AXON takes central stage !!

By S.Suren,

AXON, a London headquartered SAP Consulting company is being sought after by 2 large Indian IT Firms as a possible take over candidate. HCL and Infosys are the 2 companies biding for AXON, and it has been suggested that this take-over could very well build up into a bidding war. As of the now the initial bid proposed by Infosys is for 600 pence p.s saw a counter offer from HCL for 650 pence p.s. Together with these 2 large firms, it estimated that other European and Japanese firms are also having second thoughts of getting into the bidding game, no details have been exposed as yet.

In one my previous article I had mentioned how the subcontinent was being termed the big boy's backyard and how major ERP Vendors experiencing the talent crunch at present is looking to this region to satisfy their needs. Of whats happening right now with the take-over bid and the increasing amount of SAP Partner companies emerging in the subcontinent it very well goes on to prove that this could be the hot bed for other ERP Companies to follow suit very soon.

I hope you found this post informative and interesting. I shall update more on the whats happening on the above as and when things materialise.

Have a nice day !!

ssurenlk@msn.com

Seeing through the cracks in the Wall !!

By S.Suren

I thought I’ll post this article to keep you aware on whats happening with the global economy. Generally, though we are mostly preoccupied with whats happening in the ERP Arena, it’s also important that we know whats going on around us, since something of this nature could definitely have an impact into many other supporting industries.

The global economy has been experiencing a recession throughout 2008; right from the beginning we have seen major companies feel the pinch. In the last 6 months itself we have seen 3 of the top investment companies in the world disappearing. In March, Bear Sterns’s collapse shocked the markets, and now with what happened on “Bloody Sunday” – September 15th, we see that ML is being bought over by Bank of America for $50 B, Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy after 158 years of operations and AIG’s making preparation for its announcement after it experienced a 61% fall in shares, it sure does signal that the coming signs don’t look too good.

Generally there has been a notion that companies tend to implement new systems when there is a slowdown, if this is indeed the case, it probably because they have can spend more time and prepare themselves better during this lull period. Perhaps this does hold true, given the fact that some ERP Vendors are experiencing higher demand and increasing pay rates for their consultants, and this in turn is leading to better oppurtunities throughout the industry. All this will definitely get more interesting as time goes by, and perhaps this recession could be just short lived, however it’s believed that the last time something like this happened, the expert investor suggested that it was just a temporary phase, and they were wrong.

It’s important that we as ERP Consultant keep a close eye on these events since it could very well have an impact on everything we do as well, I shall keep posting more as and when things materialize.

Read more about the Economic Crisis on “Economic crisis of 2008”.

Hope you found this post informative and interesting.

All the very best…!!!

Reverse Engineering Consulting

By S.Suren:

The term reverse engineering is normally something you would come across in the mechanical or industrial engineering field, where object are dismantled into pieces and then put together again in a manner that increases their operational efficiently etc. Well when it comes to consulting, we as consultant’s first need to understand the customers end requirements, emphasizing on the word “end”.

It’s normally the case that over anxiety and enthusiasm leads to the consultant jumping into conclusions and proposing solutions even before the exact end requirements of the clients have been identified. Its not actually the consultants fault, it’s just that he/she wants to make an impression and give the best to the clients, that they are looking to make things happen before actually identifying the base of the client’s needs.

This reminds of the hysterical email with the different sequence of pictures showing that the customer’s requirement was for a simple tire swing hanging from a tree, when the consultant proposed a solution that was a half constructed roller coaster.

Anyway coming back to reverse engineering consulting, it’s the method in which as a consultant you would look at the final outcome the client needs and then begin to work backwards to define and design the necessary processes and practices to be set up and practiced in the business operations.

Looking at it from an ERP Consultants point of view, I would first recommend that you collect the final reports that would be generated from a particular process and then begin working backwards using this report as a base in identifying all the processes throughout the operations involved. This method works very well with MIS reports set as the base. Also remember not to get carried away in designing processes and methods which would again be generating the exact same report information, but try to give them something new, make the leading processes more efficient, take into account exemptions to the process followed etc.

Generally the thinking is that being an ERP Consultant, it’s assumed that what we can deliver rests in what the system has to provide, but if you have the domain experience feel free to express your thoughts on possible best practices to the irreplaceable manual activities that are performed around a system, after all no system is good enough to completely automate all operations of a business, though some managers expect them to, if this were the case, there wouldn’t be those innovative companies that have changed the way we do things. Most importantly remember no system can ever replace the desire and potential of an enthusiastic person.

There are more areas in the consulting field where we could practice this technique of reverse engineering style consulting, which of course is easier said than done, but it’s up to you!! I shall post more of these in the future.

Hope you found this article informative and interesting. Feel free to send in your comments and suggestions to ssurenlk@msn.com.

Have a nice day!!!

SAP’s Business Intelligence solution offerings:

By S.Suren

In my previous article I had mentioned the takeover syndrome that was present in the ERP Arena, and how some companies poached up some other relative mature companies providing Business Intelligence Solutions. Read "The Take-Over Syndrome".

In this article I thought I’ll details out how SAP’s Business Intelligence Solutions offering have changed after the takeover of Business Objects this year January for $6.8 B. It a known fact that prior to the takeover of BO by SAP, BO had itself taken over one of the most commonly used report designing tool, known as Crystal Report. Now with Crystal Report in SAP’s arsenal, it was announced that this is going to be SAP’s main enterprise-grade reporting tool.

On its BI Platform, SAP has revealed that Business Objects XI is going to be SAP’s main BI Platform. One of the main reason for doing this is, BO’s XI being able to access non-sap data sources unlike SAP Net weaver BI.

SAP is also diving deep into Predictive Analysis with Business Objects. Business Objects™ Predictive Workbench is the new tool offering data mining and predictive analytics integrated with Business Objects XI 3.0, the industry’s first unified business intelligence (BI) platform. Given the current economic climate experienced in the world market this solution is going to be up there for the grabs.

Another product that is expected in 2009 is a solution combining the functionalities of the BEx Analyzer and Business Objects Voyager.

Some of the products and solution offerings that SAP is likely to phase out during the coming years are, SEM-BCS, BEx Report Designer, BEx Web Analyzer and BEx Excel Analyzer. These offering will be replaced by one or more of the above mentioned products and solutions.

With close to $7 B going into the acquisition of Business Objects and the large amounts of R&D already spent on SAP’s BIW solutions, it is only likely that the new products and solution offerings are going to come attached with a fancy price tag, only time will tell, and when it does I shall keep this site updated with the details.

Hope you found this article informative. Your suggestions and feedbacks are welcome on ssurenlk@msn.com.

Have a nice day!!