TCO in a Next Gen Comms World

Alumni: Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Dr. Brent Kelly is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research and President of KelCor, Inc. He focuses on the unique intersection of unified communications, social business, cloud services, video and mobility.  Dr. Kelly provides strategy and counsel to key clients including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, technology policy executives, sell-side firms and technology buyers. Prior to joining Constellation, Dr. Kelly served for 10 years as a partner at Wainhouse Research where he was the primary author of most of the firm’s unified communications reports and forecasts. Dr. Kelly is a regular presenter at Enterprise Connect (formerly VoiceCon), the communications industry trade show where his well…...

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A broad and possibly confusing range of options face enterprises and organizations of all sizes as they consider immediate and future communications and collaboration needs. One of the challenges organizations face is obtaining reliable cost data for UC and IP-PBX solutions and in being able to make apples-to-apples comparisons between them. Add the complexity of trying to compare on-premises to cloud to overlay deployment options, and the task of evaluating the numerous possibilities quickly becomes overwhelming.

To help make this task easier, sixteen vendors offering a total of 24 solutions have stepped up to respond to an RFP covering cloud, overlay, and on-premises options.  The RFP was for 2,000 UC seats. The organization consisted of a headquarters location and two branch offices. There was a 75 person call center also included.

Based on the responses of the vendors themselves, and using only the public RFP data presented, the data has been compiled into a format that makes it easy to compare the TCO over a five-year period for all of these solutions. In addition to using the data as bid by each vendor, we have normalized the solutions so that a true apples-to-apples comparison can be made.

The following figure shows the average costs for the nine on-premises offerings, the seven hosted solutions, and the eight overlay systems. Actual costs ranged from $1.37 million for the lowest TCO offering up to $5.97 million for the most expensive solution over the five-year period covered in the RFP.

From this data, we see that there is a clear crossover point between on-premises and hosted solutions. Furthermore, the hosted offerings initially cost less, but almost universally turn out to cost more by the end of the five-year period. That being said, the hosted providers are also showing double-digit growth universally, so there is clearly more than just TCO at play when companies make these decisions. The overlay options almost always come out less expensive over the TCO period. We also note the concern as to whether an overlay solution will meet an organization’s long term needs, or if it will evolve into a complete IP PBX and UC solution with adjusted TCO at some future date.

It is interesting to look at the costs for vendors who bid multiple solution types. For example, Microsoft’s overlay option is more expensive that its on-premises offering while Avaya’s and Cisco’s on-premises solutions are less expensive from a TCO perspective than their hosted options but more expensive than their overlay solutions.  The Cisco cloud-based solution represents Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) offered by Verizon; the Microsoft cloud-based solution represents Microsoft Lync hosted by BT.

An overview of the report containing the executive summary and the table of contents is available by clicking here. Alternatively, any of the authors may be contacted. Because this information is so relevant for end user organizations investigating UC solutions, pricing for these organizations has been made very attractive. We know of no other document with such comprehensive TCO data available in our market.

The original RFP used for this study may be obtained by contacting the author.

SuperNova Awards - Nominations now closed

Tuesday's Tip: The Big Question In Big Data Is: What's The Question?

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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All The Current Talk Of Big Data Technology Misses The Point

The hype around big data has crescendoed to the levels of SOA in the early 2000?s, cloud in the late 2000?s, and social in the past few years.   Unfortunately the hype is creating three main pitfalls:

1. A morass of confused definitions. In fact a quick survey of any educated audience, yields a multitude of definitions.  Some folks see big data as large data sets and data warehouses, others see big data as code for analytics and BI.  Many see the output of big data as infographics or the hardware behind the support of big data.  The V’s of big data continue to expand from volume, velocity, and variety to include veracity, viscosity, and virality.  Some folks even have 16 V’s in their definitions.
2. Solutions confusion among buyers. A technology vendor land grab for mind share with big data is happening now the same way everyone adopted cloud.  Hardware vendors now enable big data.  Storage providers now deliver big data solutions.  Integration vendors provide plumbing and intelligent connections for big data.  Analytical vendors now all support big data.  Some folks like to confuse Hadoop with big data.  Everyone has a solution, just not the solution a buyer thinks they need.  Confused capabilities continue to proliferate amidst a lack of good customer references.  Customers feel the chaos.
3. Discussion on technology options not business problems. The discussion about big data has evolved into a technology conversation not a business value or transformation conversation.  Clients immediately talk about products and technologies without defining the problem to be solved.  Technology investments take over the discussions on solution development.

Recommendations: Focus On the Questions To Ask, Not The Answers.

Despite this chaos, organizations can escape the pitfalls of big data confusion.  Business leaders should focus the discussion back to business value.  In the case of big data, the big question is what is the question?  Start each project by asking the following:

• What are the questions that need to be asked?
• What are the answers that help us move from data to decisions?
• Can we shift insight into action?
• How do we tie information to business process?
• Who needs what information at what right time?
• How often should this information be updated, delivered, and shared?

The Bottom Line: Big Data Is About Making Decisions In The Future Not Rehashing The Past

The history in moving from data to decisions is littered with failed technologies.  The failure of data warehouses to provide real-time data led to the creation of data marts.  Data marts failed to provide complete and updated and comprehensive views.  The world moved to business intelligence to access insight yet this still did not address the issues.  A movement to master data management attempted to address the lack of a central repository.  Information governance emerged as a key people and process issue.  Users over the past 20 years saw the complete cycle repeat itself.

After spending hundreds of millions in time and money, existing solutions still don’t solve the problem.  Why? The market and business environment have changed.  Data moves from structured to unstructured.  Sources exponentially proliferate.  Data quality is paramount.  Real-time creates too much information.  It’s not about real time being fast enough.  Real-time is irrelevant because speed does not trump fidelity.  Quantity does not trump quality.  Context is key as we need to shift from real-time to right time data based on roles, processes, location, time, and relationships.

Yet all this is still irrelevant.  Organizations must address the key issue – how can an organization or leader make the right decision?   Business questions remained unanswered despite the massive number of reports and views and charts.  Organizations must make the shift to asking the right questions instead of seeking the right answers.   The big shift is about moving from data to decisions.  This is transformational in thinking and not easy to achieve.  However,  this is the journey ahead and big data is one small part.

Your POV

What business problem will require you to start with Big Data?  What are the key outcomes?  Where do you expect to move the needle?   Add your comments to the blog or send us a comment at R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org or R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com

Resources

• Monday’s Musings: Beyond The Three V’s of Big Data – Viscosity and Virality
• Monday’s Musings: The Three V’s of Big Data
• Research Report: Rethink Your Next Generation Business Intelligence Strategy
• Monday’s Musings: Balancing The Six S’s In Consumerization Of IT
• Monday’s Musings: A Working Vendor Landscape For Social Business
• Research Report: The Upcoming Battle For The Largest Share Of The Technology Budget Part 1
• Research Report: How The Five Pillars Of Consumer Tech Influence Enterprise Innovation
• Best Practices: Five Simple Rules For Social Business

Reprints

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website.

* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions.  However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.

Copyright © 2001 -2012 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience!

Webinar Series: Making Mobility Pay in Your Enterprise

Why Self-Service Doesn’t Achieve Its Potential

Constellation Orbits
Constellation Research, Inc.

Elizabeth is a well-recognized industry-leading analyst. She was previously Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research.  Prior to Constellation, Elizabeth spent eleven years at Forrester Research as vice president and principal analyst.  She has managed large consulting projects for business and government organizations and provides technical insight and guidance to business and government organizations on their communication issues. Prior to her role as an industry analyst with Communication Initiatives and Forrester Research, Elizabeth held senior management positions with IBM, ROLM and Siemens ICN where she was a senior manager for strategic planning and alliances. Expertise Elizabeth’s expertise includes in-depth knowledge of unified communications,…...

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Customer service providers have struggled for years to encourage customers to use their self-service channels including the Web, social sites or interactive voice response (IVR) applications.   Despite marketing efforts to promote higher usage, self-service often plateaus at a level somewhat lower than its potential.  Many service providers indicate that its usage will not go up as customers just don’t like using self-service.  The real question that needs to be asked is why customers don’t like it.  While some types of transactions require human assistance, there are many others that can be successfully automated but have barriers that make it difficult to use.  Looking more closely at why customers don’t like automated service I find that poor performance, such as too many responses on FAQs or navigating through long menus or speech commands are customer pain points.   Additionally, some customers are uncertain that the automated systems accurately recorded their information and lack confidence in using the service.  Making some basic changes can significantly improve the percentage of completed transactions on self-service channels.

The following lists two steps customer service professionals can take to improve self-service transaction rates and increase customer satisfaction on these channels.   

• Knowledge Management Tune Up.  Many customer support managers do not have a clear indication of the type of responses provided with the existing knowledge base or the average number of responses given.  The knowledge base may deliver too many responses or provide responses that are not accurate.  This causes customers to grow frustrated and place a call to an agent who will provide the needed information.   Knowledge bases require continuous management and monitoring to determine if a correct response was given and the issue closed.   Additionally, customers need to get the right answer quickly when interfacing with a knowledge management system or they will default to an agent.
• Personalize with contextual information.  Customers appreciate it when they do not need to constantly reenter information regarding their account in order to proceed.  Contextual personalization does more than just recognize a customer.  It uses historical and real time  information, such as customer status, recent account activity, purchases and GPS information from mobile devices to better discern the reason for the current interaction. It may also use business intelligence to predict a customer’s issue and make recommendations for proceeding.   This level of understanding and knowledge makes a routine call into a positive customer experience.  For example an airline service center can have current customer information available, so that it would know a flight had been cancelled and provide its customer with updated status on a new flight without the customer doing anything more than making the initial call.  Contextual personalization promotes confidence with the customer in using self-service, which promotes higher use of self-service channels

When making self-service improvements proactively alert customers to your new and improved services to regain those who grew discouraged with earlier experiences.  Customer service representatives (CSRs) should also suggest to callers that they can receive faster response on their next transaction by using the self-service solutions.  Higher use of self-service is a major cost reducer and a self-service transaction is approximately 90% lower than an assisted call.  Investments in upgrading knowledge bases and contextual personalization will rapidly provide a positive ROI.   It is important to focus upgrades on the 70% of interactions (percentage varies by industry) that lend themselves to self-service and allow CSRs time to tackle the more complex and difficult issues.

News Analysis: IFS Acquires Metrix To Boost Mobility And Service Management

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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Mobility and Scheduling Play A Key Role In IFS Service Management Strategy

On May 23rd, IFS acquired Metrix, a service management and mobility vendor headquartered in Waukesha, Wisconsin.  IFS adds 90 customers with Metrix.  Key highlights of the acquisition include:

• Expansion into new markets. Metrix Service Management provides a field service management and depot repair solution for high volume service industry segments.  Metrix succeeds in key industries such as Asset & Capital Equipment, Telco, High-Tech & Medical, and Defense.  Key brands among the 90 new customers include Ericsson, Motorola, Xerox, DHL and ITT to IFS’ portfolio.  Other key offerings include service contact center, service scheduling, contract management, warranty management, and service project management.
  
  Point of View (POV): Metrix’s products allows customers to automate mobile field service, streamline repair processes, improve customer service, and increase service profitability.  While, IFS pioneered service management for many areas including asset intensive industries, the Metrix acquisition opens up the profitable North American market.  Deployment modes in SaaS will allow IFS to quickly cross-sell to existing customers and bring in new prospects.  Along with a robust field service management solution, Metrix delivers a solid reverse logistics solution that encompasses service repair, returns management, warranty management, and service parts logistics. IFS could benefit from this in-house capability to expand current offerings.

• Advancing into mobile apps. The Metrix solution provides a broad solution across the enterprise (see Figure 1).  Agents gain mobile reporting tools, assess customer satisfaction with in the field customer surveys, and optimize receiving and shipping management tasks.  Other mobile use cases include the ability to verify customer history and product warranties, track serialized part inventories and repair stock, and enjoy one-click customer calling and emailing.  The solution currently supports Windows and Android.  Metrix Mobile contains a development framework and a set of off-line applications for field service and maintenance that support Android, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
  
  Point of View (POV): Metrix improves IFS’ capability in delivering both on-line and importantly off-line solutions.  Should IFS complete integration of Metrix to IFS applications, customers will gain the benefits of an integrated mobile application.  Lack of native iPhone support should not immediately impact the market, due to the lack of ruggedized devices on Apple. Long term, the lack of offline, store and forward capabilities for  iOS support creates a huge hole in the portfolio as iOS penetration increases across the enterprise at a geometric growth rate.  IFS does provide full online support of the iPad in the full suite of IFS applications.

• Delivery of integrated scheduling with field service. Integration with 360 Scheduling delivers advanced resource optimization.  Metrix already had a partnership with 360 Scheduling.
  
  Point of View (POV): Integration with 360 Scheduling allows IFS and Metrix to take advantage of their proven algorithms that go beyond the legacy batch scheduling, business rule, optimization approaches.  Integration with Metrix enables customers to address planned and unplanned demand forecasting, skills gaps, location optimization, resource optimization, and profitability.

Figure 1. The Broad Range Of Mobile Scenarios Supported By IFS Applications

The Bottom Line: Include IFS In Short Lists For End to End Service Management

Recent customer case studies from IFS show the benefits of  Metrix’s service management software.  Some customers have achieved a 12 to 18 month payback including a 15 to 20 percent increase in response time, 20 percent improvement in first time fix, and 20 percent reduction in overall service cost.  With options to run on-premises or in a public cloud SaaS model, customers can choose deployment options that best fit their organization.  Combined with 360 Scheduling, the IFS Metrix solution when integrated has the potential to deliver a game changing approach to Field Service.

Your POV.

Have you considered a field service management solution?  How important is mobile for your organization?  Are you a Metrix customer and have an experience to share?  Got a question?  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.

Reprints

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website.

* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions.  However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.

Copyright © 2001 – 2012 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience!

Tuesday's Tip: Dealing With The Real Problem In Social Business Adoption: The People!

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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Social Business Adoption Dependent On Employee Adoption

Social business is more than a technology decision.  Many eager early adopters face challenges in adoption past the initial core team.  As we move from eager early adopters to ubiquitous usage, an examination of some organizations who have failed at internal social business reveals five common barriers to adoption:

1. Poorly defined incentives. In the rush to convince everyone to work with each other, most organizations fail to design meaningful incentives for adoption.  The reality – most folks collaborate only when they need to, not when they are told to.
2. Increase in actual effort. For many in the workforce, collaboration often means more work, not less work.  Connectedness results in more interactions, some less meaningful than others.  Increase in effort often shifts the status quo resulting in internal resistance.
3. Lack of choice in user experience. Time and time, people want to use the tool they are most comfortable with.  For example, activity streams make sense for some folks who are used to high frequency, always on, information flows.  However, those accustomed to using email as a task list and structured approach to filing information will find discomfort with activity streams.
4. Indifference to change. Inertia to do nothing often outweighs the calls for change.  The workforce often prefers to do things the way they always have been.  The workforce has seen many changes and at this point face change fatigue.
5. Failure to communicate the urgency.  Business model shifts are not easy to communicate to the workforce.  Veteran employees often develop coping mechanisms that define the new change as a reincarnation of the old change without understanding the nuance or urgency.

Overcoming Barriers Of Adoption Require A Mix of New and Classical Change Management Techniques

Despite compelling benefits to achieve better collaboration among teams, improved engagement among the workforce, and faster speed of internal communication, adoption efforts require careful design.  As with any organizational change, it’s the people, stupid!  The five barriers can be countered with the following five strategies (see Figure 1.):

1. Adopt gamification strategies. Listen for both the monetary and non-monetary incentives. Design a hierarchy and weighting of incentives to effort.  Use gamification techniques to improve adoption and internal engagement.
2. Apply design thinking to transform. Use design thinking scenarios to ideate future state processes.  Remove friction points and redundant processes so that interaction is natural.  Stamp areas where extra effort emerges.
3. Deliver options based on use case. Identify cohorts and preferences in communication and cultural styles.  Apply the 9Cs of engagement to deliver the right user experience strategy.  Provide multiple interface choices as well as educate on new user experience metaphors.
4. Align to self –interest. Show the workforce where and how the benefits apply to the individual.  Highlight the overall group advantages.  Providing the connection between individual and group benefits often plays a powerful lever in effecting change.
5. Define the business model shift. For quant jocks, apply a financial business model.  For poets, highlight the narrative in the shift and communicate the overall transformation at hand.

Figure 1. Overcoming the Barriers of Social Business Adoption

The Bottom Line: Apply Change Management And Design Thinking To Improve Social Business Adoption

While technology plays a key role in improving social business, core change management principles still must be applied to ensure organizational transformation.  Technology alone will not solve the issue.  A combination of design thinking techniques applied to change management will ensure more successful adoption rates.   Planning for change management will require as much time as the technical implementation.  Consequently, successful social business efforts incorporate both technology and change management work streams in concert with each other.

Your POV.

Ready to fight change management and adoption head on? Have a story on how you’ve achieved engagement? Add your comments to the blog or send us a comment at R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org or R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com

Please let us know if you need help with your Social CRM/ Social Business efforts.  Here’s how we can assist:

• Assessing social business/social CRM readiness
• Developing your social business/ social CRM  strategy
• Vendor selection
• Implementation partner selection
• Connecting with other pioneers
• Sharing best practices
• Designing a next gen apps strategy
• Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
• Demystifying software licensing

Related Research:

• Monday’s Musing: Avoiding Social Media Fatigue Through Engagement
• Friday’s Features: Using Attensity Analyze 6.0 To Compare Customer Sentiment For @united @southwestair @virginamerica
• Event Report: Lithium Network Conference 2012 #LiNC
• Best Practices: From First To Worst – Continental In A Post United World, Lessons In Next Gen Customer Experience
• Monday’s Musings: Seven Basic Privacy Rights Users Should Demand For Social Business
• News Analysis: Lithium Technologies Adds $53M in Financing
• Monday’s Musings: Balancing The Six S’s In Consumerization Of IT
• Monday’s Musings: A Working Vendor Landscape For Social Business
• Product Review: Google+, Consumerization of IT, and Crossing The Chasm For Enterprise Social Business
• Monday’s Musings: Using MDM To Build A Complete Customer View In A Social Era
• Monday’s Musings: Mastering When and How High End Brands Should Use Daily Deal Sites Such As Groupon
• News Analysis: Salesforce.com Acquires Radian6 For $316M
• Monday’s Musings: Q1 2011 State of Social CRM and CRM From An EMEA Point Of View
• Best Practices: Applying Social Business Challenges To Social Business Maturity Models
• Research Summary: Software Insider’s Top 25 Posts For 2010
• Best Practices: Five Simple Rules For Social Business
• Research Report: Constellation’s Research Outlook For 2011
• Research Report: How The Five Pillars Of Consumer Tech Influence Enterprise Innovation
• Research Report: Next Gen B2B and B2C E-Commerce Priorities Reflect Macro Level Trends
• News Analysis: Jive Fills Warchest, Ready to Battle Enterprise Software Giants And IPO?
• Tuesday’s Tip: Applying The Five Stages Of Adoption Towards SCRM Projects
• News Analysis: Lithium’s Acquisition of Scout Labs Ups The Ante in Social CRM
• News Analysis: Biz360 Acquisition Signals Attensity Group’s Move Into Social CRM
• Monday’s Musings: Avoiding Failure In Social CRM Projects Requires Ecosystem Coordination
• Research Report: The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM – The New Rules of Relationship Management
• News Analysis: Siperian Acquisition Vaults Informatica Into An MDM Leadership Position
• News Analysis: Jive and Radian6 Partner – Great For Business, But Could Fragment IT Systems
• Event Report: Salesforce.com Pushes Social CRM Technology — But Don’t Expect Companies To Be Successful With Tools Alone
• Monday’s Musings: Why Every Social CRM Initiative Needs An MDM Backbone
• Personal Log: Altimeter Group – Helping Organizations Bridge The Technology Obsolescence Gap
• Monday’s Musings: 10 Essential Elements For Social Enterprise Apps

Reprints

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website.

* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions.  However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.

Copyright © 2001 – 2012 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience!

Oracle's List of 100-Plus Cloud Applications

President, Computer Economics and Strativa, Inc.
Computer Economics and Strativa, Inc.

Frank Scavo is skilled at formulating and communicating IT strategy, developing the business case for new systems, and facilitating the selection of enterprise systems, such as ERP, CRM, and supply chain management. He is also an expert in benchmarking IT spending and staffing levels for end-user IT organizations. Frank was one of the first tech bloggers, beginning in 2002 with his launch of the Enterprise System Spectator providing independent analysis of issues and trends in enterprise applications software and the strengths, weaknesses, advantages, and disadvantages of the vendors that provide them. Frank has been quoted as an IT expert in numerous business and industry publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, CIO Magazine, ZDnet, eWeek, Datamation,…...

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Oracle has now responded to analyst requests for a list of the 100+ cloud applications that Larry Ellison claimed in his Oracle Cloud presentation last week. I've just checked, and his exact words were "Over 100 enterprise-grade applications running in the cloud."

But the email cover for the list sent this morning refers to them as "100+ application services." As I speculated last week, Oracle is defining "application services" at very fine-grained level, almost down to individual programs.

For example, within "Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management - Marketing" is "Fusion Marketing Segmentation - up to 500,000 records" really a separate and distinct application from "Fusion Marketing Segmentation - up to 1,000,000 records?"

Update 1: Upon further review, I'm wondering why Oracle CRM On-Demand, a multi-tenant SaaS application, is missing from Oracle's list.

Update 2: I'm also wondering, using Oracle's definition of "applications," how many does SAP have?  In his presentation, Ellison said, "SAP only has SuccessFactors." Leaving aside my point that Ellison did not credit Business By Design or SAP's line of business applications as cloud apps, how does "SuccessFactors" count as one application, but Oracle's Taleo counts as 24 (see list below)?
 

Here is the complete list of what Oracle claims as its 100+ cloud applications:

Oracle RightNow

Oracle RightNow Dynamic Agent Desktop Cloud Service: Seats
Oracle RightNow Standard Dynamic Agent Desktop Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Enterprise Dynamic Agent Desktop Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Enterprise Contact Center Dynamic Agent Desktop Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Standalone Chat Dynamic Agent Desktop Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Dynamic Agent Knowledgebase Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Chat Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Cobrowse Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Cobrowse Remote Support Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Contextual Workspaces Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Guided Assistance Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Agent Scripting Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Desktop Workflow Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Product Registration Cloud Service
Oracle RightNow Social Monitor Cloud Service

Oracle Taleo

Taleo Enterprise Cloud Service Platform
Taleo Platform Cloud Service
Taleo Analytics Cloud Service
Taleo Recruiting Cloud Service
Taleo Recruiting High Volume Cloud Service
Taleo Onboarding Cloud Service
Taleo Performance Management Cloud Service
Taleo Goal Management Cloud Service
Taleo Succession Planning Cloud Service
Taleo Development Planning Cloud Service
Taleo Learn Cloud Service
Taleo Learn External User Cloud Service

Taleo Enterprise Recruiting Assessment Content
Taleo Hourly Assessment Content Cloud Service
Taleo Store Manager Assessment Content Cloud Service
TBE Recruiting Standard Active User Cloud Service
TBE Recruiting Premium Active User Cloud Service
TBE Recruiting Manager Cloud Service

Taleo Business Edition - Per Employee
TBE Recruiting Premium Cloud Service
TBE Smart Sourcing Base Cloud Service
TBE Smart Sourcing Per Posting Cloud Service
TBE Onboarding Cloud Service
TBE Compensation Cloud Service
TBE Performance Management Cloud Service

Taleo Business Edition - Learn
TBE Learn Cloud Service
TBE Learn External Trainees Cloud Service

Oracle ATG

Oracle ATG Live Help
Live Help Interactions On Demand
Live Help Chat On Demand
Live Help Email On Demand
Live Help Cobrowse Chat On Demand
Live Help Cobrowse Phone On Demand
Recommendations Single-Channel On Demand
Recommendations Multichannel On Demand
Recommendations Additional Catalog On Demand
Recommendations Large Catalog On Demand

Oracle Fusion Applications

Oracle Fusion CRM Base Cloud Service
Fusion CRM Base Standard Offering Cloud Service
Fusion CRM Base Enterprise Offering Cloud Service
Fusion CRM Base Premium Offering Cloud Service
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Customer Relationship Management Cloud Service
Fusion Enterprise Contracts Management Base Cloud Service
Fusion Incentive Compensation Cloud Service
Fusion Opportunity Landscape Cloud Service
Fusion Quota Management Cloud Service
Fusion Sales Campaigns Cloud Service
Fusion Sales Predictor Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Marketing Cloud Service
Fusion Marketing, Enterprise Edition Cloud Service
Fusion Marketing, Additional Volume Cloud Service
Fusion Marketing, Additional Email - 500,000 Messages

Oracle Fusion Partner Relationship Management Cloud Service
Fusion Partner Relationship Management for Channel Managers Cloud Service
Fusion Partner Relationship Management for Partners Cloud Service
Fusion Territory Management for Channel Managers Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Customer Data Management Cloud Service
Fusion Customer Data Steward Cloud Service
Fusion Customer Management Foundation for Organizations Cloud Service
Fusion Customer Management Foundation for Persons Cloud Service
Fusion Data Quality Address Cleansing Cloud Service
Fusion Data Quality Matching Cloud Service
Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management Cloud Service
Fusion Human Capital Management Base Cloud Service
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Human Capital Management Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management Cloud Service Options
Fusion Global Payroll Cloud Service
Fusion Goal Management Cloud Service
Fusion Payroll Interface Cloud Service
Fusion Performance Management Cloud Service
Fusion Talent Review Cloud Service
Fusion Workforce Compensation Cloud Service
Fusion Workforce Lifecycle Manager Cloud Service
Fusion Workforce Predictions Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Talent Management Cloud Service
Fusion Talent Management Base Cloud Service
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Talent Management Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Talent Management Cloud Service Options
Fusion Goal Management Cloud Service
Fusion Performance Management Cloud Service
Fusion Talent Review Cloud Service
Fusion Workforce Compensation Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Financials Cloud Service
Fusion Financials Cloud Service
Fusion Expenses Cloud Service
Fusion Advanced Collections Cloud Service
Fusion Automated Invoice Processing Cloud Service
Fusion Financial Reports Center Cloud Service
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Financials Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Procurement Cloud Service
Fusion Purchasing Cloud Service
   Option: Fusion Supplier Portal Cloud Service
   Option: Fusion Sourcing Cloud Service
Fusion Procurement Contracts Cloud Service
Fusion Self Service Procurement Cloud Service
Fusion Enterprise Contracts Base Cloud Service
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Procurement Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Project Financial Management Cloud Service
Fusion Project Financial Management Base Cloud Service
Fusion Project Control Cloud Service
Fusion Project Billing Cloud Service
Fusion Project Contracts Cloud Service
Fusion Enterprise Contracts Base Cloud Service
Fusion Project Performance Reporting Cloud Service
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Project Financial Management Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Project Execution Management Cloud Service
Fusion Project Management Base Cloud Service
Fusion Collaborative Project Management Cloud Service
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Project Execution Management Cloud Service
Fusion Project Resource Management Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Risk and Control Management Cloud Service
Fusion Risk and Control Management Base Cloud Service
Option: Fusion Risk and Compliance Management Cloud Service
Option: Fusion Risk and Compliance Intelligence Cloud Service
Option: Finance Controls Cloud Service
Option: Procurement Controls Cloud Service
Option: Human Capital Controls Cloud Service
Option: Fusion Controls On-Premise Connector Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management Cloud Service
Fusion Inventory Management Cloud Service
Fusion Product Hub Cloud Service
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Supply Chain Management Cloud Service

Oracle Hyperion Cloud Service
Hyperion Planning Plus Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Cloud Service Additional Add-On
Fusion Applications Extensibility Framework Cloud Service

Oracle Fusion Financials
Fusion Accounting Hub
Fusion Advanced Collections
Fusion Automated Invoice Processing
Fusion Expenses
Fusion Financial Reports Center
Fusion Financials
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Financials

Oracle Fusion Procurement
Fusion Procurement Contracts
Fusion Purchasing
Option: Fusion Sourcing
Option: Fusion Supplier Portal
Fusion Self Service Procurement
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Procurement

Oracle Fusion Project Portfolio Management
Fusion Project Billing
Fusion Project Contracts
Fusion Project Control
Fusion Project Costing
Fusion Project Integration Gateway
Fusion Project Performance Reporting
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Projects

Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management
Fusion Benefits
Fusion Global Human Resources
Fusion Global Payroll
Fusion Global Payroll Interface
Fusion Goal Management
Fusion Performance Management
Fusion Talent Review
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Human Capital Management
Fusion Workforce Compensation
Fusion Workforce Directory Management
Fusion Workforce Lifecycle Manager
Fusion Workforce Predictions

Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management
Fusion Distributed Order Orchestration
Fusion Distributed Order Orchestration User
Fusion Global Order Promising
Fusion Inventory Management
Fusion Product and Catalog Management
Fusion Product Hub
Fusion Product Hub Data Steward
Fusion Product Hub for Communications
Fusion Product Hub for Retail
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Supply Chain Management

Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management - Sales
Fusion CRM Base
Fusion CRM Desktop
Fusion Enterprise Contracts Base
Fusion Incentive Compensation
Fusion Opportunity Landscape
Fusion Quota Management
Fusion Sales Campaigns
Fusion Sales Catalog
Fusion Sales Predictor
Fusion Smart Phone Edition
Fusion Territory Management
Fusion Transactional Business Intelligence for Customer Relationship Management

Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management - Marketing
Fusion Email Marketing Server
Fusion Marketing
Fusion Marketing Segmentation - up to 500,000 records
Fusion Marketing Segmentation - up to 1,000,000 records
Fusion Marketing Segmentation - up to 3,000,000 records
Fusion Marketing Segmentation - up to 5,000,000 records
Fusion Marketing Segmentation - up to 10,000,000 records
Fusion Marketing Segmentation - unlimited records

Oracle Fusion Partner Relationship Management
Fusion Incentive Compensation for Channel Managers
Fusion Partner Relationship Management for Channel Managers
Fusion Partner Relationship Management for Partners
Fusion Territory Management for Channel Managers

Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management - Customer Data Management
Fusion Customer Hub Data Steward
Fusion Customer Hub for Organizations
Fusion Customer Management Foundation for Organizations
Fusion Customer Hub for Persons
Fusion Customer Management Foundation for Persons
Fusion Data Quality Address Cleansing
Fusion Data Quality Matching

Oracle Fusion Application Tools
Fusion Applications Extensibility Framework

Oracle Fusion Governance, Risk and Compliance
Fusion Application Access Controls Governor
Option: Fusion Application Access Controls for Fusion Applications

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Oracle's Behavior Undercuts Its Own Cloud Accomplishments

Oracle's Behavior Undercuts Its Own Cloud Accomplishments

President, Computer Economics and Strativa, Inc.
Computer Economics and Strativa, Inc.

Frank Scavo is skilled at formulating and communicating IT strategy, developing the business case for new systems, and facilitating the selection of enterprise systems, such as ERP, CRM, and supply chain management. He is also an expert in benchmarking IT spending and staffing levels for end-user IT organizations. Frank was one of the first tech bloggers, beginning in 2002 with his launch of the Enterprise System Spectator providing independent analysis of issues and trends in enterprise applications software and the strengths, weaknesses, advantages, and disadvantages of the vendors that provide them. Frank has been quoted as an IT expert in numerous business and industry publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, CIO Magazine, ZDnet, eWeek, Datamation,…...

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Oracle held a much anticipated "Oracle Executive Strategy" update event for its Oracle Cloud services yesterday. With Larry Ellison leading the presentation, there was much thunder and lightening--but not much rain. This is unfortunate, because Oracle has put together an impressive set of cloud services. Ellison's inability to resist slamming the competition led him to overstate what Oracle has actually delivered, and to minimize the success of Oracle's competitors.

This post serves as a summary of the key points I gleaned from the webcast and from an analyst question and answer session afterwards with Thomas Kurian, Oracle's EVP of Product Development, who is always a pleasure to listen to.

Is There Anything New?

On Twitter and in back channel Skype conversations with other analysts, many of us were questioning: what exactly is being announced today? Nearly everything presented had been previously been presented at Oracle Open World in 2011.

Reading carefully through the pre-event summary document and scanning through my notes, I can only come up with two things that are new:

1. Oracle is announcing new Oracle Fusion cloud applications and services in addition to those  announced during Open World (which were CRM, HCM, Social Network, Java Service, and Cloud Service). Larry Ellison indicated that Oracle now has 100 cloud applications and services.
    
2. Oracle demonstrated some of the social marketing functionality from its Vitrue acquisition, which Oracle announced in March. 

Other than that, it's difficult to find anything that Oracle had not announced or presented earlier. So the event was largely a re-presentation of Oracle's cloud services, some demonstration, and a healthy dose of competitor-bashing.

Essentially, the 90 minute event fell into a pattern of presentation that is becoming all too familiar in the past several Oracle Open World conferences. There are too many issues to list individually, but I'll point out what I see as some of the things I found most troubling in Oracle's presentation.

Oracle Exaggerates Its Cloud Apps Availability

Oracle claims 100 Oracle Fusion cloud services but provides no list of the applications. Seeing that Oracle announced five during Open World, it's difficult to understand how it is now claiming 100, unless it is talking about very small pieces of functionality. During the post-event analyst briefing, I believe Tom Kurian did promise to deliver a list--so we'll have to wait for that. Update: Oracle has provided the list.

Furthermore, not all of the capabilities that Oracle showed or referred to during the event are in general release. Tom Kurian did review what products were generally available, but I was not able to capture that information. Again, we'll have to wait for some public clarity from Oracle on what customers can buy today and what is still waiting for general availability.

Oracle's Developer Cloud Still in Controlled Availability

Specifically, Oracle Java Service and Database Service are not yet available via customer self-service, as shown in the screen shot below. With a public cloud infrastructure service, you should be able to walk up to the website, submit a credit card and gain instant access to a development environment, run it for a few hours or days, then shut it down. Amazon Web Services has offered this for years.

A quick test on the Oracle website shows that if you try to sign up for cloud services, you are led to a screen as shown below, where you can leave your contact information. The message on that page reads,

When you submit this form, your information will be placed into a queue for access to controlled availability services. We will be provisioning Java and Database services in batches over the next several months. Our Fusion Application services will be made available shortly after that. You will be notified by email when your instance is ready.

I questioned Tom Kurian on this point and he indicated that this is a temporary measure during the ramp-up period. He said that Oracle is currently signing up about 150 development customers a week for its Java and database services and that by the end of August, the sign up process should be available entirely on a self-service basis. But today-there is still friction at the point of sale.



 

Ellison is Rewriting History

At the beginning of his presentation, Ellison claimed that Oracle began to rebuild all of Oracle's applications for the cloud, calling it Project Fusion. But some of us have a long memory, and we've written blog posts on Oracle's Fusion program over the years.

At the beginning, Oracle did not pitch Fusion as a cloud program but as an integration strategy for its disparate applications. Fusion would be the successor to Oracle's E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, and Siebel systems. As Oracle made many acquisitions, it needed a strategy, using middleware, to integrate these applications with one another and a successor set of applications based on the best features of each of its acquisitions.

See my many posts at the end of this post, and try to find one where Oracle ever used the word "cloud" in talking about Fusion. Oracle has not been working on cloud applications for seven years. It has only been in the past year or two, as Salesforce.com and Workday began eating Oracle's lunch that Oracle responded with its own cloud pronouncements.

I have heard off-the-record that the early leaders in the Fusion group made sure to architect the product to allow cloud deployment. But Ellison's early presentations indicated that Fusion would be a traditional sold-as-a-license product, deployed on-premises, not a cloud service. To now claim that Fusion was a 7-year cloud development effort is simply not true.

Ellison's Characterization of Competitors is Out-of-Bounds

For example, Ellison claims that SAP has done nothing in the cloud except for its acquisition of SuccessFactors, and that it will have nothing otherwise in the cloud until 2020. He conveniently overlooks SAP's five or seven year effort to develop Business ByDesign, a full-suite multi-tenant cloud ERP system, which SAP has has sold to over 1,000 customers.

Whether SAP has met its objectives for ByD is not the point: Oracle has by its own numbers claimed only 200 sales of Oracle Fusion. So, even by Oracle's own numbers, SAP has sold more cloud customers with its own developed products. (Ellison also conveniently ignores SAP's own cloud-based line-of-business applications.) SAP may have its own problems in transitioning its business to the cloud, but Ellison's mockery of SAP is simply unfair and inaccurate. 

Ellison's slamming of the competition continued with a mis-characterization of Workday's in-memory technology and a straw-man argument that other SaaS providers tell customers "not to worry about security." Can Ellison point to any cloud competitor that has told its customers "not to worry about security?"

Oracle Exaggerates Adoption of Fusion Apps

Oracle claims just 200 sales of Oracle Fusion Apps, and it refuses to break down that number into how many are CRM, HCM, and so on. Although Oracle will not release that information, I have reason to believe that most of those sales are for HCM and that there have been few new sales of Fusion CRM.

Tellingly, there were no customers on stage with Ellison or Hurd. Except for a couple of slides with logos of companies that Oracle claimed as wins over its competitors, there were no customer mentions, no customer testimonies.

Oracle Customers Choose Cloud Because of Fusion Complexity

Back-channel discussions indicate that nearly all Oracle Fusion application sales are for cloud deployment, not on-premises. It appears that this is the case not because Fusion can only run in the cloud  (like Salesforce.com or Workday) but because Fusion technical requirements are so complex that virtually no organization wants to deploy Fusion Apps on-premises. It is easier to simply turn over the infrastructure and application management activities to Oracle.

On a Positive Note

The dissatisfaction felt by many of the event attendees is unfortunate. Oracle does have an impressive array of cloud services, although some are still in the process of roll-out.

• Specifically, I like the fact that Oracle is offering a full and complete IaaS platform, similar to Amazon's (although Oracle's is limited to Oracle technologies).
   
• I also like that everything in Oracle's cloud is based on public standards, such as SQL, Java, and HTML5. 
   
• I like that customers can freely move applications (Oracle's apps, or custom apps) from Oracle's cloud to on-premise deployment, or to other public clouds such as Amazon's--without modification. I questioned Kurian on this point, and he confirmed that there is no intent to lock in customers to Oracle's cloud. This is, in fact, a differentiator against Salesforce.com as a development platform, which because it is based on proprietary languages, does not offer portability. 
   
• Finally, the user interface or Oracle Fusion Application is cutting edge. From what I saw in the Ellison's demonstration, along with other Fusion apps I've seen demonstrated, Oracle has set a high bar for ease-of-use, embedded BI, and integration.

Oracle has fallen into a pattern in its public events of overstating its successes, misrepresenting its competitors, and touting statements-of-direction as accomplishments. This is unfortunate because it causes observers to discount what is in fact some very impressive technology. I hope that, in the future, Oracle will take a more understated approach that will do justice to its people, products, and services. 

Related Posts

Oracle's roadmap for Fusion Apps (2009)
More on Oracle's Fusion strategy
Oracle's Fusion strategy: clear as mud
Fusion to build on Oracle's E-Business Suite
Oracle going dark
Oracle's new reseller strategy and speculation on the future of JDE
Is Oracle's Fusion really half complete?
SAP slams Oracle's strategy as, Project Confusion

SuperNova Awards – Deadline Extended!

Good news for all the procrastinators (myself included) out there: we’ve extended the deadline for submissions for the SuperNova Awards! Please find the revised SuperNova Awards timeline below.

Timeline

- Submission deadline 6/22

- Judges Review 6/22 - 7/20

- Semifinalists announced and invited to Connected Enterprise 7/27

- Voting opens to the public 8/13

- Voting for finalists deadline 10/30

- SuperNova Awards winners announced 11/9

 

 

 

Procrastinators rejoice; you now have a few more weeks to submit your application! Overachievers also rejoice; you now have a few more weeks to submit additional entries in other categories!

 

The SuperNova Awards

The SuperNova Awards celebrate and recognize leaders and teams who have overcome the odds to successfully apply emerging and disruptive technologies within their organizations.  This annual search for innovators includes an all-star judging panel, substantial prizes, invite-only admission and speaking opportunities at Constellation's premier innovation summit - Connected Enterprise.

 

Download the SuperNova Award application.

 

We’re looking for innovators in the following categories:

1. From Data to Decisions - Big Data, Data Quality, Decision Management, Insights, Information Management, Internet of Things, Master Data, Visualization Technologies
2. Consumerization of IT (CoIT) and the New C-Suite - ByOD, Business Led Technology, Innovative IT and Business Collaboration, Shadow IT Co-Existence, Technology Strategy for C-Suite Execs.
3. Future of Work - Collaboration, Getting Work Done, HCM, HR Technologies, Mobility in the Workspace, Productivity Apps, Social Business, Workspaces,
4. Matrix Commerce - Demand Driven, Marketing Automation, Mobile Commerce, NFC, Payment Technologies, Perfect Orders, S&OP, Supply Chain, Virtual Goods,
5. Next Gen Customer Experience - Context Services, CRM, Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, EFM, Gamification, Interactive Advertising, Location Based Services, Mobile Marketing, Reputation, Social CRM, User Experience And Design
6. Technology Optimization and Innovation - Application Lifecycle, Business Value Frameworks, Cloud Strategies, Digital Identity and Security, Mobile Device Management, Outsourcing, Storage Strategies, Third Party Maintenance, Virtualization