Posts Tagged ‘sourcing’

Order Zometa No Prescription

Published on January 18, 2010 by R "Ray" Wang


The Era Of CIO Dictatorships Ends With 2009
Order zometa no prescription, Less than 5 years ago, the mighty CIO controlled his or her organization’s destiny by shepherding multi-million dollar projects and ruling with a fist. Ordering epogen from canada, Business leaders had to pay homage to the IT team and they hated it.  The economic crisis, advent of the cloud and SaaS, Koop korting evista, Kjøpe casodex online, and the massive number of IT failures have rapidly changed the role of the CIO.  Saddled with the burden of maintaining legacy projects and faced with a shortage in budget and resources, businesses now move around the IT team as they must meet a flurry of business requirements.  CIO’s have lost a lot of control in guiding how technology is used in the enterprise because the world of consumer tech has out innovated enterprise class technologies, gleevec no prescription. Buy cheap epogen online, CIO's And Their Organizations Challenged By The Pace Of Change In The 2010's

Similar to this past decade, organizations will face massive amounts of change in the next decade.  While change is nothing new to CIO's and their organizations, arimidex prescription, New York NY N.Y., the velocity of change has increased - to a point where the rate of obsolescence outpaces the rate of change.  Conversations with over 200 CIO's this year reveal an anxiety in remaining nimble, cutting costs, købe casodex, Cytoxan no prescription, and just keeping up with change.  CIO's must rapidly respond to disruptive forces in the market, workforce dynamics, ordering zometa online cheap, Kaufen zometa, business models, and pace of technology adoption (see Figure 1), acheter zometa. Order iressa no prescription, Figure 1.  Four areas of change responsible for major disruptions in today's organizations

[caption id="attachment_3987" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="(Source: R Wang & Insider Associates, LLC)"]screen-shot-2009-12-21-at-112559-am[/caption]

The Bottom Line - The CIO Role Shifts To Match Next Gen Enterprise Requirements

What's the role of the CIO in this next gen enterprise?  Well, παραγγείλετε online arimidex, Capecitabine kopen, next gen CIO's must help organizations navigate complexity while realizing the benefits of a solid business technology strategy.   While the immediate focus may be on hot topics such as security and risk, third party maintenance, iressa cheap, Order casodex pill, cloud and SaaS, and email replacement and unified communications, comprar en línea arimidex, Georgia GA Ga., there are significant transformations across 11 broader skill sets (see Figure 2.)  Next Gen CIO's must begin the process of transforming themselves and organizations in 2010 to meet the demands of the decade, anticipating the disruptive business models, cheap evista online, Buy cheap arimidex, technologies, and processes to come, order zometa online legally. Cheap cytoxan online, Figure 2. Eleven Skill Shifts For The Next Gen CIO

[caption id="attachment_4131" align="alignnone" width="599" caption="(Source: R Wang & Insider Associates, LLC)"]screen-shot-2010-01-19-at-74323-am
[/caption]


In This Series


Your POV

What skill shifts are you seeing in your work as a CIO?  Do these shifts resonate, order zometa no prescription. Do you have a different point of view, buy iressa. Nebraska NE Nebr., Please post or send on to rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org and we’ll keep your anonymity.

Copyright © 2010 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Irresa

Published on September 27, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang

screen-shot-2009-09-27-at-114034-pm

Title: Vendor Event: Ariba North American User Conference
Location: Irresa, The Gaylord Opryland Conference and Resort, Nashville, TN
Link out: Click here

Start Date: 2009-10-11
End Date: 2009-10-14

Registration Link

North American User Conference
Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center
Nashville, TN
October 11 - 14, 2009

Overview

The Ariba User Conference will provide you with two days of networking with other Ariba users as well as invaluable opportunities to interact with Ariba product managers, engineers, and solution strategists. Irresa, From Ariba enablement team leaders to procurement analysts, you will gain the first-hand information you need to be successful in spend management, irresa. Iresa, If you are being charged with delivering results that take your company to new heights in spend management, you can\'t afford to miss the annual Ariba User Conference, irresa. Irresa, Why should you attend.

The Ariba User Conference is a forum for users to come together and discuss what\'s new and what\'s next for Ariba with respect to their solution, irresa, Iresa, region or industry. You will hear tips on how to better prepare for the next major release and share best practices on solution usage, irresa. Ariba will also offer an optional training track at the end of the conference on topics ranging from Sourcing Event Management (Basic and Advanced courses), irresa, Iresa, Contract Management Professional, and Spend Visibility, irresa. Iresa, This conference is a must-attend for all users to learn, share, irresa, Irresa, and grow with their Ariba spend management solution. This is a unique opportunity to meet with Ariba users from all geographies, iresa, Irresa, solutions and industries, and you do not want to miss it, irresa. Irresa, If you have attended Ariba User Conferences in the past, you know how invaluable the experience is, irresa. Irresa, The upcoming Ariba User Conference will provide more time over the course of two days to connect with an even-wider audience than ever before. Iresa, Who should attend.

* Buyers
* Analysts
* Implementation Team
* Technical Staff
* Suppliers
* Department Managers
* Educators and Trainers of Ariba Applications
* Business Owners

User Conference Benefits

* Gain Insight into the Ariba Roadmap Align your spend management plans with Ariba’s direction by hearing from our lead developers, irresa, Irresa, product managers and customer support group.
* Learn New Spend Management Strategies Application tips and tricks; implementation strategies; training practices and upgrade best practices, iresa, Iresa, with a focus on the next major release. Get new ideas from your peers through breakout sessions, irresa, Irresa, panel discussions, social events, and networking throughout the conference.
* Troubleshoot Issues with Technology Experts Bring your issues and questions to the technical support area, irresa. Experts will help you work through your problems at the \"Ask Engineering\" stand.
* Share Your Feedback Meet with Ariba product support staff to discuss any of your product support needs while sharing your feedback at the same time. The team leaders will be present onsite at the \"Ask Product Support\" stand.
* Collaborate with Ariba Solutions Experts through Networking and Informal Breakfast Roundtable Discussions Meet with solutions owners and address questions and topics dear to you and your organization over the two days of the conference.

Space is limited and registration is on a first-come, first-served basis!
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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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Personal Log: Altimeter Group – Helping Organizations Bridge The Technology Obsolescence Gap

Published on August 27, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang

Altimeter Group Logo

Emerging Technologies Alter The Approach To Enterprise Strategies... The proliferation of and access to emerging technologies by the business user challenges organizations to rethink their enterprise technology strategy.  Consumer technologies have proven to be not only more innovative and collaborative, but also quite accessible and equally reliable when compared to existing enterprise tools.  The result - IT departments no longer reign supreme in determining technology strategy and adoption.  In fact, business leaders and individuals increasingly play a greater, if not decisive, role in driving the selection and cultural adoption of technology.  Consequently, enterprise strategies must be crafted to manage disparate systems, technologies, and deployment options across the organization. ... But The Rate of Technology Obsolescence Outpaces The Pace Of Technology Adoption Organizations face massive levels of change across challenging macro-economic conditions, emerging workplace dynamics, new business models, and slow pace of technology adoption.  Unfortunately, they must respond to these changes while being saddled with the burdens of last century's technology.  Without actionable application strategies in the transition to social enterprise apps, many organizations face obsolescence.  How do we get from where we are today to where we want to be? Enterprise Strategies Must Begin With The End In Mind To take a Coveyism, its important to define the objectives before you begin.  As the enterprise strategist at Altimeter I'll be assisting our clients with:
  • Adopting technology strategies driven by business need;
  • Building dynamic user experiences;
  • Crafting strategies to transform business processes;
  • Delivering a connected community; and
  • Eliminating burdensome cost structures to fund innovation
These advisory projects will include but not be limited to:
  • Technology strategy reviews
  • Vendor selection
  • Independent verification and validation (IV&V)
  • Vendor management strategies
Succeed With A Holistic Approach Beyond Just Enterprise Strategy As I assist our clients with these enterprise strategies, its important to think of these in the context of a holistic approach (see Figure 1).  Your organization's overall strategy should also address the challenges and success strategies in leadership, customer, and innovation required for success.  I'll be joined by 3 other partners including our founding partner, Charlene Li, who will focus on the culture and structures required to guide these emerging technologies in the organization.  Deb Schultz, a pioneer in bringing innovation concepts to life, will be leading our labs program at "The Hangar". Meanwhile, my former Forrester colleague, Jeremiah Owyang will be focusing on customer strategy of emerging technologies.
Figure 1. Altimeter Group's Four Practice Areas
Join The Altimeter Open House Webinar On The Future of Business Find out more about how the Altimeter Group can serve as your resource at our upcoming Open House Webinar.  Details below: Date:                           Thursday, September 10th, 2009 Time:                          10 am Pacific Time (GMT - 8:00) Registration link:     https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/725944010
Related blog posts:
Your POV What are your top concerns about your enterprise strategy?  Will you have the tools to get from today's enterprise technologies to an emerging world of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 business solutions.  Let us know what you think.  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: How To Properly Align Team Incentives In Software Contract Negotiations

Published on August 4, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang
In the first step of the original seven simple steps to successfully negotiate software contracts, the key is to have the right team in place.  To refresh everyone's memory from the March 8th, 2004 post the details for Step 1 are:
Step 1: Ensure that the right team is in place
  • Inputs:  Organizational chart and agreement on key roles.
  • Action items: Determine the key roles needed to conduct the negotiation. Business teams include the COO, Division VP’s .  Technology leaders include the CIO, enterprise architecture . Vendor management teams include the procurement experts, legal team, etc.
  • Deliverables: Responsibilities list for each role.
Having the right team in place is important.  However, dozens of readers point out the dire need to not only align incentives but improve transparency.   Some examples include views such as:
  • CIO's. "While the CIO needs to set the technology direction, we often find two types of CIO's - the buyer and the implementer.  Buyer CIO's get wined and dined during the process, hob nob at events, get all the attention and perks, then leave for another company to do the same thing.  Implementer CIO's get stuck with making the stuff all work, cost overruns, and 100's of tradeoffs in promised capabilities and all the blame for failure." - VP of Business Applications, Fortune 100 Company.
  • Procurement/vendor management teams. "The only thing that our Procurement VP and her staff seem to care about is the discount % and total savings.  Despite our need for a product that costs the same, we see her team favor the products that show her the most savings.  Its no wonder why vendors keep jacking up prices to create win-wins for companies like ours where procurement teams have considerable influence." - CIO, EMEA based Financial Services Firm
  • Line of business execs. "Often the business side of the house fails to consider the indirect and hidden costs of ownership.  Some solutions are sexier but cost 3 to 5 times more to integrate, maintain, and staff up for.  These guys forget that we pick up the tab when it fails to work well with other systems" - Enterprise Architect,  North American Transportation Company
The bottom line - all incentives in the contract negotiations strategy must align with product adoption strategy Prior to any contract negotiations, the right team should also take the time to align incentives to the overall business drivers.  Form must follow function and how the solution will be used should be paramount.  Four key criteria:
  1. Define success criteria. Start by determining what success criteria will be utilized.  Some metrics include implementation times, return on investment, savings in total account value (TAV), etc.
  2. Create transparency in objectives. Team members should lay out their incentives and how performance in their management by objectives (MBO's) will be impacted by different scenarios.
  3. Realign incentives for maximum alignment.  Once the objectives have been determined, the team should come back with incentives that reflect performance in short, medium, and long term goals .
  4. Codify and communicate metrics.  Final metrics and incentives should be made public to all team members and performance objectively tracked by an independent committee.
Your POV. Got additional suggestions and best practices?  Ready for the big maintenance renewal seasons in Q4? If you need assistance with your SAP, Oracle, Infor, Lawson, Microsoft Dynamics, or other enterprise software contract, send me a private mail.  We can assist with a contract negotiations strategy that aligns with your apps adoption strategy.   Please post your comments 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: Now’s The Time To Consider SaaS Software Escrows

Published on June 2, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang
With 2009 rapidly becoming the "Year of SaaS" and the tipping point for Cloud Computing, it's hard not to notice the growing number of SaaS start ups (along with the legacy application vendors rushing to provide an "On-Demand", but not really multi-tenant deployment option).  My snarky SaaS bigotry aside, we can expect hybrid deployment options to be here to stay.  As with the early days of on-premise packaged apps, we have to ask the question, "What to do about the risk in working with fly-by-night SaaS vendors who might not be around in 2011?"  In fact, this was an interesting part of the panel disucssion at the "Honeymoon and Divorce: Changing SaaS Providers" session at Interop with Jerry Smith (CTO of Symphony Services) , Michael Topalovich, (CTO of Delivered Innovation), and Rick Nucci (CTO of Boomi). SaaS escrows provide a key safety net for the SaaS users End users often demand software escrows in the on-premise world when they are concerned about vendor viability, takeover threats, and other related breaches to performance or service level agreements. Software escrows vendors serve as the trusted third party independent organization which holds a copy of the software code.  This often includes user data, source code, documentation and any application executables.  For SaaS escrows, expect a few unique distinctions such as:
  • More frequent intervals of version updates, almost similar to live data backups.
  • Hot backups that the end user can immediately and legally swap to the escrow version without business disruption
  • Requirements for SaaS vendors to provide detailed software configuration management and data management
The bottom line - SaaS code is rented so protect yourself With no access to the code or application when a SaaS vendor goes bankrupt or fails to meet performance requirements, now's the time to ask your SaaS provider if they provide a SaaS software escrow.  This should be included in all criteria during SaaS vendor selection.  Those who provide SaaS escrow deliver an additional benefit - peace of mind that data will be doubly backed up both by the vendor and the software escrow company.
Companies providing SaaS Escrow Services Here's a list of a few vendors in the market.  They have not been rated or reference checked so caveat emptor.  If you provide SaaS escrow services and weren't listed, feel free to add a comment to the post.
For more about how to shape your apps strategy to include SaaS, read the Forrester Report found here. Your POV Have you worried about whether your SaaS vendor will be around in 2011?  Did you successfully enter into a SaaS Escrow agreement?  Considering a SaaS Escrow?  Send me a private email to rwang0 at gmail dot com.  Posts are preferred!   Thanks and looking forward to your POV! Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.

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Poll/Survey: It’s Time To Update The Enterprise Software Licensee Bill of Rights!

Published on March 5, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang
Now's The Time To Assert Your Rights With the market now in favor of the enterprise software licensee, its now time to update the Enterprise Software Licensee's Bill of Rights to include newer topics such as virtualization, SaaS and subscription pricing, newer usage based pricing models, open source, and vendor lock-in avoidance.  As mentioned in a call to action in a December 2008 Monday's Musings, this groundbreaking report, originally published in December 2006, will be updated to reflect current market conditions.  The goal - improve this reusable contract negotiation model that cuts across the 5 key phases of the software ownership life cycle:
  1. Selection
  2. Implementation
  3. Utilization
  4. Maintenance
  5. Retirement
An Enterprise Software Licensee's Bill Of Rights Gives Users A Platform to Build a Win-Win Client Vendor Relationship
[caption id="attachment_1195" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="December 2006 Enterprise Software Licensee's Bill of Rights"]eslbor[/caption]
Your POV So based on some key market changes, here's my challenge to you.
  1. What rights should be added?
  2. What rights should be updated?
  3. What rights should be retired?
Take the new poll on what rights should be included in the 2009 Enterprise Software Licensee Bill of Rights or send me a private email to rwang0 at gmail dot com.  Posts are preferred!  For every good idea or comment, whether or not we use your idea, we'll send you a copy of the final report.  Let's put the collective wisdom of the web to work and help our end user clients create a fair win-win playing field with the vendors.  We'll be publishing the official update in Q2 2009.  Thanks and look forward to your input! Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.

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

Published on December 15, 2008 by R "Ray" Wang
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 clear endpoint. However, enterprise software often may not be "owned," "shared", or "disposed of".  Often its use creates dependencies that cannot be easily remediated at the end of the license term or useful life.  In fact, customers of software vendors are known as users and the term is apt when one thinks about the dependencies software vendors promulgate on their customers.  The bottom line - ownership is quite restrictive. Contracts Should Be Aligned To Five Phases Of How Enterprises Really Use Software Over 3 years ago, several of our top clients had cornered us in the bar at one of our events and challenged us to provide a long term apps strategy framework to help them navigate through a very restrictive contract negotiation.  The engagements provided the catalyst to create a reusable contract negotiation model based on end user experiences in the software ownership lifecycle.  The key foundation included 5 key phases:
  1. Selection
  2. Implementation
  3. Utilization
  4. Maintenance
  5. Retirement
An Enterprise Software Licensee's Bill Of Rights Gives Users A Platform to Build a Win-Win Client Vendor Relationship Given the complexity that users faced, experiences from 250 client advisory, inquiries, and face to face discussions were applied towards the productization of IP into syndicated research. On December 18, 2006, we released 36 user rights in a report titled  "An Enterprise Software Licensee's Bill of Rights" (see Figure 1.) Expanding on these 36 rights, we then battle tested the Enterprise Software Licensee Bill of Rights with 12 vendors (i.e. Agresso, Deltek, Epicor Software, IFS, Infor, Lawson, Microsoft, Oracle, QAD, Sage Software, SAP, and Sterling Commerce) across 97 criteria in the industry's only policy based evaluation - The Forrester WaveTM: Enterprise Apps Software Licensing And Pricing, Q4 2007, released October 15. 2007. During the evaluation, we were pleasantly surprised to find that most vendors were open to this idea of a mutually agreeable bill of rights.  In fact, many commented that this was the upfront communication needed to create a win-win relationship.

Figure 1.  An Enterprise Software Licensee's Bill of Rightseslbor

Call To Action Starts Today - Contribute Your Ideas To V 2.0! Now with the experience of over 800 client engagements, inquiries, and face to face discussions, it's time to update the Bill of Rights to reflect changes in today's environment.  Some disruptive forces now include:
  • Virtualization
  • SaaS and subscription pricing
  • Vendor consolidation and reduced competition in some market segments
  • Open source
  • Newer usage based pricing models
So based on some key market changes, here's my challenge to you.
  1. What rights should be added?
  2. What rights should be updated?
  3. What rights should be retired?
(Added 3/5/2009) Take the new poll on what rights should be in the 2009 Enterprise Software Licensee Bill of Rights! Post your suggestions or send me a private email to rwang0@gmail.com.  Posts are preferred!  For every good idea or comment, whether or not we use your idea, we'll send you a copy of the final report.  Let's put the collective wisdom of the web to work and help our end user clients create a fair win-win playing field with the vendors.  We'll be publishing the official update late Q1 2009.  Thanks and look forward to your input! Copyright © 2008 R Wang. All rights reserved.

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

Published on December 2, 2008 by R "Ray" Wang
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 little value to the customer and their increases are often not used for reinvestment in the product line the charges are based from.  Some suggestions to increase vigilance in reducing unnecessary vendor imposed fees:
  • Eliminate the CPI clause. Take it out of contracts.  Eliminate the uncertainty all together.  The cost of supporting customers over time goes down with time and there really is no need for a CPI clause in your contract.
  • Include language for negative CPI. If the best is that deflation will occur, specify in the contract that a negative CPI indicator will lead to a decrease in maintenance fees.
  • Lock down a fixed maintenance price for the life of the relationship.  Take the hassle out of all maintenance fee increases.  Some vendors have honored life time maintenance fee agreements.  With the economy the way it is, we are seeing some vendor starting to rehonor such agreements.
The bottom line. In a recent survey of major software vendors, 27 of 29 vendors have canceled their initiatives to raise maintenance fees for 2008 and 2009.  While outward increases are not common, the CPI escalation clause is a "stealth" way to increase maintenance on existing customers over time.  As inflationary fears are being replaced by deflationary worries, enterprises in the midst of contract negotiations should change how vendors adjust maintenance fees and eliminate CPI outright or seek a concession that limits these increases. Your POV. Got a tip for optimizing existing software contracts?  You can post here or send me a private email to rwang0@gmail.com. (Added 3/5/2009) Take the new poll on what rights should be in the 2009 Enterprise Software Licensee Bill of Rights! Copyright © 2008 R Wang. All rights reserved

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