Our Thoughts on IT Matters

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Memo to CFOs: 6 Things IT Didn't Tell You About Microsoft Spend

The pace of change today is to say the least – breakneck. Leveraging tech to get closer to your customers, drive revenue, and increase margin (i.e., save money) is at the forefront of initiatives for most companies. At the same time, layer in the levels of complexity in understanding every supplier’s value add in that mission, along with each having their own rules for pricing, agreement frameworks, and legal terms, it’s no wonder companies frequently have sub-optimized supplier agreements, investments, and relationships. One area that I have focused on in the last three decades specifically, is Microsoft. I’ve negotiated and reviewed ...

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Guide: Selecting the Right Microsoft LSP (Licensing Solution Partner)

Microsoft has always been a Partner-centric company. While it’s common to talk about Microsoft Enterprise Agreements as being “direct deals,” in every case there is a Partner involved. Microsoft calls these “Licensing Solutions Partners” and they are certified by Microsoft to be competent in the details of Microsoft’s enterprise volume licensing deals. At NET(net) we hear many of the same questions from our clients about how these relationships work, and what exactly the role of the LSP should be. What is an LSP? An LSP is a Microsoft Partner who is authorized by Microsoft to be named as the Partner of record in enterprise licensing deals. ...

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NetSuite in The Modern Enterprise

Introduction Increasingly, we are seeing NetSuite encroach into the enterprise space. What was once thought of as a web-based mini-ERP for SMBs is now a serious platform contender for major organizations. NetSuite Customers Companies such as Accenture, Audi, Bearing Point, The Boston Globe, Ceridian, Cornerstone, Kronos, Nestlé, Siemens, SoftwareAG, Solar Winds, T-Mobile, Tableau, and Wells Fargo all use NetSuite. NetSuite claims to be the #1 Cloud-based ERP, offering a unified suite of web-based applications that encompasses HR, ERP, CRM, SCM, PSA, eCommerce, Marketing Automation, and Financials, among other areas. As a cloud-native ...

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Oracle's Innovation: Costing Customers More and Getting Less

Michael Welsh
Mar. 30,2022 | Oracle

Oracle spends more on marketing than it does on innovation, $7.6B to be exact. Knowing Oracle, they probably refer to their marketing efforts as innovative. Oracle’s licensing and cloud offers come in a dizzying array of offerings and by extension, complexity, but they are anything but innovative. We’ve observed over the last several months an uptick in sub-optimized Oracle deployments that are causing substantial pain around: PULA’s – Perpetual User License Agreements Cloud@Customer – Oracle public cloud apps in your data center PaaS – Platform as a Service and IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service What all these offerings share that is ...

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Top 5 Reasons Why The Mainframe Empire will Strike Back in 2022

Intro The IBM Empire has suffered from a decade or more of decay. In 2012, IBM stock was trading at over $200 per share, and in 2022, it is trading at somewhere around $120, which is a value loss of 40%. IBM Revenue at the end of 2011 was $106.916 Billion vs. the $57.351 Billion it is at the end of 2021. This is a loss of $49.565 Billion of revenue over the last 10 years, which represents a reduction of more than 46% of its customer receipts. With a current market value of $110.7 Billion, IBM is just a shadow of its former self, as its market value was worth $216.72 Billion 10 years ago. That's a $106.02 Billion loss of value, hemorrhaging ...

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Top 20 Mainframe Software Suppliers

BREAKING: The Mainframe is not dead. While smaller companies continue to get off the mainframe, it’s still too soon to write an obituary, as mid-sized businesses grew mainframe consumption from 5 to 15% and large enterprises grew from 15 to 20% in 2021. Recent analyst reports suggest that as much as half of the world’s information is still processed on the mainframe. The mainframe was a $2.3 Billion Industry in 2021, is expected to increase another 8% in 2022, and is projected to grow at a 3.2% CAGR from 2021-2029. Major hardware, software, and services companies that stand to benefit from this decade of mainframe market growth include Atos, ...

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Top 10 India-Based IT Services Companies for 2022 (3 of 4)

Steven Zolman
Feb. 10,2022 | IT Services

Introduction Welcome back to our 4-part series on IT Services Contracts, where we continue to explore the growing need to review your IT Services contracts and plans for 2022. There is a lot of market activity in the early months of this year with IT Services Companies. There are four major reasons for spike in activity, and one of them is the disproportionate number of renewals we see in March, due in large part to the fiscal year ends of: TCS Infosys Wipro For this reason and more, we invite you to read our related article on this topic: The Top 4 Reasons Why NOW is the Time to review your IT Services Needs The industry forces outlined in ...

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The 8 Important Questions to Ask About IT Services Projects (2 of 4)

Steven Zolman
Feb. 9,2022 | IT Services

Introduction Thank you for joining us again this week as we continue to explore the growing need to review your IT Services contracts and make your IT Services plans for 2022 in our 4-part series that runs from Monday – Thursday. Yesterday, we published a new original article: 1. Monday: The 4 Reasons Why NOW is the Time to review your IT Services Needs Today, we are publishing another new original article (Part 2 in our 4-part series): 2. Tuesday: The 8 Most Important Questions to Ask Yourself About Every IT Services Project Please come back tomorrow to check out our new original blog on our research of over 50 India-based IT Services ...

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Top 4 Reasons Why NOW is the Time to Review your IT Services (1 of 4)

Steven Zolman
Feb. 8,2022 | IT Services

Introduction Thank you for joining us as we explore the growing need to review your IT Services contracts and plans for 2022 in a 4-part series that will run from Monday – Thursday this week. During this time, we will publish 2 new original articles: 1. Monday: The 4 Reasons Why NOW is the Time to review your IT Services Needs 2. Tuesday: The 8 Most Important Questions to Ask Yourself About Every IT Services Project Followed by a new original blog on our research of over 50 India-based IT Services companies, where we will reveal our choice of the Top 10 firms, including highlighting who we think is #1 and why. 3. Wednesday: Top 10 ...

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Time to Defuse Your Kyndryl Deal BEFORE it Detonates

Introduction Kyndryl is the new name for IBM’s managed infrastructure services business (what they refer to as IBM Global Technology Services), which spun out of IBM in November of 2021. Over the last 10+ years, IBM has fallen from a technology titan to a member of the walking dead, so how must Kyndryl feel about itself knowing that it is the discarded most unwanted stepchild of this unholy monster? Unlike Microsoft, IBM has proven unable to reinvent itself as a cloud company. IBM was very well positioned to become a big benefactor of the cloud revolution, and the explosion of the data center utility model, but IBM continues to suffer from a ...

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