Enterprise hits and misses - June 2
- Summary:
- A cheeky end-of-weekly on which articles hit (or didn’t) on diginomica and beyond.
A cheeky end-of-weekly on which articles hit (or didn’t) on diginomica and beyond.
diginomica hit: Workday vs Netsuite - really? by Stuart Lauchlan
quotage: 'At NetSuite’s recent SuiteWorld conference in San Jose, I was slightly taken aback when Workday was added to the pantheon of ‘those we mock’ alongside the more traditional targets, such as Sage, Microsoft and SAP.'
myPOV: Stuart's NetSuite versus Workday piece set off a bit of a Twitter flurry (see some of those tweets here). I don't take a puritanical view towards vendor skirmishes; I like a bit of fisticuffs. The problem is we end up in diminishing returns quickly and customers rightly tune out. But there are some takeways in Stuart's piece regarding where Workday and NetSuite are headed. On the NetSuite front, Dennis Howlett builds on that in his NetSuite taps market for $270 million piece, which also has an interesting comment thread that debates the value and size of the 2 Tier ERP market.
diginomica pick: Hugh MacLeod - digital disrupter by Dennis Howlett
quotage: 'Too many organizations have tried to hijack the social web in a way that perpetuates broadcast advertising and reinforces our prejudices against false messaging. Instead of understanding there can be no authenticity unless it comes from within, these organizations reveal a cynicism that has the opposite effect to that they were anticipating.' '
myPOV: This is my agenda shining through as Hugh MacLeod has had more subversive impact on me via his books Evil Plans and Ignore Everybody than any other business book writer. But I'm as much a startup guy as an enterprise guy. Is gaping void relevant to the enterprise? Dennis lays out Hugh's expansion to enterprise clients and how his ideas on creativity and visual communication are busting cubicles. Add to that a welcome trashing of the excesses of social media marketing and yeah, that's an Amen. If you're not familiar with Hugh's concept of social objects, dig into this.
Best of the rest
Five Conferences 2013: Infor One and Infor All by Paul Greenberg
quotage: 'Infor has a shot at making the Big 4, the Big 5. But to do that, not only should they continue on the path that they are continuing on but they need to take advantage of market opportunities staring them in the face.'
myPOV: When Paul Greenberg gets off the road and has some time to write, look out - meaty long-form pieces are coming. Pour a significant beverage and settle in to read Paul's case for how Infor can crack the Big 5. I found this piece interesting because Paul sees Infor's strengths differently than I do. He gives first kudos to Hook and Loop, their internal design agency, whereas I'm more impressed with Infor's deep micro-vertical strategy. Yeah, Greenberg covers that also - keep reading.
Putting the Kibosh On ERP Vendor Sales Reps Who Troll For Indirect Access by Ray Wang
quotage: 'Constellation has received an alarming increase in inquiries about an unethical vendor sales practice coined as 'trolling for indirect access'. Indirect access is when a vendor claims that a client is accessing their perpetually licensed software in an unintentional manner or inappropriately licensed manner.' '
myPOV: Indirect access is an issue that is not going to go away for enterprise software customers. Wang gives guidance to customers on negotiating indirect access issues and handling aggressive salespeople who may probe for system usage info. Wang sees communication breakdowns as a primary culprit - agreed.
Enterprise Software Takeaways from Meeker's 2013 Internet Report by Holger Mueller
quotage: 'One of the presentations I look most forward to on a yearly level are KPCB's Mary Meeker's 'State of the Internet' presentations. These days she releases them as the 1st speaker of the AllThingsD conference - and thankfully they are available on slideshare immediately afterwards.'
myPOV: Mueller strikes again with a thorough analysis of Meeker's enterprise software report. Internet as a platform, mobile, cloud, big data, enterprise freemium - all in Mueller's inquiring style.
Multi-media
from JD-OD.com: via our sister site, I pulled together a narrated collection of videos I called "Why do SAP customers choose cloud?" I was struck by the common themes echoed by these customers and the collective wake up call they imply.
from the interweb: The SAPPHIRE Now/ASUG 2013 co-location included an ASUG guest keynote by Seth Godin. I was able to watch Godin's keynote this week (which starts at the 42:00 mark). I want to grouch on that keynote in a moment, for now, you have the link.
Whiffs
I'm under some fair pressure from Frank Scavo to include a blog I can't stand in each of these columns. After all - it's Enterprise hits and misses.
Didn't see a big miss this week, but last week I took issue with a post from readwrite.com, Google and SAP: Two Very Different Cloud Strategies. It's the cloud made super-simple: Google and Amazon can do no wrong, SAP doesn't understand cloud. Yep, there are true clouds (public) and false clouds (which inevitably leads into finicky semantic debates that enterprise buyers could care less about).
Then the hyperbolic closing: 'If SAP wants to participate in the future of enterprise computing, it should learn from the companies that are inventing that future: Google and Amazon.' It might have been appropriate to mention SAP has been partnering with both companies, no? Or that SAP ERP is now certified to run in the Amazon cloud?
From a pure argumentation standpoint, the article failed to mention the one cloud advantage Google and Amazon have over SAP without question: much deeper expertise managing cloud data centers. And yes, 'bring your own HANA license' is a worthy target for criticism, but that doesn't apply to the HANA Cloud Platform (SAP's PaaS product) - a fact the author is apparently unaware of.
Yup - SAP has a lot to learn about cloud and a lot to learn from Google and Amazon. But when it comes to enterprise, Google and Amazon have a few things to learn also.
Final swings
Still questioning the enterprise relevance of Seth Godin's ASUG keynote. I may write about this soon, but if you want a taste, check out the Twitter debate (and chime in). Oh, and the new Google Plus interface stinks. Unless you wanted another Instagram.
Officially off-topic
East Palo Alto girls create app to clean up graffiti, trash - Making beats whining. See you next time.
Which #ensw pieces of merit did I miss? Let us know in the comments.
Most of these articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. “myPOV” is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.
Image credits: Man in Chair © Dudarev Mikhail, Cheerful Chubby Man © RA Studio, Happy Children © Anna Omelchenko, Waiter Suggesting Bottle © Minerva Studiom, Overworked Businessman © Bloomua - all from Fotolia.com
Disclosure: SAP paid for most of Jon's travel and expense to Sapphire Now Orlando, where the JD-OD Sapphire video footage was filmed.