Steven Zolman

Jan. 14,2016

Salesforce.com is massively expensive at scale. In fact, our compre hensive study of over 20 leading customer relationship management (CRM) software providers again reveals that Salesforce.com has the highest total cost of ownership (TCO) in the market, meaning that Salesforce.com is quite simply the most expensive way you can furnish your organization with CRM software. A super majority of clients are economically sub-optimized in their Salesforce.com investments. At NET(net), we have seen very serious problems with the commercial arrangements (among other areas). In fact, due to our extensive work in this area, we have developed the ...

Steven Zolman

Jan. 12,2016

The State of the Enterprise CRM Market Salesforce.com continues to be the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software market leader with around a 20% share by the end of 2015. SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft have all stabilized over the last several years, but SAP and Oracle are showing signs of a steady decline at the expense of the other CRM providers. Of the “Big Four” CRM suppliers, Salesforce.com remains the clear front runner in 2016, and due to the relatively unimpressive results from the other challengers, we believe Salesforce.com will remain at the top this year as well. To make matters worse for SAP and Oracle, the industry trend ...

Steven Zolman

Oct. 26,2015

Top 10 Reasons Why the Dell EMC Merger is DOA The $67 billion Dell purchase of EMC is the largest technology deal in history -- dwarfing other major deals, but unfortunately, we think it’s too late for these two former tech titans. The writing is on the wall as they say – or in modern terms, the writing is in the cloud. After analyzing the possible scenarios of what this deal means to our clients, we can find nothing that addresses the fundamental and underlying problem both these firms face, in what is an almost certain long term decline brought on in large part from the insurgency of cloud companies. NET(net) believes this Dell EMC Merger ...

Steven Zolman

Oct. 23,2015

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 ...

Steven Zolman

Oct. 8,2015

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 ...

Scott Braden

Aug. 11,2015

Gorillas. They can be cute and seem cuddly from a distance, but up close they are probably more scary and intimidating. There’s little doubt that Microsoft is the 800 pound gorilla in the desktop productivity market. The real question is, how do you get away from the gorilla when you’re trapped in its domain? Everywhere you turn…there it is, blocking your escape. Door number 1 is blocked by the CIO who’s not a ‘change agent’. Door number 2 is blocked by the groups who don’t ‘want their cheese moved’. Doors number 3 and 4 aren’t even blocked…they are wide open and they have a Google or Amazon logo on them. But you’re not so sure about running ...

Andrea Alterman

Jul. 1,2015

The Internet of Things ( IoT). Disruptive Technology. Market Disrupting Suppliers. Strategic Supplier Sourcing. Have you been hearing a lot about these terms within your organization while sitting in I.T. meetings and in line at the local Starbucks? Are you already seeing that shift in some technology spend to marketing and other digitally enabled parts of the business? Have your teams looked into investing more in technologies that would challenge the status quo, but in the end just go with what’s comfortable? Have your tier one technology suppliers filled you with enough fear, uncertainty and doubt around disruptive technology that you now ...

Steven Zolman

Jun. 4,2015

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 ...

Steven Zolman

Jun. 4,2015

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 ...

Steven Zolman

Jun. 4,2015

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 ...