There is a confluence of events happening right now that makes Q4 2015 one of the best times in recent history to (re)negotiate SAP deals, as the following market conditions are creating an environment that is placing significant downward pricing pressure on the German based enterprise software giant. Opportunistic market conditions: 1 - The Laggard Market Players Believe it or not, there are still first time SAP buyers, and this is a great time to enter the market. New ERP purchasers are among the most coveted buyers in the market right now. Relatively new cloud ERP offerings as well as strong competition between traditional software ...
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There is a perfect storm of sorts brewing for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) resulting from (i) increasing demands for new license revenue, (ii) aggressive competition from disruptive suppliers, and (iii) a significant migration away from software licensing to subscription cloud-based solutions. As a result, ISVs are scouring the market for revenue injections wherever they can find them. The mission today for the big market software players is less about innovation and ‘delighting the customer’, and more about protecting the revenue streams of their business, and nothing is more important to them than the golden goose egg of annual ...
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Windows 1.0 was launched over 25 years ago in 1985, and Microsoft introduced its first volume licensing program for enterprises in 1993. One would presume that in an age where technology is leveraged to increase productivity and eliminate inefficiencies, the world's largest software company would be leading the way in simplifying how their products are purchased and managed. Sadly as many of us know, that is not the case. Keeping up with the constant changes in your requirements, user demographics, and options, coupled with Microsoft's hundreds of products being sold in languages and countries all over the globe, contribute to an ever more ...
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Suspend your disbelief! You are likely significantly overpaying your current technology suppliers. In our history of helping our clients rationalize and renegotiate their legacy spend, we help clients punch above their weight and capture 20-30% savings on average. In helping our clients modernize their supply chain by sourcing technology deals for new spend, we help clients modernize their supply chain and average 30-40% savings. Combined, even with a roster of world class client brands who all thought they were pretty good at managing suppliers and buying new stuff, we have helped clients capture over $200 billion of incremental value, and ...
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Business Intelligence (“BI”) has been experiencing explosive growth over the last 15 years or so, and 2015 is perhaps the most exciting year on record. Many believe it is a tipping point year for BI. Below are the Top 5 trends we expect to see in 2015. #5) Mobility becomes table stakes. Getting the right information to the right people at the right time is what BI is all about, and mobility has been a key consideration of this goal. For years, mobile access via smartphones and tablets has been viewed by many clients as an advanced feature, but more and more, clients are making this a strong requirement in 2015. As the proliferation of mobile ...
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In our history of Client advocacy in thousands of professionally managed supplier engagements globally, we have seen virtually every Service Level Agreement (SLA) ever developed, constructed, negotiated, implemented, monitored, measured, reported on, or renegotiated. In that history, we can recall some that stood up well to the situations they were designed to protect. However, most SLAs don’t have the ability to change over time and almost none evolve to keep pace with the changing nature of the relationship between the Client and the supplier, or the changing environment. This is the fundamental premise on which we base most of our ...
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Oracle have you seeing RED, and concerned about spending too much GREEN? When it comes to draconian supplier policies, perhaps no one makes their customers see more RED than Oracle. Many times, seeing Oracle RED also costs you too much of your hard earned GREEN. We have documented over 40 major issues that routinely cost our clients too much GREEN when it comes to dealing with Oracle. Below, we discuss the Top 5 Ways Oracle Makes You See RED. The Top 5 Ways Oracle Makes You See RED and Costs You Too Much GREEN: 5. Bundling of Support 4. Re-Pricing Provision 3. Matching Support Policy 2. Binding of Legacy Maintenance 1. Oracle Audits 5: ...
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You've all heard that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is ‘retiring’ within the next 12 months. Many are now speculating on who will be the new CEO. Here is my short-list in order of probability: Bill Gates. Gates is still young, he's still the biggest shareholder of Microsoft, and much like when former Vice-President Dick Cheney led the VP search for former President George W. Bush, he may just find that there's no one better than him for the job. Tony Bates. Bates is the former CEO of Skype, an $8.5 billion acquisition for Microsoft, and has the consumer driven product experience to transform Microsoft into a commercialized mobile powerhouse ...
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Your strategic supplier's performance no longer meets your company's requirements. Your contractual agreements don't offer the levers you need to govern organizational value. The value of your supplier investments no longer align to the costs you are being charged. You've tried to escalate the situation and resolve these issues to no end; your supplier relationship is broken. Hey -- it happens. Worse yet, the new class of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and cloud computing suppliers have shifted the line of supplier accountability deeper into your supply chain, putting more at stake, and making it more difficult to effectively manage supplier ...
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The proliferation of Cloud Computing and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) providers, and the promise these technologies offer: (i) low-cost solutions, (ii) quick and easy deployments, (iii) high levels of user adoption, (iv) device and access and platform homogeneity, (v) elastic scalable capacity, (vi) subscription based pricing, and (vii) plug-and-play interoperability, has certainly led clients to unprecedented levels of adoption of these technologies. And while the “Promise of Cloud Largely Remains Unfulfilled,” this hasn't seemed to materially slow this pace of adoption. As a result, we think it’s important that our clients get this right. ...
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