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ZDNet Author Biography: Brian is in a unique position to diagnosis the winners and the losers in technology and services. He was the longest running (10 years) and most senior director of Andersen Consulting's (now Accenture's) global Software Intelligence unit -...; more about Brian Sommer »

ZDNet Resources

Guerilla Marketing @ Dreamforce: Leave the trade show booth behind and get creative. The guerilla marketing at technology shows can be entertaining, memorable and maybe even profitable. Done right, it makes a bigger impact than any brochure, newsletter or keychain giveaway. Look at what SugarCRM did at the Salesforce show! by Brian Sommer; Tags: Corporate Communications, Sales Force Management, Marketing Research, Marketing, Sales, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-11-19
Dreamforce post#2: Chatter, Events, REA and the Future of Management: Don't think of Salesforce's Chatter as bunch of social networking techologies for business people to use. If you do, you've missed the real potential for businesses to operate in real-time. by Brian Sommer; Tags: Social Networking, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-11-19
A Tale of Two Software Worlds: Old ERP vs. SaaS: Dreamforce's attendance really puts a strong data point on how attractive SaaS is becoming. Other vendors this week have provided additional data points that point to a troubling time ahead for laggard ERP vendors. by Brian Sommer; Tags: Software-as-a-service, ERP, Dreamforce, Software As A Service (SaaS), Managed Hosting, Cloud Computing, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Emerging Technologies, Enterprise Software, Software, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-11-18
Inappropriate Performance Review Phrases (We'd All Like to Use): The toughest performance reviews are the ones for the most troubling of employees. How do you capture their ineptitude, indifference or incompetence in a pithy, to-the-point phrase? Read on... by Brian Sommer; Tags: Performance, Performance Review, Performance Management, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-11-17
Before you do that BPO, Audit, Consulting or other services deal, check out these costs: How service providers spend money on T&E is your business. You'll pay for it one way or another. Check out these numbers and the questions you should pose to your next service provider. by Brian Sommer; Tags: Audit, BPO, Service Provider, Consulting, Business Services, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Outsourcing, It Operations, Business Operations, Outsourcing & Subcontracting, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-11-15

Cloud-to-Cloud Integration - Another Big ERP Challenge!: NetSuite's new Open Connect integration should make ERP buyers and vendors re-think interfaces and integration across application suites. Everyone needs to re-think what cloud-to-cloud integration, in multi-tenant apps, really means. by Brian Sommer; Tags: ERP, Integration, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Software, Software, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-28
Sustainability: Hard for business, harder for ERP vendors: ERP vendors don't get sustainability. They think it's about collecting all of a user's electric and gas bills to determine their carbon footprint. They think it's a reporting exercise. If they can develop a spreadsheet with more rows and columns than the next ERP vendor, then they have achieved some...; Tags: Sustainability, ERP Vendor, ERP, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Software, Software, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-22
CEO Interview: Meridian Systems' John Bodrozic on the construction front: I recently spoke with John Bodrozic, President and co-founder of Meridian Systems, which sells a number of solutions in the project portfolio management and infrastructure lifecycle management space. by Brian Sommer; Tags: Project Portfolio Management, Project Management, Tools & Techniques, It Operations, It service Management, Management, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-22
Demand this from software vendors: I was getting a briefing last week from a software executive. We got to a point in the conversation where the discussion was focusing on existing products. I moved the conversation to a different space, though. If you're getting a pitch from a vendor, you should move the conversation, too!...; Tags: Software, Vendor, Customer, Sales Strategy, Sales Force Management, Tools & Techniques, Sales, Management, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-20
Future ERP: Brian Sommer's provocative post that juxtaposes SAP's technology thinking around the 'old' and 'new' worlds provides insights into something SAP was talking about last year - the two speed world of ERP. At the back end there is still plenty to do, hardening applications, winkling out recurring bugs...; Tags: Innovation, Salesforce.com Inc., Financial, SAP AG, ERP, Brian Sommer, Brian, S-curve, Cloud Infrastructure, BRP, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Enterprise Software, Hardware, Software, Dennis Howlett; Blog posts 2009-10-19
Two Views of the Software Market: A Bridge Too Far? In a blogger briefing this week at SAPÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s TechEd, SAP CTO, Vishal Sikka, drew a chart of the application software market and what new areas of technology are of interest to the firm. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve tried to reproduce his freehand drawing into the following...; Tags: ERP, Vishal Sikka, S-curve, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Software, Software, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-16
Customer Intimacy wins in SAP SI's and Channel Partners: Yesterday, several bloggers at the SAP TechEd conference in Phoenix had an opportunity to speak with Zia Yusuf, EVP, Global Ecosystem & Partner Group of SAP. I asked Zia what characteristics typify the best SAP partners. He rattled off five qualities that the best systems integrators and...; Tags: Customer, SAP AG, Firm, Channel Partner, Business Services, Strategy, Supply Chain, Product Development, Management, Business Operations, Research & Development, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-14
What we may/may not hear @ Oracle Open World this week: Watch for movement on these matters Last night, OracleÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s annual mega event, Oracle Open World, opened. This event draws some 37,000 people to San Francisco to hear, see and speak all things Oracle. With the keynotes starting in mere minutes, I thought IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d offer up my thoughts...; Tags: Probability, Oracle Corp., MySQL, Sun Microsystems Inc., Oracle Open World, Software As A Service (SaaS), Databases, Managed Hosting, Open Source, Emerging Technologies, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-12
SMART Selling in the SaaS world: What we all could learn from Sonar6 Post #3 from the HR Technology show SaaS software as a service is supposed to cost less. At least thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s what all the vendors tell me. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s also supposed to be easier to use and easier to...; Tags: Software-as-a-service, Katherine Jones, Software As A Service (SaaS), Managed Hosting, Cloud Computing, Sales Strategy, Emerging Technologies, Sales, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-09
Selling that Technology: Functions, Features & Fools: We got a lot of pitches from technology companies at the recent HR Technology show in Chicago. Each of us asked vendors Ã¢â‚¬Å“What are the top 3 things we should remember about your firm?Ã¢â‚¬Â and often we were met with blank stares; a litany of functions and features; or, that...; Tags: Function, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-08
Two Perspectives of the HR Technology show: Some positive surprises - strong attendance Last week, Dr. Katherine Jones and I attended the HR Technology show. Katherine is one the best known HR analysts out there and covered the space for Aberdeen Group for a number of years. Together, we sat down with 21...; Tags: Human Resources Inc., Katherine, Herewith, HR Tech, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-07
Novel/Inadvertent way to promote a tech conference: Gremlins can sometimes be good Yesterday, gremlins either stomped my blog page or they laid waste to a ZDNet advertiser see below. [caption id="attachment_650" align="alignnone" width="462" caption="An Ad I Actually Read"][/caption] I remember some old Marketing sage telling me in college...; Tags: Advertisement, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-06
The troubling thoughts re: outsourcing: Watch this space for future problems! ThereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a lot going on in the outsourcing world lately. Things like: - Perot Data Systems being acquired by Dell - ACS getting bought by Xerox Add to these deals,...; Tags: Solution, BPO, Outsourcing Company, Customer, BPO Deal, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Outsourcing, It Services, Managed Hosting, It Operations, Business Operations, Outsourcing & Subcontracting, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-10-05
Perks for all workers: remote/metro, small/large firms, etc.: Leveling the playing field for workers' perks IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m on the board of a firm with operations throughout the United States. About half of their workforce and plants are in major metropolitan areas while the other half are in some pretty remote areas. Management is challenged to find...; Tags: Employee, Worker, Next Jump, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-09-25
ShouldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t services firms have their own ERP?: I caught up this week with Morris Panner, CEO of OpenAir now part of NetSuite. One aspect of our wide-ranging conversation concerned the continuing evolution of businesses, the economy, etc. towards a greater services orientation. Drawing on that, we discussed how services firms need their own version of ERP. ...; Tags: Staffing, ERP, Services Firm, Service Firm, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Sales Strategy, Enterprise Software, Software, Sales, Brian Sommer; Blog posts 2009-09-25