Class Reader
How Will Alipay Fare Against Apple Pay And PayPal?
http://www.bidnessetc.com/27644-how-will-alipay-fare-against-apple-pay-and-paypal/1/
Related article:
http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/27/apple-alibaba-in-talks-to-link-up-apple-pay-alipay/
The Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group, has caught the world’s eyes with the largest IPO, along with its largest payment system in the world, Alipay. Very similar to Paypal in the US, Alipay is a payment system universally used among small businesses in China. The system features a safe, free, and escrow service, where customers can pay after they are are confirmed that they are happy with the transaction with no transaction fee. Aiming at small businesses, the payment system makes it easier, more reliable and much cheaper for individual business owners to get their earnings from a guaranteed third party. Now that Alibaba Group has come to the US, Jack Ma, the CEO of Alibaba, is also bringing the payment system to the international business field. He spoke publicly someday ago that he wished “we can do something together” when he referred to Apple. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, also responded, “We love to partner with people who are wicked smart, with flexible teams, who are product-based, who push us, and we push them. Jack [Ma, CEO of Alibaba] has a company that’s exactly like that.” The chance of the link-up between Apple Pay and Alipay is high. In the meantime, challenges can come to both of the companies.
Questions:
1. What are the challenges faced by Alipay when entering the US market if it keeps its strategy of aiming at small businesses? In the meantime, what are the advantages?
2. If you were a small business owner, which payment system would you consider using, Paypal, Apple Pay or Alipay? Why?
3. What are their mutual benefits if Apple Pay and Alipay link up? What are the benefits for customers?
Users warned over ‘aggressive’ Oracle software licensing tactics
Software licenses are important assets for many organizations and organizations need to manage these licenses just as they would manage any other asset. However, software asset management can present unique challenges because of confusing licensing agreements.
This article focuses on Oracle and licensing issues its users often encounter. The article also introduces the Campaign for Clear Licensing (CCL) which aims to improve the clarity of licensing language.
- How can organizations effectively manage their software licenses? Provide your own ideas or research software management services.
- Can you find specific examples of contract disputes between a software company (it does not need to be Oracle) and a user?
- Many individuals buy software licenses for personal use. (For example, everyone in our class has bought a license to use Pearson). Think of other licenses that you have purchased. Do you do anything to manage them? Have you ever interpreted the licensing contract differently and been disappointed (or pleasantly surprised) with your purchase?
- Software asset management is an evolving issue that is complex and nuanced. Please comment on anything else you find interesting that relates to managing software licensing.
IBM’s ‘click to buy’ consulting services look beyond just IT
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2490859/it-careers/ibm-s-click-to-buy-consulting-services-look-beyond-just-it.html
This article talks about IBM’s new approach to reaching a new customer base. Usually computer companies target the techs of the company to sell new products but with the ever changing technological world innovative marketers have to find new ways to integrate their products. IBM is offering 5 new ‘click to buy’ software’s that can be purchased by the non IT professional. The first service being offered is called Social Media Analytics and Customer Insights. This software will help a business analyze what is being said about them on social media. It can be purchased online with a simple credit card and does come with some prerequisites like having a subscription to IBM’s Social Media Analytics Software. The other four services being offered will be checkup services to software’s that are already in use within the organization. IBM is planning to roll out more click to buy services if the first round is well received.
1. With the first set of new products targeting non-IT employees, what role will IT play in the implementation of these products?
2. Do you think targeting non IT professionals is a smart business decision on IBM’s part?
3. Many questions arise after an implementation concerning the systems effectiveness and efficiency, do you think purchasing another software like “technical healthcheck” for SAP is a necessary purchase?
National Grid & SAP $1 Billion Upgrade Cost
Coupa and NetSuite team up to transform procurement process
On a related topic to Heather, Coupa has recently partnered up with NetSuite to drive customer savings with the procurement process and expense management. NetSuite is an industry leading provider for cloud based financials and ERP software. This process will help businesses improve their financial processes, purchasing decisions and help highlight savings opportunities. These savings can be trickled down to the customers.
- What are the major advantages to this new partnership between Coupa and NetSuite?
- With all the positive reasons that are given to why a business would want to use SuiteApp, what might be some reasons that businesses would not want to use Coupa and Net Suites’s app?
- Once a business adopts the SuiteApp, what could be some challenges they would face?
Coupa vs. SAP
http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/03/20/coupa-raises-40m-for-cloud-procurement-software-takes-on-sap/
I had never actually heard of Coupa before I found this article from March of this year. Reading this, it seems like, if Coupa really is as all-encompassing as it sounds, there’s a great, untapped market just made for them. There are tons of companies that want total integration – or as close as they can get – but can’t afford the prices SAP wants to charge. Up to now, their only choice has been to cobble a bunch of different applications together to get functionality without inegration. Coupa provides an alternative to both SAP and “Frankenstein’s monster” as it says in the article.
Questions:
1) What are the advantages/disadvantages of choosing Coupa over SAP?
2) Does the newness of Coupa as an ERP make the option more or less attractive to prospective customers?
3) Does Coupa pose a serious threat to SAP’s market-share in your opinion?
ERP Comes to the Cloud and (Finally) Smaller Businesses
I wanted to try and find an article that discussed ERP as a service or “cloud” application that is also an affordable solution for small businesses. Whenever I think about ERP I think of larger companies, global corporations that have six, seven or even eight figure budgets. It seems that only recently it makes sense for a small or even medium size business to pursue an ERP solution.
Questions.
1.) At what point does it NOT make sense to implement an ERP solution?
2.) What are some of the advantages/disadvantages of a cloud ERP solution?
3.) How can a ERP solution provider make their cloud ERP solutions better for small business?
“Oracle Lands $100M ERP Project Covering 34 Colleges”
link: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2496725/enterprise-resource-planning/oracle-lands–100m-erp-project-covering-34-colleges.html
Hi class, I selected the article “Oracle Lands $100M ERP Project Covering 34 Colleges” because I wanted to apply ERPs to an institution that we are all familiar with since we are all students at Temple. Many universities suffer from the “silo approach” where information and communication in an organization isn’t fluid amongst different departments. This article highlights 34 Washington schools striving to break down these silos and ultimately increase efficiency at their university through implementation of Oracle’s next generation Fusion Application. Though this project’s implementation could result in great benefit for these universities; the article discusses numerous discrepancies that could make this project a poor investment as well. Oracle’s contract totaled 100 million dollars, however with a project so large; predictive analytics, budgeting, and establishing a legitimate time line for completion are all difficult to predict accurately. This investment could be successful as long as the universities’ needs are addressed by the system appropriately, and the risk associated with the project has been accounted for and mitigated as much as possible. Each of the proposed questions below applies to the article and is discussed in this week’s textbook chapter.
Questions:
1. From the college’s view, what is the risk associated with allocating immense financial resources and 5 years for this ERP system’s implementation?
2. Are these colleges more likely to adopt a “processes as a whole” type ERP system or a “single process” type ERP system? Why may this be the case?
3. Which business functions (supply chain management, human resources, customer relationship management.. ect.) will Oracle and these colleges hinge their ERP system on and why?
What to ask when implementing an ERP system at your company?
Implementing an ERP system at your company is a huge investment that requires an extensive amount of planning, strategy and work. These systems have the potential to save a company millions in tangible costs and huge amounts in intangible costs as well. But just as there is a huge amount of upside in adopting an ERP system, poor planning and implementation can lead to inefficiencies, unanticipated costs, and thousands of man hours wasted. This article outlines a few major categories and corresponding questions related to ERP that should be asked of every provider to ensure a successful ERP experience. The major categories include: Business Opportunity, Security & Risk, Reference and Vendor Quality, Implementation, Training and Documentation, Ongoing Support, Scalability and Future Proofing, and Results Measuring. Addressing questions in each of these categories can help minimize the cost implementing an ERP system and help management have a keener understanding of when these processes will start reducing costs and generating profit.
1) What category in the article do you think is the most important for business leaders to discuss with their ERP provider? What specific question?
2) Are there any questions listed in the article that surprised you? Which questions do you think most often get overlooked by companies when implementing and ERP system.
3) What do you think are the biggest challenges companies face when adopting an ERP system?
http://erpcloudnews.com/2013/10/40-powerful-questions-to-ask-erp-providers/
Huntsville, Alabama, Chooses Tyler Technologies’ ERP Solution to Streamline Financial Operations, Enhance Services
Article: Huntsville, Alabama, Chooses Tyler Technologies’ ERP Solution to Streamline Financial Operations, Enhance Services
The city of Huntsville Alabama has used the ERP system Munis to integrate its business activities across its departments and key resource functions in finance, budget and human resources to become more efficient. This is allowing the city to move away from paper and manual process to electronic systems to save time and money. It has also allowed the city to improve its business process and flow and to perform a better job.
Questions:
- What is the city of Huntsville’s plan for redundancy since all the work flow indicated in the article depends on this ERP system?
- How efficient is the Munis ERP system in the city’s business flow?
- What are some of the advantages of the city’s implantation of this ERP system?
- What are some of the disadvantages of this Munis ERP system?