November 24th, 2009

The 'social enterprise' comes of age

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 10:34 am

Categories: CIO issues, CRM, Enterprise 2.0, IT issues, Oracle, SAP, Salesforce.com

Tags: Salesforce.com Inc., Social Computing, SAP AG, Enterprise, Dennis Moore, Status Update, Social Networking, Sales Force Management, Online Communications, Marketing

Salesforce.com’s flamboyant announcement of Chatter has catapulted social computing to the forefront of discussion among enterprise thought leaders.

First-rate CRM analyst, Denis Pombriant, explains that Chatter surprised many people, which is one reason it has received so much attention:

One thing that impressed me about Dreamforce was Salesforce’s ability to be creative, to invent something completely unexpected to announce in Chatter.  Whether Chatter will be any good when it is released next year is debatable but Salesforce did what it was supposed to do in bringing out a big new idea for its assembled customers.

Although Salesforce has upped the mojo on positioning social computing for the enterprise, we should remember they aren’t the first major software company to embrace social networking in a big way. For examples, look no further than Oracle and SAP.

Oracle’s internal collaboration platform has been around since mid-2007, built by an exciting group inside the company called the AppsLab. This small team is forward-looking and has its ear to the ground, even though its work has not received attention at anywhere near the scale of Chatter.

SAP has also focused thought leadership on social computing. A recent article written by Mark Yolton, Senior Vice President of the SAP Community Network, intrigued me. Mark describes a vision for the strategic value of social computing that he calls the “borderless enterprise.” It’s worth noting that his community has almost two million members.

From the article:

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September 12th, 2009

Video: Introduction to ERP complexity

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 11:25 am

Categories: IT issues, SAP

Tags: ERP, Video, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Corporate Communications, Enterprise Software, Software, Marketing, Michael Krigsman

Many of the failures I describe in this blog afflict large software systems called “enterprise resource planning,” or ERP for short. These systems are inherently complex because they connect together multiple parts of an organization into a unified software “organism.”

To fully appreciate why IT projects are prone to fail, it’s important to be aware of how ERP software fits into a company. These concepts help us understand the complexity that drives difficulties on many projects.

The video focuses on SAP, but the basic concepts apply to ERP systems from virtually any vendor, such as those from Oracle. Old pros will already know the material presented here, but the video offers the rest of us a good refresher. Even though it barely scratches the surface, this presentation is pretty good.

June 4th, 2009

Reviewing Sapphire, user interfaces, the Devil's Triangle, and IT success

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 2:37 pm

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, Devil's Triangle, IT issues, Interview, Project strategy, SAP, Uncategorized

Tags: Information Technology, SAP AG, ERP, Jon Reed, Asuret, Michael, BBD, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Podcasts, Tools & Techniques

This guest post was written by Jon Reed, an accomplished blogger, SAP expert, and author of the website jonerp.com. Jon interviewed me following SAP’s recent Sapphire conference, and we discussed a variety of topics that are of interest to readers of this blog. Listen to the recording by clicking the player at the top of this post and read Jon’s summary of our interview. Jon originally posted this as an article on his blog.

SAPPHIRE 2009, BUSINESS BYDESIGN, AND ERP PROJECT FAILURE (AND HOW TO AVOID IT)
Written by: Jon Reed
Interview Date: May 22, 2009

In the first installment of his “Sapphire in Review” podcast series, Jon Reed of JonERP.com welcomes special guest Michael Krigsman, President of Asuret and popular ZDNet blogger and Tweeter. Michael’s focus is evaluating the keys to IT project success and failure, so during this twenty-eight minute podcast, Jon gets Michael’s take on how project failure applies to ERP vendors and SAP specifically. Jon also gets the skinny on Michael’s investigations of Business ByDesign at Sapphire, and why he sees SAP’s focus on UI improvements and BI enhancements as important to ERP project success. In closing, Michael shares an inside view on what it’s like to be part of SAP’s Blogger Relations Program, mixing it up with SAP executives.

Podcast Timeline:

1:01 Michael’s work at Asuret and ZDNet, and how it all ties back into examining the dynamics of IT project success and failure. Asuret provides consulting and software on business transformation projects; on ZDNet, Michael analyzes case studies of IT project failure and evaluates why they aren’t achieving project objectives. He also looks at related issues pertaining to organizational dynamics, business and IT communication breakdowns, and the cultural issues that contribute to project success or failure.

2:32 The highlights of the keynotes from Michael’s perspective. Two things stood out: first, Michael got the sense that SAP was making an attempt to bring in more consumer-oriented, end-user interfaces into their software. This is way overdue, but an essential area of improvement. A more human-oriented enterprise will yield more successful projects. Michael also enjoy Hasso Plattner’s keynotes - all his years of experience have put him in a position “beyond reproach” where he can speak his mind and cover topics that interest him.

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May 15th, 2009

Understanding SAP's Business byDesign SaaS strategy

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 12:58 pm

Categories: CIO issues, Enterprise 2.0, IT issues, SAP, SaaS, PaaS, and SOA, Uncategorized

Tags: Software, Strategy, SAP AG, Tools & Techniques, Software As A Service (SaaS), Management, Emerging Technologies, Michael Krigsman

At this week’s Sapphire conference in Orlando, SAP spoke at length about the status and trajectory of Business by Design, the company’s on-demand, software as a service (SaaS) offering.

To learn about SAP’s SaaS strategy, I talked with several current customers and the following five SAP executives:

• Pascal Brosset - Chief Strategy Officer
• Rainer Zinow - Senior Vice President for ByDesign Innovations
• Jeff Stiles - Senior Vice President of SME Marketing
• Christoph Behrendt - Senior Vice President for Midsize Enterprises
• Frank Iannotti - Vice President for Business ByDesign, North America

During these interviews, I repeatedly cross-checked the main points, explicitly trying to uncover irregularities and inconsistencies. Despite my attempt to find discrepancies, the conversations yielded a consistent picture in several important areas.

Commitment. SAP remains deeply committed to the Business byDesign platform and product. In response to my direct question on the commitment topic, Jeff Stiles answered, “Categorically yes,” and added:

SAP is 100 percent, unequivocally committed to bringing Business byDesign to market for the long haul.

Business model. For the low cost economics of SaaS software to work on a sustained basis, subscription software vendors generally strive to accomplish three goals:

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April 27th, 2009

SAP Americas' president, Rob Enslin, on avoiding IT failure [podcast]

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 7:27 am

Categories: CIO issues, Devil's Triangle, Governance, IT issues, Implementation, Interview, Podcast, Project strategy, Project success, SAP, Uncategorized

Tags: Project, Podcast, Information Technology, Customer, SAP AG, Strategy, Management, Michael Krigsman

As one of the largest enterprise vendors, SAP holds a unique position to influence the outcome of software implementations around the globe. To understand SAP’s significance in global IT projects, look no further than a statistic tossed out earlier this year by Executive Board member Jim Hagemann Snabe: “Seventy percent of world financial transactions touch an SAP system and sixty-five percent of world chocolate is produced with SAP systems.”

Given this, I welcomed SAP’s invitation to this discuss the important IT success and failures topic with Rob Enslin, president of SAP Americas. Rob is responsible for all of SAP’s operating activities in this region and has worked at SAP for 16 years. His background includes senior positions in consulting, finance, and account management.

Our conversation covered a range of issues including the IT Devil’s Triangle, why projects fail, and how organizations can run successful implementations. Although I’ve summarized key points below, to really understand Rob’s views, I strongly urge you to listen to the podcast. To hear it, simply click the player at the top of this post.

Please offer advice to help customers successfully navigate IT Devil’s Triangle relationships?

It’s important to get the personal goals and agendas of each participating organization quickly out of the way, to focus everyone on defining success for the customer. Document the specific role of each participant, determine how decisions will be made, and document who will be responsible for making them. The project steering committee should include executives with P&L responsibility from the participating organizations. These steps will focus the participants to make operational decisions based on achieving customer success.

How can customers ensure that system integrators work for the project’s benefit?

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April 13th, 2009

Interview: SAP's global head of project operations [podcast]

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 7:39 am

Categories: CIO issues, Devil's Triangle, Governance, IT issues, Interview, Podcast, Project management, Project portfolio management, Project strategy, SAP, Uncategorized

Tags: Project, Podcast, Information Technology, Project Manager, SAP AG, Paul, Project Management, Tools & Techniques, Strategy, It Operations

Sound business strategy and solid execution are the foundation stones of all successful IT projects. For organizations running multiple projects, execution means consistency across an entire portfolio.

As one of the largest enterprise software vendors, SAP’s core competency includes precisely this kind of portfolio management. To better understand SAP’s strategic thinking on managing complex IT projects, I spoke with Paul Ritchie, the company’s Head of Global Project Management Operations.

Paul’s team is responsible for the project management processes, tool, methodologies, and training used by 1200 SAP project managers around the world. He’s also Chairman of the Global Corporate Council at the Project Management Institute (PMI), which suggests the broad importance and influence attached to this SAP role.

The podcast (see the player at the top of this post) offers an intimate glimpse inside SAP’s work on project portfolio management, governance, and project delivery strategy. Here’s a summary of key issues Paul and I discuss in the podcast:

What does “project management operations” mean?

Project management operations (or project management office, also called PMO) represent the critical link between a company’s strategy and it’s actual project delivery.

Four pillars support SAP’s PMO:

1. Process, such as project management methodologies that describe how to run projects and programs

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March 11th, 2009

Will downtime rain on the cloud computing parade?

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 6:22 am

Categories: Availability and reliability, CIO issues, Enterprise 2.0, Google, IT issues, SAP, SaaS, PaaS, and SOA, Uncategorized

Tags: Salesforce.com Inc., Google Inc., Google Gmail, Downtime, Outage, Manufacturing, E-mail Providers, Cloud Computing, Sales Force Management, Internet

Gmail recorded downtime yesterday, once again raising availability as an on-demand software issue. I’m interested in your opinion on whether this issue is significant.

Here’s a view of this most recent Gmail outage from Google’s new status dashboard:

And here’s detail describing the problem:

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March 5th, 2009

Roche CIO discusses IT, consultants, and the Devil's Triangle [podcast]

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 5:26 am

Categories: CIO issues, Consulting, Cultural issues, Devil's Triangle, IT issues, Interview, Project strategy, SAP, Vendor relationships

Tags: Podcast, CIO, Roche Holding AG, Information Technology, Business, Jennifer Allerton, Strategy, Management, Michael Krigsman

Jennifer Allerton is CIO of Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Roche, where she reports directly to Roche’s CEO and oversees an IT / informatics staff of 2500.

During this conversation, I asked Jennifer to discuss the CIO’s evolving role, success and failure on IT projects, and the IT Devil’s Triangle. We met at the launch event for SAP’s Business Suite 7 product in New York City.

• Related: Allerton talks about SAP, consultants, certification, and system integrators

If you care about CIO or IT issues, this seven-minute podcast is essential listening. To hear it, click the player at the top of this post.

Here are a few excerpts from the recording, just to give you a quick flavor of the conversation. I’ve edited these quotes to keep them short.

Please describe a CIO’s primary challenge?

The CIO must determine the best way to apply technology to the business. Historically, the CIO placed multimillion-dollar bets on uncertain technologies and therefore had to be a technology expert. Today, the CIO’s role should involve 80% business and 20% technology.

What about the gap between IT and the business?

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February 25th, 2009

San Diego fires Axon over ERP implementation problems

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 10:58 am

Categories: CIO issues, Consulting, Devil's Triangle, Government projects, IT issues, Implementation, Oracle, Politics, Project failures, SAP, Uncategorized, Vendor relationships

Tags: San Diego, SAP AG, ERP, Axon, System Integrator, Tools & Techniques, Project Management, Workforce Management, Advertising & Promotion, Outsourcing

The city of San Diego, CA terminated its software implementation contract with services provider, Axon, citing “systematically deficient project management practices.” The project is running $11 million (27 percent) over-budget to date, a number which will likely increase.

San Diego’s termination memo highlights key Axon governance and implementation process deficiencies. Tom Fleming, president of San Diego Data Processing Corporation (DPC), a municipal IT contracting agency, wrote the document:

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February 13th, 2009

NetSuite attacks SAP: hype vs. reality

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 6:24 am

Categories: CIO issues, IT issues, Oracle, SAP, Vendor relationships

Tags: NetSuite Inc., SAP AG, Attack, Software As A Service (SaaS), Managed Hosting, Cloud Computing, Tools & Techniques, Enterprise Software, Emerging Technologies, Management

A recent NetSuite press release flamboyantly attacks SAP with outrageous tactics, mockery, and misleading implications. Although I enjoy colorful presentations of confidence and SAP is sometimes an easy target, scare tactics and innuendo cross the line of acceptability.

Let’s analyze some important aspects of the release.

PRESS RELEASE TITLE

NetSuite Extends ‘Business ByNetSuite’ Program for SAP Customers Eager to Embrace the SaaS Revolution.

Netsuite plays off SAP’s SaaS offering called Business byDesign. I like the ‘ByNetSuite’ moniker, because it shows confidence, pushes directly against SAP, and is plucky. However, much of the release presents a misleading comparison to SAP’s Business Suite 7, as I describe below.

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