Why "IT Projects" Fail

van Essche & Associates

Paul van Essche is the founder/owner of the independent management and tech consulting firm van Essche & Associates. He is a Swiss and South African citizen with qualifications in electronic and industrial engineering as well as project and business management. He has 29 years experience gained in over 20 countries on five continents in multiple industries, serving a range of blue-chip firms and international organizations. One of his specialities is Change Management: he has successfully effected radical change in some of the most resistant business environments. Paul has been independent since 1999, is an accomplished public speaker and negotiator, and is bilingual (English-French).  ...

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I doubt there is single subject in this entire industry that's been given more air and space than the stubbornly surviving "Why IT Projects Fail". You'd think we'd have worked it out by now! But no, Sisyphus-like, we seem doomed to repeat our fate, while sad accounts of lousy and failed projects distract us like mosquitoes at the lake-house, complete with the equally bugging list of hack remedies, lessons learned, and ever-so-tired CSFs - Critical Success Factors - now one of the oldest TLAs since TLAs were a thing.      

And just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water, the whole subject was given a monumental energy-boost late last year by the very publicly disastrous implementation of the US Government's new on-line Medical Insurance system. Google this title and see: anything written after October last year makes mention of it. 

So I've accepted the challenge to say something different on this tired subject, or at least say it differently. I'm taking the "senior executive sponsorship, experienced team, clear objectives" mantra for granted here, and have tried to distill it all down to just a few succinct points that, I sincerely hope, encapsulate the issues, and will make a real and tangible difference if heeded. 

In my humble opinion therefore, why do these projects underperform so badly, and so often fail outright? Why do we so often get it wrong?

1. They’re not IT projects. 

An IT project replaces wired computer networks with wireless ones, or upgrades email servers for greater speed and capacity, for example. Overhauling the way in which social security benefits are managed and paid is a business project, and needs to be managed as such. Managing business projects like IT projects will invariably cause them to fail because the skills, methods and tools required for each are significantly different (see 2. below). Rather, they should be branded, managed and supported as “business transformation” projects, which is exactly what they should be if they are worth doing at all. Why would you invest in a project in the first place if you weren’t expecting significant beneficial change, and bottom-line impact? IT can make that change possible, but it doesn’t make it happen. 

2. Fundamentals are not respected.

The fundamentals of any operation or project, whether you’re making shoes, or growing potatoes, or computerizing a national health service, have a lot in common, even if the execution (obviously) varies. They require the management of the same three primary resource classes: people, process and technology. Unless conscientious, skilled farmers (people) prepare their fields appropriately (process) with well-maintained ploughs and the right fertilizer (technology), their crops will fail. Failed projects in general, and failed business transformation projects in particular, have insufficiently experienced, qualified and/or motivated people, using inadequate and/or inappropriate methods to implement the wrong and/or wrongly configured technology. It defies reason, but this mistake is made repeatedly: non-specialized people, capable only of muddling through, are expected to execute strategically critical projects with the same technology that everyone else bought (and mostly failed with), without adequate support. Imagine if the same approach was adopted by your surgical team, or even your auto mechanic...

3. Partners are mismanaged. 

Arguably this element would fall under process or method in the fundamentals area, but it is so critical, and such a major cause of failure, that it requires its own mention. In addition, clients are often over-reliant on their partners, particularly management and IT consulting firms, to provide the people, processes and technology for their projects in the first place, as well as all the advice and knowledge relating to these assets and how they should be deployed. “Managing” partners means keeping them honest and getting good if not excellent value from them, and actively steering them away from the "we win whether you win or lose" paradigm - an insidious reality that the vast majority of decent clients are so blissfully unaware of. This may sound simple but it’s far more difficult than anyone who has never attempted to do so could possibly imagine. 

4. Recipes replace Leadership.

Somehow we've come to believe that 100'000-line project plans are the recipe for guaranteed success, and that all we need to do is execute to the letter and all will be fine. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even in complex projects, if your plan goes over about 1000 lines, you're in trouble. Keep it simple, don't treat the project as a sausage-making exercise, encourage creativity and adaptability, and provide your team with continuous reminders of the higher goals, motivation, encouragement and support. Of course, "leadership" is one we could talk about for hours, but that's a subject for another post...

Bottom Line

So, the bottom line is this: manage a transformation like a transformation, not like a server upgrade. Decide what you want to achieve, and keep aiming for it and working towards it -unwaveringly. Make sure senior people are responsible for and tied into the success and the benefits you expect, every step of the way, and put them under pressure to deliver. Staff the effort with competent, experienced people, put them under pressure too, but support them and the mission purposefully and energetically. If you need external help, find the very best - remembering that big names don't guarantee you the best result - and push them relentlessly to deliver fair value, possibly giving them some skin in the game too. Be bold, trust your gut, and just do it. 

Post Scriptum: the most fabulously excellent book I’ve ever read on the sticky question of leadership is “Artists, Craftsmen and Technocrats: The Dreams, Realities and Illusions of Leadership” by Patricia Pitcher. I believe it’s been republished under the title “The Drama of Leadership” but get a copy of either one. Absolutely mandatory reading.  

Upgrade Notes: Siebel Innovation Pack 2013 - Part 2

Constellation Research

J. Bruce Daley is a former vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, Inc.  , Title: Big Ideas Age Before Beauty Before there can be a wholesale conversion to the Cloud legacy applications must be converted. This will take decades and not every vendor has taken this obstacle into account when projecting growth. Professional Services Firms Need a Recurring Revenue Model The services business has a lot of advantages but one big disadvantage in that you are always going out of business. Some organizations are using the Cloud to offer clients new ways to spend money than just time-and-materials or fixed price projects. ...

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In his Siebel Essentials blog, Alexander Hansal writes about upgrading to latest release of Siebel.

In the second part of our notes on an upgrade from Siebel 8.1.1.x to Innovation Pack 2013, we are back waiting for the Siebel Upgrade Wizard to finish its arduous task.

When suddenly...

8. Backup the Database and execute DB stats

At this step, the Upgrade Wizard stops with the above dialog and urges us to take a backup of the database and then execute DB stats. This is obviously a manual step.

The Database Upgrade Guide shares with us the necessary lines for executing DB stats as follows (Oracle database example):
 

=>true,estimate_percent => dbms_stats.auto_sample_size);

The above command (with the correct table owner name which usually is SIEBEL) must be run using a SYSDBA account.

Alternatively you can run the more sophisticated stats package available from My Oracle Support as Document Id 781927.1 (thanks to Oli for the link).

Because I encountered problems with too many open cursors on a previous occasion, I also used the following command to increase the maximum amount of open cursors for my Oracle database (not sure if this is truly necessary for Oracle 11g):

The Hierarchical Merge Report window in Siebel Tools IP 2013

• Export "New Customer Repository" to a .dat file
• Truncate the repository tables
• Import the new customer repository as "Siebel Repository"
• Migrate Open UI manifest data from XML files to the database

Meet the Constellation Orbits Influencers - Esteban Kolsky and Brent Leary

In the fourth installment of our "Meet the Constellation Orbits Influencers" series it is my pleasure to introduce customer strategists and CRM provocateurs, Esteban Kolsky and Brent Leary. Read the latest CRM industry insights from Esteban and Brent right here on the Constellation blog.

Esteban Kolsky is is the principal and founder of ThinkJar, an advisory and research think tank focused on customer strategies.

Kolsky leverages more than 25 years in technology, customer service, communities and social media, online and offline marketing, CRM and enterprise strategy to assist vendors and clients in getting the results they need. An influential thought leader, Kolsky coined the terms: Customer Interaction Hub, Community-Based Customer Service, and Enterprise Feedback Management. Kolsky's expertise ranges the spectrum of customer strategies-- online or offline, customer-centric or organization-centric, traditional or community-based service and support. Prior to founding ThinkJar he spent eight years at Gartner.

COORDINATES
Constellation Profile: https://www.constellationr.com/users/estebankolsky
Twitter: @ekolsky
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/estebankolsky

Brent Leary is a CRM industry analyst, advisor, author, speaker and award winning blogger. He is co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. Clients include Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Intuit, SAP and other major technology companies. In 2009 he co-authored Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business.  Leary is in the process of writing his next book, "The Amazon Effect: How a New Customer Culture is Creating Crazy New Business Opportunities and Killing Companies That Won’t Adapt", due out in 2014.
Recognized by InsideCRM as one of the 25 most influential industry leaders, Leary also is a past recipient of CRM Magazine's Most Influential Leader Award.  He serves on the national board of the CRM Association, on the advisory board of the University of Toronto's CRM Center of Excellence, and on the editorial advisory board for The Atlanta Tribune magazine.  Leary writes regularly CRM Magazine, Inc.com, and America Express OPEN, and serves on the advisory board for Social Media Today. 

COORDINATES
Constellation Profile: https://www.constellationr.com/users/brentleary
Twitter: @BrentLeary
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/brentleary‎
 

The Constellation Orbits influencer network extends the reach of Constellation's coverage area to the bleeding edge of digital disruption, and establishes Constellation Research as the authoritative source for analysis of the latest developments in disruptive technology. Constellation hand-picked twenty thought leaders to join Constellation Orbits for their expertise, influence, and fearlessness in identifying trends, cutting through marketing hype, and informing their early adopter audience of significant developments in disruptive technology. You can find analyses from these thought leaders (along with analyses from Constellation Analysts) on the Constellation blog--the enterprise's authoritative source for disruptive technology analysis. https://www.constellationr.com/blog-news
 

Are Smart machines or smarter processes behind the Internet of Things ?

Chief Technology Evangelist, Speaker
Software AG

Theo Priestley is Chief Evangelist, speaker, analyst and prolific blogger. Globally responsible for enabling the brand and technology awareness strategy at Software AG, Theo is regarded as one of the top thought leaders in Business Process Management and was recently featured in Analytics Week's Top 200 Big Data influencers. He has a keen eye on disruptive current and future trends affecting the enterprise and consumer world today. Prior to joining Software AG Theo spent over a decade as a successful business tranformation consultant. During that time he also became an advisor to enterprise software companies, conducting independent industry analysis on the top technology trends and client-based attitudes towards software implementation and business change projects. Frequently writing…...

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The new Robocop movie launches this week and James Cameron painted a bleak future for humans and smart machines but this is the complete opposite of what the potential holds for the Internet of Things.

Cisco told us that there will be 50 billion connected devices on the planet but only late last year Morgan Stanley predicted that number to rise to 75 billion. That doesn’t include some 200+ new device types still to be classified. With smart toothbrushes telling us we’re scrubbing our teeth wrong, smart forks berating our calorie count and smart fridges either ordering the milk or spamming our inboxes you can understand that our once silent consumer toys will soon become a tired cacophony of data noise for us to pay attention to.

But these are not smart machines. Not by a long shot.

Smart machines or smart processes ?

A General Electric turbine generates power but also 500Gb of data a day. It spins all day long but at the same time it’s communicating its state and health to a myriad of systems and processes that monitor it. That data is extremely useful if used in the right way but the machine itself is not considered smart. Now imagine how that machine that can communicate when it could potentially have a critical failure, in advance. Crazy but it’s true. In industrial situations a machine can advise the systems when its likely to fail due to being monitored against performance and tolerance levels. The process can schedule maintenance in advance before the event occurs through the data it’s receiving, but not only this it can tell other turbines to take a spread of the load during the maintenance and then switch back again once the repairs are completed.

To the outside world nothing has happened because it was all seamless. We are nearing an industrial world where the concept of zero downtime could well be a reality.

And this is nothing to fear.

Some smart things a day keep the doctors away

Google Glasses and wearable technology represent a massive shift in citizens harnessing the data they generate for their own use. Imagine taking constant readings from a Jawbone Up or Nike Fuelband and having them delivered to your doctor ? If you’re being treated for smoking, cancer, recovering from an operation and you deviate from your prescribed healthcare then your doctor can immediately get in contact and find out why. Imagine the reduction in strain on an overloaded healthcare system if you can catch and treat symptoms before they become problematic. I know one pharmaceutical company who is developing on Google Glass for hospital use, for consultants and doctors doing the rounds to wear them, scan bar or QR codes at a patient door and instantly be fed the right medical information about them, the treatment required, procedures like wearing gloves and masks, even down to scanning the dosage before it’s been administered. Everything is recorded and traced back to the patient’s medical records and hospital’s automated processes.

Again, this connectivity and ability to use machine (or thing!) generated information is nothing to fear.

Connecting the dots (and things)

Fonterra, who are responsible for more than one-third of the world’s international dairy trade created a solution where containers were tracked from the pack plants through departure ports, transship ports, to the destination port, and on through to either warehouse or customer delivery. All container tracking events were received in real-time so business operations were alerted when events did not occur as expected, for example, if containers were left behind at transhipment ports, or incorrect quantities are received. It allowed them to monitor processes and manage costs to the tune of millions of dollars far better than they had ever done previously.

We’ve conducted research ourselves by placing RFID transponders on maritime containers to allow us to fully automate a manual container identification process by using transponder readings to link to the business processes, thereby accelerating transhipment processes and making transhipment a more effective and efficient component of container logistics.

And not a Terminator in sight yet.

Skynet is real but it’s the good guy

The way we think about business and data in a world where machines and things are considered smart is changing, connectivity will spur the next revolution where analytics and big data will give us insight we never had before. Stand alone monolithic systems are the past, it’s now about the integration, analytics and using data generated for meaningful purpose.

Machines aren’t smart no matter how much we allude them to their Hollywood cousins. The smart comes from what we can do with the information those machines are telling us.

Oracle pushes modern HR - there is more than technology

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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Oracle had their first HCM World conference from February 4th to February 6th in Las Vegas and it rolled out the big guns - both CEO Larry Ellison and President Mark Hurd presented - something you usually do not see at an Oracle conference - except for Oracle OpenWorld. It was good to see both executives so well versed in people processes and the HCM pitch.  

Nobody questions Oracle on technology, so whoever had the idea to de-emphasize the technology aspect for the sake of the thought leadership aspect, deserves the big kudos on the Oracle side. Apart from a demo between Mark Hurd and Gretchen Alarcon - software was relegated to the many track sessions. And beside from Larry Ellison's presentation and a few glimpses of Chris Leone's - it was never the talk about the technology - but always about the challenges and struggles enterprises and Chief People Officers face every day. And the good news was - Oracle lead with the business problem - and not the technology, a radical departure from the past the traditionally wanted to convince customers mainly on the technical merits of its products. Doesn't work for the HCM audiences, so good move to adjust to it.

Oracle HCM Cloud Progress

We were surprised by the uptake of momentum of Oracle HCM cloud back at OpenWorld - but can now report continued momentum in customer uptake. Oracle is close at moving calendar date and go live progression on a proportional scale - which is a pretty encouraging sign. Customer go lives are all over the globe, speaking for a good sales effort beyond North America, which can be a challenge for US based vendors.

More importantly, the road map is not fizzling out in terms of functionality richness, and the upcoming release R8 (sorry all details were under NDA) includes new functionality in the areas that are hard for all vendors to create and  maintain. It was equally good to see that Oracle is tackling (and needs to keep tackling) the integration issues - both horizontally with other applications as well as internally to Oracle HCM Cloud between the Oracle Fusion HCM side and the Taleo side. This integration remains one of the weaknesses of the Oracle HCM portfolio - but Oracle is confident that it can convince customers to accept the integration issues due to significant functional leadership on the recruiting side. And while that functional leadership is certainly given for now - it will be an area to keep a watchful eye on in the future.

Oracle also had the bravado to let the analysts play on the new iPad app - and can now successfully claim that even analysts can use their HCM system. Few other vendors have given the opportunity to the analyst community and this certainly raises the ante from a competition perspective. From the 90 minutes using the iPad app we can say that it's highly functional, easy to use and built in such a way that it is highly likely to make an every day user (like a manager) happy using it.

Next steps for Oracle HCM cloud

As mentioned most information about the roadmap was under NDA - but Oracle lifted the kimono on a few areas that can be shared:

• Workforce Optimization - Oracle plans to get into the workforce management arena starting with the support of mini and macro re-organizations. Oracle HCM cloud will allow to analyze and predict worker and / or organizational challenges and opportunities, model and plan actions derived on these findings and then execute on them at a certain point in time. 

• New and expanded Mobile HCM - Oracle plans to deliver a new mobile experience both for tablets and smart phones. Interestingly Oracle also offers some offline capabilities - something of immense value for real mobile work warriors. 

• BI Benchmarks - Oracle plans to provide more insight around the recruiting process - leveraging it's strong market position with Taleo, which enables 11% of all US hires, add 1.2 million job openings per quarter and features profiles of 417 million job candidates. 

• Work Life Apps - Oracle donated a fitbit to HCMWorld attendees and organized a step competition amongst the attendees - a great showcase of the soon to be released Work Life Apps the company is planning. 

Screenshot of the new HCM Cloud User Experience

Social matters

Oracle - starting with Larry Ellison - did not get tired at stressing how important the social aspect of HCM are and how well Oracle HCM cloud can support them - given that Oracle Social Network (OSN) is baked into the platform that Oracle HCM cloud is build upon. 

The scenarios Oracle stressed were - not surprisingly around 

Oracle is also shipping a number of social HCM applications - of which two are publicly known. The first is My Reputation, a capability that analyzes social activity, allows also for integration with 3rd party social networks and rewards users for participation and brand building activities. The second was  more enablement around social sourcing, allowing for automated employee referrals, job posts to Twitter and Facebook and capabilities to build talent communities. 

These are all compelling scenarios for HCM professionals. The main challenge Oracle has with the integration of OSN is the harsh user interface change between the Oracle HCM cloud user interface and the OSN interface on the iPad product. This maybe temporary - but better be addressed by Oracle, sooner than later. 

BigData  Plans

Oracle sees two aspects of BigData and HCM. On the one side the enrichment of all HCM data with BigData, e.g. the capture and availability of social streams and feeds - on the other side the capability to benchmark on the huge data available across the Taleo customers. In both cases Oracle has the technological capability to pull both aspects of - with the second scenario having more immediate impact on the recruiting function.

Integration matters

As mentioned before - the Fusion DNA and the Taleo DNA are on different technology platforms and Oracle has chosen to integrate Taleo - not to re-write recruiting functionality from scratch on the Fusion Appliations technology stack. On the positive side it means that Oracle has very good - some say market leading - recruting functionality at hand - on the negative side it means there is an integration effort that needs to be addressed in every customer implementation that spans across Oracle HCM Cloud. 

The good news is, that the company is looking at providing better integration, starting with a single master data set for work structures, employee master and an unified profile. Oracle also pledged a consistent user experience across mobile and desktop and common reporting and analytics - making the different back end systems a non issue for end users. The most important ambition though is around the convergence to a single technology platform - including a common programming model, common exstensibility framework and a single security and role framework.

Oracle even went so far to release a roadmap - unfortunately under NDA - but rest assured the analyst community will monitor progress and we would applaud publicizing it sooner than later. Oracle should be encouraged to do so - as the public plans for integration between Fusion R8 and Taleo 13B got a very good review with clients, prospects and the partner ecosystem.

Peoplesoft - Alive & Kicking

The Peoplesoft update by Paco Aubrejuan was again very valuable, it remains intriguing how powerful and strong the product and brand are. Customers keep moving and upgrading - all the way to the latest release, 9.2. And if Oracle keeps supporting customers well, the end is not in sight (yet). On the contrary Oracle is investing  more into Peoplesoft, even with latest technology - as the press release around new in memory applications for Peoplesoft HCM. It will be tough to find a software asset acquired approximately 10 years ago that get an in memory capability added in 2014. Ultimately a showcase that Oracle keeps investing in acquired products and creates values for customers using these products - the whole Apps Unlimited program (our take here). 

MyPOV

All in all a very promising first event for the expected HCMWorld conference series. Oracle talking business best practices is a welcome change, the investment and  momentum around Oracle HCM Cloud continue with traction and the roadmap is rich in new functionality. Even though Oracle has come a long way on user experience, it now needs to tackle cross product suite usability concerns (between Oracle HCM Cloud and Oracle Social Network) and share and deliver to it ambitious integration and convergence roadmap for the underlying technologies behind the different pieces of Oracle HCM Cloud.  

The real supply chain disruptor…Amazon.com

pending

Guy Courtin was formerly Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research covering Matrix Commerce and how the Internet of Things drives the evolution of commerce.  Guy has over 15 years experience in the technology space and specifically in the supply chain space. Most recently he was the Vice President of Research at SCM World. Where he focused on the service providers that empowered supply chains. Prior to SCM World, Guy held numerous senior positions. He was responsible for product marketing at RSi, a retail supply chain solution provider. There managed RSi’s go to market strategy around their leading cloud based supply chain solutions. He also spear headed Progress Software’s supply chain group. Where he was responsible for driving revenue and market share as well…...

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The past few weeks, or really the past few years, have given us plenty of examples of Amazon slowly but surely cranking up their disruptive aspect when it comes to supply chains. Of course, when we think of Amazon we think of the giant of eCommerce. A company that has not physical retail channel but one that can sell us anything from a copy of the Iliad to furniture to baby’s diapers. For me Amazon is the biggest winner from the crazy dot com days of the late 1990s. The giants associated with that era – Yahoo, AOL, WebVan, eBay, Geocities, Lycos – to name a few. Yes Google was around then, but I would argue their real rise to prominence came after the bubble.

But the one name that weather that storm and is a massive player – Amazon. The reality is that Amazon is that they are not only the 800lb gorilla in eCommerce and retail but also for supply chains. Here are some areas where Amazon is a disruptive supply chain force:

• Delivery – Anyone who watched or read about the coming of Amazon drones is probably expecting to get their copy of “50 Shades of Grey” or their latest set of Dr Dre Beat headphones dropped off by an unmanned flying machine. There is also the buzz that Amazon will look to have same day delivery, could be empowered by the rise of the drones. The eCommerce giant is also looking to conquer the enigma that is grocery delivery. Combine all these projects and you quickly realize that Amazon is bringing a whole
  

  Coming to your personal airspace.

  new perspective to delivery. The reality is that they might not be able to achieve all these lofty goals…but the fact they are pushing these ideas out there and that they are driving the conversation is disruptive enough.  The fact that same day delivery is being mentioned will drive how our expectations are set as consumers. If I believe I can get fresh produce delivered to my door, do I accept getting anything that isn’t similar from the likes of Shaws, Whole Foods, Tesco, Giant Eagle, Safeway or any of the other grocery chain?

• Warehousing – Amazon has mastered this for a long time, ever since they started selling CDs and Books via the internet. In order to fulfill these massive online catalog and to do so in a timely fashion, they have become masters of how to manage a warehouse and more importantly how to run an efficient pick and pack, inventory and distribution from geographically placed warehouses. Their acquisition of Kiva demonstrates that they see how
  

  The rise of the machines.

  robotics and the rise of the machines will disrupt how we run our warehouses. There has been some rumbling about how they drive their warehouse work force to ensure they can meet their tighter and tighter fulfillment windows. This might become more disruptive from a negative perspective. However, overall look for Amazon to change the way warehousing is approached.

• Demand management – In the supply chain space, the holy grail is around better understanding and anticipation of what true demand is. A whole host of companies ranging from the likes of Orchestro, RSi, IRI, JDA, Steelwedge, SAP, Oracle, Kinaxis, Terra Technology to name a few, are all offering solutions that profess can better determine or predict what actual demand will be. But what about Amazon? They are already savvy when it comes to understanding what our buying habits on their web site – what else can or would we want to buy? Now comes word that Amazon has patent to provide “anticipatory delivery.” They are looking to better anticipate our demand! Wow. They will be able to put inventory on trucks before we even a)know we want the product b)order the product…talk about getting ahead of the demand curve. This goes beyond what some are tagging as demand sensing and moves into true demand anticipation. Again, will they be able to pull this off? Who cares. The fact they are speaking of being able to do so will create a disruptive mental wave that will have consumers wondering…”hey why can’t you anticipate what I want!”
• Mobility – The Kindle is a quiet mobile supply chain device. How? It allows Amazon to place mobile ordering kiosks in consumers hands. Giving Amazon another point where they can check on demand and buying patterns. Add to this the Amazon app that is available on iOS or Android and you have a mobile powerhouse. One that allows the company to get as close
  

  A cash register and inventory system in your pocket!

  as you can when it comes to POS information. With the app one could argue that Amazon have found a way to get into the four walls of the brick and mortar stores. Consumers have been trained to use the app as a mobile cash register and inventory system. Your daughter wants the latest American Girl doll? Scan a bar code or snap a picture and see what Amazon has…and if you want click “Buy Now” with your Prime account and boom, it gets delivered to your door.

So Amazon is the quiet supply chain disruptor. Whether or not they can pull off some of the projects they are tackling is inconsequential (well maybe not that inconsequential…). The fact that Amazon is driving the discussion around some of these hot button topics means all players within the supply chain cannot ignore some of the game changers that are on the table.

Amazon at the end of the is all about pushing more inventory through their system. But in doing so they are creating some mega changes when it comes  to how supply chains think about and tackle a host of issues. Next time you get a box from Amazon remember – they are shaking up the supply chains as we know them.

 Have a disruptive technology implementation story? Get recognized for your leadership. Apply for the 2014 SuperNova Awards for leaders in disruptive technology.

 

Actuate Acquires legodo ag

Constellation Research

J. Bruce Daley is a former vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, Inc.  , Title: Big Ideas Age Before Beauty Before there can be a wholesale conversion to the Cloud legacy applications must be converted. This will take decades and not every vendor has taken this obstacle into account when projecting growth. Professional Services Firms Need a Recurring Revenue Model The services business has a lot of advantages but one big disadvantage in that you are always going out of business. Some organizations are using the Cloud to offer clients new ways to spend money than just time-and-materials or fixed price projects. ...

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Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ: BIRT) has acquired legodo ag. Based in Karlsruhe, Germany, legodo develops software to allow organizations to tap into information stored in existing applications to create personalized customer communications.  More than 40,000 people have used the software in organizations like Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Telekom, GEHE Pharmahandel, Lufthansa, Swisscom, Telenor, and Telefonica. The company has a catchy tag line - Now it's personal.

“The acquisition of legodo extends Actuate’s offering with tight integration to Siebel among other packages,” said Steve Jones, Co-Vice President and Co-General Manager of the Content Services Group at Actuate.

The legodo Customer Communications Suite accesses systems such as Oracle Siebel, SAP, Salesforce, Sugar CRM, and the Oracle Sales Cloud with preconfigured interfaces frequently bypassing the need to program. Connectors to SQL, text, and Web services are also available.

“Many companies have invested a great deal of effort and money in putting in place CRM systems to obtain detailed information about their customers,” said Marc Koch, formerly CEO at legodo. “But when it comes to using that information in communications to customers, this knowledge is often not utilized to provide a customer with a personal experience.”

Marc Kresin, formerly legodo’s CTO and Chief Product Manager; and Koch have joined Actuate as Director of Product Management, and as Director of Marketing, respectively, within the Content Services Group at Actuate. Both were consultants at Siebel Systems previously in their careers.

Kresin and Koch can be reached at +49 721 66 592-0

Meet the Constellation Orbits Influencers - Chris Meyer and Sam Fiorella

In the third installment of our "Meet the Constellation Orbits Influencers" series I'll introduce you to business strategy visionary, Chris Meyer, and digital marketing guru, Sam Fiorella.

Chris Meyer is a thought leader focusing on the information economy, globalization and business innovation. His latest book is "Standing on the Sun".

Chris's mission is to anticipate and shape the future of business. He has pursued this goal as an entrepreneur, executive, consultant, author, and the leader of a think tank.

 Based on the ideas in his 2002 book Future Wealth, Chris developed a plan for a business based on a network of thought leaders. He joined The Monitor Group in 2006 to develop this idea as Monitor Networks, where he was Chief Executive from 2004 to 2009. In 2006, he co-founded Monitor Talent, to take these ideas forward operationally.

Chris has published three books about adaptive enterprise and network-based innovation, including the BusinessWeek Best Seller Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy, Future Wealth - the book on which Monitor Talent is based, and It’s Alive: The Coming Convergence of Information, Biology and Business.

COORDINATES
Constellation Profile: https://www.constellationr.com/users/chris-meyer
Twitter: @chrismeyer16
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrismeyernerve
 

Sam Fiorella is an authority on the intersection between customer experience and digital marketing.

Fiorella is partner at Sensei Marketing, a consulting and technology firm focused on aiding global companies grow their business value through improved customer experiences. He is co-author of Influence Marketing: How To Create, Manage, and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media. Fiorella is a 20 year sales & marketing veteran with over 1600 digital projects to his credit for clients including Morgan Stanley, AOL, Hyatt Gaming Management, Snyder's of Hanover, Hitachi, the Home Depot, Kraft Foods, Drees Homes, and American Idol. Fiorella holds a few professorships: professor of Marketing at Seneca College and Adjunct Professor at Rutgers' Center for Management Development. When he's not working with clients or teaching, he's sharing his analyses of the convergence of customer experience and digital marketing on the  Huffington Post and Social Media Monthly Magazine.

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Constellation Profile: https://www.constellationr.com/users/samfiorella
Twitter: @samfiorella
LinkedIn: https://www.constellationr.com/users/samfiorella
 

The Constellation Orbits influencer network extends the reach of Constellation's coverage area to the bleeding edge of digital disruption, and establishes Constellation Research as the authoritative source for analysis of the latest developments in disruptive technology. Constellation hand-picked twenty thought leaders to join Constellation Orbits for their expertise, influence, and fearlessness in identifying trends, cutting through marketing hype, and informing their early adopter audience of significant developments in disruptive technology. You can find analyses from these thought leaders (along with analyses from Constellation Analysts) on the Constellation blog--the enterprise's authoritative source for disruptive technology analysis. https://www.constellationr.com/blog-news
 

How to Fast Track Project Management Success with Project Online

To Anticipate and Shape the Future of Business

Chris Meyer

Chris Meyer is a thought leader focusing on the information economy, globalization and business innovation. His latest book is "Standing on the Sun".
Got Nerve

Chris's mission is to anticipate and shape the future of business. He has pursued this goal as an entrepreneur, executive, consultant, author, and the leader of a think tank.

 Based on the ideas in his 2002 book Future Wealth, Chris developed a plan for a business based on a network of thought leaders. He joined The Monitor Group in 2006 to develop this idea as Monitor Networks, where he was Chief Executive from 2004 to 2009. In 2006, he co-founded Monitor Talent, to take these ideas forward operationally. Prior to joining Monitor Group, he was the Director of the Center for Business Innovation at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, from 1995 until its closing in December 2002. The Center fostered the conversation of leading issues among the business community, developed public conferences,…...

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I was a little surprised and more than a little delighted when Ray asked me to join Orbits.  Surprised because my mission is “to anticipate and shape the future of business” in general—I’m not an analyst of the technology industry. That said, my work has always been rooted in how technology was enlarging the envelope of the global economy. So what you’ll see here will be observations of how the business environment is evolving, sometimes with a tech flavor, sometimes not. My current book, for example, looks at the emerging economies to see the next practices that will drive the evolution of capitalism. 

And delighted because Ray and Constellation have established a culture of energy and excellence, and I’m pleased to contribute to it. I will write here about new, sometimes half-baked thoughts about the world economy, capitalism, globalization, and economic research, hoping to provoke comment and insight from you. If we have a productive conversation here, we may collectively shape the future of business.