According to IDG News Service, “Oracle is now the industry’s second-largest SaaS vendor after Salesforce.com” As well, “Oracle is also seeing traction increase for its cloud ERP (enterprise-resource-planning) software, adding 120 new customers in the fourth quarter alone”. This was news to us, so I contacted Oracle directly to get the inside scoop on their ERP cloud offering. Oracle Fusion has been rebranded as Oracle ERP Cloud and there are a couple of hundred implementations across North America with many new opportunities keeping the Oracle sales team hopping. Oracle ERP Cloud is so far targeted to organizations providing professional services, […]
Cloud Users Spend Less, Spend Smarter on IT
February 2014 from computer economics – “…The study finds that organizations fully utilizing cloud computing save on average more than 15% in IT spending, whether measured as a percentage of revenue or on a per-user basis, as shown in Figure 2 from the full study. Detailed analysis of respondents’ IT spending mix shows that the savings come not only from a reduction in data center spending but also in IT personnel costs. As a result of these economic efficiencies, cloud users are able to devote a higher percentage of their IT spending to new initiatives and less to ongoing support. […]
ERP Support Requirements Range Widely
March 2014 from computer economics – “…Our study, ERP Support Staffing Ratios, shows the typical range of ERP support staffing ratios for installations of all sizes. At the median, there are 58 users per ERP support staff member, rising to 131 users per ERP staff member at the 75th percentile. At the 25th percentile, each ERP staff member supports just 29 users…” Read more 180 View – A key question in the selection process should be the effort required to internally support the system. It is really hard to get this information from the vendors and references should be asked […]
Enterprise Software: Suites Don’t Always Win
February 6, 2014 from The Enterprise System Spectator – “The major enterprise software providers promote their pre-built integration as a selling point in capturing new business from existing clients. They argue that, rather than attempting to integrate different systems from different providers, organizations should buy everything from a single provider and get the integration for free…” Read more 180 View – The Enterprise System Spectator continues to be a good source of independent thinking. This article is about ERP vs Best of Breed and there is no winner. […]
Washington Conservatory of Music
180 View – If only we could all work as well together. See/hear more […]
Starling Murmations
180 View – Another example of working together See/hear more […]
Lesson Learned
Our software selection process includes scripted demonstrations. The first demonstration is based on requirements, takes on average of 3 hours and is used as a way to select two final vendors for a more detailed demonstration based on business processes. The script can be challenging and some vendors would rather perform their usual demonstration sometimes called a dog and pony show. These vendors typically suffer the consequences as our clients will judge them harshly for not following the script. But we did recently experience a case where the vendor did not follow the script very well and our client did […]
How to Get to Mars
180 View – And you thought your ERP implementation project was challenging. See/hear more […]
SaaS and Cloud ERP Observations: Is Cloud ERP right for you?
December 12, 2013 from Aberdeen Group – “Over the past six years, Aberdeen has ben measuring the willingness of organizations to consider Software as a Service (SaaS) as the deployment model for their ERP implementations…” Read more 180 View – Although the article is a year old, it is still relevant. The article distinguishes between 2 cloud models – one is SaaS or a public cloud and the other is a hosted model or private cloud. The definition by Aberdeen is confusing as both models are hosted. However public cloud and private cloud does make sense. In the public cloud, organizations […]
BA vs IT in ERP
September 5, 2013 from Toolbox.com – “Which is more important in hiring a consultant for an ERP implementation, someone with strong information technology skills or someone who is a skilled business analyst? The ideal answer is “both”. You want someone who has the computer and technology skills to help steer the implementation and the business analysis skills to help restructure your business process… The question then, is given minimal abilities in the other area which competency is more important?” Read more 180 View – We are often asked the same thing. We would agree with the author that business analysis […]