Our Thoughts on IT Matters

Keep Posted on Industry News and Events

   

Don't Get Nickel and Dimed! The Ultimate Guide to Fighting Technology Supplier Cost Creep: Part 4 of 4 - Absolute Worst Tech Suppliers 2024

The Top 5 “Absolute Worst” Technology Suppliers of 2024 Preface Nearly all clients are seeking greater prosperity in 2024. While client organizations are still focused on cost reductions to meet the challenges of their new economic and market realities, the pent-up demands of the business are increasingly calling for innovation, automation, and organizational performance improvement. Digital Transformation has emerged as the #1 Way to Boost Performance and Savings concurrently. Client organizations that are digitally transforming are harvesting greater value by: Automating tasks (RPA) to streamline efficiencies Unlocking data insights (ML) ...

Read More

Don't Get Nickel and Dimed! The Ultimate Guide to Fighting Technology Supplier Cost Creep: Part 3 of 4 - Value Grab Report

The Top 28 Worst Offending Technology Suppliers of 2024 Preface Nearly all clients are seeking greater prosperity in 2024. While client organizations are still focused on cost reductions to meet the challenges of their new economic and market realities, the pent-up demands of the business are increasingly calling for innovation, automation, and organizational performance improvement. Digital Transformation has emerged as the #1 Way to Boost Performance and Savings concurrently. Client organizations that are digitally transforming are harvesting greater value by: Automating tasks (RPA) to streamline efficiencies Unlocking data insights (ML) ...

Read More

Don't Get Nickel and Dimed! The Ultimate Guide to Fighting Technology Supplier Cost Creep: Part 2 of 4 - Money Grab

Top 5 Examples of Newly Invented Technology Supplier Fees in 2024 Money grab n. Obtaining money from someone without returning anything of real value. Requiring someone to pay a fee out of purely greedy or opportunistic motives. Preface Nearly all clients are seeking greater prosperity in 2024. While client organizations are still focused on cost reductions to meet the challenges of their new economic and market realities, the pent-up demands of the business are increasingly calling for innovation, automation, and organizational performance improvement. Digital Transformation has emerged as the #1 Way to Boost Performance and Savings ...

Read More

Don't Get Nickel and Dimed! The Ultimate Guide to Fighting Technology Supplier Cost Creep: Part 1 of 4 - Sneaky Tactics

Top 10 Sneaky Tactics Technology Suppliers Use to Jack Up Your Costs Preface Nearly all clients are seeking greater prosperity in 2024. While client organizations are still focused on cost reductions to meet the challenges of their new economic and market realities, the pent-up demands of the business are increasingly calling for innovation, automation, and organizational performance improvement. Digital Transformation has emerged as the #1 Way to Boost Performance and Savings concurrently. Client organizations that are digitally transforming are harvesting greater value by: Automating tasks (RPA) to streamline efficiencies Unlocking data ...

Read More

Disrupting Disruptive Behavior

Introduction: Doing the same things and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity, at least according to Albert Einstein. Engaging with suppliers in 2023 requires a different approach otherwise, you can expect price increases by 20% or more on your annual renewals. The Rise of an Anti-Customer Profiteering: Historically, technology suppliers would at least try to align with their customers for mutual long-term benefit. In 2023, at the very time that their customers are in desperate need of relief on costs, technology suppliers have departed from their long term aligned stance. Instead, suppliers are forcing substantial ...

Read More

Top 5 Ways to Save on Oracle Now (FYE May)

Ahh, May. The month itself is named after Maia, the Greek goddess of Spring - and it's easy to see why. In the emerald month of May, life begins anew as the grass turns green, new leaves come out on the trees, and flowers bloom. It is the season of hope, optimism, and renewal. Oops, did I just say renewal? Oh, that's right, May is also Oracle's fiscal year-end, and the busiest month of the year for your beloved Oracle reps as they scramble to sell new business and process your most recent hostage invoices (otherwise known as your annual maintenance service & support renewals). Instead of enjoying the greening of the great outdoors, many ...

Read More

Act Now: Okta Fiscal Year End is January 2023

Your Virtual Bouncer, Now Larger and Stronger and (Soon) Profitable But how secure is Okta, really? From 2021 to 2022 Okta grew from $835 million to $1.3 billion in top line revenue, a 55.63% increase, indicating strong market acceptance. However, the company is still losing money, and losses accelerated by 218.55% in 2022 to -$848M. If you need security from the occasional undesirable intruder in your enterprise and need to convey strength in the way you control access to the information you hold most dear by restricting access to unwelcomed guests and bouncing them from your cloud, you may very well need to learn more about Okta. However, ...

Read More

Calling all Mid-Market Organizations Challenged with Reducing IT Spend, Learn How to Save on IT Like the F500 Do.

With recent announcements from Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, Coinbase, Twitter, and Meta (among others) indicating that there would be cuts to staffing in the coming weeks and months, it’s clear that the recession is in full force. As outlined in my previous blog, we discouraged organizations from making drastic changes to the muscle (the workforce) and bone (the facilities) of their organizations. Yet, many of the big-tech powerhouses (like the ones mentioned above) have been announcing job cuts to curb recessionary pressures. Cutting costs and managing value through downturns can be a far tougher challenge for SME’s than their large ...

Read More

Oracle's War on Rimini Street and What it Means for You

No question Oracle is one of the most dominant and financially successful tech companies in the world. In fact, almost everyone reading this probably directly or indirectly owns a small part of Oracle in their investment portfolio. However, through sales practices, audit actions, acquisitions and never-ending lawsuits, Oracle seems to be relying increasingly on legal tactics and maneuvers to shut down competition and show growth to Wall Street, rather than be a disruptive innovator. Some would say that Oracle’s core competency now is litigation, not innovation. Ongoing War with Rimini Street We have long advocated for seeking alternatives in ...

Read More

5 Q4 Sales Strategies Technology Suppliers Use Against You - Updated!

‘The Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ is a popular holiday song and was written by Edward Pola and George Wyle in 1963. It was popularized in North America by singer Andy Williams that same year on his television show by the same name. However, we didn’t have to do much research to learn that the inspiration for that song had nothing to do with the 4th quarter for most business leaders and their respective companies. Anecdotally, we believe most business leaders might say it’s the most *stressful* time of the year, especially for publicly traded companies – most of whom have their fiscal year end aligned with the calendar year end of ...

Read More