22nd December 2009

2009 has been a fascinating and challenging year for all businesses.  The inexorable grind of regulation, the credit crunch, new accounting standards and the move towards digital financial reporting have kept finance departments on their toes in all of the world’s developing economies. However, despite the more challenging trading conditions the financial software industry has risen to the challenge with innovative products and solutions.  At the same time FSN has grown beyond our most optimistic forecasts to 1.8 million page impressions per annum and 50,000 visitors per month.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year and look forward to welcoming everyone back in early January with our views on what 2010 holds for our readers.

All Comments

• 10/02/12I had never thought of ERP software as being ‘racey’ before but this week I have been proven wrong.  Infor the world’s number 3 ERP vendor has signed a multi-year agreement to become an Official Supplier to Scuderia Ferrari, the...

• 10/02/12I had never thought of ERP software as being ‘racey’ before but this week I have been proven wrong.  Infor the world’s number 3 ERP vendor has signed a multi-year agreement to become an Official Supplier to Scuderia Ferrari, the...

• 05/02/12In recent weeks we have seen the rise of mobile applications for business which extend core business processes and place all manner of capability directly into the hands of employees.  The transition from Netbooks as the preferred device to tablets...

• 29/01/12Have you joined the great conversations on FSN’s Linkedin Group? It is a new independent discussion group on Linkedin created specifically for finance professionals, users and developers of financial reporting, accounting and business information...

• 20/01/12As part of our strategy for 2012 we are expanding the ways in which our 52,000 readers can interact with FSN and benefit from the resources it provides.  Firstly we have established a new linked in group to provide a forum for forward looking individuals...

• 13/01/12The announcement today that Virgin Media is doubling the speeds of over four million of its broadband customers and will be boosting its top speed to 120Mb is very welcome and essential to businesses. The move is certain to put pressure on other providers...

• 13/01/12The announcement today that Virgin Media is doubling the speeds of over four million of its broadband customers and will be boosting its top speed to 120Mb is very welcome and essential to businesses. The move is certain to put pressure on other providers...

• 13/01/12The announcement today that Virgin Media is doubling the speeds of over four million of its broadband customers and will be boosting its top speed to 120Mb is very welcome and essential to businesses. The move is certain to put pressure on other providers...

• 11/01/12The announcement today that Virgin Media is doubling the speeds of over four million of its broadband customers and will be boosting its top speed to 120Mb is very welcome and essential to businesses. The move is certain to put pressure on other providers...

• 16/12/11It’s been another exciting year for FSN with up to 52,000 readers visiting our site each month. I would like to take this opportunity of wishing all of our readers around the world a very Merry Christmas and on behalf of FSN and its staff I look...

• 16/12/11It’s been another exciting year for FSN with up to 52,000 readers visiting our site each month. I would like to take this opportunity of wishing all of our readers around the world a very Merry Christmas and on behalf of FSN and its staff I look...

• 16/12/11It’s been another exciting year for FSN with up to 52,000 readers visiting our site each month. I would like to take this opportunity of wishing all of our readers around the world a very Merry Christmas and on behalf of FSN and its staff I look...

• 16/12/11It’s been another exciting year for FSN with up to 52,000 readers visiting our site each month. I would like to take this opportunity of wishing all of our readers around the world a very Merry Christmas and on behalf of FSN and its staff I look...

• 09/12/11For as long as I can remember there has been a gap between the development of strategy and its execution.  Fine words and intentions bound in beautiful folders rarely see the light of day as organizations find their hands tied by inadequate systems...

• 01/12/11As we approach the festive season our news desk is inundated with predictions for the year ahead.  Most are heavily skewed in favour of the authors but I have to say that this year I was impressed with the insightfulness of Gartner’s top 10...

• 18/11/11News this week from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that UK internet usage is approaching saturation with only the over 75’s not engaging with the age of the World Wide Web. There were 41.62 million adults in the UK who had ever used...

• 11/11/11Is it time to ditch the term - ‘Last Mile’ of finance? I ask because there is considerable focus on what happens to financial reporting in the post-consolidation phase but the notion that the task can ever be complete seems so misplaced. A...

• 04/11/11This week I caught up with Guy Haddelton, CEO Anaplan, who was making a fleeting visit to the UK. Anaplan you may remember is a Cloud-based performance management solution (see FSN Review), with particular strength in business modelling, budgeting, planning...

• 28/10/11My interview with Infor CEO Charles Phillips earlier this week prompted me to consider whether we have at last reached a tipping point in cloud computing. Phillip’s was unhesitatingly indifferent between cloud solutions and on-premises solutions...

• 23/10/11There is keen interest in developments around the so called ‘Last Mile’ of finance.  This term refers to the post-consolidation phase of financial reporting and marks a shift from the collection of account balances to the production of...

• 14/10/11Cloud computing continues to evolve rapidly as organisations start to appreciate the benefits that the Cloud can offer. But in reality there is more than one Cloud-based model and the IT industry has created a whole new vocabulary of terms and acronyms...

• 06/10/11The tax function is something of a backwater in the corporate landscape.  Generally it is only the larger groups with complex multinational trading and subsidiaries that have dedicated tax professionals.  It is a technically complex environment...

• 28/09/11Last week I highlighted the crucial need for ERP systems to be malleable – able to adapt to increasingly volatile and uncertain times.  This week I am building on the theme by questioning how attractive ERP systems are to the Facebook generation...

• 23/09/11The flexibility of ERP and other financial systems is coming increasingly under scrutiny.  Huge market volatility combined with a harsher trading environment means that organisations of all sizes are looking to leverage fully the systems they own...

• 18/09/11The release this week of a discussion paper on Integrated Reporting fills me with simultaneous feelings of hope and dread. The concept of combining the plethora of different reporting formats into one unified and simplified document covering everything...

• 13/09/11The release this week of a discussion paper on Integrated Reporting fills me with simultaneous feelings of hope and dread. The concept of combining the plethora of different reporting formats into one unified and simplified document covering everything...

• 11/09/11Let’s connect!  I would like to stay in touch directly with as many readers as possible.  So please feel free to contact me via my Linkedin® profile.  Once we are connected I can keep you in the picture about events, developments...

• 02/09/11ERP systems have remained in the doldrums for several years – to some extent a victim of their own success.  ERP systems have been particularly successful in driving down average transaction costs through standardization, breadth of applications...

• 31/08/11As the summer comes to a conclusion it appears that storm clouds are gathering over the global economy. When organizations meet more testing times their need for agile, supportive information systems and processes is even more pressing. ...

• 05/08/11As the summer comes to a conclusion it appears that storm clouds are gathering over the global economy. When organizations meet more testing times their need for agile, supportive information systems and processes is even more pressing. ...

• 21/07/11It struck me this week that the News of the World ‘phone hacking’ story is notable for reasons other than the obvious villainy involved.  Whether it is the Metropolitan Police Commissioner or Rupert Murdock the sorry tale exposed for...

• 08/07/11Following the introduction of iXBRL in the UK there is widespread debate about the costs of introducing XBRL and who should pay for it.  Accountants in practice in the UK who have born the brunt of introducing this regulatory inspired change will...

• 01/07/11Sustainability may be regarded by some as faddish but for many corporates and public sector bodies environmental considerations are becoming fundamental to business success.  It is not always easy to make the connection between sound environmental...

• 17/06/11We devote much of this site to developments in Business Intelligence, especially management reporting, dashboards, scorecards and all of the sophisticated paraphernalia that supports this capability.  But the truth is that many organizations (probably...

• 09/06/11Where do you turn if you are trying to streamline your financial reporting processes?  The chances are that you haven’t thought about Enterprise Content Management since it is not a field familiar to most finance professionals. Yet the world...

• 03/06/11It is fascinating to see how even mature markets re-establish themselves with new offerings that could set different paths for the way forward.  The traditional BPM market for example is being challenged by new cloud-based vendors offering more inventive...

• 29/05/11Confusion sometimes surrounds the acronym BPM.  To some segments of the market BPM stands for Business Performance Management and that is the way it is referred to in FSN.  Yet other elements of the software industry use the term to describe...

• 20/05/11It is always interesting to see a successful entrepreneur returning to the software market to build a new business. And so it is with Tony Bray and Roger Stocker who cut their teeth in the document management business. The point about returnees is that...

• 13/05/11Over the last year there has been considerable activity in the so called ‘Last Mile’ of finance, fuelled by the introduction of XBRL and growing exasperation on the part of CFOs with the general burden of compliance. But when it comes to solutions...

• 13/05/11Over the last year there has been considerable activity in the so called ‘Last Mile’ of finance, fuelled by the introduction of XBRL and growing exasperation on the part of CFOs with the general burden of compliance. But when it comes to solutions...

• 08/05/11A recent report from Gartner seems to suggest that spending on Business Intelligence applications has held up well during the recession.  When the chips are down organisations place a premium on quality management information –specifically...

• 29/04/11A recent report from Gartner seems to suggest that spending on Business Intelligence applications has held up well during the recession.  When the chips are down organisations place a premium on quality management information –specifically...

• 15/04/11With so much attention focused on the regulatory aspects of XBRL, for example, SEC filings and iXBRL submissions in the UK, it appears that the world is in danger of losing sight of what motivated the move to digital reporting in the first place. The...

• 07/04/11The news that the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) and Financial Reporting Council (FRC) are working to simplify or ‘de-clutter’ the annual report and accounts is welcome news. It has always struck me that successive regulations only seem...

• 07/04/11The news that the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) and Financial Reporting Council (FRC) are working to simplify or ‘de-clutter’ the annual report and accounts is welcome news. It has always struck me that successive regulations only seem...

• 01/04/11This week I got a sneak preview of another new product in the financial close space from Californian based Silicon Valley Accountants which has launched “Accelerated Financial Reporting Management” (AFRM). The product is in fact a module of...

• 25/03/11There is a strikingly worrying gap between the legal framework around the supply of on-premises solutions and those offered in the Cloud.  In the real world companies have offices, people on the ground and corporate structures that are transparent,...

• 18/03/11Things appear to be hotting up in around the ‘Last Mile’ of finance. Recent months have seen a number of new products addressing the problem of statutory document production in the group finance function as well as the preparation of Board...

• 12/03/11Cloud computing continues to make inroads into the finance function and the last few months has seen new entrants launching products in the performance management space. What started as a trickle with Adaptive Planning and Host Analytics is gathering...

• 05/03/11As I mentioned last week, the announcement by SAP  that it is to build social media analytics into its Business Intelligence and Enterprise Information suite caught my eye.  The impact of social media in business to date has very limited yet...

• 25/02/11The announcement by SAP this week that it is to build social media analytics into its Business Intelligence and Enterprise Information suite caught my eye.  The power of social media as an opinion former and influencer is beyond dispute but corporates...

• 18/02/11The UK Bribery Act may not be top of your list of concerns but if you haven’t been following the story then perhaps it should be.  I’m not for one moment suggesting that you would intentionally commit an Act of Bribery but the offence...

• 10/02/11As foreshadowed by FSN last week HMRC was bound to reject the accounting professions plea to postpone the deadline for the mandatory filing of company accounts in iXBRL format.  The case put by the combined Institutes’ tax faculties and others...

• 03/02/11The big news this week is the attempt by the UK’s largest professional accounting bodies to delay the implementation of iXBRL for the filing of statutory accounts. Amid accusations on the internet that the Institutes are bowing to pressure from...

• 27/01/11It has been a strange couple of weeks for Sage.  Initially ‘beaten up’ for missing the 1st April iXBRL deadline, recent press coverage has been more measured following editorial in FSN which explained that the downside had possibly been...

• 19/01/11For as long as I can remember software vendors have been trying to crack Business Intelligence in the mid-market. Nobody denies that there is a pressing need to present critical business information from ERP systems in a more accessible way.  But...

• 08/01/11Have you ever wondered why so much social networking software is so easy to use yet business software generally requires days if not weeks of user training? Young adults today take to Facebook and Twitter like ducks to water but they are likely to be...

• 17/12/10It’s been another great year for FSN with more than 50,000 visitors per month and 2 million page impressions. Not only have we grown 30 per cent this year but we have launched several new book titles aimed at senior finance professionals across...

• 10/12/10Yet another Cloud Computing vendor announced an accounting package this week. What started as a trickle is turning into a feeding frenzy with new suppliers coming out of the woodwork every week. It seems that anyone with a modest budget can start a speculative...

• 03/12/10Jon Kondo, CEO of hostanlytics was in London this week looking at the next phase of expansion for his cloud-based performance management suite.  hostanalytics is one of three vendors (the others being anaplan and adaptive planning) making a splash...

• 26/11/10Damages in the Oracle versus SAP case have at last been settled (for the moment) but it is probably fair to say that the software industry and wider interest groups have been stunned by the magnitude of the US District Court’s award.  But just...

• 18/11/10Treasury management has been something of a back-water in the group finance function, escaping the changes in productivity and risk management that have impacted on other core finance processes. However, it looks as though the picture is changing, partially...

• 12/11/10What a peculiar week. No sooner had I finished writing this week’s editorial feature about the lack of credibility in cloud computing for CPM applications than I hear that Guy Haddelton is behind (and in front of) a newly launched supplier of planning...

• 07/11/10No sooner had we said that things are hotting up in the ‘Last Mile’ of the financial close process than there were a further two announcements! This week SAP confirmed that it can now produce accounts and CT600 computations in iXBRL and Longview...

• 29/10/10Last week’s highly successful FSN webinar focussed on the consequences of IBM’s acquisition of Clarity Systems.  This dealt mainly with the ‘Last Mile’ of finance utilising traditional on-premise solutions. What’s been...

• 22/10/10Yesterday’s news that IBM has acquired Clarity Systems has significantly changed the landscape for global financial reporting and performance management systems. But what’s the impact and who are the winners and losers? I will be giving FSN...

• 17/10/10I took time out to meet with Jim Schaper, Infor’s global CEO who was in the UK last week at the start of a global roll out of the group’s recently announced strategy in which it is nailing its colours to the Microsoft mast. Infor, as FSN’s...

• 17/10/10I took time out to meet with Jim Schaper, Infor’s global CEO who was in the UK last week at the start of a global role out of the group’s recently announced strategy in which it is nailing its colours to the Microsoft mast. Infor, as FSN’s...

• 08/10/10Is there a role for standalone Business Intelligence vendors? It may seem a strange question to ask but after Business Objects folded into SAP and Cognos was subsumed into IBM the pure-play BI vendor looked an endangered species. But a visit to Information...

• 08/10/10Is there a role for standalone Business Intelligence vendors? It may seem a strange question to ask but after Business Objects folded into SAP and Cognos was subsumed into IBM the pure-play BI vendor looked an endangered species. But a visit to Information...

• 02/10/10Millions of column centimetres have been devoted to Cloud computing and it is certainly one of those topics which is destined to run and run. Up until now much of the media attention has been focussed on CRM and other applications which could be considered...

• 26/09/10Business Intelligence has had something of a chequered history enjoying fashionable period s of success as well as spectacular failures.  Technology is often positioned as the answer to information needs but experience shows that data quality management,...

• 19/09/10Financial planning and forecasting is difficult enough without the regulators adding to uncertainty.  I am referring of course to the abolition of the default retirement age (DRA) which adds yet another layer of uncertainty to HR planning and integrated...

• 19/09/10Financial planning and forecasting is difficult enough without the regulators adding to uncertainty.  I am referring of course to the abolition of the default retirement age (DRA) which adds yet another layer of uncertainty to HR planning and integrated...

• 11/09/10After two years of ‘battening down the hatches’, preserving cash, rebuilding balance sheets and cost containment there may be a feeling that everything that can be done has been done.  But new evidence from the United States suggests...

• 02/09/10Choosing a suitable vendor to supply an accounting or business system is a decision riddled with pitfalls.  Historically the ‘Invitation to Tender’ or ‘Request for Proposal’ route has been the preferred approach but seems...

• 27/08/10There are signs that businesses are once again investing in ERP systems after a long period in the doldrums. The evidence gathered by recent analyst s’ surveys suggest that businesses are willing to invest in completely new systems rather than merely...

• 22/08/10It is startling how this week’s top four news stories are dominated by compliance issues. The timing couldn’t be more unwelcome.  It illustrates once again how businesses around the world are being overburdened with regulatory change...

• 15/08/10It’s official !!  FSN launches “iXBRL + Financial Close Management” Conference - its premiere financial reporting event for group financial controllers, finance systems managers and senior professionals in the group finance function. ...

• 25/07/10FSN will be taking its annual leave for the first two weeks of August but I wanted to give you a heads up for a very important and exciting conference we are producing and hosting in London on Wednesday 4th November. This special one day conference entitled,...

• 16/07/10Oracle’s much vaunted launch of its business intelligence suite, Oracle BI 11g at the beginning of the month did not disappoint.  Following hard on the heels of the Oracle Hyperion “Close Management” and “Disclosure Management”...

• 11/07/10The concern over iXBRL continues to rage with considerable uncertainty about how individual companies, as opposed to groups of companies should approach the submission of accounts and tax returns next April.  You will remember that from 1 April 2011...

• 02/07/10The news that Gartner has revised downwards its estimate of growth in IT spending adds more evidence to the choppy nature of this recovery.  The announcement comes hard on the heels of a sell-off on global stock markets, unnerved by continuing concerns...

• 27/06/10An 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...

• 18/06/10Green issues top the agenda again – the England team, BP and even the environment!   What an extraordinary few days.  We have had “Green Fingers” the hapless England goalkeeper, the roasting of BP’s Tony Hayward on...

• 13/06/10iXBRL is a game of two halves. But the score isn’t looking good at half time! Last week’s announcement by HMRC that it will not be issuing blank paper return forms and guidance notes (forms CT600 & CT600 Guide) with the ‘Notice...

• 02/06/10Now that the hullabaloo over the launch of Windows 7 has blown over companies worldwide are faced with the reality of upgrading their Windows XP machines to the new operating system.  Having skipped Vista for well publicised reasons that do not require...

• 20/05/10Oracle’s major product announcements last month suggest a new phase in the rapidly evolving financial reporting space. SAP, IBM and Oracle have all made serial mergers over the last few years establishing a portfolio of performance management applications...

• 14/05/10Cloud computing isn’t the only play in town.  The idea that everything has to be in the ‘Cloud’ is absurd and so of course is the notion that everything should be ‘on-premises’. Life just isn’t that black and white...

• 07/05/10FSN surges through the 50,000 visitors a month barrier!  I am pleased to say that April was a record month for FSN with around 52,000 senior finance professionals from around the world visiting the site.  This week is also significant because...

• 30/04/10The earnings season has seen a clutch of good results announcements from prominent IT vendors, such as Microsoft, SAP and UNIT 4 (which now includes Agresso and CODA).  The question on everyone’s lips is has growth returned to the ERP market?...

• 16/04/10There was a palpable sense of excitement in the UK this week as the leaders of the three main political parties lined up for British television’s first live political debate.  Although a certain amount of time was devoted to the economy and...

• 08/04/10It has been a David and Goliath sort of week. Oracle, a giant of a software house has showered the market with a glittering array of new product innovations in almost every facet of performance management whilst at the same time Herman Heller, CEO of...

• 26/03/10The news that ClusterSeven has been expanding successfully across the globe adds credence to the notion that organizations, especially financial services businesses, are paying much more attention to risk management. ClusterSeven is a provider of spreadsheet...

• 26/03/10The news that ClusterSeven has been expanding successfully across the globe adds credence to the notion that organizations, especially financial services businesses, are paying much more attention to risk management. ClusterSeven is a provider of spreadsheet...

• 25/03/10The Carbon Reduction Commitment, (CRC), Energy Efficiency Scheme will affect around 20,000 businesses in the UK but few realise the potentially deep impact the new regime will have on existing accounting systems and processes.  Let’s face it,...

• 12/03/10Judging by the news flow this week the performance management market is really hotting up. Sometimes called, CPM, BPM or EPM, the term “performance management” usually refers to a combination of financial reporting, budgeting, planning, forecasting...

• 07/03/10With growing optimism that the global economy is in recovery attention is once again focussing on green issues.  One initiative on the immediate horizon is the CRC (Carbon Reduction Commitment) Scheme in the UK.  It is a compulsory emissions...

• 07/03/10With growing optimism that the global economy is in recovery attention is once again focussing on green issues.  One initiative on the immediate horizon is the CRC (Carbon Reduction Commitment) Scheme in the UK.  It is a compulsory emissions...

• 26/02/10Business Intelligence (BI) is buzzing again this week. Followers of FSN will know that I am not a great fan of the distinction between BI and Corporate Performance Management. To me they are two sides of the same coin – essentially delivering information...

• 21/02/10Pressure on the SEC to adopt IFRS seems to be mounting last week with Jim Quigley, CEO Deloitte Touche Tomatsu coming out strongly in favour of adoption of the international reporting standards.  Writing in a report “What should boards and...

• 05/02/10Employment legislation weighs heavily on businesses of all sizes.  It governs corporate conduct in almost every facet of managing people, from the way organisations recruit, (what they can say in advertisements and what they cannot say), to managing...

• 29/01/10Three big stories dominate the news this week, namely, the re-branding of UNIT 4 Agresso, the crystallization of the Sun Microsystems acquisition by Oracle and the launch of the i-Pad.  The repositioning of UNIT 4 as it is now to be known is important...

• 24/01/10The topic of employexpense management is often overlooked but with a more testing economic environment tight control over employee expenses can yield extensive savings.  At the same time automation of expense management can bring benefits both in...

• 24/01/10The topic of employee expense management is often overlooked but with a more testing economic environment tight control over employee expenses can yield extensive savings.  At the same time automation of expense management can bring benefits both...

• 17/01/10This week FSN writer Michael Coveney presents a challenge to strategic planning and takes a light hearted look to scoring the completeness of a strategic plan.   But beneath the surface there is serious intent. The reality is that many companies...

• 08/01/10With a wintery start to the New Year and many of us prevented from getting into work by snow and ice on the roads it is amusing  to poder whether global warming is really happening.  Whatever your views on the matter, environmental reporting,...

• 03/01/102009 was a year marked by one of the worst downturns since World War II yet despite all of the challenges the software industry soldiered on, buoyed by strong maintenance revenues as companies sat out the worst of the financial crisis. The early part...

• 22/12/092009 has been a fascinating and challenging year for all businesses.  The inexorable grind of regulation, the credit crunch, new accounting standards and the move towards digital financial reporting have kept finance departments on their toes in...

• 13/12/09This week we highlight the development of on-line services at HMRC. The regulator  is leading the way with iXBRL a variant of XBRL supported by Corefiling an acknowledged innovator and software developer in the this space. The story is important...

• 06/12/09The move towards on-line filing is gathering pace on both sides of the Atlantic as regulators take advantage of a more automated and streamlined processes to improve their productivity and effectiveness.  XBRL, the digital reporting language, is...

• 29/11/09SAPBusinessObjects is continuing to leverage its relationship with Microsoft with the announcement that Redmond is to support the SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation application as a preferred solution for customers running their business applications...

• 29/11/09SAP BusinessObjects is continuing to leverage its relationship with Microsoft with the announcement that Redmond is to support the SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation application as a preferred solution for customers running their business...

• 22/11/09The deadline for iXBRL submission of tax returns and accompanying annual accounts is approaching more rapidly than many care to acknowledge.  CT600 Returns due after 31st March 2011 must be filed using the XBRL language which tags relevant data in...

• 08/11/09This week I took time out to meet with James Bradshaw, CEO of Systems  Accountants the recruiter of specialised accountants and programme mangers for financial systems transformation and implementation projects.  The good news is that the market...

• 01/11/09The news that Microsoft is to end the “distribution and sale” of Microsoft Office Accounting is likely to anger users of the business software many of whom were attracted by the full feature set and free downloads of the Express version when...

• 25/10/09The big news last week was the launch of Windows 7.  Rarely, in recent years has there been such enthusiasm for the release of a new operating system, especially a Microsoft one.  A combination of admiration for Redmond after the disastrous...

• 18/10/09Softworld in Accounting at Olympia gave us the first snapshot of the mid-market as we enter what will hopefully be a period of sustained recovery.  There was certainly a renewed air of confidence accompanied by many new product announcements and...

• 10/10/09Dear Reader, Welcome to our re-launched site, which has been revitalised with new content, the latest navigation techniques, more graphics and new media presentations whilst preserving the traditional news and independent analysis which has been the...

• 25/09/09Cash planning and working capital management are set to be top of the agenda for many months as lending conditions remain tight. But an interesting divide is beginning to emerge between the world’s largest and smallest businesses. Large companies...

• 10/09/09Microsoft’s Crispin Read, who leads product management and marketing for Microsoft Corp.’s portfolio of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications and is responsible for ERP strategy and execution worldwide popped into London last week,...