Notifications

Happy New Year! The site has been upgraded and optimized. Thanks to Adam Metz, John Wiseman, and Jeremiah Owyang. All comment sections should be working.

Current Poll

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Industry Events

January 2009
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
  
 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

My Blip.FM

SMS Text Message

Phone number

Carrier

*Standard text messaging rates may apply from your carrier*

Podcast Player

Podcast Feeds

  • View in iTunes
  • Any Podcatcher
  • Any Feed Reader

Most Emailed

  • N/A

Top Browsers

Top OS

Visitors Online

The Legal Stuff

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.

No NDA's have been broken. Sources may come from both publicly available information and private individual conversations.

Copyrighted © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009

R "Ray" Wang and A Software Insiders Point of View.

All rights reserved.

January 6, 2009, 1:11 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | 4 comments |

Tuesday’s Tip: 10 Suggestions For A Successful Open Source Apps Strategy (Based On Personal Experience Blowing Up My Blog)

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

December 17, 2008, 2:06 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | One comment |

Research Summary: The Forrester WaveTM: Order Management Hubs, Q4 2008 - Sterling Commerce, Oracle, SAP, and Epicor Emerge As Leading Solutions That Support The Delivery Of A Perfect Order

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

December 15, 2008, 12:01 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | 7 comments |

Monday’s Musings: Call to Action - Updating The Enterprise Software Licensee’s Bill of Rights

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

December 10, 2008, 12:01 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | One comment |

Wednesday’s Whispers: The Word On the Street - December 2008

PEOPLE WHISPERS: MOVES, PROMOTIONS, AND MILESTONES
Congratulations to all!  Thanks for your emails and alerts.  If you’ve got a change or know of a promotion, keep dropping me a line!
Jim Anderson is now a Partner at Element Consulting Group.  Jim previously served as EVP for professional services at Lawson Software and Group VP roles in [...]

December 9, 2008, 3:50 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | Leave a comment |

Speaking Engagement: Investing in Project-Based Solutions to Weather the Current Economic Climate

Exclusive Webinar Invitation

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

December 9, 2008, 3:10 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | Leave a comment |

Speaking Engagement: The Cloud in Action- How Top Enterprise Firms are Using SaaS and Other Cloud Technologies to Improve their Business

Sponsored by Fujitsu Consulting
December 9, 2008

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

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

December 8, 2008, 2:25 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | One comment |

Monday’s Musings: Can IT Services Firms Shift the Balance of Power To Create Choice for the Customer?

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

December 4, 2008, 4:11 pm | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | Leave a comment |

Trip Report: India December 2008 - Sentiments From Bangalore

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

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

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

December 2, 2008, 1:41 pm | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | 3 comments |

Trip Report: India December 2008 - Measuring the Mood in Mumbai

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

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

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

December 2, 2008, 12:01 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | Leave a comment |

Tuesday’s Tip: Software Licensing and Pricing - Get Rid of CPI Escalation Clauses In Maintenance

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

December 1, 2008, 12:01 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | 3 comments |

Monday’s Musings: 2009 Enterprise Software Predictions

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

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

November 26, 2008, 12:08 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | 3 comments |

Quarterly Financial Tracker: Q3 CY Quarterly Revenues Show Deflection Point

With 2020 hindsight and the best rear view mirror clarity (j/k), Q3 appears to be THE deflection point in where the economy began to impact the enterprise software vendors.  A flurry of continued lowered guidance on earnings by vendors reflects the general nervousness sweeping customers and prospects as we head into the most important quarter…Q4.
Major [...]

November 22, 2008, 8:36 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | Leave a comment |

Research Summary: Which Has The Better Apps Strategy: Oracle Or SAP? Oracle’s Bold Next-Generation Play Versus SAP’s Less Disruptive Path

Forward and Commentary

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

November 5, 2008, 12:09 am | Print This Post Print This Post | Email This Post Email This Post | Leave a comment |

Wednesday’s Whispers: The Word On the Street - November 2008

PEOPLE WHISPERS: MOVES, PROMOTIONS, AND MILESTONES
Congratulations to all!  Thanks for your emails and alerts.  If you’ve got a change or know of a promotion, keep dropping me a line!
Bruce Cameron is now President of CDC Software. The former executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing was promoted from within.  He now reports to [...]