
The Skills Gap; Building a Social Business
In the recent IDC annual social business survey (June, 2012, N=700) we found that 67% of North American companies were using / implementing social solutions. That’s a huge number and up 25% in only a year. With this rapid increase…

Those who ignore history
I first met Dr. Hasso Plattner of SAP 15 Sapphires ago. He walked into a meeting with Gartner analysts and in mock anger asked “which of you XXX called my products too complex to implement?” I wanted to hide under the table knowing well he was referring to a report I had just written about […]

Marin County claims racketeering against Deloitte and SAP, part one
Marin County’s ongoing lawsuit against Deloitte Consulting and SAP represents a milestone in the analysis and history of IT project failures.

The New Consulting Metrics (for SaaS)
Suppose a consulting firm is helping your company choose between upgrading your ERP software or replacing it with a new SaaS (software as a service) solution. If the functionality is close, which solution would they recommend? Some clients might be surprised to learn that a consultant would recommend the on-premise solution over the cloud/SaaS solution […]

The CRM 2011 Watchlist Part VI(FINAL) – SIs/Consulting, Just Missed
To Recap The URLs and the names of the winners of Parts I-V: Finally, the CRM 2011 Watchlist: Part I – SAP, Oracle, salesforce.com, Microsoft The CRM Watchlist Part II: The Usual Suspects – NetSuite, RightNow, Sage, SAS, CDC Software/Pivotal, SugarCRM The CRM Watchlist 2011 Part III: Representing the Pillars – Marketo, Eloqua, Infusionsoft, Jitterjam, […]

CIO view: ‘Feelgood mojo’ and the quest for consulting greatness
The best consultants, who genuinely do the right thing for clients, are worth their weight in gold.

Interview: Narinder Singh of Appirio
Appirio should bother a lot of systems integrators. They operate in a cloud oriented services world and behave very differently from the typical integrator with an on-premise practice fixation. Here’s an interview with Narinder Singh, head of Appirio’s Products. If you wondered what the intersection of the cloud and services looks like, read this interview.

SAP and Bristlecone Partner on a Fixed-Price Spend Performance Management Bundle (Part 1)
When most people think about installed SAP software, they nearly always jump to the uncertainty of the total cost associated with a given deployment, customization and roll-out (not to mention ongoing support). Yet as we all know,…

Alliances, Referrals, Kickbacks, Reselling â Whereâs the independent advice in this?
Can you be a consultant and still accept referral fees from a hardware or software manufacturer? Can you do it if you disclose these monies? The answer depends if you are a consultant or a reseller. It also depends if you are truly independent and objective.

EDS to pay $460 million over CRM failure
System integrator, EDS, agreed to pay UK-based broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) a total of £318 million ($460.3 million) to settle its lawsuit over a failed CRM project.