For example, two new lawsuits were announced in the last 30 days: one against Oracle and another against JDA’s i2 unit.

In fact, we looked at the most recent lawsuits to see if there was a pattern among vendors and software solutions. As you will see in the table below, there is no apparent pattern to the vendors named in recent legal matters. If anything, when expressed as a percentage of total client base, SAP and Oracle probably have a lower lawsuit rate than other vendors on the list. However, because large and high-visibility companies are more likely to embark on Oracle or SAP implementations, those organizations are more likely to receive attention when something goes awry…”

180 View – Panorama is a competitor to 180 Systems but we thought that their research was interesting enough to include their article. The 1^st impression about the article is that there are not that many lawsuits when you look at their “Lawsuits Against ERP Vendors” chart. You will see that there are 4 in 2009, 1 in 2008, 0 in 2007, 2 in 2006, 0 in 2005, 1 in 2004, 2 in 2003, 0 in 2002…  I would have expected more despite the comment by Panorama that “that there is no pattern to ERP failures and lawsuits, other that they happen more often than they should.” Our perspective is that things are getting better as a result of lessons learned and better software. There are articles linked to each lawsuit and one of them contained the following insight “Buyers should make sure to “do due diligence not only on the vendor’s software but on the consulting organization that will be delivering services, whether the vendor’s own consultants or a third-party. Interview the proposed project manager and key consulting staff”

180 View – I recommend this article which does show that organizations are spending big bucks on ERP even after the implementation. The biggest problem appears to be related to making customizations and the costs to re-implement the customizations when upgrades are received. Solutions to the problem are 1) Make sure that both current and potential future requirements are considered when selecting a system, 2) Select a system that allows for changes outside of source code. 3) Don’t customize.

180 View – I recently used this article in a course taught at Ryerson University. The subject matter also continues to come up in client engagements. Decision makers still want to know whether to go best of breed or ERP. They also want to know what makes programs really integrated. In a chart in the article entitled Levels of Integration, Aberdeen does provide some guidance. For example, the tightest level of integration would be a module of ERP defined as “Single data base; no redundancy of data elements; built with the same development tools and infrastructure as core ERP.” Other categories are “Tightly integrated extension”, “Extension is loosely integrated or not integrated but sold and supported by a single vendor”, “Extension is loosely integrated or not integrated, sold and supported by multiple vendors”, “Extension is sold and supported independently by multiple vendors” Although the definitions are useful, they are not sufficient. You also need to consider the type of integration such as real-time or batch or whether it’s one-way or two-way. It’s a lot easier to import a transaction than to synchronize a master file such as inventory. Another dimension to integration is the tools/technology used. For example, it would be preferable to integrate using industry standard tools rather than proprietary tools that are not well supported. Finally, when integration does occur, you should be concerned about data integrity in terms of whether the integration complies with business and data validation rules.

This complexity comes with a price. It means that to make use of the system in a specific organization, many decisions have to be made during the implementation. These decisions cost time and money to configure the software and test it specifically for the organization’s needs. This drives up the cost of the implementation.

SAP and Oracle are well-aware of this issue and have worked hard over the past decade to pre-configure their systems for specific industries and use cases. If a customer fits well into the vendor’s pre-configured templates (“accelerators” in Oracle-speak, or “best practices” as SAP calls them), much of the complexity of the software can be hidden from view. Customers that fall neatly into the vendor’s template can sometimes achieve very rapid and cost-effective implementations. Both vendors will gladly share references of such with prospects…”

180 View – I have used SAP to teach University students about ERP and it is a struggle for them (and me). But I can imagine that it would be a lot easier if the system was pre-configured for us, and I only had to work with a small number of programs within SAP. Although I have heard from the vendors about their pre-configured systems and fast/inexpensive implementations, I have not yet spoken to an actual client about it. SAP and Oracle still have a long way to go to get their message across.

A cloud-computing strategy also requires a modern Web browser that can run anybody’s Web application. The current release of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer does not qualify as such — undercutting Ballmer’s claim that “we very much embrace” Web standards — so he had to talk about its upcoming Internet Explorer 9 instead…

Ballmer closed the keynote by all but commanding attendees to buy into its cloud-computing vision — “If you don’t want to move to the cloud, we’re not your folks” — before pledging that “the next 12 months will be some of our most exciting, phenomenal and incredible times together…”

180 View – Microsoft does not yet have a solution for ERP in the clouds but you can bet they will soon. I read an article in Computer World on August 31, 2010 entitled “Microsoft to build giant data center in Va.” and the closing paragraph was “Microsoft has other large data centers in Chicago; San Antonio, Texas; Quincy, Washington; and Dublin, Ireland. They support what Microsoft hopes will be a growing online services business, including hosted enterprise applications and its Azure cloud development platform. “

1. Optimized Systems and the Exadata Phenomenon. I’ve put this at the top of the Oracle strategy stack…”

180 View – You’re probably wondering what is meant by Exadata Phenomenon. In a linked article, we found the following explanation “Our overall strategy right now going forward is not to sell those individual industry-standard components on their own but rather group them together into machines like Exadata, where we have processors, networking, storage, storage software, database software, our Oracle Enterprise Linux operating system—all as a complete database machine for both transaction processing and data warehousing. We think that makes it much easier for the customer—they don’t have to buy all the individual parts and glue them together—but instead they buy the boxes: a high-margin product for us and a high-value purchase for them because they don’t have to spend a lot of money on systems integration.”

I can see the value proposition but there are many organizations that would not want to completely be at the mercy of one technology company.

180 View – Although we also have an ERP portal on our site, it’s good to see what else is out there. There are a number of products that we have not included on our site. We allow the vendors to list themselves and some vendors have not done so yet.

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.

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.

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/.

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.

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

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.