In a recent live demo session with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendor Ability, I had the chance to get an in-depth look at Ability 585 ERP. It’s not every day that a product’s capabilities exceed my expectations, but this was the certainly the case with Ability 585 ERP, which is now TEC Certified for ERP for Manufacturing (SMB). Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been working at TEC for a year now, helping our team of Analysts as they manage their demanding workloads, nurture their ideas, and provide interesting content to our two-million-plus subscribers.

It’s a pleasure to hash out ideas and watch as the organic process of writing and editing results in new angles and fresh approaches to software industry issues.

As we expand the scope of our content, which largely means keeping a pointed focus on the data in our models (i.e., What’s new in SCM? How can we ensure our ERP space is totally current?  Which new vendors or products do we need to add to the fold in the next quarter?), I am constantly on the lookout for new talent to add to the team. Read the rest of this entry »

Sharp-eyed visitors to our Evaluation Centers may have noticed a new addition recently: ERP for Manufacturing (SMB). Read the rest of this entry »

As I’m in the process of developing the 2012 Supply Chain Management (SCM) Buyer’s Guide, which will be discussing the challenges that businesses face with managing their supply chains and the role of software in mitigating those challenges, I thought it would be worthwhile to conduct a short survey and see how companies today are faring with some important SCM issues. This survey will shed light on the areas often eluding businesses and that are wreaking havoc on their supply chains, as well as areas that are receiving much attention. The results, as well as recommendations for improvement, will be integrated into the buyer’s guide, which is slated for publication in March of this year. Read the rest of this entry »

The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us
to notice what we never expected to see.
—John W. Tukey. Exploratory Data Analysis. 1977.

Data visualization is core to business intelligence (BI), as it’s the means by which data is communicated to the user. Results, alerts suggestions, or even more controlled guidance—all of these elements are passed through the data visualization function of a BI application. No matter how much importance software providers give the aesthetics of visualization, all agree that a BI or business analytics application requires a visualization framework that is clear and simple and able to communicate the intended message. Here are three major trends of the last year that are reshaping the BI and analytics space: Read the rest of this entry »

The latest addition to Technology Evaluation Centers’ (TEC’s) Web-based software evaluation system, TEC Advisor, is the new Express Software Comparison Report. This report allows you to compare the strengths and weaknesses of enterprise software solutions on a functional module-by-module basis. If you’re an organization in the early stages of your software evaluation process, the “express” report is a good starting point. You’ll get the online report comparing your selected solutions free of charge in just a few minutes.

Here’s how to generate your custom software comparison report in 5 easy steps: Read the rest of this entry »

A software selection project requires a well thought out plan that details what you need from a new or updated solution. The process often begins with careful research and determining and prioritizing your functional and technical software requirements. While doing your homework, you’ll no doubt come in contact with a plethora of vendor white papers and marketing collateral to help you grasp the capabilities of their solutions. However, if you’re looking for impartial, original research about solutions in the marketplace, you will find TEC Certification Reports helpful in narrowing down your search. Read the rest of this entry »

Supply chain management (SCM) software is a key part of a successful global business. With it, companies can monitor transactions between suppliers, manufacturers, shippers, retailers, and a host of other partners. They can anticipate problems, eliminate bottlenecks, and avoid expensive delays. Without SCM, companies lose visibility, and control, of anything outside their four walls, and risk losing time and money to frequent supply chain disruptions.

But despite the advantages SCM offers, many companies have been slow to adopt it—particularly service providers who view SCM as being mostly for manufacturers.

That perception seems to be changing, though. At TEC, we’ve seen a surge in the popularity of our SCM Evaluation Center as companies of all sizes look for ways to be more competitive in a harsh economic climate. So to help IT decision makers navigate the SCM landscape, we’re hard at work preparing the 2012 SCM Buyer’s Guide.

Read the rest of this entry »

Being able to manage unstructured text is no longer a “nice to have,” as companies and individual users alike have to deal with increasing amounts of unstructured text, work with it, and gain knowledge by interpreting it. Cirilab is a company that provides software products to search, retrieve, and categorize information from unstructured text sources. Read this interesting interview with Ron Carrière, chief executive officer (CEO) of Cirilab, and get his take on the role of Cirilab in the software industry and the company’s approach to the unstructured content management space.
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You asked for it, you got it. Based on your feedback, Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) has released its 2012 buyer’s guide calendar, which outlines the planned themes for our popular buyer’s guide series. With more interest and downloads than ever before, the TEC buyer’s guide team is excited to work on next year’s lineup.

In 2012, we will once again be publishing four issues spanning diverse topics in enterprise software. As with past buyer’s guides, these issues will include a wealth of analyst insight, a state of the market analysis, solution overviews, vendor case studies, and a comprehensive technology directory.

Look for our final buyer’s guide of the year, “New Innovations in CRM,” which is slated for publication in November 2011. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at TEC’s quarterly buyer’s guide roster for 2012: Read the rest of this entry »

CRM has changed enormously over the past decade. New technologies and changing customer behavior have both had a great impact on the way companies manage their existing and potential clients. Read the rest of this entry »

My recent post Bye-bye Beta announced that TEC Advisor, TEC’s online software evaluation and selection system, exited the beta phase. I highlighted its newest features that pertained to the pre-selection module (i.e., the series of questions prior to evaluation).

Since then, we’ve enhanced the evaluation module of TEC Advisor to allow users to more easily set priorities to functional areas, as well as customize how comparative results are displayed. Here’s a recap of the latest additions. Read the rest of this entry »

I am pleased to announce that Technology Evaluation Centers’ (TEC’s) online software evaluation and selection system, TEC Advisor, has exited the beta phase and its latest release is now available. Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago, we gave TEC Newsletter subscribers a sneak preview of a report analyzing trends in demand for business intelligence (BI) software. The report was based on peer data collected from over 17,000 BI software comparisons performed using the TEC Advisor online software selection application.We asked everyone who downloaded the report to answer a few quick questions about the things that were most important to them when considering a BI system purchase. And now that the preliminary survey results are in, it’s obvious that BI is still very much a hot topic, and there are some clear trends among buyers. Here are a few of the highlights. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, we launched a comprehensive buyer’s guide to BI solutions. TEC’s buyer’s guides combine analyst insight into various types of enterprise software with state-of-the-market reporting, vendor case studies, solution overviews, and technology directories of hundreds of software products. Read the rest of this entry »