Microsoft’s enterprise customers have been left scratching their heads over last week’s acquisition of Skype. Microsoft has spent years pitching their “unified” messaging system that’s built on Windows, Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communication Server (now called Lync) … and a few other products I can’t recall… that, in total, are supposed to allow users to instant message, web/video conference, and generally collaborate “at the speed of thought”. But now has Microsoft decided all that stuff wasn’t good enough and that Skype, a company that’s never even turned a profit, is better? Industry punditry has been generally positive on the news. ...
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You have to work hard to find a more demanding job in IT than that of today’s Global Enterprise Network Manager. There was a time perhaps, before the wide adoption of TCP/IP, that this job was a little less demanding, but even then as the potential of networking computing systems in enterprise became apparent and reached a tipping point that we are still adjusting to, this job has always been a challenging one. The role of the network manager is evolving, and is typically delegated to many individual niche responsibilities, but the accountability required to manage today’s increasingly global and ubiquitous networking infrastructure has ...
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It’s May, 2011 and do you know where the value in your outsourcing agreement has gone? A couple of years ago, everything was fine. Your organization decided to outsource a department or function. You helped them conduct a market scan and selected a few suppliers who fit your needs. An RFP was developed and conference room pilots were conducted. You may have even hired a third-party to help with the RFP and negotiations and you got a great deal. It was everything you wanted in an outsourcing agreement. Now roll forward two years… what happened? At NET(net), we monitor the outsourcing environment and we have found that typically one or more of ...
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“Wait!" you say. “How did you know my Oracle renewal was coming up?” At NET(net), we’d like to respond that it’s magic – a result of doing thousands of deals and the development of a sixth sense about these things. We’d like to point to our Federated Market Intelligence as an example of the type of value we bring to clients on a daily basis. But the truth is that virtually ALL Oracle deals renew in May, not just yours. “So? Lots of deals renew in the spring. What’s so special about May?” Actually, while some suppliers do use the actual anniversary date of your original agreement(s) upon which to base their renewals, Oracle, if given the ...
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NET(net) is often engaged with our European clients after their Data Centre migration/transition phase has completed and the initial glow of clients and suppliers 'moving in together', 'redecorating' and ‘renovating’ and really getting to know each other has worn off! Ideally, for clients to maximize their strategic and economic benefits, it is better to get NET(net) involved much earlier in the process, even prior to the client/supplier matchmaker/courting process, but when we get involved later in the relationship, these are typical challenges we see: 1) Variance from initial sizing assumptions. This is to be expected with large, ...
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Forrester recently released their 2011 “Software Pricing and Licensing Trends” report. No surprise, “the cloud” is a hot topic, along with all of the potential and likely impacts as suppliers and enterprises evaluate and migrate to this new-ish delivery and pricing model. Forrester predicted that Microsoft would begin to formally offer pricing on Office by role-based user within three years, similar to some agreements it already has with specific firms. Um, sorry to tell you this Forrester, but that’s already the case with Office 365 pricing. Forrester also said it expects to see software providers increasingly allowing software maintenance ...
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There is a transformation occurring within the Enterprise ERP Hosting and Application Management market, moving from a dedicated infrastructure (allocated on behalf of customers to host enterprise applications from companies such as Oracle and SAP), to a more pure cloud computing model with dynamic virtualization of allocated resources. Fortunately for customers, this will mean lower prices, more granular and elastic scalability, and (finally!) more flexible contractual agreements. There is a transformation occurring within the Enterprise ERP Hosting and Application Management market, moving from a dedicated infrastructure (allocated on ...
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Due to Microsoft’s fiscal year-end in June, we see more agreement renewals in June than any other month of the year. As many customers prepare for their renewal evaluations, they should keep in mind these important topics. 1) Desktop virtualization promises reduced TCO, faster, easier application upgrades and better security management. Almost every enterprise is interested in these topics, but full-scale deployments are rare. Most clients are in the early stages of considering various methods of virtualization, though some enterprises are doing small-scale tests, while a few others have rolled out deployments to certain functional groups. ...
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You've been held captive by inflexible, inscrutable and inexplicable software licensing arrangements by likewise uncooperative, unsupportive and unabashedly shameless software suppliers. And, unfortunately, you seem to have Stockholm Syndrome-esque tendencies when it comes to escaping these predatory arrangements and ruthless relationships. [Because it's crass to suggest that software licensees should be likened to actual hostages whose very lives are threatened, I think it important to note that my supposition in this article is not meant to demean or otherwise belittle the suffering of those actually held hostage.] You've been held captive ...
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You Don't Need Us. Or Do You? Some prospective clients may believe they have all the right answers, get the best deals, have the best terms and conditions, have the best supplier relationships, manage their contracts and suppliers effectively, and therefore don't need services like ours. If you're of this belief, please consider the following. We offer a full scope of services to help clients improve sustainable value from their IT investments, but let's consider just one small area of IT Optimization for the purposes of illustration. Supplier configurtation options and pricing models can create vast consumer inequities. Even a simple ...
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