Posts Tagged ‘Third Party Maintenance’

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Collaborative Research Process At Work Buy iressa, I'm pleased to say, that I'll be joining fellow Enterprise Irregulars - Michael Cote, Larry Dignan, Michael Krigsman, and Vinnie Mirchandani; SAP Mentors - Dennis Howlett and Jon Reed, along with esteemed journalist Thomas Wailgum from CIO magazine to gauge the sentiment of SAP users.  We may be adding a few others on the ground. But mainly, where to buy cheap capecitabine, Cheap gleevec, we'll be asking a range of questions that include:


  • Confidence in the leadership team

  • SAP Innovation

  • Upgrade sentiments

  • Cloud and ByD

  • Certification of ecosystem partners

  • SAP Sybase

  • NetWeaver Adoption

  • In Memory

  • Third party maintenance.


The Poll Questions
Take the poll at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Sapphire2010

or Click here to take the survey

Your POV.

Ready to rumble at Sapphire 2010!  Look forward to seeing you.  You can post or send on to rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwaresinsider dot org and we’ll keep your anonymity or better yet, join the community, order evista online. Buy cytoxan online without prescription, Please let us know if you need help with your apps strategy efforts.  Here’s how we can help:


  • Assessing apps strategies (e.g. single instance, order iressa no prescription, New York NY N.Y., two-tier ERP, upgrade, capecitabine pharmacy, Maryland MD Md., custom dev, packaged deployments”

  • Optimizing your SAP costs

  • Evaluating SaaS/Cloud integration strategies

  • Assisting with legacy ERP migration

  • Planning upgrades and migration

  • Performing vendor selection

  • Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support


Related resources and links

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, evista without prescription, Gleevec without a prescription, we want you to trust us more.  SAP is currently a non-retainer client of Altimeter Group and not a client of Insider Associates, LLC.  For the full disclosure policy please refer here, Koop korting gleevec. Ordering epogen without prescription, Copyright © 2010 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC, Idaho ID. Price of arimidex, All rights reserved. Pharmacy casodex. Osta iressa. Wyoming WY Wyo.. Comprare epogen. Capecitabine discount. Ordering epogen online. Virginia VA Va.. New York NY N.Y.. Casodex online cheap. Discount epogen. Buy arimidex no prescription.

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Apps Strategy Options Abound And Organizations Need Accurate Comparison Methodologies

Recent inquiries from blog readers and client engagements highlight a growing need to compare the cost of apps strategies.  Common comparison scenarios often include:


  • SaaS versus on-premise

  • Upgrade versus customization

  • Single instance versus two-tier

  • Vendor maintenance versus third party options

  • Custom apps versus packaged apps


Cost Comparisons Should Encompass The Software Ownership Lifecycle Order gleevec, An inventory of costs should comprise the phases of application ownership (see Figure 1).  License fees, implementation, and maintenance often define the most common costs.  However, additional factors by phase should include:

  • Phase 1 - Selection. Costs include services such as requirements gathering, epogen cheap, Jotta gleevec verkossa, vendor selection services, contract negotiation fees, Wisconsin WI Wis., Michigan MI Mich., and program management.

  • Phase 2 - Implementation. Costs include projects such as change management, cheapest casodex online, Cheap capecitabine without prescription, business process reengineering, integration, ordering gleevec pill, Acheter en ligne iressa, customization, and testing.

  • Phase 3 - Adoption, Delaware DE Del.. Kaufen capecitabine, Costs include, training, Hawaii HI, Georgia GA Ga., testing, configuration, gleevec en ligne afin, Cheapest zometa, report creation, and customizations.

  • Phase 4 - Optimization, billiga cytoxan apotek. Illinois IL Ill., Costs include upgrade, testing, cheap gleevec pill, Buy evista no rx, custom development, and other integration fees.

  • Phase 5 - Renewal, capecitabine for sale. Costs include third party maintenance, management, and vendor selection.

Figure 1, order gleevec. Gleevec pedido en línea, Total Costs Must Span The Software Ownership Lifecycle.

The Bottom Line For End Users - Cost Comparisons Form The Foundation For ROI Calculations

With ROI being asked about more and more, organizations must improve their ability to calculate costs and compare benefits.  Total ownership costs provide one half of the ROI equation, New York NY N.Y.. Pharmacy zometa, Costs also represent the more controllable factor in improving ROI.  Accurate inventory of costs will provide organizations with the transparency required to conduct apps strategy projects and assess the impact of a technology's benefit.

Your POV

Are you conducting cost of ownership comparisons among your apps strategies, buy cheap gleevec online. Buy gleevec, Do you know how your apps strategies will change in the next 18 to 24 months?  Add your comments to the discussion or send on to rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwaresinsider dot org and we’ll keep your anonymity.

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


  • Order gleevec, Assessing apps strategies (e.g. single instance, Montana MT Mont., two-tier ERP, upgrade, custom dev, packaged deployements"

  • Evaluating SaaS/Cloud integration strategies

  • Assisting with legacy ERP migration

  • Planning upgrades and migration

  • Performing vendor selection

  • Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support


Related resources and links
20100322 Tuesday's Tip: Understanding The Many Flavors of Cloud Computing/SaaS

20100302 Tuesday's Tip: When To Go With A Two-Tier ERP Strategy

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

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.


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

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Rimini Street Counter Suit Focuses On Ensuring Customer Rights To Third Party Maintenance (3PM)

screen-shot-2010-04-05-at-13044-amscreen-shot-2010-04-05-at-13101-am
Order evista without prescription, On March 29th, 2010, Rimini Street sued Oracle for "counterclaims alleging copyright misuse, defamation, disparagement, trade libel, and unfair competition".  The lawsuit was filed as a counter to Oracle's February 26th, 2010 suit of Rimini Street for Intellectual Property (IP) theft.  While Oracle's issue at hand was whether or not Rimini Street violated IP rights, the underlying issue focuses on third party maintenance rights.  Statements in the press release highlight the following:


  • Rimini Street is Oracle's primary competition for annual support services. The third party maintenance leader now boasts 160 employees and a $150M sales backlog.  The release stated a 270 percent year-over-year growth from 2008.

    Point of View (POV): Rimini Street has recently won some large maintenance deals from Oracle.  By supporting Oracle's Siebel, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards customers with value based options, it's inevitable that Oracle would face direct competition.  However, Oracle's 95% dominant market share leaves plenty of room for Rimini Street to grow and convince customers to switch.  Other competitors such as Spinnaker, netCustomer, and some stealthy system integrators have chipped into Oracle's lucrative maintenance business.




  • Oracle has a long history of trying to stifle Rimini Street competition. The lawsuit and press release discusses a series of actions taken by Oracle starting in September 2005 with hostile correspondence.  Other actions noted discuss interference with client work in June 2007 and June 2008.  The current lawsuit adds to the list of complaints from Rimini Street about Oracle.

    POV: Rimini Street apparently reached out to Oracle on numerous occasions to discuss how they could work with a third party auditor to confirm Rimini Street's compliance with Oracle's procedures.  If Oracle has not responded as Rimini Street states, South Carolina SC S.C., Cheap generic gleevec, it points to one data point that Oracle may not be interested in a resolution.  Because maintenance is such a big part of Oracle and other vendor's revenues, there's great incentive to keep third party providers away from this market.



Oracle and Rimini Street Have An Opportunity To Create A Win-Win-Win for Customers-Software Publishers-3PM Vendors

As more and more customers wise up to the maintenance issue and lack of 3PM rights, acheter casodex bon marché, Ordering casodex online cheap, Oracle and other vendors need to clearly define the rules as to how 3PM can be provided. The ground rules need to be established on how IP can be protected and customers not be trapped by maintenance.  Rimini Street's original proposal to have an independent auditor certify policies and practices is a great first step.  Oracle should respond.   Should the court find Rimini Street has taken IP, buy cheap iressa online, Online arimidex, then it will be more than the vendor's credibility that's in jeopardy.  If Oracle succeeds in this lawsuit, they gain some momentum in trying to block third party maintenance.  Hopefully, köpa billiga evista, New Mexico NM N.Mex., Rimini Street has played by the rules in respecting IP.

The Bottom Line For Users - Users And User Groups Must Band Together To Guarantee 3PM Rights, order arimidex online cheap. Ordering gleevec no prescription, Don’t Take These For Granted.

(Because this is such a fundamental user rights issue, here's the repost of The Bottom Line from the February 22nd, 2010 post, order evista without prescription. )

Although the latest surveys show a 17 point increase in the belief that 3PM is a right, comprar arimidex, Cheap zometa no rx, this right is under fire by big vendors such as Oracle who have taken legal actions against 3PM providers for improperly (i.e. TomorrowNow) and allegedly (i.e, buy capecitabine overnight delivery. Order casodex online cheap, Rimini Street) violating intellectual property rights.  If providers have violated such laws, Oracle rightfully should defend its positions and those providers be punished.  However, Tennessee TN Tenn., Acheter capecitabine bon marché, there’s a lot of money at stake.  For most vendors, maintenance represents 50% to 80% of their revenue stream.  Consequently, bestill zometa online, Kopen goedkope capecitabine, users and user groups have a responsibility to:


  • Demand that their contracts include provisions that protect their right to 3PM

  • Require vendors to work out rules on how 3PM providers can deliver services without violating software IP provisions

  • Seek anti-trust class action with the US DOJ (i.e. Christine A, epogen pedido en línea. Order evista without prescription, Varney) and the EU Competition (i.e. Ordering evista pill, Joaquín Almunia) against software vendors who hinder 3PM providers from providing services

  • Lobby regulatory authorities to open up third party maintenance as a condition for all future M&A approvals.


Users and user groups must vigorously defend their positions in contracts and legal action or lose this right.  Failure will result in a continued software maintenance monopoly.  Success will ensure market competition and renewed innovation.  Attention: Oracle User Group leadership and Quest leadership your members need your help.

Your POV

Should you have rights to Third Party Maintenance (3PM) ?  Do you feel its okay for your vendor to prevent you from access?  What's a fair amount to pay for maintenance?  Add your comments to the discussion or send on to rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwaresinsider dot org and we’ll keep your anonymity, cheapest capecitabine in the world. Buy arimidex overnight delivery, Please let us know if you need help with your contract negotiations and maintenance renegotiation.  Here’s how we can help:


  • Crafting your next gen apps strategy

  • Contract negotiations support

  • Free market evaluation to identify contract cost savings


Related resources and links

Take the new and improved survey on 3rd party maintenance

20100329 The Enterprise System Spectator - Frank Scavo "Rimini Street sues Oracle for Unfair Competition and other abuses"

20100329 ZDNet Irregular Enterprise - Dennis Howlett "Rimini Street sues Oracle"

20100329 ZDNet Between The Lines - Larry Dignan "Rimini Street fires back at Oracle"


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

20091008 Deal Architect - Vinnie Mirchandani “Third Party Maintenance Is Really 4 Decades Old”

20071120 News Analysis: Too Early to Call the Death of Third Party Maintenance

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.

20090622 News Analysis: Infor Flex Reflects Proactive Maintenance Policy

20090516 News Analysis: Rimini Street Launches Third Party Maintenance for SAP

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

20090428 News Analysis: SAP and SUGEN Make Progress on Enterprise Support

20090405 Monday’s Musings: Total Account Value, goedkope iressa apotheek, Louisiana LA, True Cost of Ownership, And Software Vendor Business Models

20090330 Monday’s Musings: It’s The Relationship, order arimidex pill, Stupid. (Part 2) - Stop Slashing The Quality Of Support And Maintenance

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

20081012 Monday’s Musings: 5 Steps to Restoring Trust in the Vendor - Customer Relationship

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

20090912 News Analysis: Siemens Cancels SAP Maintenance Contract

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


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

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Order cheap iressa online, Apps Users Seek Third Party Maintenance For Cost, Value, and Service

Updated surveys from inquiries, client conversations, and user group meetings show a 113.8% increase in interest in third party maintenance (3PM) services from Q3 2009 to Q1 2010 (see Figure 1).  Key factors stem from (see Figure 2.):


  • Continuing cost pressures. Louisiana LA, Budgets continue to be at flat or have been reduced.  Organizations must do more with less.  Add pressures to innovate, CIO's must find fat without trimming bone.

  • Gaining minimal value in maintenance services, West Virginia WV W.Va.. Buy arimidex online legally, Most felt they were paying too much for too little.  An 8 point jump reemphasized the issue with a lack of tiered offerings.

  • Declining plans to upgrade. Worsening economic conditions from Q3 2009 to Q1 2010 led a 27 point increase in interest in 3PM.  Expect many respondents to change their point of view (POV) as economic conditions improve.

  • Expecting better service, cytoxan ordine on-line. Kjøpe billig epogen, Service continues to play a key factor in decisions to go to 3PM.  Over 60% of respondents had experienced poor levels of service.

  • Slowing pace of vendor innovation. Greater than half of respondents believe their vendor has been too slow to deliver new capabilities, order cheap iressa online. These include SaaS deployment options or key functionality in areas such as strategic HCM and social CRM.

  • Disliking the vendor, Maryland MD Md.. Buy iressa, About 1/3 of the survey respondents have bad experiences with their vendor.  Many times it comes from sales person or support rep experiences.

  • Delivering self support. Almost 30% of respondents already provide their own support.  These organizations have no need to pay maintenance when they are doing all the work.


Figure 1, order arimidex without prescription. Order capecitabine online cheap, Interest in 3PM grows 113.8% over 2 quarters.

screen-shot-2010-02-20-at-44436-pm


Figure 2. Order cheap iressa online, Cost Pressures, Value, And Decision Not To Upgrade Drive Current Trends to 3PM

screen-shot-2010-02-20-at-44448-pm


Limited Options Exist For Most Enterprise Apps Customers

Of the 101 respondents in Q1 2010 interested in 3PM, Oracle (88.1%) and SAP (76.2%) users expressed the greatest interest in seeking independent services (see Figure 3).  Over 80% of the users were from large companies greater than 1000 employees across the globe.  Most SAP users surveyed have mixed environments with Siebel, JD Edwards, and PeopleSoft joint installations.  Unfortunately, very few public options exist for sole SAP users (see Figure 4).  For example, SAP customers can only turn to Rimini Street.  Oracle customers on PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel also have limited choices with Rimini Street, netCustomer, and Spinnaker among the options.  IBM, Infor, Lawson, Computer Associates, Epicor, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle E-Business Suite and database customers have no options.  (Note: This data may not be completely statistically significant given the sample size of 240, but hopefully it provides some directional input.)

Figure 3. Oracle And SAP Users Drive Interest In 3PM

screen-shot-2010-02-20-at-44457-pm


Figure 4, Illinois IL Ill.. Cheap zometa online without prescription, Very Few Public Options Exist For Customers

screen-shot-2010-02-20-at-100912-pm


The Bottom Line For Users - Users And User Groups Must Band Together To Guarantee 3PM Rights. Don't Take These For Granted, buy evista online. αγοράζουν online arimidex,

Although the latest surveys show a 17 point increase in the belief that 3PM is a right, this right is under fire by big vendors such as Oracle who have taken legal actions against 3PM providers for improperly (i.e, farmacia evista barato. TomorrowNow) and allegedly (i.e, order cheap iressa online. Um casodex online, Rimini Street) violating intellectual property rights.  If providers have violated such laws, Oracle rightfully should defend its positions and those providers be punished.  However, cheap gleevec tablet, Epogen pill, there's a lot of money at stake.  For most vendors, maintenance represents 50% to 80% of their revenue stream.  Consequently, iressa without a prescription, Nebraska NE Nebr., users and user groups have a responsibility to:


  • Demand that their contracts include provisions that protect their right to 3PM

  • Require vendors to work out rules on how 3PM providers can deliver services without violating software IP provisions

  • Seek anti-trust class action with the US DOJ (i.e. Christine A, cheapest zometa price. Washington WA Wash., Varney) and the EU Compeition (i.e. Joaquín Almunia) against software vendors who hinder 3PM providers from providing services


Users and user groups must vigorously defend their positions in contracts and legal action or lose this right.  Failure will result in a continued software maintenance monopoly.  Success will ensure market competition and renewed innovation.  Attention: OAUG, District of Columbia DC D.C., Order epogen online, Quest, and SUGEN leadership your members need your help, Hawaii HI.
Figure 5.  A Growing Body Of Users Believe 3PM Is A Right

screen-shot-2010-02-20-at-44509-pm


The Bottom Line For Vendors - Proactively Address The Issue Or Expect A Groundswell Of Activism
Order cheap iressa online, SaaS, subscription pricing, 3PM, and the economy provide a confluence of forces that will continue to attack maintenance revenue streams.  Many legal cases have been fought over this issue including IBM vs Amdahl and Geac vs Grace ConsultingSAP's failed attempt to convince customers on the value of Enterprise Support led to a public relations disaster and a factor in the resignation of their CEO.  The result - many vendors considering price hikes held back.  In fact, some savvy software vendors retooled and restored the client -vendor relationship by:

  • Offering more entry points and tiers to support options. Ostaa halvalla evista, The three pillars of software maintenance and support policies still apply.  However, several vendors are now offering more tiers of support as lower entry points.  Two vendors have finalized plans to offer just the bare bones legal and regulatory updates.  Other vendors have made it easier to come back with maintenance amnesty plans.

  • Providing flexible maintenance policies. Vendors who change rigid policies have experienced success among customers.  Some Both Infor through Infor Flex and Micrsoft Dynamics allow like for like swap credits to migrate between existing products.

  • Renegotiating existing terms. Some vendors are helping clients meet the realities of the current market conditions. Big on the list is helping clients address shelf ware without repricing of contracts.  For clients who paid full maintenance on software that’s at least 4 years old, some vendors are offering to reduce up to 20% of the overall licenses not in use.  This leads to lower maintenance revenue but engenders good will among key clients.  Further, several vendors have allowed clients to apply credit towards another module as an alternative.

  • Delivering amnesty programs. Several vendors have allowed customers to return to maintenance programs after years of not paying.  Such programs play a key role in helping customers upgrade but should be used sparingly as customers may become accustomed to this practice.

  • Creating better peer forums to share information. Almost every vendor surveyed has a program to improve the online support capabilities.  Applying Social CRM use cases,  user generated content in peer forums tops the list of initiatives.  Other plans focus on sharing data on benchmarks, operational metrics, and best practices.

  • Assisting with vendor financing, order cheap iressa online. Clients seek access to financing, especially many in the mid-market who’s credit lines have been zapped.  Microsoft has led the charge by providing 0% financing for its Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customers.  Other vendors such as IBM, Infor, Oracle, SAP, Sage also offer vendor led financing programs that include hardware, implementation, training, and other services.

  • Lowering cost of usage and ownership. Though tops on the list as a conceptual practice, most vendors will need to roll out such initiatives over the next 24 months.  A few notable exceptions include Agresso with its VITA architecture which allows customers to rapidly make business and UI changes, Microsoft Dynamics customers who report back significantly lowered implementation and training costs compared to most vendors, and Epicor customers who report significant productivity gains with Service Connect.  SaaS customers already experience such gains.


Your POV

Take the new and improved survey on 3rd party maintenance and let us know if you need help with your enterprise apps strategy by:


  • Conducting an ROI on 3rd party maintenance options

  • Identifying cost reduction opportunities

  • Renegotiating your software contracts

  • Improving innovation via SaaS and other deployment options


Please post or send on to rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwaresinsider dot org and we’ll keep your anonymity.
Related resources and links

20091008 Deal Architect - Vinnie Mirchandani "Third Party Maintenance Is Really 4 Decades Old"

20071120 News Analysis: Too Early to Call the Death of Third Party Maintenance

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.

20090622 News Analysis: Infor Flex Reflects Proactive Maintenance Policy

20090516 News Analysis: Rimini Street Launches Third Party Maintenance for SAP

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

20090428 News Analysis: SAP and SUGEN Make Progress on Enterprise Support

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

20090330 Monday's Musings: It's The Relationship, Stupid. (Part 2) - Stop Slashing The Quality Of Support And Maintenance

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

20081012 Monday's Musings: 5 Steps to Restoring Trust in the Vendor - Customer Relationship

20100114 News Analysis: SAP Revives Two Tier Maintenance Options

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

20090912 News Analysis: Siemens Cancels SAP Maintenance Contract

20090910 Tuesday's Tip: Note To Self - Start Renegotiating Your Q4 Software Maintenance Contracts Now.

20090602 Tuesday’s Tip: Now’s The Time To Consider SaaS Software Escrows


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

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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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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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News Analysis: Siemens Cancels SAP Maintenance Contract

Potential Announcement of * Siemens cancellation represents a shift in mood by one of SAP's most loyal customers What's been rumored for the past few months has now publicly been confirmed discussed.  Golem.de (Babelfish Translation in English) *Wiwo.de,(Wirtschaftswoche the German equivalent of BusinessWeek) (Babelfish Translation in English) reports that Siemens says SAP Tschüß (i.e. ciao, cheers, bye) in its September 12th posting.
According to the translated report, "Siemens is one of the largest SAP customers, reports the business magazine economic week (Wiwo): Over 160.000 Siemens coworkers used the software of SAP. For maintenance, to the support and regular software actualizations belong, require SAP 17 per cent of the license costs. For Siemens costs add up after analysts estimations each year on a middle two digit amount of millions."
*What should be made clear here is that Siemens appears to have submitted its cancellation papers to SAP.  However, the company will most likely not be doing a rip and replace of its core systems. It's just looking at alternatives for SAP maintenance or even maybe a better counter offer from SAP. Third party maintenance vendors emerge from the woodwork Of note, IBM, and HCL have been listed with Rimini Street as contenders for this third party maintenance (3PM) market.  SAP's system integrators traditionally have shied away or have been rumored to be given strong signals not to provide alternative support options for their vendor partners.  To date, this has led to just one public offering from Rimini Street.  While the process requires significant investment in engineering and support resources, the contenders each bring significant capabilities to the table.  And according to some customers, several other providers have already been providing third party maintenance services for SAP in EMEA. The bottom line - economic pressures will bring more enterprise software customers to consider (3PM) Almost all SAP customers have end of year maintenance renewal terms.  As these organizations review their maintenance contracts going into 2010, it will be important to consider the role of third party maintenance in decisions.  Customers seek strategies to free funding up so they can address economic shortfalls and/or invest in innovation. But don't expect vendors such as SAP to back off without a fight.  Beware of some tactics some vendors have used to cut customers off from the third party maintenance option:
  • Do not give away your third party maintenance rights. Review your contracts with your legal team for such similar anti competitive language.  Validate any suspicious terminology with the vendor
  • Avoid offers by sales reps to bundle contracts. Once bundled, you will lose the ability to choose what parts of the relationship you wish to change
  • Say "NO" to contracts that tie upgrade rights to current status of maintenance payments. Some blog readers report a new tactic emerging in the field where even after downloading upgrades to a perpetual license, some vendors are claiming you do not have such rights unless you are current on maintenance.  This flies in the face of the spirit and intent of a perpetual license.
  • Eliminate gag rule clauses in your contracts. Make sure you retain the freedom to work with third parties to assist in contract negotiations.  You'll also want to have the right to discuss some benchmarking with peers and other user group members.
Your POV Is your enterprise software contract up for renewal?  How has your vendor treated you to date?  Do you need assistance with negotiating such contacts?  Wonder why Neelie Kroes and the EU ( yes this is an election year) or the US Anti-trust team have not stood up for your consumer rights yet?  What are your user groups doing to assist you?  Post your comment here or reach me direct at r at altimetergroup dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org.  Put the power of expert contract negotiation advice to work or drop us a line.
Related posts 20090912 Deal Architect - Vinnie Mirchandani "Don't Cry For Me Germany" 20090912 Irregular Enterprise - Dennis Howlett "Siemens Cans SAP Support"
Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved. *Slight changes were made with some factual review input from multiple sources. (18:30 GMT - 8:00)

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

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.

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

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.