MIPRO Unfiltered » cloud computing

CIO: Cloud Computing Will Surpass Web in Importance

Jeff Ventura — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:14:36 +0000

While a vision of the Internet’s future may appear murky, Nelson said that cloud computing will be pivotal. “The cloud is even more important than the Web,” he said.

Cloud computing will allow developing nations to access software once reserved for affluent countries. Small businesses will save money on capital expenditures by using services such as Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud to store and compute their data instead of purchasing servers.

Sensors will start to appear in items such as lights, handheld devices and agriculture tools, transmitting data across the Web and into the cloud.

‘Surpass’ is a loaded word. I’ve always seen cloud computing as the next stop on the web’s evolutionary road. The first phase, the vision, was to create an interconnected global network. Shortly thereafter, the goal became to provide easy access to a plethora of shared resources via that network.

Now, with web technologies finally at a point where they rival those previously reserved for the thick-client computing, cloud applications are massively viable – and, to boot, offer tremendous advantages to their users (as well as their hosts). It’s not just about sharing, it’s about the universal cloud being able to offer processing, analytics, logic and a common-man-accessible UX.

It’s been said before, but the Internet is a platform. It didn’t begin this way in the application sense, but it certainly has become the most fertile development and innovation soil for the next generation of enterprise (and, frankly, consumer) applications.

So, surpass the web? In the sense of being able to bring mature application and cloud processing to businesses and individuals, yes. But it’s not a replacement – the use modes we see on the web now won’t go away – it’s an evolution. Some, like me, would even argue a coming of age.

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More cloud computing posts you should read.

SaaS Is Not ERP, So Let’s Stop Consulting Like It Is

Anne Meyer — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:40:21 +0000

“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.” (Yogi Berra)

I want to follow-up on my previous post about the mindset of SaaS’s role in the future and how it is juxtaposed against ERP.

I recently sat through a half-day seminar targeted at SaaS consultants. The presenter was a well-seasoned veteran in ERP implementations. His presentation was spot-on for basic consulting skills for an on-premise consulting engagement, but totally missed the new challenges and skills necessary for the SaaS consulting model. All of the obligatory inserts of the latest industry jargon were there, but not the analysis of what those teams mean in how we have change how and what we do. There was no reference to working in a virtual work environment, making sure you develop a morning routine so you are dressed for the “office,” (which is likely your kitchen table) and understanding the discipline needed for working in a virtual environment — not to mention the the social networking and communication skills necessary to be successful working in this type of model.

Which leads me to another observation…

“It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.” (Yogi Berra)

It’s time to take a breather and look at those few SaaS vendors who got it right and broke the mold on how they deployed their solution and methodology, how they chose the right skills and competencies in their consulting teams to ensure quality deployments, and how they chose a speaker at their events who was not from the on-premise ERP consulting world who could relate to the new challenges in the cloud. The old template doesn’t fit anymore, and people are noticing. — especially those, like me, who are responsible for bringing clients a successful and business value-rich SaaS deployment.

As someone who interacts with Workday every week, I can tell you that they’re one company who got it right across the spectrum. Who are the others? Love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

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More SaaS posts you should read.

How Powerful is IT Anymore?

Jeff Ventura — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:39:18 +0000

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, IT was an operational differentiator for many organizations. It wasn’t every company who had a sophisticated application portfolio to enable and support business functions, much less the expertise to keep things moving in the right direction. Because of this, IT held a certain degree of celebrity and had fluid budgets (and headcount) to accompany it. Spending into strength rarely hurts in a competitive environment. ERP made its foothold here.

Then came the beginning of the commoditization curve. The mantras every IT vendor repeated was ‘IT-business alignment’, which meant that IT’s unbridled Vegas bender was over, CIOs were onto various shenanigans, and IT needed to start justifying its spend and strategic direction. But it was still terribly important: IT was a key stakeholder in ever vendor negotiation, every RFP decision, every board meeting.

Now, in quasi-post-recession 2010, when we’re learning that executive spending/signature powers have been dramatically reduced and companies are sitting on mountains of cash but still afraid to spend, I have to wonder. Budgets are still tight – a poltergeist from from 2009’s recession mindset? – and it appears that even the ‘IT-business alignment’ affirmation from six years ago is fading. Instead, we see IT taking a clearly subservient role to business drivers; it seems that IT, unto itself, no longer has the power to drive its own direction unless in tow with a powerful business leader. And increasingly companies are asking paradigm questions – SaaS v. on-premise, for starters – as they contemplate what will happen next. IT has never been more full of framework-level, worldview-defining decisions.

Now, whether IT’s changed role is a wholesale mindset bump or just the ultimate maturation of ‘IT-business alignment’ is up for debate. At the very least, IT’s role in the organization has undergone considerable change and commoditization. At the worst, its role has been firmly supplanted by more business-facing drivers. It’s hard to say which based on our conversations with clients, but there seems to be a trend.

I’m not trying to provide a brief history of IT in American business as I see it; rather, this is an open question as far as I’m concerned.

In your eyes, how powerful is IT these days, especially as it relates to the bygone days of IT glory? I’m genuinely interested in your perspective.

Answer in the comments, if you will. Thanks.

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More opinion posts, if you’re so inclined.

‘The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be’

Anne Meyer — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:56:38 +0000

“The future ain’t what it used to be.” (Yogi Berra)

Yogi was half right.

The future looks bright and innovative when you consider the latest wave in technology, which is cloud computing. But the more I learn, the more it seems like the future is what it used to be. Nothing new under the sun, right?

In a recent seminar I listened, politely, to a couple of young, up-and-coming SaaS project management stars speak about the great methodology to implement their products. What they showed were reams of Word documents that stepped through their processes. Again: a series of Word document pages laboriously detailing how and why to conduct a kick off meeting, followed by more, even less titillating documents that drill down on how to conduct a workshop on a singular feature of the product.

They ensured the audience that they can excitedly await more and more detailed text documents that can show everyone knows how to deploy each and every facet of their products. And here’s what I thought: this tome of Word documents is a giant parallel to yesterday’s great mainframe Word Perfect documents in the library of Software Methodology Documents Left Unread. It just baffles me that companies with so much innovative spirit in their technology are not innovative in their approach to creating a new way to convey how to implement their solution. I profess I don’t have the answer, but there must be a better way that matches the creative solution of your technology offering.

Right?

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More SaaS posts you should read.

Workday Named to CIO’s List of 20 Vendors Worth Watching

Jeff Ventura — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:47:42 +0000

From CIO UK’s Martin Veitch comes quite the honor for Workday, as it lands a coveted spot on CIO’s list of vendors worth watching:

Of all the newer companies delivering a pure software-as-a-service approach to applications, Workday is the one most worth watching. First, because its roots are interesting: many key staff including CEO Dave Duffield came from PeopleSoft so they know where the bodies are buried in ERP. Second, the company is well funded so needn’t sell out to the first predator that swims alongside. Third, large-scale ERP is often seen as protected from SaaS because you somehow ‘need’ it on premise. Workday will be the acid test.

In our conversations with clients about Workday and SaaS, we see such incredible interest in on-premise alternatives that we can argue the acid test is already well under way — and being passed.

Congratulations once again to the folks in Pleasanton.

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More Workday posts here.

Skype to Roll Out new Workday HR Platform for UK-based Employees

Jeff Ventura — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:41:23 +0000

From Employee Benefits UK:

Its new Workday system, which is hosted from the United States, provides HR software, human resources management and payroll. Employees will be able to update their personal details, request annual leave and record absences from work, and elect benefits and enroll in benefit schemes.

Staff can also use the system as an online directory and it is fully integrated with Skype, so employees can simply click a button on the system and Skype their colleagues. It can also be used on personal digital assistants (PDAs) so it can be accessed on an iPhone as staff are travelling.

Congratulations to Workday and Skype for marrying two of the most popular and progressive technologies in today’s enterprise market.

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More Workday posts here.

Workday: The Value of Knowing How to Integrate Partners

Anne Meyer — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:20:28 +0000

(Ed. Note: Anne Meyer is MIPRO Consulting’s Workday Practice Director. This is her first post. Please join me in welcoming her to the blog, where she’ll be a regular contributor.)

As was posted previously here on MIPRO Unfiltered, the San Francisco Business Times has recently named Workday Best Business Application and also consistently ranks Workday as one of the best places to work in the San Francisco Bay area.

As MIPRO’s Workday Practice Director and relatively new to the Workday scene, I would nominate Workday, if such an award existed, for the Best Business to Partner With. (And yes, I realize that someone would tell me not to end my award name with a preposition.)

In my 25 years in the software industry, I have worked with many companies who claim to be partner-friendly, who say they embrace and support their partners. All too often, this is partner marketing lip service, and in some cases, these very companies turn out to be partner-hostile.

At the risk of sounding trite, I can say that for the first time in a very long time, I’m working with a company that really means it. And though Workday partners compete for resources and projects, they also work together in subcontracting relationships and at the consultant level, including information sharing and troubleshooting support. This “community” of partners is supported and encouraged by Workday.

And it’s not just a partner ecosystem in structure. It’s one in practice, too.

Workday provides a common area for partners to work at within its Pleasanton headquarters, badge access to the facilities, inclusion in internal sales and consultant training and access to their internal information sharing website. In return, partners provide resources, ideas and advice to support the ecosystem and technology direction.

That’s not to say that it’s all peaches and cream and everything is perfect – there are challenges, and no relationship survives without needing periodic adjustments. But the interesting thing to my eyes is that Workday seeks to support a healthy cooperative/competitive environment that benefits the entire Workday ecosystem. It’s a great arrangement with just the right amount of competitive tension.

I’ve been in this business a long time and not many companies invest in partners like Workday does. What I get to see and enjoy every day is something genuinely progressive and smart. I didn’t know what the fuss was until I saw it and realized Workday is truly onto something.

Start-ups who rely on partners, take note. There’s a huge lesson here.

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More Workday posts here.

Workday Named Best Business Application by the San Francisco Business Times

Jeff Ventura — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:10:12 +0000

“We started Workday five years ago to change enterprise software,” said Aneel Bhusri, Workday co-CEO. “Traditional business software is built on a technology base more than 20 years old. Workday is a fresh, modern alternative for companies looking to replace their traditional hard-to-use systems. We thank the San Francisco Business Times for recognizing Workday among the many, many business applications born in the bay area.”

It’s good to see innovation in the enterprise space get rewarded. All too often in this arena, innovation equates to duct tape and baling wire atop legacy solutions. While SaaS isn’t exactly new as a concept, its traction is mounting in the enterprise by orders of magnitude not seen before, and it’s a wholesale thinking shift, not incremental improvements to existing, mature applications.

Religious platform debates aside, the reasonable person sees things like this. SaaS isn’t perfect for everything, and there are many IT functions, especially heavily-specialized ones, that don’t have a logical SaaS play right now. Then there are others, like the ones Workday, Salesforce.com and Taleo spearhead, that are mature, incredibly competitive offerings for organizations looking at a more progressive application infrastructure.

But change is afoot. Companies like Workday aren’t getting their ink by having a cool UX with smart whitespacing. While that’s a very interesting means to an end, it’s not the end.

The end is that platform/infrastructure diversification is happening. Not in all functional areas, and not right now. Tack three years onto this blog post, however, and see where we are. My money says you’ll see a markedly greater proliferation of pure-play SaaS solutions for the enterprise, and adoption will be in lockstep with SaaS market maturation and consolidation.

It’s not if. It’s when.

Congratulations to the folks in Pleasanton.

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More Workday posts here.

Workday’s Aneel Bhusri on the Varying Definitions of Innovation

Jeff Ventura — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:12:42 +0000

Aneel Bhusri, Workday’s co-founder and co-chief executive, last week published an interesting blog post entitled Welcome to the Present.

Since the founding of Workday in 2005, all our applications have been built using a pure in-memory database architecture that has done away with the relational model. We have been using this technology for more than 5 years, and have been in production with global, Fortune 500 customers with it for the past 3 years.

This is in response to the somewhat-viral Hasso on Hasso video that’s made its way around the web over the past 10 days, in which SAP’s Hasso Plattner, while interviewing himself, explains his enthusiasm for in-memory databases. Bhusri, naturally, is commenting that in-memory databases aren’t a new blip on many radars but are being used, right now, in Fortune 500 production environments. Bhusri is correct to note that this isn’t exactly innovative thinking from a major ERP vendor.

Innovation today requires thinking that goes beyond a company’s wheelhouse. In-memory databases might be the bleeding edge for legacy app providers, but for cloud architectures, they’re moving down the tech stack to the blocking-and-tackling level. SaaS developers must think differently to solve problems because their model requires them to do so.

The worst thing a tech company can fall victim to is idiomatic thinking.

You need to understand where your market is. If you’re thinking you’re innovative within the confines of your technology stack and portfolio, that’s one thing. But what are your customers thinking? When two CIOs play 18 holes, are they talking about how certain ERP vendors will be incorporating in-memory databases or are they comparing notes on how they’ll start moving functional IT areas to a cloud platform? Because things are more of a platform question than ever?

If you’re thinking A but your customers are thinking B, your innovation will fall idle on the ears of many.

Today, innovation is relative to all available platforms, not just yours. Just as we live in a global economy today, organizations need to start thinking about IT strategy outside of their established domain.

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More Workday and SaaS posts.

2010 Manufacturing Software State of the Industry Roundtable

Jeff Ventura — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:22:20 +0000

Manufacturing Software Advice has a very good two-part expert roundtable discussion of the 2010 state of the industry for manufacturing software. Part one reports buying activity, spending patterns by business size/industry, and primary drivers of current buying activity. Part two, published just last week, reviews activity in the SaaS market, how vendors are adjusting prices to compensate for the recession, how offshoring influences spending and whether manufacturers are implementing integrated ERP systems or best-of-breed applications.

Both parts are very interesting, even if you’re not necessarily in a manufacturing vertical. Trends are trends, and we can vouch that most of these are industry-agnostic.

From where we sit, we agree with two points in particular that Software Advice makes. Namely, (1) that SaaS solutions are markedly up in both consideration and priority among businesses of all sizes (we see a ton of Workday interest), and (2) we see a strong movement towards integrated ERP solutions over best-of-breeds. For this latter point, our context is Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), as many of our client discussion talks about moving to this solution and away from best-of-breed applications. (Related: Software Advice has another good post about 10 questions to consider when evaluating an integrated suite vs. a best-of-breed. Worth checking out.)

Thoughts on these two points? We’d love to hear them in the comments.

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More ERP and SaaS posts.