News & Views

We now have about 50 systems participating in our free on-line service that will match the Top 10 ERP Systems to your requirements based on a short online survey. 

We continue to enhance our tools and have just completed the development of an RFP tool that will automate the creation of RFPs as well as the % fit calculations based on vendors’ response. The system will make it easier for us to create RFPs. It will also be easier for vendors to respond to our RFPs as their responses to standard questions will default based on previous RFP responses.

March 12, 2010 from Gartner – “Adoption of software-as-a-service core financial management applications by midsize organizations is growing. Evaluation teams should understand how other midsize companies have overcome the perceived objections to SaaS financial applications and should not discount this option…”

180 View – NetSuite has provided this complementary Gartner report for good reason as it adds more credibility to SaaS. However, I don’t think NetSuite would agree with everything in the report including “SaaS financial management applications are best suited at this time for midsize organizations with simple integration requirements that find the functionality meets their needs without customization.” NetSuite would say that they have many forms of customization available to their clients, which is true. However if you need customization that involves changing the source code, then NetSuite will not be appropriate.

June 23, 2010 from ComputerWorld – “Microsoft’s SharePoint collaboration product will serve as a foundation for “portal based, unified interfaces for all Infor applications,” Infor said in a statement. The vendor will also use Microsoft’s Silverlight RIA (rich Internet application) platform; Microsoft Reporting Services for BI (business intelligence); and Microsoft Single Sign-On for identity management. It has also named SQL Server and Windows Server as its “preferred” infrastructure components.

Privately held Infor is one of the world’s largest ERP vendors after Oracle and SAP, with reported revenues in the neighborhood of $2 billion…

A number of other manufacturing-oriented ERP vendors, such as Consona and Epicor, also have products based on Microsoft…”

180 View – While one department/business unit in Microsoft wins with the partnership with Infor, Epicor, Consona, and other ERP vendors, another department/business unit in Microsoft loses.

June 16, 2020 from ComputerWorld – “Consona has purchased on-demand ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendor Compiere, a move that gives it a place at the cloud-computing table, it was announced Wednesday. Terms were not disclosed.

Compiere is a bit of an anomaly in the ERP world, being both cloud-based and open source, although it does have peers such as OpenBravo. Its software mostly focuses on distribution, and will therefore complement Consona’s products for small to mid-sized discrete manufacturers, according to a statement.

Consona plans to maintain and further develop Compiere’s products, which have some 130 customers, and will continue supporting the vendor’s open-source strategy, the statement added…”

180 View – Don’t be surprised to see many more open source systems. The revenue model includes fees for service and a pot of gold when the company is sold. For another perspective on the Compiere deal from someone who knows the Open Source community well (perhaps too well to be considered unbiased), check out http://www.erpgraveyard.com/.

June 30, 2010 from destination CRM – “…Primarily, enterprise suites are offered in an on-premises model, but Band’s report notes that the use of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions is on the rise — and prevalent on this year’s Wave diagram. The SaaS players, at this date, more often target midsize organizations, rather than the larger counterparts.

Forrester assembles its Wave diagram by assessing the relative strengths of each vendor’s strategy and current offering, separating the players into sections labeled Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders, and Risky Bets. The 18 players are as follows, with each grouping listed in descending order of “strength of current offering”…”

180 View – The article includes a number of observations about the list including “Even large enterprises can find solutions at low price points”. You will be surprised at some of the leading systems for large organizations according to Forrester.

2010 from The Access Group – The report includes functionality for marketing, sales, account management, support…

180 View – Although The Access Group sells and supports Goldmine and will be biased about CRM, the article would still be useful as a reference point for CRM requirements.

June 2010 from ProjectTimes written by IAG – “…Our objective in each case was to describe, in detail, all of the data flows,, the business rules, processes, an functionality needed as if our client’s next step was to build the system in-house regardless of whether the system is a commercial purchase package…”

180 View – We agree with the article on the importance of gathering business requirements, but disagree strongly with the approach. If you’re selecting a commercial ERP system used by hundreds if not thousands of organizations, it’s a waste of time to gather detailed requirements on basic functionality.

October 2008 from Service Performance Insight – “…Running a Professional Services Organization (PSO) is very complex – it is a game which must be won with “singles and doubles”, not homeruns; so it is imperative to know which KPI’s are “essential”, ones PSOs must continually measure, and ones that are “nice to have” but not essential. The challenge for all Services executives is how to balance Customers, Employees, Partners and Operations…”

180 View – I became aware of this article through Computer Business Review’s June 22, 2010 newsletter. This is a must read if you work or consult for a PSO.

2010 from IBM – “How are today’s CEOs leading? See for yourself. The videos below feature CEOs from companies around the globe (Amgen, Banco Galicia, Energy Australia, Getinge, Kao Corporation) discussing their challenges and lessons learned as leaders.

Hear in their own words how they approach leadership challenges such as innovation, meeting customer requirements, balancing public and private concerns, global versus local requirements, product development, and motivating your organization to drive your leadership agenda.”

180 View – I did not have time to listen to all the videos. I do recommend Kevin Sharer on Managing Complexity and Andrew G. Ray on Align Strategy and Structure to Meet Your Customers’ Requirements.

You might be wondering why IBM did this. “CEOs are telling us (IBM) that the complexity of operating in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world is their primary challenge. And, a surprising number of them told us that they feel ill-equipped to succeed in this drastically different world.” IBM can help. IBM targets the CEO, which in part explains their success.

June 14, 2010 from TechRepublic – “I’ve hit Microsoft pretty hard recently for its Windows debacle, its failed mobile strategy, and its missed opportunities in the enterprise space. I continue to believe that the company is in the midst of an identity crisis that it refuses to acknowledge.

Still, not everything Microsoft is doing is a disaster. There are plenty of smart people who work for the Redmond, Washington colossus and there are several useful Microsoft products that are worth noting for those who follow business technology. I’ve put together a quick list of five things Microsoft is doing right that may have slipped under your radar…”

180 View – I think there are lots more than five things that Microsoft is doing right but the ones in the article may be news to you.

A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.

This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video. Make sure you read as well as listen…forward and backward.

180 View – It boggles the mind how people in power can be so arrogant, greedy and incompetent to have let this disaster happen.