Greetings, everyone, and best wishes for a great start to 2014. In this new year, utilizing best practices and skills learned in 2013 will be critical for optimizing the use of efforts to support both business and IT. In 2013 many organizations made progress in balancing technology decisions across business and IT as the lines of business continued to take leading roles in investment and prioritization. Major investments were made in business applications using software as a service, business analytics and mobile computing applications. In some other areas of innovation, particularly big data and social collaboration, deployments are just beginning to happen and a significant amount of projects are in experimental and proof of concept than enterprise use.
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Social Media,
Market Research,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CFO,
COO,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
Information Applications (IA),
Information Management (IM),
IT Performance Management (ITPM),
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Technology,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM)
I was recently at Oracle Analyst World which is the vendor’s annual gathering of technology industry analysts. Its executives and others in the products organization deliver the latest news on where the titan is focusing efforts to expand its technology and markets. This year, against the background of the consumer and business markets embracing mobile and cloud computing, Oracle is working to sound like a more friendly supplier that can help remove legacy issues and inefficiencies that plague CIOs and data centers. Oracle also used this forum to attract IT departments to the technology advances it has made across its deep and broad portfolio of products. Oracle has more than 3,900 software products and more than 3,000 software patents that indicate its significant investment in R&D. Now the company is beginning to release improved products more frequently, which most customers now expect from technology vendors.
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Mobile,
Social Media,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Social Collaboration,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Oracle,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CFO,
COO,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
Information Applications (IA),
Information Management (IM),
IT Performance Management (ITPM),
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Workforce Performance Management (WPM)
The proper use of technology enables businesses to be more efficient. Our recent research into technology for business innovation found that 56 percent indicate innovative technology is very important, yet only 9 percent are very satisfied with theirs, showing plenty of room for improvement. As we enter 2013, businesses have more choices than ever for technology to improve business and IT. Our firm has identified six key technologies that give organizations significant competitive advantages: big data, business analytics, business and social collaboration, cloud computing, mobile technology and social media. Our research agenda for 2013 is designed to help organizations assess and analyze these technologies and make the best possible decisions.
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Social Media,
Mobile Technology,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Social Collaboration,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CMO,
COO,
CTO,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
Information Applications (IA),
Information Management (IM),
IT Performance Management (ITPM),
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Workforce Performance Management (WPM)
I’m happy to say that Ventana Research celebrated its tenth anniversary at our recent Business Technology Innovation Summit in San Jose at the Tech Museum. This location was fitting, since at the event we introduced and presented our first-ever Technology Innovation Awards and seventh annual Leadership Awards. If you did not get a chance to attend, we have the live webstream available for replay at no cost; thanks to Splunk for sponsoring this to let everyone enjoy the sessions.
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
SAP,
Social Media,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Peoplefluent,
Planview,
Research,
Splunk,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
IBM,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
Ceridian,
CFO,
CMO,
COO,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Datawatch,
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
Information Applications (IA),
Information Management (IM),
IT Performance Management (ITPM),
Saba,
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Technology,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM)
If you follow my writing, you’ve seen blog posts with titles such as Industry Exposé: Technology Vendors Skew Analysts and Influencers and Industry Analyst Art or Fiction: Questionable Technology Predictions, so it should be no surprise I can’t resist an opportunity to talk about a little bit of insanity on the part of technology suppliers and industry analysts about social media.
Read More
Topics:
Social Media,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Business Intelligence,
CIO,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Twitter,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CMO,
COO,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
Industry Analyst,
Information Applications (IA),
Information Management (IM),
IT Performance Management (ITPM),
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Technology Vendors,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM)
Salesforce.com made a surprising announcement of its agreement to acquire Rypple, a software company that defines its product as a social goals application. I call this a surprise because although Salesforce has been extending its reach beyond sales and customer service to IT in providing a platform, tools and a database for building applications and storing data in the cloud, until now it has not entered directly into other lines of business. After its annual Dreamforce conference last summer, I analyzed the company’s strategy and products. Now I want to consider what this acquisition means for Salesforce and the human capital management market.
Read More
Topics:
Salesforce.com,
SAP,
Human Capital Management,
Marketing,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Business Technology,
Chatter,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Information Management,
Oracle,
Business Applications,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CFO,
COO,
CRM,
HR,
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
SalesCloud,
Service Cloud,
SFA,
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Talent Management,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM),
Digital Technology
I attended the annual SAP Influencer Summit (Twitter #SAPSummit), at which executives from SAP meet with analysts and customers from around the world to discuss the company’s direction. Pointing out that in 2012 SAP will reach its 40th anniversary of operations, chief communications officer Hubertus Kulpus and chief marketing officer Jonathan Becher kicked off the summit, then passed the microphones to co-CEO Jim Hagemann-Snabe and CTO Vishal Sikka for overviews of the business and technology strategies. They presented a well-rehearsed dialogue on SAP’s definition of its software business as being in two areas, the “system of record” and “system of engagement”; the first term describes its transactional applications and the second its portfolio of business analytics.
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
Sales,
SAP,
Social Media,
Sustainability,
Human Capital Management,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Smart Phones,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Technology,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Management,
Information Technology,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Business Applications,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CFO,
COO,
CRM,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
HR,
Information Applications (IA),
Information Management (IM),
IT Performance Management (ITPM),
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Sybase,
Tablets,
Talent Management,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM),
Digital Technology
At this year’s SAPPHIRE NOW conference (Twitter: #SAPPHIRENOW) SAP demonstrated its in-memory computing technology and applications. SAP’s High Performance Analytic Application (HANA), which I think of as a high-availability network appliance, is part of the technology industry movement to increase the performance and scalability across a range of applications, from analytics to transactions, to drive timely insights on data or real-time interactions across a business value chain that includes everyone from customers to suppliers. As part of the in-memory computing initiative, SAP demonstrated its in-memory database, which uses a columnar data store that employs technology SAP acquired with the Sybase IQ product. As I noted before the conference, in-memory technology is part of a major new focus for this global business applications company.
Read More
Topics:
SAP,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Technology,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Technology,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CFO,
COO,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
Information Applications (IA),
Information Management (IM),
IT Performance Management (ITPM),
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Workforce Performance Management (WPM)
It is no easy task to change the culture of a global technology company, especially one that has a very demanding customer base with high expectations for advancing its widespread product lines. This is the challenge that SAP faces as it transitions from a company of three-letter-acronym collections of applications including CRM, SCM and ERP to one that focuses on specific business processes and needs. (My colleague recently discussed the problems in forklift migrations of ERP.) This transition is necessitated by the shift of purchasing power and influence for applications back to business after over a decade of IT control. This alone might not seem like a drastic change, but reframing its entire dialogue and sales approach is not simple for a company the size of SAP. It must continue to grow through new applications and substantive upgrades of existing ones and cannot rely just on maintenance fees from the installed base. Over the last several months we’ve kept an eye on SAP as it builds up of its annual SAPPHIRE NOW conference, investigating changes in products and management. I’d like to share some of our firm’s analysis with those of you who have invested with or are looking to invest in SAP.
Read More
Topics:
SAP,
Social Media,
Sustainability,
Other,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Technology,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Technology,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CFO,
COO,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
Information Applications (IA),
Information Management (IM),
IT Performance Management (ITPM),
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Workforce Performance Management (WPM)
