Project management the weakest link in ERP

Any chain is as strong as the weakest link, and an ERP or CRM project is unfortunately a long chain with many links. As at Lemarco we’re doing a lot of interviews of customers having implemented a new business solution, there’s one remark that comes back again and again when we ask one of our last questions: “Which lessons do you take with you from this ERP/CRM implementation?”.

People almost always tend to say that they had underestimated the project management competencies of their IT-partner. Most IT-partners, even the larger ones, seem to consider project management as a secundary side-activity. Very often the so-called project manager in charge is a (senior) developer whose real heart goes to software development, not to professtional project management. This is about the same as having an architect building the house himself and then controlling the quality of the work.

To compensate for this weakness of their IT-partner, some end customers even assign a project manager from their own organization in order not to let the project go totally out of control.

Belgian Dynamics Community: new web site

The Belgian Dynamics Community is one of those projects that started small two years ago and has grown more ambitious and more professional than we could ever dream.

I’m really proud to be a (small) part of this initiative; every BDC boad meeting is incredibly energizing because the people in the BDC board really make THINGS HAPPEN.

And if one great thing happens next week, it’s the new web site… normally you should wait till november 5th (at Microsoft Convergence in Rotterdam), but I can’t wait to show you so here’s a  a preview already. And if we managed to do this on time, it’s thanks to pour most inspired BDC board member Kurt Juvyns (who works I think 16 hours a day)  and thanks to Seltec who managed to get the new web site and CMS live on time.

a special date

We all know that forgetting the anniversary of our partner (wife or husband) can have serious consequences on our relationship. But what surprises me is that, no longer than yesterday, many of us forgot the anniverary date of someone we spend most of the day with. Someone we communicate with one or more hours a day – maybe more than with our own wife of husband. That someone is now turning 40, maybe approaching middle age in your perspective, but still looking younger than your own wife or husband without needing a facelift.

That someone is the Internet, born on October 29th, 1969. The Internet, by the way, is exactly 10 years younger than Asterix, who was born in October 29th, 1959. Asterix too still looks just as young as when he was born. What’s wrong with us, humans, that we loose our youth and they don’t?

PS: here’s what the first web page looked like.

Innovation is not installed

The title above is original, it has sometihng to do with SaaS – but I must be honest: it was not invented by me. It’s the tagline of a new software company active in SaaS-based ERP solutions that everyone (maybe not you, but you’re not everyone) is talking about these days. That company is called Workday. Is that really hot news? Not so: you have Salesforce, Netsuite and others selling SaaS-based solutions already.

What’s really innovating about Workday is the way the built their software conceptually: not from databases whose structures and relationships are fixed in advance, but from objects. Not from an accounting perspective, but from the real lifecycle of every object in the company. Check it out on ZDnet, they explain it far better than me.

Workday has only 40 (Fortune 1000) customers nowadays. Maybe – probably- they will disappear. But that does not mean we cannot learn from their ideas: propably it’s another company like SAP or Microsoft that will use some of the most valuable ideas and integrate them in their own solutions. Time to money is more useful than time to market. But still, we need to applause people wxho innovate.

Young & Partners awarded at Microsoft WPC 2009

Lemarco customer Young & Partners has been awarded as the ‘Microsoft Dynamics Distribution Partner of the year’ at Microsoft WPC 2009.

I’ve known Young & Partners since their early start (about 10 years ago) and their track record is impressive.  And I’m not talking about their vertical product itself: there must be dozens of Distribution & Transport solutions worldwide which must be excellent too. Like there are hunderds of fast-food chains which make excellent hamburgers, but McDonalds was the one who also made it a huge success worldwide.

The difficult thing in business is to SCALE: to find a model to expand your product successfully internationally and make volume. And Young & Partners succeeded in doing it with an indirect channel.