Archive for the ‘Research Reports’ Category
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Oracle’s Accelerate Strategy
There’s been a flurry of press releases and announcements re: Oracle and their re-doubled partner program in the SMB (small-medium business) space. We recently spoke with Jeff Abbott, Vice President Global Accelerate Strategy of Oracle, about the program and its new momentum.
Here’s a quote from the Prognosis section of the report:
“This new momentum around the SMB space has additional value to Oracle as SMB buyers are one of the most recession proof sectors in the application software marketplace. Given the current economy, Oracle would do well to cultivate and expand its partner program in this space.
We believe Oracle’s focus on fixed-price implementations is not only appropriate but also long overdue in the SMB space. As we have published previously, SMB buyers have complex businesses while lacking the budgets of big firms (i.e., wine tastes/beer budgets). In discussions we have had with midmarket CFOs, the pain these companies face around uncertain implementation and integration costs is palpable. Vendors that seek to address this very real and painful market concern may do quite well.”
To receive a copy of this report, please complete our online form or email us at contact@vitalanalysis.com
Tags:Accelerate, channel partners, ERP, Oracle, partners, SMB
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Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Futurestep – A Global Provider of RPO and More
We meet with executives of Futurestep, a Korn Ferry International firm, at the recent HR Week show in New York City. We received a fairly complete briefing and developed a research note on the firm and its offerings.
Here is an excerpt from the Prognosis section of the report:
“Futurestep is not a traditional HR Outsourcing (HRO) supplier either. Where most HRO providers offer significant back office processing capabilities, they often provide more minimal recruiting and talent acquisition capabilities and intellectual property. That said, Futurestep is a more knowledge-based RPO and not in the same category as HRO providers. We are generally very positive on Futurestep because:
- the company can leverage the Korn/Ferry brand, pipeline and intellectual property assets. All of these leverage points give the company an invaluable advantage over standalone RPO firms.
- companies that need RPO often need more than just a technology solution provider. Futurestep provides a services rich and data rich solution.
- several of the differentiators mentioned earlier in this report are truly unique to Futurestep.”
This report is available from Vital Analysis for $295. If you’d like a copy of this report, please complete our request form or send an email to: contact@vitalanalysis.com and include your name and a valid business email address.
Tags:FutureStep, HR Week, Korn Ferry, outsourcing, recruiting, RPO, TechVentive, Vital Analysis
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Monday, April 28th, 2008
Sales Performance Management Vendor: Varicent
We spent time at the HR Week conference with an executive of Varicent and received a brief product demonstration of their Sales Performance Management solution.
We developed a summary report on their offerings and the company. An excerpt from the Prognosis section of the paper states:
“We believe Varicent’s focus on large companies and larger midmarket companies is correct. We believe there is a genuine need for an inexpensive solution in this space particularly given the pressure on businesses to be more nimble and more agile. This increased dynamism in business today will no doubt continue to place pressure on sales management to materially and constantly change its sales compensation schemas.
We also like sales performance management solutions as a productivity improvement tool for sales professionals. We have witnessed firsthand the lack of a single book of record with which sales professionals can see and/or dispute the way their commissions are being calculated. The elimination of all of the wasted time and energy spent arguing over whose spreadsheet has more accurate data will boost productivity simply because it frees up sales professional time to spend on customer facing initiatives.”
The report is available via Vital Analysis for $295. Please complete our request form or email us at: contact@vitalanalysis.com
Tags:Callidus, Sales Performance Management, TechVentive, Varicent, Vital Analysis
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Monday, April 28th, 2008
Emportal Gaining Momentum
We were already preparing this report based on the HR Week show in NYC recently: Emportal Update Report. The key theme of this update was that Emportal had acquired a number of new clients. Now, Emportal has released details on their new market success (see: https://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=848867) . The gist of this press release states:
“WALNUT CREEK, CA–(Marketwire – April 28, 2008) – Uniting the way business works with the way people work, Emportal today welcomed five more enterprise clients to its growing customer base. Emportal eliminates the challenges of managing disparate HR systems and databases by combining the best capabilities of four categories of human capital management — HRMS, ERP, point solutions and HRO — into one “have it your way” software-as-a-service solution. New companies turning to Emportal include FCI; California Waste Solutions; ION; a California headquartered restaurant chain; and a Chicago headquartered payroll and retirement provider. “
Tags:application software, Emportal, HR Week, HRO, outsourcing, TechVentive, Vital Analysis
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Friday, April 18th, 2008
Jobfox – A Fox in the Job Board Hen House
We recently caught a Jobfox launch event in Chicago and were quite impressed with the company, the crowds they attracted and the product. After a trial run of the product, we’ve developed a report on the firm and, hopefully, will make it available on this website in a few days.
Tags:Jobfox, TechVentive, Vital Analysis
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Friday, April 18th, 2008
A Flurry of New Reports Coming Soon
We recently attended HR Week in New York City and met with executives from a number of HR and HR Services providers at that conference. Specifically, we had in-depth discussions with:
Veritude – Kate Donovan and Laura Cleveland – We will update our Fall 2007 report on Veritude. They’ve recently scored a big win and are moving in some new directions.
Kenexa – Phil Stewart and Brandt Hamby – They’ve acquired StraightSource recently and advised us of additional announcements. We’ll prepare a new report on Kenexa after next week’s analyst event.
Workscape – Daryl Ashley, Tony Marzulli, Marc Moschetto – Workscape’s succession planning products and benefits outsourcing offerings dominated our conversation. An update report will be developed.
Emportal – David Lee – We re-connected with David and discovered that Emportal’s secured several new clients. We’ll update our report on them.
FutureStep – Bill Gilbert, Kelly Cartwright – Great first meeting and a solid RPO briefing. New report to be issued.
Salary.com – Elle Hoxie – Salary.com is clearly busting out from being a data-driven solution. New report to be issued.
Varicent – Brian Hartlen – Varicent’s laying claim to the Sales Performance Management space. New report to be issued.
Tags:Emportal, FutureStep, HR Week, Kenexa, Salary, Varicent, Veritude, Vital Analysis, Workscape
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Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
Last week, NetSuite announced its NS-BOS business operating system. Along with this announcement, NetSuite also announced the availability of a new debugging tool.
There is a bigger picture angle to this and its one that escapes other SaaS application vendors. NetSuite’s approach to the mid-market maybe superior to that of over SaaS vendors. It’s a lower integration cost strategy that should receive a very warm welcome with mid-market software buyers and the vertical industry application developers who ally with NetSuite.
This report is available for sale @ $495 per copy. To order, please use our online info request form or email us at contact@vitalanalysis.com
Tags:ERP, NetSuite, NS-BOS, SaaS, SMB, software as a service, SuiteBundler, Vital Analysis
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Thursday, February 14th, 2008
New Report on NetSuite’s 2007 Earnings
Today, 2/14/2008, NetSuite management briefed analysts on the company’s financial performance for the year 2007. Executives also discussed NetSuite’s competition, capital deployment, hiring plans and a recent 1000 user CRM win. 
All of these items are discussed in the a special Vital Analysis report. For a limited time, this report is available for free to those persons submitting a report request on our website and using a valid business email address. Alternatively, you can request a copy via email from: contact@vitalanalysis.com
Tags:ERP, NetSuite, SaaS, SMB, software as a service, SuiteBundler, Vital Analysis
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Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
Progress Apama – An Event Technology That’s Work a Long, Hard Look
We recently had a chance to watch a demonstration of Progress’ Apama product. Apama is an event-driven technology that has seen market successes in the financial services industry. The demonstration we witnessed was in another industry – Manufacturing – and was provided by a Progress partner Manuvis. This demonstration was so striking because of the way that Manuvis has incorporated event processing into discrete manufacturing. Consider this example:
Manuvis continuously monitors production equipment and other key production statistics in a manufacturing environment. Suppose the software detects a continuing anomaly in a machine. The software will notify workers to tend to the machine. The software will also dynamically re-direct production and potentially re-optimize the production schedule. Workers, in a Manuvis environment, answer to this network software – not a production supervisor. Why? No human being can continuously monitor every aspect of production, every product produced, every machine, etc. Nor can a production supervisor continuously re-adjust production schedules, repairs, etc. while monitoring events at the plant.
ERP systems were good at crafting a periodic production schedule; however, the need to optimize business results requires a more dynamic solution. Event-driven technologies, like Apama, are particularly well-suited to such a business need.
If you’d like a copy of this report, please complete the request form on this website or send a valid, business email to: contact@vitalanalysis.com . This report is available for free for a limited time.
Tags:Apama, ERP, event, event processing, Manuvis, Progress, Vital Analysis
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Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
NetSuite Adds Powerful Tools to its Product Line
Late 2007, NetSuite announced powerful new product line capabilities to its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application product line. We were particularly impressed with the intense new vertical extensions that have been developed by NetSuite resellers using the new SuiteBundler tools.
In the Prognosis section of our report, we wrote that:
“For NetSuite customers, SuiteBundler is a very positive, albeit indirect, step forward. SuiteBundler should trigger a landslide of new vertical functionality within the NetSuite ecosystem. For NetSuite’s target market, the small to midsized business, this additional breadth and depth in industry functionality is a welcome sight. While high-end ERP solution providers possess some of this needed industry expertise in their products, their price points are cost prohibitive for SMB buyers. Traditional SMB solutions often contain stripped down or skeletal vertical capabilities. These traditional SMB solutions may create perplexing or undesirable workarounds for their customers and often require excessively high-cost implementation fees to make workable. SuiteBundler should help usher in a more cost-effective and robust set of vertical solutions for the SMB space.”
This report is available to Vital Analysis clients. Inquiries regarding it can be directed to contact@vitalanalysis.com .
Tags:ERP, NetSuite, SaaS, SMB, software as a service, SuiteBundler, Vital Analysis
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