Posts Tagged ‘Uncategorized’

News Analysis: Hasso Brings More Changes to SAP’s Management Team

Published on February 11, 2010 by R "Ray" Wang

New Changes Hint At Hasso’s Priorities

In a not surprising update, SAP makes changes to Executive Board and management.  Here are the changes:

  • Gerhard Oswald becomes COO. Gerhard has experiences in support, consulting, education, custom development, and quality.Gerhard’s contract has been extended till December 31, 2011.

    Point of View (POV):  Gerhard’s been a long-timer at SAP with 30 years of experience.  He replaces Erwin Gunst who’s been out for almost a year with medical issues.  SAP needs a strong COO in place and Gerhard has the credibility and experience to execute.  Hasso’s putting a trusted lieutenant in charge.

  • John Schwarz resigns. The former BOBJ leader leaves.  He was responsible for SAP BusinessObjects, Ecosystem and Corp Dev.

    POV: After being passed up for the CEO job, it was obvious that John would be leaving.  Expect many of the BOBJ members in product management,  product marketing, and development to be reshuffled as their support will be shifted.  Those who didn’t fight hard for embedding T-Rex (inMem) and pushing out “Timeless Software” may be most impacted.

  • Peter Lorenz named as a corporate officer. Peter currently is the Executive Vice President for Small and Mid-size Enterprise (SME).  He reports to Jim Hagemann Snabe.

    POV: The corporate officer position serves as an extended board member role.  This hints at the importance of SME to SAP’s strategy.  SAP also needs to build bench strength in SME.

The Bottom Line – SAP’s Making Big Changes.

Hasso’s acting fast to make changes.  John Schwarz will be missed by many of the BOBJ team. Expect a ripple of changes as the management shake out finalizes over the next 8 to 12 weeks.   Look for new product road maps to arrive prior to Sapphire 2010.

Your POV

Are you an SAP customer?   How do you feel about the transition?  Would you like to learn more about:

  • Building a next gen SAP roadmap?
  • Improving your SAP apps strategy?
  • Augmenting SAP with SaaS?
  • Putting third party maintenance and optimization to work?

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

Related Links And Resources

Official SAP Press Release

Here’s a list of related reports.

20100114 News Analysis: SAP Revives Two-Tier Maintenance Options

20091211 Event Report: 2009 SAP Influencer Summit – SAP Must Put Strategy To Execution In Order To Prove Clarity Of Vision

20091125 Speaker Notes: Keynote – SAP UK & Ireland User Group Conference 2009

Here’s a list of related links of news during Léo’s tenure.  They will be added on an ongoing basis and updated as appropriate.

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

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

Published on December 8, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang

Begin Apps Strategy Projects With Bite-Sized Entry Points

Complexity often plagues today’s apps strategies.  With tight budgets, limited resources, and little time, organizations need to find bite-sized entry points. The need to meet ever changing complex business requirements requires a four-step, basic (A,B,C,D) approach:
  1. Align your business requirements with the hierarchy of business needs. 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.
  2. Base decisions on the identification of 3 major types of business processes. As organizations begin that process of documenting business processes, they must differentiate among the 3 major types of business processes.  In key flows such as order to cash, hire to retire, incident to resolution, procure to pay, etc, remember to categorize key processes into three buckets: mission critical, commoditized, and innovative.
  3. Choose your entry points to business value. It makes no sense to boil the ocean.  Clients often start with departmental and work there way to cross-departmental initiatives.  Advanced customers focus on external entry points such as customers and partners.  Keep in mind processes cross functional fiefdoms but you do have to start somewhere. (see Figure 1.)
  4. Define the metrics that matter. Begin with the end in mind.  This Coveyism always rings true in transformational activities.  Metrics should be aligned with your entry points.  Quantify the baseline and determine the effort.  Adjust your ROI targets to align resources with efforts to move the needle.  The goal – drive business value. (see Figure 2.)
Figure 1. Choose Your Entry Points To Business Value

(Copyright © 2009 by R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.)

(Copyright © 2009 by R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.)

Figure 2. Define The Metrics That Matter
Copyright © 2009 by R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.)

(Copyright © 2009 by R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.)

The Bottom Line – Sketch The Big Picture, But Paint By Number

With the pace of adoption much slower than the pace of technology innovation, organizations will have to complete small tactical projects that build out the larger picture.  Apps strategies should include tactical road maps that achieve strategic goals.  Don’t hesitate to plan ahead and build in flexibility.  Plans will change, so apps strategies must take an “agile” approach.   Iterate every 6 months as business needs change and new disruptive technologies emerge.  Keep focused on the goal in mind – business value.

Your POV

Have you planned your 2010 strategy?  Which entry points have you prioritized?  How are you defining business value?  Got a scoop or something to share? Please post or send on to r at softwareinsider dot org or rwang0 at gmail dot com and we’ll keep your anonymity.

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

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News Analysis: Oracle Formally Announces Fusion Apps

Published on October 14, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang

Oracle’s Fusion Apps Addresses A Broad Set Of Horizontal Modules

Oracle’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Larry Ellison announced the code completion of Fusion Apps in today’s late afternoon keynote.  Though Ellison did not give precise guidance on general availability (GA), he did hint that the product would be available, “sometime in 2010″.  The product currently undergoes extensive testing and will comprise of  key modules including:

  • Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management
  • Oracle Fusion Enterprise Project Portfolio Management
  • Oracle Fusion Governance, Risk, And Compliance
  • Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management
  • Oracle Fusion Financial Management
  • Oracle Fusion Procurement
  • Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management

Some key hallmarks of Oracle’s Fusion Applications V 1. (see Figure 1) include:

  • Role based design
  • Extensive provision for proactive reporting and alerts
  • Web 2.0 like usability
  • SOA architecture for integration of legacy applications
  • Multiple deployment options including on-premise, hosting, and multi-tenant SaaS

The V1 product will not deliver out of the box capabilities to support:

  • Discrete Manufacturing
  • Process Manufacturing
  • Public Sector

Figure 1. Fusion Apps Move Towards A Social Enterprise/Social Business Apps User Experience

(Source: Oracle Corporation )

The Bottom Line – Oracle Takes A Two Prong Strategy And Seeks Domination Of The Apps Market

Oracle’s continues to prove success in its business model.  By acquiring the leading companies with significant recurring revenue streams, it can drive economies of scale to make above average R&D investments.  The result – enough innovation in existing product lines to compel customers to pay maintenance and upgrade; and the time and resources to build a next generation product.  Should Oracle successfully deliver on Fusion Apps to customers in 2010, SAP will have to play catch up in mind share as many sources state that there are no plans for a new product until 2013/2014.  Other vendors will have to leverage or partner for middleware and PaaS options in order to sustain key Web 2.0 innovations in the enterprise.

Your POV.

Is seeing believing? As an Oracle customer will this compel you to stay on Apps Unlimited or make a move to Fusion Apps?  If you aren’t a customer, will you now consider Oracle in your short lists?  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 © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.

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

Published on July 14, 2009 by R "Ray" Wang

FORWARD AND COMMENTARY
“An Enterprise Software Licensee’s Bill of Rights (LB0R) V2″ brings the 10th installment of an on-going series to provide clients with insight on how to better align their packaged apps strategies.  Version 2 of the LBoR updates the original groundbreaking list of 36 best practices for software licensing and pricing and provides a good check list for contract negotiations strategy.  Eleven new rights have been added that reflect support for new deployment options, cost savings beyond the current recession, mitgation from future lock-in, and client best practices.

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
  10. An Enterprise Software Licensee’s Bill of Rights, V2

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

A. Introduction

Since publication in December 2006, the LBoR has played a key tool in enterprise software contract negotiations and packaged apps strategy for over 1000 of my software licensing, pricing, and contract negotiations at Forrester.  During the update of the LBoR, over 100 end users and 70 vendors contributed to the addition of 11 new rights.   This document remains a must read for all those engaged in software contracts.

B. Research Findings

Changing market conditions result in new rights

Four themes emerged among the 11 additional rights added (see Figure 1):

  • Support for new deployment options. Virtualization and SaaS transcend interesting pilots and concepts and become the norm in mainstream adoption. Users will expect to achieve savings in virtualized instances, the ability to swap user and usage rights among new deployment options, and protection from SaaS vendor bankruptcies.
  • Cost savings beyond the current recession. Renewed focus on cost reduction drive enterprises to identify short- and long-term opportunities. These roles expect choice, value, and predictability in their vendor’s support and maintenance programs.
  • Mitigation from future vendor lock-in in a less competitive environment. Consolidation results in less competition. Users should seek leverage in contract negotiations beyond the initial purchase.
  • Additional client input into best practices. More than 70 software vendors and 100 Forrester clients and Software Insider blog readers provided similar suggestions for improvements in the selection and implementation phases of the software ownership life cycle.

Figure 1. Eleven New Rights Reflect Changing Market Conditions and Client Input

11 New Rights in the LBoR V2

Figure 2. An Enterprise Software Licensee’s Bill of Rights, V2

An Enterprise Software Licensee's Bill of Rights, V2

Recommendations – Use the bill of rights as the centerpiece in contract negotiations

Now’s the time to review existing relationships and renegotiate contracts using the LB0R V2 as a reference guide.  Apply seven simple steps to successfully negotiate enterprise software contracts and build a long-term packaged apps strategy:

  1. Assemble the right team.
  2. Identify the key business drivers.
  3. Apply the software ownership life cycle and the licensee’s bill of rights.
  4. Determine the product adoption plan.
  5. Align product adoption strategy with contract negotiation objectives.
  6. Identify main leverage points.
  7. Finalize the negotiation strategy.

C. Report Links

To read the details about each end-user right, seven simple steps, recommendations and the “What It Means” cycle, click here for the Forrester Report: An Enterprise Software Licensee’s Bill of Rights, V2 . For media courtesy requests, please send me an email to rwang@forrester.com

Read other POV on the Enterprise Software Licensee’s Bill of Rights

Your POV.

Would love your feedback on the report.  Looking for help with your SAP, Oracle, Infor, Lawson, Microsoft Dynamics, or other enterprise software contract?   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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