Years of publication: 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999   September 2001 September 28, 2001 IFS Glows Amidst The Mid-Market Gloom By continuing to grow faster than many others, and by even reverting to profits, IFS has been defending the pride of quite beleaguered Tier 2 & 3 applications vendors. However, the bigger vendors will sell their aspirations dearly, and IFS still has a long way to go to achieve full-fledged credibility in the global market. September 25, 2001 Business Intelligence Success at Biomet, Inc. Biomet, a manufacturer of orthopedic medical products needed to support its worldwide need for sales information. September 24, 2001 Oracle Makes A U-Turn At The 'All Things To All People' Exit Oracle has been trying hard for some time to find a magic formula to revive its declining applications revenue. Abandoning its isolationist stance and opening the door to integration of third-party products while still targeting the lower end of the market with the simplicity tune might be the hit. September 22, 2001 'Collaborative Commerce': ERP, CRM, e-Proc, and SCM Unite! A Series Study: SAP AG SAP AG has seemingly crossed a strategy chasm, from a strict, stodgy, Not-Invented-Here (NIH) approach to software development and delivery, to a seemingly quite open approach of broad development alliances, company acquisitions, Internet portals development, and a deep, new relationship with IBM for both technology sharing as well as bolstering IBM Consulting’s support for SAP’s new multiple mySAP.com™ initiatives. 'Collaborative' and 'SAP' were not two words you might have ever seen in the same article. You’re seeing it now. September 21, 2001 Sausage Producer Packs Out the Profit with Technology Odom’s Tennessee Pride Sausage, Inc. wanted to improve operations and customer service. Their ERP and SCM technology solution resulted in a fifteen-month project with a three-year payback period. September 20, 2001 'Collaborative Commerce': ERP, CRM, e-Proc, and SCM Unite! A Series Study: Baan and Parent Company, Invensys Baan is now iBaan, fully focused on the Internet via Portals and web technologies, across CRM, ERP, and SCM spaces. September 19, 2001 Intentia’s Intents To Be More Fashionable Intentia remains solid, with both a new product portfolio and an increase in license revenue. The company, which is unimpeded by the current economic slump, finally seems to be realizing that it needs to achieve stronger global brand recognition well beyond its esoteric apparel/fashion vertical stronghold. September 18, 2001 'Collaborative Commerce': ERP, CRM, e-Proc, and SCM Unite! A Series Study: J.D. Edwards J.D. Edwards believes in the possibilities (both in terms of technology and sell-ability) of Collaborative Commerce. How far have they gotten in that vision? Are they a good bet if you also have visions of C-Commerce dancing in your head? September 17, 2001 Frontstep Still Awaiting Better Times While Frontstep reported loses in fiscal 2001, the potential of its well-rounded product/services offering mix as well as the recent downsizing, bodes well a return to profitability. September 15, 2001 E-Business Customer Service Success at H.B. Fuller Company Chemical company H.B. Fuller has leveraged the Internet to improve their level of customer service. September 14, 2001 Does Supply Chain Management Software Make Sense in Wholesale Distribution?         Part 3: Meeting the Objectives Because the technology has become easier to implement, use, and maintain, many of the challenges to achieving the benefits that supply chain management software applications can provide have been removed. September 13, 2001 'Collaborative Commerce': ERP, CRM, e-Procurement, and SCM Unite! A Series Study Now in 2001, the catchphrase is 'Collaborative Commerce', where we unite all of the elements of ERP, CRM, E-Procurement, and SCM into one coherent system within and between organizations. This is the stuff system integrators dream of. September 12, 2001 Does Supply Chain Management Software Make Sense in Wholesale Distribution?         Part 2: The Critical Objectives There are critical objectives that Supply Chain Management Software must satisfy to meet the challenges faced by wholesale distributors. September 11, 2001 E-business Buy Side Success at H.B. Fuller Chemical Company H.B. Fuller leveraged e-business to impact their procurement operations. This article discusses their objectives, the solution and the results. September 10, 2001 Will V8 Help SSA GT Regain Lost Ground? The vendor that many have long forgotten seems to be reincarnating. In order to return from oblivion SSA GT has been making strides to put itself back on the global enterprise applications map, primarily through salvaging the relationships with existing customers. Will the latest V8 product vouch for an (incredible) resurrection of a fallen ERP vendor? September 8, 2001 Does Supply Chain Management Software Make Sense in Wholesale Distribution? This paper examines the steel service center segment of the wholesale distribution industry as a case in point of the challenges facing distributors and the relief offered through supply chain software. September 7, 2001 PeopleSoft Keeps Truckin’ On A Potholed Road Ahead In spite of the impression that currently PeopleSoft can do nothing wrong, many users of the older versions of its products might be bracing themselves for a less than smooth product upgrade ride. September 6, 2001 Enterprise Application Integration - Where Is It Now (And What Is It Now)?         Part 2: Where Is It Now? Enterprise Application Integration has changed massively in the past two years. Where is the market, and what vendors are left in the game? September 5, 2001 Pure-Play CRM Vendors: Choose an Integrated or Best-of-Breed Solution? When selecting a CRM vendor should you go with a one-source solution, reducing the need for integration with other corporate data sources, or go with a best-of-breed approach, getting the best in each category but being left with standalone applications that must be integrated? This article compares the two approaches and offers some advice. September 4, 2001 SCT Extends Into Business Intelligence SCT, a leading supplier to the process industries, has extended their iProcess.SCT product set to include Business Intelligence (BI). September 1, 2001 Enterprise Application Integration - Where Is It Now (And What Is It Now)?         Part 1: What Is It Now? Since January 2000 when TEC last addressed the trends in Enterprise Application, there have been massive changes in the overall direction of Application Integration in general and EAI in particular.   August 2001 August 31, 2001 ERP Trivia - Every Why Should Have Its Wherefore         Part 3: User Recommendations System integration service provider selections and project planning should involve the same amount of due diligence as business IT strategy definition and software evaluation. August 30, 2001 Epicor Shows Resilience When It Needs It The Most By stemming the tide of hefty losses of past years now amid possibly the most difficult market situation, Epicor might be showing us that 'calamity is the touchstone of a brave mind' and that it remains in the mid-market leadership race. August 29, 2001 ERP Trivia - Every Why Should Have Its Wherefore         Part 2: ERP Key Success Factors ERP systems, in fact, are devised to operate by codifying a set of business processes and employees have to learn the whys, wheres and whos of the business process (workflows) rather than hows of the software screens. August 28, 2001 J.D. Edwards Fires Siebel, Hires YOU J.D. Edwards announced plans to acquire CRM vendor YOUcentric, Inc. At the same time, they have severed their 18 month relationship with Siebel and ended integration plans between J.D. Edwards core functionalities and Siebel’s eFrontOffice capabilities. Abrupt? Yes. Unexpected? Possibly. In the best interests of J.D. Edwards and their customers? Wholeheartedly yes. August 27, 2001 CRM is Busting Out Of Its Britches: Operational, Analytical, and Collaborative CRM Are Born Back in the early 90’s, ‘CRM’ wasn’t even a trendy acronym. You had a few players thinking beyond 'stovepipe' enterprise applications, but not much beyond. Fast forward to 2001. CRM has gotten fat, and the fatter it gets, it becomes more difficult to understand, more expensive to buy, more difficult to implement, and less likely to satisfy - either buyers of the software or their customers. Keep your eye on the ball: your customers, and your business. August 25, 2001 ERP Trivia - Every Why Should Have Its Wherefore         Part 1: ERP Trends We take the liberty to comment on the findings of a report, which was recently released by a renowned research organization, and which pinpoints ERP implementations’ dissatisfactions in no uncertain terms. August 24, 2001 Are ASP Applications Right for You?         Part 2: Decision Criteria Whether an application is best implemented as an ASP provided application or service, built in-house or purchased, generally depends on the same criteria as what would be used for outsourcing a function or process. This part details that criteria. August 23, 2001 CPR on BPR: Practical Guidelines for Successful Business Process Analysis Part 2 of a series on Business Process Reengineering: Long Live Business Process Reengineering. In this Part, we discuss some practical steps for actually performing business process analysis and fostering change in your company. August 22, 2001 Are ASP Applications Right for You?         Part 1: Decision Factors Like so many Internet conventions, the Application Service Provider (ASP), is really a combination of two 'old' concepts, turn key applications and outsourced services. Many of the lessons learned from these areas are directly applicable to ASP provided applications, and many of the same questions need to be asked and answered before a determination can be made on whether an ASP application should be considered. August 21, 2001 CPR on BPR: Long Live Business Process Reengineering         Part 1: A Primer Without sound business process analysis, design, and possible re-design or full-blown reengineering in place before you bring in technology, your CRM (or any IT) efforts are doomed to fail. August 20, 2001 The SOAP Opera Progresses - Helping XML to Rule the World An important emerging standard in the web arena, known as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), originally developed by Microsoft, has achieved a new milestone. Since IBM joined in support for the SOAP standard with increased security, SOAP may replace DCOM, and possibly even CORBA eventually. The W3C consortium has just released a new version, 1.2, which will be widely accepted and adopted by vendors. August 17, 2001 SAP Thrives On Competitors' Plight, In Part SAP announced upbeat results for Q2 2001 and reconfirmed the positive outlook for the rest of the year amid the bloodbath of many of its competitors. However, negative license revenue growth in the US, a likely cascading economic slowdown from the US to other markets, and net profit restatement owing to the investment in money burning Commerce One, may give rise to a careful scrutiny and moderate caution. August 15, 2001 Made2Manage Manages Throughout Soft Market While Made2Manage reported a slim profit attributed mainly to a tax benefit, the latest revenue increase and a delivery of innovative initiatives might augur for the company’s return to more consistent profitability and prevailing over the current market malaise. August 13, 2001 Microsoft Great Plains Procures eProcure At Last In a somewhat belated and long deliberated move, Microsoft Great Plains has struck an OEM partnership deal with Clarus to provide eProcure, an end-to-end e-procurement solution. August 10, 2001 Manugistics Envisions Supplier Relationship Management Solution Manugistics’ launch of SRM is clear evidence that it intends to stake a larger claim in the E&HT market, the near-exclusive domain of its arch-nemesis i2 Technologies. August 9, 2001 SAP - A Humble Giant From The Reality Land?         Part 5: Challenges and User Recommendations Delivering on its enormously ambitious strategy is the challenge SAP faces. August 8, 2001 BEA Systems Announces WebLogic Integration BEA Systems, in a follow-on to their appearance at JavaOne in San Francisco, has announced the release of the BEA WebLogic Integration Solution, another strong entry in the Application Server War. August 6, 2001 i2, SAP, Oracle Poised For Showdown in Q4 With analysts expecting SCM software spending to rebound in Q3 and Q4, vendors are sharpening their knives for a lunge at the supply chain pie. Which one will pull out the plum? August 6, 2001 SAP - A Humble Giant From The Reality Land?         Part 4: SAP's Strategy It appears as though SAP feels confident now that its software solutions outside of its core ERP can stand on their own and attract new customers. August 3, 2001 SAP – A Humble Giant From The Reality Land?         Part 3: Market Impact SAP's decision to be more open and flexible was both wise and pragmatic. SAP now can afford to compete on a component per component basis, having basically reached its limit in capturing most of large customers in the market with an integrated product suite. August 2, 2001 SCT and G-Log Form Alliance For Collaborative Logistics in the Process Industries G-Log, a leader in collaborative logistics, and SCT, a leader in enterprise applications for the process industries, have joined forces to bring together their products and expertise for the process enterprise. August 1, 2001 SAP - A Humble Giant From The Reality Land?         Part 2: Expanding Functionality During its international e-business conference, SAPPHIRE, SAP displayed a bullish attitude, contradicting the current market malaise. SAP touts a multi-pronged answer to prevailing heterogeneous IT environments. The company is staking its future on five pillars - exchanges, portals and the three extended-ERP applications: customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and product life-cycle management (PLM).   July 2001 July 31, 2001 Lawson Software Means Business With PSA and IPO By acquiring a leading PSA vendor and deciding to go public, in addition to the new functional and technological enhancements to its flagship lawson.insight suite due in August, Lawson Software continues to boldly challenge bigger competitors, primarily PeopleSoft and Oracle. July 30, 2001 SAP - A Humble Giant From The Reality Land?         Part 1: Alliances During its international e-business conference, SAPPHIRE, SAP displayed a bullish attitude, contradicting the current market malaise. Expanding outside its traditional ERP stronghold into five attractive technology areas, as well as the realization that no vendor can be ‘all things to all people’ might be the necessary ingredients of the formula for future SAP success. July 26, 2001 Nortel and Clarify: Was There Ever Synergy Enough to Support this Marriage? Back in 1999, when Nortel was on a buying spree and reeling in record profits, it plunked down US$2.1 billion dollars for Clarify Inc., a leader in the CRM space that was bringing in $250 million in revenues annually. Now, in July of 2001, with Nortel expecting losses in the order of US$19.2 billion, Clarify may be jettisoned at a significant loss. July 24, 2001 PeopleSoft Supply Chain Is Music To Mid Market Ears PeopleSoft has once again proven the naysayers wrong about its ability to sell supply chain management. Its Accelerated Supply Chain Management offering bundles core e-business functionality into a scaled down package for the mid market, a segment that not even SCM market leader i2 has conquered. July 19, 2001 It Is Possible - SAP And Baan Strange Bedfellows Baan keeps on showing us wonders are still possible. The OEM alliance with its nemesis SAP was all but inconceivable a year ago. July 18, 2001 Identifying the ROI of a Software Application for Supply Chain Management         Part 4: Just Give Us the Bottom Line Managers weighing an investment in software for supply chain face pressure to be right. Looking for a precise calculation of ROI often results in making an uninformed decision. Part four discusses the difficulty in predicting the future. July 17, 2001 Identifying the ROI of a Software Application for SCM         Part 3: Performing the Data Analysis By using software tools that help you forecast and work together with others inside your organization, and even with your customers, the forecasts may become more accurate. You can make an assumption on how much improvement might be possible. This part discusses the challenge of performing the data analysis. July 17, 2001 SupplyChain.Oracle.com And The 20-Day Implementation In their zeal to convince buyers that their products are easy to implement, vendors are making extraordinary claims. But as the old saw goes, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. July 16, 2001 Identifying the ROI of a Software Application for SCM         Part 2: We Are Looking for the Vendor To Tell Us Managers weighing an investment in software for supply chain face pressure to be right. Looking for a precise calculation of ROI often results in making an uninformed decision. This part discusses what to do when business analysis skills are lacking. July 13, 2001 Identifying the ROI of a Software Application for SCM         Part 1: We Need To Know Now If you are not experiencing organizational stress in some of the areas where the benefits may occur, then perhaps a decision to invest in supply chain management software should be postponed. If you do have some pain in one or more of these areas, then you can follow the concepts in this article to understand the potential of supply chain management software to fix the cause of the pain and improve your bottom line. This part discusses the challenge of limited time to perform analysis. July 12, 2001 Oracle Claims The Worst Is Over And Turns To KISS For A Boost         Part 3: The Challenge of Gaining Competitive Advantage Increased competitive pressure on many fronts, and lingering mixed perceptions about the 11i Applications suite, leaves Oracle at a crossroads for sustaining the momentum it had the last year. July 11, 2001 Oracle Claims The Worst Is Over And Turns To KISS For A Boost         Part 2: The Implications Oracle indeed remains one of the largest and the most respected (or loved to be hated) software companies, with an unbroken profitability track and a strong balance sheet. However, it is apparent that the company is running out of steam, and to attribute it solely to the slowing economy, simply will not fly. July 10, 2001 Oracle Claims The Worst Is Over And Turns To KISS For A Boost         Part 1: The News Oracle seems to have been trying hard to find a magic formula to ramp up its declining applications revenue. Targeting the lower end of the market with the simplicity hymn might be a part of the solution - provided that the approach is well tuned. July 9, 2001 New Era of Networks Gets Blinded By the NEON A recent ruling by a judge in the 268th Judicial District Court in Texas has upheld a jury verdict that awarded NEON Systems $39 million in damages against New Era of Networks, which, the jury found, had a nasty habit of abbreviating 'New Era of Networks' as, guess what, Neon. If upheld on appeal, this ruling will cause the new e-business division of Sybase a lot of administrative grief and expense (not to mention the money from the jury award). July 6, 2001 NavisionDamgaard Reverts To Navision, But In Name Only Recent product releases and a profitable quarterly report from Navision, a recently merger-formed and rebranded Danish provider of enterprise business solutions for mid-sized companies, could be telling us that the company has been unfazed by the merger with Damgaard and the current difficult economic conditions. July 5, 2001 J.D. Edwards' QUEST To End Its String Of Pyrrhic Victories         Part 2: The Implications During this year's FOCUS conference for its QUEST User Group, J.D. Edwards demonstrated somewhat more galvanized strategy than the one it initiated and less successfully executed during the last year. With its renewed mid-enterprise focus and commitment to deliver customer-driven solutions, the company seems to be going back to its mid-market roots. The new initiatives and the profitability are steps in the right direction, but the market will have a close eye on new license sales July 3, 2001 J.D. Edwards' QUEST To End Its String Of Pyrrhic Victories         Part 1: The News J.D. Edwards has been trying hard to reverse a continuing decline of license revenue, which is in a sharp contrast to its direct competitors’ upbeat postures. During this year's FOCUS conference for its QUEST User Group, J.D. Edwards demonstrated somewhat more galvanized strategy than the one it initiated and less successfully executed during the last year. With its renewed mid-enterprise focus and commitment to deliver customer-driven solutions, the company seems to be going back to its mid-market roots. July 2, 2001 Baan Achieves A Speedy Recovery Despite The Tough Times Baan might be showing us that miracles are still possible. Will in 2001 the market witness the textbook-case of turning around the previously badly mismanaged company?   June 2001 June 29, 2001 Entrada Brings New MOTIVAtion to Market The acquisition of Motiva Software allows Entrada to offer a greater complement of applications for the complex discrete manufacturing industry. June 28, 2001 HighJump Software Guarantees Fixed Prices In addition to offering buyers a fixed price guarantee for upgrades to its SCE software, HighJump is challenging competitors to do the same. June 27, 2001 PeopleSoft: Giving Fervent Hope To The Market And Jitters To The Competition.         Part 2: The Implications PeopleSoft has joined the elite group of vendors that can deliver a majority of the components of a complete e-business framework. If one considers all aspects of a CRM or SCM evaluation, PeopleSoft has earned the license to be evaluated along with market leaders. June 26, 2001 PeopleSoft: Giving Fervent Hope To The Market And Jitters To The Competition.         Part 1: The News PeopleSoft is seeking to make bigger strides in the CRM, SCM and B2B software markets with its recent spate of product releases. While Wall Street praises the vendor’s new product initiatives and its strong first quarter results and optimism for the future, its direct competitors are far from feeling easy. June 25, 2001 The Application Server War Escalates At JavaOne in San Francisco, a battle ensued between BEA Systems CEO Bill Coleman, and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. In a truly ugly display of how contentious the application server market has become, they argued over whose product was better, faster, cheaper. The keynote was so rife with charges and countercharges that they had to hold an after-keynote press conference to explain themselves. June 22, 2001 ERP Selection Case Study Audio Conference Transcript This is the transcript of an audio conference conducted by TEC on May 22 and again on May 30. The conference discussed the recent experiences of TEC consultants in conducting an ERP Selection. June 21, 2001 Fed Gives ERP A Shot In The Arm There has been a hubbub in the public sector, with all major players fiercely competing and eventually winning important new federal contracts, primarily for components of enterprise applications. This strong government interest in ERP applications might explain a number of recent pundits’ retractions or downplaying of once brave and visionary statements of ERP obsolescence. June 20, 2001 Trigo Helps Suppliers Connect Trigo believes that suppliers want help in managing online customers and has the survey results to prove it. June 18, 2001 Will QAD Finally Get The Break (-Even)? On May 30, QAD reported financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2002. Although not quite turning the corner, the business seems to be stabilizing against the backdrop of the economic slowdown, the fierce competition from the bigger vendors and the plight of many of its peers. June 15, 2001 IFS' Tamed Growth + Continued Losses + Increased Competitors' Lobby Talk = Decreased Customer Confidence While IFS has become a notable global competitor as witnessed in the Computerworld IT Company of the Year award in Brazil, it has been showing signs of stalling in the important North American market primarily owing to protracted losses and increased 'lobby talk' campaigns from incumbent mighty vendors. June 14, 2001 ecFood Approaches Profitability - An Internet Trading Exchange Bright Spot Focused on the sourcing needs of the food and beverage industry, ecFood has announced $50 million in transactions during the first quarter of 2001 with its sights set on profitability by the end of the year. June 12, 2001 Lawson Asserts Itself, Draws A Bead On Bigger Players With the new functional and technological enhancements to its flagship suite due in August, Lawson Software throws a gauntlet to direct, bigger competitors, primarily PeopleSoft. June 11, 2001 ROI Systems - A Little ERP Fellow That Gets By ROI Systems continues its disciplined new technology adoption. The moderation component of its strategy has been paying off, which proves crucial these days when many of its peers that have traditionally had more exciting and flashy products are facing the crunch. June 8, 2001 The ''Old ERP'' Dilemma: Replace or Add-on Replace or Add-on to an aging ERP system is a dilemma faced by many companies today. This article discusses the trade-offs involved in making that decision. June 7, 2001 PeopleSoft - Catching Its Second Wind From The Internet         Part 3: Predictions and Recommendations Now that PeopleSoft has a pure Internet platform, a new set of products and a new assertive attitude, it faces strong retaliatory actions from the competition. Can it achieve number two in the ERP space? June 6, 2001 PeopleSoft - Catching Its Second Wind From The Internet         Part 2: Strengths and Challenges PeopleSoft invested two years and over a half billion dollars to develop new Internet-based enterprise applications. It now has a pure Internet platform a new set of products and a new assertive attitude. This part examines the strengths and challenges PeopleSoft now faces in today’s cutthroat competitive environment. June 5, 2001 Latest Development on Epicor's Trying The Divestiture Tack Even as TEC analyzed Epicor's sale of its Impresa for MRO division, Epicor announced the sale of its Platinum for Windows (PFW) product line. Plagued by depleted revenues and continued hefty losses amid a difficult market situation, Epicor is trying to pull some other beleaguered competitors' trick - the sale of non-core parts of the business. June 5, 2001 PeopleSoft - Catching Its Second Wind From The Internet         Part 1: About PeopleSoft PeopleSoft, once a high flyer owing to its congenial culture and slick ERP product, has invested two years and over a half billion dollars to develop a number of new, Internet-based enterprise applications that have apparently propelled it back on the enterprise applications top chart. It has now emerged with a pure Internet platform, a new set of products and a new assertive attitude that will prompt strong retaliatory actions from the competition. June 4, 2001 EAI Vendor MITEM Integrates Legacy Systems With Siebel MITEM Corporation has announced that its legacy application integration software MitemView 5.3 has been validated by Siebel Systems for its Siebel eBusiness Applications. As more EAI vendors vie for market share, having their connectors/adapters certified by the vendor of the target application may become a key to product sales and competitive advantage. June 1, 2001 Epicor To Try The Divestiture Tack, Too Plagued by depleted revenues and continued hefty losses amid a difficult market situation, Epicor is trying to pull some other beleaguered competitors' trick - the selling of non-core parts of the business.   May 2001 May 31, 2001 A Case Study and Tutorial in Using IT Knowledge Based Tools         Part 2: A Tutorial This tutorial, part 2 of a two part series on Knowledge Based Selection, demonstrates the selection processes and capabilities of Knowledge Based Selection Methods and Tools. These tools, integrated with business decision making procedures, can arguably reduce selection risk and improve chances for success in IT projects. Given the appalling rate of IT project failures, selection can potentially help reduce risk in some 30% of cases, with an associated estimated cost of about $30B annually to industry according to some sources. In this tutorial, we illustrate a number of the procedures for rapid decision processing through the real-life selection of a PDA device. The process gave confidence to the argument to wait for the solution, while weighing risk against return. May 30, 2001 A Case Study and Tutorial in Using IT Knowledge Based Tools         Part 1: Decision Support Discussion In going through a business decision process for complex technology selections, more and more use is being made of technologically driven processes using Decision support tools and captured knowledge. The use of these systems and the capability to drive a solution from them assumes an ability to accurately express business requirements and business value within these tools. In this article, we explore the marriage of knowledge management and decision support in forming knowledge based selection systems and procedures that can assist in reducing the current appalling record of IT project failures. This is illustrated by the process to select a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). May 29, 2001 i2 Now Serving B2B Suppliers i2 Supplier Enablement will help make suppliers’ lives easier but is only part of the answer. May 25, 2001 Knosys Seeks Clarity With A Name Change Knosys, Inc. has announced that it has changed its company name to ProClarity Corporation. The goal of the name change is to leverage the strength of the ProClarity product line and to align its corporate and product brand identities. The company also announced the release of ProClarity 4.0, the latest version of their analytic platform. May 24, 2001 MAPICS Clings To Its Customers' Loyalty While the existing loyal client base remains MAPICS’ greatest trump for retaining its solid financial position, the company will have to figure out how to be more effective in selling beyond the existing base for the long-term success in the market. May 22, 2001 Is Ross Systems Up To A Hat Trick? Ross Systems, the struggling ERP vendor that many have all but written off, might be voicing with its second consecutive profitable quarter that ‘the fat lady has not sung’ as yet. May 21, 2001 Analyst / SCT Share Vision at SCT User Conference The SCT User Conference featured industry analysts from Gartner Group, AMR Research and Meta Group each sharing its vision for the future of enterprise systems with the audience. Customers, in special interest groups and in presentations discussed their success with SCT’s products. SCT showed both their existing product set plus their vision for the future with a series of product announcements and prototypes of future products. May 18, 2001 Computer Associates Jasmineii - When Is A Portal Not Just A Portal? Computer Associates International, Inc. has announced the availability of Jasmine<I>ii</I> Portal 3.0, the latest version of its portal technology. The product also functions as a front-end to the complete Jasmine<I>ii</I> architecture, which is a fairly complete Application Integration framework. Why don't customers know CA does Application Integration? CA is still working on that one. May 17, 2001 SAP Remains One Of The Market’s Beacons Of Hope On April 19, SAP announced upbeat results for Q1 2001, contradicting thereby the current market malaise. However, flat currency adjusted license revenue in the US and expected cascading economic slowdown from the US to other markets, may feel like a cutthroat competition, a loss of market share and the fact that not all troubles have been overcome. May 16, 2001 Hewlett Packard Makes Multiple Moves in Middleware In recent days, Hewlett Packard has announced agreements for strategic alliances, technology licensing, and/or joint product development of middleware products with TIBCO Software, IONA Technologies, and webMethods. Industry rumors indicate that HP is trying to acquire an EAI vendor to complete its push towards a complete application server product. Who will it be? May 11, 2001 The Mid-Market Is Consolidating, Lo And Behold While the higher end of the business applications market has experienced only limited merger & acquisition activity during 2000 (mainly seen in ERP losers been devoured by ERP outsiders), the mid-market has seen more vibrant intra-market activity, which particularly accelerated during the first few months of 2001. The serial is to be continued… May 8, 2001 i2 Bleeds In Shark-Infested Waters What a difference a year makes. Two months after the Nike debacle, more than a dozen class action lawsuits for securities fraud are now pending in federal and state courts. Will the SCM vendor find a safe harbor, sink to the bottom, or tread water through 2001? May 7, 2001 SSA Acquires MAX Hoping To Leap From Its MIN In order to return from oblivion SSA continues with more decisive moves to put itself back on the global enterprise applications map. Renaming itself as SSA Global Technologies (SSA GT) was one of the moves. It has recently acquired MAX International, a move to expand its offerings into the small and medium enterprise market. Will the market witness another Baan-like resurrection of a fallen ERP vendor? May 4, 2001 McHugh Software’s DigitaLogistix Built On Strong Foundation For the past 25 years, McHugh Software has quietly plied the supply chain execution trade. Its new DigitaLogistix suite successfully marries traditional and next-generation applications, giving the company a reason to shout. May 3, 2001 SAPped Catalyst Warns in Wake of CEO Departure McGowan’s departure is the latest in a series of reorganizations and management changes that has left the future of the $35 million vendor in doubt. May 2, 2001 IBM Buys What’s Left of Informix In another sign of consolidation within the database vendor market, IBM has announced that they are acquiring the assets of Informix Software (the database portion of Informix Corporation, which remained after the spin-off of Informix Business Solutions into Ascential Software). IBM intends to use the acquisition to improve their presence in distributed databases, and increase penetration in the small-to-medium enterprise market. May 1, 2001 How Great Is Great Plains' Manufacturing Offering (Did Somebody Say Microsoft)? Great Plains informed us during its Convergence 2001 annual user conference about its initial strides into the discrete manufacturing market. The following is our view of Great Plains’ odds of success in this particular endeavor.   April 2001 April 30, 2001 SCT Corporation Means (e)Business For Process Manufacturing SCT has announced more e-commerce offerings for the process industries, including an expanded vision for their iProcess.sct solution called 'Collaboration in Process' which is based on recognition that process manufacturers and distributors will increasingly go to market as members of competing commerce networks. New product announcements include additional e-CRM capabilities, and an announced relationship with IBM that combines SCT’s products with IBM’s hardware, software, and services. April 27, 2001 Where Is ERP Headed (Or Better, Where Should It Be Headed)?         Part 4: ASP’s and New Pricing Models This final note discusses how Application Service Providers (ASPs) have arisen on the Internet in response to such ERP woes as support expenses, misbehaving applications, and server downtime, and how as the nature of ERP software evolves into services and/or hosted models, the market might be experiencing the beginning of the end of user-based licensing. There are also User Recommendations. April 26, 2001 Invensys Announces New Division - Baan Process Invensys has announced a new division, Baan Process Solutions Group (BPSG), which combines the PRISM and Protean process ERP products with the Baan Dimensions and Baan IV Process products. The announcements also include integration of a series of additional Baan modules for PRISM and Protean. The modules include products in the areas of Business Intelligence, Customer Relationship Management, e-business (procurement and sales) and Supply Chain Management. April 25, 2001 Where Is ERP Headed (Or Better, Where Should It Be Headed)?         Part 3: E-Business and Mid-Market Shakeout This note discusses how ERP-driven e-business will have to extend well beyond providing business partners self-service portlets. It will have to allow trading partners not only order status tracking but also the enterprise plans and conditions down to plant level for more efficient two-way interaction and support. It also discusses how consolidation, mergers and acquisitions among ERP vendors is expected to intensify. April 24, 2001 Geac Decomposes To Survive Geac, a struggling Canadian enterprise applications vendor has not found its white knight. It will, for the time being, have to sell parts of its business in order to replenish its dwindling resources, which may cause further commotion within its large customer base. Things won’t settle down until the company unequivocally states the strategy for all remaining product lines. April 23, 2001 Formation Systems Pioneers Product Design Collaboration For The Process Industries Process manufacturing’s daunting mix of constraints has kept many software vendors away. Privately held Formation Systems takes up the challenge with Optiva, a suite targeted at cost-saving opportunities in the product development cycle. April 20, 2001 Where Is ERP Headed (Or Better, Where Should It Be Headed)?         Part 2: Product Architecture and Web-Basing This note discusses how a flexible and agile ERP system needs an adaptable architecture, how easy integration to 3rd-party applications has become a key selling point for ERP vendors, and how extending ERP to the Internet stems from the intent of many IT organizations not to reinvent the wheel in their scramble to create e-commerce applications. April 19, 2001 EDI and XML Integration: Vitria Buys XMLSolutions In a move designed to further its efforts in integrating EDI and XML, Vitria has announced the purchase of XMLSolutions Corporation. Given that the market for EDI business collaboration is huge, and that XML is the up and coming (and lower cost) standard, we expect the ability to translate bi-directionally between either format will become hugely popular. April 18, 2001 Where Is ERP Headed (Or Better, Where Should It Be Headed)?         Part 1: Functional Scope and Vertical Focus ERP applications are the information backbone for contemporary manufacturing enterprises. This note identifies current trends in the ERP market that we believe businesses that are both current and potential ERP users should be cognizant of in order to appropriately manage their expectations. April 17, 2001 SAP Acquires TopTier To Further Broaden Its Horizons In a move designed to increase its presence in enterprise portals and integrated business intelligence, SAP AG has announced an agreement to purchase TopTier Software for approximately $400 million USD in cash. TopTier’s products are already integrated with SAP’s mySAP Workplace, so the acquisition should be painless and have little negative effect on SAP’s 2001 earnings per share. April 16, 2001 Oracle Sails Slower In The Low Tide, But Mayday Signal Is Quite Far-Fetched For a longer time than most of its competitors, Oracle seemed to have defied a global economic slowdown. The 64,000 dollar question is whether Oracle’s tamed results are completely attributable to the slowing economy, or do the problems run deeper. April 16, 2001 TIBCO Announces Results That Are 'Better Than Worse Than Expected' TIBCO Software is the latest software vendor to report that they are following a new trend in the stock market: reporting results that exceed lowered analyst expectations. Other vendors have also had a problem with missed numbers and there can be a great opportunity here for savvy customers. April 13, 2001 IFS Aspires To Capture North American Market Against The Low Tide IFS has been striving, and apparently succeeding, to shed its "ERP dark horse" aura and become a formidable competitor within the North American market. However, still undeveloped channel and market awareness, bundled with significant losses and likely retaliatory campaigns from incumbent vendors will present hurdles to be overcome. April 12, 2001 Sagent Improves Its Image With SAS Partnership Sagent has recently announced a strategic agreement with the SAS Institute, a market leader in analytics and CRM software, to integrate and license select SAS software within its business intelligence solutions. Through a partnership with SAS, Sagent gains additional creditability in the market and SAS gains access to Sagent’s mid-market customer base. April 10, 2001 Seagate Software 'Crystallizes' Its New Name: Crystal Decisions Seagate Software has announced a new chapter in its corporate history by changing its name to Crystal Decisions. Crystal Decisions is an information infrastructure company that is a market leader in business intelligence, specifically for query and reporting tools. The new name reflects that of its flagship product, Crystal Reports. April 9, 2001 Is Intentia Truly Industry’s First In Food Traceability? With the acquisition of 49% of the Norwegian software company Scase, Intentia claims to be the first Enterprise Applications provider to offer an integrated system for origin tracing of food items. The announcement provides potential benefits for the livestock processing industry in the EU, but enterprises that are neither in the processing of livestock nor part of the EU will see limited application. April 6, 2001 QAD Finally Breaks The Red Ink Streak, But… On March 13, QAD reported financial results for fiscal 2001. Although the company finally posted a profit in the last quarter, the sharp revenue decline and still outstanding product delivery may mean that the dark clouds will hang over it for a while. April 5, 2001 Informatica PowerCenter 5 Enables Enterprise Data Integration Informatica Corporation’s Informatica PowerCenter 5 is a platform for integrating data to be deployed in e-Business applications, analytic applications and data warehouses, including a wide range of data sources, from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems such as SAP R/3 and PeopleSoft, to web logs and Siebel applications. Market validation of its offerings is shown in a record Q4 of 2000, with a 150% increase in revenue over the previous year. April 3, 2001 EAI Market Consolidation Continues With Peregrine Acquisition of Extricity Peregrine Systems, Inc. a provider of Electronic Market Enablement and Infrastructure Management solutions, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Extricity, Inc. Extricity will contribute its B2B relationship management software as Peregrine creates a digital business offering that provides a full range of software products and managed Internet services using Peregrine’s Get2Connect global trading network. April 2, 2001 Epicor Software Corp.: Completing Painstaking ''e''Volution         Part 2: Evaluating Epicor Fiscal 2001 will prove to be very challenging for Epicor Software and we believe the next 18 months will be the company's make-or-break period. This part examines how successful Epicor has been in completing its evolution from a vendor of financial accounting software to a provider of holistic business performance solutions, including integrated front office, back office and e-business capabilities.   March 2001 March 30, 2001 J.D. Edwards Saved By SCM, Narrowly, And Only For Now On March 5, J.D. Edwards reported financial results for Q1 2001. Although the company posted a symbolic profit, the revenue decline begs the question why the company seems to be in a doldrums at the same time when its competitors seem to be upbeat. March 30, 2001 Epicor Software Corp.: Completing Painstaking ''e''Volution         Part 1: About Epicor Epicor Software is one of the first vendors and possibly the only mid-market vendor able to natively embrace customer and supplier activities tied to a core transactional back-office system. Fiscal 2001 will prove to be very challenging for Epicor Software and we believe the next 18 months will be the company's make-or-break period. March 29, 2001 Nike Blames i2 For Finish In Losers Bracket The sports apparel maker’s Big Bang implementation was more than it could chew. March 27, 2001 Stalled Navision + Mixed Bag Damgaard = Satisfactory NavisionDamgaard In February, NavisionDamgaard, a recently merger-formed Danish provider of enterprise business solutions for mid-sized companies, released its first semi-annual report. While the merger has produced satisfactory initial results, the future nevertheless bears challenges. March 26, 2001 i2 Buys RightWorks, Deals Blow To Ariba, Manugistics i2 buys e-procurement vendor RightWorks as it and old supply chain rival Manugistics increasingly find themselves fending off new challengers. Shared adversity can sometimes make enemies into allies. But in this case… March 26, 2001 Enterprise Impact Simulation - Making It Happen Before c-commerce bad estimates and unintended impacts were issues businesses managed. Cost and schedule overruns and disruptions to the business caused by IT projects were an internal affair. Not any more. Not when the business participates in a c-commerce alliance. EIS brings a new IT operating model, which will transform IT software development into a true engineering discipline. March 23, 2001 IT Services E-Procurement E-procurement is not just for goods and material. The market now offers IT services e-procurement solutions that open access to service sources and seek to optimize the service chain. What are these solutions and how do they work? March 22, 2001 Infinium Attempts To Better Gain Some Markets' Ear While 2000 was a difficult year for Infinium, resulting in a focus shift and significant restructuring, the company entered 2001 with an expanded product offering and the determination to gain more visibility within its target markets. March 20, 2001 Industri-Matematik Joins The Portal Market Portals foster collaboration by making it easy for participants to access the system. As with any relatively new technology, prospects should kick the tires and take a test spin before buying. March 20, 2001 IONA Purchases Netfish Technologies (And Much, Much More) As the last step in a long list of acquisitions, IONA Technologies has purchased Netfish Technologies, a provider of integrated XML-based B2B process collaboration solutions. This acquisition, along with six others including the Sagavista EAI technology, completes IONA’s strategy to create a Total Business Integration™ solution with the IONA Suite. March 19, 2001 MAPICS XA Expands BI Offering Through Partnership With Vanguard MAPICS XA expands its Business Intelligence (BI) offerings via a partnership with the Vanguard Solutions Group. With GPS, MAPICS has taken a critical step forward in creating value for its customers. March 16, 2001 Has Intentia Turned The Corner? Almost. There is, at long last, an upbeat announcement from Intentia. It has all but turned the corner, with both a new product portfolio and a rapid increase in license revenue. The company finally seems to be achieving expansion concurrently with achieving profitability. March 15, 2001 An Overview of the Knowledge Based Selection Process The TechnologyEvaluation.Com’s (TEC) Knowledge Based Selection Process is a multi-part comprehensive analysis of a vendor’s tactical, strategic and qualitative measures as compared to the specific business and technology needs of our clients. March 14, 2001 Knowledge Based Selections Knowledge Based Selections allow companies to truly reach an optimum and justifiable technology decision. Knowledge Based Selections have several unique characteristics that enable a company to rapidly and effectively marry internal business requirements with a myriad of vendor attributes that relate to both product performance and long-term value to clients. March 13, 2001 Ross Systems Closes Ranks For A (Possible) Turnaround Ross Systems, the struggling ERP vendor that many have all but written off, might be telling us with its recent moves that it has not said its last word as yet. March 12, 2001 NAPM Puts The Spotlight On Change TEC VP, James F. Dowling is quoted in the National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM) magazine Purchasing Today on the meaning of “Value”. The quote was in the context of how the understanding of the meanings of words change over time. March 12, 2001 Reduce IT Procurement Time And Risk All one has to do to get with the best product at the best price is to identify every requirement, find a product that meets all of the criteria, negotiate the best price and get it all done before the product becomes obsolete or the supplier goes out of business. Many successful and not so successful selections have been made. Learn from those efforts and remove time and risk from your next selection. March 9, 2001 PeopleSoft Plays Hardball No more a nice guy with PeopleSoft! Its strong Q4 2000 results and alleged string of wins over its direct competitors have stirred up some emotions and knee-jerk dismissive reactions. Whatever the case may be, look for a vigorous PeopleSoft participation in many future software selection deals. March 8, 2001 Manugistics and Agile Make it Official on Valentine’s Day The new couple will combine strengths in enterprise profit optimization and product content management. March 8, 2001 A New Era Dawns for Sybase Sybase, Inc. has announced an agreement to acquire New Era of Networks (also known as NEON). After completion, Sybase will create a new e-Business division integrating NEON and other parts of its product suite. Within the last month, Sybase has announced record earnings and completed a three-year re-engineering effort to transform themselves from a database vendor to an e-Business infrastructure provider. March 7, 2001 Enterprise Impact Simulation Alliances - At The Core Of EIS C-commerce alliances are primary drivers of the demand for the predictive capabilities of Enterprise Impact Simulation. Information about IT systems is becoming more valuable than the systems themselves because it is our entry fee to the alliance model, and admission to the alliance is a prerequisite for survival of the business. IT organizations should move quickly to satisfy the new value proposition their companies require of them. March 7, 2001 Evolutionary Technologies Does EAI (Always Did, We Just Didn’t Call It That) Evolutionary Technologies (ETI) has announced the newest release of their flagship product, ETI•EXTRACT Tool Suite Release 4.2. ETI·Extract has long been well known as an ETL (extract/transform/load) tool, only recently have companies begun to realize that data extraction and consolidation are key underpinnings for EAI efforts, proven by the fact that ETI’s year-over-year Q4 revenue in the Americas increased by 20%. March 6, 2001 Information Builders Did It iWay Information Builders plans to spin off its middleware technology group (which develops and supports the EDA middleware product) into a new wholly owned subsidiary named iWay Software. The move is supposed to allow Information Builders (IBI) to concentrate on the WebFocus and Focus business intelligence products, while allowing iWay to handle e-business integration. March 5, 2001 GMAC Web-Enables Legacy Data With NEON Systems Shadow Direct GMAC is pushing for enterprise-wide web enablement of existing IT assets to support customer self-service platforms. NEON Systems’ Shadow Direct product gives them access to legacy ADABAS databases in a real-time Internet environment. March 2, 2001 Is Made2Manage Made2Survive? Seems So. While Made2Manage reported its second consecutive annual loss in 2000, the latest license income increase and a number of innovative initiatives might augur for the company’s return to profitability and surviving the impending shakeout in the market. March 1, 2001 FreeMarkets’ Surprise Acquisition of Adexa Leaves Many Heads Shaking The direct sourcing vendor’s move may have adverse side effects for investors and customers.   February 2001 February 28, 2001 Enterprise Impact Simulation An IT Revolution In The Making The IT industry is ripe for a revolution. For years the IT executive’s job has been to give the business units the tools they need to run the business. Today, more and more, the IT organization is the business. Enterprise Impact Simulation will give IT executives the capabilities they need to accurately predict the impacts of change. February 27, 2001 Business Objects Teams With TopTier For Analytics Business Objects and TopTier Software have teamed to provide a unified enterprise portal to unite ERP, CRM, and supply chain information with business intelligence. Given that the market for analytical applications is estimated to mushroom at a compound annual growth rate of 28 percent to more than $6 billion in 2004 (source: IDC), these vendors are in the right place at the right time (and so is everybody else). February 26, 2001 New Dimensions in EC and SCM         Part 5: E-Procurement for Process Improvement From point-and-click ordering using Web-based catalogs of individual suppliers, to marketplaces that bring together in one place the products or services offered by multiple suppliers, to live auctions that determine the lowest-price bidder — there is a wide range of new e-procurement methods and tools to help businesses buy goods and services better, faster, and cheaper. February 26, 2001 Frontstep (Nee Symix Systems) A Step Closer To A Turnaround While Frontstep reported its fourth consecutive loss in Q2 2001, which was also the first quarter the company operated under the new name, the latest license income increase and success in balancing product/services offerings mix, might bode well for the company’s return to profitability. February 23, 2001 New Dimensions in EC and SCM         Part 4: Using E-Procurement to Leverage Volume A straightforward way to drive prices down and obtain increased supplier attention is to leverage total purchasing volume through Internet-based auctions. This part addresses the implications of using e-procurement to Leverage Volume, including leveraging volume through outsourcing. February 22, 2001 Small ERP Vendors Missing The ASP Boat Our experience from conducting dozens of ERP software selection engagements recently teaches us that some number of smaller enterprises, first-time ERP buyers, opt for an ASP. Surprising, however was that an even more significant number of incumbent mid-market vendors by not addressing this trend have been handing over a big opportunity to their bigger brethren. February 21, 2001 New Dimensions in EC and SCM         Part 3: E-Procurement Can Broaden the Supplier Pool From point-and-click ordering using Web-based catalogs of individual suppliers, to marketplaces that bring together in one place the products or services offered by multiple suppliers, to live auctions that determine the lowest-price bidder — there is a wide range of new e-procurement methods and tools to help businesses buy goods and services better, faster, and cheaper. February 19, 2001 Sun’s Java Won’t Be In Microsoft’s .NET – Complicate Your Integration? You .BET Sun and Microsoft have announced a settlement in Sun’s lawsuit regarding Microsoft’s use of Java technology. Microsoft was given the choice of conforming to the Java standard or opting out and they chose to opt out. Under terms of the agreement Microsoft cannot use Java in their forthcoming .NET initiative. Of course both vendors claim victory, but inevitably it will be the customer who loses. February 16, 2001 New Dimensions in EC and SCM         Part 2: The Efficiency Gains of E-Procurement From point-and-click ordering using Web-based catalogs of individual suppliers, to marketplaces that bring together in one place the products or services offered by multiple suppliers, to live auctions that determine the lowest-price bidder — there is a wide range of new e-procurement methods and tools to help businesses buy goods and services better, faster, and cheaper. February 15, 2001 Metagenix Reverse Engineers Data Into Information Metagenix’ MetaRecon reverse engineers metadata information by examining the raw data contained in the source(s) rather than depending on the data dictionaries of the existing legacy systems (which are often incorrect). Other unique Metagenix approaches include an "open book" policy, which includes publishing product price lists on their web site and complete access to company officials, including CEO and President Greg Leman. According to Mr. Leman, "we’re pathologically honest". February 14, 2001 New Dimensions in EC and SCM         Part 1: The Benefits of E-Procurement From point-and-click ordering using Web-based catalogs of individual suppliers, to marketplaces that bring together in one place the products or services offered by multiple suppliers, to live auctions that determine the lowest-price bidder — there is a wide range of new e-procurement methods and tools to help businesses buy goods and services better, faster, and cheaper. February 13, 2001 SAP Defies Economic Slowdown, For Now In January, SAP announced upbeat results for Q4 2000, in contrast to the current market slowdown. However, 8% license revenue growth in North America is much less compared to recent reports from its direct competitors, indicating a possible loss of market share and the fact that not all troubles have been left behind. February 9, 2001 Legal ASP Persists In May 2000, TEC reviewed the web site for ASPORA, an ASP aimed at the Legal Community and found it wanting in substance. This is a revisit to that web site at the company’s invitation. February 8, 2001 Can Lilly Software Get More VISUAL? Lilly Software’s financial success and double-digit revenue growth during the recent years have been attributable to its strong offerings and efficient distribution model for its target niche. However, the future is not going to be quite so bright unless the company overcomes serious challenges. February 6, 2001 Fourth Shift Hopes To Thrive On China’s Greener Pastures January has marked increased PR activity at Fourth Shift, with mixed, bittersweet announcements. While 2000 was a disappointing year, mostly owing to the 26.5% license revenue decline compared to a year ago, the latest product release and success in markets outside of the reach of bigger competitors, bodes well for a brighter future. February 5, 2001 ERP Beginner's Guide In So Many Words ERP remains the information backbone for contemporary manufacturing enterprises. However, today's ERP systems are required to address more than traditional processes taking place within the walls of an enterprise. This is a concise ERP reference guide for anyone needing a general knowledge of ERP features and the ramifications of implementing it (or not). February 2, 2001 Wrong ERP Demise Predictions Have (Only Partly) Created Skills Shortage With so much frenzy surrounding e-business and CRM applications, ERP may be a far cry from its halcyon days. However, ERP implementation skills are still in demand, particularly as a foundation and a facilitator to other sexier applications. February 1, 2001 PeopleSoft Joins The Hunt For SMEs There has been significant hubbub in the mid-market, with all Tier 1 players delivering solutions tailored for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). PeopleSoft joins the fray with its recent announcements.   December 2001 December 28, 2001 Besieged By The CRM Throne Aspirants, King Siebel Delivers ''The Magic No.7''         Part 2: Market Impact Will the long awaited Siebel 7 product release help the until recently undisputed CRM leader withstand the pressure from ERP giants – SAP, Oracle and PeopleSoft? December 25, 2001 Enterprise Financial Application Software: How Some of the Big ERP Vendors Stack Up Contrary to what vendors may contend, not all of them are able to supply a cost effective solution that satisfies the critical requirements of an organization. In this case study from a recent selection engagement for a large series book publisher, we size up Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Lawson in terms of corporate viability, vision, product functionality, technology, and cost. December 22, 2001 Social Engineering Can Thwart the Best Laid Security Plans There are a lot of different social engineering techniques, but they all have the same basic idea. The trick behind social engineering is to get the user to give up valuable information without them suspecting anything. December 22, 2001 Application Single-Sign On: Netegrity, Securant, or Evidian? As security breaches become increasingly more frequent, minimizing user access to back-end systems and web applications without impacting legitimate usage is more important than ever before. December 21, 2001 Besieged By The CRM Throne Aspirants, King Siebel Delivers 'The Magic No.7' Will the long awaited Siebel 7 product release help the until recently undisputed CRM leader withstand the pressure from ERP giants – SAP, Oracle and PeopleSoft? December 20, 2001 Ramco Systems - Diversity Marshaled Through Flexibility         Part 3: Challenges and User Recommendations That Ramco Systems offers good product functionality and technology bundled with a reasonable price tag and short time-to-market should create a powerful value proposition. However poor marketing and sales execution may significantly undermine it. December 18, 2001 SAP Farms More Business Out Amid Its Staff Reductions As the battle for the mid-market intensifies and each vendor is exhibiting a pertinent sabre rattling display of power, SAP is turning to help from the alliance in order to partly counteract the needed cost-cutting exercise in its US operations December 17, 2001 Lost Your Laptop? The CyberAngel® Brings It Back A company known as Computer Sentry Software, Inc. has designed an innovative option for laptop recovery. With laptop theft on the rise, investing in an affordable laptop recovery package is well worth the investment. December 17, 2001 InsideOut Makes Firewall Reporting Useful Firewall logs can be cryptic and very difficult to analyze. There are a number of firewall reporting products on the market that attempt to address this problem, however one particular product recently caught our attention. December 17, 2001 Ramco Systems - Diversity Marshaled Through Flexibility         Part 2: Market Impact In the fiscal year 2000-01, Ramco transformed from a predominantly core ERP provider to a complete solutions company with a broader portfolio of products (e.g., ERP, EAM, HRMS, etc.) and services (e.g., network solutions, network security, modeling and simulations, etc.). December 14, 2001 How Some ERP Vendors Demonstrated - Warts And All         Part 2: Results This is part two of a case study from a recent selection engagement for an ETO mid-size manufacturer; we assess Oracle, J.D. Edwards, SAP, and IFS in terms of their ability to demonstrate alleged functionality of their products. December 13, 2001 Ramco Systems - Diversity Marshaled Through Flexibility While Ramco System’s combination of experienced offshore application developers, the best practices of component-based applications development and code generation, and strategic partnerships is possibly a unique value proposition, it will still take some doing for a full-blown expansion worldwide. December 12, 2001 How Some ERP Vendors Demonstrated - Warts and All         Part 1 Contrary to what vendors may contend, not all of them are able to provide an effective out-of-the-box solution that satisfies the critical requirements of an organization. In this case study from a recent selection engagement for an ETO mid-size manufacturer, we assess Oracle, J.D. Edwards, SAP, and IFS in terms of their ability to demonstrate alleged functionality of their products. December 10, 2001 Should interBiz Mean Intelligence And Prediction Beyond ERP? -         Part 2: Challenges and Market Impact InterBiz remains one of the most widely used of the upper-mid-range ERP vendors. It has done much to rejuvenate its acquired enterprise applications arsenal. What remains is disseminating a clear message on which market the combined set of products has been targeting. December 8, 2001 The Retail Industry: Improving Supply Chain Efficiency Through Vendor Compliance -         Part 2 An Andersen Point Of View A vendor compliance database can range from a complex system built within the retailer's existing architecture to a smaller, stand-alone desktop database application. Find out what's Andersen's take on vendor compliance programs. December 8, 2001 Optimizing The Supply Chain Network And Reducing Distribution Costs -         Part 2 An Andersen Point Of View Performance addresses issues surrounding how the new economy is transforming the supply chain and ultimately, how Andersen conducts business. Through this effort, they express how their customers, and the industry in general, are creating a more innovative supply chain. December 7, 2001 Is SCT And Logistics.com Partnership A Déjà vu? While, at first glance, SCT’s partnerships with G-Log and Logistics.com may seem redundant, a more detailed analysis reveals their distinct purposes. December 6, 2001 Should interBiz Mean Intelligence And Prediction Beyond ERP? Although interBiz has spouted an interesting value proposition to many enterprise applications users, the company still has to address some potential stumbling blocks in order to clear the path to its applications business success. December 4, 2001 SAP Opens The ‘Miss Congeniality’ Contest While SAP’s determination to become enterprise applications Web Esperanto evangelist is of paramount importance to its customers and for the general market direction, one should by no means expect short-term tectonic moves. December 3, 2001 Navision Enhances Its e-Vision And Looks To Expand Vertically -         Part 3: Challenges & User Recommendations As the current market trend is towards vendors that can provide well-rounded but vertically focused solutions for medium-sized companies, Navision seems to have positioned itself to take a lead other vendors may find hard to emulate. The merger outline was sound, the common groundwork has been identified, and the time for delivery and execution is on. December 2, 2001 The Retail Industry: Improving Supply Chain Efficiency Through Vendor Compliance - An Andersen Point Of View The arrival of the new economy has brought significant changes to the existing business landscape. In particular, the retail industry is quickly learning the value of developing strategic working relationships with vendor partners to improve supply chain efficiency. December 2, 2001 Optimizing The Supply Chain Network And Reducing Distribution Costs - An Andersen Point Of View The objective of supply chain logistics - to provide goods to the right place at the right time in the right quantity - is easy to understand, but achieving this objective while minimizing costs is not an easy task.   November 2001 November 30, 2001 Navision Enhances Its e-Vision And Looks To Expand Vertically -         Part 2: Market Impact Navision has been expanding its coverage in terms of geography, vertical industries, and product functionality. Globally, it has become one of the largest independent small-to-mid-market enterprise system providers. November 28, 2001 Navision Enhances Its e-Vision And Looks To Expand Vertically By posting a profitable year while delivering different flavors of products to satisfy many fastidious tastes and by offering an attractive value proposition to its channel, Navision could be telling us that the appropriate offering might be the recipe to thrive even during difficult economic climate. November 26, 2001 'Collaborative Commerce': ERP, CRM, e-Proc, and SCM Unite! A Series Study: PeopleSoft PeopleSoft has risen from its relatively humble origins in the Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) arena, its sole focus as it begun life in 1987. Over the course of a decade or so, it added Supply Chain Management and Financials to its list of application offerings. In the last few years, in the face of slowing cash flows from its traditional strongholds, it has gone full bore toward Internet-based enterprise-wide - even cross-enterprise - solutions, trying to enter the game and be competitive with other top tier ERP-turned Collaborative Commerce vendors. Showing fiscal growth and, very-recently, notably-improved market acceptance, Peoplesoft may be the enterprise software turnaround story of the last decade. November 24, 2001 Order Promising: Pre-Condition Your Enterprise for Operational Excellence Simple questions often have complex answers. Whether they are speaking with you on the phone or placing an order on a Web storefront, your customers expect immediate gratification. They want to know when their order will ship the moment it is placed. How do you respond? November 22, 2001 'Collaborative Commerce': ERP, CRM, e-Proc, and SCM Unite! A Series Study: Oracle There are two ways to build enterprise application solutions: link together disparate, best-of-breed solutions, in which vendors embrace open architectures and inter-application messaging protocols, or find a one-stop-shop with all the software, functionality, and interoperability one could ever ask for. Oracle insists the latter is the best way, and it is their way. But is it best for Collaborative-Commerce? Is their vision of C-Commerce and interoperability yours as well? November 21, 2001 ERP Selection Facts and Figures Case Study -         Part 2: Qualitative Assessments and Analysis This is part two of a note describing an opportunity TEC had to evaluate and compare the four top ERP vendors for a client. Each vendor’s offering differed in such areas as functionality, flexibility, process fit and ease of use. Find out what TEC learned as a result of the selection engagement. November 19, 2001 ERP Selection Facts and Figures Case Study         Part 1: Business Model Scenarios During a recent Enterprise Resource Planning selection engagement with a large aerospace and defense manufacturer TEC had the opportunity to evaluate and compare the offerings of four top vendors. Each vendor’s offering differed in such areas as functionality, flexibility, process fit and ease of use. Find out what TEC learned as a result of the selection engagement. November 16, 2001 Lilly Software Visualizes Its eBusiness Offering, NOW.         Part 2: Market Impact Lilly believes that, with the opportunity to implement the application either through an integrated module within the VISUAL product suite or via Lilly's new ASP option, manufacturers and distributors can easily get started with their e-business initiatives. November 15, 2001 PeopleSoft Remains Rock-Hard And Economy Proof PeopleSoft again exceeded Wall Street estimates in another stellar quarterly performance, with more than 100 new customers and with more than half the deals for multiple suites or products. Will the company bear well the brunt of becoming the new market darling, which inevitably brings increased scrutiny by many? November 14, 2001 Lilly Software Visualizes Its eBusiness Offering, NOW With its prudent 'wait-and-see' approach, Lilly Software has been rounding up its VISUAL product suite and remains in the high pole position for the SME market race. November 13, 2001 Glovia On B2B Reinventing Trail If Glovia successfully continues its reinvention as a B2B e-business transformation provider for manufacturers and service companies that want more than core ERP, the market may witness the positive reincarnation of Glovia. November 12, 2001 Kewill And Microsoft Great Plains To Further Mutually Complement While Microsoft Great Plains and Kewill will offer a potentially awesome combined offering worldwide, their competitors will bet on products that cover all the bases in a natively integrated fashion. November 9, 2001 Soft Economy Dents SAP’s Armored Shield As Well Since the license revenue plunge in the US, a likely cascading economic slowdown worldwide, and SAP’s high stakes in struggling Commerce One happened much before the fatal September 11, one is only to wonder why SAP’s management woke up to reality and revised its projections so belatedly. November 8, 2001 Syspro Hatches 'Encore' IMPACT On SME Manufacturers.         Part 2: Market Impact While Syspro’s recent product release does not necessarily represent a major ground breaking, its broad and well-attuned offering for small enterprises should certainly give other incumbent players a run for their money. November 6, 2001 Syspro Hatches 'Encore' IMPACT On SME Manufacturers While Syspro’s recent product release does not necessarily represent a major ground breaking, its broad and well-attuned offering for small enterprises should certainly give other incumbent players a run for their money. November 5, 2001 PRISM Users Get A Dedicated, Independent Web Community Users of the Baan Process ERP product PRISM form a web-site community to provide an independent source of information and sharing of knowledge on one of the market's first Process-ERP Products. November 2, 2001 The Lexicon of CRM -         Part 3: From R to Z CRM. C.R.M. itself is an acronym, standing for Customer Relationship Management. This is part three of a three-part article to provide explanation and meaning for most of the common CRM phraseology. Here, in alphabetical order, we continue the Lexicon of CRM November 1, 2001 INFIMACS Becoming Ever More RELEVANT For Project-Based Industries.         Part 2: Market Impact and User Recommendations The current market trend industry-wide is towards vendors that can provide comprehensive solutions for medium-sized companies. Relevant seems to have a fair shot at delivering that to project-based discrete manufacturers such as aerospace contractors, contract manufacturers of electronic components, window, door & frame manufacturers, and MRO organizations with revenues up to $300 million.   October 2001 October 31, 2001 BRAIN May Still Be Needed In The Automotive Industry While BRAIN North America may have all the right cards for the lower tiers of the automotive industry, the road to success will by no means be uncontested. October 30, 2001 INFIMACS Becoming Ever More RELEVANT For Project-Based Industries.         Part 1: Recent Developments If Relevant Business Systems has for any reason deliberately maintained its INFIMACS II ERP system as one of the best-kept secrets in the complex manufacturing market, it has certainly succeeded so far. However, given a bevy of viable solutions from more renowned vendors, the company will have to spread the word much more aggressively from now on. October 29, 2001 Logistics.com Might Prove An Internet Success Story After All-         Part 2: Market Impact By being able to address the needs of all stakeholders across the board from shipper to transport provider, and with the marketplace/private trading exchange (PTX) tool in the middle, Logistics.com can connect trading partners at various levels. October 26, 2001 Clarity of Vision: Clarify Sold to Amdocs by Nortel Amdocs Management Limited announced that it reached an agreement with Nortel Networks to acquire the assets of Nortel’s Clarify business for US $200 million. Nortel is jettisoning business units that are not in line with its current vision. Who is Amdocs, and what do they plan to do with their newly-acquired CRM suite? October 25, 2001 Logistics.com Might Prove An Internet Success Story After All As the number of dot-com’s dwindles, we see some examples of highly focused exchanges and hosted applications with growth and a path towards profitability. Logistics.com is an example of one such company. October 24, 2001 Collaborative Commerce: ERP, CRM, e-Proc, and SCM Unite! A Series Study: IFS -         Part 2 of 2 IFS needs to bolster its brand awareness, and let the world know that they are, in fact, a real contender in the Collaborative Commerce space. Once companies get IFS in-house and get to touch and feel it - to really understand its user interface and ease of use advantages over many of its rivals - it often wins. October 23, 2001 Way To Go, Ross Systems! Although Ross Systems today is merely a shadow of a once solid profitable vendor, its embattled management deserves accolades for tenacity and pulling off a third consecutive profitable quarter, thereby remaining in the race. October 22, 2001 Collaborative Commerce: ERP, CRM, e-Proc, and SCM Unite! A Series Study: IFS -         Part 1 of 2 IFS arrived over five years ago on U.S. shores, with a Christmas-bag full of software components that run from the front-office to back-office and back again. They’re here to play, to get recognized, and win some big Collaborative Commerce engagements. We’ll see if they’ve got the stuff to do it. October 19, 2001 The Lexicon of CRM -         Part 2: From J to Q C.R.M. itself is an acronym, standing for Customer Relationship Management. This is part two of a three-part article to provide explanation and meaning for most of the common CRM phraseology. Here, in alphabetical order, we continue the Lexicon of CRM. October 18, 2001 Geac Awakens On Its Deathbed -         Part 2: Geac's Response While Geac’s balance sheet was boosted by recent events, a more positive sign is the company’s intent to become a true software-developing vendor, not simply a software collector and dealer. October 17, 2001 What's With Oracle's And SAP's Differing Clairvoyance? Regardless of whether Oracle is cautiously pessimistic or SAP is unrealistically enthusiastic about the immediate future, both vendors will quite likely weather the impending El Nino phase. Still, neither one can rest on its laurels, as they both have their internal and external challenges to solve. October 16, 2001 Geac Awakens On Its Deathbed -         Part 1: Event Summary While Geac might not need a white knight savior any longer owing to the profitable quarter and secured additional funding, the general feeling remains that the company has also long passed up an opportunity to be a top-notch applications vendor. October 15, 2001 The ERP Market 2001 And Beyond –         Part 5: Recommendations Winning ERP products will demonstrate deep industry functionality and tight integration with best-of-bread ‘bolt-on’ products in a particular vertical. Users should focus on the handful of business objectives they need to achieve and the ways to measure their success. October 12, 2001 The Lexicon of CRM -         Part 1: From A to I C.R.M. itself is an acronym, standing for Customer Relationship Management. This is part one of three-part article to provide explanation and meaning for most of the common CRM phraseology. Here, in alphabetical order, is the Lexicon of CRM. October 11, 2001 The ERP Market 2001 And Beyond –         Part 4: Market Predictions ERP will be redefined as a platform for enabling e-business globally. Originally focused on automating internal processes of an enterprise, ERP systems will include customer and supplier-centric processes as well. The conclusive evidence of this redefinition is the move of all major ERP players into CRM and SCM applications. October 9, 2001 The ERP Market 2001 And Beyond –         Part 3: Rating The Vendors We generally believe that, in the long run, market winners will be those vendors with an established large customer base and with huge financial and human resources that would make them more responsive to any future challenges such as sudden market trends and/or technology paradigm shifts. October 8, 2001 MAPICS Unifies The Brand And Interacts For CRM Solutions While the existing loyal client base and affiliate channel remains MAPICS’ trump card in these difficult times, the recent partnership initiatives bundled with a unified product branding might be the way to more effectively sell beyond the current XA client base, which is the must for the long-term viability. October 5, 2001 The ERP Market 2001 And Beyond –         Part 2: Vendor Reactions Faced with competitive inadequacies, the major ERP vendors have been vigorously busy developing, acquiring, or bundling new functionality so that their packages go beyond the traditional realms of finance, materials planning & management, and human resources. October 3, 2001 The ERP Market 2001 And Beyond – Aging Gracefully With The ‘New Kids On The Block’ Although we believe that exorbitant growth rates are a matter of the past, growth will remain the word associated with the ERP market in the 2000’s. ERP will, however, have to share the spotlight with the fast growing adolescent ERP-adjacent areas like SCM, CRM and e-procurement. October 2, 2001 Shall Bifurcated Tack Reverse J.D. Edwards’ Bad Spell? By opting now for a “best of both worlds strategy,” J.D. Edwards might finally have a formula of getting out of the doldrums it has been in for some time. While maintaining product flexibility, it can now provide its own ‘must have’ applications (e.g. SCM and CRM), and offer, through partnerships, the secondarily important bolt-on’s. October 1, 2001 E-Business Sell Side Success at H.B. Fuller Chemical company H.B. Fuller has leveraged the Internet to increase their ability to sell.   January 2001 January 30, 2001 Accenture (nee Andersen Consulting) Marries New Business Model to Make its Mark Accenture has moved from its former identity Andersen Consulting to a new mark and strategy aligned to its competitors in the market place. Since the arbitrators ruling in August, 2000, Accenture’s transformation has rapidly moved the organization from being centered around four competencies to a group of Service Lines. January 29, 2001 e-Procurement Is Not Electronic Purchasing This is the transcript of an Audio Conference on e-procurement conducted by TEC during which brief case studies of how companies have improved inventory turns and reduced procurement costs through Internet enabled collaboration with suppliers were presented. January 26, 2001 Will 2001 Be The Year Of Baan’s Miraculous Comeback? Definitely Maybe. December 2000 was the month of increased press release activity at Baan. In 2001, will the market witness a remarkable comeback of this once almost written off vendor? January 25, 2001 AMD Hooks Up with Transmeta – For Now Advanced Micro Devices, Intel’s main CPU competition, has teamed up with Transmeta – another Intel competitor – in an effort to speed development on its 'Sledgehammmer' 64-bit processor. January 24, 2001 Performance Management Simplified by MSPs IT infrastructure consisting of networks, servers, databases, and even parts of application systems forms a networked computing system (NCS) whose performance must be actively managed to ensure continual business support. But the skills and tools necessary to ensure that network and server systems provide adequate levels of services and performance are expensive and scarce. Management service providers (MSPs) that specialize in performance management can apply expert personnel and 24/7 monitoring at a fraction of the cost required to staff the function internally. January 23, 2001 Extricity Makes a Move into IBM’s Sphere of B2B Influence B2B/EAI software vendor Extricity announced that International Business Machines is shipping the Extricity B2B platform as part of IBM’s WebSphere BtoBi Partner Agreement Manager. An OEM alliance with IBM is bound to provide Extricity with additional credence and leverage in the ever-expanding B2B/EAI market. January 22, 2001 Hummingbird Smells Nectar In The Corporate Portal Market Hummingbird Ltd. is moving into the Corporate Portal market. Like others, it sees corporate portals as a mechanism to cross-sell existing Business Intelligence products. TEC takes a look at Hummingbird’s portal strategy and compares it to other vendors in the corporate portal space. January 19, 2001 Provia Gets Nod From BMG Distribution With help from consulting partner PricewaterhouseCoopers, BMG plans to implement Provia to improve its fulfillment operations. January 17, 2001 Customer Relationship Management for IT Professionals What makes a strong supplier/customer relationship? The bottom line is trust. However, trust needs to be earned through a series of conversations and commitments that have been met. January 16, 2001 Microsoft And Great Plains – A Friendship That Turned Into A Marriage Software giant Microsoft treated itself with a $1.1B Christmas present; it announced an agreement to acquire its long-term partner Great Plains Software, a business application provider for the low-end of the market. Will this move alienate Microsoft from a slew of other partners competing in the same space, even as the rumors of yet another antitrust legal action abound? January 15, 2001 SCT Corporation: The Last Viable Process Manufacturing Vendor Standing? Although a relative newcomer, the Process Manufacturing Solutions division of SCT has been able to remain focused on the process manufacturing industry. With the exit or weakening position of most other process-focused vendors, SCT should thrive. However, its low profile marketing strategy, undeveloped channel and a limited number of implementation partners are some of the challenges it has yet to surmount. January 12, 2001 Oracle Sails Despite Market’s Low Tide; How Far Will It Go? For the time being, Oracle seems to have defied a global trend toward a slowdown in the technology market, which even its archrival, Microsoft, could not avoid. Is it only a matter of time before economic realities knock on Oracle’s door? January 11, 2001 J.D. Edwards Reaches $1B Milestone In Another Losing Year On December 4, J.D. Edwards & Company announced its return to profitability in Q4 2000, a sign the market may be buying into its Internet collaboration approach. However, 2000 remains a more bitter than sweet year for the company owing to the posted loss and staff departures earlier on. January 9, 2001 Mercator Continues to Suffer Turmoil - Can They Stay on the Map? What’s new at EAI vendor Mercator Software? TEC updates a report from August 2000. Mercator Software has found themselves on a long and rocky road, where the bumps have included loss or reassignment of most of their executive management team, a precipitous drop in market capitalization, and an uncertain future. On the upside, Mercator has announced a 50% increase in revenue for October and November 2000 compared to the same period in 1999, and also announced a major sale to Amazon.com. January 8, 2001 WAM Systems Offers Supply Chain Planning Packaged Solution For Chemicals Not many people know of WAM Systems, a privately held supply chain management vendor situated in a Philadelphia suburb. Emboldened by growing interest and new venture capital, the company intends to make its presence known. January 5, 2001 QAD’s Costly eTransition Continues QAD, one of the leading Tier 2 ERP vendors, continues its transition into a provider of e-business applications for manufacturing companies. However, the company’s financial performance continues to deteriorate: The company reported its third consecutive loss in Q3 2001. January 4, 2001 e-Catalysts Delivers Digital Marketplace e-Catalysts, Inc. launches its B2B digital marketplace with help from VerticalNet and Aspen Technology. January 4, 2001 Made2Manage Systems, Inc.: M2M From A2Z For SMEs? Made2Manage, grasping the requirements of its SME target market, has been completing its evolution from a vendor of traditional MRP software to a provider of holistic business applications, including integrated front office, back office, business intelligence and e-business capabilities. However, the company’s future is not without significant challenges. January 3, 2001 Tibco Takes a Pragmatic Approach to Multicasting Tibco Software and Cisco Systems have co-designed a network delivery method called the PGM (Pragmatic General Multicast) protocol. PGM allows a server to transmit a multicast message only once. The PGM software will then ensure delivery to all of the intended recipients. This is a much-awaited improvement on the existing multicast protocol, where the server has to transmit the message to each client individually, which increases the load on the network. January 2, 2001 Does NavisionDamgaard Merger Mark Further Mid-Market Consolidation? While the higher end of ERP market has (surprisingly) experienced only limited merger & acquisition activity during 2000 (mainly seen in ERP losers been devoured by ERP outsiders), the mid-market has seen more significant intra-market activity. The latest one was the merger between Navision Software and Damgaard. January 2, 2001 Voting Technology: An Evaluation of Requirements and Solutions The issues created by the use of punch card ballots, an obsolete technology, during the recent US Presidential election are similar to the ones that businesses confront every day when dealing with technological change. It is therefore instructive to examine voting technology issues in the way that most businesses would approach an important information technology decision.
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