Automation 2.0Yesterday the AMR team met with Rockwell Automation's senior leadership group including CEO Keith Nosbusch to spend an entire day digging into the trends and challenges in today's manufacturing automation market. Nosbusch is a graduate of University of Wisconsin's electrical and computer engineering program, and a 35 year veteran of the automation industry.May 16, 2009 by Kevin O'Marah in CXO
Atoms or electrons: How does Hasbro make money?The global supply chain reaches all the way from Rhode Island to China and back. Tonka trucks, GI Joe action figures and my Little Pony are all real products sold to real kids.May 1, 2009 by AMR Research in Enterprise Software
China and IP: the piper will get paidAs everyone knows, and as our quarterly supply chain risk data proves, China is a den of thieves as far as IP is concerned. Today's New York Times has a lengthy and prominent article on brand piracy in Shenzhen's cell phone industry.April 28, 2009 by Kevin O'Marah in China
Process Readiness: Are you ready to run a Marathon?April 19 is Patriot’s Day in Boston. The reenactment of the Shot Heard Round the World on Lexington Green, the parades, the Red Sox—maybe I’ll pop over to Hopkinton and run the 26 miles of the Boston Marathon.April 23, 2009 by AMR Research in CXO
Next big land rush: believe it or not, is knowledge managementThis sounds silly for anyone who has ever been involved in the typical hapless library exercise of a digital "knowledge management" initiative. The lasting image for most of these efforts is of a black hole - everything goes in, nothing comes out.April 10, 2009 by Kevin O'Marah in Collaboration
Sun and IBM Breaking Up: Who Wins?The news today about IBM and Sun possibly going separate ways leaves a door open for others to dodge what could have been a pretty blockbuster combination. I remember back in late 90's how cool Java was and what it meant for Sun.April 6, 2009 by Kevin O'Marah in Open Source
IBM and Sun: Is it about the hardware or the software?The Wall Street Journal reports IBM is in acquisition talks with Sun Microsystems. At this point, the companies are refusing to comment on the rumor.March 19, 2009 by Ian Finley in Oracle
Congratulations Marc… The next $billion will be harderIn 10 years, salesforce.com founder and CEO Marc Benioff has turned CRM-as-a-service into a $1B business with 55,400 customers.March 17, 2009 by Bruce Richardson in Innovation
Connecting the Spend Management Dots with ContractsWhile not exactly a well-known name, Zycus continues its spend management expertise by rounding out its sourcing suite with Contract management. Targeted towards the sourcing and procurement professional, Zycus iContract provides organizations the ability to actualize negotiated contract savings through real-time monitoring, proactive alerting, and search capabilities.March 13, 2009 by Mickey North Rizza in CXO
Microsoft Convergence 2009: Hybrid TechnologyHybrids are the buzz in the auto industry, and now hybrid applications may be the next buzz in technology, both in licensed, behind-the-firewall mode as well as developed and hosted in the cloud.I spent time with Brad Wilson, GM of Microsoft’s Dynamic CRM team, and some executives from Avanade, Microsoft’s BPO/SI joint venture with Accenture.March 12, 2009 by Chris Fletcher in Microsoft
Microsoft Convergence 2009: First ImpressionsYesterday, I spent a half day with Microsoft at Convergence 2009 before the general sessions start tomorrow morning. My first impressions:Customer management is recession resistant.March 9, 2009 by Chris Fletcher in Microsoft
Oracle jumps into the SaaS market with SaaS SourcingOracle announced today that it is now selling SaaS sourcing products. As the number two company in the Supply Management market, this product is long overdue.March 9, 2009 by Mickey North Rizza in Enterprise Software
Cydia and Apple: Lawsuits will be a sideshowToday’s Wall Street Journal has a big article about a new renegade competitor that is challenging Apple’s App Store and in the process whetting the appetites of IP lawyers. With all due respect to the legal eagles involved, technology and the global supply chain should make this debate moot.March 5, 2009 by Kevin O'Marah in Legal
When Citi shares cost less than a newspaperThis is a bit off topic, but I was in an elevator when the small screen flashed with the news that shares of Citigroup had sunk below the $1 mark to 97 cents. That’s down 14.March 5, 2009 by Bruce Richardson in Salesforce.com
SaaS: The supply management market’s economic stimulus?2008 was a very strong year for supply management vendors, despite the dismal global economy. The market grew 9%, reaching $3.February 26, 2009 by Mickey North Rizza in Innovation
