
Why Cloud ERP? Cutesy Video
The cutesy video above was created by SAP, the first part talking about the benefits of Cloud ERP, the integrated approach in general, and while the last minute turns into a SAP Business ByDesign pitch, it could very well be viewed as overall industry promotion, applicable to archrival NetSuite, and to some extent Workday, and […]

SAP Assembles Cloud Powerhouse with Ariba, SuccesFactors Acquisitions
Emphasis on “assemble”, as opposed to develop. For years SAP and Oracle fought a religious war of acquire/assemble vs develop in-house. SAP’s view was (even under the current Co-CEOs) that you can only get to a coherent, seamlessly integrated suite by development. Apparently they have changed religion, borrowing a chapter or two from Larry Ellison’s […]

NetSuite Welcomes SAP as Customer, even while SAP Swaps it for ByD
NetSuite is no stranger to aggressive marketing, and SAP has clearly been their #1 target for a while starting from pranks like the SAP for the Rest of Us Party during SAPPHIRE 2006 to staging a shootout at the anti-SAP Conference or releasing edgy videos a’la Mac vs Windows and even launching a Business ByNetsuite […]

SAP and SuccessFactors Acquisition Q&A
This Saturday SAP announced its $3.4B acquisition of SuccessFactors and even though in the recent months they had dropped some hints they were looking to make an acquisition very few had SuccessFactors being the likely candidate. I would expect a lot more information and clarity to come out in the coming months but thought I […]

The (ERP) Shootout That Isn’t.
<rant> We’ve often discussed SaaS Suites, ERP, specific vendors like SAP and Netsuite, so seeing this tweet by SAP a good month ago of course piqued my curiosity: @SAPByDesign RT @VendorShootout: Business #ByDesign: The Most Complete,Adaptable OnDemand Business Solution http://spr.ly/6019RH4S #erp <-reg 2 download Wow. It looks like SAP’s SaaS offering, Business ByDesign won some […]

Why Workday is a Major Threat to SAP
If you asked a majority of people who will be SAP’s biggest competitor in the coming years my guess is the names Oracle and Salesforce would be the two most commonly mentioned. If I had to place a bet I would say the right answer is Workday for a number of reasons which I will outline below.

Dreamforce Musings: Why the Real Cloud Has Gained Momentum
I had the rare and great opportunity to attend the opening two days of Dreamforce last week. Rare, because I can’t remember the last user conference I went to as an attendee rather than a speaker (turns out it’s a lot less stressful to be in the audience ☺). And great, because it truly was […]

Key success factor for SaaS suites: functional parity
As we all know, software-as-a-service (SaaS) has been one of the bright spots in the enterprise systems marketplace these days. The advantages are becoming more widely recognized: lower total cost, faster time-to-benefit, little to no capital expenditure, and less pain in system upgrades.
In fact, in some segments of the enterprise market, SaaS is already where most of the action is…

Vindicated by SaaS
<Shameless chest-thumping below. You’ve been warned.> In 2008 I said: I am a strong believer that in 4-5 years most software developed will be SaaS, and that in 10 years it will be the predominant method of “consuming” software by large enterprises. Today IDC says (as cited by Joe McKendrick @ ZDNet): By 2012, IDC […]

SAP Business ByDesign Video – Plain and Simple, Making Fun of …Wow, ERP!
We’re just having an intense internal debate in the Enterprise Irregulars group whether SAP’s Business ByDesign (ByD) is late to the market and what it all means, when hot off the press here’s a promotional video, that’s not so much ByD advertising but a SMB / SME SaaS 101, and a very good one at […]

NetSuite, Manufacturing, Ecosystems and a Better Way to Compete
We’ve covered NetSuite substentially @ CloudAve – to the point that I’ve run into trouble with my title: I already used NetSuite vs SAP … Round #n. A Game Changer? so what should I call this one? NetSuitevs SAP Round #n+1? 🙂 All right, let’s get serious: NetSuite launched a Manufacturing Edition today. Dennis Howlett […]

Business ByDesign meet NetSuite, NetSuite meet Business ByDesign
I wanted to refrain a little while from commenting on SAP’s announcement of the long-awaited (and oft-maligned) Business ByDesign on-demand product (as an aside, is it just me who feels a little finny calling a SAP product SaaS?). Zoli has covered the launch previously, but I wanted to return and reflect on what it all means […]

NetSuite vs SAP … Round #n. A Game Changer?
In my recent Suites post I said there were exactly 1.5 (one and a half) integrated full business solutions (SaaS Suite, SaaS All-In-One, SaaS ERP, SaaS SMB ERP – take your pick or create a new one) offered as a service. The one in that equation was NetSuite, and the half is SAP’s Business ByDesign. […]

FUD in the House of SaaS – More on Suites
Recently I wrote about the evergreen Best-of-breed vs. Integrated All-in-One Suite debate again, arguing: Call me “old school”, but I also believe in the value of having one tightly integrated system for most business needs, and I believe it’s true not only for large corporations but much smaller businesses. I don’t have CIO’s to back […]
Edgy Marketing: Great Plains and SAP Guy vs. NetSuite Guy (Mac vs PC)
You’ve seen Great Plains and SAP, now in the Grand Finale they come together to match up against Mac .. I mean the NetSuite Guy: (Disclosure – Ben and I are attending NetSuite’s SuiteCloud conference and the company covers our expenses.)