Archive for March 23, 2012

Reading The Microsoft ERP Tea Leaves

March 23, 2012 / Rick Whiting / No comments

Is Dynamics AX the new flagship of Microsoft’s ERP software?

The most important bit of hard news to come out of this week’s Convergence 2012 conference in Houston was a firm timetable for the availability late this year of Dynamics NAV 2013 and Dynamics GP 2013 – the first of Microsoft’s ERP application sets to be offered as cloud software.

But it was clear from the buzz from Microsoft executives at Convergence that there’s a lot of focus right now on Dynamics AX, a product that until recently hasn’t enjoyed a lot of visibility.

First some background. Microsoft has four ERP application suites: Dynamics AX, GP, NAV and SL, all acquired by Microsoft in 2001 and 2002. GP and NAV, designed for small and midsize organizations, have been Microsoft’s most visible ERP products given the company’s SMB focus. They’ve also been popular with Microsoft channel partners for the same reason. Dynamics AX, meanwhile, is targeted toward the same large “enterprise” market dominated by ERP apps form Oracle and SAP.

So why the new emphasis on Dynamics AX? One reason is that AX has undergone a significant overhaul from the aging Dynamics AX 2009 edition to the Dynamics AX 2012 that began shipping last fall. (The company also shipped a version of the software for the retail industry in January and Dynamics AX 2012 R2 will ship later this year.) Listening to Microsoft executives, solution providers that work with AX and customers that use it, it’s clear the new release marks a quantum leap in the application set’s technology.

“AX 2012 is the game changer,” said Doug Kennedy, vice president of Microsoft Dynamics partners and support services, in an interview.

“It’s not a secret that we invest more in AX,” said Kirill Tatarinov, president of Microsoft Business Solutions, noting in an interview that the application’s capabilities or “functional footprint” is the broadest among Microsoft’s ERP apps.

The increased focus on AX is also a sign of Microsoft’s stepped up efforts to compete for big-company sales. As other Microsoft technologies such as the SQL Server database have “grown up” and are increasingly sold to enterprise customers as well as to SMBs, Microsoft now has its sights on competing with Oracle and SAP in the enterprise ERP application arena. And Dynamics AX is the product it’s leading with.

Microsoft in recent years has heavily pitched AX as a “platform” for ISVs to develop custom and vertical-industry applications. But it hasn’t been a big channel play. Speaking on a customer panel at Convergence, Bill Schlageter, CIO at AX customer Dentsply International, said he could not find an AX partner four years ago when the company first implemented the software.

But Microsoft seems to be in recruit mode for partners. While Tatarinov said Microsoft now has a stable of AX channel partners, he also said ”we need more. The opportunity that [AX] presents to a broad range of partners is phenomenal.”

Kennedy said Microsoft is relying heavily on systems integrators such as Accenture, Avanade, Infosys and HCL to take Dynamics AX to customers and the vendor is beefing up AX training to expand their capacity. And the company continues to recruit ISVs for AX, a list that already includes Cincom Systems, McLane Logistics Technology, and Ferranti Computer Systems.

For solution providers thinking of joining the AX bandwagon, Alpharetta, Ga.-based Junction Solutions offers a possible model. Chris Hafenscher, senior vice president of strategic alliances, describes the company as a “hybrid” VAR and ISV, reselling AX along with its own AX-based applications for multi-channel retailers and the food and beverage industry.

All this isn’t to say that Microsoft is pulling back from its other Dynamics ERP applications. Far from it. But it’s clear Microsoft is betting heavily on AX. For ambitious solution providers looking for a growth path, Dynamics AX could be an attractive option.

 

 

 

Category: Applications and OSes / Tags:

Oracle’s Bangalore Office In Shock After Employee Finds Lizard In Lunch

March 9, 2012 / Kevin McLaughlin / No comments

Employees at Oracle’s campus in Bangalore, India, have long grumbled about the shoddy quality of the food served in the company cafeteria, but it’s safe to say that no one ever expected to find a dead reptile in their lunch.

But that’s apparently what happened earlier this week in the cafeteria at Oracle’s Global Financial Information Center (GFIC) office, located in Bangalore’s Prestige Tech Park. According to a report from the Bangalore Mirror, an Oracle staffer “got the shock of his life” when he found a dead lizard in a bowl of sambar, a spicy vegetable soup made from tamarind and pigeon peas that is popular in southern India.

Since the incident, an office email has been circulating with the subject line “Lizard in canteen meal today.” And if that weren’t enough to grab people’s attention, the email also contains photos of the dead reptile.

In the wake of the disgusting discovery, employees are demanding that Oracle hire a new caterer. “It’s a shame that a lizard was found in the food,” one Oracle employee told the Bangalore Mirror. “This is the kind of catering service we have in the global tech giant’s office.”

Jayaraman Ramamoorthy, the vice president of Oracle Real Estate and Facilities who oversees cafeteria operations, offered the following response in an email to the Bangalore Mirror: “We are very concerned and will do our very best to ensure hygiene and employee safety.”

Category: Applications and OSes / Tags: ,

Channel’s Generation Next Are Ready For Their Turn

March 9, 2012 / Scott Campbell / No comments

In case you hadn’t heard, CRN is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. We take great pride in the achievement, and we’re planning several surprises to mark the occasion.

We gave a sneak peak at a couple of those projects at the recent XChange Solution Provider 2012 conference in Los Angeles. We’re planning to recognize two special groups: 30 IT executives who have been the business for at least 30 years (30 Peers With 30 Years) and 30 channel leaders who are still on the right side of turning 40 (30 In Their 30s).

I sat down with nearly 20 of those honorees at XChange to record video interviews that will appear on crn.com later this year. It was a good mix of the older group and the younger group, and of people I’ve known for many years but had never met in person. I’m not going to play spoiler and tell you who’s on either list (check back at crn.com later this month for that), but I will tell you that we asked everyone the same questions and also did some word associations and got some real interesting results.

As you might expect, the range of answers and opinions differed greatly between the two generations of executives. A case in point: Among the questions we asked was one concerning the first IT device each executive owned. The 30s crowd tended to cite various laptops or desktops — thankfully, we didn’t get anybody who said iPod or cell phone; that would have made me feel really old. Contrast that to one older gentleman who has been, shall we say, around the block. He reached in his pocket and took out some original IBM punch cards from the ’70s. First “IT device” indeed.

“You can still use ‘em to write on,” he said proudly.

Another question we posed was what has stayed the same during the channel since the beginning of their careers, whether it was 35 years or five years. Many people answered that forging strong relationships never goes out of style. And that’s true.

But there’s another thing I noticed after sitting under the studio’s bright lights for two days: the great passion that drives the success of the IT channel also spans multiple generations. In at least a couple of cases, the 30s crowd began their technology careers while in their teens: building PCs and writing code. To a person, the Generation Next channel executives gushed on about their love of technology, of helping customers, of solving business problems. Just like the older crowd.

OK, so those in their 30s didn’t what know channel assembly means and they’d never heard of an IBM Medallion. What they did know, however, was how cloud and mobility are changing not just the way we work but the way we live. They talked about mentoring the generation coming after them and taking technology to even greater levels. They talked about how much they learned from their bosses and professors and parents. They have listened.

So rest easy, all you long-timers with a little more salt and a little less pepper.  When the time comes, you’ll be leaving the channel in good hands.

Category: Channel News / Tags: , ,

XChange 2012: Ex-HP Channel Exec Makes His Oracle Debut

March 6, 2012 / Steven Burke / No comments

Tom LaRocca, a 12-year HP channel veteran who jumped ship in January to join Oracle as vice president of worldwide programs and go to market alliances, made his first pitch to recruit partners this week at the XChange Solution Provider 2012 conference in Los Angeles.

LaRocca, a one-time architect of HP’s PartnerOne Channel Program, is looking closely at the Oracle partner program in a bid to assure the database kingpin has best-in-class margins and compensation for partners. LaRocca was mixing with a number of HP partners who were congratulating him on his new job.

LaRocca will be attending tonight’s CRN Channel Champions award event, where he’s sure to bump into former colleagues, including HP Vice President and General Manager US Channel Sales Mike Parrottino and Ken Archer, vice president of Americas channels and alliances.

LaRocca’s knowledge of HP’s PartnerOne program pain points could be critical as he builds out the Oracle Partner Network (OPN) program. The big question is: What kind of changes he will make in OPN to snatch away HP partners?

LaRocca, for his part, told partners he is squarely focused on taking the Oracle channel program to the next level. “I’m looking at all the [channel] program elements in terms of how we go to market with margins, profiles and compensation,” LaRocca told a crowd of several hundred partners. “We want to make life easier for you guys and build successful relationships.”

XChange has a different feel for LaRocca this time around. He’s used to having lots of friends in the room. That’s not necessarily the case anymore. In his former role, LaRocca said, about 75 percent of the partners at the show would be in the HP fold. With Oracle, he said, the vast majority of solution providers at the show are not partners. “We want to invest in you guys,” he said. “We want you to invest with us.”

 

Category: Applications and OSes, Channel News, Data Center / Tags: , ,

RSA 2012: Security Industry Running Rich On Ever-Present Threats

March 5, 2012 / Kevin McLaughlin / No comments

Running rich is a bad thing if you’re talking about a car engine, but in the security industry, it is one way to describe how the economy — and the threat landscape — are lining up in a way that is beneficial for vendors at the moment.

At RSA 2012 last week, one subject commonly overhead in hallways and track sessions was how the rise of hacktivism, and the ongoing campaign of Anonymous, are causing organizations to increase their security spending. And in the opinion of some security researchers, security vendors are happily fanning the flames by wielding Anonymous as a marketing vehicle.

“Anonymous is a useful tool for people who excel at [fear, uncertainty and doubt],” David Litchfield, chief security architect at Accuvant, a Denver-based security solution provider, said in an RSA session on emerging threats. “It has got out of hand and is being used as a stick to beat people. It’s selling FUD, and we need to get away from that in the security industry.”

Judging from the madhouse that was the RSA exhibit floor, security vendors have plenty to spend on marketing their wares. Nearly every available inch of floor space was spoken for, and there were plenty of games, flashing lights, race cars, and gaudily dressed characters. One booth invited attendees to whack a guy clad in body armor with a baseball bat. This year, some vendors even served beer and cocktails to RSA attendees, lending an Oktoberfest-like feel to the proceedings.

Flush with marketing dollars, security vendors are also gunning the buzzword engine for all it’s worth, and the result is new creations that are being thrown against the proverbial wall, and in many cases, are sticking. The term ‘cloud security’ has been especially over-used, not to mention co-opted. And there was visible fear mongering on the exhibit floor, too — plenty of it, much more than in years past.

When a car is running rich, it soon runs out of fuel because of all it’s wasting. Security will always enjoy a certain amount of shelter from economic downturns because it is mission critical, but you have to wonder if this party isn’t getting a bit out of hand.

 

 

 

Category: Security / Tags: