THE BIG SWITCH is on for the Enterprise, SAP really just doesn’t have a focus

The market buzz around SAP seems to be at an all-time high. Their ERP solution roadmaps seem to be at an all-time crossroads.  So (as Naomi Bloom says), in which direction lies the “The Yellow Brick Road”.
According to Gartner and ERP analysts Naomi Boom, Ray Wang, Phil Wainwright, Nick Carr, and everyone else….the Yellow Brick Road now ends at “The Cloud”.

Switching to SAP? , You know they have a new emphasis on The Cloud.  But, did you know what SAP stands for according to their website…(stands for "Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing).   

SAP has more platforms and products in the ERP space than anyone could fathom.  Its Career OnDemand cloud offering, due to be released in 04/2012 is probably dead with the Success Factors purchase.  The SFSF purchase was really a way to keep clients from defecting to a competitor’s Best of Breed Talent platform.  Their Employee Central HCM is probably dead now; it’s just not deep enough.

The analysts explain SAP’s roadmap this way: “You cannot buy your way into The Cloud; you need to re-invent yourself completely or throw everything away and build it from scratch!”

Do you know what SAP stands for: (S)aaS not, (A)pplication spaghetti, (P)latforms galore.

So, The Big Switch is on.  Cloud computing today is what the distributed power grid of the past was for the Industrial Revolution.  The distributed Internet grid powers The Cloud today.  Consumers are moving into the cloud.  Enterprises are moving to cloud, it’s all about the freedom to do what you need to do, when you need to do it.

This is all about The Big Switch.  Read a synopsis of Nicholas Carr’s book, The Big Switch on my blog.
http://bit.ly/vME8Fb

        

The Big Switch, what's this book all about

What is at the heart of the “Big Switch”?

To me, this book is about the disruptive change of technology.

To some, disruption might only be about changing from being a Yankees fan to a Mets fan.

But to the cloud, it’s about the Internet grid that’s changing everything!

This book by Nicholas Carr harkens back to the days of the water wheel and the generation of electricity by water power and the huge disruptions in the expansion of power plants in the early 1900’s. Interestingly, Nicholas juxtaposes this electrical grid disruption to today’s disruptions from the Internet grid in the cloud….It’s one huge analogy!  Read on for some deeper insight.

Let’s look at the Power grid…

Remember reading about those huge Grist Mills that were powered by huge wheels driven by rivers of water.  They were generating power at the source, where the power was being used directly in a manufacturing plant. 

With the advent of electricity, there followed electrical generating plans that allowed power to be generated away from the users of power and centralized and different locations.  This was great right?  Well, it took decades for the factories to realize what this disruptive change would bring. They were reluctant to trust outsiders with their most precious resource, power.  Their thinking was fixated on one thing…if the power company went down, so did my business.

But the big switch happened and electricity was now being distributed though distributed electrical grids and provided some sense of redundancy on the sources of generation.  Thereafter, this big switch allowed for the redundant expenses of local power generation to be eliminated, and factories were now allowed the freedom to build wherever they chose.  Factories could scale off the grid, reduce their risk of reliance, expand their worker base and move away from the non-value added task of generating electricity and focus on the generation of profits from their business!

Starting to see how a grid can be disruptive?

One more example…Let’s look at the Computing Grid.

Back in the 1960’s there were two huge Mainframe computing projects that began the first wave of computing, SABRE and ERMA.  Sabre as you might recall was the first national reservation system running on huge mainframes.  ERMA was the first national banking system.  What happened?  Every big company built their own copy cat version, driving IT spending up 100 fold up into the 1970’s and beyond.  Mainframes were the bomb!

Then there was a big switch in the 1970’s to the client-server model driving by a huge reduction in hardware costs and a marked increase in computing power.

The development of highly specialized applications went rampant requiring new machines, new software, data centers, technicians and software development.  Previously centralized tasks and systems were now distributed and performed on 1000’s of servers.  IT spending went up 100 fold.

There was one more big switch that took decades to develop, Internet grid computing.

Costs of storage were reduced 100 fold.  The Internet and access to bandwidth exploded.  Finally, virtualization of computing power and servers was uncovered.  All this made the client-server model un-scalable and almost obsolete.

The last leg of the big switch was a collection of all of these into software as a service in the cloud.  Now, the building blocks of computing power can be broken up with data, software, hardware distributed over different locations across the globe allowing portability.  Enterprises were reluctant to make the switch, what if the Internet went down?

Now, take a look back at the expansion of the power grid and note the similarities.  Companies were back then reluctant to move to a centralized power grid because they thought they would lose control!

Companies did eventually move and what did they gain?  Freedom and profits…freedom to do business anywhere with anyone, profits from their better focus on their business with less distractions from non-value added tasks.  Guess what, IT spending is not going up 100 fold!

So, now you get the analogy?

Cloud computing today is the distributed power grid of the past, just reinvented using the technologies of today.  Consumers are moving into the cloud.  Enterprises are moving to cloud, it’s all about the freedom to do what you need to do.

Final question?  Any you ready for the next Big Switch, do you seek the freedom that it will bring? Or are we afraid to make the next Big Switch, just like we made all the others…

How do WE (sales folks) understand how YOU (the customer) select vendors?

My thoughts were first stimulated by an article I read from enquiroresearch.com, on Mapping the Buyersphere, the subject being B2B buying decisions.

Each decision by a buyer or the B2B customer focuses on one object from start to finish, minimizing fear through the elimination of inherent risks. So, what are the risks in making a corporate buy? There are risks to the organization and there are risks to the individual.

The risks to the organization are usually mitigated through various formalized stages in the buying process. We’ve all been through these: RFI’s, RFP’s, detailed demonstration, use case presentation, sand boxes, pilot tests, documentations and discussions across various silos. These steps are different for every company and for every type of purchase depending upon the complexity of the product or deliverable. Riskier purchases are more formalized and get pushed through a stronger vetting process. These become mechanical and most sellers, knowing what will come, are well prepared to block and tackle through these steps.

One buyer was quoted as saying “My job is to make sure that every vendor that makes it through to the final cut is a vendor that we can live with.” There should not be a bad first choice or second choice at that stage.

So, what’s so difficult about becoming a finalist? The secret sauce is in understanding the buyer’s or buyers’ personal risks and how they go about mitigating their perception of risk. Typically your buyer will have completed quite a few tasks prior to even having a conversation with you. Here’s the top five risk control tools in use:

1st-Personal experience – if you have been in the market long enough, you’ve probably touched one of the products within the category that you are going to buy, people already have their favorites and they have those they loathed.

2nd- Get some word of mouth data points from co-workers and industry peers. Everyone knows someone who has purchased something similar, so there is plenty of advice to be had.

3rd- Look for pre-approved vendors on the corporate buying list, these folks have already been vetted out and are probably supplying a product to another peer within the company, a great place to find out first-hand what their experience was.

4th- Determine vendor credibility and market position. Who are the leaders in the space and those with the most perceived expertise in delivering solutions. Typically, this is well-known or can be determined through research and analyst opinions (Do NOT base your decision upon how many ads you see). Choosing the top vendor is the space may indeed be the safest purchase but may not always be the most suitable.

Lastly- think about price!

Next up, what does the vendor do to mitigate the buyer’s perception of their RISK?

Aggregating your Talents Profiles yields big results within organizations

I read an interesting article from SHRM's HR magazine, in the technology section, that talks directly to the use of online talent portals within organizations that allow HR partners to align their workforce workforce more efficiently and allow for employees to manage their careers.

In this article, Mercer Consulting's Kim Seals states "If I can get my talent profiles right, then I have a great source of information about the people in our business and how to move them around to fill key jobs." Mercer's Human Capital Connect is their human capital management consulting practice that is powered by the Peopleclick Authoria talent management platform.

So, what is the value of employee talent profiles? They pull pertinent employee data collected from the employees to help management and the employees find where talent can be used most effectively across organizational silos.  An example would be a professional services firm, like a consulting or engineering company, that needs to staff projects with employees who have the critical skills suitable to a particular project's requirements.  Spanning the organization and finding those with the proper language requirements, needed certifications or past prior experience leads to quick bid responses, the composition of the best project team, and higher customer satisfaction levels.

In addition, eemployee's are now interested in taking control of their own profiles, their careers and hence, their talent profile provides this visibility to corporate talent leaders and by the way...can be selfishly used to promote achievements.

Talent profiles can be easily built from an integrated employee self-service portal that serves as a foundation for an organizations entire talent value chain including recruiting, on boarding, alignment, development, performance, compensation and career management.

Just my thoughts on the subject purred by a recent article I read.

Mercer Consulting discusses the Advantages of SaaS

I was thumbing through the latest edition of HR Technology magazine and found a report from the Human Capital Connect consulting team at Mercer Consulting. It is a great article that talks about the delivery platform known as Software as a Service or SaaS.


Many companies are facing their technology decisions with knowingly limited IT resources and at the same time are being forced to maximize the rollout of enterprise software. Herego, the SaaS platform requires serious consideration when both these factors are evident.

First, what is SaaS? Many applications that claim to be a Software as a Service delivery model...when in fact, they are really an on-demand ASP hosted model that still require time and effort to maintain and upgrade. SaaS eliminates that requirements and provides for a high capability to ensure business process improvement.

Why consider SaaS in your HCM evaluation:

-It shifts the IT burden to the vendor
-Data security is indeed robust and secure on a global basis
-No customer is on an older release
-Upgrades are delivered without pain or cost
-Incorporated best practices from the largest customers benefit the smaller
-Business processes will continually improve

An unbelievable benefit - The average SaaS customer will have a system that is 26.5% better in three years but at the same price.

If you require additional information or support on the benefits of an integrated talent management SaaS platform, please connect with me at 516-484-1231.