News & views

Lesson Learned

Our software selection process includes scripted demonstrations. The first demonstration is based on requirements, takes on average of 3 hours and is used as a way to select two final vendors for a more detailed demonstration based on business processes. The script can be challenging and some vendors would rather perform their usual demonstration sometimes called a dog and pony show. These vendors typically suffer the consequences as our clients will judge them harshly for not following the script. But we did recently experience a case where the vendor did not follow the script very well and our client did […]

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SaaS and Cloud ERP Observations: Is Cloud ERP right for you?

December 12, 2013 from Aberdeen Group – “Over the past six years, Aberdeen has ben measuring the willingness of organizations to consider Software as a Service (SaaS) as the deployment model for their ERP implementations…” Read more 180 View – Although the article is a year old, it is still relevant. The article distinguishes between 2 cloud models – one is SaaS or a public cloud and the other is a hosted model or private cloud. The definition by Aberdeen is confusing as both models are hosted. However public cloud and private cloud does make sense. In the public cloud, organizations […]

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BA vs IT in ERP

September 5, 2013 from Toolbox.com – “Which is more important in hiring a consultant for an ERP implementation, someone with strong information technology skills or someone who is a skilled business analyst? The ideal answer is “both”. You want someone who has the computer and technology skills to help steer the implementation and the business analysis skills to help restructure your business process… The question then, is given minimal abilities in the other area which competency is more important?” Read more 180 View – We are often asked the same thing. We would agree with the author that business analysis […]

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How A Tesla Is Made

From Devour – “Here’s a look inside the Fremont, California factory where an army of massive, robotic arms transform giant rolls of aluminum into a Tesla Model S.” See/hear more 180 View – Fascinating – a must see video. Too bad the Tesla is still so expensive. […]

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15 Ways to Screw up an IT Project

July 17, 2013 from Computerworld – “Paul Simon famously sang that there must be 50 ways to leave your lover. Similar could be said (if not sung) regarding projects: There must be 50 ways to screw up your IT projects. Indeed, ask IT executives and project management experts, as CIO.com did, and they will rattle off dozens of reasons why projects go astray. For the sake of brevity, however, we are starting with the top 15 ways to derail a project–and how to avoid these project management pitfalls…” Read more 180 View – We liked the reference to Paul Simon […]

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Buried in software licensing

August 2, 2013 from Computerworld – “David Steinour is at his wit’s end with enterprise software cost increases. In each of the past three years, the CIO at George Washington University (GWU) watched his annual maintenance and support costs for Oracle Financials and related enterprise software jump by at least 10%. “Oracle works very well, but at the end of the day we pay a huge price for that service,” Steinour says. Today, 99% of the fixed-cost increases in the university’s IT budget come from software maintenance price hikes. “That’s just not sustainable,” says Steinour, whose IT department supports 20,000 […]

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