In our prior Supply Chain Matters briefing, this author provided initial highlights and takeaways regarding important shifts in strategy that came out of this week’s SAP Sapphire customer conference. In this particular posting I want to briefly contrast recent enterprise software conference we have covered to highlight contrasting messages regarding customer needs.
As was noted regarding SAP 2016 Sapphire, the primary message delivered was Empathy for customer needs along with yet another commitment toward simplicity and openness to customer needs for faster and far more affordable technology deployment. SAP was forced into this posture because customer’s are making their voice heard and our demanding more attention to their particular needs and requirements for technology deployment.
At Oracle’s 2015 Open World customer conference held in October, Co-CEO Mark Hurd’s keynote address reflected solely on the current challenges and needs of today’s business leaders. Hurd noted the average CEO tenure is 4.5 years, and the overwhelming emphasis is performing quickly to survive. The pressures to take out costs, grown revenues and profitability is constant and that is translated across lines of business and supporting operations such as the supply chain. Further noted is that the average ERP application is 22 years old, namely pre-Internet, pre-Cloud, and pre-social applications. Businesses are frustrated in their ability to update such scope of technology because of the concern for business disruption and added costs, what Hurd described as “ERP Fatigue.” Because of that, the majority of IT budgets today are consumed by maintaining existing technology vs. investing in new technology. All of this is translated into by Hurd into Oracle’s ongoing ten year transition into becoming a predominant Cloud based applications, database and IT infrastructure provider dedicated to supporting the widest variety of customer technology adoption, deployment and ongoing support needs up to and including consuming IT needs in public utility type model. Founder and CTO Larry Ellison described the new era of utility computing as big as when PC’s arrived in the IT landscape, with more and more workloads destined to the Cloud. He also acknowledged that Oracle’s Fusion deployment took upwards of ten years because of the engineering efforts required, but at the same time, during this transition, all existing Oracle applications both legacy and acquired were supported by Oracle to assure a continuity of responsive support.
QAD which is focused on mid-market manufacturing and multi-tier ERP support needs conducted its Explore 2016 customer conference in May. Since 2012, QAD has been investing a hefty R&D budget directed at a major revamp of the firm’s ERP applications and technology deployment strategy which includes emphasis on enabling what this technology provider terms a more effective organization with more connected business processes. The emphasis articulated was listening to customer needs for providing more standardized solutions, a more flexible platform that included suite-wide analytics, along with product enhancements directed at augmenting program/project management, manufacturing automation and customer engagement needs. Another major emphasis requested by customers was in enhancing the user experience and in providing more flexible Cloud ERP and Cloud EDI deployment options. What impressed this analyst was the flexibility of options that QAD is providing its customers. Instead of a forced march approach compelling customers to move to the Cloud, QAD has fostered options to both maintain existing behind-the-firewall applications and deploy extensions of Cloud based applications within an overall cohesive systems architecture framework. The strategy extends through additional years with multiple on-ramps and deployment options.
And so it continues with many other new or existing behind the firewall and now Cloud based technology disruptors today, large or small. The emphasis is clearly focused on addressing customer needs and business requirements for faster, far less disruptive and more cost affordable technology enablement.
The days of a software customer conference focused on marketing buzz, the latest cool new technology or service are no longer being tolerated. Customers demand and insist on responsiveness to their needs, support and ever changing business need requirements. While IT remains influential, lines-of-business and senior operational executives are now the prime buyer influence and there are no legacy allegiances to enterprise software vendor lock-up. The focus is clearly what you can do for my business, when will you get it done and how will you save our business additional money and resources.
Most important of all, the notion of ongoing trust and business partnership has once again renewed itself, especially when it includes placing computing and decision-support needs in the Cloud.
The notion for never trusting what a software salesperson communicates or promises has transcended to seeking technology partners that completely understand the customer’s business needs and are willing to be a continuous responsive partner to those needs.
Bob Ferrari
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