SAP recommends multi-channel software strategy

Oracle competitor SAP highlighted some points about application delivery earlier this week. SAP’s managing director Tim Noble pointed out that businesses are increasingly shifting towards a mix of in-house, mobile and cloud-based applications, and that IT service providers and software developers need to provide those services or risk missing the boat.

According to SAP’s survey of 250 CIOs in large UK companies, on-premises software deployments will fall by 20% to 51% by 2015, as companies demand access to their applications on the go or via the cloud.

Additionally, the survey said, the share of on-demand implementations will increase 11% to 28% and on-device will increase by 8% to 21%.

Oracle’s Larry Ellison has been famously outspoken on cloud computing. Ellison, rather than believing that cloud computing and therefore businesses’ access to and use of it is a revolution, thinks it is in fact already in use under different names, and is evolving. As one of the world’s major players in the software market, Oracle has been dealing with what is now known as ‘cloud computing’ and access to applications via it for years already. As Ellison eloquently put it, “cloud computing is not only the future of computing, it is the present, and the entire past of computing is all cloud.”

Some what less eloquently, Ellison went on to say “All it is is a computer attached to a network. What are you talking about? I mean, what do you think Google runs on?” The point he is making is valid, and relevant in terms of SAP’s latest recommendation. Cloud is not something that software companies should be getting on board with and preparing for. It is something that they should already be embracing; if they are only just catching on, and claiming that businesses need multichannel application access and support, they perhaps have come a little late to the party.

Webinar: The key to user adoption with Panasonic Europe and Inatech

Implementation's can only be considered a success when all users are making the most of the new applications. Whether it's SAP, Microsoft or Epicor if your employees are not utilising the new technologies achieving a positive ROI will be an incredibly steep climb - a risk few organisations can afford to take.

Oracle User Productivity Kit (UPK) is used across 4,000 different applications for 2,500 customers supporting 4 million end users globally.

Join our FREE live eSeminar to hear first-hand how Panasonic Europe have solved their user adoption challenges and got their end-users productive from Day One.

Speaking from direct experience Panasonic Europe and Inatech will exclusively reveal how they have used Oracle User Productivity Kit (UPK) to achieve rapid ROI on major Global applications deployments. In a frank and insightful discussion, both speakers will share their experiences, successes and best practice advice with you.

1. Reduce documentation content development time by 50%-test script creation, system process documentation, training manuals.
2. Increase user productivity with targeted, contextual and just-in-time training
3. Reduce help desk costs by 90%
4. Reduce training traveling costs by 80%
5. Cut training costs through efficient authoring and dissemination of training materials

Speakers:
Amanda Chandler-Siebel - Applications Manager-Panasonic Europe, based in Cardiff-UK for the last 13 years she is responsible for eight regions. Panasonic Corporation is one of the largest electronic product manufacturers in the World, comprised of over 540 companies. Panasonic is the 59th largest Global Company in the World-(Source: 2007-Forbes Global 1000) and is the Worlds Top Filer for Patent Applications around the World. (Source: World Intellectual Property Organization 2007)

Phil Puddefoot - Change Management Director & Trainer at Inatech Solutions, has over 15 years experience in change management and training initatives and during that time Phil was responsible for Whitbread’s (UK Hospitality Company) largest ever business transformation programme where he was responsible for building and delivering an education strategy for training of 10,000 end users of the new ERP platform. At DHL (Global Postal Delivery Provider) as part of a Multi-language ERP upgrade and implementation in Europe-Phil was responsible for the co-ordination of an education and training programme to reach 1,400 end users.


This eSeminar is a must for any organization currently planning an enterprise applications deployment or upgrade. From our two speakers you’ll learn ways to:

• Cut training costs through efficient authoring and dissemination of training materials
• Increase user productivity with targeted, contextual and just-in-time training
• Reduce help desk costs with comprehensive in-application help
• Promote best practices by capturing and preserving your business’s unique ways of working
• Improve compliance by building compliant process flows into your user training materials

WHEN: Thursday, 28th January
TIME: 11am (GMT)
DURATION: 45 minutes

Book now: Click here

Oracle Database Vault Increases Security of SAP Application Data

As security still rides high on the list of CIO priorities, Oracle has announced that its Database Vault has been certified for use with SAP applications.

Oracle Database Vault allows organizations to strengthen security and comply more closely with regulations by controlling when, where, how and by whom SAP application data is accessed. This control extends to all users with the Database Vault, including privileged users such as administrators.

Organisations can ensure, using Oracle Database Vault, that users cannot override SAP application security features, thus protecting SAP application data from access using ad-hoc database query tools. This is achieved by establishing protective realms around SAP application database objects to prevent any user accessing sensitive data.

Making the right decisions for IT outsourcing

Here at Calsoft we understand that finding a dedicated, professional outsourcing supplier is important, especially in this economic climate; according to recent research from the Chartered Management Institute, levels of confidence in the IT sector for 2009 have plummeted, making cost cutting initiatives a leader on the global IT agenda. Finding an outsourcing company with the skills you need, with a clear understanding of the task at hand, is one of the first steps to saving money and making businesses work more efficiently.

Financial asset management giant Schroders is a case in point. Having just completed a IT overhaul, the company’s infrastructure has just won a Corporate IT Forum’s Real IT Award, and has set the firm on course to save money on integration whilst increasing profits. The overhaul project began in 2005 when Schroders ended its existing five-year contract with JPMorgan.

Matthew Oakeley, global head of IT at Schroders, said: “We realised that the five-year outsourcing period with JPMorgan had meant no investment in this platform and that it needed ripping out and replacing.”

Equally, reliable outsourcing is big business, and growing all the time, especially in countries just starting to spread their wings in the IT sector. HCL Technologies, the Indian outsourcing supplier, has just completed its successful £440m takeover of UK SAP specialist Axon. This is the largest overseas acquisition to date by an Indian IT firm.

Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL, said: “Enterprise application services are one of the eight areas of growth at HCL. The merger of Axon with HCL's SAP practice is a transformational one that will make HCL significant in this chosen area of growth."

The expansion of outsourcing suppliers is not just limited to newcomers, however. Inatech announced this week its expansion into mainland Europe during this crucial business period as Eastern-Europe integrates into the continent and the Euro grows stronger. Inatech plans to support the growth of Oracle during this period of increased integration, by orchestrating the company’s new business links in mainland Europe.

Vedante Srihari, managing director, said: “Europe is a key region to develop Inatech as a leading provider of integrated systems solutions.

“Many of our customers are international businesses or have numerous offices across mainland Europe. Being at the heart of the EU community will assist companies with the ambition to provide business internationally.

“The recession is affecting every organisation worldwide; cost-reduction, data transparency, accessibility and streamlined integrated IT systems are essential to remain competitive and agile.

“We will see many more prominent mergers and acquisitions over the next 24 months and businesses need to ensure their investments are viable. We believe our ‘right shore’ approach delivered as a fixed-price package will benefit companies particularly in the current economic climate.”

Continuing in this vein of more and better integration, Inatech also launched its new concept of modular managed services to help businesses fight the recession. It’s iBIZ and iDBA modular programmes, debuted at OUG UK earlier this month, aim to help organisations achieve business goals with a service designed to support individual directors or IT managers.

Inatech believes some companies struggle with the traditional working practices of IT suppliers who ‘know best'. Instead they should be able to select flexible modular programmes in line with business requirements, allowing them to react more efficiently to change.

Vedante Srihari said: "If iTunes is entertainment made easy and iPhone is multi-media communications incarnate, then iDBA is access to a virtual army of IT experts.

“Our industry is plagued with clients who suffer outsourcing ‘mid-term blues’ and find themselves saddled with long-term contracts that have outlived their original purpose. With this new modular service the IT director has the flexibility they need to scale up or down without signing away their future.

“During an economic slow down, it’s unclear how the business might need to change to survive an increasingly competitive environment. Knowing you can access a reliable team on flexible terms will be a lifeline for many.”

Competition drives standards up for communication and integration

Over the past few weeks we have seen both Microsoft and Google introduce various new products or updates of existing products in the bid to provide the best integrated communications features for their users. The competition has driven standards sky high.

This week, Google launched a new video and voice mail feature to its popular Gmail programme. Users will now be able to switch between email, instant messaging and visual and audio communication with relative ease. This new development comes after Microsoft introduced its updated Windows Live product. The new programme integrated email inboxes with instant messaging, contacts lists and links to social networking sites.

The competition between the two giants has led to many positive developments, as well as an exciting display of sharp marketing on both sides. Microsoft, in an effort to tighten up services, fixed four Windows bugs this week, in a move that has prompted sighs of relief from Windows Office users. The company has also signed a new distribution deal with Sun Microsystems, where Sun users will be able to download Microsoft’s toolbar when using Sun’s JRE, giving them instant access to Live Search, Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger. Added to that, Microsoft is reportedly near to signing another distribution deal to Verizon Wireless to become the default search provider on Verizon’s mobile phones. Rumours report that Microsoft is also looking to negotiate a separate deal to provide search tools for Verizon’s other devices, but little is known about this as of yet.

Back in the world of business intelligence and service oriented architecture (SOA), similar levels of market competition between SAP and Oracle have provided plenty of hot news for the industry. The rivalry between Oracle and it’s German counterpart SAP is well-known, which is why former Oracle vice president John Wookey’s move to SAP has caused some surprise in the IT business community. Mr Wookey left Oracle in October, and has now been hired as SAP’s new executive vice president.

Oracle has signed deals with new clients as the drive to conquer the market goes on. The issue of today is how SOA can be implemented to make green technology more viable, and Oracle is getting onboard. Yesterday, Oracle announced that it will be working together with ESS, a leading provider in Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) and Crisis Management Software. The two organisations hope to deliver a cohesive solution for environmental sustainability information management. They aim to help organisations reduce the risk, cost and complexity of sustainability management.

Meanwhile, new research from Aberdeen Group released this week shows that 58% of small to medium sized businesses can reduce their time-to-information to a real- or near real-time basis using business intelligence. Hot on the heels of this, SAP-owned company Business Objects has launched Business Objects XI 3.1, a unified business intelligence platform. The platform promises to integrate various data sources, including the internet and Microsoft, Oracle and Netezza products.

Here at Calsoft, all of this is good news to us. The two buzz words of this week have been “competition” and “integration”, and we are ready to tackle both, for the good of both businesses and our professional services.