News & Views

June 2010 from CAmagazine written by Michael Burns – “Before replacing any system, you need to document your requirements. Obvious, right? You just have to talk to the people working with the existing system and ask them for the requirements. But that would be a huge mistake, for a number of reasons.  If employees are afraid the new system will automate a big part of their job, they might be reluctant to tell the whole story. Also, they might be unable to think outside of their own box, or they might think certain tasks are not worth mentioning. There is a better way…”

April 23, 2010 from Information Week – “Phillips says the mix-and-match approach is killing IT organizations, and the only salvation is standardization (on Oracle, of course)…”

180 View – It’s a slippery slope to standardize on one vendor.

May 13, 2010 from Newsfactor – “In the largest technology industry acquisition of the year, SAP announced plans to buy Sybase for about $5.8 billion. SAP said the merged company will focus on serving “unwired enterprises.”

There are clear synergies between SAP and Sybase across both product lines and markets. SAP expects the merger to help the company hasten its reach across mobile platforms and drive adoption of its in-memory computing vision, which in turn is expected to spur greater adoption of SAP software. Sybase’s mobile platform will also connect and enable SAP apps and data on mobile devices.

Meanwhile, the companies expect SAP’s in-memory technology to give Sybase the opportunity to improve the performance of its analytics offering and extend the reach of its event-processing and analytics solutions to new industries. SAP’s tech should also beef up Sybase’s core database business, the companies said….”

180 View –ERP was developed initially to automate business processes across the silos/departments within organizations. Now, ERP is being extended to automate business processes anywhere in the world. Being able to approve a purchase order is just one example of a mobile application.

SAP may soon offer something similar to Oracle in providing not just the ERP application but also the underlying database.

May 24, 2010 from Forrester –  “…With 5,000 attendees in Frankfurt, 10,500 in Orlando and 35,000 online participants, this was the biggest SAPPHIRE event ever.…”

180 View – If you’re interested in what happened at SAP’s really big show, this link is a good way to glean the highlights without needing to watch online videos…

April 21, 2010 from destination CRM – “In the nine years since its founding, NetSuite, a provider of business management software suites hosted in the cloud, has witnessed firsthand — and benefitted from — the software industry’s affair with cloud computing. In the early 2000s, pundits squabbled over the technology’s promise, whether enterprises would choose to access their information via a browser instead of through desktop software, if data was truly secure, and, lastly, if it was possible for businesses to make money with software-as-a-service (SaaS).

“Every myth that popped up was soon knocked down,” said NetSuite Chief Executive Officer Zach Nelson, at the company’s annual SuiteCloud partner conference here last week.

These days, however, an emerging new wave of cloud computing has brought with it a new wave of myths.” The myths are:

1. Complex processes don’t run in the cloud
2. Customization is the Achilles’ heel of cloud applications
3. Channels don’t exist for cloud applications”

180 View – I agree with one qualification and that is SaaS customizations are possible only outside of source code. Other SaaS concerns are:

• There is “the risk that data may be disclosed to the government of the jurisdiction in which their data is held by the vendor, possibly without their knowledge or consent. For example, the USA PATRIOT Act permits the U.S. federal government to seek a court order for disclosure of electronic records, often without permitting notice to the user.” For more, see “Canada: Peering Through The Cloud – Cloud Computing: Many Benefits But There Are Some Legal Issues To Consider” published January 26, 2010 (http://www.mondaq.com/canada/article.asp?articleid=92818)
• You may not find all the functionality you need as SaaS is relatively new compared to the more mature products available on a license basis.
• You need to consider SaaS costs over a long period of time to do a proper Total Cost of Ownership.
• SaaS is not as compelling for those organizations that already have IT resources and infrastructure in place for other applications.

December 2007 from CPA Technology Advisor – “This review encompasses four of the top high-end accounting systems in the market place. Each system is aesthetically pleasing to work with, and each provides an intuitive user interface and a full set of modules to accomplish most any task or process…” Products reviewed are Microsoft Dynamics GP, Sage Accpac 500 ERP 5.4, Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Sage MAS 500 ERP and each of them got a Five Star rating…”

180 View – The review was so light that I hesitated in including it. But perhaps there is something that is useful for you. It also demonstrates that it’s just about impossible to do a thorough review of any ERP system because of the extensive functionality. Here are some of my gripes with the article based on a quick read of the Microsoft Dynamics GP review:

• GP gets a five star rating for Modules/Scalability based on “GP offers business solutions through components such as Financial Management, Business Intelligence and Reporting, Supply Chain Management, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, Human Resource Management, Manufacturing and Workspace Collaboration.” There is no indication on the adequacy of the functionality listed and GP is not known for manufacturing or project management.
• The ratings appear to be entirely subjective based.
• The review includes “Dynamics GP seems to be very customizable” shows lack of any depth to the review.” A system is either customizable or it is not – it should not read “seems to be”. Also NAV and AX are the Microsoft products touted for their customization features.

June 3, 2010 from Forrester – “Deltek’s announcement today of its intent to acquire Maconomy has the potential to vault the vendor’s position as a potential leader in the project-based solutions (PBS) space. For midmarket organizations that deliver projects as a crucial part of their revenue generation, this is a good move…”

180 View – Seems like a brilliant move by Deltek to acquire a large customer base and open up new industries and geographies.

2010 from Epicor – “…Organizations can typically choose from four principal types of ERP vendor partners who deliver solutions around the following models:

• Partner ecosystems
• Frameworks
• Integrated best-of-breed
• End-to-end embedded solutions…”

180 View – You can bet that Epicor falls into the type that has the least disadvantages.

May 6, 2010 from Software Advice – “…How truly integrated is the integrated suite vendor’s offering? If the ERP vendor acquired the system, it may not be “truly” integrated. It might just be a best-of-breed system with some basic integration. If they built it themselves, it could use a different code base and therefore not be tightly integrated with the ERP suite’s older core…”

180 View – The question of Best-of-Breed vs Integrated Suite (ERP) has been a debate since the dawn of ERP. But things are getting better. Best-of-breed applications have better tools for integration. ERP systems include more functionality. The question quoted above is a good one. Some ERP vendors have extended their applications by encouraging their partners to develop best-of-breed applications with the same tools as the ERP vendor. This has the advantage of integration in terms of database and user interface. However it does not eliminate risks associated with reliance on a relatively unknown or small partner/best-of-breed developer.

January 26, 2010 from Gartner via BOARD International – “…The market for corporate performance management (CPM) suites continues to grow rapidly. Previous years were marked by large-scale vendor consolidation and subsequent portfolio rationalization, while this year has seen a more stable market in which the vendors have focused on execution (particularly the large vendors selling into their existing customer bases). Demand continues despite the difficult economic conditions primarily because CPM has helped to manage costs optimization efforts and is now increasingly employed in supporting growth-based strategies. Vendor offerings from larger vendors and CPM specialists are rich in functionality, with many potential benefits.  However, the market is dominated, in terms of market share, by the three megavendors vendors ( Oracle, SAP and IBM); although they all have strong product portfolios, there is still some uncertainty among users about future product roadmaps.  Additionally specialist vendors continue to offer leading-edge functionality and licensing options that appeal to  organizations that do not want to choose from the megavendors…”

180 View – You will need to register with the BOARD but it’s worth the effort if your’re interested in CPM functionality and CPM vendors.

2010 from SearchDataManagement – “…This directory is designed to be a valuable resources for this getting started with research or evaluating vendors in the business intelligence market. Inside, you’ll find basic information about the major vendors in the business intelligence market and the products they sell. Each listing is accompanies by a short description and a long description including limited information about the functionality and product use…”

180 View – There are 26 products and 28 pages of information in the article

May 2010 from CAmagazine – “…One of the distinctive features of cloud computing is that data can be localized, shared and stored in several countries, depending on what the service provider decides. When a company opts for cloud computing, it relinquishes control over its information channels. Accordingly, the different laws in countries where the data circulates can make it difficult for an organization to ensure adequate protection of information. For example, in the US laws such as the USA Patriot Act and the Stored Communications Act have an impact on data confidentiality…”

180 View – When you read that “the USA Patriot Act and the Stored Communications Act have an impact on data confidentiality”, it’s not clear on the extent of the risk. There is probably way more risk that an employee will expose confidential information by throwing out confidential papers, theft of a laptop, loss of a USB key…

April 19, 2010 from CBS News – “At a warehouse in New Jersey, 6,000 used copy machines sit ready to be sold. CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports almost every one of them holds a secret.

Nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive – like the one on your personal computer – storing an image of every document copied, scanned, or emailed by the machine.

In the process, it’s turned an office staple into a digital time-bomb packed with highly-personal or sensitive data.

If you’re in the identity theft business it seems this would be a pot of gold.

“The type of information we see on these machines with the social security numbers, birth certificates, bank records, income tax forms,” John Juntunen said, “that information would be very valuable…”

180 View – Who knew?

In the Fall of 2008, I spent about a month at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) fighting Multiple Myeloma. I now feel great in no small way thanks to PMH. I hope to make a small contribution to winning the war against cancer and supporting the great people at PMH.

The Ride to Conquer Cancer Benefitting the Princess Margaret Hospital is a 2-day, 200 km bike ride to raise money for cancer research and compassionate care at Canada’s leading cancer hospital. The ride will be on June 12-13, and goes from Toronto to Niagara Falls.

The above link will automatically take you to one of my team members that needs your donation the most as each team member is responsible for reaching their individual fund-raising goals. The team consists of my children (Lisa, Miriam, David and Jon), Lisa’s spouse (Randy), Jon’s girlfriend (Danielle) and me. I will know about and be grateful for sponsorship of anyone on my team.

Thanks