A good friend of mine recently became CIO of a financial services firm and was given his first major system challenge this month: make the complete accounting, financial and third-party loan provider data and applications available 24/7 on any iPad or Android-based tablet. He’s been given six months to make this happen.

Another CIO of a major A&D manufacturer I know wants vendors to challenge him more to get greater value from his investments with them. He’s also been given the task of revamping accounting and financial systems by October 2012, and they just started last year. He tells me the days of using ERP software to just passively run reports also are numbered.

Considering these two extremes—the young CIO who is just starting out and has been given the challenge of bringing state-of-the-art financial applications to mobile platforms, and the seasoned CIO who must revamp an entire accounting and financial management system in ten months—a series of predictions for 2012 emerge. Instead of playing it safe, I’ve decided to reach on these to make them more interesting, fun and hopefully thought-provoking as well:

Streamlined, intuitive usability of social networks will lead to ERP getting an extreme makeover in 2012 in an effort to drive up system adoption. While strides are being made in this area today, there is still a long way to go until the usability of ERP application suites approaches those of the most popular SaaS-based CRM, supply chain systems and social networks. For CIOs, this is a big win since they can satisfy the wants of many internal departments and customers with a graphical interface upgrade without having to completely replace systems. Look for this to be a major focus area of all ERP vendors in 2012 and a strategy for keeping long-standing systems in place and safely under maintenance for at least a few more years if not more.

Rapid implementations become the new normal. The pressure on the new CIO of a financial services company to deliver a new series of Apple iPad and Android-compatible integrations within six months or less and the pressure to make an entirely new accounting and finance system work in an A&D firm by October 2012 are glimpses into the new normal. Accuracy, speed and quickness with perfect implementations are what the new expectations are based on. ERP implementation timeframes will drastically shrink in 2012, with greater pressure on system integrators and professional services to meet or beat deadlines.

ERP mobility will be a dominant force from the shop floor to each sales call where quotes, orders and contracts deliver real-time order and pricing updates. How a given manufacturer chooses to sell is even more important than what they sell in many industries. Equipping manufacturing, quality assurance, production scheduling, procurement and sales to have immediate data on what’s going on with orders, customers and suppliers is critical. For the sales and service teams, real-time data is the fuel they run on. There’s a chronic time shortage in many, many companies right now, and bringing greater ERP mobility from the shop floor to the sales call will increasingly be seen as a means to lessen the time crunch. 2012 is the year where mobility gets real across the enterprise with solid performance numbers being generated as a result. For companies with large sales forces and service organizations, integrating to key ERP systems to gain real-time data will quickly lead to increased sales and higher gross margins on service and warranty repairs.

Depth and quality of applications, data and legacy integration on mobile devices including tablets will emerge as the new enterprise bling. The iPad is a badge of analytical and executive honor in the financial services industry—the technological equivalent of the corner office with the million-dollar view and mahogany furniture. My good friend who just became a CIO was unsure of just who was a VP or C-level executive during his first staff meeting. He quickly realized the more worn the iPad and case, the more senior the executive. The expectations on him are very high for having real-time updates on a series of benchmarks that the senior management team uses to manage their many businesses on mobile platforms by June.

Cloud-based ERP in the enterprise and highly targeted verticals will flourish and face moderate growth in small and medium businesses (SMBs). Convincing as the arguments are for SMBs to adopt SaaS-based ERP, this will continue to be slower in adoption than enterprises and highly targeted vertical markets. Enterprises will continue to adopt SaaS-based applications to replace legacy, high-maintenance and often marginally effective systems in use today.

Analytics and Business Intelligence (BI) will become the fuel that drives cultural change away from siloed decisions to more collaborative ones. Given how tight the time schedules are for every IT department I’ve visited and know of, the luxury of allowing one set of dashboards and metrics to just measure a single process or silo are gone (or will be in 2012 completely). Little tolerance or patience on the part of CIOs is now commonplace when it comes to esoteric, single-centered dashboards and metrics. The good news is that dashboards are extremely easy to create now, especially on top of Microsoft-based analytics and databases. That’s also part of the bad news too. Dashboards are proliferating and are often used to define a given department’s agenda without focusing on shared outcomes. In 2012, this will change as dashboards and metrics that measure collaboration become required for continued investment.

Template-driven implementations will become more commonplace in the mid-market. For many enterprises in the mid-tier of the market, there’s going to be much more of a focus on getting up and running quickly and less on tailoring every possible customization option in an ERP module or entirely new system. Template-driven implementations will also become commonplace in cloud-based ERP systems and solution packages sold to vertical market industries. The good news is that implementation timeframes will drop. The bad news is that not so much customization means potentially inflexible systems. Common areas where this strategy will be used are project management and scheduling, business performance management, contract lifecycle management, product lifecycle management, program management, project-based supply chain management and service lifecycle management. These templates will be especially useful in industries where compliance is critical to passing government audits, for example in the pharmaceutical industry.

Value-based measurements of ERP will become more commonplace. Given how much pressure there is on CIOs to show how investments in IT are paying off, value-based measurements will become even more commonplace in 2012 than they are today. The challenge of isolating just which aspect of an enterprise system delivered cost reductions or revenue gains is an area of ongoing debate in many companies. These value-based measurements provide a structure for determining just how much of a contribution ERP investments are making or not.

Highly specialized ERP platforms will accelerate system adoption and value and will transform manufacturers in the process. Look for Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and others to create world-class alliances and partnerships that are focused on creating highly specialized ERP platforms that will disrupt the existing enterprise software product development, selling and service models.

Bottom line: More collaborative use of analytics, adoption of mobile ERP applications primarily in sales and service and shortened implementation timeframes all show just how time-constrained enterprises are right now. Enterprises are in search of systems that will help alleviate the time shortages that nearly every one of them is facing today.

Note: The inclusion of guest posts on the Panorama website does not imply endorsement of any specific product or service. Panorama is, and always will remain, completely independent and vendor-neutral.

If you are interested in guest blogging opportunities, click to read more about our submission guidelines.

With another year quickly drawing to an end and our predictions for ERP in 2012 already in place, we thought it would be worth taking a look back at the past year in the ERP industry. As we reflect on the major milestones of 2011, it reminds us of the large spectrum of positive and negative industry incidents. For example, on one hand, Panorama Consulting continued its growth and success by merging with The Prescott Group while, on the other hand, several high-profile organizations failed miserably in their attempts to implement ERP systems.

Here is a look back at three of the major milestones of 2011:

Proliferation of ERP failures and lawsuits. Even with the economy still in the dumps and CFOs and CIOs more risk-averse than ever, lawsuits, fraud and project failures continued to grab headlines. For instance, Lumber Liquidators, CareSource Management Group, Tesco Bank, Whaley Foodservice Repairs, and the City of New York all reported failed or troubled ERP implementations in 2012, reminding us all how awry ERP projects can go if they are not managed well. Case in point: the CityTime payroll system implementation, which had an initial budget of $63 million and rapidly grew to $760 million in actual costs, along with allegations of kickbacks amongst the project’s system integrators and sub-contractors. While our firm will undoubtedly provide ERP expert witness testimony in several high-profile lawsuits in the coming year, we would much rather be earning our revenue by helping companies do ERP right the first time. Hopefully, these examples serve as reminders of the value of independent ERP consulting experts to help select and implement enterprise software effectively.

Industry growth and consolidation. Despite the accelerating rate of ERP failures, the industry as a whole showed continued signs of life in a tough economy. Panorama expanded its reach into new industries, service areas, and geographies by merging with The Prescott Group to form Panorama Consulting Solutions, while Infor continued its march toward becoming a viable Tier I ERP vendor by acquiring Lawson. In addition to these and several other high profile merger and acquisition deals in the enterprise software space, other ERP vendors demonstrated aggressive growth by expanding their footprints of new customers, embracing software as a service (SaaS) and cloud delivery models, and focusing on emerging markets such as China. SAP, for example, continued to push its Business By Design SaaS offering and indicated that China is its number one geographical growth priority in 2012 and beyond.

The cloud is for real. 2011 appears to have been a turning point for cloud ERP software and SaaS solutions, with it becoming more clear that the movement is not a flash in the pan. SaaS ERP vendors such as Salesforce, Workday, Kinaxis, and Netsuite all exhibited strong software license growth in the last year, while traditional on-premise vendors such as SAP, Oracle, and Epicor demonstrated stronger commitments to their SaaS and cloud offerings. While the heaviest rate of adoption is still very concentrated among smaller organizations, the adoption rates in these segments of the market illustrate that the cloud is here to stay. The next step for SaaS ERP vendors is to prove that they can crack the code and concerns of the enterprise software needs for larger organizations.

While 2011 may have been a mixed bag, it left us with enough positive news and opportunity to get us ready for an exciting 2012 with optimistic prospects. On behalf of everyone at Panorama Consulting Solutions: happy new year to our current clients, future clients and industry peers. Here’s to a successful 2012 and we look forward to working with you.

When the acquisition of Lawson by Infor in an unsolicited bid of $2 billion back in April, some analysts and Lawson customers viewed it as another in the long line of Infor acquisitions in which the targeted software would be melded into the broad suite of Infor-acquired products and simply wither on the vine. However, the Infor strategy had changed substantially when Charles Phillips left Oracle to become the Infor CEO in October, 2010. Now, as we approach six months from the July 6, 2011, official completion of the deal we can begin to see how it will pan out.

The new Infor strategy is built around accelerated delivery of roadmaps and new products, modernization of existing applications, and delivering mobile technology, tapping into the relatively new cloud and social networking environments. The first evidence of the new approach has been the release of Infor 10, offering a “consumer-grade user experience” built around Infor ION, the middleware designed to provide quicker, simpler, and more reliable integrations. Infor has also partnered with Salesforce.com to tap into the lucrative and quickly expanded cloud computing space.

The acquisition of Lawson not only vaulted Infor into the top tier of ERP vendors with SAP and Oracle, it has provided Infor with new capabilities in specific application areas such as manufacturing, distribution, fashion, food and beverage, and equipment service management and rental, as well as the enhanced user experience provided by Lawson Smart Office. The combination of Smart office with the Infor Workspace product is expected to provide a full scope of user interfaces from power users to casual workplace users. Additionally, incorporation of Lawson’s Mashup Designer capabilities and Enterprise Search engine into the Infor Workspace will provide extended functionality to the user experience. Lawson’s strong presence in the health care, public sector, equipment service management and human capital management industries will allow Infor to extend its portfolio in those markets.

Utilizing ION, Inform plans to quickly develop integration of key applications, particularly in the areas of Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), financial planning and management, and human capital management. New integrated capabilities are anticipated as soon as the end of the year.

Despite the aggressive integration plans, it is interesting to note the Lawson, unlike other Infor acquisitions, in retaining its strong, established identity, at least for the time being. The current branding labels the Infor product as “Lawson, an Infor affiliate”.

While the integration of the two organizations continues to unfold, early indications are that the future for Infor and Lawson together is promising and exciting.

Written by Larry Bell, Manager of Vendor Relations. 

Our latest session of ERP Boot Camp is set to kick off on Wednesday, December 7 in Denver, Colorado. Though it’s just around the corner, there is still time to register to make sure that you and your team benefit from the collected expertise of Panorama’s ERP experts and our invited guests, who include many of the leaders of the ERP industry. The knowledge and information presented at ERP Boot Camp stretches across the ERP market, and encompasses insight relevant for every system and every implementation. And past participants will tell you the same: “The Boot Camp was an eye opening experience. I really felt like I had learned a lot about what to expect and how to plan/strategize in implementing our own ERP. The three-day course was a great investment.”

Presentation topics for our December event include:

• ERP Basic Training (including 20 guiding principles of effective ERP initiatives)
• Overview of ERP Implementation Strategies
• ERP Project Management
• Overview of Organizational Change Management and Benefits Realization
• Technical Considerations

In addition, there will be sessions devoted to creating requirements, business blueprinting and developing a business case — all critical ERP success factors that are too frequently mismanaged or forgotten.

Our expert panelists promise to share plenty of “stories from the trenches” gleaned over decades in the IT industry. They’ll help attendees gain insight into vendor selection and management,  implementation project planning, configuration and customization and organizational change activities.

Activities will also include one-on-ones with Panorama’s independent ERP consultants to discuss individual concerns or scenarios, an open house at the Panorama office and the all-important happy hour reception.

If you have yet to register, there is still time! This is not only a “can’t miss” event but one that will ensure your organization is positioned to reap all the rewards possible from its ERP system. Click ERP Boot Camp to find out more and register today by calling Michele Palmieri at 720-515-1377.

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, it’s helpful to look at all the things that we are thankful for not only in our personal and family lives, but also in the ERP industry. Here are some of the things that strike me as major advancements and improvements in the enterprise software space over the last several years:

Deployment options have become more varied. It used to be that if a Fortune 500 company wanted to implement an ERP system, executives had to make a massive investment in the initiative and burden their organizations with huge amounts of risk. Today, not only are there more options to deploy ERP systems via software as a service (SaaS) ERP, cloud, and best-of-breed solutions, but there are plenty of options for non-Fortune 500 companies and small- and mid-sized organizations. ERP vendors such as Plex Systems, Kinaxis, Salesforce, Workday, and Netsuite all provide deployment alternatives to traditional ERP systems. In addition, solutions from traditional ERP vendors such as SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics include SaaS and cloud options.

There are business ERP experts available to help. When I started in the industry more than 15 years ago, there were plenty of software consultants available for hire, but very few (if any) independent business consultants that had a broad understanding of the ERP market – including critical success factors surrounding project management, organizational change management, and business process re-engineering. While most consultants are still more myopically focused on a single ERP system or lacking independence and objectivity, companies such as Panorama provide more holistic, comprehensive, and independent advisory services to companies wanting to mitigate the risk of their ERP selections and implementations. In response to Panorama’s leading position in the independent ERP consulting space, a host of smaller firms have emerged across the globe as well.

Failure rates are still too high. While the industry is touting low-risk deployment options and tools such as SaaS, failure rates are still alarmingly high. Demand for Panorama’s ERP expert witness services – which companies and attorneys leverage when their failures are about to lead to lawsuits – are at an all-time high, suggesting that organizations are mismanaging their implementations more than ever. What’s more interesting is that our expert witness work, whereby we leverage best practices from our proprietary and proven ERP implementation framework, shows that companies are failing in key areas despite their use of more advances technologies and tools being touted by software vendors. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what kind of software or tools you are deploying – implementations will fail if you don’t effectively plan and execute some of the key factors required to make a project successful. Not enough organizations, consultants, or software vendors understand this key concept.However, while there are many things to be thankful for, there are still many areas where we still need to improve:

Companies still don’t treat ERP implementations as business, rather than technology, initiatives. Contributing to the high rate of ERP failures are the fact that too many executives are delegating their ERP projects to their CIOs or IT Directors and absolving themselves of business or operational responsibility for the success of the project. At the risk of offending our more technical clients or industry peers, CIOs and IT Directors are much more likely to underestimate the need for business involvement and potential outside expertise than their more operational or finance counterparts within the organization. Worse yet, most software vendors and ERP consultants focus far too much on software rather than business processes (not system transactions), organizational change management, and strong project management.

While there is always room for improvement, we are showing signs of advancement and for this I’m thankful. Happy Thanksgiving to our US-based clients and peers!

This last year was another eventful time for the ERP software industry. Vendors continued to consolidate, the rate of ERP failures and lawsuits accelerated, and enterprise software technologies continued to evolve. Our company, Panorama Consulting Solutions maintained its aggressive growth and merged with TPG Solutions, reflecting the dynamic and evolving nature of the ERP market and its customers.

• Infor acquired Lawson
• Lawsuits, fraud and project failures continued to grab headlines (e.g., Lumber Liquidators, CareSource Management Group, Tesco Bank, Whaley Foodservice Repairs, City of New York, etc.)
• Cloud ERP gained steam
• Social ERP gained credibility
• And, worthy of a second mention, Panorama Consulting merged withTPG Solutions to become Panorama Consulting Solutions

As we look forward to 2012, there are a number of trends we expect to continue, while we expect a few new developments as well. Here are our highly anticipated top ten predictions for 2012:

1. Continued consolidation in the industry. Infor’s acquisition of Lawson was just the start. Barriers to entry in the ERP space are low and there are way too many players in the industry (in fact, we track nearly 200 ERP vendors in our proprietary ERP database). At the same time, global economic uncertainly isn’t necessarily creating an environment for robust industry growth that might support the crowded field, so we expect the merger and acquisition activity to continue among ERP vendors.

2. Shake-up in the Tier I space. This coming year may be when we finally see a shakeup among the big Tier I ERP vendors. While SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics certainly aren’t likely to lose their foothold as the Big 3 of the ERP software market, we do expect that some of the larger Tier IIs are going to pose legitimate challenges to their market share and reach. For example, after their acquisition of Lawson, Infor is just a couple steps behind the traditional Tier II players, while companies such as IFS, Epicor, Kinaxis, and QAD are continuing their aggressive growth, especially in the SMB space.

3. Acceleration of ERP failures. Unfortunately, we’re still seeing the collateral damage from poor decisions of years past, and this isn’t likely to change in the next year. Tight IT budgets and a “do it yourself” mentality to ERP projects of the last few years have finally started catching up in terms of the large number of publicized ERP failures in the latter part of 2011. Companies have simply under-invested time, money, expertise, and resources in their ERP projects in recent years, so we will see those bad decisions catch up to us in the coming year.

4. Increase in the number of ERP lawsuits. If we look at demand for our ERP expert witness services as a leading indicator, 2012 is going to entail a huge number of ERP lawsuits. We are typically engaged by courts and legal counsel to consult on lawsuits before they are formally filed, and we have seen a marked uptick in demand for these services in late 2011. Combine this with the #3 prediction above, and it is clear that 2012 will be a year of epic ERP lawsuits.

5. Less “do it yourself” ERP projects. Because of #3 and #4 above, we expect fewer companies to attempt the DIY approach to ERP selection and implementation. Installing a light fixture from Home Depot may work for do-it-yourself home improvement projects, but CIOs and CFOs are becoming smart and risk adverse enough to know better than to try this approach when it comes to transforming their entire business with a new ERP system. These companies will lean on outside consultants and experts more than they have in recent years, with the understanding that an expert consulting firm that has fine-tuned selection, implementation, and organizational change management methods over 100s of organizations will be able to deliver better, faster, and cheaper results than they can internally.

6. SaaS ERP providers will continue picking off smaller pieces of ERP. Software as a Service (SaaS) vendors such as Salesforce, Plex Systems, Netsuite, Kinaxis, and Workday have successfully poached smaller customers from the traditional ERP vendors over the last few years, but next year they will start making broader in-roads among mid-size companies. In addition to riding the SaaS wave of hype, the above vendors offer a sort of best-of-breed system approach that allow companies to rollout enterprise technology focused on one or a handful of specific functions within organizations, such as CRM, supply chain, or HR. Also feeding into this trend is the risk-adverse propensity for organizations to not bite off more than they can chew with their software initiatives.

7. Convergence of CRM and social media. Industry analysts have been talking about it and software developers have been working on it for years, but next year is when we will finally start to see some meaningful integration between the “enterprise” side of CRM and the “social” side of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  Enterprise and social technologies will finally converge in a meaningful way that will allow organizations to better manage internal customer relationship functions in tandem with the external and less structured social media functions.

8. Misalignment of ERP systems. A lot has changed in the last few years – the economy tanked and recovered moderately while companies evolved, customers demanded more, and mergers continued, but many companies did not proactively invest in their ERP software, leaving organizations with systems that are misaligned with their current business needs. This points to a large subset of organizations wanting to realign their enterprise software with their operational realities, whether it be through investing in new systems or attempting to get more out of their existing software.

9. Conducting a business blueprint as part of the ERP selection process. Fortunately, companies are starting to learn from others’ mistakes (see #3 and #4 above) and are realizing that they shouldn’t rush the ERP evaluation and selection process. Too many failures and lawsuits are caused by choosing the wrong software that is misaligned with business needs, so companies are being more diligent about blueprinting their business processes prior to selection rather than after. We at Panorama are seeing an uptick in the number of companies wishing to engage us to facilitate more robust blueprinting as part of the selection process, which is a reflection of CIOs and CFOs wanting to mitigate their risk.

10. Technology-centric system integrators will continue to struggle to be effective. As I’ve seen in the industry over the years, the traditional technology-focused implementation approach of most system integrators, partners, and value-added resellers (VARs) is clearly not getting the job done. Too much focus on the software, its functionality, and capabilities typically means under-investing in the things that really matter, such as business process design, organizational change management, and effective project management. System integrators will need to either learn to do these things, which they typically don’t have the competency to provide, or partner with firms that do.

Last year was a good year for the ERP industry and we expect even more exciting and positive things in 2012. What do you think? Feel free to leave your comments below or discuss these predictions in more detail in our upcoming webinar, Top Ten Predictions for ERP in 2012, on December 1.

Tier III Vendors Continue Forward Momentum but Tier II Clients are Most Satisfied

Small to mid-sized businesses seeking an affordable and effective enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution are wise to consider offerings from Tier III vendors, according to the 2011 Guide to ERP Systems and Vendors issued today by Panorama Consulting Group, an independent ERP consulting firm in Denver. In addition to having the shortest average implementation duration (12 months) and the lowest average project cost ($1.1 million), Tier III vendors also had the shortest payback time, with 76-percent of their paybacks clocking in at less than three years. And  customers have taken notice: not only did Tier III vendors capture the lion’s share of the market in the under $25 million category (26.6-percent) and the $25 to $50 million category (28.4-percent), but they beat out Oracle, Microsoft and Tier II vendors (combined) to rank as the second choice (behind SAP) in the $50 to $100 million market (23.1-percent).

“While the duration, payback and cost results of Tier III vendors are clearly affected by the fact that their smaller business clients have less complex operations and processes than the large organizations typically served by Tier I vendors, it is evident that they are steadily making major inroads into the sacred calf of big business,” said Eric Kimberling, president and founder of Panorama Consulting Group. “SAP and Oracle may not be threatened yet, but it is important to note that Tier III holds 36-percent of the overall market while Tier II holds just 11-percent – the same amount as Microsoft Dynamics. They’re coming . . . and they’re coming fast.”

Though the survey found that Tier III vendors are gaining ground in terms of market share, their satisfaction rankings are low when compared to their Tier I and Tier II counterparts. Respondents who had implemented Tier III solutions rated themselves as “satisfied” or “very satisfied” only  31.3-percent of the time. In contrast, 42.3-percent of Tier I clients and a full 50-percent of Tier II clients reached similar levels of satisfaction.

“Given that Tier II had the largest average percentage of duration overruns (62.2-percent) by a clear margin, it’s interesting to see that their clients are so happy with their solutions,” said Kimberling. “The seeming disparity is likely due to the fact that most Tier II vendors incorporate third-party modules, which takes a long time but often creates a better, more customized solution in the end. Consultants like Panorama can achieve similar high-levels of satisfaction – regardless of tier – by ensuring the chosen software fits the specific needs and expectations of a business and delivers the full benefits promised by its vendors.”

To offer further analysis of the study results, Kimberling will present a free webcast on Thursday, April 14 at 10 a.m. MST. Register for the seminar at http://panorama-consulting.com/resource-center/erp-webinars/.

About Panorama Consulting Group 2011 Guide to ERP Systems and Vendors

The 2011 Guide to ERP Systems and Vendors was conducted by Panorama Consulting Group via online polling on its website. The over 1,600 participants represent organizations from 57 countries that have recently implemented ERP solutions. The full report (and additional industry research) can be accessed at: http://Panorama-Consulting.com/resource-center/erp-industry-reports/.

About Panorama Consulting Group

Founded in 2005, Panorama Consulting Group is a niche consulting firm specializing in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market for mid-sized companies across the world. Independent of affiliation, Panorama helps firms evaluate and select ERP software, manages the implementation of the software, and facilitates all related organizational changes to ensure that each of its clients realize the full business benefits of their ERP implementation. More information can be found on its website, www.Panorama-Consulting.com.

Esker, the leader in document process automation solutions, announced today that Agua Mineral San Benedetto, a leading Spanish manufacturer and distributor of bottled water and non-alcoholic beverages, has selected Esker for the automation of sales order processing. Esker solutions enable Agua Mineral San Benedetto to optimize one of its main business processes and reduce customer response time, while achieving sustainable development.

Until now, Agua Mineral San Benedetto manually processed sales orders that were unable to be processed by EDI. 35 percent of its global orders – close to 16,000 documents per year – were still received by fax, by email or by telephone, and employees manually entered these orders directly into a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 ERP system. This manual processing, coupled with the multiple order reception channels, generated significant bottlenecks, resulting in delayed processing and increased risk of losing documents or committing errors.

To address this problem, Agua Mineral San Benedetto implemented Esker solutions enabling the company to improve its productivity, assure better sales order processing quality control, improve efficiency and reduce costs related to manual processing errors.

Today, sales order data is automatically extracted and routed for web validation. Once approved, the sales order is created in the ERP application and archived electronically.

Agua Mineral San Benedetto has gained the following benefits and advantages with Esker solutions:

• Decrease in time spent processing sales orders
• Cost savings
• Elimination of processing errors due to manual handling
• Elimination of three fax machines
• Automatic fax reception in Outlook email
• Elimination of unusable order print-outs received by fax and/or email
• Automatic archiving in the ERP application
• Elimination of physical sales order files (46 files classified alphabetically)*

* Number based on an estimated 350 pages per file

“With the automation of sales orders, Agua Mineral San Benedetto moved to 100 percent electronic sales order processing. This solution satisfies our customers and, as we conserve trees and contribute to the reduction in CO2 emissions, helps to preserve the environment. We will continue along this path by automating other business processes with Esker,” said Juan-Francisco Cerezo, Director of Information Systems, Agua Mineral San Benedetto.

With these results, Agua Mineral San Benedetto has demonstrated efforts to reduce its carbon footprint through more responsible paper consumption in its business processes.

About Agua Mineral San Benedetto

Agua Mineral San Benedetto was created in June 1995 with the support of its parent company, Acqua Minerale San Benedetto SPA, the leading Italian manufacturer and distributor of bottled water and non-alcoholic beverages for over 25 years. Agua Mineral San Benedetto, S.A.U. uses its own technology to develop bottles in PET, high-quality material specifically used in the manufacturing of water and other beverage bottles. In addition to reducing its paper consumption through the use of Esker solutions, Agua Mineral San Benedetto also invests in environmental research, development and innovation, and has perfected the lightweight “eco-design” bottles.

About Esker

Esker is the worldwide leader in document process automation solutions. Addressing all types of business processes from accounts payable and accounts receivable to sales order processing and procurement, Esker cloud computing solutions enable companies to automate the reception, processing and sending of any business document with one platform. Esker helps over 80,000 companies across the world to reduce the use of paper and eliminate manual processes while improving their productivity, efficiency and environmental impact.

With 33 million euros in sales revenue in 2010, Esker operates in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific with global headquarters in Lyon, France and U.S. headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. Esker is listed on the NYSE Alternext in Paris (Code ISIN FR0000035818). For more information, visit www.esker.com. Follow Esker on Twitter at twitter.com/eskerinc and join the conversation on the Esker blog at www.quitpaper.com.

On Thursday, Panorama will issue its latest independent report, the 2011 Guide to ERP Vendors and Systems. With research culled from more than 1,600 responses over five years, the survey compares information about ERP implementation durations, costs, payback periods and benefits across all tiers of vendors and presents metrics regarding vendor market share and sales by industry.

Key findings include:

• Rankings within Tier I implementations did not change substantially compared to the 2010 ERP Vendor Analysis Report, but each of the top three vendors showed a drop in market share.

• Tier III vendors have the lowest average project cost ($1.1. million) and the shortest overall payback time, with 76-percent of their paybacks clocking in at less than three years. And while Tier III vendors have the shortest average implementation duration (12 months),  they also have the largest average percentage of duration overruns (62.2.-percent).

• Tier III vendors captured the lion’s share of the market in the under $25 million category and the $25 to $50 million category and beat out Oracle, Microsoft an Tier II vendors (combined) to rank as the second choice (behind SAP) in the $50 to $100 million market.

• Respondents who had implemented Tier III solutions rated themselves as “satisfied” or “very satisfied” only  31.3-percent of the time. In contrast, 42.3-percent of Tier I clients and a full 50-percent of Tier II clients reached similar levels of satisfaction.

The above is just a taste of the data included in the study. Check the Industry Reports section of our website on Thursday morning to download the full 2011 Guide to ERP Systems and Vendors and don’t miss Thursday’s free webinar, Understanding the Differences Between Leading ERP Software Vendors, which will discuss its findings in greater detail.

Epicor’s Partners for Growth Program Is Recognized in CRN’s Annual Guide and 5-Star Partners Listing as One of the IT Channel’s Most Elite Vendor Partner Programs

Epicor Software Corporation (NASDAQ: EPIC), a leading provider of enterprise business software solutions for the midmarket and divisions of Global 1000 companies, today announced that the Company has been named to CRN’s 2011 Partner Programs Guide, and has also been awarded a 5-Star Partner rating. CRN’s Partner Programs Guide and 5-Star rating serves as the definitive list of vendors who have robust partner programs or products that service solution providers offer directly to the IT channel. The annual list recognizes the vendors who offer solution providers the best possible partnering elements for channel success.

“We are honored that Epicor’s Partners for Growth program is recognized as a 2011 5-Star Partner Programs Guide winner by CRN,” said George Klaus, chairman, president and CEO of Epicor. “Epicor is proud to work with our channel partners around the world who are leaders and industry experts in their chosen focus. Epicor’s Partners for Growth program is designed to help our partners achieve even greater levels of performance with our industry-leading business software solutions and compelling business proposition. We continue to focus on adding superior partners to assist us in delivering on our commitment to provide our customers with innovative products, leading technologies, and best-in-class service and support. We thank our partners for their significant contribution to Epicor’s growth and success.”

Epicor’s Partners for Growth program is a comprehensive sales, marketing and support program that offers partners significant opportunities to grow their businesses with award-winning products, training and support in a highly competitive, dynamic marketplace. Epicor provides the best tools and services to enable its partners to win more business with industry-leading business software solutions, increase profitability with margins created to increase bottom line, and improve professional services revenue utilizing Epicor’s proven Signature Implementation Methodology and customization tools. A very important distinction to make is Epicor partners are considered an extension of the organization, they receive the same training and are treated as if they are a direct Epicor employee. In return, when Epicor engages with a prospective customer, whether it’s via a channel partner or Epicor directly, the customer gets the same level of experience and support.

“The companies listed on the 2011 Partner Programs Guide represent the best channel programs in the market today. Of those, only a few get our five-star award, based on their commitment to the channel, breadth of program offerings and services offered to their partners. Each of these organizations understands that technology alone does not make for a successful channel program. By focusing on delivering a comprehensive partner program, ERP vendors and solution providers can work together to drive business opportunities and revenue,” said Kelley Damore, vice president and editorial director, for Everything Channel’s CRN.

More than 300 authorized partners worldwide participate in Epicor’s comprehensive partner program. For more information on Epicor’s Partners for Growth program, visit us on the Web at: www.epicor.com/partners.

The 2011 Partner Programs Guide and 5-Star Partners listing will be featured on CRN.com and in the March 28, 2011 issue of CRN.

About Everything Channel

Everything Channel is the premier provider of IT channel-focused events, media, research, consulting, and sales and marketing services. With over 30 years of experience and engagement, Everything Channel has the unmatched channel expertise to execute integrated solutions for technology executives managing partner recruitment, enablement and go-to-market strategy in order to accelerate technology sales. Everything Channel is a UBM company. To learn more about Everything Channel, visit us at http://www.everythingchannel.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/everythingchnl.

About United Business Media Limited

UBM (LSE: UBM) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetization of B2B communities and markets. UBM’s businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities — from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists — with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organized into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to www.ubm.com.

About Epicor Software Corporation

Epicor Software is a global leader delivering business software solutions to the manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality and services industries. With 20,000 customers in over 150 countries, Epicor provides integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), human capital management (HCM) and enterprise retail software solutions that enable companies to drive increased efficiency and improve profitability. Founded in 1984, Epicor takes pride in more than 25 years of technology innovation delivering business solutions that provide the scalability and flexibility businesses need to build competitive advantage. Epicor provides a comprehensive range of services with a single point of accountability that promotes rapid return on investment and low total cost of ownership, whether operating business on a local, regional or global scale. The Company’s worldwide headquarters are located in Irvine, California with offices and affiliates around the world. For more information, visit www.epicor.com.

SAP BusinessObjects GRC Technology Foundation Provides Single, Common Architecture Across Business Analytics, ERP and GRC, Helping Organizations Ensure Safe, Compliant and Productive Operations

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced the availability of its newest release of governance, risk and compliance (GRC) software, providing a single, unified environment for the most comprehensive support for management, monitoring and analysis of enterprise risk and compliance activities. Nearly three years in the making, the new release integrates GRC capabilities into everyday business processes, helping make risk management, regulatory compliance and safe, productive operations a standard and a consistent practice.

The new release introduces a common look and feel across all applications in the GRC suite; embedded business intelligence (BI) reports and dashboards; and a graphical tool to define and depict risks. The new features make the products easier to use and enable people to garner attention to risks from business managers who have limited GRC expertise. By integrating GRC activities into core business processes and applications, executives can manage their businesses proactively and strategically rather than reactively.

The new release of GRC solutions from the SAP® BusinessObjects™ portfolio is the next step in SAP’s business analytics road map to deliver customer-friendly business software that combines best-in-class analytics with proven SAP business applications. The new release unifies all GRC activities on a standard platform and connects easily to other pieces of the business analytics portfolio for far greater transparency, control and support for corporate strategy

The software offers policy management and audit capabilities, granular security controls, enterprise support and the ability to transport and archive data. It thus helps executives overcome the common challenges that result from fragmented and disconnected GRC solutions: poor visibility into risk exposure; processes that are reactive, inefficient, costly or manual; large time and personnel requirements to effectively manage risk and compliance; and lack of alignment from not having risk and compliance processes embedded within the business.

“As organizations grow, they must manage different types of risks and controls to be successful,” said Paul Proctor, vice president and distinguished analyst, Gartner. “They also have to overcome the challenges of increasing audit and regulatory requirements in distributed environments. GRC management software can help companies succeed by automating traditionally manual processes to identify and manage risk so the organization can pursue new opportunities.”

The SAP® BusinessObjects™ Access Control, SAP® BusinessObjects™ Risk Management and SAP® BusinessObjects™ Process Control applications share processes and data, as well as a common, easy-to-use interface, and specifications for different industries and lines of business. This unified approach helps companies gain complete management of all risks and controls from a single environment. Customers also gain the following benefits:

• Optimized strategic performance through real-time analysis of risk across all lines of corporate strategy. With tools to manage risk and compliance effectively, businesses can operate with far greater risk awareness in order to help improve performance.
• Maximized visibility across all risk, compliance, policy and audit initiatives. By automatically monitoring risk and compliance effectiveness, business managers can identify, respond to and proactively prevent potential risks and compliance violations before they occur. Automatic identification and prioritization of risks combined with proactive alerting and escalations allow managers to take immediate action on the most critical risks and compliance violations.
• Increased operational efficiencies to raise the value and help lower the cost of GRC programs. By automating critical risk management, compliance and monitoring activities, organizations can minimize the associated cost and effort required. Additionally, a standardized technology platform drives lower configuration and management costs and allows companies to take advantage of their employees’ existing SAP skills.
• “Bow-tie” builder for defining and configuring risk and risk metrics. Through an easy-to-use interface, people can work collaboratively with a common language to create methodologies for managing and remediating risks. This helps promote a better understanding of the contexts in which risks are to be assessed, and can help make compliance and risk management more strategic initiatives for the overall organization.
• Policy life-cycle management capabilities automate and simplify policy definition and scoping, review and approval, and overall management processes. This enables companies to implement and support collaborative, transparent policy life-cycle management activities.
• Openness for partner-built content, enabling tailored risk and compliance solutions that meet the specific needs of high-risk and highly regulated industries such as financial services, oil and gas, utilities, aerospace and defense, and life sciences. While advancing each core GRC area, SAP has also worked in parallel to create a platform that allows customers to benefit from the domain and content expertise of the vibrant SAP partner ecosystem.

SAP’s GRC Strategy, Solutions Well Received by Customers and Partners Worldwide
“With users located across the globe and multiple SAP systems, managing user access risk effectively is an audit concern for most companies, and Levi Strauss & Co. is no exception,” said Tammy Amirault, vice president, Information Technology, Levi Strauss & Co. “In our effort to improve Levi’s overall compliance strategy and user provisioning model, the centralized capabilities that the new release of SAP BusinessObjects Access Control delivers are very timely and fit extremely well with the SAP global approach at Levi.”

“The opportunity to experience at this year’s SAP GRC conference the capabilities of the new identity management and SAP BusinessObjects Access Control 10.0 confirmed my belief that GRC will continue to serve Westinghouse as a strategic solution for regulatory compliance and effective identity management,” said Matt Tolbert, global manager, Information Security, Westinghouse Electric Company.

Tapping into the substantial catalog of complementary solutions from the SAP partner ecosystem, the SAP BusinessObjects GRC technology foundation incorporates best-practice processes and content for industry- and line of business-specific risk and compliance management. This enables customers to quickly get up to speed with managing the particular risk and regulatory requirements for their businesses and industries. They also can efficiently support new industry requirements as they arise, identifying and aligning specific risks with the necessary supporting policies and procedures.

“Whenever a new risk or compliance issue hits the news, the question on the mind of every executive is, ‘Can this happen to us?’ and SAP BusinessObjects GRC solutions provide the most comprehensive platform for compliance and risk professionals to answer these types of tough questions,” said Jim Dunham, group vice president, GRC Solutions, SAP. “The best-run companies focus on GRC as an enabler of better business performance that can help them protect value and optimize organizational performance.”

About SAP

As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 109,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

After multiple conversations with Intel senior management Oracle has decided to discontinue all software development on the Intel Itanium microprocessor. Intel management made it clear that their strategic focus is on their x86 microprocessor and that Itanium was nearing the end of its life.

Both Microsoft and RedHat have already stopped developing software for Itanium. HP CEO Leo Apotheker made no mention of Itanium in his long and detailed presentation on the future strategic direction of HP.

Oracle will continue to provide customers with support for existing versions of Oracle software products that already run on Itanium.

About Oracle

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world’s most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems company. For more information about Oracle and Itanium, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com/itanium.

The 2011 ERP Report shows some interesting trends that began last year and continue into this year. For example, the accelerating adoption of SaaS and the increased focus on business case and benefits realization are both trends that aren’t too surprising in this economic environment.

However, two trends in particular stand out in our recently published report. First, implementation durations and costs both decreased fairly dramatically in the last year. This year’s report, which was based on data collected in 2010, shows that implementation durations fell from 18 to 14 months over the last year, while the average total cost of ownership fell from 6.9% to 4.1% of implementing companies’ annual revenue.

These numbers may seem surprising on the surface, but the detail behind them helps provide some clarification. While it is partially good news that companies are not spending as much on ERP implementations as they have in years past, the bad news is that many companies are cutting corners in their attempts to do more with less. This is partially reflected in the fact that the percentage of companies that took more time and money than expected compared to years past. For example, the percentage that took longer to implement than expected jumped from 35% to 61%, while the percentage of budget overruns escalated from 51% to 74%. These numbers suggest that even though implementation costs and durations decreased, more companies beginning their projects with unrealistic expectations at and are blowing their budgeted time and resources at an alarming rate.

A second surprising metric from this year’s report is that Oracle was selected at a higher rate than all other ERP vendors since we begin tracking this data in 2006. Although SAP is still short-listed at the highest rate (38% vs. 32% for Oracle), Oracle is selected 22% of the time (including eBusiness Suite, Peoplesoft, and JD Edwards), followed by SAP (19%), and Microsoft Dynamics (14%). While SAP is still considered the leading ERP vendor in terms of market share, might this data be a leading indicator for Oracle beginning to take market share from SAP?

Downlad the full 2011 ERP Report in our ERP Resource Center.

Over 60 government contractors and architecture and engineering firms have purchased Deltek Connect for Microsoft Outlook since it was released; enhanced solution is now compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2010

Deltek, Inc. (Nasdaq: PROJ), today announced the availability of an enhanced version of Deltek Connect for Microsoft Outlook that is now compatible with Outlook 2010. Connect for Microsoft Outlook integrates Deltek Vision, Deltek Costpoint, and GovWin CRM with Microsoft Outlook, enabling business development and marketing professionals to perform important Vision, Costpoint, and GovWin CRM tasks in Microsoft Outlook, ensuring that all sales and marketing activities are recorded in one CRM system of record.

Connect for Microsoft Outlook offers numerous innovative capabilities, allowing business development professionals to manage their business appointments, emails and contacts, as well as manage clients, activities and opportunities – all from Microsoft Outlook. By enabling personnel to manage their CRM records directly in Microsoft Outlook, user adoption of Deltek CRM can expand significantly within organizations that use both solutions.

Connect for Microsoft Outlook was created in partnership with InvisibleCRM – a leading technology custom solutions developer. Leveraging technology from InvisibleCRM, Deltek was able to successfully launch Connect for Microsoft Outlook in 2010. Since its launch, 60 government contractors and architecture and engineering firms have purchased the solution including organizations such as Overwatch Systems, Ltd. and Sebesta Blomberg – a nationally-recognized engineering and design services firm and one of the largest engineering firms in the United States.

“It was a struggle to keep our CRM data maintained and current,” said JJ Brantingham, CIO at Sebesta Blomberg. “With Connect for Microsoft Outlook, our users have more power and can access data through a familiar environment, making adoption of this new solution smooth and simple. We didn’t have to change what we do, but overall, we’re much more efficient.”

“Our partnership with Deltek proves once again that our solutions work to bridge business applications,” said Vlad Voskresensky, CEO of InvisibleCRM. “Our key design principle ‘Do not change the people, change the software’ can be seen working inside Deltek’s Connect solution. Our technology helps to deliver the integration and synchronization that Deltek’s customers leverage on daily basis to power their business development initiatives.”

“Leading government contractors and professional services firms are embracing technology to streamline and improve their sales and marketing processes,” said Namita Dhallan, Executive VP, Product Strategy and Management for Deltek.“In conjunction with InvisibleCRM, we were able to deliver Connect for Microsoft Outlook to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our customers’ business development processes, and as a result, these Deltek customers are seeing a better adoption rate of their CRM software across their organizations.”

About InvisibleCRM

InvisibleCRM is a technology provider of tools engineered to increase user adoption and ROI of enterprise applications by seamlessly integrating them into the way businesspeople work every day. These tools enable users to work with their customer and corporate information, without leaving their favorite applications – Microsoft Outlook and Windows. InvisibleCRM was named Cool Vendor by Gartner and was an “Under the Radar” winner in 2007.

About Deltek

Deltek (Nasdaq: PROJ) is the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for professional services firms, government contractors, and government agencies. For decades, we have delivered actionable insight that empowers our customers to unlock their business potential. Over 14,000 organizations and 1.8 million users in approximately 80 countries around the world rely on Deltek to research and identify opportunities, win new business, optimize resources, streamline operations, and deliver more profitable projects. Deltek – Know more. Do more.^™ www.deltek.com.

Major New Product Releases Shipping This Year

Infor, a leading provider of business application software serving over 70,000 customers, today announced it will expand its engineering organization by hiring approximately 400 additional software developers.

“We will ship significantly more new features and new releases this year than ever before. This investment in core research and development is a milestone in Infor’s commitment to innovation,” said Soma Somasundaram, senior vice president, Global Product Development. “All of our existing and newly hired engineers will focus on one thing – building great applications.”

This accelerated investment comes after the first quarter closed under the leadership of the new management team. “Our third quarter results have put us in a strong position for our second half, and we saw great performance on both the top and bottom lines for the quarter” said Stephan Scholl, executive vice president of global field operations. “Our license growth of 17 percent and increased cash operating margins of 24 percent demonstrates the strength of the momentum we are seeing. Strong revenue performance and improved operational efficiency has increased our operating margins and generated cash flow beyond our targets for the quarter. The improved margins, along with further improvements in operating efficiencies, will fund the additional investment in product development. ”

“Customers are responding well to the new releases, standards based integration through our ION platform, and our planned consumer-grade user experience. We added 400 net new customers in the quarter.  For existing customers, our plan is to increase the value of support by delighting them with deep industry features they asked for and others they didn’t expect.” said Duncan Angove, president, Products, Support, and Marketing.

Infor will immediately begin to recruit development staff, with plans to complete the expansion before the end of 2011. The focus of innovation will be on both Infor’s core industry specific applications in manufacturing, distribution, public sector, and hospitality, and also on Infor’s best in class cross-industry applications including financial management, asset management, workforce management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, and product lifecycle management.

About Infor

Infor is a leading provider of business software and services, helping 70,000 customers in 125 countries improve operations and drive growth.  To learn more about Infor, please visit www.infor.com.

Insurer to Use the ACom3 Suite to Manage Its Growing External Sales Channel

Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ: CALD), the leader in Sales Performance Management (SPM), announced today that Sentinel Security Life Insurance Company, located in Salt Lake City, UT, has selected ActekSoft, a Callidus Software company, for its ACom3 Commission and Incentive Compensation System. The agreement was signed in the first quarter of 2011.

“Providing higher service levels to our growing broker and personal producing general agent community is critical to our success at Sentinel Security Life,” said Dan Acker, CFO at Sentinel Security Life. “The ACom3 solution will enable us to design and communicate effective, performance-based incentive and bonus programs to drive better alignment with business objectives and build trust by delivering accurate, on-time payments to our agents and partners.”

Sentinel Security Life will use the ACom3 solution to manage its external sales channels and improve service levels to the broker community as it expands its producer network. The company will use the ACom3 Commission and Incentive Compensation System to support incentive payments to both the Life and Medicare Supplement lines of business.

“The ability to effectively deploy and communicate targeted incentive compensation programs is mission critical to ensuring alignment across external sales channels for different lines of business,” said Farley Lavett, vice president of insurance, Callidus Software. “At the same time, with the accurate, timely commissions data that we create and record, producers gain transparency into the performance of their business, their products and services, and their customers, which in turn drives long term producer loyalty and growth.”

ActekSoft’s ACom3 suite is an incentive compensation automation solution built to deliver extreme automation in integration, plan configuration, producer management, payout calculation, and communications. The solution is specifically tailored for business users, with focus on simplifying the complexity of managing dynamic incentive programs to drive the performance of sales executives and the sales force across multiple channels and regions. The result of this focus is a highly user configurable system supporting rapid deployment, ease of use, and reduced operational complexity.

About Sentinel Security Life

For over 60 years Sentinel Security Life has helped ease the financial burden for thousands of families. Sentinel Plan insurance policies are available to assist with your family’s Final Expense needs. Sentinel Plan Medicare supplement and Select policies can help pay some of your medical expenses not covered by Medicare.
The Company was organized in 1948 by a group of Utah funeral directors for the purpose of providing the public with an insurance product designed to help pay funeral costs at the time of need. One of the original founders still serves the Company as a member of the Board of Directors.

About Callidus Software®

Callidus Software (NASDAQ:CALD) is the market and technology leader in Sales Performance Management (SPM). Callidus customers gain a competitive advantage by maximizing sales cost efficiencies and driving improvements in sales effectiveness. Our award-winning Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications set the standard for performance management of a company’s sales force and channel partners. Over 2 million employees and channel partners have their performance managed by Callidus Software. For more information, please visit www.callidussoftware.com.

Our 2011 ERP Report, published today, unveils some interesting data about ERP implementations during the last six months of 2010. One thing is remarkably clear from the findings: economic woes had a major impact on how companies chose to implement solutions during the recession. But we’re pleased (and somewhat surprised) to report that not all of the news was bad. Indeed, we discovered that although companies were forced to cut ERP implementation budgets and duration periods, they nonetheless realized significantly more business benefits from their ERP software than they did in 2009.

Key comparative findings from the study include:

1. The average ERP implementation cost dropped from $6.2 million to $5.48 million.
2. The average project duration dropped from 18.4 months to 14.3 months.
3. The percentage of companies who realized between 51- and 100-percent of anticipated business benefits increased from 33-percent to 42-percent.
4. The percentage of companies who realized 50-percent or less of anticipated business benefits decreased from 67-percent to 48-percent.
5. The percentage of companies who realized 30-percent or less of anticipated business benefits decreased from 55-percent to 21-percent.
6. The percentage of companies reporting project overruns (61.1-percent) and budget overruns (74.1-percent) increased significantly from 2009 (35.5-percent and 51.4-percent, respectively).
7. In 2010, the percentage of companies who chose not to customize their solution at all (15-percent) was nearly half what it was in 2009 (28.3-percent).
8. The percentage of companies who developed a business case as part of their implementation process rose from 85-percent in 2009 to 97-percent in 2010.

Companies’ growing tendencies to customize ERP solutions indicate a willingness to take on the additional risk and cost in order to achieve the best ERP solution for their business. On the flipside, it appears that increased customizations, smaller budgets and shortened timeframes wreak havoc on ERP project assumptions.

No matter which way the economic winds are blowing, it’s critical that executives create realistic and manageable expectations for themselves, their implementation and their system end-users. Cutting the budget and instituting deadlines is one thing; holding people to unrealistic and ever-changing goals is another.

For further analysis of the 2011 ERP Report, please join me for a free webinar on February 24 at 10 a.m. MST. Click here to register. The 2011 ERP Report and additional industry analyses are available here.

Would you build a new house without an approved construction plan? Most likely the answer to that question would be no. Would you implement a new ERP system without an approved implementation plan? Unfortunately, the answer to that question is many times yes.

The year 2010 was the year of ERP failures, so it is hard to believe most companies are launching ERP implementations with a proper project plan.

Building a House is Like Implementing an ERP System

In many ways, ERP projects resemble construction projects. Exchange the house for an ERP system and you will quickly find similarities. Both projects employ project managers; both have project budgets and cost estimates; and both have a large list of activities, tasks, and owners. In both projects, a large variety of activities need to come together to produce the desired outcome.

Construction projects have achieved a great level of predictability in producing a consistent, quality result within a planned budget and timeframe. In the planning stage of a construction project and well before construction begins, there is often an architect’s drawing showing the planned appearance of the finished structure along with documentation that details cost, schedule, and the engineer’s blueprints. A construction project typically has a comprehensive project plan and a very predictable outcome.

ERP projects have not yet achieved the same consistency and predictability as the contraction industry. An excessive amount of large ERP failures were reported and published during 2010. It is as if the ERP industry has forgotten about the foundation. It is as if the ERP industry has forgotten about the core concepts of project planning and ongoing project management. Are we becoming to accustom to ERP failures and losing sight of real ERP success?

Organizations need to return their focus to the core concepts of project management. They need to revisit the practices of the construction industry, so their ERP initiatives can have predictable and successful outcomes. They need to understand that not everyone is capable of building a house and that a true expert needs to be consulted to hedge against disastrous results.

The Blueprint Needs to Make a Comeback

A construction project has a blueprint, so why shouldn’t an ERP implementation? A great ERP project manager knows the key to ERP success is to make the ERP implementation as predictable and consistent as a construction project. The only way to truly do this is to form a solid foundation early and do so with a thorough ERP blueprint.

Panorama believes in preparing an ERP blueprint to properly prepare clients before they “pour the concrete” or “hammer any nails”. An ERP blueprint is best done even before you install the ERP system or start choosing configuration settings. You need to know where the equivalent of windows, doors, bedrooms and other details are going to fit before you begin to build.

Business blueprinting helps you to plan the ERP implementation and design the new business processes according to the organization’s individual needs. Business blueprinting gives you a plan to follow and is an important ingredient in ERP success.

Every ERP Implementation Needs a Master Builder

A construction project has a master builder, so why shouldn’t an ERP implementation? Architects and builders develop their professional expertise through years of experience and multiple projects. ERP experts develop their professional expertise through years of experience and multiple ERP implementations. A master builder and true ERP expert can only take claim to their title if they have a level of expertise that is both proven and that provides predictable results.

Unfortunately for the ERP industry, there is no governing body that reviews the expert’s credentials or steps in at each project milestone to determine if the project is at appropriate level of building code. If there were, we would see a lot less ERP failures. Instead, the ERP project manager and implementation team are left to their own devices. They alone must decide if the project is a go or no go. They alone determine success or failure.

Plan for ERP Success

By taking the time to develop an ERP blueprint, you create a foundation and you build predictability and sustainability into your ERP project. You set yourself and your ERP implementation on the path to ERP success, business benefits realization, and obtainable ROI. By consulting an ERP expert and planning ahead, you begin to act like a master builder and avert ERP disaster.

If you would like assistance in building your ERP blueprint, contact one of Panorama’s experts of consider enrolling in our upcoming ERP Boot Camp training course.

Blog post written by Greg Griffith, a business analyst at Panorama Consulting Group.

When Panorama redesigned its website late last year, we made a conscious effort to have our new website serve as a one stop source for education and news on the ERP industry. In the past week we have continued this quest by launching the first phase of our ERP database.

The new ERP database provides information on the enterprise software industry and lists over 140 software vendors with groupings for the various tier I, II, and III segments. Each ERP vendor has a detailed profile that includes a list of their product offering, an overview of their target market and industry experience, contact information, and recent news or press releases. In addition to the basic profile information, the vendor listings provide an opportunity for website visitors and ERP users to rate their existing software supplier based on a variety of criteria such as presales activity, technical support, functionality, and obtainment of ROI. We feel the vendor profiles and their respective scorecards are imperative for providing an unbiased and unaltered view of the ERP vendors direct from within their user community.

As we move forward into phase two of this launch, we are encouraging the ERP vendors to review their profiles and provide updates, as well as information on their social media communities, literature, white papers, and any images or supplemental content that will help provide the most informative profile possible.

What differentiates this information from other ERP vendor listings is that it is provided for free, without need to register, and without restrictions. While ERP selection and ERP implementation is at the center of our core service offering, website visitors should be informed and educated even if they chose not to engage with Panorama as their chosen independent consultant. This philosophy is aligned with Panorama’s mission statement and the original reason I founded the company years ago.

While the ERP database is quickly becoming one of the most content rich areas of our website, our ERP database is only a part of the upcoming changes. We have more enhancements planned for the 2010 calendar year. I applaud my team for performing due diligence in their research and I look forward to the next phase of functionality that is coming to the ERP vendor profiles.

All of us at Panorama hope the new ERP database helps you and your ERP selection teams become acquainted with the ERP market, as well gives you a baseline for understanding the various offerings and a baseline for choosing the best ERP vendor for your organization’s unique requirements. As always, if my team can be of assistance, I welcome you to contact us so that we can help you make your ERP project a success.

You can visit the ERP database at: http://panorama-consulting.com/resource-center/erp-database/

One misconception I had before researching enterprise software was that an ERP project was simply an IT project and that it was all about installing and testing software. I believe many people think the same way I once did, because when I tell people that I am an analyst and that I perform research on the ERP industry, often times people asked, “so you work for a software company?” I gradually developed a standard answer for these kind of questions: “ ERP software is just a tool. We advise people how to select the best tool, how to use the tool efficiently and how to manage the concurrent organizational issues when implementing the tool.”

Lao-Tzu, the great ancient Chinese philosopher and also a central figure in Taoism, said, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” ERP software, in this metaphor, is like fishing gear. Only when it aligns with an organization’s business strategies and business processes will it improve the enterprise’s actual performance.

Different companies can buy the same ERP system but have dramatically different results because of the various ways of utilizing the ERP software application. Panorama’s 2010 survey results indicate that companies use different strategies to accommodate their business processes for their ERP implementation (see table).

Results show that 22.3% of companies “had very little or no focus on business processes,” which means that their ERP projects were treated more like IT project. This is the worst strategy a company could adopt. Companies like these lack clear business objectives, and the efforts on ERP selection and implementations usually go waste.

Nearly 41.9% of companies “changed business processes to accommodate ERP functionality.” Consultants usually suggest reengineering business processes prior to or concurrent with the ERP implementation and allowing a change agent to manage the numerous changes and ease the transition to the new processes.

A small percentage of companies (8.8%) “changed their business processes independent of ERP, then selected or configured software to align with new processes.” To utilize this strategy, companies usually rely on the assistance of ERP consultants, as they need to select the best software fit, as well as define the most favorable business processes for the organization.

About 27.0% of companies “changed or customized their ERP functionality to accommodate current business processes,” which to most consultants is a surprising figure. It is not typical for a company to totally change or customize ERP software to fit their current processes, as it requires a tremendous amount of work to customize the ERP system while also accurately defining current processes. This relatively high percentage is most likely due to responses from companies which had not yet started their ERP implementation and expected to maintain the lowest level of change to their current business processes. However, what they really should do is not to be afraid of change but to take advantage of the ERP systems’ inherent best practices to improve their business processes.

In a nutshell, an ERP system is just a tool. Learning how to use the tool to effectively leverage operational success within the organization is the key to a successful ERP project.

You can find more interesting content in Panorama’s recently published 2010 Organizational Change Management Report.

Blog entry written by Haoyan Sun, Research Analyst at Panorama Consulting Group.

This last year was a time of ups and downs and highs and lows for many companies and individuals.  The enterprise software and ERP industry was no different, with the industry’s vendors, clients, and consultants all experiencing both high points and low points.

However, despite a fair share of pessimism in business, among consumers, and certainly in the media, 2009 was a year with some noteworthy highlights.  Below is a list of the top ten highlights in the ERP software industry for the year.

2009 Top Ten for ERP Software Industry

1. Evolution of ERP in the new economy. Given the turbulent economy in 2009, executives were forced to do more with less, be more deliberate with IT budgets, and demand a higher return on investment from their enterprise software initiatives.  To our surprise, while many large companies were cutting ERP budgets, companies in the small and mid-size (SMB/SME), energy, and government sectors were examples of organization types that continued to invest heavily in enterprise software.  These trends were outlined in a recent ERP presentation from Panorama Consulting.
2. Comprehensive study of ERP implementation results. In January, Panorama Consulting published a comprehensive study of over 1,300 enterprise software implementations across the globe, a first of its kind.  The ERP industry report and corresponding summary research briefings revealed useful benchmark information regarding ERP metrics, such as implementation duration, cost, and business benefits realized.
3. Shane Company’s enterprise software failure. The year began with some bad news about Shane Company, which filed for bankruptcy and heavily blamed its financial woes on its botched ERP implementation.  In order to make the best of a negative situation, Panorama hosted a webinar outlining some of the lessons learned from this ERP failure (Shane Co. was not a  Panorama client).
4. Comparison of SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, and Tier II ERP solutions. As part of its series of summary briefings on its ERP benchmark study, Panorama Consulting published one of the most comprehensive quantitative comparisons of leading enterprise software solutions in the marketplace.  The findings revealed significant differences and tradeoffs between leading software providers.  This software vendor comparison was also outlined in a YouTube video presentation available on our ERP video page.
5. Continuing duel between on-premise ERP and Software as a Service (SaaS). The hype surrounding SaaS and cloud computing continued to intensify throughout the year, as did the corresponding myths and misconceptions.  Panorama hosted multiple ERP webinars to help clients and colleagues understand the tradeoffs between SaaS and on-premise ERP.
6. Manufacturing and Distribution ERP Software Report. Panorama’s series of reports of it’s ERP benchmark study continued with an overview of enterprise software benchmarks in the manufacturing and distribution space, which outlines some of the challenges unique to this industry vertical.
7. Debut of “ERP Strategies and Solutions” podcast. Panorama continued to extend its communication vehicles to the ERP industry by debuting its bi-monthly podcast series, which featured interviews with clients, Panorama ERP experts, and other industry leaders.  Topics focused on ERP issues related to ERP software selection, implementation, and organizational change management in the manufacturing and distribution, life sciences, chemicals, non-profits, and other key industries.
8. Organizational change management steals the spotlight. Given tough economic conditions, increased pressure to provide accountability to board members, and the need to mitigate risk, an increasing number of CIOs invested more time and money in organizational change management and benefits realization than in years past.  This is partially demonstrated by the fact that Panorama’s organizational change consulting practice saw a huge increase in business in 2009.
9. ERP consulting services skyrocket. Although official 2009 company results won’t be published until January, Panorama is well on the path toward record revenue and profits.  At the time of this post, our year to date revenue was up over 80% compared to last year.  Several new clients turned to Panorama to help them with their enterprise software selection and implementation initiatives in 2009, including Champion Window, Maxon Lift, Focus on the Family, dpiX, Bioness, Alliance Laundry Systems, and Robert’s American Gourmet, the makers of Pirate’s Booty snacks.
10. Launch of new ERP resource site. In November, Panorama launched a new and improved web-site for its clients, employees, prospects, recruits, and industry peers.  The site highlights the company’s extensive enterprise software expertise and thought leadership, including a 360 ERP Blog and our resource center which features ERP videos and podcasts, ERP software vendor comparison tables, a mock ERP selection process, and other useful resources.

These are just a few of many highlights in the ERP space in 2009.  Many of these trends will continue or evolve into 2010, which will make for another exciting year of opportunity.  From all of us at Panorama Consulting, we wish you a happy holidays.