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December 2002
December 31, 2002	MAPICS To Leap Forward In A Frontstep Way Part 3: Challenges and User Recommendations While the benefit of obtaining .NET-based product is evident, the downside is also that due to the companies’ dissimilar technologies in the past, MAPICS will now be burdened to look after both its AS/400 and Frontstep’s Progress based old customers, whose only common trait at this stage might be anxiety.
December 30, 2002	MAPICS To Leap Forward In A Frontstep Way Part 2: Market Impact MAPICS has recently departed from its traditional practice of 'pushing' the sale of the plethora of its components onto customers. Going forward, it will rather try to solve challenges for its customers and/or prospects in their quest of becoming world-class manufacturers.
December 28, 2002	The Essential Supply Chain Supply Chain Management (SCM) once viewed as a way to obtain a competitive advantage, is now perceived as a logical and necessary extension of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The reasons: First, traditional ERP systems lack the advanced planning tools necessary for companies to respond to an increasingly competitive business environment. Second, advances in computing power and data transmission enable disparate entities to communicate efficiently and at a low cost. Finally, vendors have observed the complementary nature of SCM and ERP and are engaged in consolidation of their product suites.
December 27, 2002	MAPICS To Leap Forward In A Frontstep Way MAPICS’ acquisition of Frontstep is a real positive given that Frontstep had already spent ~$60 million to deliver its entire product line, which includes ERP, CRM, and SCM, on a single technology platform, a notable feat. The combined company will have solutions that have been implemented in more than 10,000 customer sites worldwide in only a handful of industries of focus. Now the work of battling Tier 1 vendors and mid-market juggernauts begins.
December 25, 2002	Why CRM Is So Hard and What To Do About It: Data is key to making CRM work Making a CRM investment work is a two-step process that begins with unifying disparate systems by creating and managing standardized, reusable business definitions mapped to the different CRM system schemas throughout the organization.
December 24, 2002	Should You Modify an Application Product When it comes to modifications to an application product, there is the good, the bad, and the ugly. Enter the modification process cautiously, with your eyes open.
December 23, 2002	Best Software To Hold Competition At Bay Part Four: Challenges & User Recommendations The downside, as a rule, is the painstaking integration effort yet to be devised for a number of remaining products in the Sage’s/Best’s family and to be subsequently exerted, as there is always a large time bracket from concept to actual materialization. Further, integration is never a simple feat.
December 22, 2002	Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) in ProcessPart 3: Process PLM Requirements A Process PLM system must accommodate rapid, global deployment of the system. This need drives specific requirements to minimize both the start-up and the long-term cost of ownership of the system. This article, third in a series details those requirements.
December 21, 2002	CRM Analytics Brings More Profitability Targeting your best customers and personalizing your relationship with them, implies an in-depth understanding of their behavior.
December 20, 2002	Best Software To Hold Competition At Bay Part Three: Market Impact As the small-to-medium enterprises (SME) market battle rages, Best Software seems to be taking appropriate steps to establish itself as a more visible/audible force to be reckoned with. It does not intend to remain a tacit mid-market powerhouse any longer.
December 19, 2002	Best Software To Hold Competition At Bay Part Two: Strategy Best Software's top objective is to encourage customers to stay with the company for the life of their business.
December 18, 2002	Best Software To Hold Competition At Bay Having garnered an astutely broad enterprise applications’ portfolio, Best Software recently unveiled its 'customer and/or partner for life' strategy to fend off any intruder to its US market stronghold, especially Microsoft Business Solutions.
December 17, 2002	Ross Systems Shows Poise in 'Big Easy' Ross Systems has come a long way as seen by TEC at the recent Rossworld user conference. The company’s progress is impressive, but is Ross attempting to tackle too many requirements at once?
December 16, 2002	Is SSA GT Betting Infini(um)tely On Acquisitions? Part Four: Challenges and User Recommendations. User companies will need serious convincing that SSA GT will not 'stabilize' or even discontinue some brands. Moreover, even in the cases where the company has been showing close attention to its customers’ wish lists, its crucial tenet of operation is profitability and setting realistic goals (the ROI justification works for the vendor as well). It does not appear very realistic to expect the equitably due attention to over a dozen products.
December 13, 2002	Is SSA GT Betting Infini(um)tely On Acquisitions? Part Three: Complementary Products At a first glance, one can even notice that the complementary nature of some SSA GT products and Infinium products may indeed provide a ‘kick for a buck’ proposition. Further, it appears that SSA GT understands and listens closely (via Global Guide Groups) to the needs of conservative ERP customers that are unwilling to ditch a good functional product even at a cost of its technological antiquity. Further, it has a track record of strong functional development that preserves the customer’s current investment.
December 12, 2002	Is SSA GT Betting Infini(um)tely On Acquisitions? Part Two: Market Impact Like the previous two acquisitions, this one too seems aimed at enlarging SSA GT’s customer base, market share, and, more importantly, its predictably recurring support revenue and consequently larger R&D pool.
December 11, 2002	Is SSA GT Betting Infini(um)tely On Acquisitions? What are the prospects for SSA GT’s mostly iSeries-based empire in the making, now that the revived ERP vendor has recently acquired three former competitors with their plethora of application products, and that it does not seem to be nearing the satiation point yet?
December 10, 2002	Integrated Security: A New Network Approach Part Two: The Shift Toward Integration This part describes the key elements and benefits of an integrated security solution in comparison to current security solutions.
December 9, 2002	Integrated Security: A New Network Approach The challenge is to ensure that the right people gain access and the wrong people do not, making the role of information security even more critical to enabling today’s businesses. An integrated security approach offers the most effective security posture.
December 8, 2002	Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) in Process Part 2 Process PLM Motivation This part of the series on Product Life Cycle Management in Process explores the business motivations by review business strategies.
December 6, 2002	Thriving and Surviving in a Turbulent World Part Two: Planning and Its Results This article outlines the planning and results of an adaptive management process for manufacturing executives, who employ demand and supply chain planning technology.
December 5, 2002	Epicor Picks Clarus' Bargain At The Software Flea Market Part 2: Challenges and User Recommendations The wealth of product names and a still somewhat unwieldy slew of products, presents sales and marketing confusion for Epicor, both internally and externally across the globe. Therefore, as Epicor has a myriad of products in its portfolio that could benefit from integration with Clarus and/or CRM.NET, it must clearly articulate its plans and the timeline for integration for each of its products.
December 4, 2002	Epicor Picks Clarus' Bargain At The Software Flea Market Taking advantage of its rival Microsoft’s either reticence or satiation, Epicor recently acquired its long-term partner Clarus for an almost next to nothing price to provide mid-market with a solid add-on e-procurement and, eventually, SRM value proposition too.
December 3, 2002	Thriving and Surviving in a Turbulent World We can aspire to survive and even to thrive in a difficult environment if we are disciplined, bright enough and have the right tools such as a Demand and Supply Chain Planning suite to support and optimize our decisions. This article outlines an adaptive management process for manufacturing executives.
December 2, 2002	KPI's: Key Project Impeders Paying attention to the human nature factors of a project will not overcome poor software selection or poor software design. However, being aware of these factors can minimize project delays, frustrations of team members, and not delivering expected results. Learn about some of these factors and how they can be avoided.
December 1, 2002	Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) in Process Part 1 Proven in Discrete, Ready to Blossom in Process Process industry companies could benefit from many of the PLM concepts that have accrued to discrete industries. But PLM has had minimum penetration into the process industries. Why?
November 2002
November 27, 2002	Cincom Asserts Expertise In CRM For Complex Manufacturers Part 2: Challenges and User Recommendations While Cincom's solutions, services, experience and results should resonate well with in the complex manufacturing segment, it competes against a slew of companies with stronger brand names (not impeded by Cincom’s conservative tacit nature) and/or financial resources.
November 26, 2002	Cincom Asserts Expertise In CRM For Complex Manufacturers Cincom’s latest CRM product release offers a compelling value proposition for many ‘to order’ manufacturing enterprises. While it is a product that may raise the bar in its target markets, the competitive offering is not exactly a pushover.
November 25, 2002	Focus on Corporate Governance Requires a Business-Oriented Selling Approach If you are selling products or services that are critical to your prospect’s success or for that matter, their very survival, your proposal will likely be elevated to the board of directors level for final approval. How do you sell at the board level?
November 23, 2002	Vendor Analysis: Kaspersky Anti-Virus Products Examined Kaspersky Labs is no newcomer to anti-virus products. Headquartered in Moscow, Russia, with offices in Pleasanton, California and Cambridge, England, Kaspersky Labs has successfully branded itself as a leader in multi-platform anti-virus products. Though many IT decision makers neglect to protect their UNIX systems from viruses, research done by Kaspersky Labs indicates that Linux may be just as prone to viruses as Microsoft operating systems.
November 22, 2002	MAPICS Moving On Pragmatically Part 4: Competition and User Recommendations Production management remains MAPICS’ strongest spot, and, therefore, it has often been implemented only in manufacturing divisions of large global organizations that use a Tier 1 ERP product for corporate financials and/or HR applications. Therefore, executing the ambitious initiatives with its modest albeit solid resources compared to the above competitors will be a notable challenge.
November 21, 2002	MAPICS Moving On Pragmatically Part 3: Challenges MAPICS remains at a critical point in time, where immaculate execution without much space for missteps will determine its future. Despite notable functional and technological initiatives, the biggest challenge for MAPICS and its affiliate channel remains the management of still dual flagship ERP product lines.
November 20, 2002	MAPICS Moving On Pragmatically Part 2: Market Impact For the last several months, MAPICS, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAPX), a global provider of extended ERP applications for world-class mid-sized manufacturers, has embarked on a painstaking process of producing a strategy going forward that would pragmatically blend the company’s traditional values and success factors with new approaches to stay in tune with market trends.
November 19, 2002	MAPICS Moving On Pragmatically While the existing loyal client base and seasoned affiliate channel remains MAPICS’ trump card in these difficult times, the recent moves of a unified product branding combined with addressing issues of its world-class aspiring manufacturing customers should be the way to more effectively sell to and beyond the current prevailing IBM iSeries client base, which is the must for the long-term viability.
November 16, 2002	Who's Who? Sorting Out the e-Logistics Players Part 3: New Solutions There is a wide range of new 'e-gistics' players emerging to address today’s transportation and logistics challenges, and different solutions will be appropriate for different kinds of situations.
November 15, 2002	Logistics.com Becomes The Newest Of Manhattan Associates Part 2: Strengths, Challenges, and User Recommendations Logistics.com needs to tie its execution modules into the plant/warehouse-level applications in order to give a customer a full solution. Manhattan cannot deliver the full fulfillment job without the transportation part. Tying their products together is what it will take to make this acquisition work.
November 14, 2002	Logistics.com Becomes The Newest Of Manhattan Associates Will the acquisition of Logistics.com help outstanding Manhattan Associates round out what might not have been accomplished with its earlier acquisitions?
November 13, 2002	Increasing the Value of Your Enterprise Through Improved Supply Chain Decisions Part 3: Conclusion There remains no shortage of experts and solutions that purport to have the keys to improving your supply chain. However, executives who bear bottom line responsibility for the performance of the enterprise would do well to evaluate every potential new program from the perspective outlined here.
November 12, 2002	Increasing the Value of Your Enterprise Through Improved Supply Chain Decisions Part 2: Financial Metrics If the key financial metrics for creating corporate value relate to costs, capital charges and consumption, and profitability, then the corporate capabilities or competencies required to drive those metrics must include controlling supply chain costs, managing supply chain cycle time, and optimizing responsiveness to the marketplace.
November 11, 2002	Increasing the Value of Your Enterprise Through Improved Supply Chain Decisions Improving the decision process around inventory and supply chain flexibility will drive sustainable, measurable benefits in the near term that are disproportionate to the effort required.
November 10, 2002	Who's Who? Sorting Out the e-Logistics Players Part 2: Traditional Solutions Rather than leveling the playing field, traditional solutions, which are expensive, long-term oriented contract-based, have typically widened the gap between the Fortune 500 companies and everyone else.
November 8, 2002	CRM For Complex Manufacturers Revolves Around Configuration Software While pundits have been debating whether the configuration software deserves to be a CRM module on its own, it is certainly a part of the much broader CRM class of products, which typically includes front-office applications for sales force automation (SFA), marketing automation, and field service/call center management.
November 6, 2002	Microsoft Lays Enforced-Concrete Foundation For Its Business Solutions Part 4: User Recommendations Despite the plausible product roadmap, any organization evaluating MBS products should keep itself informed, and consider existing functionality only. MBS, at this stage, will likely not appeal to companies that need more complex CRM capabilities or must manage customer relationships through diverse lines of business (LOBs).
November 5, 2002	Microsoft Lays Enforced-Concrete Foundation For Its Business Solutions Part 3: Challenges MBS is both a threat and an opportunity for the most nimble vendors, and mid-market CRM vendors might have acquired another lease of life extension in the medium term to redefine their value proposition, especially given that some have recently secured new funds and/or found solace in a partnership with IBM.
November 4, 2002	Microsoft Lays Enforced-Concrete Foundation For Its Business Solutions Part 2: Market Impact Stampede 2002 has radiated moderate optimism within VARs and other attendees, in a sharp contrast with many other user or industry conferences where we have felt a generally somber, anxious, or at least subdued mood. Small wonder for this isolated ebullience, given that, despite the current soft market, both MBS and most of its partners are still operating well, are discussing closing new accounts, and even expanding.
November 1, 2002	Microsoft Lays Enforced-Concrete Foundation For Its Business Solutions While most of its applications co-opetitors have been licking their wounds and dreading another financial quarterly report, cash amassed Microsoft has recently shown a flair for aptly devising and executing a strategy for its Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) division portfolio, to its partners and customers delight and to dismay of its archrivals.
October 2002
October 31, 2002	Who’s Who? Sorting Out the e-Logistics Players Part 1: The Situation Sure, you’ve sold it, but now you have to ship and deliver it: E-commerce comes to transportation and logistics. This article outlines some of the latest developments in this fast-moving field, and provides some background and context to help companies better understand the alternatives available to them today.
October 30, 2002	Find The Software’s Fatal Flaws To Avoid Failure For any business, software needs exist which will prove difficult to satisfy. Application packages will have fatal flaws where they do not meet these needs. When evaluating software, start with the potential fatal flaws and continually look at the details surrounding them.
October 29, 2002	PowerCerv Finally Overpowered By The '02 Hurricane Season Part 2: Strengths and User Recommendations Although ASA seems to have obtained an intriguing complementary product offering and a modest client base for almost next-to-nothing cost, it has to quickly articulate a clear and assuring message to the market that it can and will execute a strategy for enhancing PowerCerv product lines for a foreseeable future.
October 25, 2002	PowerCerv Finally Overpowered By The '02 Hurricane Season PowerCerv, a long languishing mid-market enterprise applications vendor, having been unsuccessful in its repeated attempt to revitalize itself under own steam, has eventually resorted to bailout by a more financially stable adopted parent.
October 24, 2002	6 Immediate Business Improvements Offered by an Online SRM System: Part 3: Other Points to Consider Maintaining an effective supply chain is clearly an integral part of a manufacturing company’s livelihood. Using Web-enabled tools, the enterprise is able to transform the procurement function of its supply chain from a cost center to a powerful business unit.
October 23, 2002	6 Immediate Business Improvements Offered by an Online SRM System: Part 2: Online SRM Online SRM helps to reduce the time spent on transactional details and put more emphasis on strategic activities.
October 22, 2002	6 Immediate Business Improvements Offered by an Online SRM System Manufacturing and distribution companies rely heavily on their ability to ship product and meet commitments to customers. Yet though the supply chain is the lifeline of their business, most purchasing departments are severely handicapped in their efforts to streamline supply chain execution.
October 21, 2002	Data Conversion in an ERP Environment Converting data in any systems implementation is a high wire act. Converting data in an ERP environment should only be undertaken with a safety net, namely a well thought-out plan of execution. This article discusses the guidelines for converting data when considering manual or electronic alternatives.
October 19, 2002	How Supply Chain Projects Morph Into Black Holes For all but a few astronomers, black holes are unknown in the realm of ordinary experience. Analogs do exist, however, in the more terrestrial domain of business process reengineering and take the form of supply chain management implementations. Real-life examples offer insights that may help prevent your supply chain project from collapsing into oblivion and taking your enterprise with it.
October 18, 2002	Continuous Data Quality Management: The Cornerstone of Zero-Latency Business Analytics Part 2: One Solution Most enterprises fight fires with axes, fire hoses, trucks, and hordes of firemen, but the CDQM approach is a smoke detector. It’s far less expensive to put a fire out when it’s just smoldering, rather than to extinguish a blazing house fire and then remodel the entire house.
October 17, 2002	Continuous Data Quality Management: The Cornerstone of Zero-Latency Business Analytics No matter how well an enterprise implements a CRM, ERP, SCM, Business Intelligence, or Data Warehouse project, poor data quality can destroy its utility and cost real dollars.
October 16, 2002	Agilisys Continues Agilely Post-SCT Part 3: Challenges and User Recommendations Still, although it is indisputably better that Agilisys had not stayed any longer under a parent that did not quite fathom its direction, and had even imposed a heavy overhead burden on it to be part of that company, and hindered its growth, the company faces both new and many old challenges.
October 15, 2002	Agilisys Continues Agilely Post-SCT Part 2: Market Impact Agilisys is also leveraging its former parent's pedigree on professional services and outsourcing, the 'Concept to Customer' and 'Early Upgrade Program' being good examples of the company’s focus on customer engaging product implementations and customizations.
October 14, 2002	Agilisys Continues Agilely Post-SCT From Agilisys' fresh start illustrated in new account wins, a profitable quarter, and new product enhancements; the market should expect at least a continuation of the past but more likely its improvement.
October 11, 2002	Hosting Horrors! What you should ask before committing to a Web Hosting Company...
October 10, 2002	Merger Mania At Its Extremes Part 2: Challenges & User Recommendations While the merger is justifiable it does not provide the new entity with much room for mistakes. SynQuest also needs to quickly figure out the best combination of its disparate products and technologies and articulate a clear and assuring message to the market that it can deliver a strategy for the planning, executing, and adaptive management of supply chains in a foreseeable future.
October 9, 2002	Merger Mania At Its Extremes Other than for the peculiarity of a ‘love triangle’, the merger of SynQuest, Viwlocity and Tilion might be a harbinger of SCEM’s annexation by the realm of SCM, in which case, with a similar phenomenon of ERP absorbing MRP over a decade ago, history would repeat itself.
October 8, 2002	Technology Vendor - Can You Afford Credibility? For Technology vendors, credibility is the ability to sell. Credibility is vital, is hard to build, and easy to lose. Building credibility doesn't have to be costly. This article touches on the concepts you can employ to build your credibility. These concepts are the basis for a seminar presented by The Credibility Forum.
October 7, 2002	J.D. Edwards Finds Its Inner-Self Within Its 5th Incarnation Part 4: Challenges and User Recommendations J.D. Edwards is leaner, meaner, much more aggressive and with a winning attitude than it has been in the past. It is not easy to regain momentum in a down economy, and kudos to J.D. Edwards for seemingly succeeding in doing exactly that.
October 4, 2002	J.D. Edwards Finds Its Inner-Self Within Its 5th Incarnation Part 3: Market Impact In a nutshell, J.D. Edwards seems poised to deliver applications within its traditional verticals that are wide-ranging, integrated, and modular (loosely decoupled) at the same time, which is apparently a clearer message and a better business model for the company. With a new management team the company seems to have found its soul, as it has finally pinpointed the right offering for its target market (both geography, customer size, and vertical segments wise), and it also seems to be exuding an air of confidence without arrogance, which had rarely, if ever, been seen in the past.
October 3, 2002	J.D. Edwards Finds Its Inner-Self Within Its 5th Incarnation Part 2: FOCUS Announcements Continued While significant new product deliveries have happened under the company’s own steam, J.D. Edwards has not departed from its traditional policy of congenial partnering with other prominent software providers.
October 2, 2002	J.D. Edwards Finds Its Inner-Self Within Its 5th Incarnation By espousing its namesake 5th generation of products that preserves flexibility and provides much more of its own ‘must have’ collaborative applications (i.e. SCM and CRM), J.D. Edwards may start looking forward to the future with its new winning attitude.
October 1, 2002	Fourth Shift's evolution Within SoftBrands' DemandStream Part 2: Challenges and User Recommendations In addition to putting the problems of blending two former independent organizations together behind, the company is still entangled in figuring out how best to bring different technologies and industrial experiences to bear. Further, the new company is left with multiple products whose brand recognition is quite low given recent re-branding effort that may be even more impeded by SoftBrands/Fourth Shift/evolution brand confusion (not to mention the plethora of hospitality products).
September 2002
September 30, 2002	Fourth Shift's evolution Within SoftBrands' DemandStream With a set of seemingly complementary products and via a strategy of focusing on customers, astute acquisitions of more complementary software companies and a careful deployment of all resources around the world including product development, sales and customer support, SoftBrands hopes to rise from the ashes of its ill-fated predecessor, AremisSoft.
September 28, 2002	Legacy Single Sign-On: Novell, Evidian, IBM, PassGo, or Computer Associates? As the complexity of enterprise systems increases, users are often forced to remember more and more passwords. As the demand on users increases, many users choose to write down their passwords, and by doing so, jeopardize security.
September 27, 2002	PeopleSoft Internationalizes Its Mid-Market Forays Part 2: Challenges & User Recommendations Despite the challenges, PeopleSoft has raised the bar in providing solutions for smaller enterprises, and Tier 2 and Tier 3 vendors might be in for a tough battle to defend their turf, especially as they are concurrently trying to expand and modernize their products with ever diminishing resources and wary prospects. PeopleSoft is undeniably a tenacious and persistent fighter able to endure the long hauls.
September 26, 2002	PeopleSoft Internationalizes Its Mid-Market Forays There has been an intensifying hullabaloo in the mid-market, with all Tier 1 players delivering solutions tailored for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and incumbent Tier 2/Tier 3 vendors defending their turf. PeopleSoft expands its forays outside the US with its recent announcements.
September 24, 2002	Frontstep Ups The .NET Ante Part 2: Challenges and User Recommendations Frontstep needs to promulgate its strategy of helping its manufacturing customers and their business partners automate and streamline business processes inside and outside the four walls of the enterprise, such as on-line collaboration with customers, suppliers, distributors, and employees, to make everyone’s internal operations more efficient. In a market with stringent IT budgets, Frontstep has to demonstrate how its CRM, ERP, and SCM products deliver actual savings.
September 23, 2002	Frontstep Ups The .NET Ante While Frontstep has been tenaciously delivering a broad umbrella of products all under the ".NET roof", much work still remains for the company to counteract the onslaught by Tier 1 vendors and mid-market juggernauts and to return to its erstwhile glory.
September 20, 2002	Who to Blame for Project Failure? Look Up - Not Down, Not Left, Not Right. Projects do fail. They fail from many different reasons. But the person at the top of the organization can stop or fix most of these problems before they derail the project. That person is the only one with the power to do so.
September 19, 2002	Architecture-Centered Information Systems In The Manufacturing Domain - Part V - Applying the Methodology Architecture bridges the semantic gap between the requirements and software. Application software systems must be architected in order to deal with the current and future needs of the business organization. Managing software projects using architecture-centered methodologies must be an intentional step in the process of deploying information systems - not an accidental by-product of the software acquisition and integration process.
September 18, 2002	Geac Hopes To See System21 Shine Again Like 'Aurora' Part 3: Challenges and User Recommendations One is only to hope that the Geac’s renewed interest in alliances and acquisition will be to the point of effectively enhancing prosperous product lines as required by its large installed base.
September 17, 2002	Geac Hopes To See System21 Shine Again Like 'Aurora' Part 2: Market Impact Geac appears to have at least learned some hard lessons and it should not fall again in the trap of its former rampant acquisition strategy in a number of unrelated, diverse fields. Further, Geac's strengths today remain its geographical spread, restored financial health, retained level of products’ diversity, and its savvy of industry business process in the chosen vertical sectors. The company seems to have become highly attuned to the needs of the mid-market, with many loyal long term customers currently enjoying considerable service & support attention.
September 16, 2002	Geac Hopes To See System21 Shine Again Like 'Aurora' By stabilizing its financial situation and by focusing on customer service beyond reproach and on its major product’s collaborative enhancements, in part through acquisitions, Geac hopes to overcome a lingering general feeling that it had passed up an opportunity to be a top-notch applications vendor.
September 13, 2002	Architecture-Centered Information Systems In The Manufacturing Domain - Part IV - Moving From Planning to Implementation Architecture bridges the semantic gap between the requirements and software. Application software systems must be architected in order to deal with the current and future needs of the business organization. Managing software projects using architecture-centered methodologies must be an intentional step in the process of deploying information systems - not an accidental by-product of the software acquisition and integration process.
September 11, 2002	Architecture-Centered Information Systems In The Manufacturing Domain - Part III - Steps in the Architecture Process Architecture bridges the semantic gap between the requirements and software. Application software systems must be architected in order to deal with the current and future needs of the business organization. Managing software projects using architecture–centered methodologies must be an intentional step in the process of deploying information systems – not an accidental by–product of the software acquisition and integration process.
September 10, 2002	Will Glovia Glow Again Through Its Hub And VARs? Part 2: Challenges and User Recommendations While the Fujitsu/Glovia relationship has worked well in Japan, a difficult market for many other ERP vendors to penetrate, it may prove to be quite a different case in other markets. Further, until recently, Glovia’s middle and top management team had long been in a state of flux and often poached by recently higher-flying competitors in the markets it attempts to regain. Further, one cannot help feeling that Glovia’s knowledge of its target market has always been deeper than its market visibility and share.
September 9, 2002	Will Glovia Glow Again Through Its Hub And VARs? While Glovia continues its revamping as a holistic B2B e-business provider for manufacturers and service companies beyond core ERP, its ongoing management reshuffling, its fledgling channel and traction for multiple products will be challenges to be tamed.
September 7, 2002	Lose the Starry-Eyes, Analyze:An Ideal Customer for Relevant INFIMACS This is an example, using Relevant Business Systems, of how you can use the TEC ERP Evaluation Center's WebTESS tool to locate vendors that consider your company their ideal candidate.
September 6, 2002	Architecture-Centered Information Systems In The Manufacturing Domain - Part II - The Architecture Process Architecture bridges the semantic gap between the requirements and software. Application software systems must be architected in order to deal with the current and future needs of the business organization. Managing software projects using architecture-centered methodologies must be an intentional step in the process of deploying information systems — not an accidental by-product of the software acquisition and integration process.
September 5, 2002	What Makes Process Process Process manufacturers have had difficulty in selecting ERP and SCM products which meet their needs. This management note places these unmet needs in the context of the business characteristics which serve as their root causes.
September 4, 2002	Architecture-Centered Information Systems In The Manufacturing Domain - Part I - Introduction to Software Architecture Architecture bridges the semantic gap between the requirements and software. Application software systems must be architected in order to deal with the current and future needs of the business organization. Managing software projects using architecture-centered methodologies must be an intentional step in the process of deploying information systems — not an accidental by-product of the software acquisition and integration process.
September 3, 2002	Stand Up, Sit Down...Don't Fight,Fight,Fight Can you relate to the following software demo situation? Jennifer, the sales engineer, is at the keyboard. She’s on a roll. She’s been setting the stage to show how her price matrix capability will eliminate costly errors. This is all-important to the prospect. She has the audience’s full attention and is steadily moving them toward her objective. Suddenly Robert, the account executive, interrupts from the back of the room. “Jennifer, I think this would be a great time to show how the information you’re working with updates the data warehouse and is immediately available for sales analysis purposes.” Everybody shifts their attention from Jennifer and the all-important price matrix capability to Robert and the equally important data warehouse function. In an instant, the momentum Jennifer has been building dies.
August 2002
August 31, 2002	Do You Know How to Evaluate Your Strategic Technology Provider? Project teams constantly face a barrage of new products and technologies, and have a difficult time differentiating marketing slides and grand promises from deliverable products when making strategic IT acquisitions. The solution is to create a structured, repeatable process for evaluating technology solutions and the vendors that provide them.
August 29, 2002	Enterprise Applications Battlefield Mid-Year Scoreboard Part 4: Other Vendors, CRM, SCP & User Recommendations Application vendors find themselves in a precarious situation where, concurrently with dismal revenue inflow, there is a need for bigger investment in the development of their products. Vendors unable to keep abreast of technology demands of a vertically focused solution that provides tangible returns in ever-smaller project chunks are in a danger of becoming has-beens.
August 28, 2002	Enterprise Applications Battlefield Mid-Year Scoreboard Part 3: IBM IBM still needs to convince users that it is nimble enough to handle the smaller projects prevalent in today’s cost-conscious market, which may be a concern that is aggravated rather than alleviated by the acquisition.
August 27, 2002	Enterprise Applications Battlefield Mid-Year Scoreboard Part 2: Microsoft The results from providers of strategic infrastructure that have more technology irons in the fire have typically proven better lately, if not spectacular, with one hoping these would even re-invigorate spending in the enterprise arena.
August 26, 2002	Enterprise Applications Battlefield Mid-Year Scoreboard While it is apparent that software giants are in a better position to endure any economic adversity, no single vendor can be lulled into complacency for very long. Consequently, there will be more baffled investors, but also somewhat encouraged small vendors with inimitable value propositions.
August 23, 2002	Beware of Legacy Data - It Can Be Lethal Legacy data can be lethal to your expensive new application – two case studies and some practical recommendations.
August 22, 2002	IT Project Risk Assessment Information technology project risk often comes from non-technical aspects of the initiative. Assessing the impact of technology on people, management systems and other initiatives is essential to assure project success.
August 21, 2002	Adonix Grows Roots Against The Odds Part 2: Challenges and User Recommendations Adonix often comes ahead of larger global players in terms of functional fit, pricing, and understanding of the local requirements in the distribution area. The company still faces challenges presented by limited financial resources to adequately fund multiple key strategic initiatives including brand marketing, undeveloped global channel and brand recognition, and formidable competition within the market of Adonix’ future expansion focus (particularly the North American market).
August 20, 2002	Adonix Grows Roots Against The Odds Part 1 Proving that a lack of size can be compensated with a savvy value proposition, Adonix, until recently a quiet French ERP provider, keeps on delivering pieces of its strategy to further establish itself internationally, despite a harsh and hostile environment.
August 18, 2002	A Definition of Data Warehousing There is a great deal of confusion over the meaning of data warehousing. Simply defined, a data warehouse is a place for data, whereas data warehousing describes the process of defining, populating, and using a data warehouse. Creating, populating, and querying a data warehouse typically carries an extremely high price tag, but the return on investment can be substantial. Over 95% of the Fortune 1000 have a data warehouse initiative underway in some form.
August 16, 2002	Microsoft Paints CRM Landscape On Lately A ‘Still Nature’ Business Applications Scenery Part 2: Challenges and User Recommendations Microsoft’s ambition will be its greatest challenge, as the company is concurrently experiencing an almost disruptive technology transition from Windows to .NET, using Internet rather than PCs. Microsoft Business Solutions is now up to its gills with soul-searching dilemmas, possibly with more issues than it would wish to be handling at the moment.
August 15, 2002	Microsoft Paints CRM Landscape On Lately A ‘Still Nature’ Business Applications Scenery While most of its applications co-opetitors have been licking their wounds and bracing for a long summer drought, fat cash cushioned Microsoft has been putting together the pieces of its CRM (and likely the overall enterprise applications) strategy mosaic
August 13, 2002	The Automotive OEMs Might Soon Contract “BRAIN” Damage Part 2: The Future and User Recommendations While business for BRAIN North America continues to be positive, developments in Germany will affect its future.
August 12, 2002	The Automotive OEMs Might Soon Contract “BRAIN” Damage Part I While BRAIN North America may have created a notable customer base due to its products’ functional appropriateness for the lower tiers of the automotive industry, its German parent’s impending insolvency might, in the worst-case scenario, leave all of them in the lurch.
August 9, 2002	Enterprise Energy Management Software - The Key to Effective Energy Utilization Energy purchasing has become increasingly complex as a result of deregulation. The deregulated market provides more suppliers and more options for supply contracts. Managers who buy energy need to have more information about projected operational energy demand in order to get the best energy prices. They need a software system.
August 8, 2002	Scala Shows Far More Than A Bit Of A Backbone Part 3: Challenges and User Recommendations Although the value proposition offered by Scala should bode well to creating increased demand and acceptance of the Scala offering in the global SME market, there will be many challenges to overcome in order to continue to thrive in this ferocious competitive environment.
August 7, 2002	Scala Shows Far More Than A Bit Of A Backbone Part 2: Market Impact Scala is a serious challenger in the SME market, especially in emerging markets like Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and China (possibly the local market leader therein), given that the company reported growth and stable financial performance in 2001 while many of its peers have seen corresponding decline.
August 6, 2002	Scala Shows Far More Than A Bit Of A Backbone Part 1 Scala seems to be telling any competitor that two can play the game in the global enterprise market. Employing offense as the best defense, the company is determined to attack the satellite divisions of its bigger competitors, particularly those of SAP.
August 5, 2002