Category Archives: Software Support

Implementation Risk

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Henry Nelson

Another day, another ERP vendor sued over an implementation failure. The customer did not achieve success implementing core ERP software and naturally blamed the vendor for inadequate support. You would think that by now someone somewhere would understand what it … Continue reading →

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Surviving the Drop in Business Investment

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Henry Nelson

Truly amazing news as the UK’s National Museum of Computing keeps the WITCH online — mechanical relays, paper tape and all! The computer’s “flashing lights and clattering printers and readers provides an awe-inspiring display for visiting school groups and the … Continue reading →

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The End User Training Arms Race

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Henry Nelson

What conclusion should we reach from SAP answering Oracle’s investment in training technology? That the big ERP players care about the successful use of their products? While that spin may work for technology and financial analysts, the role of end … Continue reading →

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Thoughts on a Customer Service Rant

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Henry Nelson

After having wasted hours on a typically crummy support line of a cloud vendor, I can be quiet no more, I need a moment to rant. A nicely written rant by David Taber got me thinking. Why is it that … Continue reading →

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Operating for the Benefit of Wall Street is Bad for Customers

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Henry Nelson

The lights have gone on for Josh Greenbaum at ematters as he confronts the reality of Oracle at their annual user conference. The problem with the Oracle of today is that the focus of a group of the some of … Continue reading →

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The Slippery Slope of Software Services (Part 1)

Posted on March 21, 2011 by lnelson

Don’t let your project budget get blasted by services Whether you are selecting new software, or implementing an application upgrade, your success depends heavily on whether you implement the software on time and on budget. You may be tempted to … Continue reading →

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Acquisition focus harms customer support

Posted on November 29, 2010 by lnelson

“Oracle has lately devoted itself to becoming the largest and most mission-critical IT systems vendor in the world,” using acquisitions to increase both market share and the share of IT budgets. No doubt the recent court victory over SAP ($1.3 … Continue reading →

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Support the Business, not the Software

Posted on November 22, 2010 by lnelson

It’s time for a new perspective on software support. Technical software support isn’t good enough anymore. The vast majority of people that interact with software today are business people – not technologists. The traditional model of software support focused on … Continue reading →

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Engaging Customers

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Henry Nelson

Ned Lilly offers several ways for software vendors to engage open source communities, including good ideas like transparency, bring in customers early in the process, plus open and continued communication. All are good ideas, but Ned commits an error of … Continue reading →

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Service as Software

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Henry Nelson

The current economic downturn has pushed the Software as a Service (SaaS) hype machine into overdrive. For all the turbocharged hype, SaaS does not solve the core business problem it purports to address – rising costs of information technology. Information … Continue reading →

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