With 2009 behind us, Technology Evaluation Center’s (TEC’s) research analyst team takes a brief look at some of the newest vendors to join its research roster.

• Pronto
• Navigator
• SAP
• Lombardi
• Spectrum HR
• Demand Solutions

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What is EAM?

As the acronym implies, EAM is used to manage assets in a company, which can be a module in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution or a standalone product. EAM is also known as computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), or computerized maintenance management information system (CIMMS), and it is a software package used to plan, control, and monitor assets from acquisition to obsolescence.

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Part 1 of this blog series outlined Oracle’s recent (and seemingly genuine) change of heart and approach towards partnering and catering enterprise applications to small and medium enterprises (SME’s). The analysis then moved onto the Oracle Accelerate program, which was launched about three years ago to allow partners to sell more smaller projects in a fixed time and price manner.

Oracle Accelerate is not only a partner program but also Oracle’s go-to-market approach to provide business software solutions to midsize organizations. Part 1 described the main constituent parts of the approach, while Part 2 talked about the program’s current state of affairs. Part 3 of this blog series will analyze the program’s latest partner-enablement developments as well as the inevitable room for improvements.

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‘Twas the night before selection, and all through the place,
Enterprise software was a decision we faced.
Our requirements are gathered, BPM is all done,
Now all that’s left is a choice; only one! Read the rest of this entry »

This happens either because customers did not want to pay for upgrades or customizations all year long, or vendors simply ignored their clients’ needs and requests. Christmas is the time of year when business software proves what it can really do because it’s used very close to its full potential , when sales and purchases are at a very high level. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this series talked about my attendance of the APICS 2009 international conference in Toronto (Canada) in early October. I attended only a few education sessions, and my conference visit focused more on exploring the expo floor and talking to the exhibitors. My overwhelming impression from the conference’s expo floor was that its main value proposition this year revolved around the various flavors of demand management, most notably Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP).

Part 2 analyzed the traditional shortcomings and the reasons for the S&OP concept’s (and accompanying software solutions’) current renaissance in light of its existence of a few decades. Part 3 then analyzed the key success factors of deploying S&OP solutions and approaches. Part 4 of this series will analyze the role of top management in deploying S&OP solutions, as well as the strategic nature of S&OP. 

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At Deltek’s Insight 2009 user conference last May, the host software vendor did a notable thing. Namely, besides merely putting on an all-too-common multi-day conference chock full of product announcements, functional breakout sessions, and industry best-practice discussions, Deltek decided to fill a market need by convening a separate “track” that was dedicated to navigating the maze of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), a.k.a. the Economic Stimulus Plan.

On paper (and as debated and discussed on TV channels ad nausuem), the goal of the Act was to stimulate the US economy and create (or save) jobs through a mix of increased federal appropriations, expanded mandatory spending, and tax cuts. Major policy objectives included in ARRA are the following:

• mitigate the effects of the economic downturn on low-income and unemployed folks (via extending unemployment benefits, food stamps, etc.)
• prevent state budget cuts in social and educational services (i.e., keep teachers, firemen, and policemen at work)
• invest in transportation and water infrastructure
• increase emphasis on renewable energy, conservation, and efficiency
• implement the widespread use of electronic medical records (EMR) and health information technology (IT) 
• expand access to broadband services

But any stimulus money that a general contractor or manufacturer receives via US federal departments (e.g., Department of Transportation [DOT]) or agencies’ (e.g., Federal Highway Administration [FHWA]) contracts and competitive grants, as well as via US state/local government agencies’ contracts and competitive grants, comes with many strings attached, especially in terms of stringent reporting requirements. In other words, the money and funds that are envisioned to go towards infrastructure, computerizing Americans’ health records, renewable energy, the largest home and commercial building weatherization program in history, the education reform and college affordability and access, etc., are subject to an unprecedented focus on oversight, accountability, and transparency. 

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Software-as-a-service (SaaS): friend or foe? SaaS—also known as on-demand or hosted applications—is becoming more and more popular in a number of enterprise application areas and quickly changing the minds of many a skeptic. SaaS is changing the way organizations pay for, implement, and run their software applications. Unlike traditional applications, which are paid for up front and installed on your company’s premises (on premise), SaaS applications are hosted at the vendor site and are paid for through a monthly subscription model. While it sounds like the best thing since sliced bread, there are some pros and cons of the SaaS as a model. Today’s TEC Research Analyst Round Table discusses the SaaS model—the trends, the benefits, and the pitfalls. Read the rest of this entry »

In a previous blog post, I described how artificial intelligence (AI) can help human resources (HR) in the recruiting process. It is interesting to note that almost half of the people who took our poll would use AI—but not extensively.

Besides being used for recruiting purposes, AI is used more and more in workforce management. By combining business intelligence (BI) with HR processes, business performance management (BPM) for HR is created. Vendors call it workforce analytics—and Infohrm, Aruspex, and Vemo are among the three that specialize and offer really interesting products and services in this combined area of BI and HR. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog post series expanded on some of TEC’s earlier articles about companies’ need for better pricing management and optimization practices. This series, which focuses on the complexity of pricing and promotions in retailing, was inspired by JDA Software’s recent “edu-nouncement” on leading retailers consumer-centric pricing and promotions strategies and by Revionics’ recent (and still ongoing) educational series of Web-seminars.

Part 2 of this series analyzed some common retailers’ practices and explained the frequently used vernacular terms. Then the post went into the building blocks of pricing optimization, starting with setting optimal initial (everyday) prices.

Part 3 analyzed the other two building blocks of pricing optimization: promotions and markdowns. Then the post went into the next generation of pricing optimization according to JDA – Lifecycle Pricing.

Part 4 continues the blog series by analyzing the pricing optimization vendor landscape and various vendors’ approaches to the next generation of pricing optimization solutions. 

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In spite of the 2009 recession, some SCM vendors were able to create traction in the supply chain space this year. From an industry landscape perspective, three events from 2009 will have a more far-reaching impact than any other in this space, primarily because they’re priming the conditions for still more vendor competition and industry volatility in the year to come. Read the rest of this entry »

I love end of year predictions. Whether they’re right or wrong is one thing, but it’s valuable to imagine various scenarios of what might happen. Taking the time to consider and connect what has happened with what might happen, opens new insights.

Having said that, I’m not going to make a 2010 prediction about Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). I do, however, want to share some stats about demand trends for enterprise FOSS platforms between 2008 and 2009. I want to see how those jibe with predictions from some other analysts. And maybe, if you squint real hard at the changes between the ‘08 and ‘09 stats, you’ll get some ideas about what will happen in 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series outlined Oracle’s recent (and seemingly genuine) change of heart and approach towards partnering and catering enterprise applications to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The analysis then moved onto the Oracle Accelerate program, which was launched about three years ago to allow partners to sell a greater number of smaller projects with fixed time and price.

Oracle Accelerate is not only a partner program, but also Oracle’s go-to-market approach to provide business software solutions to midsized organizations. Part 1 described the main constituent parts of the approach, while Part 2 will talk about the program’s current state of affairs.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you haven’t read the blog post ERP Vendors, Are You Green Enough? that I wrote a little over a year ago, I recommend you read it first. After you’ve checked it out, I assume you’ll understand that I used a flawed and extremely simplified approach to “confirm” my impression of the correlation between the size of enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors and the greenness of their offerings (see below for further explanation). About a year later, I used the same method to go through the same seven ERP vendors I had looked into the last time, and this time my focus was the growth of the green counts. My “conclusion” is that, on average, these ERP vendors have become 71 percent “greener” over the time span of roughly one year. Let me show you some data:

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Part 1 of this blog post series discussed in general the relationship between product lifecycle management (PLM) and lean product development (LPD), and pointed out that various PLM vendors may have different interpretations of PLM functionality, as well as different levels of support for users’ LPD initiatives. In this and a few future blog posts, I will choose some PLM vendors and talk about the relationship between each vendor’s offerings and LPD, based on my personal interpretation. I will pick one vendor at a time; today’s is Dassault Systèmes (DS). Read the rest of this entry »