How will people work 10 years from now? Gartner thinks it has a pretty good idea, predicting 10 major changes that will occur during the next 10 years.
Just when you thought it was safe to jump into the SaaS waters, a new survey finds that IT and enterprise software decision-makers don't feel totally comfortable with SaaS-namely those nagging security, integration and data migration concerns.
What's next for the ever-evolving and consolidating enterprise applications market in 2010? The rise of next-generation "socialytic" apps that fuse business apps with analytics and social and collaboration software.
It's been really difficult using the Force to convince your HR manager or boss to see things your way: Your threats of turning fellow workers to the Dark Side sound hollow and that Jedi mind trick you've been working on for the past six months doesn't seem to be getting you anywhere. Your big promotion? You might as well be working in the Spice Mines of Kessel.
For those who've been laboring in the corporate computer-related profession for the past half century or so, the naming of their department has always been equal parts science, reality and hype.
Think you know everything about ERP? Here are five things to consider:
Not surprisingly, SaaS vendors have decided there's no time like the present to make a full court sales press. In a down economy with slashed IT budgets, when there's no tolerance for 18-month software implementations and the price tags of on-premise software from Oracle and maintenance fees for SAP applications are not falling, software-as-a-service and cloud computing offerings become more attractive options for businesses.
Marc Benioff, the CEO of SaaS CRM vendor Salesforce.com, recently explained just why his flavor of the cloud computing model was best suited for today's troubled economic times. Forget big contracts with Microsoft, Oracle or SAP, and get beyond outdated hardware and software solutions, Benioff told CNBC in early October. Benioff said that Salesforce.com's "pay-as-you-go, elastic model" offers clients much more flexibility.
At its Sapphire show in early May, SAP announced plans for the future release of two new tools: the Business Process Management (BPM) and Business Rules Management offerings, which will be added to its NetWeaver platform in the latter part of 2008.
What <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/343469/subject/Microsoft+Corporation">Microsoft</a>'s <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/343469/subject/Microsoft+Windows+Vista">Windows Vista</a> has lacked in rates of universal corporate adoption to date, the operating system has certainly made up for in widespread notoriety and critical press coverage.
In mid-April, more details emerged from new court documents filed by Oracle and SAP in their year-long legal dispute regarding allegations that SAP illegally accessed Oracle's customer support systems.
In early April, SAP <a href="http://www.sap.com/usa/company/press/press.epx?pressid=9253">announced</a> a new referral and incentive program for its partners and nonpartners to drive small and midsize customers' business SAP's way. The move, paying for new software business, was a first for the German software giant, and it shows just how much thirst enterprise software vendors have for new customers in the SMB <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/177300/">business applications market</a>.
No one can deny that the market for business intelligence applications is hot. An Aberdeen Group survey <a href="http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/sector_insights/4245-SI-on-demand-bi.asp">survey</a> found that the number-one technology spending item for companies was "reporting and analytics" in 2007.
Urban legends have been with us since human beings started sharing stories. The best urban legends are dramatic, unbelievable and told with such frequency that recipients assume they have to be true. There are the historic "URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL" lucrative business proposals from deposed Nigerian leaders, the horrifying heroin-contaminated hypodermic needle in the McDonald's ball play area and the albino alligators terrorizing New York City sewers.
You think you have enterprise software headaches? Try being <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/167003/subject/Santa+Claus">Santa Claus</a>.
If 2007 was any indication of what's to come, the one thing companies using expensive enterprise applications-ERP, CRM and supply chain management systems-is that more change vendor alliances, pricing schemes and software innovation is on the way in 2008.
