SAP Execs Pledge Speedier Product Innovation

Recently SAP, the largest maker of business software applications and a leader in ERP, has switched management from Leo Apothekor to Chief Executives Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe. Apothekor lost his position in February after holding the title for less than a year--a year in which SAP saw its sales decline. With the new executives the company is planning to take a new course of action and boost the speed of production of their new products. The German company is taking this new approach as a bold new strategy to reverse the dip in sales that led to the firing of their former CEO.
The new CEO McDermott "promised to 'radically speed up' the pace of innovation at SAP."[1] SAP plans on doing this radical increase in output by greatly increasing the amount of acquisitions the company makes. The first affect of the new approach will be the July release of the company's new version of the Business by Design software, which is an online package of application for small and medium size businesses. The new development plan expects sales to rise by 1% in 2010 and hopes to eliminate the former criticisms about slow paced releases and lack of implementation of new programs that can be accessed through the web and mobile devices.
One strategy being used to increase the pace of new engineering of products is an increase in company-wide efficiency. In the new version of Business by Design software SAP was able to use about two-thirds of the amount of engineers used in previous similar products, that equates to hundreds less employees working on the project. Along with the new idea of efficiency and production rather than Apotheker's 'sales focus' management plans on catering to customer's needs.
I think that the strategy that SAP is planning to take will be very beneficial for the company for sales in the long run. The new sense of urgency that management is planning to take will give customers more trust with the company and the customers will be sure that SAP will always be a leader in the ever present ERP system integration. The efficiency and innovative engineering will ensure that SAP is a worldwide leader in business management tools giving the companies that choose SAP the software that they need to manage their databases in the best possible manner. I think that the acquisitions of other companies will also help SAP to boost their innovation with new talent and new products that can add to their sales mix and allow them the outlets for expansion that they will need. Overall I think the risk that they are taking with a different form of management and a new bold quicker-paced business plan will be well worth the switch and will pay off for SAP.

1. "SAP Execs Pledge Speedier Product Innovation - BusinessWeek." BusinessWeek - Business News, Stock Market & Financial Advice. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. .

CRM and BI systems Improve Pharmaceutical Companies

PLIVA, one of the most successful pharmaceutical companies in the market, is headquartered and Croatia and is the leading pharmaceutical company in Central and Eastern Europe. The company has over 1200 products and works with hospitals, pharmacies, and other medical care institutions. The company is very dependent on their sales teams to work with customers; the problem was that the sales teams in different countries were using different software and business tools, which created difficulties within the company. Igor Haralovic, the CEE Region Marketing and Sales Effectiveness Director said, “The flow of information from the sales teams to the head office was slow and marketing and sales people were unable to access the right information they needed to make the right decisions” (1). The slow flow of information reduced the companies effectiveness in the market, negatively affected costs, and made sale goals difficult to reach because of the lag time in information.

Another challenge the company had to overcome dealt with their infrastructure – the sales force only had old hardware and software, along with slow Internet connection, which made it difficult to work online. By reading about the sales force at PLIVA, it is clear that they needed to improve upon their systems in order to better the effectiveness of their sales teams, which they so heavily depend on. For a solution, Haralovic said, “One of the key requirements was cost effectiveness of the solution. We were looking at a number of solutions, including market leaders in CRM solutions for the pharmaceutical industry” (1).

Their solution in the end was add.PHARMA by the company ADD, which was designed specifically for the pharmaceutical industry that includes both Business Intelligence and CRM functions. The CRM supported their marketing and sales personnel and offered many functions, including cross- selling, sales support, and marketing campaign execution. The information gathered was constantly updated between the users and office, which allowed the company to keep better track of their sales team’s performance (1). It is clear that the CRM function really improved upon the effectiveness of their sales teams to gather more accurate data, which ultimately helped PLIVA provide better and more specific products for their customers.

The new Business Intelligence system was used to reduce time to provide sales reports and allowed for data to be refreshed more quickly. The company used it to analyze sales data and get information from a number of different data sources, which allowed them “ a comprehensive overview of the market and gauge their sales on the ground” (1).

There are so many benefits from the add.PHARMA solution that is was the best decision for the company to implement it. The most important benefit being that the CRM application allowed the sales and marketing departments to link information, which enabled the company more control over the sales force (1). In my opinion, this solution was definitely the best because it allowed for the flow of knowledge to circulate throughout all departments, which ultimately enabled the company to better their sales force, which they deemed most important in the company. It also allowed them more and accurate information on their customers so they could better fit their needs. Overall, PLIVA made their company much stronger in the market by adding CRM and BI systems.

References:

(1)"Leading Pharmaceutical Company Uses CRM and BI to Drive Business Results." NGP: Next Generation Pharmaceutical. ADD D.o.o., 5 Aug. 2009. Web. 16 Mar. 2010. .

Idea2: A new CRM system targets small and medium businesses

Even though most of our blogs are touched upon the idea of a CRM system, this article is interesting because of the businesses it intends to target. While most Customer Related Management systems target large businesses with a huge customer database and an even larger budget, there is finally an updated CRM system that focuses specifically on small and medium sized businesses. Idea2 is the resolution, a cloud-based CRM solution that focuses on improving other CRM systems that may not be effective for these businesses (1). According to our textbook, a CRM is defined as a system that uses information about customers to gain insights into their needs, wants, and behaviors in order to serve them better (2). Focusing on the definition alone, the CEO of Idea2 understands the risk of implementing a system that may not work for certain companies, but also emphasizes the need for an effective system. Grace Schroeder even says “with so many CRM implementations falling short, it is important to select a partner can deliver what you need – and not just what they have” (3). That is why the improvements that Idea2 has will be beneficial to companies that implement it, because it not only has what companies want, it goes beyond that.
One improvement that Idea2 has is an “intuitive, role-specific interface” and an information dashboard (4). These features allow companies to export data more effectively and have more information than normal CRM systems. These focuses also improve the way users can actually apply the information in the organization that they’re working in. Another improvement that the Idea2 CRM has is syncing. Unlike traditional CRM systems that sometimes cause isolation of information, lack of visibility and ineffective use of the information produced (which we've all learned), Idea2 is able to sync information with various data sets, rather than just one. This syncing allows a company to better understand their customers, the utmost important factor or a CRM system.
With the improvements in place, it is obvious that the Idea2 CRM system has multiple benefits. Idea2 is said to create a rapid return on investment and also ties together the company’s success to its operation (5). Personally, Idea2 seems that it does a better job of getting the information and relating it to one another. This can be crucial, because the more you know about a customer, the more successful the company will be. Idea2 seems like a step up from a typical CRM system. It involves a lot more customization. The ability to sync different data sets will allow the company to target specific groups of people. Every customer is not the same as the other, so the ability to do this will prove to a company that the implementation of this system is worthwhile.
The last thing that really caught my eye regarding Idea2 was the fact that it could be purchased in three different packages. The first one, Idea2Company, is the simple CRM system “that supports contact, partner, lead, prospect and customer management integreated with issue tracking” (6). Idea 2Custom is a step up from that, focusing more on unique attributes that the company may focus on. In the last package, Idea2Unified goes beyond customization and focuses on productivity and increasing it. This system links all the other system together. The ability to chose what system to purchase allows a company to customize their decision of implementation even more, which I find very promising to a company who is unsure of a CRM system.
Overall, I believe that this system is finally a CRM system that all companies can use, but it is going to be most effective for smaller and medium sized businesses because the system is focused on them. This will relieve companies that are unsure if they should implement a system because this CRM is focused mainly on them.


See Article:
“Idea2 Announces Cloud-Based CRM Solutions for Growing SMBs” TMC.net, March 11, 2010, http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/crm-solutions/articles/78300-idea2-announces-cloud-based-crm-solutions-growing-smbs.htm (accessed March 14, 2010).
References:
(1) “Idea2 Announces Cloud-Based CRM Solutions for Growing SMBs” TMC.net, March 11, 2010, http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/crm-solutions/articles/78300-idea2-announces-cloud-based-crm-solutions-growing-smbs.htm (accessed March 14, 2010).
(2) Stephen Haag and Maeve Cummings, Management Information Systems for the Information Age, 7th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008), 502.
(3) “Idea2 Announces Cloud-Based CRM Solutions for Growing SMBs” TMC.net, March 11, 2010, http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/crm-solutions/articles/78300-idea2-announces-cloud-based-crm-solutions-growing-smbs.htm (accessed March 14, 2010).
(4) “Idea2 Announces Cloud-Based CRM Solutions for Growing SMBs” TMC.net, March 11, 2010, http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/crm-solutions/articles/78300-idea2-announces-cloud-based-crm-solutions-growing-smbs.htm (accessed March 14, 2010).
(5) “Idea2 Announces Cloud-Based CRM Solutions for Growing SMBs” TMC.net, March 11, 2010, http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/crm-solutions/articles/78300-idea2-announces-cloud-based-crm-solutions-growing-smbs.htm (accessed March 14, 2010).

Loyola Invests in Ridley!

Loyola University Maryland opened the Ridley Athletic Complex on March 13, 2010. Fifteen years in the making, the stadium has a six thousand seat grandstand with lights, synthetic turf field, video scoreboard, practice field, weight room, locker room with sixty-five inch flat screens for the home team and visitors, offices for the coaching staff, press, presidential and VIP boxes and concession areas. One can’t help but be in awe at the sight of this “modern cathedral” design “miniature replica of Camden Yards”. But, considering Loyola University Maryland as a business did or will this sixty-two million dollar investment be profitable to the university in the long run?
As a university, Loyola aims to retain its current students while attracting perspective students. In my opinion, if this is the university’s focus in building Ridley, then, of course, the stadium will serve its purpose. I mean, what’s a better way to attract students then to give them an exquisitely designed playground that creates an atmosphere for appropriate campus spirit. School spirit is something Loyola students have an abundance of. The entire week prior to the stadium’s opening was spirit week, and green and grey were everywhere on campus. On game day, despite the rainy weather, Loyola students showed up in record numbers to support the men’s lacrosse team as they played Duke.
Despite the attraction and fun Ridley creates for the students, when former president Rev. Harold Ridley proposed the idea almost fifteen years ago, he had a specific vision for the stadium. He was determined to make athletics an important part of the university, and this stadium does just that. Loyola’s coaches and athletes have expressed that there probably isn’t anything like Ridley in the country and they all agree that there isn’t a nice place to play Division I lacrosse. Logistically, Ridley serves its purpose because Loyola athletes and students are rapidly outgrowing campus and Diane Geppi- Aikens field. There was a need for more adequate facilities for the athletic teams, so Ridley is a good win for this sports minded, athletic campus. Rev. Ridley also had in mind the academic side of campus life. E knew that this new stadium would free up the almost four acres of Diane Geppi- Aikens field in the middle of campus for future academic buildings. (Or, in my opinion, perhaps housing or parking, since students are current running out of both.)
Ridley Complex does create another major advantage for Loyola. Ridley puts Loyola on an equal playing field” with other big time athletic schools like Syracuse, whose Carrier Dome is now being compared to Ridley Athletic Complex. The Greyhounds are unabashedly giddy and immensely excited about this new stadium, and those who saw it on March 13, exclaimed that it exceeded their wildest expectations.
Coming to the monetary aspect of this project, Ridley is by far the largest capital project in the history of Loyola. At one point during production, current president, Father Linane question if the school could afford to spend that much money on an athletic complex.
For my group’s project, we are considering Loyola as a business that aims to retain its customers and acquire new customers; in this case, the customers would be the students. The new stadium plays a key role in our discussion because it can be consider as a business tactic for customer attraction and retention. Student athletes are more inclined to remain with Loyola, while perspective students, athletes or fans, are given more incentive to choose Loyola, if not for the attraction to the physical beauty of the stadium, then for the attraction to the prestige and honor the stadium brings to the university. For 62 million dollars, is it worth it? In my opinion, what Loyola would gain from this stadium will be worth much more than its hefty price tag.

Primary Source: Loyola to Open New Lacrosse, Soccer Facility Today

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-03-13/sports/bal-sp.loyolalax13mar13_1_lacrosse-team-plays-host-joe-boylan-father-ridley

The Shift from Software to the Internet

The article, “Is This the End of Enterprise Software,” explains that “today, realtime information is possible, which has changed everything: How people consume information has changed, how people learn things about each other has changed, and how people stay current has changed. Most of all, our expectations around immediacy have changed."[1] Companies today have to change in order to succeed in a world that is becoming more technologically based every minute. With real-time software, such as Facebook, companies need to realize that they have the opportunity to update their information constantly. People have become to expect fast-paced technology and service. Society today lives at high speed, relying on fast-food stores for dinner and drive-through supermarkets for groceries. People are constantly using their phones and Blackberrys to keep in constant connection with friends and family or to just check the stocks. We are living in a world that focuses on realtime. With Facebook and Twitter, a person can keep the world updated on their lives by the second. What good is an ERP system that does not work in realtime? How is an ERP system that does not operate in realtime supposed to keep current in the constantly changing likes and dislikes of the consumer?

In order to have ERP systems that work in realtime, the article suggests for companies to start to move away from the data warehouses and instead retreat to the Internet. Cloud computing is allowing for tons of information to be gathered and shared to a large quantity of people. Beyond cloud computing, platforms are beginning to form. “These new cloud platforms will unleash unprecedented innovation and creativity throughout all areas of business and the web, with thousands of new apps being created that will revolutionize IT.”[2] The platforms allow all those with access to a certain program to build upon others ideas as well as their own. The article brings up the fact that if only Apple made its own apps, there would be 13 instead of 13,000. The National Institute of Standards and Technology defines a cloud platform as being a way for the consumer to “deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.”[3] Companies do not own the cloud platforms but are able to gain knowledge and ideas from external sources working in realtime.

Without the ability to be constantly updating one’s database, resources, and knowledge, a company would not be able to compete in the world today, where all customers are focused on immediate gratification. I think it is a great idea for companies to start to use the Internet more and more frequently. Today’s society is so computer-based and Internet-dependent that many employees will be able to learn how to use an Internet-based system rather than an external database warehouse or ERP system. I think it would be beneficial, both technologically and financially, to start creating more ERP systems on the Internet.

---

References:

[1] Bill McColl, “Is This the End of Enterprise Software?” SOA World Magazine (2010), http://in.sys-con.com/node/1318882

[2] McColl, “Is This the End of Enterprise Software?”

[3]Peter Mell and Tim Grance, “The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing” The National Institute of Standards and Technology, http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:mt0-6VKV2G0J:csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/cloud-computing/cloud-def-v15.doc+define+cloud+platform&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

The Importance of Direct Domain Names

All companies want to increase their web traffic. In an article titled “Herding Web Traffic Through Direct Domain Navigation” by Jeremiah Johnston, there is a discussion about the importance of direct domain names for products. Direct domain navigation is defined as “descriptive domain names that are used by online customers to find products, services or information on the internet in one step” (1). This subject matter is growing in importance and deals with a category called electronic commerce, commonly referred to as e-commerce. E-commerce is “The buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers over the internet” (2). Johnston’s article cites that “Despite economic troubles, e-commerce continued to gain positive momentum throughout 2009.” More importantly, there is a belief that using a direct domain name strategy will increase a company’s marketing and web traffic. Some companies that have been successful with this strategy include Calvin Klein, H&R Block, as well as Johnson & Johnson. These companies respectively employ the following domain names: www.underwear.com; www.taxcut.com; www.baby.com. It is clear that the domain names relate to the products that these companies sell. Utilizing such common terminology to market a brand increases product exposure.

It is apparent that simple domain names will lead customers to a particular product and company. Personally, I believe a company must be crazy not to implement a direct domain name strategy. The internet is a fast pace environment with numerous amounts of information and consumer traffic. Organizations must learn that this is a great way to channel customers to particular products. For example, Johnston discusses www.vodka.com. The author illustrates a scenario in which a consumer is interested in buying vodka and types in this web address. Now the Russian vodka company that is owns this domain name has captured a consumer in the vodka market.

Even though I believe that direct domain names are beneficial in building a larger customer base, there seems to be a minor problem. Taking a look at Johnston’s vodka example illustrates that there are only so many terms to describe vodka. Also, more than one company cannot use www.vodka.com as its web address. Essentially, there is the issue of multiple companies in the same industry getting a common domain name. But this problem can be mitigated through advertising on television. Johnston discusses examples from the Superbowl. Doritos advertised on television and utilized three creative domain names which interested consumers could visit. Through this example one understands that direct domain names do not need to be common terms such as underwear, taxcut, baby, and vodka. In reality, direct domain names need to be “direct,” meaning they have to get the consumer to the product that is desired.

There is a belief that “businesses have neglected the most effective marketing tool that they have which is the strategic planning of their internet presence” (3). Direct domain names solve this problem. The internet is a potential goldmine. When companies start implementing a direct domain name strategy their profits are sure to rise while their brands grow.

See Article:
Jeremiah Johnston, “Herding Web Traffic Through Direct Domain Navigation,” Ecommerce Times, February 26, 2010, http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/69430.html (accessed February 28, 2010).

References:
1 Dotcom Agency, Direct Navigation Domain Names, http://www.dotcomagency.com/sitepages/directnav.asp (accessed February 28, 2010).

2 InvestorWords.com, Electronic Commerce, http://www.investorwords.com/1678/electronic_commerce.html (accessed February 28, 2010).

3 Laura Lake, Internet Marketing Strategy: Why Is It Important?, About.com, http://marketing.about.com/cs/internetstrategy/a/aanetmarketinga.htm (accessed February 28, 2010).

How Businesses Can Take Advantage of Cloud Computing

One article that I researched lays out the need for cloud computing beautifully, stating “Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software”(1). Cloud computing is all the rage these days; at least it seems from scouring the Internet. Few people know what it actually is and how it works. It is much like the client-server model, but is done over the Internet. For the most part, it is changing IT infrastructure needs by making IT a service and outsourcing from an internal part of any company to specialized IT companies on the Internet. Eric Knorr and Galen Gruman say that the seven different ways of cloud computing are: SaaS (software as a service), utility computing, web services, platform as a service, managed service providers, service commerce platforms, and internet integration. The question now is: what advantages/disadvantages does cloud computing hold?

The first advantage lies in the outsourcing part of cloud computing. If businesses end up outsourcing their IT infrastructure, it saves money (hopefully they would decide to cloud compute only if it cut costs) and possibly time as well. With all their applications, databases, etc over the Internet, there’s no need to have huge servers consuming energy and space at your office. That’s all provided by the company you’re outsourcing to. Furthermore, you need less IT staff. If you have a problem, you contact the company that runs your systems. However, some businesses might find that the way they have their IT infrastructure set up is less costly than cloud computing. As a result of this knowledge and research, the company should stay in its current format. Maybe they do a little research into different divisions of the company and identify where they can cut costs by using cloud computing. On further note, John Weinman says that another advantage related to outsourcing is “agility: Resources and services that are immediately available for on-demand use clearly enhance agility over months-long engineering, procurement, and installation efforts” (2). Another product of outsourcing is specialization. As companies become specialized in their field such as, cloud computing, CRM services, ERP services, and other Internet based services, they get better at what they do and understand their field better. In this way, companies might not even need to have their own IT department at all. It will be outsourced to other companies that know how to run an IT staff with efficiency and precision. The downside of this is that companies might feel like they don’t have their own hands on their information. The personal touch is lost with their data and they might be scared as to who might have access to their data.

Another advantage of cloud computing is that if a small company wants an ERP or CRM system, it does not need as huge of a change within the business as previously conceived. In class, we discussed how it took years to install ERP and CRM systems and to take advantage of their features. With cloud computing putting this as a service, a company can do it all online. There would be no installation of servers and a database program into the whole network. The website that would run your system would be the caretakers of all the hassle. Lag-time between installation and running any system would be greatly decreased. Furthermore, interoperability may be increased exponentially if companies use the same systems over cloud computing. The only disadvantage from this point of view is actually getting the data online. The amount of data entry could be time consuming. In addition to this, Weinman points out that, “The key reason has to do with the usage-based pricing paradigm of cloud services. The important insight here is that even if cloud services do cost more when they are used, they cost nothing when they aren't used. This is a very different story than the enterprise data center, where owned resources continue to cost money whether they're used or not” (2). Instead of having the fixed cost of the entire infrastructure, it becomes a variable cost depending on how much you use it. Overall, the advantages of a business using cloud computing seem to outweigh the disadvantages. Look for this to greatly affect the information technology field, as well as how business use databases, ERP, CRM and SCM systems.

References:

1. Knorr, Eric, Gruman, Galen. “What cloud computing really means,” InfoWorld, April 7, 2008, http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031, (accessed March 3, 2010).

2. Weinman, John. “Time to do the math on cloud computing,” InformationWeek, March 2, 2010, http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/saas/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223101216 (accessed March 3, 2010).