More Advice for CEO's

Last week, I shared some advice for CEO's as gleaned from colleagues at Enterprise Irregulars. A few more chimed in this week, and I thought I'd share some more advice to enterprise software industry CEO's.

Greg Gianforte

• Fix your messaging finally. It's been a problem way too long. Everything else is getting to be so right.

John Chambers

• Get serious about SaaS. It sells more routers.
• Explain to us again why you are going after HP's far lower margin server business and pissing a bull off which is 3 times your size?
  

Larry Ellison

• Give it up on the cloud already. You know you need it and so many of your execs and customers love it.
• Be a better partner or be ganged up on.

Leo Apotheker

• Choose your co-CEO now.
• Get your message straight. You're not an "in memory, end to end process, SaaS and Cloud hybrid model committed, whatever else you think you are" company. You're an enterprise solutions provider with more innovation than you ever let on. Let people know that. There's nothing to be ashamed of and its still "hip."

Marc Benioff

• Love you, keep up the innovation, but stop interrupting your partners and customers onstage. Looks REALLY bad. AND show up ontime to your keynotes. The attendees' time is valuable too. Plus Service Cloud 2, Sales Cloud 2, Custom Cloud 2 and Chatter aren't 4 "clouds." Finally, please, keep growing your philanthropy. That's our view into your real heart - and it does SO much good for so many.

Mark Hurd

• Time to leave. You're killing HP.

Randall Stephenson

• The Fake Steve Jobs only threatened. The real Steve Jobs will fly over and smash your face with a rock if you keep trying to "incentize" iPhone customers to use less of your network.

Sam Palmisano

• AARP will honor you this year for being most committed to technology elders. Your data centers, Lotus, Tivoli and other software portfolio, and your average SAP consultant all are the oldest in the business.

Steve Ballmer

• I don't know what to make of you or your company anymore. That's not a good thing. Figure out what it takes to get your customers and folks like us to make SOMETHING of you.

Zach Nelson

• Keep fixing customer service. Lay off the stupid anti-SAP campaign. Its neither clever, cute, nor wins you anything. You've got a good thing going with your product now. Get in alignment with that. Keep integrating social features as you are doing now. Way to go.

More great advice there from some really smart, experienced people. If you have any to add, just put in your comment below or at http://dbmoore.blogspot.com/. Thanks!

Advice for CEOs

I feel very honored to be a member of the Enterprise Irregulars group - a very plugged group of people, with lots of hands-on knowledge and experience. I asked them what advice they'd like to give to enterprise solutions company CEO's, and I got the following fascinating list of suggestions.

Carol Bartz

• Ya gotta know when to fold 'em, sometimes even the best poker players come up with a deuce/three offsuit.

Dave Duffield

• Keep control. No more "got the moves" CEOs.

Eric Schmidt

• Don't lose your newfound cash flow and cost cutting religion just because the needle is moving up and to the right again.
• Enjoy. Really. Cut some costs if you can. Its all good.
• Experiments are fun, but you are a one trick pony and don't have the same power to monopolize that market the way Microsoft did. Ad-supported revenue will die, so cannibalize yourself and diversify with meaningful revenue streams before someone else does it for you.

Jeff Bezos

• Have a chat with Larry & Bill. See who wants to find the next greatest CEO for their company. Spin out retail under Zappos guy or someone else. And go be a computer industry God by continuing to simultaneously kick some serious butt - you are the only one who can take on Google (see Google Products & Checkout) and Apple (see music/books/devices) and stand your ground.
• Keep on keepin on, no one does it better.
• Love what you're doing with cloud computing, but 2010 might be the year to spin it off and let it go its own way.

John Chambers

• Pay a dividend, recognize you're an awesome cash flow machine that's only going to grow via acquisitions.
• You got game - keep delivering on Telepresence and revolutionalize the data center.

Karl and Pam Lopker

• Talk to Vivek and follow the same advice.

Larry Ellison

• IBM's multi-billion dollar mainframe business is ripe for the plucking with some juicy margins. Sell non-core Sun businesses, and do your magic. Your stock will be $30 before end of next year.
• There's blood in the water, don't let up and keep pressing.
• Your consolidation call was timely, and unbelievably effectively done, but 2010 is the year to take Oracle back to a path of innovation. Stop focusing so much on cost-cutting, and unleash some entrepreneurialism within Oracle to drive it to a $300B market cap.

Lars Dalgaard

• While you still can, and the Street hasn't figured you out, use your ridiculously lofty valuation and goodwill to acquire the technology edge you don't have but many think you do.
  

Leo Apotheker

• Take solace in the fact you got a chance to be CEO, most don't.
• SAP could be a platform for business efficiency - think about providing services that are not software-oriented in 2010. How about doing (across multiple SAP customers) supplier scoring, credit rating, and other benchmarking offerings?

Marc Benioff

• Religion only takes you so far, sell to Oracle now while you can.
• Keep it up - you're doing great!

Mark Hurd

• Call it a career, before HP starts trying to win (and fails) against the big boys. Oracle still has the valuation and capital to make it happen.

Sam Palmisano

• Buy SAP while people still think it's a premium asset.

Steve Ballmer

• Hire Jeff Bezos as your replacement by acquiring AWS for a ridiculous sum.
• Keep up your fiscal discipline, break the company apart, and DON'T go acquisition crazy
• Time to retire.

Steve Jobs

• Keep those doctors on retainer, at least until the tablet revolutionizes home entertainment a la the iPhone has done with mobile computing.

Steve Singh

• Keep it up, you've got the magic and don't need to sell.and don't be afraid of an aggressive acquisition spree.

Vivek Randive

• If you get a legit offer, don't be too proud, sell and move on.

Zach Nelson

• The sooner you're honest with yourself about what your company is and can be, the sooner the market will treat you with a modicum of respect.

Lots of great advice there from some really smart, experienced people. If you have any to add, just put in your comment below or at http://dbmoore.blogspot.com/. Thanks!

Initial review of 12Sprints.com

Overview of 12Sprints.com

SAP recently invited me (after I pestered a few people over there!) to join in the beta program for a new product/service called "12Sprints.com." According to the company, "12sprints is software as a service (SaaS) application that brings together people, business information, and analysis or decision techniques with the applications you use today to drive better decisions, meaningful outcomes and increased productivity." Basically, 12Sprints.com is an online collaboration space, hosting a few tools related to meetings, planning, and decisions.

12Sprints.com is a project from the Business Objects group at SAP, and seems to be related to a concept SAP previously called "Bridge Space." Bridge Space was a concept demo a couple of years back at SAP to promote immersive meetings, collaborative decision making tools, linking applications and data into planning and decision-making processes, and just generally making decisions more transparent, collaborative, process-oriented, data-driven, and actionable. 12Sprints.com brings some of this vision into being. This is not SAP GUI, the feeble NetWeaver collaboration tool attempts, or transaction code /ME21N. This is SAP being driven by new thinking and leadership out of the Business Objects team, and rethinking the business of SAP.

This blog entry is a brief review of 12Sprints.com after just a few hours of use. A tool like this really requires real-world use for an optimally useful evaluation, but I don't have an appropriate use case right now, so this more speculative review is all I can do at this point. I'd like to thank SAP for allowing me to blog about my experiences, though I have to take off a few kudo-points for being barred from using screen shots in my review. Regardless of this policy, based on my use, I'd give 12Sprints.com a solid B-minus (and I don't grade on a ridiculously inflated scale like that used recently on the Oprah show). This is a very good effort right out of the gate for the service offering. I'm extremely encouraged by SAP releasing this service in the way they did, which I believe is a first for the company - a very transparent, semi-public beta, where all users can see each others' comments, and where the community is clearly driving the future. If the product came with a significantly larger set of decision-making tools and templates, and if there were some clear link in 12Sprints.com back to SAP's bread-and-butter products, then I would be looking at a solid B+ (or higher!) grade.

Getting Started

Getting started with 12Sprints.com was pretty easy. I just followed the simple instructions in the e-mail invitation, and I was online in moments. The e-mail came with some suggestions on how to use the product, and the product offered a good deal of usability in helping me become familiar with the product. Interestingly, the welcome e-mail also solicits feedback from users in exchange for a chance to win one of several prizes. Not your grandma's SAP, for sure.

It's a good thing the product is very easy to use, because help is very sparse to non-existent for much of the product. While a social tools user would have no trouble picking up the basic use of 12Sprints.com, a less savvy user will struggle, and even a very experienced social tools user will almost certainly miss much of the capabilities of 12Sprints.com due to lack of instructions, tutorials, examples, and help.

In many ways, this tool reminded me of Google Wave. You type a comment in, and another user sees it right away. You can see who's online, what they're adding to the discussion, and can add things like Google Wave bots. Google Wave is also meant to be a new style of collaboration tool, like 12Sprints.com. 12Sprints.com has decent usability, with tools like hints that come back every time you do, until and unless you permanently dismiss them (novice mode). Another capability I liked was what I call the "briefing book," which shows an event trail of what happened in an activity since the user's last participation there. The tools provided for collaboration, decision making, assignment of tasks, sentiment management, etc. were nicely laid out, performant, and stable in my use.

Another way 12Sprints.com reminds me of Google Wave is that the system is extensible by developers. 12Sprints.com includes a RESTful API for extensions, which allows developers to build additional UIs for users, or to populate content from an application rather than just manually. It seems like basically anything a user can do from the UI, an application can do via the API.

Developers can also extend the system with new "business methods." Business methods are mechanisms used in the environment, such as a new visualization or new tool (e.g., MindMaps, chat, RSS/Atom feed, etc.). There are a good many business methods already included in the tool without any additional development. Ideas for new business methods can come from beta users or SAP, and can be implemented by beta users or SAP. As of 12/20/09, SAP had received 211 ideas (not just for new business methods) from the 12Sprints.com community, of which 150 have been accepted into the backlog (81 still pending), and 69 have already been implemented. Some examples of ideas implemented that came from beta user suggestions include the ability to upload an Excel file and turn it into a table, add pending "to do" items to the users' home pages, support attachments and links on comments, and a whole slew of usability items.

Summary

Sadly, another way the system reminded me of Google Wave was that it just didn't "click" for me the way e-mail, twitter, texting, Facebook, LinkedIn, and my Motorola Droid did. The system seems to be a solution in search for a problem. Why would I use this system, I kept asking myself. I think I would use this system if it were a collaboration tool attached to a business process in SAP, or a report in Business Objects. If there were business methods for retrieving data from Business Objects, or running an SAP transaction, then this would probably be a useful tool for an SAP user. I could imagine using a tool like this to allocate raises and bonuses, manage a discussion around invoice verification and approval (or rejection!), strategic sourcing decisions, or next year's budget, but only if it really worked dramatically better for me than the tools I already know how to use - e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools.

In the end, 12Sprints.com seems like a good tool for planning and capturing meetings, and supporting collaborative planning and decisions. To really get the value out of this tool would seem to require a good deal of discipline. Just as a reminder, I only played with the tool a little, I didn't really get a chance to use the tool "in anger." Using the tool in a real corporate setting would almost certainly have resulted in more insight about the tool, and it is quite possible that I would be its biggest fan if I used it in that setting. But after playing with 12Sprints.com for a couple of hours, I have to wonder whether - if you had enough discipline for the tool to be of use to you, would you still need the tool?

Summary

There is a lot to like about 12Sprints.com. With this service, SAP is showing a refreshing openness, and a willingness to rethink "what business are we in?" It's almost certain (in my opinion, though I have no data to back this up other than my hunch and the product description) that SAP will be connecting 12Sprints.com "with the applications you use today" such as Business Objects analytics and reports, and SAP Business Suite transactions. Such a combination would create a powerful combination of business process and collaboration, which I believe would be the real birth of Enterprise 2.0, also attempted by Oracle with BeeHive and the social capabilities of the upcoming Fusion Apps. It will be interesting to see where 12Sprints.com takes SAP in the future, and vice versa.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2009-12-17

• A Tribute To Ranjan Das
  I really miss him. Even now, when I think about Ranjan, I can still see him smiling, and I can hear his voice in my mind. He did so much for so many, and he made the lives of everyone in this room better. Aroon and Maanav, you already know this, but I want to tell you myself. Your father was a great man. He was a great friend. And I will miss him very, very much.
• Glassdoor.com Unveils Employees' Choice Award for Top 50 Best Places to Work for 2010
  ... 14 Google 3.9 Eric E. Schmidt 87% 7 15 NetApp 3.9 Dan Warmenhoven 78% 10 22 Apple 3.8 Steve Jobs 91% 19 ... 27 Novell 3.7 Ron Hovsepian 59% 32 ... 29 Adobe 3.7 Shantanu Narayen 60% 4 ... 41 Intel CorporationPaul S. Otellini 72% -- ... 43 SAP America 3.6 Bill McDermott 65% -- ... 3.6
• Zoho takes Reports out of beta
  The service works with a number of SQL platforms, as well as Oracle and Microsoft Access platforms. Advertisement Zoho hopes that Reports will offer a flexible and secure business intelligence and analysis platform via a web-based service. The latest version will also include support for iGoogle and a new dashboard view option.
• Packaged Software as a Service is too Expensive
  SaaS vendors are charging too much money for the business to convert their applications wholesale over to the Cloud model with these vendors. Few IT leaders are rejecting SaaS as a delivery model. They like the idea, and hope that there are more case studies of high scalability with high transactional levels and real time integration/synchronization with legacy systems. But they are voicing reservations because they don’t see robust installations in key areas such as insurance claims, reservation systems, core banking, telecom call centers or government agencies. They are also beginning to plot the long-term costs of adding multiple component parts from a consortium of vendors in order to complete a solution.
• Microsoft's server chief talks cloud (Q&A)
  A few years out, how much does Windows Server, the server operating system, start to resemble Windows Azure? Muglia: Well, making them as similar as possible is clearly the goal, and the goal is to take all the things that we do in Windows Server and make those capable to be done in Windows Azure, and then take the learning we have in Windows Azure and bring it back to Windows Server.
• Are Corporations Acquiring?
  executives from some of the most active acquirers, including Google and Cisco, discussed market valuation and the acquisition outlook for 2010. David Lawee of Google, Ken Berryman of Symantec, Hilton Romanski of Cisco, and Doug Merritt of SAP talked about the environment for IPOs vs. acquisitions, how expectations in the private sector have changed in the year following the economic crisis, and how long current conditions might continue. Merritt also offered suggestions for how to make your firm attractive to acquiring companies.
• Software business is most profitable for HP
  Hewlett-Packard talked up the importance of cloud computing at its Software Universe 2009 conference, where it was revealed that their Software & Solutions business was the most profitable division within the company.
• Plurk accuses Microsoft of website element and code theft
  According to a post over at Plurk Labs, Microsoft China is accused of being a copy cat and shamelessly ripping-off Plurk’s appearance, specifically its “left-right timeline scrolling navigation system” in a very not-so-subtle fashion. In addition, it seems looks aren’t the only issue Plurk is upset with concerning Microsoft China. The social blogging startup continues in their complaint that not only do the sites have a very similar interface, but also “80% of the client and product codebase appears to be stolen directly from Plurk!”
• The Ballmer decade and what's next for Microsoft
  In a decade's-end edition of MicroBite, The Register's software editor Gavin Clarke and All-about-Microsoft blogger Mary-Jo Foley assess the last ten years, look ahead to what Microsoft's got coming, and ask whether Ballmer can last to the end of the coming decade as Microsoft's CEO.
• Is Google's new phone an opportunity for Microsoft?
  "It's unusual for Microsoft to be the friendlier partner, but in this case they are – or they at least seem that way."
• How Google became Microsoft: A decade of hits, misses and gaffes
  Longest suicide note of the decade: Sun Microsystems Sun, like most tech companies, entered The Noughties boisterously. The decade ended with management hawking the 27-year-old systems giant around Silicon ValleyScott McNealy's chum at Oracle, CEO Larry Ellison, did everybody a favor and said he'd buy Sun. How did it come to this? In 2000 and 2001, Sun was the "dot-in-dot-com". It was acquiring smaller companies. And it stewarded Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.3 at the head of an expectant enterprise-Java industry. But Sun spent the next decade treading water, crippled by that dot-com past, frittering away the value of acquisitions, resisting and then embracing Linux and open source. Its management preferred to play with pretty theories on growth rather than take hard cost-cutting decisions. In the end, shareholders at Southeastern Asset Management had had enough. They increased their stake, expanded the board and got an agreement to sell Sun out from und until founder and former CEO
• Azure Reorganization Raises Questions About the Future of Ray Ozzie at Microsoft
  Last week, we reported that Microsoft is moving Windows Azure, its cloud computing platform, into a new business unit called the Server and Cloud Division, as the company gears up to offer a paid cloud service early next year. Azure now falls under the authority of Bob Muglia, president of the company’s Server and Tools Business. By Friday, though, I was hearing deeper rumblings around town about this reorganization: namely, whether it signifies the end of Ray Ozzie at Microsoft.
• Is Windows 7 the last major chapter in Windows story?
  "We think Windows 7 is going to be the last really big refresh, in-mass, of the Windows client environment as we have known it for the last decade plus."
• Sapience Conference Features First Shoot-Out Between SAP and NetSuite Cloud
  Strategy Partners International, a leading IT analyst firm, today announced that an independent panel of judges at Sapience 2009, held here on December 9, declared NetSuite OneWorld the winner of an enterprise software "shoot-out" against SAP Business ByDesign. The three judges -- Helmuth Gumbel, Senior Research Director and Managing Partner of Strategy Partners International; Vinnie Mirchandani, Founder of Deal Architect; and Ray Wang, Partner with Altimeter Group and former Forrester analyst -- unanimously concurred that NetSuite OneWorld was the superior choice in a real-world test of three fundamental enterprise processes: customer relationship management (CRM), goods production and order fulfillment, and financial management. The results demonstrate the strength of NetSuite's ( NYSE: N) dedicated and pioneering commitment to cloud computing, its large diverse customer base, and the 10-plus years of development invested in building a robust enterprise business suite able to handle
• NetSuite Customers Made VAT Compliant While They Sleep
  NetSuite Inc. ( NYSE: N), a leading vendor of cloud computing business management software suites, today announced that NetSuite customers doing business in the UK will enjoy full business systems compliance with new changes in the value-added tax (VAT) rate without having to lift a finger. NetSuite's cloud computing model and the flexible, powerful NetSuite Tax Engine inside NetSuite's financial/accounting software ensure that NetSuite customers in the UK immediately benefit from this update. While companies using stone-age, on-premise products will be huddling around the warmth of their servers praying the patches they have to install to address the VAT change actually work, NetSuite customers will be worrying about which party to attend on New Year's Eve. For more information about the plan, please visit: www.netsuite.co.uk/vat-rate.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2009-12-16

• SAP Enterprise Support KPI program works, but too much work for users
  Customers have achieved a 4% improvement – the stated goal for 2009 – in the key performance indicators (KPIs) of business process improvement, innovation and protection of investment, total cost of operations, and business continuity. They're saving money on, for instance, utilization of CPUs, reduction of storage, and improved response time to end users, according to Mike Stoko, chairman of SUGEN, a collection of representatives from various SAP user groups..
• Tibco/SAP Rumors Resurface
  Tibco (TIBX) shares, a frequent subject of takeover speculation, is trading higher on a new round of rumors that the company could be an acquisition target for SAP (SAP), according to Briefing.com.
• SAP's Emerging Mobility Strategy - Not for the Faint of Heart
  My analysis - mobile start-ups cannot simply have a good idea now days. They must do a thorough investigation into the plans of the wireless carriers, mobile device manufacturers, mobile operating system developers and ERP vendors to understand the solution gaps and market place ambitions before launching another mobile application. The enterprise mobile applications market has just been promoted to the big league. The growth strategies for mobile start-ups these days in the enterprise mobile applications space should involve working closely with the wireless carriers, mobile device manufacturers, ERP vendors and mobile operating system developers. Mobile start-ups are going to need to get in the game quickly or be left behind.
• SAP(R) and Security Weaver(TM) Settle Lawsuit
  Security Weaver and SAP® have reached mutually agreeable terms of settlement to resolve the business dispute that prompted each party to file claims against the other in federal court. The confidential terms of settlement have resolved all outstanding issues between the companies, and as a result, all pending litigation has been dismissed. SAP, Security Weaver, and Security Weaver's founder, Sumit Sangha, have mutually released all claims against each other. Additionally, Security Weaver has entered into a new certification agreement with SAP and has begun the process of obtaining SAP certification for the current version of its products, expected to be released soon.
• Oracle Project Portfolio Management Integration Packs Integrate Project Management With ERP
  # Project management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) are now integrated with the availability of Oracle® Application Integration Architecture (AIA) Release 2.5 PPM Process Integration Packs (PIPs). # Oracle Project Portfolio Management Integration Pack for Primavera P6 and the Oracle E-Business Suite connects Oracle's Primavera P6 with the Oracle E-Business Suite to seamlessly integrate project management and financial information for complete enterprise project portfolio management (PPM) functionality. It allows users to synchronize information regardless of whether they create projects in Oracle Project Portfolio Management or Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management. # Oracle is delivering Oracle Project Portfolio Management Integration Pack for Primavera P6 and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, connecting Primavera P6 and Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, offering seamless integration that allows users to synchronize information between the two solutions regardless of w
• HP Partners with Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat in Courting Sun Users
  HP, which has been aggressive in enticing Sun customers, is partnering with operating systems makers Microsoft, Novell and Red Hat in its efforts. The partnerships are part of HP’s overall Sun Complete Care program, a collection of products, services, support and financial incentives designed to lure customers worried about Sun’s future over to HP. Over the past year, about 350 Sun customers have made the move, according to HP.
• HP swooping in on Sun customers
  HP reported that during the 12 months ending October 31, it scooped up more than 350 customers from Sun with offers of specialized services and support, and financial incentives through its HP Complete Care program. Now, the company said, it has enhanced this program with the help of its new partners to give Sun customers what HP is selling as "peace of mind."
• Oracle's Demantra 7.3 Now Available
  Enhancements Enable Customers to More Precisely Plan Configure-to-Order Products, Manage Product Lifecycles and Achieve Integrated Business Planning
• Earnings Preview: Oracle to post 2Q amid Sun deal
  Oracle and the European Commission both described the discussions as "constructive," and the Commission said Oracle's promises are an "important new element" that will be considered in its review. The development has raised investors' hopes that the deal won't be scuttled or broken up in any way to gain approval with regulators.
• PLM Reaches into the Enterprise
  “We will see more and more PLM companies encroaching into what has traditionally been ERP territory,” says Joe Barkai, an analyst at IDC’s Manufacturing Insights. “A year or two ago, I said the battlefield would move from CAD vs. CAD to PLM vs. ERP.” In 2009, that shift began.
• IBM Rational adds new ties for devs
  Version 11.3.1 of Rational System Architect...adds two-way integration with Rational Focal Point, which maps product and portfolio management for project managers. The update also adds support for The Open Group Architecture Framework version 9 (TOGAF 9), a top industry framework for enterprise architecture deployment. The updated Rational DOORS Web Access version 1.3 adds a requirements editing feature (from its former read-and-review restriction) to make it simpler for additional members to contribute and validate requirements. It also adds the ability to create traceability links and view requirement changes... An update to IBM Rational Rhapsody include features to let a development team and quality assurance to share and manage requirements and test information. Taking aim at the automotive industry, IBM has also enabled definition of application software for Automotive Open System Architecture (AUTOSAR) systems and provides a Japanese-language version of Rhapsody. Gorman said IBM
• AMN Healthcare Live on Workday Human Resources
  The HR team at AMN Healthcare led the selection and implementation of Workday with minimal time and effort from their IT staff. - Workday is configured not customized, so implementations and upgrades can be completed with little or no IT involvement. -- Workday has enabled AMN Healthcare to transform its HR operations company-wide including: - Consolidation of systems and establishment of consistent business processes: AMN Human Resources has consolidated 11 solutions into just three. The company now uses Workday as its core HR system-of-record across its five U.S.-based offices. - Manager and employee self-service: More than 1,200 AMN Healthcare Human Resources, business leaders and corporate employees now have direct and easy access to Workday, providing the information and tools they need to manage and optimize their workforce.
• Five ERP vendors not named SAP or Oracle
  Enterprise IT shops actually have a lot of choice when it comes to ERP vendors. For those looking to branch out, here’s a list of the top five vendors that would make the “no SAP or Oracle allowed club”
• FTC Sues Intel, Claiming It Uses Illegal Tactics
  Echoing charges by authorities in Europe, Japan and South Korea, the FTC alleged in an administrative complaint that Intel used illegal inducements or threats of retaliation to discourage computer makers from buying chips known as microprocessors—which serve as the brains in personal computers—from rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Customers affected by Intel's alleged actions include some big names as Hewlett-Packard Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Dell Inc., the FTC alleged.
• EU Formally Ends Microsoft Antitrust Case
  In return for these commitments, the commission will close its investigation without a fine. Microsoft must report to the commission every six months on the process, and may be asked to make some adjustments. The commission also welcomed Microsoft's pledge to share technical information so rivals' products can work better with a range of Microsoft software including Windows, the Exchange e-mail system and the Office suite.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2009-12-15

• Some Pre-Forecast Odds Ends re: Social CRM
  Here is a list of the analysts that I trust the most when it comes to covering the CRM or enterprise space – not saying there aren’t others but these are top of mind but in no particular order: ... 1. Denis Pombriant - Independent 2. Brent Leary – Independent 3. Esteban Kolsky - Independent 4. Mike Fauscette – IDC 5. Michael Maoz – Gartner 6. Ed Thompson – Gartner 7. Ray Wang - Altimeter 8. Sheryl Kingstone – Yankee Group 9. Bruce Richardson – AMR/Gartner 10. Josh Greenbaum - Independent 11. Vinnie Mirchandani - Independent 12. Michael Krigsman – Independent
• IBM accused of stifling mainframe innovation
  “IBM’s contracts include no provision that would entitle IBM to charge for processing done on SPs, and [it] has long promised its customers that processing done on SPs will never bear software licensing fees,” the lawsuit reads.
• On-the-Go CRM: The Latest Developments
  Salesforce.com now offers Mobile Lite, a new free mobile offering that provides customers with instant access anywhere to Salesforce CRM. Mobile Lite is available for iPhone, BlackBerry smartphones, and Windows Mobile devices. Mobile Lite provides salesforce.com customers access to some of the most common Salesforce CRM features.
• Official Google Blog: Cloud apps, big city: LA goes Google
  Starting today, Los Angeles will be equipping 34,000 city employees with Google Apps for email and collaboration in the cloud.
• ERP vendor offers to take over MySQL
  French ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendor Nexedi made a public bid today to take over stewardship of the open-source MySQL database from Sun Microsystems, offering a symbolic €1 in return.
• H-1B visa use by U.S. firms holds steady in '09
  U.S. companies were still getting H-1B visa petitions even as they cut jobs, according to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) that shows who received the visas in the 2009 fiscal year.
• Microsoft's Chris Capossela on Google, Twitter and that Blue Screen of Death
  Microsoft Office marketing chief talks about plans to beat Google Apps, adding Twitter-like features to Office, and the now-infamous BSOD
• Finding Talent Via Social Networks
  A recent report from Challenger, Gray and Christmas says social networking services such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are the hottest tool in the job seeker's arsenal. Here are the recruiting firm's top tips for making the most out of social networks, along with some relevant statistics on social net usage.
• ERP's Paralysis Problem and the Repercussions for Businesses Everywhere
  I'm pretty sure that paralyze is not a word you want associated with your department right now—or ever.
• New IDC IT Survey: Businesses Losing Between $10M and $500M For Disruptions Tied to Rigid Systems: Product Delays, Missed Opportunities Accompany Slow ERP Change Capabilities
  * 20.9% Reported Stock Declines * 16.6% See Customer Satisfaction Erosion * 14.3% Lose Revenue * “It’s Not Unrealistic to Say that the Wrong ERP Choice in a High-Change Industry Spells Disaster”

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2009-12-14

• Oracle Makes Commitments to Customers, Developers and Users of MySQL
  In order further to reassure the Commission, Oracle hereby publicly commits to the following: ...2. Non-assertion. As copyright holder, Oracle will change Sun's current policy and shall not assert or threaten to assert against anyone that a third party vendor's implementations of storage engines must be released under the GPL because they have implemented the application programming interfaces available as part of MySQL's Pluggable Storage Engine Architecture.
• EC investigation of Oracle-Sun enters the endgame
  Oracle’s proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems looks set for approval by the European Commission after the competition commission welcomed commitments from Oracle related to the future development and licensing of the open source MySQL database.
• EU Signals Comfort With Oracle's Sun Bid
  Oracle said it would "continue to enhance" MySQL and release future versions under an open-source license. It also said it would make available certain programming details needed for others to work with MySQL, and would hold off on any copyright claims against third parties who use those details. The assurances fall well short of the demands of the deal's critics, some of whom had called for Oracle to spin off MySQL entirely -- something the company had adamantly refused to do. Still, the European Commission said in a statement it "welcomes" the Oracle moves, calling them "an important new element to be taken into account in the ongoing proceedings." The regulator has until late January to make a final ruling, but the tenor of its comments suggests it is now favorable to the deal. Still, reaction of the market could sway it.
• Sun climbs after Oracle presents MySQL plan
  Shares of Sun Microsystemsclimbed 9% in pre-market trade as Oracle said it's had constructive discussions with the European Commission over approval of its deal to buy Sun. Oracle said it's pledging to maintain and periodically enhance MySQL's storage engine architecture, not to assert or threaten to assert against anyone that a third party vendor's implementations of storage engines must be released, to offer storage vendors who at present have a commercial license with Sun an extension of their agreement on the same terms and conditions for a term not exceeding December 10, 2014, to enhance MySQL in the future, not to mandate the purchase of support services to get a commercial MySQL license, to increase MySQL research and development spending and to fund a customer advisory board.
• HCM Complexity Rises in Global Setups
  “ERP is the tortoise, best of breed the hare.” Niche, or best of breed, vendors have recently made their names known in the HCM space, including Taleo, Saba, SuccessFactors, Kenexa, Halogen, SumTotal, and many others.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2009-12-13

• E-Commerce News: SaaS: Top 10 Cloud Computing Flashpoints of 2009
  A brief history of SaaS and cloud computing in 2009 suggests that it has arrived as a viable mainstream business model; that the market is volatile, and missteps won't be overlooked; that there's still plenty of room for innovation; and that it will be a growing force to be reckoned with in 2010.
• Marc Benioff: Telling Your Brand Story
  I often say communication is probably the most essential part of my job. That’s always been the case. We chose to communicate openly—to really discuss what was working and what wasn’t. It has never been about communicating with just a few employees. Since the beginning, we’ve also communicated with potential customers. We invited them to come in and see what we were working on. We asked them to test it and we made changes based on what they said. For example, we found out the “create an account” button was in the wrong place. Having this kind of inclusive communication (sharing and listening) from the beginning set the tone for our entire company. It allowed us to grow fast. Because we were so clued in, we were able to make changes along the way and evolve by intelligent reaction.
• For Microsoft Azure platform, late is good
  But it won't be too late, according to developers and solution providers weighing their own move into cloud computing applications.
• Recession Not All Bad for Enterprise Software Users
  But the economy also prompted a series of policy changes and concessions from vendors that could make users' lives easier in the long run, especially if they become broader trends. Here are some highlights:
• 10 best stocks for 2010 - Salesforce.com (7)
  The popularity of "software as a service" is white-hot these days, and no provider is more identified with the business of renting software via the Internet (rather than selling and installing it on a company's servers) than Salesforce.com.
• JDA Software Announces Closing of its Offering of $275 Million of Senior Notes; Exercise of Financing Election in Acquisition of i2 Technologies
  JDA® Software Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: JDAS) today announced that it has closed its offering of $275 million in aggregate principal amount of 8.00% senior notes due 2014 to qualified institutional buyers in the United States pursuant to Rule 144A and outside the United States pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The issue price is 98.988% of the principal amount of the senior notes.
• A colleague's Thoughts on Fusion
  My impression was that the usability perspective has rubbed off on Oracle from Siebel or other Product groups that Oracle has acquired! As I have never seen a focus on it earlier. That is very good and provides any application with an edge. The other encouraging signs were the integration points. The Fusion App can integrate with older version of EBS, Peoplesoft or Siebel. 'Seamlessly'? That remains to be seen, however that probably means a lot of work for the SIs.
• Steve Ballmer Inadvertently Spits on Me
  If you sit next to Steve Ballmer at a Lakeside basketball, you are going to get a little wet. And possibly go a little deaf. The man is not shy with the yelling.
• Realigning Microsoft's Azure unit could boost innovation, squabbling
  Unifying Windows Azure with its on-premises counterpart Windows Server should hasten the rollout of new features in Microsoft Corp.'s enterprise cloud platform, but it also will pit Azure against Microsoft's other cloud services for the loyalty of a key customer base, says one independent Microsoft analyst.
• Monty says: Help saving MySQL
  [I'm really starting to dislike this guy...-DBM] I, Michael "Monty" Widenius, the creator of MySQL, is asking you urgently to help save MySQL from Oracle's clutches. Without your immediate help Oracle might get to own MySQL any day now. By writing to the European Commission (EC) you can support this cause and help secure the future development of the product MySQL as an Open Source project.
• MySQL Creator Wants War with Oracle
  [Hm. Monty and Florian doing what they accuse Oracle of doing? I'm shocked, shocked I say!-DBM] In an e-mail to the press late Saturday Mueller claims, without mustering any proof, that Oracle dictated the contents of the 200 letters. For his part Widenius has provided boilerplate for the open source community to use in their e-mails.
• Going high-tech - tactician Kostecki working hard for BMW Oracle in preparation for 2010 America's Cup
  No stranger to the local sailing community, the 45-year-old former Marin resident is preparing for the 33rd edition of the America's Cup as tactician aboard team BMW Oracle Racing's 90-foot trimaran. The next Cup challenge is slated for February 2010 in Valencia, Spain, between the defender Team Alinghi and Oracle, the challenger of record.
• Observations From Our One-on-One Meetings With SAP Executives
  The new CRM offering is being developed on top of the Frictionless Commerce platform (SAP acquired Frictionless in May 2006). In addition to multi-tenancy, the new applications will be metadata based. Translated into English, this means users will be able to add fields and screens just like salesforce.com customers.
• Satyam's ex-brass appears before court
  The former managing director, finance head and company secretary of erstwhile Satyam Computer Services, and three members of its board of directors at the time the scandal broke about its falsification of accounts, all appeared before a special court here today.
• Progress Software Offers Enhanced OpenEdge SaaS Platform
  Progress stated that the OpenEdge SaaS platform simplifies the development of business applications and with this latest release, eases the delivery of business-critical applications embedded with the technology required for effectively managing them from development to deployment.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2009-12-12

• Let’s Kill Off RFPs!
  Not only will scripted scenario demos help you make more informed package selections but they will also help you understand and plan for the implementation to come.
• Cloud economics: The importance of multi-tenancy
  The connection between multi-tenancy and vendor performance in the software as a service market is therefore a key factor for buyers to understand and evaluate.
• HP avoids strike
  HP yesterday narrowly avoided a strike of 1,000 ex-EDS staff working on government contracts who belong to the union PCS, but was hit by a walkout of service engineers from Unite on Monday.
• Oracle Reportedly Claims the EC Concocted Evidence
  Oracle claims "many if not most" of the two dozen customers cited in the SO "do not support the Commission's theory of harm."
• Sun Releases Java EE 6, Glassfish v3 Portfolio, and NetBeans 6.8
  The updates include Servlets 3.0, JSF 2.0, EJB 3.1, Java Persistence 2.0, Java EE Connector API updates, and more. For EJBs and persistence, look for a model more like Spring and Hibernate, with resource dependancy injection and easier configuration. As for what's been added, the two most anticipated features are: * Java Context and Dependancy Injections (CDI): Formerly known as "Web Beans", and always known as JSR-299, CDI takes your plain-old-Java-objects (POJOs) and enables them for scaling in your enterprise applications. Inspired by Sprint, it simplifies development and deployment, and unifies existing Java EE APIs. * Java EE Profiles: These are subsets of Java EE (which is otherwise quite large). There are currently two profiles: a web profile which is Tomcat-like, and includes a web server with support for Servlets, JSPs, and JSF; and the full Java EE profile which includes everything. However, Java EE 6 allows you to define your own, custom, profiles. New profiles are
• Sun brews up Java EE 6
  GlassFish has seen over 24 million downloads to date, making it the most popular application server in the world. (It is always risky counting downloads as production installations, of course, as Sun's experience with Solaris 10 shows.)
• Sun offers enterprise Java techs, silence on Oracle
  Sun, however, declined to respond to questions pertaining to how Sun's being acquired by Oracle might impact Java and NetBeans. That acquisition currently is stalled, awaiting approval by the European Union. Cote, however said the impact of the combined Oracle and Sun venture on Java itself would be minimal. Oracle has come out endorsing Java and technologies such as GlassFish.
• Oracle Seen With Slight Profit Gain For Fiscal 2Q; Flat Sales
  Oracle Corp. (ORCL) is expected to show a slight gain in fiscal second-quarter profit when it reports results Thursday, even as sales remain flat compared to the same period last year.
• Analyst departures start at AMR Research
  AMR Research VP Lora Cecere, who managed a team of analysts on how to drive greater value from the supply chain, is leaving AMR. At this point we do not know the circumstances, e.g., whether Lora left voluntarily or was part of a downsizing due to Gartner’s acquisition. SageCircle had received reports that Lora was one of AMR’s top producers. Lora had been at Gartner from 2000-02.
• SAP Guidelines for Best-Built Applications
  If you want to build applications that fully complement SAP® Business Suite software and meet customer expectations for integration, support, usability, and reliability, then you need the SAP guidelines for best-built applications that integrate with SAP Business Suite.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2009-12-11

• SAP Sets Pace on 'Flexible' Software Pricing
  The arrangements let customers pay quarterly or monthly fees to use SAP products, instead of buying the software outright and paying for it at the outset.
• SAP: Out with the Old, Shrugging Off The Tag
  I am not saying the 2010 is going to be a bumper year for SAP, but it at least feels like some hygiene factors are being worked out, and there are some cool new products to sell if SAP can work out the business model.
• Hadoop and Solr popularity continue to scale well
  A quick check of Google Trends shows that Apache Solr (the search server based on Lucene) and Hadoop (the open-source implementation of MapReduce) are popular query terms -- and becoming more popular by the day. (For links to the news stories labelled with flags 'A', 'B', 'C', etc., go to this Google Trends page.)
• Summits Aren’t Always the Peak, and the New Doesn’t Always Fully Displace the Old
  SaaS is important and remains the future of software, but there are multiple reasons why it will not reign supreme — not for a while at least.
• Event Report: 2009 SAP Influencer Summit - SAP Must Put Strategy To Execution In Order To Prove Clarity Of Vision
  Overall reputation: “B”. SAP carries significant brand presence in emerging markets and the SME space. Many companies equate ownership of SAP as a sign of success in their markets. Yet, existing customers have soured on the brand and continue to wonder when SAP will innovate in their requirements and not be distracted in other pursuits. In general, SAP still carries considerable brand equity which will buy it time as it reinnovates.
• The SAP Reverse Dichotomy
  SAP Reverse Dichotomy: our technology is better than what we tell you we have.
• Oracle Makes Its Case For EU Antitrust Clearance Of Sun Deal
  Oracle Corp. (ORCL) Thursday assembled a large group of customers at an antitrust hearing to support its argument that the European Commission should clear its $7.4 billion merger with Sun Microsystems (JAVA).
• SAP BusinessByDesign versus NetSuite OneWorld shootout
  Ray Wang and I were recruited to judge a “shootout” at the Sapience conference Helmuth Guembel had organized in Cambridge this week...I hope they accept that for the next few years, ByD will be an underdog and catching up to a decade’s lead pioneers like NetSuite and salesforce.com have. It needs all the publicity – good and bad - it can get.
• SAP Is Skydiving Into The Clouds
  The company presented a clear vision and solid roadmap for on-demand business extensions based on the Frictionless platform and enhanced Business ByDesign with important capabilities to become the successful SME On-Demand solution it is supposed to be.
• SAP Promises Acceleration on a “Clear Path” – Will it Be Enough?
  Like the dances I went to in high school, the event was mostly date-free, but direct questions elicited some specific, though uncommitted, statements about deliveries in 2010, especially from Marge Breya.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2009-12-10

• Input regarding case COMP/M.5529 - ORACLE / SUN MICROSYSTEMS provided to the European Commission by Monty Program Ab (Tuusula, Finland)
  [I think Monty's argument is that he chose GPL before and then sold the company for lots of money, which he wants to keep, but he also wants the company back.-DBM] REQUEST TO PROTECT DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION IN THE OVERALL IT SECTOR IN PARTICULAR DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION IN THE FIELDS OF RELATIONAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND EMBEDDED DATABASE COMPONENTS & DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION THROUGH FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE WITH A PARTICULAR VIEW TO DOWNSTREAM EFFECTS OF REDUCED OR ELIMINATED COMPETITION ON AFFECTED KEY AREAS SUCH AS ENTERPRISE INFRASTRUCTURE INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE INTERNET/WORLD WIDE WEB SERVICES & RELATED STARTUP OPPORTUNITIES ... The high multiples on MySQL's revenues and earnings paid by Sun Microsystems in the 2008 acquisition as well as by private equity investors in different rounds of financing demonstrated investor confidence in MySQL's ability to tap ever more lucrative, upmarket opportunities (and the immense strategic value MySQL's business can have to an acquirer).
• Next Gen Enterprise: Acquisitions
  The questions are phrased in such a way as to justify action to prevent the acquisition from approval by the EU anti-trust regulators.
• Oracle boat much faster with new sail - skipper
  Oracle's BOR 90 trimaran is now "20 percent faster" than when it was launched in August, 2008, Russell Coutts told AFP.
• America's Cup: Russel Coutts speaks on Daring to dream
  "The wing sail is the biggest single transformation of a boat I have ever seen," he said. "It has turned an astonishing boat into something spectacular."
• Optimism over staging of America's Cup
  As his team packs up its 90-foot trimaran USA for shipment from San DiegoPanama Canal to a destination yet to be confirmed, he also backed a proposal from the defending holder, Switzerland's Alinghi, to extend the number of races from the currently designated best of three to a best of seven. through the
• What’s the cost of falling outsourcing prices in 2010?
  It's not just the global economic slowdown that's sending IT service prices south, it is also the increased use of offshoring, pricing pressure from customers, and a reduction in vendors' services.
• Oracle banks on users to convince EU of Sun deal
  U.S. software company Oracle (ORCL.O) sought help from its customers on Thursday to dispel European Union regulators' competition concerns and clear its $7 billion plan to buy Sun Microsystems (JAVA.O).
• Microsoft Acquires Health Care IT Company Sentillion
  Microsoft acquired Sentillion, a privately held health care IT company that provides applications for caregivers and physicians. Microsoft has made a number of partnerships in health care IT throughout 2009, including a deal with the American Medical Association (AMA) to give physicians access to patent records through Microsoft's HealthVault application. In addition to Microsoft, IT companies ranging from Google to Intel and Oracle have all pushed into the health care IT space.
• Microsoft to buy Sentillion for health care software
  The goal is to offer integrated technology that can help health care providers more easily access patient data from across multiple sources.
• House passes $7B R&D tax credit extension
  Supporters of the tax credit, including several technology groups, have called for it to be made permanent, but lawmakers have balked at the price tag.
• Why SAP Won't Match Oracle's 22% Maintenance Fees
  The real exposure SAP faces is from below: the fleet of small but nimble cloud and SaaS software providers that right now might seem puny and inconsequential to a global powerhouse like SAP, but surely won't seem so in a couple of years if SAP's sale of new enterprise licenses and revenue continues to stagnate or decline. And at the head of that pack is Salesforce.com, and Salesforce has decided to take the battle right into SAP's territory by launching a major expansion into Germany with its full suite of cloud CRM apps and services:
• Oracle Feels Upbeat About EC Antitrust Hearing
  Database giant Oracle Corp. (ORCL) feels upbeat following a hearing Thursday at which it sought to persuade European Commission antitrust officials their concerns about its proposed takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA) were unfounded, a company lawyer said.
• Cloud Vendors Take Aim at Federal IT Needs in 'Shoot Out'
  As the IT industry braces for the emerging cloud computing wave, no other sector is as well-suited to operating in the cloud than the federal government. So said a group of cloud computing experts who extolled the benefits of cloud computing while inviting government IT managers to "jump in" and start piloting cloud computing projects.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2009-12-09

• SAP Planning to Open up On-demand Development Platform
  SAP plans to allow others access to the Frictionless platform, according to John Wookey, the SAP executive vice president heading up the company's on-demand software strategy for large enterprises.
• Private Clouds : Real & Relevant?
  Some business may take a staged approach and call it by private cloud, internal cloud or whatever but eventually the road may lead into public clouds!
• SAP Video: Real-time Computing
  Cool video by SAP, promoting the concept of in-memory computing.
• NetSuite's Latest SAP Customer Win Validates Power of the Suite to Replace SAP R/3
  NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), a leading vendor of cloud computing business management software suites, today announced the latest SAP customer to replace SAP R/3 software with NetSuite, further validating the ability of NetSuite's leading cloud computing technology to surpass the business value of core SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions. Seeking improved ease of use and reduced cost of ownership, The New Release has cut ties with SAP in favor of NetSuite OneWorld. For more information about this and other SAP customers who have switched to NetSuite, please visit www.netsuite.com/sapcrossroads.
• AMN Healthcare Live on Workday Human Resources
  Workday, Inc., the leader in enterprise-class SaaS-based Human ResourcesHuman Capital Management. (HR) and Financial solutions, today announced that AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. (NYSE: AHS), the largest temporary healthcare staffing business in the United States, is live on Workday
• Official Google Blog: Join this group: Google Groups joins Google Apps
  Today, we're happy to announce the launch of Google Groups to Google Apps Premier and Education Edition users. Google Groups is one of our most widely used applications, enabling everyone from the local hiking club to the family next door to create mailing lists and discussion forums. Now employees within a company can create groups for their departments, their teams or their projects. Employees can use these groups as mailing lists, but they can also share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, videos and sites with groups, instead of many individual recipients. They can choose to receive communications directly to their email inbox, in a digest format, or in the Groups forum view, and can access all the information in the groups archive, without the intervention of an IT administrator.
• The Truth About CIO Tenure
  Now, let's compare that number, 5.3 years, to employment data for other top executives, and see how CIOs stack up. (Note: Data is from 2008.)
• Cloud computing, so much more than multi-tenancy
  Multi-tenancy is the foundation, but it can only deliver what customers today are looking for when it’s deployed in the full context of the Web itself.
• Workday Future of Software Webinar Archive
  Featured Experts Jason Averbook CEO, Knowledge Infusion Naomi Bloom Managing Partner, Bloom & Wallace R “Ray” Wang Partner, Altimeter Group
• Gartner Predicts that Open-Source Business Intelligence Tools Production Deployments Will Grow Five-Fold through 2012
  “Open source BI has seen an interesting adoption pattern over the last few years,” said Andreas Bitterer, research vice president at Gartner. “Hardly any organization looked at open-source BI until 2004, let alone deployed it to a significant number of users, but this submarket had developed nicely, having developed consistent growth rates over the last few years.”
• Salesforce.com - less show-stopping Chatter but more action
  Although Dreamforce 2009 lacked any show-stopping announcements, it demonstrated Salesforce is still alive and well - and chipping away at the dominance of the pre-cloud vendors.
• Yahoo 'Identifying' Engineers Going To Microsoft
  Yahoo Inc. said Wednesday that the online giant is in the process of "identifying" the 400 engineers that will be moved to Microsoft Corp. as part of the companies' planned search and advertising partnership.
• In Antitrust Cases, Hints of Microsoft's Past
  Silicon Valley lawyers also say there are signs that Intel and Google are succumbing to the same temptations dominant firms like Microsoft have of making it harder to deal with alternatives.
• The 10 Biggest Microsoft Stories Of 2009
  If Windows Vista can be likened to a clunky Edsel, then Windows 7 is a sleek Rolls Royce, flawlessly polished and offering an unparalleled level of computing convenience. For partners scarred by bad Vista memories, Windows 7's arrival signaled the start of the healing process.