The ERP Lifestyle Consultant

RIM whistles past the graveyard. I believe this company will have little option except to be sold by the end of 2012. It’s hard to imagine another telecommunication company who has missed the mark as badly as RIM – except maybe Nokia.

Any of you who are BlackBerry users have likely noticed the service has been spotty the last several days. Sadly  Research in Motion (RIM)  doesn’t seem to know exactly what caused the problem, when it will be completely resolved – and presumably if they can’t understand the problem cannot promise it won’t recur.

One of BlackBerry’s key selling points is managing security, infrastructure and timely delivery of important email messages. When you take that away – what’s left?

I believe we have just seen the key event that will ultimately result in a BlackBerry sale or top management turnover. Perhaps both. This may not happen immediately but in my opinion the BlackBerry platform appears to be on shaky ground. The BlackBerry platforms key weakness is that it requires all email to be funneled through RIM servers thus introducing a potential catastrophic point of failure.

The outage will soon be forgotten as service returns to normal – however business and consumer confidence which already appears to be quickly shifting may forever be lost.

Outage may spell major trouble for Research in Motion

Whenever I go out onsite for a client upgrade or implementation I think how much easier life would be if I had a standard checklist in electronic format.

Isn’t that something we all promise ourselves that we’ll do – someday? Create that master checklist that guides us through routine tasks such as upgrades.

There are numerous paper  checklists  publishers provide – however the items are often tediously redundant and it seems so 1980′s to be flipping through 15 pages of photocopied instructions.

Today I’m off to upgrade a straightforward MAS 200 system and I’ll be trying  Google Tasks as my checklist generator.

Google Tasks is free – and located in your Gmail account listed on the left side as “tasks”. It’s a decidedly bare bones way to keep a list of items you need to complete.

Before I leave I’ve created a Google Tasks list on my desktop computer. Using software for the iPhone I synchronize the tasks in real time so that I can use them while on site with the client.

If I find that I need more items in my task list — I can add those on my iPhone and they’ll be synchronized back to my desktop list of tasks.

What I hope is that with a little tweaking that I can soon have a set of tasks that become my master implementation guide that also travels with me wherever I have my IPhone or access to the web.

You can easily drag, drop and add items just about anywhere on your Google Task list.

There are also Apps you can download to your iPhone – such as GeeTasks (shown above) which will synchronize your tasks so  you can use your list deep within a server room that gets no cell reception.

Google Tasks

Intacct, a SaaS provider of accounting and ERP solutions endorsed by the AICPA and used by many industries including software companies, say’s that there just may be a light at the end of the recession tunnel.

From Intacct SVP of Marketing and Business Development Dan Druker’s Post:

In the fourth quarter of 2009, we started to notice our Software industry customers provisioning more users in large numbers and subscribing to more modules too – which I took to mean they were coming out of the recession. This trend only accelerated in the first quarter of 2010 – leading to Intacct putting together record quarters for both Q4 and Q1, dramatically exceeding our plan.

Around the first of the year I was talking about this trend with MR Rangaswami, the CEO of Sandhill group, who is an old friend from past lives at Oracle. We thought it would be interesting to put together a formal research project to understand whether the resurgence Intacct has seen in its software customers is more broadly true in the Software industry as a whole.

They’ve commissioned a study by Sandhill Group of 100 software company executives after noticing improved new Intacct user (seats) license demand in the fourth quarter of 2009.  The results of  the survey, as well as a copy of the data, will  be unveiled in an April 29 webcast. Follow the link below to register and read Dan’s full post.

Bye Bye Recession – Led by Cloud Computing, Software is Roaring Back

LinkedIn has just released version 1.0 of their application for BlackBerry devices.

This version works with OS 4.3+ and requires either a Bold, Tour or Curve model (that’s right – no Storm support at the moment).

The application is  quite good. The main benefits over the iPhone version being deep integration to the native BlackBerry inbox (try that on the iPhone!).

LinkedIN for BlackBerry resembles the Facebook for BlackBerry program.

The design is not as pretty as that on the LinkedIn for iPhone interface — though the integration goes so much deeper that you’ll probably want to use the BlackBerry LinkedIN version.

In fact I’m going to declare the LinkedIn for BlackBerry application as a key reason (for those of us on LinkedIn)  to use a BlackBerry. I believe it’s going to be an essential business tool for almost any serious BlackBerry user.

Here’s why.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m 100% certain that in the ERP support business that phone support agreements are the way to go.

I don’t run into all the problems people say that you’re supposed to with an agreement. In other words I’m not constantly on the phone with specific customers, they’re not calling every minute of the day, etc.

Yes, it does result in an increase in call volume. It also results in an increase in customer loyalty — and recurring revenue.

I’ve not had to staff any extra people to meet the call volume – though I hear that other VARS do.

We also don’t specifically designate someone to “sit in a chair and wait for a call” (most other VARS don’t either though some consultants are permanently assigned to office work/projects).

I think if you’re talking any more than 150 customers on a phone support plan that you probably would have to (we have about half that number). Read the rest of this entry »

Netsuite reported earnings yesterday (read the entire Netsuite earnings call transcript here).

San Mateo, California-based NetSuite reported a quarterly net loss of $6.5 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $4.5 million, or 7 cents.

Revenue at NetSuite rose 4 percent to $43 million which largely met analyst expectations.

Some interesting items from the call. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems likely that in coming months many businesses will embrace Software As A Service (SaaS). This is where an application (or applications) are accessed via Internet connections and their usage is rented instead of owned.

Many of us already do this with services like Google’s Gmail or Salesforce CRM. We don’t own the software or install it on our computer. Instead we rent the usage and access the program from any Internet connected computer.

Yes, this indeed does look a lot like a return to the old days of IBM Mainframes – except in the old days most of us didn’t put mainframe terminals in our homes so we could work or access the mainframe via an iPhone. Read the rest of this entry »

Has this ever happened to you?

After arriving at a client site you find that you’re missing that one CD required to complete a software installation?

In the past I’ve tried creating a master set of CDs and carefully inserted them into a looseleaf binder. The problem? I kept leaving the most important ones behind in the client’s CD tray. Then I’d go to look for it at the next client and the CD that I needed was missing!

I’ve rushed into the office on days that I knew I had to be out on-site with a client and hustled to burn the CD’s that I thought I might need. What I found is this always resulted in the client  having the exact CDs  needed and my early morning dash to the office was for nothing.

Instead I’m going to tell you how you can completely solve the problem of always having every CD at your fingertips without spending any extra time or pre-planning. It’s dirt cheap – and as a plus if a client ever calls to say they can’t find their Crystal Reports Disks (or insert favorite application disk that clients love to lose) – then you can send a copy to the client via your iPhone/BlackBerry or Android device in seconds. Read the rest of this entry »

T-Mobile today announced they’ll be releasing their latest BlackBerry – the 8520 – on August 5. I suggest you skip this model. The camera is a step down (only 2 MP)  from the just released BlackBerry 8900 (3.2 MP camera) and there is still no 3G data capabilities. On the plus side RIM have included some fancy multi-media buttons at the top of their newest Berry.

But really, who buys a BlackBerry to play music?

This is slated to be T-Mobile’s low end BlackBerry and you’ll be able to find it widely available for free. The problem is the service isn’t free and you’ll pay top dollar in monthly voice and data only to be attached to a low end BlackBerry that takes crappy photos.