06.18.18 by David Rowe

Businesses want to innovate faster because they know successful innovators tend to be the most successful businesses. Yet if you survey IT and finance leaders, as we did recently in conjunction with Vanson Bourne, a technology market research firm, you will find many are dissatisfied with the pace of innovation happening in their organizations. The tremendous potential of digital business is very much on their minds, but they see too much of their actual IT spending ...

06.11.18 by Pete Bartolik

One of the most appealing aspects of cloud computing is the promise — in theory at least — that if you're not happy with a vendor, you can migrate to another with much less pain than with traditional enterprise solution providers. Today, CIOs have an almost bewildering choice of cloud applications and cloud platforms. This multi-cloud reality opens up greater potential for leveraging on-premises enterprise software with cloud reso ...

06.04.18 by Pete Bartolik

If a technology solutions salesperson walks out of your office without playing the "digital transformation" card, he or she is not likely long for that job. Vendors, whether through strategic vision or competitive necessity, have latched onto the aspirations and concerns of business customers who fear digital disruption. "Digital transformation rocketed to the top of mind for brands, enterprises, and organizations in 2016," writes R. "Ray" Wang , founder of Constellation Research and author of Disrupting Digital Business . "The fear of being disrupted by non-traditional competitors, ...

05.21.18 by Hari Candadai

Enterprise software support is a multi-billion dollar source of revenue for SAP and other ERP software vendors with operating margins as high as 95 percent for some companies. Software vendors have been known to aggressively protect this revenue stream and dissuade customers from exploring third-party support alternatives. As you evaluate if third-party support is right for you, it's important to separate enterprise software support myths from reality. ...

05.14.18 by David Rowe

As the role of IT evolves from keeping the lights on to helping shape business strategy, technology leaders are challenged to find room for those strategic projects in their schedules and in their budgets. In a recent poll by CIO , 72 percent of those surveyed admitted they are struggling to balance business innovation and operational excellence. How can you balance your traditional IT responsibilities with today's new transformational challenges ...

05.08.18 by Hari Candadai

With the May 25 deadline for compliance with the European Union's General Data Privacy Protection Regulation (GDPR) rapidly approaching, interest in the topic is at a fever pitch. The only bigger news will come when the first company gets slapped with a big fine for failing to adequately protect personal privacy under the law. Repeat violators could be fined as much as 4 percent of their annual turnover (net sales), a threat that has gotten everyone's attention. And it's not just EU companies that must worry: ...

04.30.18 by Jeremy Sayler

Much of the digital business innovation taking place today involves reaching beyond the transactional systems at the core of a business to create new user experiences. Unfortunately, some SAP customers have discovered that creating a new user experience front end to an SAP back end can land them in hot water, if SAP decides that constitutes "indirect access" usage requiring additional licenses. In April, SAP introduced a new pricing model ...

04.23.18 by Sebastian Grady

I'll cut to the chase: Most companies running ERP software are overpaying for software support and are not receiving complete or sufficient coverage. How does this happen? Consider Oracle's ERP platform as a prime example. At this writing, the current version is 12.2.7. Yet according to a recent survey , nearly 40 percent of Oracle EBS licensees are in production on EBS 12.0 or earlier. The widely deployed EBS 11.5.10 release, for instance, hit general availability in 2004. Oracle pulled its premier support ...

04.16.18 by Andrew Powell

We've seen it happen before and we will probably see it happen again. Within the next two years, it is increasingly likely that SAP will extend the maintenance window for ECC 6/Business Suite beyond 2025. In 2014, SAP announced that it extended maintenance on ECC 6/Business Suite by an additional five years through to 2025. Most observers believe this change came in response to SAP's customers demanding more time to absorb and assess SAP's change in product direction to HANA and S/4HANA. Fast forward to 2018: ...

04.09.18 by David Rowe

SAP is in a hurry to get customers to move to its next generation S/4HANA platform. Yet most SAP customers are in no hurry to move — nor should they be, according to SAP watcher Vinnie Mirchandani. You can hear from Vinnie directly by watching the video clips embedded in this post (or watch them all as a single, seven-minute video ). What follows are my notes on what I found most interesting. Vinnie is the author of two books focused specifically on SAP, SAP Nation and SAP Nation 2.0 , and others on broader trends in technology ...

04.02.18 by Hari Candadai

Many SAP customers want to continue to run their core system of record for the foreseeable future. But performance and interoperability challenges are growing as technology environments change amidst rapid transitions to diverse hybrid IT environments. These rapid changes can have a significant performance impact on SAP systems including new software and servers, upgrades to the latest OS and browser versions, and changes in infrastructure that can trigger problems impacting the core ERP ...

03.26.18 by Sebastian Grady

Observing the enterprise software market today is like observing a major relationship crisis where one side is failing to listen to the other. It appears that suppliers are unrelentingly pushing their customers to move to the cloud. Their customers want to move to the cloud too, but not to rip and replace their perfectly functioning back-office systems of record. From the customer perspective, the cloud may be more suited to their data centers or infrastructure as a service ...

03.19.18 by Hari Candadai

Over a period of years, you've likely invested millions in an SAP platform that today is robust, stable and core to running your business. Like any good investment, your ECC 6.0 system and other Business Suite applications should yield strong dividends for years to come. In the context of IT, that means delivering the efficiency, availability and reliability required to meet business needs and drive growth.   But is your payback in jeopardy? Two factors are prompting many SAP licensees to rethink their enterprise IT strategies for the near term and beyond ...

03.12.18 by Andrew Powell

Major enterprise software vendors like Oracle and SAP are aggressively promoting "cloud" however chronic overuse of the term "cloud" may be creating common misconceptions. There are essentially two distinct cloud models, with very different characteristics, that are frequently confused because they are both generically called "cloud". The ongoing blurring of the term "cloud" can disadvantage enterprise software customers. Two main type of "cloud" are ...

02.26.18 by Paul Hope

As what was once a mutually beneficial partnership between SAP and Oracle grows increasingly contentious, customers may find themselves caught in the middle. One symptom: the price for getting an Oracle runtime database license bundled with SAP Business Suite is now more than double what it was three years ago. As a result, customers covered by this licensing who are trying to grow their businesses on a budget may feel the pinch. They should think about changing their relationship with the vendors, compensating for the price increase with other savings or both.   What's gone wrong ...

02.20.18 by Pete Bartolik

Does your IT organization eagerly embrace digital transformation, or quiver in fear at the prospect of it? If the former, you're following the model of world-class IT organizations that run more efficiently and devote a larger portion of their process costs to new business-focused initiatives. That's the takeaway from a study by Hackett Group , as reported in an issue of Computer Weekly . "IT is constrained by sunk investments and legacy technology and skillsets, while it must also embrace the digital world of cloud, big data analytics, social media, the internet of things (IoT), and mobility ...

02.15.18 by Hari Candadai

As digital transformation shakes up traditional business models, organizations of every size, in every industry, are exploring better ways to keep pace with change. Adoption of cloud computing technology has significantly increased over the last few years, promising a great opportunity for innovation amongst businesses if approached correctly, selectively and at the right pace. And the cloud model provides some compelling options to assist IT as its fiscal priorities move from cost management to cost optimization. According to IBM Cloud Managed Services Global Portfolio Manager Janice Dunstan ...

02.08.18 by Dean Alms

IT managers face tough challenges even in the best of times. New technologies are always appearing, tried-and-true business models are evolving, and user expectations are soaring. As digital transformation picks up speed, it might seem like you're under nonstop, full-scale assault. To survive and thrive, you need to be ready for what's coming next. Here's a quick look at six of the top battles you'll be facing in 2018 ...

01.29.18 by Pete Bartolik

It seems like everybody is rushing to migrate to cloud applications, and you don't want to get left on the wrong side of an inflection curve. But there are pitfalls for hasty cloud migration, so it's important to sit back and fully analyze what you've got and where you want to go. Early in 2016, the ERP world was shocked by reports of Gartner projecting a near-hundred percent failure rate of cloud ERP projects through 2018. The headlines may have been a little more dramatic than Gartner anticipated, but it certainly drove home the point that we're at an inflection point with ERP and ...

01.24.18 by Pete Bartolik

The life of a CIO? It's complicated. That's the conclusion of CIO Editor in Chief Dan Muse, introducing the publication's 2017 State of the CIO report. "Moving apps and workloads to the cloud, ensuring legacy software can talk to off-premises apps, and keeping networks and systems secure remain core functional tasks of the CIO role," Muse writes. "At the same time, boards of directors, CEOs, and business colleagues are turning to the CIO to lead digital transformations, win customers, and drive revenue." Transformers Rule the Day The report finds that more CIOs see themselves focused on ...

01.12.18 by Hari Candadai

Most SAP licensees plan to continue running their proven, SAP ERP releases given its rich functionality that more than meets their business needs without the cost, disruption and risk of migrating to S/4HANA. This was the top finding in a recent global survey conducted by Rimini Street, selected by 89 percent of the survey respondents. The findings are based on responses from CIOs, CTOs, IT VPs and directors and managers from a broad range of industries and company sizes across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Conducted in April 2017, the survey also revealed that custom ...

01.03.18 by Hari Candadai

As SAP continues to raise its bet for S/4HANA, SAP customers find themselves at a crossroads. Is it time to migrate to SAP's new application, or is a wait-and-see approach the best option? More than two years after SAP launched S/4HANA amid considerable fanfare, user adoption has been underwhelming. In the UK, just 5 percent of customers have deployed S/4HANA, a survey by the UK and Ireland SAP User Group found. Nearly half have no plans for S/4HANA. Similarly, 60 percent of members of the DSAG German-speaking SAP user group have no S/4HANA plans or are undecided ...

12.19.17 by David Rowe

Digital transformation is picking up speed. It's driving businesses to rethink their traditional imperatives and bringing a new focus on customer engagement and disruptive business models. As companies emphasize new priorities, they need to optimize inefficient processes and reduce burdensome costs that are a drag on their business. For IT, that requires some tough choices. On the one hand, enterprises are looking to their IT departments to drive business growth and transformation. But at the same time, IT budgets are not keeping pace with growth and transformation initiatives ...

12.13.17 by Andrew Powell

For the longest time, the role of the chief information officer was set in stone. The job was all about keeping the technology "lights" on and, if possible, reducing costs. Today that job description is outdated. In the era of big data, apps and cloud computing, the role of today's CIO is to enable the business, innovate and focus on new technology strategies to help better engage customers and drive revenue. The reason the CIO's role has changed is because technology has changed. In the past, business tech was all about big implementations over a long period of time. The pace of ...

12.04.17 by Edenize Maron

One of the main challenges in the IT market is the continued search for ways to innovate. IT is the cornerstone of many organizations' business strategy, and increasing investment in this area is crucial for companies that need to acquire new systems, maintain their current structure or enhance their competitiveness. Despite the recent poor performance of Brazil's economy, the country ended 2015 as one of the seven countries in the world with the highest technology spend, at nearly $60 billion USD. According to a joint study by the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (ABES) and ...

11.28.17 by Sebastian Grady

Companies running ERP software are at a crossroads with their software strategy: "Should I follow the vendors' upgrade path or is it time to consider other options?" Vendors want ERP users to upgrade on the vendor schedules, but that's simply not the right fit for all (or most) customers. CIOs know they need to invest in digital transformation and analytics to improve the customer experience, run smarter and stay competitive. But they've been burned by the rush to stay current in the past, sometimes hastily implementing solutions that failed to deliver on their promises. Making matters worse ...

11.13.17 by David Rowe

The digital economy is all about fast innovation and getting new products to market more quickly than competitors. IT needs to step up its game to help drive innovation, without sacrificing top priorities such as compliance, cost control and maintaining availability. The stakes are high even for massive, successful businesses. Today, 50 percent of the Fortune 500 from the year 2000 no longer exist. Businesses understand the need for agility and innovation, with 64 percent stating that innovation and operational effectiveness are equally important for the success of their company. However, the ...

11.07.17 by Hari Candadai

SAP customers have been at the forefront in embracing hybrid IT. This best-of-both-worlds approach lets them preserve and continue to leverage investments in mission-critical SAP ERP. At the same time, best-of-breed cloud applications help meet demands for greater business agility. A study by the IT software management vendor SolarWinds quantified what was widely recognized across the IT industry: Hybrid IT has become the de facto computing model. More than 80 percent of organizations run both core on-premises systems of record in tandem with cloud platforms and applications, the SolarWinds ...

10.30.17 by Sebastian Grady

CIOs are no longer just great technologists — in fact today's CIO can no longer afford to be just a great technologist. The successful CIO of tomorrow is a revenue generator, customer engagement guru, business leader. Successful CIOs are changing business models in their organization — they are becoming disruptors. But what does that mean exactly? While disruption was a bad word when we grew up — goofing off in class, talking during a movie, interrupting an adult conversation — today in business and technology, disruption is a magic word. The words "disruptive technology" were first coined by ...

10.25.17 by David Rowe

For years, IT has had clearly defined responsibilities: Keep critical business systems up and running, control costs and meet security and compliance requirements. Even today, most of your IT budget is likely spent keeping the lights on. But this traditional focus is holding organizations back in an era of accelerating focus on customer experience enabled via digital transformation. The role of IT is evolving quickly and becoming more prominent. Your key priorities should be shifting from predominantly maintaining current operations toward helping your company achieve its business objectives ...

10.11.17 by Seth A. Ravin

Welcome to our new blog — Word on the Street. There has never been a more complex and challenging time for IT leaders. They need to optimize their existing enterprise software investments, extend their current capabilities leveraging a hybrid computing model, and then transform into a digital enterprise via an intelligent, agile roadmap. We are launching Word on the Street as a resource for IT leaders to hear from industry experts and thought leaders, inside and outside of Rimini Street, who will share their observations and analyses of industry trends in optimization, capability extension an ...

10.09.17 by Hari Candadai

As the pace of business change accelerates, businesses are seeking to transform IT to pull out in front of competitors. But you’ve already invested considerable people, time and money in implementing and customizing your ERP technology. How do you keep pace with change and continue to deliver new capabilities, while minimizing risk and ensuring core operations run smoothly and in compliance, without fail? Innovating around the edges of your ERP solutions can provide the agility you want and the dependability you need. Digital transformation is driving change and new expectations, and you need ...

10.09.17 by David Rowe

It's no secret that we're doing business in a fast-paced, disruptive environment. To keep pace with rapid change, IT is becoming more strategic, and expectations are growing. According to CIO , "boards of directors, CEOs and business colleagues are turning to the CIO to lead digital transformations, win customers and drive revenue." CIOs are feeling the weight of these new responsibilities, and they believe that it's more important than ever to closely align IT with business imperatives. In a recent study by the Society for Information Management (SIM), 42 percent of participants cited alignm ...

10.09.17 by Sebastian Grady

Your ERP apps like Oracle and SAP are the foundation of your business, and they’re becoming even more critical as digital transformation takes off. Chances are you’ve committed to a strong maintenance plan for your enterprise software to be sure it’s always delivering the performance and availability you need. But have you considered how much ERP maintenance is really costing you — and whether those funds can be put to better use? You typically pay your vendor an annual maintenance fee — perhaps two million dollars for a mid-sized enterprise. But under that fee are hidden costs that you incur ...