180 Systems News & Views

System selection, done right — Part 3

180 Systems — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:32:23 +0000

May 2012 from CAmagazine and written by Michael Burns – One of the first steps in any project is to define the roles and responsibilities of the participants as well as to estimate the amount of time needed. So now that we’ve looked at how to select a software system, let’s turn to the people side of the equation…”

BI, CPM and budgeting survey 2012

180 Systems — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:31:17 +0000

April 2012 from CAmagazine and written by Michael Burns – “Business systems used to be criticized for being data rich and information poor — for spewing out loads of data with no framework or interpretation. But judging by our new business intelligence (BI) survey, it would be hard to say that anymore. The market is now swimming in tools that will slice and dice and interpret your data however you want. The flip side is that these tools often overlap and are so powerful that they are difficult to use…”

ERP Modernization: Why It’s a Top Priority for Midsize Companies in 2012

180 Systems — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:29:48 +0000

March 2012 from Oracle – “The last great wave of ERP modernization occurred in the lead-up to Y2K, but according to industry experts, a unique set of business, economic, and technological forces are converging to make ERP modernization a top priority once again in 2012…

The panelists identified the following forces that are driving this burgeoning phenomenon.

Volatile economic conditions
Increased scrutiny by equity firms into the IT systems of pre-IPO, high-growth firms
Increasingly aging ERP systems that are becoming very expensive to maintain
Old systems ill-adapted to transformed business conditions in 2012
Faster to deploy, lower overall total cost of ownership (TCO), and lower-risk access to enterprise-class software…”

180 View – We agree with the article that ERP demand has picked up. However we disagree with the causes stated above. We think the primary driver is a better economy and 2012 will likely be followed with even more demand in 2013 and 2014 as the economy gets back on track. Despite the logic of retooling when things are slow, most companies are not prepared to invest in technology when they are forced to lay off their employees. However, as the economy improves, the need for better systems becomes more critical. Growth can be achieved by hiring more people to get the work done or by investing in a new system that should allow growth with the same number of employees. Another big factor is in the next article.

Brain drain: Where Cobol systems go from here

180 Systems — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:27:24 +0000

March 14, 2012 from InfoWorld – “…More than 50 years after Cobol came on the scene, the language is alive and well in the world’s largest corporations, where it excels at executing large-scale batch and transaction processing operations on mainframes. The language is known for its scalability, performance and mathematical accuracy. But as the Boomer generation prepares to check out of the workforce, IT executives are taking a fresh look at their options…”

180 View – Another major reason for switching systems is the retirement of boomers who will no longer support legacy systems even if they still work well.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP on Azure: What Are the Benefits?

180 Systems — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:25:49 +0000

March 27, 2012 from The Enterprise System Spectator – “Last week I attended Microsoft’s annual Convergence conference, for users and partners of its Dynamics line of enterprise applications. The back-to-back briefings were a great opportunity to get an update on where Microsoft is going with enterprise applications.

But the big news from my perspective is that by the end of 2012, two of Microsoft’s ERP products, GP and NAV, will be available on Microsoft’s Azure cloud…”

180 View – As usual The Enterprise System Spectator is informative. Take a look at the article to learn about the benefits of the Microsoft cloud.

Microsoft: Cloud Computing To Generate 14 Million Jobs by 2015

180 Systems — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:24:12 +0000

March 5, 2012 from CIO Today – “A common misperception is cloud computing is a job eliminator, but in truth it will be a job creator — a major one,” said IDC’s John Gantz. “And job growth will occur across continents and throughout organizations of all sizes because emerging markets, small cities and small businesses have the same access to cloud benefits as large enterprises…”

180 View – The vendors of cloud computing include less resources needed as a tangible benefit in the business case for cloud computing. There will be a loss of IT jobs in many organizations that switch to cloud computing. There will also be new jobs for the cloud vendors but not nearly as many new jobs as lost ones. But cloud computing will introduce new applications and opportunities to organizations. These applications and opportunities will require more people and hopefully the projections are not pie in sky.

Larry’s Long Reach

180 Systems — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:16:51 +0000

March 14, 2012 from Forbes – “…NetSuite has found itself fashionable. Last year its revenues totaled $193 million, up 16% with operating losses of $25.6 million. Its stock has jumped 248% in the last two years. Ellison’s 50.5% stake, worth $930 million, is no longer a mere rounding error in his $27 billion net worth…

And maybe just as important, for him, NetSuite is grabbing Microsoft’s customers…

NetSuite is also making inroads at SAP…

Then there’s this wrinkle: NetSuite sometimes finds itself competing against Oracle…”

180 View – NetSuite started off as a solution for small business but it has steadily added functionality that make it an alternative for larger companies. For example, NetSuite now offers a separate module called OneWorld which provides complex organizational structures and consolidation. Is it a coincidence that JD Edwards (one of Oracle’s ERP systems) used to call their system JD Edwards OneWorld?

9 Bad KPI Habits to Change

180 Systems — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:14:28 +0000

March 2012 from KPI Library – “Well this is not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a list of the bad habits I see the majority of my clients consistently practicing when it comes to choosing, creating and using performance measures or KPIs. We reap what we sow, and that’s why it can be a useful exercise to see if you do have any bad KPI habits and start developing some better ones…”

180 View – All our projects start with a discussion of CSF (Critical Success Factors – what an organizations must do well in order to be successful) and their measurements – KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). Unfortunately the KPI discussion often remains a discussion. This article should be useful for anyone thinking about KPI’s.

Rising to the Challenge

180 Systems — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:54:03 +0000

2012 from The Institute of Management Accountants – “…The single most critical challenge facing accounting and financial professionals working in organizations is streamlining processes and improving productivity in order to reduce costs. It can be considered “table stakes” for most organizations—something key to their survival.

Other key concerns include the challenge of running a global business efficiently, implementing/upgrading information systems, and connecting the finance team with the front office.

Of the firms surveyed, 70% report improved productivity over time in their finance and accounting organizations, with half of these firms reporting significant (> 5%) increases. These are long-term gains that will generate permanent benefits to these organizations…

Over the past three years, nearly three-quarters of all firms have attempted to achieve gains in productivity through business processes improvement efforts. While some processes are generally viewed as being done efficiently, others – especially strategic activities such as planning, budgeting, forecasting, cost and profitability analysis, and providing performance scorecards and reporting—are still generally viewed as in need of improvement…”

180 View – But how do organizations make business process improvements? According to the study – “In line with the desire to improve business processes to increase productivity, mentioned above, automation of processes is perceived by two-thirds of companies as being one of the technology investments most likely to achieve this goal”. Other methods are available to improve business processes without technology changes. For example we have seen examples of processes being followed because they have always been done that way and examples of excessive control causing extra work and delays. Business processes can also be improved by additional training, incentives, and changes to the work environment. But we would agree that technology changes are likely going to lead to the biggest improvements.

Keep Calm and Carry On

180 Systems — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:44:57 +0000

180 View – The slogan is also good advice in dealing with the implementation of a new system.

System selection, done right — Part 2

180 Systems — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:06:31 +0000

March 2012 from CAmagazine and written by Michael Burns – “…The whole selection process will take a minimum of three to four months, with most of the time allocated to waiting for the vendors to respond to the RFP and preparing for the demonstrations. We are very sympathetic to vendors that go through this rigorous selection process. They can spend a lot of time only to find out they were unsuccessful. The least we can do is give them time to respond to all our requests and to be honest in our evaluation of their system…”

Accelerate IT Delivery, Or Die

180 Systems — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:04:51 +0000

February 17, 2012 – “It is amazing how quickly technology moves. Today, cloud computing and mobile technology are changing the way enterprises and consumers live, work and play. But even with advances made each day, enterprise-level IT continues to move at the same old plodding pace. No doubt, the speed of technology innovation makes it difficult for CIOs to make long-term IT plans. And to be fair, how can a Wall Street IT organization even envision what it will be running 24 months from now?…”

180 View –The author discusses an Oracle implementation for a large insurance client that will evolve over 18 months. And claims “Long deployments are counterproductive, as customers and employees (not to mention boards) now measure enterprise IT with the same yard stick they use when buying a new Smartphone.” There is a fundamental misunderstanding by anyone that thinks an ERP system is somehow comparable to a Smartphone. An ERP system is not something that you simply turn on and it all works. It takes time and rushing it can be a huge problem especially for small and mid-sized companies that don’t have resources that can be dedicated to the implementation.

Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms 2012

180 Systems — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:01:55 +0000

February 6, 2012 from Gartner compliments of BOARD - “In 2011, business users continued to exert significant influence over BI decisions, often choosing data discovery products in addition to/as alternatives to traditional BI tools. An avalanche of new use cases, content types and interaction models expands the scope for tomorrow’s BI platforms…”

180 View – The Magic Quadrant is a tool built by Gartner Inc. that evaluates software based on completeness of vision and ability to execute. Gartner does provide the criteria used to be included in their magic quadrant such as the vendor must have at least $15 Million in revenue derived from BI-related software license revenue annually and that they must be able to obtain a minimum of 30 survey responses from customers that use the vendor’s product as an enterprise BI platform. What they don’t say is how much the vendors pay them to be included in their independent analysis. In any event, any company looking for BI software should be reviewing the Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence 2012.

ERP Projects: Do You Have Many Needs or Just Too Many Consultants?

180 Systems — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:59:47 +0000

February 21, 2012 from BlogNotions – “…It is no secret most software-consulting firms will attempt to pile as many of their consultants on your project as humanly possible. At the same time, the situation I find most unnecessary is when firms convince their clients more experts are required to do the work their existing consultants should be able to do…”

180 View – It is hard to understand how any company would overstaff a project unless they have no concern for their budget. Nevertheless consulting firms do specialize and it may be necessary to have more than one firm involved. The trick is to make sure that there is no overlap. For example, we sometimes get involved in ERP implementations from a high level project management perspective but never involved in the day-to-day implementation. Our role is to provide guidance to the internal project manager and to review documents prepared by the vendor for completeness and reasonability. A good project manager will develop a clear definition of roles and responsibilities to minimize the risk of any overlap.