Monday, July 23, 2007

Apps Strategy: Responding to Tectonic Shifts In the Software Industry

As the software industry matures and transforms itself, four key forces converge to shape a new future for the software industry. Despite these tectonic shifts impacting clients, enterprise software strategies should focus on the business users and the processes they support.

The 4 tectonic shifts impacting clients include:
  1. The post Y2K upgrade cycle harkens the technology move to SOA - The shift to SOA harkens to the shift to web based computing a decade ago. We know its coming. We have some idea what to expect but no one knows for sure. As enterprises upgrade from existing legacy systems to software "architected for SOA", we enter a new technology spending cycle.

    The result: CIO's, Vendor Sourcing Professionals, Business Users, and IT professionals have one shot to get this right or wait it out another 7 to 10 years for the next major upgrade cycle. The applistructure you choose will be one you live with, especially as vendors create lock-in onto their platforms at the same time they push "open standards". Users should negotiate their software contracts with care taking into account the impact of SOA and middleware.

  2. SaaS moves buying decisions from IT to the business user - By changing the rules of the game, now a VP or GM can go out and buy 100 licenses without going to the board for capital budgets or talking to IT about support and dependencies. Imagine that... operational expense and not capital expense and potentially no IT integration. (We'd still caution that you talk about integration with the IT guys).

    The result: Business users gain control of software buying decisions for edge applications like CRM, performance management, talent management, recruiting, incentive comp, corporate email and other productivity tools. IT leaders may be stuck with integrating a plethora of SaaS applications back to the on-premise hub. Architects should consider an overall ESB and meta data management strategy!

  3. Web 2.0 apps transform Enterprise 2.0 apps - As the innovations in Web 2.0 such as rich internet applications, AJAX, and mash-ups make their way into enterprise software, how we collaborate, integrate, and view business processes will be transformed in the enterprise.

    The result:
    What's we use at home and what we use at work will collide. Users should be careful as to how they blend work and their private lives. However, all users will benefit from the innovations of mash-ups and other Web 2.0 innovations as they become pervasive in the corporate environment. CIO's will have to establish extra vigilant but security policies to address new flexibility and interoperability requirements from users. Just like IM 5 to 7 years ago, we now have more external integrations that increase security risks.

  4. The future rests with solutions centric ecosystems- A maturing software industry increases specialization in core areas and becomes more reliant on dominant applistructure platforms as ecosystem hubs for applications, business processes, and related web services.

    The result: Users have an opportunity to band together in industry consortiums to dictate how IP is created and shared in enterprise software. System integrators and vendors will try to "own" the IP in last mile solutions but will not be able to address all scenaris. Users will take advantage of the improved middleware tools to create a new renaissance of custom applications built on standardized tools. Custom dev will come back with a roar!

As you can see, these shifts create significant impacts and should be factored as long term apps strategies are being developed.

(The personal contents in this blog do not reflect the opinions, ideas, thoughts, points of view, and any other potential attribution of my current, past, or future employers.)
Copyrighted 2007 by R Wang. All rights reserved

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Order Hubs: A Perfect Order's Just Really in the Eye of the Beholder

WHAT'S A PERFECT ORDER THEY ASK???

So I've been getting this question about once a week or so for the past 2 years. And basically, everyone starts the conversation from their perspective of what an order is. The supply chain guys think fulfilment, the CRM/eCommerce gals think order capture. and the ERP peeps think billing and payment. In fact, they are all correct! But let me suggest:

Take a process view first
However, you should take a process based view. This is about 4 key processes:
  1. Opportunity to order capture - all the stuff to capture information for the order and send it on to the next step
  2. Order capture to order fulfillment - the guts and logistics of fulfilling an order from pick,pack, ship to TMS, WMS.
  3. Order fulfillment to order completion - the processes that may occur before an order is satisified such as returns, after market service, installation scheduling, and warranty claims.
  4. Order completion to order settlement - invoicing, AP/AR, financial stuff.
Revisit what an order is really about
The basic notion is a stakeholder gets an order and they have their expectations to have this filled every time, without question and with minimal effort. Not the best definition, but when we drill further into major factors, it becomes apparent that there are about 10 key items to think about. A perfect order delivers:
  1. The right product or service in the
  2. The right quantity with
  3. The right configuration that meets
  4. The right levels of quality from
  5. The right source delivered in
  6. The right condition and packaging with
  7. The right documentation in
  8. The right period of time for
  9. The right cost over
  10. The right frequency
So, as you can imagine, there is such a thing as a perfect order, it's just in the eye of the beholder!

NOTE: Now I know others have had various versions of this and I do want to credit their work and especially Edward Marien at the University of Wisconsin who's talked about this for the past few years from a customer bill of rights perspective

(The personal contents in this blog do not reflect the opinions, ideas, thoughts, points of view, and any other potential attribution of my current, past, or future employers.)
Copyrighted 2007 by R Wang. All rights reserved

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

News Analysis: SAP Responds to Oracle in TomorrowNow Lawsuit

In this on-going debate about all the details around IP and "theft", we keep avoiding the key question.

"Will SAP or Oracle strive to protect the rights of customers to have access to third party providers, including those for Oracle and SAP applications?"

SAP's Link to Response
Oracle's Link to Complaint

(The personal contents in this blog do not reflect the opinions, ideas, thoughts, points of view, and any other potential attribution of my current, past, or future employers.)
Copyrighted 2007 by R Wang. All rights reserved

Monday, July 2, 2007

IPO Watch: NetSuite Files S-1

NetSuite officially filed its S-1 today. The SaaS suite vendor delivered solid revenues of 67.2M in 2006 and is projected to clear over $100M in 2007. Some key facts about the IPO:

- Going public using the auction method Google used
- Ellison owns 61.1% and his trusts hold 13% from his $100M investment in 1998
- Founder and CTO Evan Goldberg holds 8.1%
- Lower product development and G&A costs show the improving efficiencies of the management and development teams.
- NetSuite's competitors will be WorkDay, SFDC, and SAP A1s
- SuiteFlex will be the key to their ecosystem strategy

Net Suite S-1 Statement
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1117106/000119312507147833/ds1.htm

Press Release
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-02-2007/0004619143&EDATE=


(The personal contents in this blog do not reflect the opinions, ideas, thoughts, points of view, and any
other potential attribution of my current, past, or future employers.)
Copyrighted 2007 by R Wang. All rights reserved