Unbiased ERP and CRM Software Selection, Project Management

Games come first – then enterprise software

Last week IBM launched PureSystems. For those of you not keeping up with the latest from Big Blue, it is a solution for deploying private, public, or hybrid clouds and their bundled applications. Call it Cloud In A Box, if you will. The question is, how will they get enough people on the platform to compete?

Good question! Well, when in doubt, turn to history. Remember, rinse, and repeat. Do you remember a little thing called iTunes? How about some Angry Birds? Apple essentially created a market for their hardware via their software. And how did Apple do it? They made it easy to buy…

Now let’s get back to Big Blue (IBM for the purists). What if, let’s say… what if, and only if, it was easy to buy enterprise applications? What if the licensing model was not only clear, but explicit. What if you could get it to the point of having a “Buy Now” button on a webpage, and you buy your enterprise application? ERP, CRM, HRM, etc?

What if someone made it easy to buy? Would you be interested? The cloud revolution is forcing vendors to re-think their ways of doing business… and what better way of revamping the sales model than by looking at a method that was hugely successful, and, well, just doing the same thing? Why not? Buyers would like it (proven already by Apple). Maybe the software will… sell itself! Well that might be a stretch, but it would definitely be more accessible than enterprise applications are now.

Some of you may be thinking “but Jason, wouldn’t that mean the end of the software selection process? Won’t you be out of a job?” I’m not so worried. At Success ERP we have always maintained that over 50% of the focus should be on the team chosen to implement the application, since many applications can actually do the same things these days. That part of the equation – the team – won’t change for many years. There will still be choices regarding which vendor team will bring you success faster and for what price. As far as I am concerned, this lets us focus on the part that we have been saying is more important all the long – who do I choose to teach me how to use my new system? That is where the true value is to be found!

The End of ERP? Not Likely…

About a month ago I came across an article titled The End of ERP. Ominous, no? It spoke of new technology that would make enterprise systems obsolete and change the way we work. It was a very serious article, and deserved serious consideration… like so many articles that had come before it. You see, I…

Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, IBM hiring more SaaS talent

What was that? The giants are stirring? Not only stirring, but acting like the ‘common people’? Yes, that’s right, large software companies including Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, and IBM are focusing more on Saas talent. Some reasons may be obvious… but as the old business question goes “What’s in it for them”? One word: Money. Specifically,…

Oracle buys more Cloud

On October 24th 2011, Oracle announced that it acquired RightNow – a cloud-based customer service company. Oracle already has its own Public Cloud solution, and soon they can add RightNow’s solution which helps companies deal with a myriad of customer interactions across call centers and social networks.

Mobile device sales outpace computer sales

With the trend showing that mobile devices are being purchased at a faster rate than regular laptops and desktops, it is surprising there isn’t more focus on developing mobile apps for enterprise software.

The cloud is here to stay

Although Salesforce and Oracle each have different views regarding what exactly the cloud should be, one thing is for certain: the cloud is here to stay… and is getting more focus every day.