Customer survey roundup no. 3

March 1, 2007 from CAmagazine written by Michael Burns – Check out the results of our 3rd customer survey of accounting and ERP systems. See how well readers like the systems they're using, and how they rate the developers and implementation partners. We also asked for some general feedback about return on investment and future plans. Unfortunately, we did not get sufficient responses to break the results out by vendor, but there should still be a lot of useful information for your review.

Tricks of the Trade (A few ideas to improve productivity)

February 2007 from 180 Systems – Many people spend the majority of their time with a few programs that they know well enough to get the job done. They realize they could find a more efficient way to get the job done, but the effort involved seems to outweigh the benefit. So they’re stuck in a rut. This article will give you a few ideas to crawl out.

One big waster of time is searching for information. Let’s assume that it’s on your computer somewhere and you keep everything important. The 1st trick does not involve recent technology, just common sense. Organize your documents and email in folders or directories. However even if you’re diligent in filing things away, you could be looking for something that spans directories, email and different document types. There are solutions that are easy and inexpensive that will automate the search process. All you need to do is type the keyword and you can instantly see a subset of files or emails that contain the keyword. And the keyword does not need to be a tag that you manually apply. It’s just text somewhere in the document or email. There are solutions like X1, Google desktop, ISYS that can help. And Microsoft Vista (The new Windows system) now includes search right out of the box.

Meetings are also right up there as big wasters of time. Once again, you can use common sense to reduce the wasted time by making sure everyone gets to the meeting on time, establishing a tight agenda, issuing documents in advance…. But technology can help too especially if the participants are not in the same office. Try one of the web conferencing tools such as WebEx or GoToMeeting.

You can also waste time flipping back and forth between documents. Windows does let you split the screen and synchronize or de-synchronize scrolling, but you don’t see as much as you would like. The solution is relatively inexpensive by using a dual monitor or using one of your old clunkers to view a document while you do the heavy lifting on your new PC.

When creating presentations or writing documentation, you will want to copy something that appears on your computer screen. There has always been the PrintScreen function that can give you the whole screen or just the current window by also using the ALT key when you press the PrintScreen function key. But if you can’t do it because there are restrictions on the document you are reviewing, or you want to be more picky, there is help using a program such as SnagIT. (I know I don’t need to remind you to give credit to other people’s work and make sure that you are not violating copyright)

There are also many time savers in the programs we use everyday. The best way to leverage these tricks of the trade is to provide training. Why not have a series of lunch and learn sessions? Get your best technical person to show time savers in MS Word or Excel. For example, teach the group how to do multiple selects from a list using the CTRL or ALT key or to automatically populate a series of days, months, years… Take a look at Office Watch for instruction on how to use AutoFill

We are sure there are many other ways to be more efficient, and would welcome any of your suggestions. Please update the blog with your suggestions. Thanks

180 View – We wrote it so you already know our view.

Customer relationship management doesn't have to be complex and expensive

February 7, 2007 from ITbusiness by Vawn Himmelsbach – “While the idea of installing customer relationship management (CRM) software can be intimidating to smaller businesses, it shouldn't be. In fact, it doesn't have to be either complicated or expensive for those companies that consider themselves SMBs…

Both small and large companies require a central repository of customer information, says Michael Burns, president of Toronto-based 180 Systems. The most basic CRM systems include a contact management system; but more sophisticated features include sales force automation, marketing automation and service management (but as a small company, some of these features may be overkill)…

At one point in time there was a differentiation between front-end systems, like CRM, and back-end systems, like accounting or ERP, but that distinction is gradually fading, says Burns. Now it's recognized that you require both, and even the most basic of systems will usually contain CRM components. Several accounting packages have tight integration with products from top-tier CRM vendors, for example.

"It's hard for any company that has an application that automates your enterprise to exclude CRM," says Burns. But, he adds, if you don't have it, you're going to have a hard time down the road selling your wares.”

180 View – Great article by Vawn especially considering that she has quoted us.

Oracle Buys Hyperion

March 1, 2007 from CRN – “Oracle said it would create a more comprehensive business intelligence software suite following its US$3.3 billion acquisition of Hyperion on Thursday. The two firms said the deal, which is expected to close sometime next month, would allow Oracle to integrate Hyperion's business performance management software into its own business intelligence (BI) product. Oracle's first BI product was released at the beginning of last year.

Hyperion started out primarily as a provider of financial reporting services but has also become successful with its online analytical processing (OLAP) engine, which allows users to quickly analyze complex queries. A few years ago, Hyperion made a strategic acquisition of its own when it spent US$140 million to buy Brio, which gave it an improved query tool…”

180 View – The acquisition represents the growing trend by ERP vendors to provide an end-to-end solution. Initially ERP was a back office application (financials, distribution…) Then it included the front office (CRM, eCommerce…). And now it includes Corporate Performance Management / Business Intelligence. In the short run, this aquisition should be good for all concerned. But what happens when sales fall off as a result of Hyperion prospects who are reluctant to acquire Hyperion because they don't use Oracle ERP systems?

The Magic of BI

September 28, 2006 from SQL Server Magazine – “According to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data Warehouse Database Management Systems, 2006 report (published September 12), Microsoft’s BI platform revenue grew at a rate of 35.9 percent in 2005. And Microsoft’s recent earnings reports (http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/default.mspx) document that Microsoft SQL Server revenue as a whole also grew 35 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2006. In Microsoft’s press release about its BI growth (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/sep06/09-22BIMomentumPR.mspx), Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division, says:

“Our ongoing BI investments are enabling a transformation of the way people interact with important business information. We continue to evolve our solution set, recently rounding it out with an integrated performance management application, such that our offering will provide customers with a complete, flexible and cost-effective BI solution, one that enables truly pervasive BI across the enterprise.”

Those of you familiar with Gartner’s magic quadrant model know that it breaks vendors into four categories: niche player, challenger, visionary, or leader. Garner assigns a vendor’s standing in the quadrant based on the vendor’s completeness of vision and ability to execute that vision. Gartner’s recent magic quadrant report shows that Microsoft has made great progress across the board in data warehousing and is now on the line between challenger and leader.”


180 View – Here is another indicator of Business Intelligence becoming part of the end-to-end strategy of ERP vendors. Microsoft has a huge advantage over many of its rivals, and will exploit this advantage over the years to come.

How Real Is the Software as a Service Phenomenon?

February 2, 2007 from IT Business Edge – “Info-Tech surveyed more than 1,900 IT professionals, including more than 200 recruited by ITBE. In one area of the survey, respondents were asked to quantify the impact of SaaS as a proportion of new software spending over three time periods: two years ago, today, and two years from now.

The results show that SaaS, while still accounting for a modest portion of new software purchases, is a growing force in the industry. This year, on-demand software is expected to account for 20 percent more of your software acquisition budget than it did two years ago. If our respondents’ forecasts are correct, it will grow by a further 30 percent over the next two years. In the near term, the uptake has occurred primarily in small organizations (1-100 employees); these were already about 20 percent ahead of the industry-wide use of SaaS two years ago, and have increased by roughly 25 percent since then.

However, looking forward, it is large accounts that see the greatest proportional future growth. IT professionals in enterprises with more than 1,000 employees believe that although their organizations have been slower to respond to SaaS than smaller firms, they will experience strong growth – perhaps as high as 40 percent – in the proportion of new software acquisition budgets allocated to on-demand products.

180 View – The name has changed from Application Service Provider, but SaaS has now become mainstream. We now typically include SaaS vendors in our RFP’s. They don’t always win the day, but it’s not because the SaaS model doesn’t make sense. It’s more often that the products are not as mature as their on-premise/license-based counterparts.

RightNow aims to take on SAP

February 15, 2007 from ZDNet – “Greg Gianforte, the outspoken CEO of RightNow Technologies, says the market for customer relationship management software in Europe is booming--and he predicts that some of his company's biggest wins will come at the expense of industry heavyweights SAP and the Oracle-owned Siebel.

Gianforte says chief information officers are tired of what he calls costly and time-consuming on-premise implementations. His company, he says, is picking up enterprise customers from both of his big-name rivals. "We beat SAP at Nikon, for all their campaign management. We threw Siebel out of Electronic Arts. And those are just some of the ones who are prepared for us to talk about it," Gianforte told Silicon.com.

He said many companies are unwilling to admit when they've been forced to ditch costly software rollouts: "You have to understand this is fairly embarrassing for these companies because they made big investments and couldn't get value."

Gianforte singled out market leader SAP for criticism, on the back of recent poor results. "You could drive a truck through the cracks in SAP's armor," he said, claiming he would much rather have his current problem--the recent announcement of $49 million in losses related to a change in RightNow's licensing model--than those of SAP or Siebel, which have to turn around far larger businesses…”

180 View – Although Greg Gianforte is biased, he also has a point or should we say a sharp knife for his competitors. We actually agree with Greg in that the complex/costly implementations are now history. The mid market is where lie all the new business opportunities, and mid market companies won’t put up with complex/costly implementations.

Update on Workday, the new “on-demand ERP” company

February 23, 2007 from AMR Research written by Bruce Richardson – “When Workday came out of stealth mode for its launch last November, the company had already signed its first three customers. Over the last few months, it has added eight more. The new customers include two brand names in on-demand software: salesforce.com and RightNow Technologies.

The company has grown to 90 employees, up from 40 or so when I first visited the firm’s Walnut Creek headquarters last April. Head count will likely grow to 150 or so by the end of the year. Most new hires will likely be in development and customer support. Based on our conversations, it appears that Mr. Duffield is looking to control growth and assure high customer satisfaction. When asked how many new customers he hopes to sign this year, he said 30. While that represents strong, triple-digit growth, it is more manageable than the software industry’s classic strategy of aiming primarily at sales wins, not “go lives.”

Believe it or not, it’s been nearly 20 years since Mr. Duffield and Ken Morris started PeopleSoft. When I asked what was different this time, Mr. Duffield said that the tools they are using today are superior. He also said PeopleSoft didn’t get its first customer until the company was two and a half years old, and it took a year for the first customer to go live.

Now, the new tools allow the firm to come out with major enhancements every six to 12 months. Customers are able to go live on the first modules in three months. This typically includes human capital management (HCM) and payroll. The follow-on project usually involves employee self-service applications, which take a month or so to implement.”

180 View – Mr Duffield has a lot of advantages over his competitors. He has no baggage code to update. He has the latest and greatest tools to work with. He knows the ERP business. He is well connected and well funded. His business model is now accepted as mainstream. Keep your eye on this one.

Shedding Light on Internal Control Requirements

February 2007 from Crowe Chizek – “Near the end of 2006, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) took steps towards making significant changes in how the internal control provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) are applied…”

180 View - The article discusses the history, problems, and potential changes to SOX. The PCAOB had invited comments on the proposed changes and the deadline for response has just passed. We could not find much yet about the responses except for the following:

February 27, 2007 from webCPA – “A flurry of e-mails and letters arrived just under the deadline for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s 70-day comment period regarding proposed changes to the audit standard on internal controls over financial reporting.

Just before Christmas, the five-member board unanimously voted to circulate a proposal that would trim the amount of testing required for auditors to evaluate internal controls over the financial reporting process.

Through the weekend, the board had received 55 comment letters, and that total nearly doubled before the close of business Monday. By the day’s end, a total of 97 pieces of correspondence had been posted to the PCAOB’s Web site. The majority of the nearly 700 pages of comments were highly detailed in citing the specifics of what a number of organizations and individuals supported in the board’s proposal, as well as possible improvements that could be made to the guidance.

Broadly-speaking, many of the comments fell into two camps, similar to the views expressed during a recent meeting of the board’s Standing Advisory Group, and, for that matter, in the four years since passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Investor advocates worry that more leeway in the controls could lead to lax audits, while business concerns -- such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- worry that still not enough has been done to tailor the original guidance to make it manageable, and cost efficient, for smaller companies...”

When Good Teams Go Bad

January 31, 2007 from Harvard Business School – “What could better symbolize high-level business performance than an eight-oared crew team rowing in perfect unison, their boat powered by a selfless collaboration of strength, skill, and shared purpose? It's no wonder that advertisers love to use this image to depict successful teamwork

The rowing metaphor also caught the eye of HBS professor Jeff Polzer and HBS associate professor Scott Snook. The pair has produced a case about the behind-the-scenes dynamics surrounding a college crew team. But unlike the beautiful images favored by advertisers, "The Army Crew Team" case reveals a not-so-pretty picture of a frustrating and baffling decline in performance by the varsity boat at the United States Military Academy..."

180 View – Lawrence Young has worked with hundreds of companies implementing IT and HR projects whose success depends on team work. Lawrence has concluded that the maximum benefits derived from highly functional teams accrue when:

1. The strategic and operational goals and objectives of the project are clearly identified and communicated to all team members.
2. The culture of the team ensures a high degree of respect between members of the team.
3. All team members clearly understand the basic dynamic of any team, which is that the whole exceeds the sum of the parts i.e. the overall success of the team exceeds the individual success of any given member of the team.
4. Each team member is given appropriate responsibility to complete their assigned tasks, and is measured and held accountable by the team leader in a timely fashion.

But according to Lawrence, the most critical success factor in effective team work is ensuring that each team member is committed to the success of the overall project, and not merely involved in completing their assigned tasks. As Lawrence says, successful teams are all about bacon and eggs - ‘the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed’.