Megavendors IBM, SAP, Oracle and Microsoft are present in various parts of most organizations. Yvonne will talk about their respective positioning in CRM, ERP, SOA, middleware and how to evaluate them...
Companies manage 3 main roadmaps: business strategy and domain roadmap, IT roadmap (infrastructure), vendor roadmap. It is important to keep a look on these 3 roadmaps, including the one which is totally out of control (vendors, who do not care for your individual needs).
Megatrends to watch: AD styles (SOA, WOA...), sourcing and deployment (SaaS, cloud, outsourcing...), demand and consumption, application architecture.
The 4 vendors have plans to encompass the whole application stack, with different strategies. IBM offers a platform and provides services (for custom development), Microsoft is moving from users to enterprises (adding software + services), for SAP the suite rules (surrounding the suite with new features), Oracle covers the whole landscape. They are all vying for your mindshare.
Their profit margins are under attack, because of SOA, competition, customer demand (recession), open source, commoditization, outsourcing... In consequence they are focusing on their installed base (they won't gain many new customers), with lock-in strategies, consolidation, cross-sell / upsell and adjusting their licensing models (e.g. maintenance prices raise).
Trend #1: Sourcing and deployment models
In-house deployment is mature, but BPO also happens. Then the cloud is something to think about. Many options are available.
Megavendor SaaS strategies (SaaS being defined as a 1-to-many deployment)
- IBM: relaunch of Lotus portfolio as SaaS, provides hosting as a foundational business model for partners (IBM does not deliver on the cloud).
- Microsoft: : commiting to BPOS, has CRM (used by the USAF) offering and reinforces positioning with Azure.
- Oracle: niche applications (e.g. with CRM, bus most offerings are on-demand hosting, not SaaS), announced Fusion Applications (but it remains to be seen how Oracle will deliver it as SaaS).
- SAP: revamps CRM on-demand (low success), expanding in other "niches", another vision for SMB clients.
Megavendors Open-source strategy
IBM is the most engaged with open-source. Oracle will gain some foothold with the acquisition of Sun. SAP and Microsoft are lagging.
Trend #2: application demand and consumption
Business application in use today are built on "close-process" models. The process models are changing with the business becoming more flexible, based on application building blocks. SOA is helping but it has improved only integration so far, not flexibility.
Megavendors SOA strategies
- Websphere, NetWeaver, Fusion are strong bases. IBM has strong products but a complex portfolio, with some overlap.
- Microsoft has developer-friendly SOA-enabling products, including Sharepoint and rely on partners for SOA enablers.
- Oracle Fusion Middleware is a rich offering, quite popular, and used through the applications.
- NetWeaver was built for broad integration but it is not actually used for non-SAP to non-SAP integration.
Megavendors MDM strategies
It was thought that ERP would manage a unique reference but it did not go that way. The main requirements for most companies are around products and customers. Analatycal MDM is also emerging.
- IBM has best-of-breed offerings for products and customers as well for analytical MDM, through Cognos acquisition. IBM has 400 very large users.
- Microsoft did not buy a BI tool but built one and acquired an analytical MDM vendor. Partners deliver operational MDM.
- Oracle has multiple products.
- SAP has a single product strategy, is not positioned on analytical MDM.
Trend #3: extended commitment to megavendors
For customers looking for best-of-breed products, the megavendors are now targeting the "long tail", with more user-specific products and features.
Megavendors CRM strategies
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM is sound, designed for customer service and SFA. Microsoft offers better flexibility.
- Oracle has a multipronged strategy, with multiple products delivered on various models. For industry specificity, Oracle is better positionned.
- SAP CRM has a better GUI and better-defined integration in its later iteration.
Megavendors Performance management strategy
IBM, Oracle, SAP have strong CPM offerings but, in most cases, they are not well integrated in the suites yet. Microsoft relies on partners.
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