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Published on January 5, 2010 by R "Ray" Wang

High Cost Of Ownership And Changing Requirements Drive SAP Users To Seek Optimization Solutions

As users await SAP to regain its mojo (see Dennis Howlett's post) and implement it's "Voice of the Customer" strategy Buy cheap gleevec online, in 2010, users must continue to reduce their cost of ownership and complexity (see Figure 1).  In addition, rapidly changing business requirements require some users to seek SaaS alternatives, additional point solutions, and extensions.

Figure 1.  Cost Reduction Top of Mind for SAP users

What SAP users want from SAP

Consequently, vendors providing SAP optimization and extension solutions represent one of the fastest growing parts of the $78.7B (2009 Altimeter Group estimate), Illinois IL Ill., 850,000 person strong SAP service partner and developer ecosystem.   SAP users already embrace many of the solutions from vendors on this inaugural SAP Optimization List as part of their business value oriented apps strategy. The living list covers seven areas including:

  1. application extension and usability;

  2. application life cycle management;

  3. archiving, storage, buy cheap gleevec, and data management;

  4. license management and optimization;

  5. Microsoft Office integration;

  6. third party maintenance; and

  7. virtualization


1. Application Extension and Usability

Users often complain about the poor usability of SAP solutions.  These solutions allow users to change their user experience with SAP.  In some cases, Order arimidex, the solutions provide composite app creation capabilities in other tool sets to inter-operate with SAP.


  • Adobe - provides interactive forms for the SAP environment in both an off-line and on-line deployment.  Submitted forms are then entered into SAP.  Forms can include validations and other secure features.

  • ERP-Link - allows users to extend the SAP environment for business intelligence, document management, content management, Connecticut CT Conn., and composite application creation using Microsoft tools.  The i_Net platform creates SAP-Microsoft interoperability.

  • GuiXT - provides users with the ability to deliver customized user interfaces in SAP applications.  GuiXT is often used by clients to simplify screens and user flows without impacting SAP code.


2. Application Life Cycle Management

Whether it may be instance consolidation, upgrades, test data management, or performance planning, these vendors ease the process of managing the SAP application life cycle, buy cheap gleevec online.


  • Hayes Technology - assists customers with replicating production application data for dev, Buy epogen overnight delivery, testing, and training environments.  Gold Client allows organizations to replicate the data sets they need in SAP configuration, master data, and transcational data.

  • Hyperformix - builds on SAP internal monitoring capability, αγοράζουν φτηνά zometa.   Organizations gain a performance monitoring tool that identifies hardware, infrastructure, Virginia VA Va., and architecture optimization opportunities.

  • Intellicorp - provides an artificial intelligence based optimization solution called Live Compare that compares version of SAP for use in testing, upgrade planning, and other life cycle activities. The solution helps clients understand their pre and post environment.

  • Panaya - delivers a SaaS based optimization tool for SAP upgrades, Iowa IA, enhancement packages, and ABAP code cleansing.  Customers generate a code analysis to determine differentials between versions.  The tool proactively tells user what will break, Rhode Island RI R.I., how to fix it, and where to test.

  • Tidal Software - optimizes the allocation of SAP support resources through a root cause analysis methodology.  Performance, IT Process, and Workload automation solutions address both day to day and upgrade scenarios such as a system refresh.

  • West Trax - uses a benchmark tool based on over 300 clients in 13 industries to determine system optimization opportunities for upgrades and  consolidations.  KPI Scan, iressa online cheap, KPI Optimizer, and KPI QA help organizations identify opportunities, Lowest price arimidex, make suggestions, and assist with compliance.


3. Archiving, Storage, cheap gleevec from canada, and Data Management


  • EMC - provides content management and archiving solutions to support compliance requirements.  Other capabilities include cloning, backup, Kopen goedkope casodex, and recovery, and information protection.

  • IBM Optim - delivers a suite of integrated data management solutions that includes data privacy, test data management, archiving, ordering gleevec online without prescription, retention and E-discovery, and upgrade consolidations.


4. License Management and Optimization
 Buy cheap gleevec online, Solutions in this category focus on helping clients manage their license usage.  Many large enterprises lack the understanding of how much shelfware may be in production.  In addition, the used software market provides users with opportunities to unload or acquire older releases of software. Rhode Island RI R.I.,

  • Flexera (formerly Acresso, Macrovision) - helps clients with a software solution to understand usage, ensure compliance, centralize updates, buy evista without prescription, predict future demand, and improve contract negotiation leverage.

  • SUSEN Software - provides a market place to buy and sell used software or shelfware.

  • UsedSoft - supports a market place to buy and sell used software or shelfware.


5. Cheapest zometa in the world, Microsoft Office Integration

Organizations require easy ways to leverage Microsoft Office as an interface into SAP.  Common scenarios include Outlook, Excel, Access, and Word integration, köpa gleevec online.


  • SAP Duet - represents a solution in joint partnership between Microsoft and SAP to provide interoperability.  Current users complain about the slow pace of innovation and high cost.  A new version addressing these issues will be out in 2010.

  • Winshuttle - facilitates data exchange between SAP and Microsoft Excel or Access.   Winshuttle's data management tools automate data entry, Price of gleevec, data download, and reporting tasks for the entire SAP BusinessSuite 7.


6. Third party maintenance

Customers seeking relief from maintenance choose solutions that provide maintenance, tax updates, and regulatory changes for often half the cost of existing SAP maintenance prices.  The clear leader in the market is Rimini Street though some other system integrators have been quietly providing such services, buy cheap gleevec online.


  • Rimini Street- delivers maintenance options for SAP customers who do not seek to upgrade but would like to keep their existing systems up to date with tax, compliance, cheapest capecitabine in the world, and other break-fix issues.  Rimini Street's charter program has met significant success with over 100 client cases for SAP customers.

  • Your System Integrator of Choice - The recent Siemens SAP maintenance contract negotiations revealed that other vendors such as IBM and HCL were bidding for the maintenance business.   Many SoftwareInsider readers have shared with us that many system integrators, especially those in Europe provide such services.


7. Farmacia epogen barato, Virtualization

Virtualization allows organizations to consolidate server infrastructure costs for development, testing, training, and production environments, buy arimidex no rx.


  • EMC - provides virtualization solutions that include high availability (HA), backup and recovery (BR), Ohio OH, and cloning.

  • VMWare -  reduces an organizations physical infrastructure footprint with its solutions.  VMWare provides additional solutions that deliver high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR).  In addition to cost savings, many Software Insider readers report performance improvements.


The Bottom Line - Lots Of Proven Solutions, Expect More Details In Future Friday's Features

Over the course of the next 6 months, we will be profiling many of these vendors.  Key questions that will be answered:


  1. What's the appropriate use case?

  2. What other customers have used these solutions?

  3. What are sample ROI's achieved?


Meanwhile, let's see what news, programs, and innovations develop at SAP's Field Kickoff Meeting (FKOM 2010) the third week of January.

Your POV.

Have you worked with any of these vendors?  Feel free to share your experiences.  Am I missing anyone?  This list will be continuously updated so please share with us your thoughts.  Feel free to post your comments here or send me an email at rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.

Copyright © 201o R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Buy Capecitabine Online Cheap

Published on November 30, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang

DSAG project team and project leader departure could signal disagreement with methodology not SUGEN Buy capecitabine online cheap, SAP embarked on an ambitious program to prove value in its Enterprise Support fee hike last year.   As planned, Alaska AK, Epogen discount, 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, αγοράζουν online iressa, αγοράσετε iressa έκπτωση, 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:


  1. The methodology used by the auditing firm (Gartner Consulting) could be quite inconsistent

  2. Teams may not have had enough time to review the data to check for statistical errors.

  3. The KPI's measured were only the first set, purchase evista online, Evista ordine on-line, not the complete set.

  4. A few months does not provide enough trending data

  5. 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, Louisiana LA. Buy gleevec no prescription, 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, acquistare a buon mercato capecitabine, Indiana IN Ind., 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:


  1. SAP's embarking on a risky but unique program to show value

  2. Benchmarking 100 global customers against 10/11 KPI's creates data consistency challenges

  3. 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, order evista. Oregon OR Ore., 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, arimidex price, Missouri MO Mo., 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, αγοράσετε capecitabine έκπτωση. För iressa online, Copyright © 2009 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC, Kansas KS Kans.. Bestill epogen online, All rights reserved. Buy gleevec online legally. Köpa rabatterade casodex. Price of epogen. Køb billige arimidex. Buy iressa pill. Ordering cytoxan. Capecitabine pedido en línea.

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Buy Gleevec Online Cheap

Published on November 9, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang

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 Buy gleevec online cheap, : richer user experience, rapid implementation, frequent cycles of innovation, minimal upgrade hassles, always on deployment, subscription pricing, and scalability (see Figure 1). Ordering casodex online, Despite these benefits, organizations head full circle towards the same best of breed dilemma they faced in the late 1990's.  In that era, order casodex without prescription, Køb billige capecitabine, 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, buy cheap cytoxan online, Comprar en línea zometa, 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, evista online cheap. Rhode Island RI R.I., 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, cheapest zometa online. Købe evista online, Figure 1. Seven Benefits of SaaS Deployments

screen-shot-2009-11-08-at-22936-pm

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, Texas TX Tex., Discount zometa, 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


  1. Bread: take 2 slices of bread

  2. Peanut butter: spread peanut butter on one slice

  3. Jelly: spread jelly on the other slice

  4. Assembly: put the bread together

  5. Assembly: slice down the middle

  6. Delivery: serve on plate


Example 2:  Modeling in Force.com


  1. Bread: take 2 slices of bread

  2. Bread: determine whether or not to toast the bread

  3. Peanut butter: choose chunky or creamy

  4. Peanut butter: spread peanut butter on one slice

  5. Jelly: choose type of jelly

  6. Jelly: spread jelly on the other slice

  7. Assembly: put the bread together

  8. Assembly: determine if the slices is in half or diagonal

  9. Assembly: slice down the middle

  10. Delivery: choose type of plate (e.g, buy gleevec online cheap. paper or plastic)

  11. Deliver: serve on plate


Example 3:  Modeling in NetWeaver


  1. Bread: take 2 slices of bread

  2. Bread: determine if the bread is organic or not

  3. Bread: determine whether or not to toast the bread

  4. Bread: determine how light or dark the bread should be toasted

  5. Peanut butter: determine if the peanut butter is organic or not

  6. Peanut butter: choose chunky or creamy

  7. Peanut butter: spread peanut butter on one slice

  8. Peanut butter: determine thickness of spread

  9. Jelly: choose type of jelly

  10. Jelly: determine if the jelly is organic or not

  11. Jelly: spread jelly on one slice

  12. Jelly: determine thickness of spread

  13. Assembly: put the bread together

  14. Assembly: determine whether you want the crust or not

  15. Assembly: determine how to slice the bread (e.g, Nevada NV Nev.. Order capecitabine, diagonal, half, price of casodex, Billig kaufen evista, 4 cubes, etc.)

  16. Delivery: choose type of plate (e.g, bestill evista online. Acheter en ligne evista, paper or plastic)

  17. Delivery: determine garnishes with the sandwich

  18. 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, buy zometa overnight delivery, Montana MT Mont., but also process, metadata, Wyoming WY Wyo., Montana MT Mont., 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, Maryland MD Md., Farmacia zometa barato, and innovative.  This way you'll know which processes can be put into an outsource, shared service, kjøpe evista, Oklahoma OK Okla., 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.

  • Buy gleevec online cheap, 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, buy gleevec online cheap.   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.

Copyright © 2009 R Wang & Insider Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.

.

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Tuesday’s Tip: Use The Organizational Hierarchy Of Needs To Prioritize Apps Strategies

Published on September 8, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang
Organization's face significant prioritization challenges as they plan their 2010 apps strategies.  Faced with shrinking budgets, competing priorities, increased management scrutiny, outdated legacy apps, and uncertain economic conditions, organizations must answer key questions such as:
  • How do I determine which business requirements carry more weight?
  • Where do regulatory requirements fit when compared to other priorities?
  • What's a good prioritization scheme to rank projects and initiatives?
  • Can I justify my budget or request for additional funding?
  • When can I move towards social media?
  • What's my social enterprise/Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0 strategy?
As with Abraham Maslow's motivational theory for individuals, organizations follow a hierarchy of needs.  Based on five key stages, the Organizational Hierarchy of Needs provides one proven classification methodology to prioritize business requirements and drivers in determining enterprise apps strategies (see Figure 1).  The five stages in detail include initiatives and projects can be defined as:
  • Brand - priorities focused on expanding the image and appeal of an organization's outside perception including building connectedness
  • Strategic differentiation - priorities that create game changing transformation or business model disruptions including the adoption of newer social enterprise apps or connected business solutions.
  • Sales and growth - priorities that drive top line improvements.
  • Operational efficiency - priorities that drive business efficiencies including cost optimization, process transformation, and elimination of redundancy.
  • Regulatory compliance and controls - priorities that keep the CXO's out of jail, respond to a health and safety requirement, mitigate liabilities, or be compliant with new regulations.
Figure 1. Organizational Hierarchy of Needs R "Ray" Wang's Organizational Hierarchy of Needs
The bottom line - start your apps strategy by applying a prioritization framework of business requirements and drivers 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. Your POV Have you begun planning your apps strategy for 2010?  If not, do you need assistance in planning out a strategy for 2010?  If you have a plan, how well does the Organizational Hierarchy of Needs assist in your efforts?  Post your comment here or reach me direct at r at altimetergroup dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org. Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.

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

Published on September 1, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang
Labor Day (US Holiday) traditionally marks the end of summer BBQ's, the beginning of the fall conference season, and yes, the time to begin a review of your software maintenance contacts that expire end of year.   As clients prepare for this seasonal ritual, a few trends in 2009 should set the stage for negotiations:
  • Continued weakness in the economy. Vendor revenues continue to decline as new license sales drop and vendors become more dependent on support and maintenance revenues.  Customers looking to upgrade or commit to new apps can expect vendors to be more generous on the support and maintenance front.
  • Dated and inflexible architecture of legacy applications. Change in business models, workplace dynamics, and macro economic conditions apply new pressures to aging systems purchased pre-Y2K.  Customers seek paths to upgrade but are limited by economic pressures.
  • Vendor awareness of customer discontent with existing support offerings. Customers now seek to understand what value vendors deliver in their support and maintenance agreements.  Many vendors have proactively responded by improving service or making appropriate concessions.
  • Growing acceptance of third party maintenance (3PM) options. Vendors such as Rimini Street and Spinnaker have proven to the market that they can deliver 3PM to an array of ERP applications.  Cutting maintenance fees by 50% or more can free up funds for innovation or pay for the next upgrade.
Align your apps strategy before negotiating contracts - do your homework Contract negotiations strategy should be planned in conjunction with an overall apps strategy.  Begin the process 2 to 3 months in advance.  Make sure the teams have the proper incentives in place.  Take the following steps as you prepare for your maintenance renewals: The bottom line - follow the seven simple steps to successfully negotiating software contracts.
  1. Ensure that the right team is in place
  2. Identify the organization’s key business drivers
  3. Determine the product adoption plan
  4. Consider contract strategy implications of the software ownership life cycle
  5. Align contract strategy with product adoption
  6. Identify leverage points
  7. Prioritize key contract objectives
Your POV Looking to hear your best practices with software maintenance contract renewals.
  • Is your maintenance contract up for renewal at the end of the year?
  • Do you need help putting a strategy in place?
  • Have you conducted an apps strategy assessment?
  • Would you like to break free from your vendor but don't know what options exist?
Post your comment here or reach me direct at r at altimetergroup dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org. Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.

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Monday’s Musings: Users Now Expect More Advocacy From Their User Groups

Published on August 3, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang
Many user groups currently meet the basic requirements... Today's independent and vendor sponsored user groups serve a key role in building community among a common interest group.  Typical mission and objectives often include:
  • Creating an environment to share information and best practices
  • Exposing issues and limitations with a vendor's product and partner solutions
  • Soliciting member feedback and concerns about vendor and other solution providers
  • Leveraging collective power to influence the product road map of the vendor and other solution providers
  • Facilitating networking opportunities for a vendor's greater community and ecosystem
  • Educating members on new capabilities
  • Creating a forum for the vendor and other providers to discuss new initiatives.
...yet market needs creates demand for stronger leadership on key issues Comparisons of the November 2008 survey with the latest July 2009 update show that user group members seek greater assistance (see Figure 1).  In fact, rapid vendor consolidation, continual economic pressures, and high pressure sales tactics increase membership demands that user groups increasingly serve as client advocates in working with the vendors.  Key trends from the 2009 H2 191 respondent survey show sharp shifts such as:
  • ~52% increase to negotiate license discounts
  • ~50% decrease to communicate vendor news and updates
  • ~30% increase to address product issues, bugs, enhancement requests
  • ~24% increase to fight for maintenance fee reductions
  • ~22% increase to influence product road maps
Other interesting trends include:
  • ~10% decrease to liaise with software vendor executives
  • ~7% increase to deliver training and educational sessions
  • ~5% increase to benchmark performance
  • ~4% increase to share product and technical knowledge
  • ~3% decrease to provide recruiting opportunities
  • No change to facilitate peer networking opportunities
    Figure 1. Users Now Expect More Advocacy From Their User Groups [caption id="attachment_2827" align="aligncenter" width="850" caption="Source: Software Insider's Point of View User Group Survey - Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved."]Users demand more action from user groups[/caption]
The bottom line - users need to play a more active role in both good and bad times Beyond paying the membership dues, user groups are only as successful as their active membership.   The challenge - strike a good balance in meeting membership needs and involving the membership in participating in key initiatives.  As users, now's the time to play a key role in transforming the user groups to meet key requirements and putting one of the best checks and balances in play.   Get active, get engaged and ask key questions to find out how effective your user group is? Some key questions user group members should ask:
  • How well does the user group align with my organization's key initiatives?
  • Is the user group business model aligned with the ability to advocate for the membership?
  • Does the user group have the leadership to publicly and privately raise issues with the vendor?
  • Do officers in the user group receive special privileges for their companies that members may not be privy to and how does that influence their ability to advocate on behalf of the membership?
  • How much say does the vendor have in the user group's decision making?
  • How independent is the user group?  How much money is received from the vendor versus outside sponsorships?  How does that money impact decision making?
The bottom line - vendors can proactively add value by addressing shifting requirements Strong user group leadership teams quickly respond to changing membership needs and leverage the power of the users and clients to publicly and privately create checks in the balance of power.  The goal - improve the vendor-client relationship via the influence of the membership.   Savvy vendors can address the enhancement request issue, product road maps, and performance benchmarks by:
  • Dedicating executive resources to user group initiatives
  • Increasing transparency in the requirements prioritization process
  • Creating resources to share benchmarking information
  • Reporting more frequently on progress.
Your POV. Do you feel your user group has given you value?  What are you looking from your user group? As a user what would you like to see from your user group?  Are you a software vendor trying to design better user group programs?  Would you like advice on how your program compares?  Feel free to share your experiences here or send me a private email to rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org. Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.

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Tuesday’s Tip: 3 Approaches To Return Shelfware

Published on July 21, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang
Declining demand and diminishing output increase the pressure for enterprises to reduce their software license maintenance costs.  As part of a larger enterprise apps strategy, shelfware reduction provides an area for significant cost savings.   However, shelfware reduction is often hard to achieve because many vendors impose:
  • Enterprise wide agreements. These "all you can eat" agreements incentivize customers to buy more than they need at a "good" discount.  Yet, the end result is the payment of maintenance on non deployed apps (a.k.a. shelfware").
  • Repricing clauses. Many contracts contain language that impose list price recalculations when users choose to return their licenses to the vendor.
  • Bundled contracts. Contractual language often prevents clients from unbundling their software as needed.  In addition, vendors have initiated focused programs to bundle licenses.
The bottom line - apply three shelfware maintenance fee reduction techniques Craft a win-win strategy based on your product adoption requirements and overall contract negotiations strategy.  Three proven techniques in order of improving win-win  shelfware reduction scenarios:
  • Return unused licenses. Vendors agree to take back licenses and proportionately reduce maintenance costs.  Customers lose future rights to those licenses.
  • Park unused licenses. Vendors agree to hold unsued licenses and not charge maintenance.  Customers still have rights to the licenses and will pay for maintenance when licenses are deployed
  • Apply credit to purchase of new licenses. Vendors agree to assign a value to shelfware.  Credit on used licenses will be applied to future purchses.  Customers lose rights to the original software but gain rights to new software and functionality.
Your POV. Having issues with returning shelf ware?  Which approach have you tried?  Ready to share with us your experiences to date?  If you need help with your SAP, Oracle, Infor, Lawson, Microsoft Dynamics, or other enterprise software contract, send me a private mail and we can assist with a contract negotiations strategy that aligns with your apps adoption strategy.   You can post here or send me a private email to rwang0 at gmail dot com. Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.

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

Published on July 7, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang
In the past 2 weeks, emails from 31 software insider readers highlight a growing and concerning trend with support and maintenance contracts.  Vendors concerns about support and maintenance contract retentions has led to new initiatives to consolidate contracts.  At first glance, this may appear to be proactive and beneficial to customers.  In fact, common rationale provided by the vendor sales reps seem benevolent:
  • Reduce the time and headaches of managing multiple contracts
  • Update existing contract provisions
  • Identify areas of non-compliance.
Keep in mind sales reps have been trained to push these new programs. The bottom line - users should keep their guards up when vendor sales reps suggest bundling While the above rationale make sense, bundling often create an all or nothing situation.  Basically, it eliminates your options to go with another vendor throughout the 5 phases of the software ownership life cycle (i.e. selection, implementation, utilization, maintenance, and retirement).  Convenience of one contract will be offset by 3 scenarios why you should never bundle your support and maintenance contracts:
  • Lump sum payment. Moving to one support and maintenance contract often means that the annual fees will be paid all at once.  If push comes to shove, customers can mitigate this by asking for partial payments or more regular payment plans.
  • Third party maintenance. Customers seeking to move off of their vendor delivered support and maintenance will find themselves unable to segment out specific products and solutions.  Individual contracts by products preserve the option to cancel as needed.  In very rare cases, customers have carved out the maintenance for significantly older releases
  • Replacement strategies. Leaving contracts separate allows for easy replacement of applications.  This strategy makes most sense when customers have become a vendor's customers by acquisition.  Leaving contracts separate enables the option to switch solutions, move to a SaaS option, or create more leverage in deals with the vendor.
Be aware of these new efforts to suggest consolidation of contracts.  There are very few benefits.  Should this be suggested to you, do not hesitate to reach out for advice on strategies to mitigate risk! Your POV. In the Enterprise Software Licensee Bill of Rights V2, new rights address this issue.   But for now, have you experienced such vendor tactics?  Did you manage to segment out your contracts?  Do you need assistance with your apps strategy and contract negotiations strategy?  Please post here or send me a private email to rwang0 at gmail dot com. Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.

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News Analysis: Rimini Street Launches Third Party Maintenance for SAP

Published on May 16, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang
img00028

(Photo: Rimini Street movable billboard outside SAPPHIRE 09.   Courtesy of Rimini Street.  All rights reserved)

Almost one year after Rimini Street announced its intention to provide third party maintenance, on May 11th, 2009, the ground breaking support services provider announced that it had signed its first SAP clients and launched immediate availability of its support services for SAP products.  Rimini Street promises to deliver more than 50 percent cost savings in annual fees compared to SAP.  Conversations with 83 Sapphire 09 attendees confirm significant interest (79/83) in alternatives to SAP's Enterprise Support offering, despite the SUGEN announcement.  Key elements of the software offering include:
  • Inclusion of older and current releases. Support for the SAP R/3 4.x, ECC 5.0, ECC 6.0, and BW 3.5 and earlier releases Named, local senior support engineers assigned to each client (no off-shoring of support calls) POV: In Rimini Streets original announcement, the vendor had intended to provide support for pre ECC products.  The move to support the full line will come as a pleasant surprise to many SAP customers who have upgraded to SAP ECC 5.0, SAP ECC 6.0, SAP NetWeaver 7.0,  and SAP NetWeaver 7.1 looking for leverage and options to SAP Enterprise Support.
  • Support through 2020 and beyond. Rimini Street has committed to providing tax, regulatory, and other updates for existing releases without any required upgrades.  This includes application fixes for serious issues and tax and regulatory updates as needed and flexible contract offerings. POV: Rimini Street has demonstrated success to date with acquire Oracle products to deliver such capabilities for existing customers.  Multinational customers will want to eavluate details about regulatory support especially in countries such as Brazil, Poland, and Russia.  Customers will want to undestand what Rimini Street defines as a serious issue.
  • Follow the sun coverage by a senior engineer. The announcement states 24x7 support coverage with 30-minute or less guaranteed response by a senior engineer. POV: A 30 minute response rate by a senior engineer may put Rimini Street in the top echelon of support capabilities.  Most vendors and support organizations promise response times of 60 minutes or less with no guarantee of whom may show up on the other line.
  • Comprehensive support with no additional fee. Support for client customizations, interoperability and performance at no additional fee POV: No tall order, this third party maintenance provider intends to handle the hairy task of supporting complex environments of spaghetti code and a patchwork of SAP integrations.  One would expect Rimini Street to also offer services to streamline environments in order to reduce their cost of support and increase application efficiency.
Conversations with Seth Ravin (CEO) and David Rowe (Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Alliances) affirm Rimini Street's intentions to invest in this SAP practice.  Demand for third party maintenance and interest in working for a 3PM company appear to be strong.  Many long time SAP employees and support experts have reached out to both Rimini Street and the Software Insider to seek employment positions. The bottom line - include third party maintenance (3PM) options as part of apps strategy Customers must carefully consider when to use third party maintenance as part of their long term apps strategy.   When effectively used, saivngs on maintenance fees can be applied to reinvestment and fund new innovation as opposed to feeding the beast!  Here's a quick guide as to what scenarios to use third party maintenance:
  1. Stable apps environment. Often enterprises in this maintain as is scenario find few change requests from the business.  Internal support teams already deliver most fixes and changes.  A 50% or more cost savings to maintenance makes most sense here.
  2. Post upgrade savings. After completing an upgrade and achieving stability, customers can take the opportunity to enjoy new capabilities without having to pay full maintenance.  Customers take a risk here of not receiving any additional functionality and access to new enhancements.
  3. Redeployment "upgrade". Clients who have made significant customizations and modifications requiring reimplementation for an upgrade will consider third party maintenance for both cost savings and negotiations leverage.  Moving to 3PM allows the client to fund the reimplementation or replacement while considering other vendor alternatives.
Third party maintenance may be appealing to most customers.  However, there are caveats to third party maintenance that include:
  1. Zero access to future upgrades. Movement to 3Pm means being cut-off from the vendor's stream of innovation.  Customers seeking functionality in future SAP Enhancement Packages (EhP) should not consider third party maintenance at this time.  Upgrade to the latest requirements before considering 3PM.
  2. Potential back maintenance issue. Expect vendors like SAP to pressure customers about potential back maintenance.  Vendors customarily require customers to true up their maintenance fees should they come back.  However, recent amnesty programs by some vendors and the market pressure make this tactic less and less likely.  Moving to 3PM actually provides leverage to the customer.  Will SAP really threaten back maintenance payments when you are choosing among other vendors now that you are not beholden to them?
  3. Dependency on a third party. As with any other services contract, carefully consider the key SLA's around metrics, performance, and unforeseen conditions.
Your POV. Will you be calling Rimini Street in the next 3 months?  Do you believe that third party maintenance from SAP is feasible?  Does market place choice give you more leverage with SAP? Do you wonder why your system integrators do not offer third party maintenance?  Post your thoughts or send me a private email to rwang0 at gmail dot com.

img00027(Photo: Rimini Street movable billboard outside SAPPHIRE 09.   Courtesy of Rimini Street.  All rights reserved)

Copyright © 2008 & 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.

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Research Summary: Shape Your Apps Strategy To Reflect New SaaS Licensing And Pricing Trends

Published on April 16, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang
FORWARD AND COMMENTARY "Shape Your Apps Strategy To Reflect New SaaS Licensing and Pricing Trends" represent the seventh report in an on-going series to provide clients with insight on how to better align their packaged apps strategies.  As more and more clients seek SaaS solutions as options to pipe in innovation and potentially control costs, clients should be aware of how to build a SaaS strategy that remains sustainable and prevents vendor-lock in. Other documents as part of the ongoing series on packaged apps strategy include:
  1. Why You Need A Long-Term Apps Strategy
  2. Forrester's Long-Term Packaged Applications Strategy Framework
  3. Does Your Apps Strategy Support Your Corporate Business Drivers?
  4. Packaged Apps Strategies Take A Back Seat At Most Enterprises
  5. The ROI Of Packaged Apps Instance Consolidation
  6. Five Steps To Building A Recession Proof Packaged Apps Strategy
  7. Shape Your Apps Strategy To Reflect New SaaS Licensing And Pricing Trends
  8. Third Party Apps Maintenance Rebounds
  9. Craft Your Negotiations Strategy To Reflect New Packaged Apps Licensing And Pricing Trends
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS A. Introduction Recessionary forces drive applications professionals to seek new delivery models such as software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and other XaaS (X-as-a-Service) models. But with these options' upfront benefits in choice, value, and predictability come new ownership risks that applications professionals and business stakeholders should explore. Forrester's review of 11 vendors in SaaS enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and supply chain management (SCM) confirms that, motivated by heavy competition for new customers, these vendors remain vigilant in mitigating such end-user concerns. In fact, SaaS vendors continue to improve and refine subscription models for new buying scenarios beyond cost/user/month. Forrester recommends that all applications professionals include SaaS in their firm's long-term packaged apps strategy and that they take five key actions to mitigate risk while avoiding lock-in. B. Research Findings The Recession Is Driving Increased SaaS Adoption  Faced with impending IT budget cuts, increasing business demands, and the encumbrances of legacy packaged apps, enterprises are increasingly turning to true multi-tenant SaaS delivery options during the downturn.  SaaS adoption as part of a long-term apps strategy keeps growing because:
  • Subscription pricing reduces capital expenditures (capex).
  • SaaS enables more-rapid deployment.
  • Enterprises expect frequent updates with new functionality.
  • Business leaders drive more and more software decisions.
  • Vendor success generates buzz and increased interest.
Vendors Demonstrate Continued Evolution And Value of SaaS Pricing Models Forrester analyzed the completed, work-in-progress, or ongoing initiatives for the latter half of 2008 for seven SaaS applications vendors. The software licensing and pricing trends Forrester found include refined pricing models, new bundling and unbundling options, and a focus on fixed-price implementations. Specific trends for these SaaS apps vendors include:
  • Amitive delivers a usage-based model to foster collaboration and community participation.
  • Intuit attaches a SaaS services model to on-premise QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions.
  • Intacct reduces the barrier of entry for SMBs while simplifying channel pricing.
  • NetSuite continues to expand vertical-edition bundling and flat-fee pricing for add-ons.
  • QuickArrow delivers choice with tiered and bundled user-based pricing models.
  • salesforce.com provides more value for existing license fees and more user tiers.
  • Workday maintains a simple subscription pricing model based on company size.
Recommendations - Adopt SaaS Benefits While Mitigating Risks In Your Long-Term Apps Strategy Keep in mind that while cost/user/month SaaS pricing models may seem simple at first, factors such as connection points, storage, support, and module-based pricing can quickly add to their complexity. In addition, true multitenant SaaS models leave users without the software code should the vendor go bankrupt or the client choose to end its relationship with the vendor. While considering SaaS as part of a long-term apps strategy, enterprises should follow these simple suggestions to get the most out of SaaS and mitigate risk:
  • Balance pay-as-you-go month-to-month terms with long-term contracts.
  • Compare SaaS versus on-premise over an appropriate period.
  • Understand long-term ownership implications.
  • Seek more than just refunds for outages in service-level agreements.
  • Choose a financially viable SaaS vendor or seek a software escrow-like mechanism.
C. Report Links Click on the link for the detailed report along with the "What It Means" and "Alternate View" for: Shape Your Apps Strategy To Reflect New SaaS Licensing And Pricing Trends. For media courtesy requests, please send me an email to rwang@forrester.com Your POV. Would love your feedback on the report.  You can post here or send me a private email to rwang0 at gmail dot com. Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.

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