricing: Stop the Anti-Competitive Maintenance Fee Madness

20090405 Monday’s Musings: Total Account Value, True Cost of Ownership, And Software Vendor Business Models

20090324 Tuesday’s Tips: Five Simple Steps To Reduce Your Software Maintenance Costs

20090223 Monday’s Musings: Five Programs Some Vendors Have Implemented To Help Clients In An Economic Recession

20091012 Research Report: Customer Bill of Rights – Software-as-a Service

20090910 Tuesday’s Tip: Note To Self – Start Renegotiating Your Q4 Software Maintenance Contracts Now!

20090721 Tuesday’s Tip: 3 Approaches To Return Shelfware

20090127 Tuesday’s Tip: Software Licensing and Pricing – Now’s The Time To Remove “Gag Rule” Clauses In Your Software Contracts

Reprints

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact sales (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com.

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website.

Copyright © 2012 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.

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Vendor Event: Workday Predict And Prepare 2011

Published on December 3, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang

Title: Workday Predict And Prepare 2011
Start Date: 2011-12-07  11:00 am PST
End Date: 2011-12-07   12:00 pm PST
Location: Webinar Link

For the fourth year in a row, join the country’s top IT, HR and Talent Management analysts and consultants for their predictions of next year’s critical trends, plus their advice on how you should prepare for them.
Their predictions include

  • SaaS becomes mainstream, and IT’s job becomes integrations
  • Companies will “rip and replace” legacy systems even faster than before
  • Self-service will become social, mobile and more gamified
  • Talent Management as a separate software category will disappear
  • Mobile will soon become employees’ first contact with enterprise software
  • Companies will do Master Data clean up in order to do Analytics

    • Sponsored by Workday, Predict and Prepare features Knowledge Infusion CEO Jason Averbook, HR technology guru Naomi Lee Bloom, and R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst and CEO of Constellation Research.

    Their roundtable is moderated by Bill Kutik, host of The Bill Kutik Radio Show® and Firing Line with Bill Kutik, technology columnist for Human Resource Executive® and co-chair of the magazine’s 15th Annual HR Technology® Conference & Exposition.

    Your questions will be addressed throughout the discussion.

    Register here!

    Disclosure

    Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website.

    Copyright © 2011 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.

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    Press Release: Social Business and Enterprise Collaboration Software Veteran Alan Lepofsky Joins Constellation Research, Inc.

    Published on October 3, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang

    Toronto, Ontario, Canada – October 3rd, 2011
    11:21 am (GMT – 5:00) Eastern Time

    Constellation Research Inc, a next generation research analyst and advisory firm helping clients achieve business value from emerging and disruptive technologies, announced today that Alan Lepofsky has joined as a Vice-President & Principal Analyst.  With close to 20 years of experience in enterprise collaboration software, Alan is an expert in how social software can be used to improve the core business processes that organizations rely on.

    “There is a transformation going on in the way employees connect to their peers, share information and engage with their customers. I’m excited to help companies make educated decisions as they evaluate and ultimately deploy social software. I want to make sure they choose the vendor that provides the best overall fit, instead of just looking at a check list of features.” – Alan Lepofsky

    Prior to joining Constellation, Alan spent 3 years as Director of Marketing at Socialtext and before that, 14 years in a variety of roles at IBM/Lotus. He’s an active blogger and speaker in the Enterprise 2.0/Social Business community, where he shares his thoughts on the business benefits of open communication and collaboration.  Alan graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A.Sc. in Engineering. His major was Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Business and Entrepreneurship.

    Key elements of Alan’s research coverage will include:

    • Evaluating the enterprise social software landscape
    • Augmenting and integrating business process with social software
    • Tracking the changes in modern software interfaces including activity streams, visual data representation, mobile access, etc.
    • Exploring how enterprise software can adapt patterns from popular entertainment platforms such as videos games, television and movies
    • Revealing the impact of new collaboration tools
    • Researching the intersections of personal and group productivity
    • Documenting and sharing best practices in social business

    In addition to the above coverage areas, Alan will be building a social business community on social business within Constellation Research and helping the firm adapt leading practices.

    “With so many social media pundits pontificating about fluffy theoretical concepts, our clients expect us to deliver visionary and pragmatic points of view. Alan brings both the industry and enterprise credibility required to delight customers and serve as a strategic advisor to innovators in the social business space.  I’m personally looking forward to the impact he’ll bring internally as we adopt leading practices”, said R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst and CEO.

    Please join us in welcoming Alan Lepofsky to the Constellation Research Family and newly expanded Toronto office!

    COORDINATES

    Twitter: @alanlepo
    Linked In: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo
    Geographical Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Google+: http://www.gplus.to/alanlepo
    Email    : alepofsky (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com.

     

    About Constellation Research, Inc.*
    Constellation Research is a leading research analyst and advisory firm guiding organizations and their leaders through the hype and buzz of the latest disruptive technologies.  Constellation takes a holistic approach in achieving business value for board members, marketing, technology, operations, human resource, and finance executives.

    The firm’s analysts deliver pragmatic, creative, and impactful research focused on business value, profitability, and market differentiation.  Research analysts bring real world experience, independence, and objectivity to our clients.  Most analysts bring over 2 decades of hands-on experience in working with senior leaders in enterprise organizations.

    Constellation serves the needs of buyers and end users who seek insight, guidance, and advice in dealing with a dizzying array of disruptive business models and technologies.  The firm provide the bridge between legacy optimization and future innovation.  Constellation also advises sellers from both the buyer‚s point of view and how to deliver value to their customers.

    Constellation builds partnerships with its clients.  The client and their organization’s success is Constellation’s only mission.

    Insight. Inspiration. Impact.

    *Constellation Research, Constellation SuperNova Awards and the Constellation Research logo are trademarks of Constellation Research, Inc. All other products and services listed herein are trademarks of their respective companies.

    Press Contacts:

    Contact the Media and Influencers relations team at press@ConstellationRG.com for interviews with analysts.

    Sales Contacts:

    Contact our sales team.

    Kieran Barr

    Email: Kieran (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com
    Office:     +1.206.409.5009
    Twitter: @    kierobar

    David Stanley
    Email:David (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com .
    Office: +1.719.357.7826
    Twitter: @kiwigate

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    Press Release: Twenty-nine Protostars Recognized In The Constellation SuperNova Awards

    Published on September 20, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang

    First Inaugural Awards Designed to Celebrate the Explorers, Pioneers, and Unsung Heroes Who Successfully Put Technology to Work

    SAN FRANCISCO, CA, September 20, 2011—Constellation Research, Inc., announces 29 Protostar winners, representing the 2011 SuperNova award semifinalists.  Chosen from a pool of more than 70 applicants, these individuals are recognized as among the few that have overcome the odds in successfully applying emerging and disruptive technologies within their organizations. SuperNova finalists will be recognized at a gala dinner on October 28, 2011 in Scottsdale, Arizona hosted by Constellation Research.

    The Process of Picking Protostars

    Most award programs recognize technology suppliers for advancements in the market. Few programs recognize individuals for their courage in battling the odds to effect change in their organization. The Constellation SuperNova Awards celebrate the explorers, the pioneers, and the unsung heroes who successfully put new technologies to work. Most importantly, these leaders have created disruptions in their market.

    An allstar cast of judges have identified and selected applicants who embody the human spirit to innovate, overcome adversity, and successfully deliver market changing approaches. Applicants were subjected to a vigorous set of criteria that reflect real-world and pragmatic experience. The Protostar semifinalists were selected in five categories: social business, mobile enterprise, cloud computing, advanced analytics, and emerging technologies.

    The ProtoStar Winners:

    EMERGING TECH

    • Imrana Ghani, Sales Operations Manager – ITS

    • Mike O’Neill, CEO – Preferred Unlimited

     

    ADVANCED ANALYTICS

    • Charles (C.J.) Wehlage, VP Supply Chain Solutions – Sony Electronics

    • Chris McLatcher, Director of Business Intelligence – Ultimate Software (NASDAQ: ULTI)

    • Vernon Meyer, The Social Business Team for IT – AMP Pty Ltd

     

    CLOUD COMPUTING

    • Anthony L. Chirchirillo, CEO – Chirch Global Manufacturing

    • Ben Doyle, Director of IT – Enterasys

    • Christopher Johansen, Senior Marketing Communications Manager – Christiana Care Health System

    • Daniel E. Retzer, Managing Director & Chief Technology Officer – XSP

    • David Smoley, Senior Vice President & CIO – Flextronics

    • Dennis Hodges, CIO – Inteva Producds

    • Joe Drouin, SVP & CIO – Kelly Services

    • Joe Palmer, CIO – Jefferson County Colorado

    • Molly Hunting, Director of IT- Shape Corporation

    • Phillip Tomczak, Vice President – Bordine’s

    • Rick Parker, Cloud Architect, Activision (formerly IT Director, Fetch Technologies)

    • Zahid Afzal, CIO, Huntington Bank

     

    MOBILE ENTERPRISE

    • Chris Perret, CEO – Nukona

     

    SOCIAL BUSINESS

    • Henry Ho, Partner – CORE4 Research

    • Jeff Koski, Senior Director of IT – API Healthcare

    • Joe Robens, IT Account Manager – Aristocrat

    • John Quinn, VP of Engineering – Gilt

    • Jonathan Brayshaw & Lee Hunt – Global Leader Digital Communications and Social Business & Digital Strategy Manager – Psion

    • Liz Bullock & Amy Tennison, Dell Social Media Director & Dell Social Media & Community University – Dell Computer

    • Matthew Ladin, Community Manager – Texas Instruments

    • Scott Moore, Senior Manager College and University Initiatives – AICPA

    • Vernon Meyer, The Social Business Team for IT – AMP Pty Ltd.

    • Vincent Boon, Head of Community- giftgaff

    “The judges have spoken and these are the best of the best among the 70 submissions”, noted R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst and CEO, Constellation Research, Inc., “The competition was fierce and the Protostars selected have what it takes to be the next stage – SuperNova.. Both judges and the general public will have a chance to vote and we look forward to recognizing the Finalists.”

    REWARDS INCLUDE ACCESS TO INNOVATION, NETWORKING, AND RESEARCH

    All Protostars will be awarded a 16th month membership in Constellation’s SuperNova Community for early adopters and innovators. In addition, Protostars will be invited to attend Constellation’s Connected Enterprise 2011 (#CCE2011), an invitation only innovation event in Scottsdale, Arizona from October 28th to 30th, 2011.

    #CCE2011 is a three-day executive retreat will include mind expanding keynotes from visionaries and futurists, interactive best practices panels, The Constellation SuperNova Awards event, a golf outing, and an experiential spousal/partner program.

    A select group of semi-finalists will be chosen to present on one of five best practice panels at the event. The panelists will receive one innovation retreat invitation and one spousal/partner experiential invitation.

    SuperNovas (Finalists) in each category will win a one -year subscription to Constellation’s Research Library and complimentary tickets to the Connected Enterprise 2012 event, an estimated value of $120,000 per winner.

    CONSTELLATION RESEARCH

    Constellation Research (@ConstellationRG) is a research and advisory firm focused on disruptive and emerging technologies. This renowned group is a collection of prestigious analysts that bring real world experience, independence, and objectivity client solutions to span cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-industry points of view. Supporting a dizzying array of disruptive business models and technologies for middleware to software to services, the Constellation Research team advices the entire ecosystem of buyers, partners, solution providers and vendor clients. For more information about Constellation Research, please visit http://www.constellationrg.com.

    ***

    Constellation Research, Constellation SuperNova Awards and the Constellation Research logo are trademarks of Constellation Research, Inc. All other products and services listed herein are trademarks of their respective companies.

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    Monday’s Musings: Auction Sites Such As Deal Umpire May Level The Playing Field Among Daily Deal Sites

    Published on July 18, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang


    Merchants Must Break Free From Daily Deal Site Hysteria

    Following up on the April 4th post about the damage caused by daily deal sites such as Groupon, merchants continued to send feedback about the challenges they face.  Those who use daily deal sites express the following:

    • Peer pressure to participate. Customers and prospects flooded by daily deals try out competitors.  Merchants afraid that lack of participation will hurt the business. A large restaurant chain VP noted, “Dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t.  We need to raise awareness above the fray, but the prize for winning is a losing business model”
    • Attraction of a low value, price sensitive customer base. Instead of attracting brand conscious, high value customers, merchants end up with bargain hunters.  Over time, merchants have had to raise prices to make up for losses with daily deal sites.  A high end spa owner complained, “I’m attracting the wrong customers and aggravating my loyal customer base.  Everyone now wants a bargain and we’ve got no more margin to give”
    • Inability to negotiate favorable terms. A lack of transparency on terms results in higher takes of percentage of revenue. Merchants lack visibility and expertise to secure better terms.  CMO of a large hospitality chain stated, “The terms for the deals stink.  We need some pricing pressure to move the pendulum back towards the center”.

    New Daily Deal Auction Sites Create Win-Wins for Merchants And Daily Deal Sites

    Auction sites such as Deal Umpire provide a market between merchants and daily deal sites.  These market places, if successful, will deliver two key benefits for merchants such as:

    • Visibility in deal terms among various daily deal sites. Deal site profiles include key information such as revenue split, payout terms, subscriber reach, subscriber demographics, deal site business model, credit card fees, media coverage, marketing materials, and when a deal can be featured.
    • Competition for daily deal business. The market place concept brings together multiple deal site programs into once place.   With competitive forces in play, merchants can drive pricing pressure on daily deal sites for lower revenue share and more favorable terms.

    Merchants using a market place benefit with:

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    Research Summary: Market Overview – The Market For SAP Optimization Options

    Published on May 15, 2011 by R "Ray" Wang

    Forward And Commentary

    This market overview provides a starting point to SAP customers seeking optimization solutions.  The document delivers actionable advice and insights into a proven collection of software solutions.  As part of the full series, best practices documents will follow with in- depth case studies and a critical product evaluation of this growing market of SAP optimization solutions. 

    A. Introduction

    With the average Global 2000 ERP deployment nearing 11.5 years in service, ERP customers face a significant challenge with updating their existing investments. Installed pre-Y2K, users have attempted to work around the best practices of the ‘90s while seeking innovation and application agility. Subsequently, SAP users face three main challenges:

    1. Higher cost of ownership that reduces overall ROI.
    2. An aging and brittle infrastructure that hampers innovation.
    3. Increasing complexity that hampers greater adoption.

    B. Research Findings

    As SAP customers choose their go- forward apps strategy, interviews from 100′s of clients show that four paths emerge (see Figure 1):
    1. Stay with status quo;
    2. Move to shiny new SAP.;
    3. Stabilize SAP and augment; and
    4. Modernize SAP and surround with best-of-breed.
    Figure 1. The Four Paths Of SAP Optimization

     

    Consequently, an $80.1 billion third-party SAP ecosystem has emerged to address nine key areas (details on each vendor in the official report):

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