Forrester's IT Forum 2009 - Come see your favorite speakers!

Forrester’s IT Forum 2009 is fast approaching — May 19-22 in

Las Vegas

At this event, you will learn how you and your app dev and program management peers can move beyond the oft-cited, overly simplistic mantra of "cheaper, faster, better" to creating substantive, lasting value for the enterprise. Forrester’s IT analysts will examine critical issues at the intersection of business and information technology. We have great speakers this year, with keynotes from:

Guest speakers

David Barnes, Senior Vice President and CIO, UPS

Chris Capossela, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Business Division, Microsoft

Dana Deasy, CIO and Group Vice President, BP

Gary Heil, Founder and Consultant, Center For Innovative Leadership

Robert W. Moffat, Jr., Senior Vice President and Group Executive, Systems and Technology Group, IBM

Tom Peck, Senior Vice President and CIO, Levi Strauss & Company

Richard M. Soley, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO, Object Management Group

Check out some of the app dev & program management track session highlights!

Showdown At The Project Corral: Traditional Project Delivery Meets Agile And Lean
Mary Gerush, Margo Visitacion, and Dave West will be leading a discussion on the tension between traditional project-oriented approaches to deliver software applications, versus newer concepts like Agile development and lean process management, that challenge traditional project delivery processes. This session will explore the benefits and challenges of traditional and disruptive project delivery practices, and will provide actionable recommendations to streamline processes and improve outcomes by incorporating Agile and lean approaches:

Developing Applications Using Advanced Information Architecture
Mike Gilpin and Noel Yuhanna will report on their in-depth research into a number of new case studies that highlight the various technologies and approaches associated with next-generation information architectures. You can use these new approaches to implement new applications and business intelligence dashboards, and the session will offer guidance on how best to take advantage of new ways to access information.

Bringing Product-Centric Software Development To Service-Sector Organizations
Roy Wildeman applies key product life-cycle management (PLM) principles and practices from the manufacturing sector to services firms in industries like financial services, government, and telecom services. But the traditional PLM application’s manufacturing-oriented capabilities don’t always fit the bill for services firms — requiring product development IT professionals to seek out and assemble more complementary application options like product catalogs, publishing functionality, and other point solutions.

You can visit Forrester.com for all of the relevant information. If you’re attending, here are some great ways to maximize your experience:

• Check this blog for our in-depth updates from keynotes and track sessions.
• RSVP on our Facebook Event page, and network with attendees.
• Follow us on Twitter as we plan and launch the Event.

If you can’t be there, you can still stay connected with these platforms. But we hope to see you in Vegas!

News Analysis: Oracle Waives Fees On Extended Support Offerings

Oracle President Charles Phillips pleasantly surprised Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG) Collaborate 09 attendees this morning during his keynote with the decision to waive Extended Support fees for a number of product lines through 2010 and 2011. As customers and prospects face one of the worst global economic crises, proactive relief on support and maintenance fees could not come at a better time.  Summary details of the program can be found in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Oracle's Revised Support Policies

(Source: Oracle Corporation)

Proactive change in support offering creates a win-win

Oracle's move to address the support issue may stem from a variety of reasons but the main focus centers around improving the vendor-client relationship for a few reasons:

• Responding to the global economic crisis.  Oracle has taken the initiative in listening to customers, partners, and industry watchers about customer reactions to the escalating costs of software maintenance.  Oracle's Applications Unlimited and Lifetime Support Programs have been successful in retaining acquired customers and have shown customers that acquisitions need not be slash and burn with minimal reinvestment.
• Providing more time for customers to adopt Fusion Apps. With the slow down, Oracle may be anticipating slower upgrade rates.  While no clear date and product road map has been communicated to customers, removing the price pressure on extended support fees provides customers with some breathing room on upgrade timing.
• Mitigating attention on high profit margins and its M&A strategy. After touting record profit margins near 50% and continuing its M&A strategy with the announcement to acquire Sun, customers have become concerned about the impact of less choice in the market.   This move may appease regulators and industry watchers and show that Oracle has some self regulating policies.

The bottom line - user groups should now determine the minimum R&D percentage of investment from revenues

Oracle continues to gain economies of scale with each acquisition.  The good news - Oracle has the capacity to reinvest $2.6B per year into R&D and the real dollar amount has increased from 1.9B in 2006.  While this is a large figure, the bigger and more important issue - what percentage of the maintenance revenues have been reinvested?  Here's where we find a slight drop from 12.6% to about 11.6% in 2008.  Consequently, like SAP's users and user groups, OAUG and the other Oracle users and user groups should begin to track the ratio of R&D dollars that tie back to the amount of maintenance revenue.   In fact, they may want to take a look at the SUGEN KPI's and see if they are applicable to Oracle's environment.  R&D spend from maintenance and the need for Third Party Support options will be the key ownership issues for the next 5 to 10 years.  In any case, the need for preserving and strengthening independent user groups will be one effective check and balance in the consolidating world of enterprise software.

Your POV

Do you feel Oracle made the right move?  What have your experiences been like with Applications Unlimited and Lifetime Support?  Send me a private email to rwang@forrester.com.  Posts are preferred!   Thanks and looking forward to your POV!

Copyright © 2009 R Wang. All rights reserved.

Reposted from http://blog.softwareinsider.org