Part 1 of this series introduced the conundrum that retailers (especially those in the areas of fashion and apparel) encounter in the realms of design, sourcing, ordering, and delivery of private label and branded goods. The article also introduced TradeStone Software and its merchandise lifecycle management (MLM) solutions that enable a number of the world’s most successful retailers to bring innovative and profitable private-label products to market at ever higher speeds.

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I am sure that after reading my previous blog post on manufacturing legacy systems many readers saw me as just another soldier of AS/400 system’s army of opponents and probably would not expect any future pro-System i/AS/400 publications. This is definitely not the case—I am not a legacy system opponent. The message I’ve been trying to deliver in my blog posts is  that a well-thought out, balanced, and systematically  formed business software portfolio is important even though the platform of the system isn’t necessarily the principal criteria for system replacement. Read the rest of this entry »

Customer relationship management (CRM) is not and cannot really be social, since social means “of, relating to, or occupied with matters affecting human welfare” (definition taken from The Free Dictionary). In my opinion, CRM does not really affect human welfare, since it brings advantages only to its users and to the customers of the companies using it.

In this blog post, I will explain why CRM is not social and why social CRM (SCRM) is nothing more than CRM using social media tools. Read the rest of this entry »

Technology is changing at a breakneck pace, and is there anyone out there who will debate me on that issue? The undeniable evidence that I am getting old is the fact that I got my engineering degree in the late 1980s. Imagine how much easier my studies would have been then had only the Internet, word processors, Wikipedia, presentation software, multimedia products, etc., been available?

The other day I saw a TV commercial where an oblivious “back to the future” dude in a crowded coffee shop was noisily typing away on an ancient typewriter and getting strange looks and grimaces from other patrons in the shop who were all using nifty smartphones and PC’s. Well, guess what, I had to type my final paper on a squeaky typewriter, make multiple photocopies of it, and have it bound into books for the final exam committee.

At least, I wasn’t doing anything that would have been considered archaic for the time.

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About two years ago, my colleague P.J. Jakovljevic wrote a blog post about SYSPRO, which started with the description of a very interesting strategy that the enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor used to target its customers: PragmaVision. By introducing this concept, SYSPRO was showing that their product addresses the needs of decision makers that are both visionary (ready to embrace new technology) and pragmatic (not willing to test new products and waiting for them to prove their strengths). Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, Rob Barry summarized some important points on the topic of delivering business process management (BPM) through the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model (see Choosing Business Process Management: SaaS BPM or On-premise BPM? According to this article, although managing business process in the cloud is in an early stage, this delivery model is becoming more noticeable. After reading this, I felt that it would be interesting to know business users’ attitudes toward the SaaS model while selecting BPM solutions. Luckily, I was able to look into BPM selection projects recorded in our BPM Evaluation Center and found that over 16 percent of BPM seekers, in 2009, were willing to acquire BPM capabilities through subscription or leasing agreements.

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Some signs of a modest economic recovery and cautious optimism are shyly popping out, although they might be only be crumbs of comfort for many unemployed regular Joes. I also saw improved optimism at the recent National Retail Federation’s (NRF) BIG Retail Show 2010 in New York City in mid January. In contrast, the atmosphere of the same retail show one year ago felt like attending someone’s memorial service, where almost everyone was waiting for the other shoe to drop (no pun intended).

Namely, this year’s show exuded an upbeat feeling in addition to an about 20 percent higher attendance. The “big guys” in retail, such as IBM, Microsoft, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, SAP, Oracle, SAS, JDA Software, and so on, expectedly had their large and perhaps gaudy stands (some with interesting entertainment gigs by the local artistic groups). But I am always more keen on seeing what some smaller, and often more innovative vendors have to say and exhibit. For an exhaustive list of this year’s exhibitors, see here.

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Without a doubt, software-as-a-service (SaaS) as a software delivery model has become a hot topic in the enterprise software field and has gained some noticeable shares in sectors such as customer relationship management (CRM). On the other hand, the product lifecycle management (PLM) industry has seen increasing awareness of SaaS. Oleg Shilovitsky, the most active PLM blogger, has talked about SaaS and cloud computing in some of his recent blog posts on Daily PLM Think Tank Blog. Mark Burhop form Siemens PLM Software also initiated a discussion on cloud computing in a recent blog post. However, SaaS remains as a limited option for PLM users as I see it. Read the rest of this entry »

Change happens all the time—but why are changes in our personal lives similar to those in our professional lives?  There are some major events that occur and change things forever. For an individual, such a change can be caused by marriage; for a company, by the selection of an ERP system. There is always a way out when relationships stop working (both between people and companies), but it can be painful—and stressful to go through. Read the rest of this entry »

Part I of this series analyzed the opportunities (as well as the related strings attached) stemming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), a.k.a. the Economic Stimulus Plan. The inspiration came from my attendance of the Deltek Insight 2009 user conference last May, where Deltek decided to fill a market need and interest by convening a separate “track” that was entitled “Stimulus & Beyond (Navigating the Brave New World).”

Part II of this series then analyzed why Deltek believes it can help government contractors and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms, as well as other public sector organizations in their endeavors to obtain ARRA funds (i.e., the opportunity part) and duly report on them (the strings part for transparency and accountability). Part III then expanded on the construction industry’s current challenges, its outlook, and market trends.

Although Deltek inspired this series and while the company caters to AEC firms, its focus and software capabilities are in the design or planning stage of an infrastructure object. But the entire infrastructure lifecycle management (ILM) encompasses the following phases that denote yet another three-letter acronym (TLA) – “PBO”:

• Plan: Manage project pipelines, site development, entitlements, etc.
• Build: Track budgets, contracts, changes, schedules, scopes, and quality
• Operate: Direct asset management, work orders, and maintenance management

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If you have followed my previous posts of this blog series (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), I guess you may have an idea about who will be the third vendor I’m going to discuss concerning the relevance between its product lifecycle management (PLM) offerings and the lean product development (LPD) concept. Yes, it is PTC. Like Dassault Systèmes and Siemens PLM Software, PTC is also located in the CAD-PLM camp (read this article if you want to know more about how I categorized major PLM vendors into two categories) that provides both PLM tools and PLM as the management platform. Read the rest of this entry »

While Microsoft Corporation has not usually been that forthcoming about breaking down its revenues per individual product lines, during one earnings announcement call for financial analysts in 2009, the worldwide leader in software, services, and solutions for people and businesses pointed out the following three products as its best performers: SharePoint, Microsoft Unified Communications, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In fact, as stated in my previous blog post on Microsoft’s technology for enterprise applications, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Axapta) already have built-in unified communications (UC) traits and collaborative SharePoint portal capabilities.

Microsoft claims that its so-called “CRM+” combination (i.e., Dynamics CRM and SharePoint) has become a compelling customer value proposition. The entire Microsoft Dynamics portfolio is now an over US$1 billion business with more than 300,000 worldwide customers and 10,000+ business partners. Still, the entire Dynamics line of business had a 7 percent decline in Fiscal 2009 (although Microsoft has kept almost religiously mum on providing financial data on individual Dynamics product lines). 

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We all are—except consultants who praise the importance of business processes, but sometimes don’t practice what they preach. Business processes can be simply good or bad habits that people follow mostly because it’s what they’ve always done rather than it being a way to work more efficiently. Read the rest of this entry »

Succession planning is about finding employees that can someday replace others who retire or decide to leave the company. In my opinion, there are two major factors that will have a great impact on the future of succession planning: the aging population; and rapidly-evolving technology. Read the rest of this entry »

Part I of this series analyzed the opportunity as well as the related attached strings stemming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), a.k.a. the Economic Stimulus Plan. The inspiration came from my attendance of the Deltek Insight 2009 user conference last May, where Deltek decided to fill a market need and interest by convening a separate “track” that was entitled “Stimulus & Beyond (Navigating the Brave New World).”

Part II of this series then analyzed why Deltek believes it can help government contractors, architecture, engineering & construction (AEC) firms, and other public sector organizations in their endeavors to obtain ARRA funds (i.e., the opportunity part) and duly report on them (for transparency and accountability). But what about the construction industry’s current challenges, its outlook, and the market trends? 

Read the rest of this entry »