mrc's Cup of Joe Blog – Page 63 – Save money, time, and increase business productivity

4 steps to create a more agile IT department

By Joe Stangarone / Application Architecture, Shadow IT

Many IT departments have developed a reputation of being slow and difficult. They make users jump through hoops and then take months to deliver requested solutions. The business users often feel like IT stands in their way, or even holds them back.

The problem is, business users now have other options. Many are bypassing IT altogether and using unsanctioned SaaS options to accomplish their goals. If IT can’t (or won’t) deliver solutions in a timely manner, they find another way.

IT departments have no choice: They must become more agile and responsive to the business user’s needs, or risk being bypassed.

The question is…how? How can a slow IT department become more agile and responsive?

We posed that question to a few industry experts, who delivered some excellent advice. You can read their tips below, as well as some of my own. I hope you find them useful: …

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Think your outdated ERP keeps you from mobile apps? Think again…

By Joe Stangarone / ERP Systems, Mobile apps

“We’d love to build mobile apps, but we can’t because our business runs on an ancient ERP system.” I’ve heard that phrase (or variations of the phrase) with increasing frequency recently. Many people think that mobile apps (or modern apps in general) aren’t even an option because their business still runs on an outdated enterprise system.

If you’re in that boat, I have some good news: You can still build mobile apps even if you’re tied to an old system. Better yet, you can even integrate these modern apps directly with your enterprise system…all without any modifications to the underlying code. To learn more, check out this video:

What to look for in a good Business Intelligence solution

By Joe Stangarone / Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence (BI) solutions come in all shapes and sizes. Some emphasize architecture while others tout their flashy interface. Some cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, while others cost hundreds.

With all of these options, how do you separate the good from the bad?

We just released a BI Guide aimed at helping you do just that. It outlines which essential features and capabilities make a good BI solution, and even separates each feature into 4 different categories:

High-level features

Security features

Must-have applications

Advanced features

The guide is free and you can download it right here: Essential features to look for in a good Business Intelligence solution. I hope you find it useful.

Application architecture: Ignore at your own risk

By Joe Stangarone / Application Architecture

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the world of business web applications. It seems that emphasis is shifting away from application architecture and shifting towards application design. These days, flashy interfaces beat out well-built web applications.

Why is this happening? I recently read an article over on techrepublic.com that highlights a major factor driving this trend: End user’s expectations are rising. They expect enterprise applications to be as well-designed and easy to use as the apps and tools they use every day. After all, if their enterprise applications don’t meet their expectations, there are plenty of other web services they can use.

Now, I get it. I understand the problems this creates for businesses. But, in the rush to please the end users with well-designed interfaces, let’s not forget about the most important aspect of business applications: Architecture.

For business web applications, architecture is infinitely more important than design. While application architecture might be invisible to the business users, the effects of application architecture are clear as day.

Let me try to highlight a few tangible benefits of good architecture, and help you understand why ignoring it might be the worst mistake your business can make. To help drive this home, I solicited feedback from a few experts in the field of application architecture. You can find their responses below, along with 5 big reasons why application architecture is so important. …

Application architecture: Ignore at your own riskRead More »

Stuck with an outdated application? Here’s a solution.

By Joe Stangarone / enterpri, ERP Systems

Many companies face this issue: They’re stuck to an outdated enterprise system (like an ERP). The reasons vary. It might be the
– cost to upgrade,
– the high degree to which they’ve customized the package, or
– the fact that their application vendor is out of business.

But the problem remains. These companies are locked into their current software.

Meanwhile the world is changing at an ever increasing rate. Their applications are looking and feeling dated, and the company is falling behind their competition.

Is your company facing this problem? If so, here’s a new guide that might help: 21 ways m-Power will improve your enterprise systems. It outlines and explains m-Power’s unique approach to enterprise system integration, what types of modern features it lets you add to your existing system.

5 ways software vendors try to trick you

By Joe Stangarone / Software Purchasing Advice

While speaking with one of our customers a few years back, he remarked that our software didn’t have any “gotchas”–bad surprises that spring up after the purchase. In dealing with software vendors for many years, he told me that he had come to expect “gotchas” in all software purchases.

In other words, he actually expected that software vendors were trying to trick him. I don’t know about you, but that makes me sad. Should a customer be surprised when software does what it’s supposed to do, and costs what they expect it to cost? Of course not!

Perhaps a better question: How did it get to this point?

I think much of it starts with pricing. Business software licensing models aren’t exactly straightforward. In fact, they’re downright confusing. I’ve been in this industry for over 30 years, and I still run across licensing structures that confuse me.

The problem is, many of the licensing structures are confusing by design. Vendors lure buyers in with cheap price tags, only to sneak in a few “gotchas” when it’s time to buy, or after the purchase.

I’d like to help you avoid these unpleasant surprises. I’ve listed below 5 common vendor tricks to watch out for when buying business software: …

5 ways software vendors try to trick youRead More »

Building an executive dashboard over an aging ERP system

By Joe Stangarone / Business Dashboards, ERP Systems

If your company runs on an aging ERP system or has difficulty connecting disparate data sources, here’s a great success story you’ll want to read. A manufacturing company needed a centralized place to access reports on the web. The challenge: It needed to integrate with their aging ERP system and pull data from 9 separate plants. The additional challenge: No one on their IT staff had any experience building web applications.

The result: They built a custom, web-based executive dashboard that pulled data from their 9 separate plants and integrated with their ERP system…in just 12 weeks. To find out how they did it, you can read the whole story right here.