Monday, October 27, 2008

Microsofts Cloud Vision: Not Quite 'Azure'

Microsoft has introduced Azure, a cloud computing platform. Interesting, but what does it comprise, and what is Microsoft offering that isn't already out there from the likes of Amazon and Google?

The Microsoft Azure Services Platform consists primarily of Windows Azure, together with Microsoft.Net, SQL and Microsoft Live Services, to be followed in the (presumably near) future by SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics CRM services. Windows Azure is Microsoft's vision of a "cloud services operating system," and will serve as a platform for solution development (by Microsoft customers), service hosting (by Microsoft) and service management (by Microsoft and customers both). Windows Azure, Microsoft assures us, is intended to be "an open platform that will support both Microsoft and non-Microsoft languages and environments" — for now, however, only .Net-managed applications built using Visual Studio will be supported.

At first sight, it is difficult to see what makes Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect, call this a "game-changing set of technologies." On-demand cloud computing; flexible, pay-as-you-go options; support for pure cloud or mixed-mode solutions; scalability, load balancing, fault tolerance, disaster recovery; support for HTTP, REST and SOAP — all pretty standard stuff. Database services through Microsoft SQL Service? Been there, done that. On-demand CRM? Ask SalesForce.com. The .Net platform? Nice to have… if it weren't mandatory.

Where's the "game changing," and where's the competitive edge?

Some six months ago, I wrote a short article on Microsoft's foray into cloud computing, through Microsoft SQL Services Data Services (SSDS). As I observed at the time, "SSDS is only the tip of the iceberg of what Microsoft could offer. Given its development portfolio, Microsoft could go beyond a full-service database solution — in itself a significant offering — into areas such as dashboards in the cloud or, throwing BizTalk into the mix, Processes as a Service."

Azure doesn't go quite as far as that but is a step in exactly that direction.

On one hand, Azure offers the promise of all that Microsoft can offer in cloud computing, and for the multitude of Microsoft developers out there, this is great news. For others, though, Azure is yesterday's news: there is nothing novel in being able to build an application that uses a database, and host/manage it in the cloud — Amazon, Google, SalesForce.com etc. are old hands at this. Furthermore, requiring it to be a .Net managed application only serves to weaken the appeal (but then again, where would a Microsoft offering be without .Net?)

In short, game-changing, today, Azure is not. However, as portent of the future (a "needless tautology"?), this is exciting enough. Consider Azure as the second big step in Microsoft's "extreme make-over," and an important step forward for Microsoft customers.

What does the future hold for the business intelligence industry?

Last autumn, Financial Director interviewed Chris Liddell, CFO of Microsoft, during a particularly frenzied period of industry consolidation. The news at the time was that German software giant SAP had just agreed to buy Business Objects, a business intelligence (BI) software company. That news came hot on the heels of Oracle’s agreed purchase of Hyperion, another business intelligence software company.

During the interview, Liddell gave a “no comment” response when asked whether Microsoft would snap up Cognos, one of the last remaining independent business intelligence players. As it turns out, Microsoft didn’t. But that didn’t really matter, because IBM duly obliged.

While all those deals from the second half of 2007 were not in the same league as Microsoft’s recent $45bn courting of Yahoo, they were substantial nonetheless. Business Objects went for almost $7bn, Cognos for almost $5bn and Hyperion $3.3bn. As a result, the big four software vendors ­ Oracle, SAP, IBM and Microsoft ­ now boast a huge proportion of the business intelligence market.

“Mega-vendors are beginning to dominate the business information market,” explains Gartner analyst James Richardson. “In less than one year, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and IBM will have gone from accounting for one-quarter of the market to owning more than two-thirds of it.”

Muscling in
So how has this seismic shift in the enterprise software market affected life for finance directors? In the short term, at least, probably not a great deal. But, in the long term, Oracle sees the Hyperion acquisition as a real opportunity to muscle in on its fierce competitor, SAP.

“Hyperion is the latest move in our strategy to expand Oracle’s offerings to SAP customers,” Oracle’s president Charles Phillips said at the time of the acquisition. “Thousands of SAP customers rely on Hyperion as their financial consolidation, analysis and reporting system. Oracle already has PeopleSoft HR, Siebel CRM, G-Log, Demantra, i-flex, Oracle Retail and Oracle Fusion Middleware installed at SAP’s largest enterprise research planning customers. Now Oracle’s Hyperion software will be the lens through which SAP’s most important customers view and analyse their underlying SAP ERP data.”

The statement was one of intent: Oracle, and in particular its aggressive chief executive Larry Ellison, has the German software company firmly in its sights.

Stifling innovation
Following IBM’s acquisition of Cognos in November 2007, the spate of consolidation quietened down. And for good reason: there were not many BI businesses left to buy and not many buyers to pick them up. The choice runs to Microsoft, Oracle, SAP or IBM. One of the biggest concerns about this is that innovation may well suffer as a result. Corporates that are now locked into buying software previously bought from relatively small, nimble providers, suddenly find themselves buying from companies with market caps that rival many east European countries, with extremely powerful shareholders to boot.

A rare exception is the SAS Institute – ­ one of the largest independent enterprise software companies in the world. SAS enjoys annual revenues in the region of $2bn and is still a wholly-owned private company. As a result, the founders are able to run the company exactly as they see fit, without pressure from institutional shareholders. Consequently, the company dedicates up to one-quarter of its revenues to research and development ­ – a figure well above the industry average and the reason many industry commentators offer for its success.

Spending one-quarter of revenues on product development is unlikely to be the type of approach that the SAPs, Oracles, Microsofts and IBMs of this world take to their recently acquired technologies. Integration overheads and a focus on getting the best out of corporate synergies are likely to be their first co ncern.

And these are also likely to impact on how reactive they are to customer requests for improved features, performance and support of their products. In spite of this, Gartner believes the BI sector will still go from strength to strength, reaching compound annual growth rates of 8.6% until 2011.

Last autumn, Financial Director interviewed Chris Liddell, CFO of Microsoft, during a particularly frenzied period of industry consolidation. The news at the time was that German software giant SAP had just agreed to buy Business Objects, a business intelligence (BI) software company. That news came hot on the heels of Oracle’s agreed purchase of Hyperion, another business intelligence software company.

During the interview, Liddell gave a “no comment” response when asked whether Microsoft would snap up Cognos, one of the last remaining independent business intelligence players. As it turns out, Microsoft didn’t. But that didn’t really matter, because IBM duly obliged.

While all those deals from the second half of 2007 were not in the same league as Microsoft’s recent $45bn courting of Yahoo, they were substantial nonetheless. Business Objects went for almost $7bn, Cognos for almost $5bn and Hyperion $3.3bn. As a result, the big four software vendors ­ Oracle, SAP, IBM and Microsoft ­ now boast a huge proportion of the business intelligence market.

“Mega-vendors are beginning to dominate the business information market,” explains Gartner analyst James Richardson. “In less than one year, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and IBM will have gone from accounting for one-quarter of the market to owning more than two-thirds of it.”

Muscling in
So how has this seismic shift in the enterprise software market affected life for finance directors? In the short term, at least, probably not a great deal. But, in the long term, Oracle sees the Hyperion acquisition as a real opportunity to muscle in on its fierce competitor, SAP.

“Hyperion is the latest move in our strategy to expand Oracle’s offerings to SAP customers,” Oracle’s president Charles Phillips said at the time of the acquisition. “Thousands of SAP customers rely on Hyperion as their financial consolidation, analysis and reporting system. Oracle already has PeopleSoft HR, Siebel CRM, G-Log, Demantra, i-flex, Oracle Retail and Oracle Fusion Middleware installed at SAP’s largest enterprise research planning customers. Now Oracle’s Hyperion software will be the lens through which SAP’s most important customers view and analyse their underlying SAP ERP data.”

The statement was one of intent: Oracle, and in particular its aggressive chief executive Larry Ellison, has the German software company firmly in its sights.

Stifling innovation
Following IBM’s acquisition of Cognos in November 2007, the spate of consolidation quietened down. And for good reason: there were not many BI businesses left to buy and not many buyers to pick them up. The choice runs to Microsoft, Oracle, SAP or IBM. One of the biggest concerns about this is that innovation may well suffer as a result. Corporates that are now locked into buying software previously bought from relatively small, nimble providers, suddenly find themselves buying from companies with market caps that rival many east European countries, with extremely powerful shareholders to boot.

A rare exception is the SAS Institute – ­ one of the largest independent enterprise software companies in the world. SAS enjoys annual revenues in the region of $2bn and is still a wholly-owned private company. As a result, the founders are able to run the company exactly as they see fit, without pressure from institutional shareholders. Consequently, the company dedicates up to one-quarter of its revenues to research and development ­ – a figure well above the industry average and the reason many industry commentators offer for its success.

Spending one-quarter of revenues on product development is unlikely to be the type of approach that the SAPs, Oracles, Microsofts and IBMs of this world take to their recently acquired technologies. Integration overheads and a focus on getting the best out of corporate synergies are likely to be their first co ncern.

And these are also likely to impact on how reactive they are to customer requests for improved features, performance and support of their products. In spite of this, Gartner believes the BI sector will still go from strength to strength, reaching compound annual growth rates of 8.6% until 2011.

Download a full copy of Decisions: The Intelligent Organisation

PDC: Windows Azure Goes Live

As expected, Microsoft rolled out its cloud computing vision during the opening keynote of PDC 2008 this morning, and I have to say, there were surprisingly few, um, surprises.

Don't get me wrong -- the services-based cloud operating system known formerly as "Project Red Dog" isn't a small deal. Far from it, the ultimate scope of Windows Azure should dwarf that of Microsoft's latest client OS launch in Vista. This is a play for the entire Web, from hosted enterprise applications and services to hobbyist stuff running over the wire.

Azure is Microsoft's ground-up, services-based foundation for cloud-based applications and infrastructures. As Kathleen Richards reports for Redmond Developer News, Azure provides an abstracted environment for deploying and managing highly scalable and available cloud-based applications.

Azure represents a sea change for Microsoft, a company that has famously struggled to come to terms with the very concept of services-based computing. Remember when Microsoft wouldn't even say the term SOA?

That era is over. Big time. Services will be a strategic focus in Redmond for the foreseeable future. From Windows to .NET Framework to SQL Server, SharePoint and Dynamics CRM, every corner of Microsoft's enterprise portfolio is going service-based. Microsoft even discussed an upcoming portal for Microsoft's System Center product, called "Atlanta," that leverages Azure to provide analysis and presentation of the status of on-premise infrastructure.

Despite all that, it was notable how closely Microsoft stayed to its tried and proven playbook.

Windows brand and platform leverage? Check. From the Azure name to the integration of the Hyper-V hypervisor virtualization, Microsoft went to great lengths to deeply brand Windows into this cloud platform.

Visual Studio and .NET integration? Check. Amitabh Srivastava's "Hello PDC" demo showed how Azure cloud-based applications could be written using the familiar ASP.NET in Visual Studio. Throughout the presentation, attendees were pitched on the benefits of familiar tooling and languages.

XML foundations? Check. Cloud models are built in XML, which enables all sorts of extensibility scenarios.

Questionable support for non-preferred Microsoft technologies? Oh, yes -- check. Support in Azure for unmanaged native code, Amitabh let slip late, will come later. There's certainly an openness and interoperability message, but it's hardly surprising that the early work will be happening inside the Microsoft toolshed.

While the direction Microsoft took here may not be a surprise, it's clear that the company is taking the long bet. PDC 2008 may be remembered as the pivot point, when Microsoft moved past the tension that's been building between shrink wrap and services. The bet is on. The infrastructure is being deployed and the tools are being mobilized.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Majestic Consulting Group, Inc. announces a new program that enables clients to be more strategic in implementing their CRM system.

Majestic Consulting Group, Inc. (MCG) announces a program called, “CRM, Your Way”. Most people researching the right fit for CRM software often ended up with something that isn’t a business solution for their business. They bought into marketing, a flashy demonstration and ran into “yes” software salespeople. The program “CRM, Your Way” is designed to focus on the top 5-7 key requirements that will make the greatest positive business impact in the first 30-60 days going live. Often companies do not develop a business case to understand the appropriate investment required and either do nothing , or do too much in phase one that causes a decrease in productivity and hinders user adoption.

The MCG consulting staff works with clients to strategically plan their CRM implementation so it meets phase one goals. At the same time, the bigger picture is kept in mind as more of the front-line operations are automated and software applications are consolidated. Our staff uses MCG developed strategic worksheets to document work flow and key output required to make timely management decisions. This strategic planning exercise helps our clients get CRM, their way, not the way CRM wants you to use their product.

There are several products out there that have great marketing behind it. Ultimately, the client must understand the total investment over three (3) years and the ramp up process. MCG’s program allows for software selection and an investment that can be tailored to almost any budget. By keeping the phase one requirements simple, most companies can be online in less than 30-60 days. From that point, the best practice is to gradually add functionality every 30-60 days once you go live. Eventually, you will have a robust system that has been developed and deployed “Your Way”.

For details of this program, contact a Majestic Consulting Group, Inc. Senior Consultant.

About Majestic Consulting Group (MCG)
MCG s(majestictechnology.com) trives to make your business more productive and profitable through the application of CRM technology. Your sales teams and customer service departments need “state-of-the-art” sales automation tools to be more productive.

Our business and technology consultants analyze your business needs and design a strategic plan that will yield optimal results for your company. Now your team increases revenue by turning high-quality prospects into viable sales opportunities to help perpetuate and accelerate your business growth.

MCG represents Sage SalesLogix and Microsoft Dynamics CRM software products.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

PowerObjects Expands its Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customer-base

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct 22, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- PowerObjects, a leading provider of Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions, today announced that it added four new CRM projects this month. The new customers are within the not-for-profit, financial services, technology, and education/training industries and include developing and implementing CRM solutions for:

  • Minnesota Workers' Compensation Insurers Association, Inc.
  • BPS Capital Management, Inc.
  • Wand Corporation
  • Winsor Learning
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a customer relationship management solution that provides the tools and capabilities needed to create and easily maintain a clear picture of customers, from first contact through to purchase and post-sales. With modules for sales, marketing, and customer service, Microsoft Dynamics CRM delivers a fast, flexible, and affordable solution that drives consistent, measurable improvements in every business process, enabling closer relationships with customers and helping to achieve new levels of profitability.
PowerObjects continues to increase its customer base by providing a variety of Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions for both enterprise level organizations as well as new company start-ups. PowerObject's core focus is Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the company can handle everything from basic (or standard) implementations, to creating a complex line of business applications ( xRM ).
"We are extremely excited about the continued growth and the opportunity to work with some great companies. Our CRM expertise coupled with a best-in-class CRM software solution such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, allows our clients to optimize business processes, build profitable relationships, and grow their businesses like never before," said Jim Sheehan, COO of PowerObjects.
About PowerObjects
Established in 1993, PowerObjects is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that specializes in customer relationship management solutions. The company is focused on extending the technology of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to fit the needs of the customer. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, PowerObjects provides services to businesses and non-profit organizations in multiple industries including insurance, financial services, publishing, distribution, manufacturing and professional services. For more information, visit http://www.powerobjects.com.
SOURCE PowerObjects

http://www.powerobjects.com

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Oracle Executive CRM Summit: Opening up the conversation

By Stuart Lauchlan, news and analysis editor

Oracle president Charles Phillips kicked off the two-day Oracle Summit on the social networking evolution of the customer management market with some product sabre rattling. But he also had some interesting insights into the opportunities presented by Web 2.0 in these 'uncertain times'.

The elegant Hotel Lutetia in Paris was once home to senior Gestapo officers during the occupation in World War II. But the guests checking in this week were of a far less sinister nature, in the form of business executives from all around Europe who gathered for a two-day Oracle summit on the social networking evolution of the customer management market.

While CRM and the future development of the market was to be the central theme of the summit, it kicked off with a setting out of the Oracle stall from Oracle president Charles Phillips. This was partly preaching to the converted – the attendees were existing Oracle customers – but the company has expanded so rapidly through acquisitions that such scene setting is now practically de rigeur in order to keep up with the latest additions to the portfolio.

“We are certainly the largest enterprise software company overall,” said Phillips. “We have three basic businesses – databases, middleware and applications. We've grown a lot. We have over 3,000 products. We are not the same company we were when we only had a database. We continue to grow in that market. We now have more market share than IBM and Microsoft combined according to Gartner. We are now number one in middleware following the BEA takeover. The third business is applications. We continue to expand here, not just in back office. We go well beyond ERP. If you think about applications from enterprise vendors you think about ERP and CRM. But we also have line of business applications that drive revenue. That brings us closer to customers.”

More is less, argued Phillips, telling the audience that the more Oracle software that they use, the more benefit they will realise. “You start to reduce complexity. You can remove duplication. You don't want each application to have its own security, for example, there should be one central security point,” he said. “To have all these things designed by different companies, makes a lot of work for you or have you hire a bunch of consultants. We do that for you. The more Oracle products you use the more you share infrastructure, the more one plus one makes three.”

Phillips also pledged that Oracle would remain emphatically enterprise-focused. “We're not going to get distracted and go off to chase the consumer market or go after internet companies or sell X-Boxes,” he said. “All our acquisitions have been in the enterprise space. We are going to stay focused. We will spend $3 billion in development this year, regardless of any acquisitions. Acquisitions are a way to supplement innovation. If there is something interesting or innovative in another company in the enterprise space, we probably know about it. Companies come to tell us about it because they want to be bought by Oracle.”

The changing nature of customer engagement

With the software stack lined up, Phillips moved on to discuss the changing nature of customer engagement and management. “These are uncertain times and in uncertain times you need to have more certain opportunities,” he said. “The timing of this conference is perfect. It's the perfect time to be closer to your customers and to have more complete, accurate and timely information about your customers. It's a great time to understand them more and get an edge over your competition.”

These new imperatives map onto Oracle's software stack, he added. “Everything we do builds on something we've done in the past,” he said. “You need to collect information on customers in a more efficient way. You need to analyse the information better. Thirdly, customers are interacting in a different way. They are going to have conversations. You can ignore that or you can take advantage of the growing network of customers who are having conversations about you.

“You need a multichannel architecture that pulls in information from multiple sources. We can give you a single view of the customer. In the past we had fragmented customer information across channels. The data in CRM 2.0 is much richer. People spend more time online and are willing to give you more data than before. The trick is what you do with that data and how you analyse it.

“Within Oracle, I have a dashboard where I can see things like the global pipeline. That's just the metrics. But what kind of things do you need to analyse. If you collect enough customer data, you can see trends. We can get to some sophisticated analytics. If you tell me the product, the size of the deal and your industry, I can tell you the sequence of events that lead up to a transaction. We have an analytics group that looks at this information on a constant basis.

"Once we know who the customer is, we can look at past purchasing. We can look at who you are and what you have installed and we can predict what you'll buy next within four products. We have that level of sophistication now that we didn't have five years ago. We know the customers. We won't waste money trying to get you to look at things you don't want to buy. We can be more productive and get more out of what you are spending. You give customers information that they care about.

“Then you want to take advantage of new channels. Customers want to engage with customers. They want to participate in the conversation. There are consumer networks. Productivity networks in business to business, such as the Oracle Technology Network. Then there are customer networks where people talk about experience of our products. Is it all good? No, but I want to know if there are things in there that I don't like. Our willingness to engage and respond brings us closer to customers. Last month we took down a website and asked them to enter their idea for Oracle. It was an overwhelming success. If you didn't want to do it, you could skip to the regular website. It demonstrated that in all communication forms, customers want to participate, they don't want one way communications.”

Friday, October 17, 2008

How Fast Can You Get SaaS CRM Up and Running?

How long does it take to implement a SaaS (Software as a Service) CRM suite?

In one sense, the answer is days, if not hours. One of the great advantages of SaaS (also referred to as "hosted") CRM solutions is that they're ready to go with most of the work done for you.

"Theoretically, you're up and running instantly," said Martin Schneider, director of product marketing at SugarCRM Inc., which offers both hosted and stand-alone CRM suites.

A hosted CRM solution generally takes less time to get up and running than an on-premise CRM suite because so much of the work is done by the hosting company. The customer doesn't have to purchase or configure servers, and the CRM vendor handles difficult decisions or lets clients stipulate preferences by simply clicking a check box. "We can even load the data for you," said Schneider.

In another sense, however, a CRM SaaS rollout can take weeks or months. Like on-premise suites, hosted solutions deal with perhaps a third of CRM implementation. The other steps, such as defining your business processes and getting your staff behind CRM, take about the same amount of time for a hosted or on-premise solution.
Planning a Successful CRM Implementation

Most of the work involved in setting up a CRM system doesn't involve technology at all. If you scan the checklists for implementing CRM you'll see that technology is not a major component of the rollout.

First, you must carefully define your business processes so that your system — both the hardware and the people — can follow them. This should begin well before you install your hardware, and is inherently time-consuming because it is usually an iterative process. That is, you create a diagram of how you think the business processes work, share it with the people doing the work, discover processes that don't work the way you thought they did and revise your business-process design. You will have to repeat this until you have it right, regardless of whether you're implementing a hosted or on-premise solution.

Both SaaS and on-premise CRM suites often provide utilities that help with business-process design. But their usefulness is limited. While they can help you keep processes straight and minimize the chances of forgetting important components, they don't measurably shorten the time it takes to finish the project.

Another time-consuming step in CRM implementation is selling the solution to your employees, especially your sales force and CSRs (customer service representatives). Getting staff buy in should start almost as soon as you make the decision to deploy CRM, and certainly well in advance of choosing the software.

According to SugarCRM's Schneider, getting buy in is easier now that today's sales forces are much more computer savvy. "We've benefited from two things," Schneider said. "Computers are more familiar and SaaS products look more like products, like GMail and Yahoo!, [that] they use every day." This familiarity helps staff learn the CRM system quickly and easily.

After addressing these issues, you can start rolling out your CRM software. This is where hosted CRM saves an enormous amount of time. "With SaaS they're up and running in a matter of weeks, rather than tinkering with an X-series server for weeks before they ever load the software," said Schneider.

In contrast, an on-premise CRM system requires setting up the underlying hardware — getting it installed, purchasing licenses for supporting system software like operating systems and communications technology and tuning everything for best performance — which demands a lot of time and effort from your IT staff. Then there is the job of configuring the CRM system itself. Starting from scratch with a stand-alone system usually requires a good deal of effort and expertise. This is another major time sink for getting your CRM system up and contributing to your company's bottom line.
The Trade-Offs

Schneider noted that SaaS CRM won't work for every business. Some companies have needs that are so specialized or so elaborate that a hosted CRM solution can't adequately meet them. An organization needs to determine whether the hosted approach can address its individual demands before choosing a solution.

By nature, hosted CRM suites trade off complexity for ease of implementation and, to a certain extent, ease of use. One of the reasons rolling out a hosted solution is so fast is that the vendor has made a lot of the basic choices for you. As Schneider pointed out, the usual take on a hosted CRM solution is "you can't really customize it, you can only configure it."

For many companies, this may not matter much. "If you can make the system work the way you want to with drop-down boxes, a lot of development time goes out the window," Schneider said.
Looking Down the Road

But hosted CRM's limitations could create problems as your business grows and its needs increase. "Now I want to integrate my CRM system with my back end, I want to add project management, or maybe I need tight integration with an Oracle database, or to heavily customize the system," Schneider said. "You may be stuck there."

In that case, your choices may come down to getting another CRM solution or building a suite that can handle your expanded needs. That's expensive, and yes, time consuming.

The lesson, said Schneider, is "SaaS can not only save you time, but it can waste you time."

In short, the hosted approach has some major advantages when it comes to implementing CRM. There are also some drawbacks and caveats. Before you commit to an approach, much less a vendor, you need to carefully consider the positives and negatives.

Source:insidecrm.com

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Microsoft prepares for announcement of new Cloud operating system

Microsoft is less than a month away from introducing an Internet-based operating system, CEO Steve Ballmer told a recent conference of software developers in London.

"We'll need a new operating system," Ballmer said. "Just as we have an operating system for the PC, for the phone and for the server, we need a new operating system that runs in the Internet."

Ballmer did not know exactly how the product would be branded, but said it would be called "Windows something". For the time being, he continued, "I'll call it Windows Cloud. And Windows Cloud will be a place where you can run arbitrary applications up in the Internet that runs .NET."

The variety of Internet development tools makes it difficult for people to write Cloud applications, so Microsoft plans to extend its technology stack so programmers could apply their existing programming skills. A new Internet-friendly version of SQL Server is also on the cards, where it will join online implementations of Exchange and SharePoint, he said.

Ballmer acknowledged that Windows Cloud was a response to the rise of Google as a potential platform for business applications.

"I think we offer much, much, much, much stronger functionality, we offer much stronger control to the CIO, and we offer an equivalently good economic value. I think they have a long way to go. Frankly, I don't even think they're today our strongest competitor," he said.

A fuller version of this report is available on our sister site MyCustomer.com, where John Paterson, CEO of online CRM software provider ReallySimpleSystems commented that his money was on Microsoft.

"As every car/software sales director knows, given an average product and great sales & marketing versus better product and not-so-good sales and marketing, the average product will win," he explained. "Google is a technology machine, Microsoft is that and a sales and marketing machine to boot. Microsoft understands how to treat customers and has a channel. Google doesn't and doesn't seem to want to."

As perceptions change and people start to think of Google as just another arrogant IT company, what we'll end up with is a traditional vendor fist fight. "Steve Ballmer is a bright guy, and Microsoft hasn't lost many straight fights," wrote Paterson.

Source:accountingweb.com

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Wrigleyville Sports Picks NetSuite, Quadruples Sales

Wrigleyville Sports, a retailer of Chicago Cubs baseball merchandise and collectibles, recently announced that it has implemented NetSuite’s on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) solution. NetSuite's e-commerce engine is helping the retailer keep up with high-volume sales demands. Thanks to this enterprise resource planning (ERP) and CRM solution, the company is saving thousands of dollars in labor and IT costs.

Wrigleyville Sports said its businesses has quadrupled in the past two years. This growth, the company said, was due in large part of use of NetSuite’s solution, which integrates e-commerce capabilities — like automated order processing, inventory management and integrated united parcel service (UPS) shipping — into a unified system.

NetSuite is a Web-based business application suite that supports an organization with services ranging from CRM to ERP to Web capabilities. It is a single integrated solution that enables organizations to make better, faster decisions through real-time business intelligence.

Prior to adopting NetSuite, Wrigleyville Sports expanded its facilities to include a warehouse, a satellite department store location in Chicago's downtown, and a Pittsburgh branch catering to fans of both the Pirates and the Steelers. This expansion resulted in unsustainable pressure on its existing business software. All the company’s orders had to be billed manually and there was no integration with its shipping carriers. For this purpose the company had to appoint five people just to handle billing and shipping processes all day, in order to keep up with the huge order volume.

Last year, Wrigleyville Sports switched to NetSuite from Microsoft Great Plains and Sage’s ACCPAC ERP system. Now, the company runs its core business operations on NetSuite. This solution handles ERP/accounting, CRM, e-commerce, inventory management and order processing,. It’s integrated with OnSite for point-of-sale functionality.

The NetSuite solution also provides easily customized templates for the company’s Web store, thereby helping the retail company avoid the expense of hiring full-time IT professionals to design and maintain the Web site. NetSuite’s software also fulfills the need of enterprise-like functionality, required to run the company’s fast-growing operations.

Wrigleyville is now able to better target its marketing efforts with instant, real-time campaign tracking.

“Thirty seconds after I send the campaign the orders start, and I can see if they bought what we promoted in the campaign, or chose to click through and buy something else,” said Trey Carlstrom, co-owner of Wrigleyville Sports, in a statement.

According to Wrigleyville, its shipping process has also become more cost-effective with the adoption of NetSuite and it can now prepare items for shipment from all of the company's warehouse and store locations, both in Chicago and in Pittsburgh.

Wrigleyville Sports has plans to implement NetSuite's SuiteTalk Web services integration as well to sell its products via eBay, Amazon, and other marketplaces, without introducing additional IT operating cost or workforce in the future.

Carlstrom added: “Order processing now is as simple as the click of a button. And we're saving tens of thousands of dollars in saved salaries in the process.”

Source:tmcnet.com

Microsoft expands its Business Network

Microsoft announced a herd of updates to its business applications and services on Monday, marking the beginning of its Convergence 2004 conference for business customers.

The updates include new functions for the Microsoft Business Network, which is a subscription-based software hosting service that Microsoft released last year to help companies exchange shipping lists, inventory updates and other data.

The company said the network can now process documents based on the electronic data interchange (EDI) standard, a widely used precursor to XML (Extensible Markup Language) for describing the contents of business documents.

Microsoft said in a statement that, working with software partner Inovis, it developed a system to translate EDI documents into the XML dialect used by Microsoft Business Network. "Together with Microsoft Business Solutions, we are committed to helping small and midsized businesses meet the needs of their trading partners, regardless of existing technology or communications infrastructure," Inovis chief executive Ilaria Derr said in a statement.

Other announcements from Convergence 2004, which runs until Wednesday in Orlando, Florida, include an update to Microsoft CRM, the software giant's customer relationship management application, to allow mobile access to sales data. Planned for release this summer, the update will allow customers running the Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook Extension to synchronise data with handheld computers running Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system.

In addition, the company announced an update to its Great Plains accounting software. Version 8.0 of Great Plains, set for release in July, will include a revamped interface that mimics Microsoft Office, the company's market-leading productivity package, and new links to Office applications.

Microsoft also is planning an update of its Navision enterprise resource planning software. Navision 4.0, set for release in October, will include enhancements intended to make it easier and quicker for businesses to implement customised versions of the product.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Can Microsoft deliver on CRM?

Published: 10 February 2004

Microsoft will have an impact on the customer relationship management market. But how important will its role be? Simon Marshall finds some answers.

Microsoft’s newly discovered desire to become the CRM software supplier of choice for SMEs has, let’s face it, been greeted with more than a hint of scepticism.

OK, so Microsoft practically owns the desktop OS, word processing and email markets but that doesn’t mean it’s any good at CRM applications, right? Well, guess what. Even though it’s undoubtedly still finding its feet, Microsoft is soon going to be one of the biggest CRM players there is.

“We think Microsoft will become a very important player in the CRM market,” says Jim Davies, research analyst at Gartner. “We estimate it will be one of the top five providers within the next two years.”

The opportunity for Microsoft in the relatively untapped SME market speaks for itself. The Redmond software giant has about 30,000 existing Great Plains customers and about the same number of firms using Navision, yet around 80 per cent of these companies don’t have a full CRM solution, providing a great cross-sell opportunity. The biggest problem for Microsoft is in taking advantage of it.

“Microsoft has got to demonstrate that it has mid-market reach and service delivery capabilities,” says Nick Hewson, managing director of CRM consultancy Hewson Consulting. “Its biggest challenge is to deliver this channel, otherwise it’s going to go nowhere, because it only has partners in the technical sense, not the business sense.”

Microsoft is aware that its channel strategy needs to mature further. Because it plans to give SMEs access through their usual Office software supplier, it has taken steps to complement its channel’s knowledge of technical concerns with business CRM issues.

“We’ve been working with hundreds of resellers who are interested, keen and are taking their Microsoft CRM exams,” says Michala Alexander, Microsoft’s CRM product manager. She plans a three-pronged approach to market, pulling in existing Microsoft-based computer, business solutions and infrastructure resellers.

In fact, it’s in the infrastructure department that Microsoft’s CRM plans have been seen as yet another way to lock-in cash-strapped SMEs. Alexander admits that its CRM will only work on a Microsoft infrastructure but says there are ways to maximise the investment for those that don’t already have it.

“It will work on our Small Business Server 2003, which is a lot cheaper than pulling-in a full Microsoft infrastructure,” she advocates, explaining that partnerships with Avaya and Genesys, for example, could offer further choice in functionality.

Nevertheless SMEs, without the appropriate infrastructure, are going to be forced to buy it if they would like the familiarity of Microsoft software in their CRM operation. This could involve purchasing Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory Servers, as well as some Service Packs, to plug possible gaps.

“Most SMEs are already using a Microsoft infrastructure but not all of them will be aware of the heavy [investment] requirements for CRM,” says Gartner’s Davies.

The alternative is to adopt the hosted CRM model, which could minimise this potential outlay. During January, Aspective became the first UK ASP to offer Microsoft CRM under its SmartCRM service. Others will follow. Microsoft sees the hosted model as an opportunity for SMEs to ‘try-before-they-buy', and expects an increase in its popularity. It has been implementing its CRM solution in the US for some months and so experience gained there could help European firms that wish to keep it in-house.

But SMEs will question whether this first version of the software is fundamentally worth their money, however it is being supplied.

“Reports from end users indicate that it might be a little unstable,” says Davies. “[Also] marketing automation, field sales and customer self-service capabilities are missing.”

This means potential buyers will have to be satisfied with basic contact management until version two rectifies this later this year with a possible November release date.

“What it’s got is quite good but it just does not cut it as a marketing or contact centre solution – it’s not terribly functional as it stands,” agrees Nick Hewson. However, along with expected improvements in version two, he does see third party software developers improving this picture over the next two to three years. For example, Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Axonom has already developed a marketing module for the platform. This sort of input from developers could also help tailor what is currently a very horizontal-looking solution to specific vertical segments.

“Microsoft also has a lot of back-end capability through its Great Plains software,” adds Hewson. “So it needs to develop a front-to-back solution, because a lot of SMEs will want to go one-stop-shopping when they buy.”

Indeed, Microsoft already has plans on the drawing board to cater for this trend through its so-called ‘Project Green’ announced last autumn, which intends to add solutions such as ERP into its .Net web services framework. The idea is that businesses can then simply pull whatever modules they want into their system. But, again, users will have to wait because Project Green is linked with the expected Longhorn Windows upgrade slated for 2005.

One thing’s for sure: Microsoft will focus on the fledgling SME market and has no plans to raid the high-end corporate market with its CRM solution, other than to meet specific departmental demands. It reckons that only around 10 per cent of the SME market has a CRM solution, compared with most corporates, making it an immature opportunity and a potential battlefield. Recently, SAP acquired TopManage, and PeopleSoft bought JD Edwards in order to strengthen their credentials.

Competition from Microsoft could feasibly be so stiff that other providers are obliged to carve out their own niche, possibly in specific verticals or with J2EE solutions, for example. However, in the short-term, Microsoft’s market entry seems to be good news for everyone, offering choice to the SME and a boost to the market for its competitors as its marketing dollars stimulate the whole sector.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Shelko Consulting LLC Selected as Microsoft Dynamics GP

Microsoft Dynamics GP is one of the premier accounting software solutions available on the market today. The newest version, 10.0, has a multitude of new features and upgrades from the last edition. There are also two editions you can choose from, which include Business Essentials and Advanced Management.

A comprehensive software, Microsoft Dynamics GP is organized in a series, which includes Financial, Sales, Purchasing, Inventory, Project, Payroll and Manufacturing.

“When it comes to new software, Microsoft is truly an industry innovator,” said Aric Shelko, president of Shelko Consulting, LLC. “By providing support and training for Dynamics GP, our clients are reassured that we are offering help for the latest and greatest in customer relationship software. Shelko has yet another option when clients need to resolve an issue.”

For support and training information on this innovative software, please contact us at your earliest convenience.

About Shelko Consulting LLC
Shelko Consulting, LLC is a single source for business software expertise, offering software solutions, needs analysis, implementation, custom reports and training and support services to clients throughout the United States. Shelko Consulting, LLC has more than 15 years of experience in customizing and implementing accounting software and CRM software systems for companies in need of business optimization. Additional information is available at http://accounting-erp-software.shelko.com/microsoft-dynamics-gp/. Or, you can e-mail us or call toll-free at (800) 638-5213.

Web Site: http://accounting-erp-software.shelko.com/microsoft-dynamics-gp/

Contact Details: Shelko COnsulting LLC
214 State Street
Suite 104
Hackensack, NJ 07601
201-478-7170
isales @ Shelko.com
http://www.shelko.com/

Friday, October 3, 2008

NetSuite advantage for wholesale/distribution companies

NetSuite Inc announced some of the latest companies from the wholesale / distribution industry to switch from Microsoft Great Plains to NetSuite to take advantage of NetSuite's unique integration of enterprise resource planning (ERP) / accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), and Ecommerce capabilities in a single on-demand application.

These customers, which include Telebyte, J. Frank Golden & Associates, Total Beverage Solution, and Camcal Inc, also cited advanced functionality and ease of use as the other compelling reasons for moving to NetSuite from Great Plains' antiquated architecture and cost model.

On-premise software applications like Microsoft Great Plains were once very popular within mid-sized companies but are rapidly falling out of favor due to a number of deficiencies. Most do not allow business data to move easily across departments, resulting in a lack of real-time visibility across key metrics needed to optimize business operations.

In addition, wholesale / distribution companies that deploy best-of-breed applications like Microsoft Great Plains are forced to manage their business on separate on-premise software packages - one for accounting, one for inventory and warehousing, one for sales force management and one for Ecommerce - an approach that requires costly integration to get them to work together.

The cost of implementation, integration and on-going application maintenance in such environments can be many times the cost of the software itself. In addition, tying together disparate systems typically does not provide the integrated real-time visibility across business metrics that is essential to managing growth in a dynamic business environment.

In contrast to Microsoft Great Plains, NetSuite is designed to help solve the challenge of bringing together these different systems because it is a single system for ERP, CRM, inventory, and Ecommerce operations. As a result, wholesale / distribution businesses benefit from 360-degree, real-time visibility into their customers' purchase, payment, shipping and service history.

In addition, NetSuite is delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS), so not only is the cost of integrating disparate systems eliminated, but also the on-going cost of maintaining on-premise applications.

Thanks to NetSuite's SaaS delivery, wholesale / distribution businesses gain the added benefit of anytime, anywhere access, which allows them greater flexibility in expanding their business to multiple locations without the cost of installing on-premise applications, such as Microsoft Great Plains, in those multiple locations. This anytime, anywhere access is particularly useful to companies in the wholesale / distribution industries since they typically have distributed workforces.

NetSuite Inc

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Oasis CRM Intros Microsoft Great Plains Interface

Business management solution, Microsoft Dynamics GP, formerly known as Microsoft Great Plains, provides, a cost-effective solution for managing and integrating finances, e-commerce, supply chain, manufacturing, project accounting, field service, customer relationships and human resources.

The interface to GP is expected to include integrated customer, vendor, inventory, and order management integration. According to the company, these features with be interfaced with Oasis CRM's integration engine InfoLink.

Oasis CRM for Microsoft GP will leverage the existing accounting investment. It incorporates Sales Force and Customer Service Automation with comprehensive inventory control features. The Oasis CRM automates the entire customer life cycle and eliminates duplicate data entry for their clients.

Oasis CRM has been designed to eliminate bottlenecks and provide a structured system where information is entered once and flows automatically through the various stages of the company, including accounting. Oasis CRM includes all of the features designed to automate challenging business processes, touted as the “Total Business Solution.” This means that all of the integrated modules needed to automate business are included.

“Oasis CRM software was specifically designed for Microsoft Great Plains customers that are looking to improve efficiency and eliminate the bottlenecks of growth,” according to the company.

Tampa, Flor.-based KnowTia is a provider of Oasis CRM, which is its fourth solution for the small business market and is a QuickBooks Gold Certified Solution. Recently, the company announced that the Oasis CRM product line will now be enhanced with an enhanced interface to QuickBooks Pro, Premier & Enterprise Solutions.

New features include an enhanced integrated automated contract billing interface as well as detailed inventory and order management.

These features coupled with their already existent real-time integration with Intuit (News - Alert) QuickBooks, Sage BusinessVision & Microsoft Great Plains product lines, make Oasis CRM a standalone “Total Business Solution,” according to the company.

Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anshu's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Eve Sullivan

Source:tmcnet.com