I was assisting a large company operating in one of the Caribbean islands. The company was involved in a wide variety of industries and used a home grown system to run their operations. My job was to help them select a new system. Although I followed what I consider best practice in selecting a new system, I did not appreciate the limitations of what was possible. I was trying to hit a home run when the best we could ever do would be to get on 1st base. So the lesson (learned) is that best practice for one organization is […]
Interview with Mark Canes, President of Blue Link Associates Limited
March 4, 2013 – Mark identified eCommerce, Cloud Computing and more automation as major trends at least for his target market which is small and medium sized (SMB) wholesalers and distributors which have outgrown QuickBooks. Mark has noticed a significant shift by his clients to eCommerce. Some clients have embraced it strategically and others have done it reluctantly. The reluctant ones may have selected something like Go Daddy or Shopify for online shopping carts which may be a good way to get started but will be a problem with lots of orders because of the lack of integration with the […]
California ends contract with SAP over troubled IT project
February 8, 2013 from Computerworld – “California has terminated its contract with SAP in connection with a $371 million software system that was supposed to overhaul the state’s payroll system but instead ended up mired in major delays and cost overruns… The state has paid SAP $50 million so far, and is withholding about $7 million in additional payments…” Read more 180 View – There is not enough information in the article to know what went wrong. But it is unbelievable that it could happen in the first place. The article includes the observation that “Despite SAP’s history with project […]
2012 Sports Illustrated Kids Winner
180 View – Inspiring video – you should watch it. Check it out […]
Manufacturer sues IBM over SAP project ‘disaster’
November 9, 2012 from Computerworld – “IBM has been slapped with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by chemical products manufacturer Avantor Performance Materials, which alleges that IBM lied about the suitability of an SAP-based software package it sells in order to win Avantor’s business… IBM represented that IBM’s ‘Express Life Sciences Solution’ … was uniquely suited to Avantor’s business,” the lawsuit states. “The Express Solution is a proprietary IBM pre-packaged software solution that runs on an SAP platform.” But Avantor discovered a different truth after signing on with IBM, finding that Express Life was “woefully unsuited” to its business and the implementation […]
Avanade sued over alleged ERP project failure
January 3, 2013 from ComputerWorld – “A half-million lines of custom code wasn’t enough to produce a viable Dynamics AX ERP (enterprise resource planning) system for point-of-sale and RFID products distributor ScanSource, according to a lawsuit it has filed against Avanade, the joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture. ScanSource reached a deal with Avanade in 2009 for an implementation of the Dynamics AX system, according to the suit, which was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The project was supposed to cost US$17 million and take 11 months, but ultimately the cost estimate grew […]
RedPrairie to acquire JDA for roughly $1.9 billion
November 1, 2012 from Logistics Management – “Supply chain and logistics software and technology providers RedPrairie and JDA Software announced today that two companies and its affiliates have entered into a definitive merger agreement… An industry source estimated that combined revenues will be in the $1 billion to $1.2 billion range, which would make them the largest best of breed provider of supply chain management software..” Read more 180 View – The consolidation continues but this time it’s with supply chain management (SCM) and not ERP, which for some may lead to the question about what is the difference between […]
Supply Chain Technology: Will WMS take over the world?
October 1, 2012 from Logistics Management – “The warehouse management systems (WMS) market is on a tear. In 2011 it grew by 10 percent over 2010 to nearly $1.3 billion, according to ARC Advisory Group, a leading supply chain management software analyst firm… The “warehouse” concept is simple in theory. After all, how difficult can it really be to manage a cavernous space filled with racks, boxes, pallets, and forklifts? In reality, the task is huge and requires the right mix of people, systems, and solutions to run smoothly. For many logistics professionals, the latter need is filled by a […]
How to Optimize Your ERP System
October 14, 2012 from The Enterprise System Spectator and written by Frank Scavo – “When it comes to ERP, most business leaders realize that it is critical to select the right system and implement it successfully. Likewise, when it comes to advice about ERP, most analysts and consultants focus on their attention on best practices for ERP vendor selection and implementation. But very few analysts pay attention to what happens after the implementation. An organization will spend many more months using an ERP system than it will selecting and implementing it. A company might take three to six months to […]
Stand By Me
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