An interesting development of the last few weeks has been the growing interest that vendors are showing in the Microsoft technology stack to complement their products. The massively improved capabilities of MS SQL Server as a database allied to the collaborative capabilities in SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010 has proved an exciting and irresistible attraction for software houses looking to rapidly ramp up their offerings. Tagetik and Infor have been the most vocal and have both been quick to harness the relevant technologies within their applications. Infor have aligned themselves strongly (but not exclusively) to Microsoft across all of their product offerings. Tagetik have focussed on the performance management aspects providing portals and imaginative ways of communicating. Gary Simon, FSN’s managing editor reports on the trend.
So what is it that is causing software houses to nail their colours to the Microsoft mast after years of positioning their products as being totally agnostic? For infor it was as much about market forces as the capabilities within the Microsoft technology stack. Infor Senior VP, Dennis Michalis told FSN, “Our ERP-LN products were totally platform independent and we supported IBM’s DB2 database, Oracle and SQL Server. In fact we put lots of effort into supporting all ‘containers’. But we noticed that SQL was climbing rapidly, especially in the mid-market – it was a very noticeable trend.”
It’s a view shared by Manuel Vellutini, Tagetik’s COO. Commenting to FSN following the release of Tagetik 3.0 enabled by Microsoft SharePoint a few weeks ago he said, “We noticed that most of our customers had SQL and SharePoint, so it seemed an obvious move to cater more specifically for this environment. It was also clear that not all of the customers knew how to leverage the SharePoint environment for best effect, but it is a natural fit in the performance management space where collaboration and sharing information is essential.”
“SharePoint was everywhere in the Enterprise,” added Infor’s Michalis. “We got comfortable with Microsoft and then discovered that the development lifecycle was more productive as well. We proved to ourselves that we could be as much as 7 to 9 times more productive.”
For Infor one of the main drivers was providing customers with the ability to fully leverage their investment in data. “After the systems is installed the key concern is how can content in the enterprise be better leveraged to make decisions?” adds Michalis. “The content has to be mastered and this comes down to a number of attributes, for example, the user interface and how information is rendered to improve the whole user experience. The navigation around the system, interoperability, the ability to mingle data from different applications and business process management - from our point of view the Microsoft environment provided a rock solid foundation.”
But for Infor, the benefits of the Microsoft technology stack permeate a whole range of applications from ERP to Expense Management and performance management. The familiarity of the Microsoft interface, the portals, navigation and workflow within SharePoint and accessibility of SQL Server all play a leading part in supporting business applications. “Infor Expense Management is one area where Microsoft SharePoint is very attractive because of the need to share information and support complex workflows,” adds Michalis.
Tagetik on the other hand is more concerned with financial reporting, planning, budgeting, reporting and compliance. But it is in the area of what Vellutini calls “collaborative performance management” that Microsoft SharePoint really scores. “Business problems are usually complex and multidimensional which usually means that several people need to be involved in problem resolution and decision making. The difficulty is that historically there has been very little support for collaborative processes,” Vellutini told FSN.
“Even relatively simple questions such as why have sales in region X for product Y gone down? – can be difficult to answer using traditional phone calls, emails and ad-hoc meetings. Customers are constantly reporting the increasing complexity of decision making and by and large are too dependent on spreadsheets. This is why we sought to improve collaboration and see Microsoft SharePoint 2010 as one of the transformational technologies in this area.”
Nevertheless, Microsoft does not have it all its own way – at least not yet. Infor for example is not jettisoning its links with other platforms. “We have around 15,000 customers using the IBM platform and have a good working relationship with IBM – we are not moving away from it, but all new applications will be founded on Microsoft technology. However not all customers are going with the flow and we are not forcing any change. They can stick to IBM if they want to,” adds Michalis.
Tagetik too is not forcing customers in one direction or another and plans to continue to support the other major platforms.
There is also the question of Oracle, which through a process of acquisition and development has assembled a formidable technology stack of its own. The level of integration, the delivery of a common information model and the ability to present information on almost any client device is proving seductive to many business enterprises. The release of Oracle BI 11g at the beginning of this month did not disappoint. Following hard on the heels of the Oracle Hyperion “Close Management” and “Disclosure Management” launch in April, this is an organisation that appears to be in its stride. As Charles Phillips, Oracle’s President said, “Problems don’t go away by hoping things will work together – they have to be engineered together.” And it is this philosophy that underpins a technology stack that that stretches from storage to scorecard. “People don’t want 5 different answers to the same problem,” added Phillips.
So is Microsoft in the ascendency? The answer seems to be “Yes” – especially in the mid-market. Redmond has partnered well with organisations such as Infor and Tagetik that can deliver business expertise by leveraging the Microsoft platform. But Oracle too has formidable fire power and the next two years will see a fascinating battle for domination of the Enterprise market.
