From Collaboration to Innovation to Market – Toward a Working Model

By |March 9th, 2010|

Too often today, I see hype around various social interaction methods in the enterprise. Some companies even talk about internally adopting social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets may provide tremendous outlets for interacting with customers, gathering market intelligence, or promoting your brand. However, they can be more destructive than productive. Collaborative initiatives without a specific business purpose are disasters waitin [...]

Changing the Direction of SAP, ERP, and IT Applications to Focus on the Customer and Innovation

By |February 19th, 2010|

This is the third part of an ongoing series about where the application technology market is today, including ERP vendors such as SAP and Oracle, and where the market is headed. The series provides insight on how to get ahead of the current trends and ride the wave that is building rather than getting swept away with it. The current business trends and market forces for technology will reward the swift and adaptable who are able to address the key business areas that have been lacking in the te [...]

CIO, CFO, and CEO Alignment – Why ROI is Lacking from Today’s System Landscape

By |February 17th, 2010|

The first part of this series looked at the proper relationship for the CIO, CEO, and CFO. In today's business environment, the CIO role is already challenging and gaining in difficulty. Today's CIO must not only keep up with technology and business process improvement, but also become a "mini-MBA" in applying technology solutions to forward-looking business strategies, including customer acquisition, customer retention, revenue growth and profitability. Although it is a monumental task, it is [...]

Where SAP Is Missing a Key Business and Market Opportunity for Leadership

By |February 10th, 2010|

In reading through a post on the CIO Magazine blogs (“ERP Costs: 3 Signs Companies Are Wasting Less Money” [FN1]) on Panorama’s comparison of Saas with traditional ERP, Saas is not all it is cracked up to be. SAP has failed to capitalize on the genuine shortcomings of Saas ERP compared to on-premise ERP solutions such as SAP. Saas ERP is implemented over 35% more quickly (11.6 mo v. 18.4), but costs only 10% less to implement (6.2 v. 6.9 ann. rev). Even though CEOs may be slightly more satisfie [...]

ERP Consultants: Is the Promise of Knowledge Transfer just part of the Sales Pitch?

By |February 10th, 2010|

Most ERP projects promise to transfer software knowledge from the consultants to the client. Once a project is over however, the client is often clueless about how to make software configuration changes, and may even struggle with performing basic transactions in the system. So what gives? Even though many aspire for successful knowledge transfer, most businesses lack a real strategy to make it more than just a dream. Secondly, when push comes to shove, we often set learning to the side and thi [...]

SAP CEO Leo Apotheker’s Departure – What is SAP’s Future?

By |February 8th, 2010|

Even though the timing of Apotheker's departure was unusual, I cannot say that I am surprised. If I look over the landscape of a CEO's job responsibilities (sales, strategy, etc.) and compare that to Leo's short tenure at SAP, I do not see any direction coming from the top. Leo Apotheker came in at a difficult time, but even in the midst of a global economic downturn, it is still possible to succeed. Setting aside SAP's maintenance few missteps, SAP lacked at forward-looking vision in 2010. SAP [...]