What's next for the ever-evolving and consolidating enterprise applications market in 2010? The rise of next-generation "socialytic" apps that fuse business apps with analytics and social and collaboration software.
For the past 10 years, radio-frequency identification (RFID) has followed the classic buzzword trajectory that is typically a blessing and a curse for new technologies: Next-generation appeal, bursting hype, rampant confusion and fragmented success.
What's the future of ERP? What kind of a silly question is that, you may be asking yourself. First off, predicting the future - especially in the technology world - is a fool's errand, best handled by Ouija Boards and IT analysts' dartboards. And isn't the future of ERP already here? Software-as-a-service, on-demand apps, enterprise 2.0 collaboration, open-source software, virtualisation, cloud platforms. What more is there?
Right now, not much else. But the real future of enterprise software isn't exclusively based on wow-factor applications and functionality. It's about not only knowing which new applications and delivery models can immediately help the business; but also having the technological fleet of foot to take advantage of those new apps fast. That means not in 18 months or "next quarter," but whenever line-of-business managers truly need that functionality. Think days.
Lately, much of the furor encircling ERP costs has revolved around software maintenance and support fees. The global recession has forced customers of Big ERP vendors-SAP, Oracle, Lawson, Infor-to question the value they receive from the fees.
The employment numbers remain scary and sobering: In September, US companies shed 263,000 more jobs, increasing the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The construction, manufacturing, retail trade and government sectors suffered the worst losses.
Today, 15.1 million people are looking for work, during the worst job market in 26 years.
It's been really difficult using the Force to convince your HR manager or boss to see things your way: Your threats of turning fellow workers to the Dark Side sound hollow and that Jedi mind trick you've been working on for the past six months doesn't seem to be getting you anywhere. Your big promotion? You might as well be working in the Spice Mines of Kessel.
So what's left? Use the implicit wisdom and shared experiences of those inhabitants of a galaxy far, far away to raise your profile and keep your reputation free from coworkers' derogatory "bantha fodder" references.
Jason Coyne describes his unusual job in many ways: Marriage counselor. The Equaliser. Relationship guru. Project conscience. Resolution manager. The Fixer.
To those groups toiling away on your garden-variety technology implementation - the vendor, the customer, the integrator - Coyne's arrival on-site usually means one thing: A big tech project is in trouble. And Coyne's job as an objective third party is to either "kill or cure" those projects that have gone awry. (Coyne is sort of like a UK version of Winston Wolf, Harvey Keitel's industrious character from Pulp Fiction: "I'm Winston Wolf. I solve problems.")
Oracle and SAP have not been shy about making <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/195950">strategic and expensive acquisitions</a> during the past several years. The numerous deals have been both big and small-some costing billions, others millions-and have filled out specific vertical-industry product offerings that allowed the <a href="http://www.cio.com/topic/1461/Applications">enterprise software</a> vendors to present a more all-encompassing, horizontal set of goods and services. The buys have also granted access to <a href="http://advice.cio.com/thomas_wailgum/oracle_q1_results_a_tale_of_two_companies">vast, new customer bases</a>.
The word <em>inheritance</em> usually connotes something of value being passed down from one generation to the next. Money is always good, as is expensive art work and other antiquities.
The post-Y2K <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/361015">priority of Tier I and Tier II ERP providers</a> has been to go after the <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/388413">fertile sales grounds of the midmarket</a>: These maturing companies <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/337963">needing more ERP horsepower</a> than what their QuickBooks or Excel spreadsheets have provided in the past.
Steve Berg knows what intense pain feels like: The man has been Tasered, in fact-not because he ran afoul of the law, but as VP of IT at Taser International he's partaken in a corporate rite of passage. "It's the worst five seconds of your life," he says. "You cannot move."
According Jon Reed, ERP consultant, author and SAP analyst, there is no shortage of SAP ERP upgrade advice available to companies and IT departments today. One problem: "Most of this advice, as truthful as it is, has reached the point of cliche," Reed writes in a new report on SAP ERP upgrades.
Your department-information technology-has just played a starring role in blowing a multimillion-dollar enterprise software project. The intense glare from the CEO, CFO and other business leaders is squarely focused on the CIO, VP of applications, project managers and business analysts charged with making sure that this didn't happen.
Most businesses today have more data than they know how to use. And getting at that data and then presenting it in a useful manner for cogent analysis are two tasks that typically haunt organisations.
The secondary market for PCs in emerging parts of the world is sizeable: In 2008 alone, according to Gartner, 37 million used PCs were refurbished and exported to developing markets. Gartner analysts forecast that the number will jump to 69 million by 2012.
The global economic recession has only intensified demand in markets for secondary PCs, which Gartner defines as one that is repurposed after its primary use has ended and must have been used for more than 120 days. Demand for secondary PCs, say Gartner analysts, "will outstrip supply for years to come."