ERP, CRM and BI in the Year 2010
Just forget about 2009. That's exactly what the major enterprise software players have to be thinking right now. The hatches have been battened down, the wagons have been circled and the write-downs have been written. Survive 2009 and pray that the economy and corporate IT spending rebounds in 2010.
Print
In fact, ERP, CRM, supply chain and BI vendors such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft have had their collective eyes on 2010 for a long time—laying out their visions and roadmaps to their customers, stocking the product lines with next-generation software offerings, and promising a better future for their customer bases.
So even before the global financial market meltdowns and recession occurred this past fall, 2009 was going to be a buffer year for the major enterprise software vendors. A calendar year to get through on the way to delivering all their wondrous new products in 2010. That's it. Nothing more. Nothing less.
But now the year of Arthur C. Clarke's space expedition is going to be even more critical for enterprise software players. Just look at what the major vendors have riding on that year:
Oracle has said that it will finally deliver its next-generation Fusion Applications suite.
Back in January 2006, you'll recall, Oracle President Charles Phillips proclaimed that Oracle was halfway to delivering a standards-based killer enterprise application suite: a combination of the best features and functionality taken from Oracle's expansive E-Business Suite, J.D. Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel product lines. (See "Oracle Fusion Applications: Is 2010 Delivery Too Little, Too Late, or Smart Strategy?" for an inside look at the launch delays, large expectations and executive departures that have dogged Oracle's next-gen application suite.)
Will Oracle finally deliver Fusion Apps in 2010? Analysts say yes. Will Oracle slay its competition with Fusion Apps? Analysts aren't so sure.
Oracle archrival SAP has been stating for years that, by 2010, the German software giant wanted to have 100,000 customer organizations running its software. In addition, SAP cofounder and legendary leader Hasso Plattner let it be known in 2000 that he'd like to see SAP with 100 million users toiling away on SAP products. (He also said back then that SAP wanted "to be the AOL inside the company." Ouch.)
As of late 2008, SAP had 76,000 customers (that number was buoyed by the Business Objects acquisition). In 2008, many of those same customers were angered that SAP had increased its maintenance fees for 2009. SAP had also scrapped its financial outlook and forecast to the financial analysts who follow the company.
So to make its 100,000 goal, SAP has roughly 24,000 new customers to sign on between now and 2010. And a very dismal economic climate in which to do it. (To read about its self-inflicted wounds and the monumental challenges facing SAP and its new applications guru, see "Can Oracle's Former Fusion Apps Guru Really Stop SAP's Slump?")
And then there's enterprise software upstart Microsoft. By 2010, Microsoft is hoping that its nascent Dynamics line of ERP and CRM software will have cut into SAP's and Oracle's claim on those business software markets.
In addition, Microsoft announced that in 2010 its customers will be able to purchase its anticipated business intelligence offering—which Microsoft claims will be "business-friendly" due to the software's ease of use. “If you know how to use Word and Excel, then you’ll be able to use our BI—that’s our
Previous Post: The Ugly Truth About "One Version of the Truth" Next Post: ERP Software: How to Get Big Discounts Now
What is Tech Briefcase?
TechBriefcase is a new, free service where IT Professionals can Search, Store and Share IT white papers and content like this. Learn more
Bookmark content
Speed up your research efforts with content across the web.
Search and Store
Find the white papers you need. Create folders for any topic.
View Anywhere
Open your briefcase on your iPhone, tablet or desktop. Share with colleagues.
Most Discussed Posts
Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most significant game changers to hit the technology landscape in the past 20 years. With this massive expansion of the cloud, the perception of the IT organization is shifting from a utility player to a change agent. This eBook breaks down five ways progressive organizations are using cloud-based IT Management solutions to help drive innovation and become more strategic, including: adding visibility and analytics, speeding up time-to-value, lowering costs, improving prioritization, and providing a blueprint for future cloud deployments.
Read the white paper to see how IBM helped Citigroup deliver new services and enhancements to their 200 million customers faster.
There are 3 ways to modernize legacy applications: rewrite completely, acquire packaged solutions or migrate existing code. This paper explains why it's best to migrate and how IBM® Rational® software can help.
Accommodating specific lines of business can result in a hybrid ecosystem of applications and servers. The resulting complexity of this architecture makes for an environment that is costly to maintain and difficult to change when addressing new challenges.
This whitepaper will help you to define a mobile device passcode policy. Security managers must attempt to reconcile two opposing goals. They must: 1) create a passcode policy that is strong enough to protect the device if it is lost or stolen, while: 2) not annoying users with needless length or complexity.
This whitepaper, authored by The Radicati Group, looks at the key reasons organizations should consider moving to a cloud-based archiving solution. Email archiving solutions enable organizations to store, monitor, and collect electronic data exchanged by their users to comply with internal policies and regulations.
ATERNITY will showcase a 30-minute demo on how Fortune 500 companies are leveraging its award-winning FPI Platform to deliver a user-centric approach to Proactive IT Management.
For businesses to move forward and tap into the ever-expanding universe of Internet users and network-enabled devices, it's critical to learn how to make the transition to IPv6. Learn the critical steps your organization must take to make a seamless transition-and keep your business world connected.
Learn how IT teams can protect against spear phishing tactics. Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer of Bit9 offers a frank discussion about spear phishing - the most common technique used in today's advanced attacks.
Learn how to build a solid business case for your migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux so you can run leaner, innovate faster, be more flexible and own the New Now.
Social media isn't about you; it's about everything around you. As you consider how your customers want to communicate with you, social media is something that can't be ignored. But what should your strategy be? Is social media "just another channel?" What kind of a plan makes sense for your contact center and for your customers? Join our experts as they share their insight and research results.
Hardware tokens were a popular method of strong authentication in past years but the cumbersome provisioning and distribution tasks, high support requirements and replacement costs have limited their growth. The additional log-in steps that hardware tokens require and the resulting user frustrations have limited adoption and make them impractical for larger scale partner and customer applications.
Sponsored Links
