• Cloud ERP Adoption Barriers–Functionality or FUD?

     

    Recently Frank Scavo wrote a great post regarding what he determined was the key success factor for SaaS suites: functional parity. The thesis of Scavo’s argument was that, until cloud vendors provide true functional parity with on-premise solution, a…

  • FinancialForce Update

     

    I spoke the other day with Jeremy Roche, MD of FinancialForce the accounting application built on top of force.com. Readers will recall that about a year ago Coda2Go, as FinancialForce was called then, was partially acquired by salesforce.com –…

  • Aplicor Gets Modular for Business Dashboards

     

    As the world moves to more complexity and businesses use more diverse systems, the need for a modular dashboard that allows users to aggregate different types of data from different applications in one place becomes apparent. It’s for this…

  • Acumatica Goes End-To-End

     

    I’ve written several times in the past about Acumatica – the little ERP vendor who could. First to roll out on Azure, one of the first to embrace a dual on-prem/cloud strategy and one of the few to buck…

  • Software Delivery Approaches – Debunking the Myths

     

    Recently I’ve been presenting a number of “SaaS 101” events and have been reminded of how many people lump SaaS and ASP into the same box. It seemed well overdue for a report to be created that compared and…

  • Xero Annual Report – Quick Analysis

     

    At the Xero AGM today both CEO Rod Drury and Chairman Phil Norman addressed the audience and gave  roundup of annual performance. Some quick points to note: Customer count now over 22000 (see graph below). Note the steepness of…

  • Suite vs Best of Breed – Let the Battle Begin (Yet Again)

     

    A month or so ago I sat in a room with a small group of bloggers discussing the enterprise software space with NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson and one sentence he said stuck in my mind: The same was is…

  • SaaS Sales – Don’t Discount Traditional Channels

     

    We’ve heard for years that SaaS applications will disintermediate traditional marketing channels with it’s direct to consumer and viral uptake – many were envisaging a future without traditional media usage. The truth however seems to be somewhat different – the number of SaaS vendors I’ve spoken to recently who are embarking on “traditional” approaches is legion.

    Many are embracing channel partnerships with “old-school” services companies – witness NetSuite’s (see disclosure) new SP100 reseller model (I analyzed the move here). Witness also Intacct (see disclosure) partnering with the AICPA to sell/market/endorse their product through US CPAs.

    I recently spoke with CEO of Acumatica (more on them here) Ezekiel Steiner about their channel strategy specifically, but more generally channel strategies for ERP vendors.

    Accumatica is 100% committed to a channel strategy and sees a significant conflict with vendors who embrace both a channel and a direct sales approach. In fact Steiner went so far as to call the NetSuite moves a “gimmick” given previous comments they’ve made about the validity (or otherwise) of a channel model. Steiner believes that, for mid-market ERP products at least, a channel strategy is the only way to make money. This belief is gained from experience seeing just how much implementation help customers want – price points on mid-market ERP products are such that a direct sales and support channel isn’t viable for a vendor to establish and maintain.

    My analysis isn’t quite as stark as that of Steiner – while I’d concur that the channel is important for existing customers looking to transition to new products, there is a large number of greenfield opportunities such as businesses growing out of a lower level accounting product, and they are still likely to be amenable to the direct approach.

    I would say that a clear delineation is required between reseller prospects and direct sales prospects – resellers are feeling very fragile right now and any dual-channel approach is going to be approached with caution – it’s vitally important for vendors going down this route to have a clear demarcation in place so resellers can feel secure in the partnership.

    SaaS sales strategy, and in particular channel approaches, is an intensely interesting topic (well, to me anyway) – I’m keen to hear other vendor’s thoughts about this – flick me an email at ben@diversity.net.nz

    CloudAve is exclusively sponsored by
  • Webinar – 10 Questions to Ask About Cloud Computing

     

    This week I’ve been invited to take part in a webinar with Dan Druker from Intacct, co-presenting a webinar looking at the important questions that prospective end users of cloud computing need to ask their vendors. It’s a webinar that leads on from a whitepaper we published (see disclosure) recently, and which has been having great uptake in the marketplace.

    It’s a paper that (from my perspective anyway) is important – it’s all to easy to think the rest of the world “gets” this stuff – the truth is somewhat different – cloud is still nascent and customers need help identifying the issues and, more importantly, developing their due diligence approach. It’s a truth that is borne out time and time again – I’m perpetually surprised by just how lacking we, as technology aficionados, are in the realization that we need to articulate this stuff at a level that the everyday person (or accountant even 😉 ) can understand.

    Anyway, it’s an event that earns CPA credits so I’m expecting there’ll be a bunch of numbers-focused questions coming up during the session. From the webinar mailer:

    Tens of thousands of companies like yours are saving money and improving productivity by adopting cloud computing — with an ROI of 75 to 500% per year vs. running legacy software applications. Are you ready?
    If you’re not sure about cloud computing, attend the webinar “Ten Questions to Ask About Cloud Computing” on Thursday, April 22nd and learn how the cloud can transform your financial systems and save tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Ben Kepes, Principal at Diversity Analysis will go through the key questions you should ask about:

    -Business requirements— Which of my business systems are best suited to move to cloud computing and where can I find the highest ROI?

    -Availability— What should I look for if I want to access information from my business at anytime, from anywhere I have an Internet connection?

    -Reliability and Security— Is cloud computing more or less reliable and secure than running my own software in-house?

    -Data Ownership— What happens if I discontinue my subscription to a cloud-based system?

    -Customization— How can I be sure that cloud-based applications can be customized to meet the exact needs of my business?

    Get an independent view of why tens of thousands of finance departments are flocking to cloud computing and learn the key questions to ask from the experts at Diversity Analysis. Register for the webinar now and when you attend you will also receive the companion white paper “Ten Questions to Ask Your Cloud Vendor.”

    CloudAve is exclusively sponsored by
  • New Whitepaper – Questions to ask Your Cloud Vendor

     

    Over at DiversityAnalysis we’ve just published a new report – right in time for the Cloud Connect event in San Jose next week. Krish and I wanted to write a very basic report tailored for mid to late adopters as a guide to the pitfalls and problems involved in a move to the cloud (especially cloud software) and the questions to ask prospective vendors to ensure all those risks are mitigated.

    We were stoked that Intacct saw the value of what we were doing and decided to support us in the writing of the report – it was something we wanted to do anyway, Intacct support just made it all the easier.

    Our report articulated a number of questions to ask when evaluating cloud applications – these questions fall into several distinct groupings:

    • Business requirement questions
    • The reliability questions
    • The availability questions
    • The upgrades, maintenance and outages questions
    • The security questions
    • The privacy questions
    • The data ownership questions
    • The integration questions
    • The customization questions

    We’re pretty pleased with the report – feel free to check it out here.

    CloudAve is exclusively sponsored by