by Thomas Otter | November 14, 2011 | Comments Off
Please define these terms and arrange in chronological order. You may augment the list. Launched Introduced Announced Previewed Pre-Announced Private Beta Beta Selective ramp up Ramp up Rolled out Limited Availability Shipping Limited General Availability General Availability Functionally complete I go to a lot of software conferences, and read many press releases. In the last few [...]
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Category: Events Vendor Contracts finance software industry Tags: complexity, marketing
by Thomas Otter | October 26, 2011 | Comments Off
I’ve just read Brynjolfsson and McAfee’s Race against the Machine in one sitting when I have masses of other pressing stuff to do. It is short, sharp, engaging and easy to read. Put down that Scandinavian crime novel, ignore your travel expense application issues and read this book instead. I’m perhaps reading too much into [...]
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Category: books history innovation software industry Tags: book review
by Thomas Otter | September 26, 2011 | Comments Off
I don’t often publish blog posts that point to my research, but I thought I’d make an exception today. My colleague Alexa Bona and I recently published a note on contracting behaviors and strategies for SaaS HCM. SaaS and Human Capital Management: Avoid Risky and Expensive Deals (client access). As SaaS HCM deals come up [...]
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Category: HCM SaaS Uncategorized software industry Tags: contracts, HCM, SaaS
by Thomas Otter | June 14, 2011 | 7 Comments
LinkedIn has over 100 million users, and a market cap today of over 7 Billion USD. If the market is prepared to give LinkedIn that sort of valuation for what is essentially data that should be in your HRMS, then it tells me that your people data is a lot more valuable than you probably [...]
Category: HCM HR Social Software software industry Tags: HRMS, linkedin
by Thomas Otter | April 28, 2011 | Comments Off
We had a couple of meetings today with SAP execs and internally to discuss the SAP results and Donald Feinberg (SAP lead) John Rizzuto (Gartner Invest) and I figured we’d continue the vague tradition of commenting on the results. This isn’t a formal Gartner position, nor is it investment advice. John had this to say. [...]
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Category: ERP SAP software industry Tags: financials, results, SAP
by Thomas Otter | October 10, 2010 | Comments Off
I’m off to Berlin tomorrow evening, to spend two days at SAP Teched. photo via cc of Svenwerk. Thanks. Earlier this year, SAP did a good job at Sapphire in laying out more compelling vision. I expect Teched to be about adding some details to that vision, and I’m looking of evidence of execution: These [...]
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Category: Events SAP software industry Tags: Berlin, SAP, SAP teched
by Thomas Otter | September 13, 2010 | 3 Comments
Many technology writers deify or reify technology. There is often an assumption that more technology is by definition a good thing. Nicholas Carr’s recent book challenges that. This is probably why many tech types don’t seem to like it. Looking through my blog archive, I’ve often disagreed with Carr, but rather than just base my [...]
Category: books internet software industry Tags: Carr, De Botton, google, Hopkins, reading, Shallows
by Thomas Otter | September 10, 2010 | 3 Comments
I have seen several keynotes from software executives lately. I recollect that all of them had iPads in them. Seasoned software executives have been getting positively giddy about the iPad. It has given Steve Jobs a sales force that he didn’t know he had. It seems without really planning for it, the iPad has become [...]
Category: UI software design software industry usability visualization Tags: Apple, Design, Enterprise Software., ERP, UI
by Thomas Otter | August 29, 2010 | 2 Comments
In this interview on the O’Reilly blog Scott Berkun nails it. How do you define "innovation"? Scott Berkun: I strongly recommend people use this word as little as possible. It’s mostly a distraction. Many great ideas and breakthroughs were achieved without people worrying if they were innovative enough or not. They simply chose to try [...]
Category: books innovation measurement software industry Tags: Berkun, books, innovation
by Thomas Otter | August 10, 2010 | 1 Comment
When it comes to HR technology, I tend to think of it largely as a horizontal play. Yes, there are some exceptions, like hospital or retail shift management, but most of the time HR seems like it is just HR. To borrow from Depeche Mode, People are People. Vendors who do well in one industry [...]
Category: HCM HR software industry Tags: HR tech, norway, shipping, vertical
