It’s that time of year again for TEC’s analysts to polish their crystal balls and spread their tarot cards to gaze on the future of enterprise software for 2011. Read the rest of this entry »

This interesting question recently arrived in our Ask the Experts inbox, so I thought I’d write a brief post clarifying the difference between ASP and SaaS models. Read the rest of this entry »

As 2009 comes to a close, we look forward to the New Year and everything trendy that it will bring. Today, TEC’s Research Analyst Round Table discusses the outlook in technology for 2010. We will touch on:

•    Social Networking
•    Social Product Development
•    Business Intelligence (BI) for the Masses
•    Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
•    Software Integration vs. Niche Players
•    Mobile Commerce (M-commerce)

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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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TEC regularly works with companies to identify the right software vendors for their industry and particular needs. I’m going to provide you with information about ERP systems and how they relate to steel industry requirements (note: you can always consult our Vendor Showcase to find out more about specific software vendors). Read the rest of this entry »

We recently had a question from one of our readers (through our Ask the Experts page) discussing QlikView’s approach to data collection.

Reader’s Question
“QlikView says its innovative way of collecting data and not needing a physical data warehouse (DW) structure is the right thing to do in DW/business intelligence (BI) solutions. Can one expect to build a sustainable / scalable corporate data warehouse through such an approach?” Read the rest of this entry »

The role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in society cannot be underestimated—indeed, many think SMEs are the most important sector of a nation’s economy due to their  creative and innovative abilities, as well as the flexibility they execute in order to survive in our competitive world.  Yet, as editor Ruth Hillary explains in the collection of essays in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and the Environment, their day-to-day activities aren’t always positive. Read the rest of this entry »

TEC reader Martin K. recently wrote in with these questions:

What kind of data is handled by ERP systems and how it is done? How does the interface work? Which departments normally use it? And who is the recommended team that should choose the ERP system? Read the rest of this entry »

One reader recently wrote in with this question:

“… I wondered if you can point me at any related sites/groups/publications for more established users that discusses, for example

• migrating between ERP systems,
• purging ERP data,
• integrating data from acquired companies into ERP and PLM”

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Every so often, Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) analysts—our in-house panel of experts—receive questions from readers on a variety of software-related subjects. While mostly in the realm of software selection, evaluation, the latest technology offerings, or simply questions about business issues, on occasion we receive a request that piques our interest—especially when it is slightly outside of our realm. In an interest to keep our readers informed, we selected one reader’s question and decided to highlight it here—along with our responses. The subject?—segregation of duties (SOD).

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We submitted this question to our analyst team to get their collective opinion. Read on to find out what they had to say.

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From one of our readers comes this question:

I am a student of IT Management; I have an ERP course and I am supposed to write an article to review new aspects of ERP systems. I’ve decided to explore the reasons for using data mining techniques in ERP systems—and to look at different modules to which these techniques have been applied. Read the rest of this entry »