Director of SAP Practice for The Judge Group Presents at SAP Summit in Boston

PHILADELPHIA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Harry Hirsch, SAP Practice Director for The Judge Group, a professional services firm specializing in Technology Consulting, Enterprise-Wide Staffing and Corporate Training, presented at the 5^th Annual SAP^® Influencer Summit in Boston on December 4^th.

The two-day, invitation-only event consisted of five hundred key IT and Business Influencers from around the globe. The gathering took place at The Westin Boston Waterfront where the theme of the event was “Business Network Transformation.” As an industry expert, Mr. Hirsch led an informative discussion on The Judge Group’s accomplishments and future plans with SAP. Some of the key topics discussed were Business ByDesign (BBD), All-in-One (AIO), Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Software as a Service (SAAS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

“The Judge Group was honored by Mr. Hirsch’s invitation to speak in support of SAP’s newest innovations at this year’s Summit,” said Martin E. Judge, Jr., CEO and Founder of The Judge Group. “The Summit presented a great opportunity to network with other industry experts from around the world who are all striving towards innovation and growth.”

SAP presented and demonstrated their strong commitment to Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture and how SOA enables innovation based on a stable, extendable core. “SAP has done an excellent job in developing a portfolio of products that are not only affordable for the small and medium business (SMB) sector but also give organizations like The Judge Group the opportunity to level the playing field against their larger competitors,” said Harry Hirsch, Director of SAP Practice for The Judge Group.

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Acquisitions in the pure play asset technology space

This year has been a watermark year for takeovers and mergers in the area of asset management consultancy and services companies.

Growing regulatory burdens, rampant resource sector demand, financial regulators stiffening their resolve in European utility markets, surges in defense spending, and the recent infrastructure spotlight in the US are driving a greater need for companies to understand, predict and manage the risks of asset failure.

This has been most apparent in the sectors of software and technology companies. Since late last year we have seen a range of technology take overs.

The most high profile to date has been the take over of MRO Software (MRO) by IBM (IBM), sent a warning that a new and large scale player was entering the field of asset maintenance technologies. The flagship product IBM Maximo holds a dominant position within manufacturing companies as well as within the North American Utilities industries.

Private equity firm Francisco Partners deepened their exposure into asset-intensive technologies with the purchase of Mincom, the Australian Asset management Software house, specializing in Mining, Defense and Utilities industries. This adds to their already impressive portfolio of technological assets within this sector including the ubiquitous Primavera technology and a range of supporting technological companies in IT and hardware.

The most recent addition to this has been the purchase of Information Science Consultants in the UK, ISC, by IFS Defence adding a deep and recognised level of RCM functionality to a company that is already a dominant player in asset management with many of the world’s larger organizations and institutions.

This particular acquisition holds possibly more interest than the rest within this field, because it signals a drive to widen the functionality base of standard EAM approaches to asset management.

Last of the big deals is a range of deals that have been undertaken by Infor Global Solutions a very low profile operator in the Enterprise Asset Management field; yet according to AMR Research it has more enterprise customers than SAP and Oracle combined and is the third largest Enterprise technology vendor in the world. (Around 70,000 customers)
Still a private company, with heavy support from Golden Gate Capital, have made an astounding number of acquisitions, giving it around $2.1 billion in annual revenues and making it the 10th largest software company in the world.

A phenomenal success story for a company that is barely 5 years old!

The list of acquisitions is impressive and shows a level of momentum and vision beyond other notable players in the field.

• May 2007 – Purchased Hansen Information Technologies providing a launch pad into government and utility sectors with their popular Windows based ERP system. (Rail, public works, government, utilities)

• April 2007 – Purchased Workbrain a workforce management solution for around $200 million.

• January 2006 – Purchases SSA Global. Giving them access to their large customer base of supply chain companies as well as the Baan product that they had previously acquired.

January 2006 – Purchases Datastream for $10.26 per share in cash.

While others are focusing on organic growth and playing the time honoured game of competing on price and functionality, Infor has ridden over the top of all of them securing themselves as the leaders within the field; even though nobody knows who they are. So what could be next for this amazing feature of the AM landscape?

An IPO seems inevitable although there is no news on that front. In the meantime they have ensured that their voice will be heard above most others around the globe; challenging recognised leaders SAP and Maximo (for this sector) to dominate the playing field altogether.

The ERP Game (For two or more players)

The ERP game has grown in popularity since the end of the 1980’s. Today a growing number of teams all over the world play the game.

Despite the surge in popularity, there is no record of the rules of the game. Therefore, for the first time, here is a guide to the unwritten rules of The ERP Game.

The Players

The Home Side – Traditionally consists of people from a “client” organization. The team members often have some experience in IT, and some of them will have participated in at least one game prior to kick off. The Home Team also includes experts in managing The Game.

However, it is normal practice not to have too many subject matter experts in the Home Team. If they are included then it is normally as an adviser or reviewer, a role designed to make sure they do not interfere with the playing of the game with irrelevant business related issues.

The Away Side – There are usually two or three Away Teams; the ones that start the Game, the ones that Finish the Game and the ones that manage the Game.

The initial Away team is usually comprised of seasoned game players. Veterans of many games through the years and well versed in the rules of the game. It is customary to replace these with less experienced players after the start of the game.

The Away Side is the only team in the Game to have a comprehensive playbook of past games.

The Rules

• The Home team is obliged to change some or all of the requirements of the game at any time (Home team advantage)

• The Away team can change one or all of the team players for lesser experienced people at any time after the beginning of the game

• The Away team must try to point out obscure reasons in the contract to limit the playing of the game

• Withholding funds by the Home Team can stall the Game but is a valid maneuver

• Stopping work by the Away team is a valid but risky maneuver which could mean the end of the Game

• “Configuration” shall be defined by the Away team and will take whatever amount of time they deem necessary for this Game

• “Availability of resources” shall be defined by the Home team and the Away team will accept their decision

• The Away team will use the word “scope” continually when defending recent plays

• The Home team will at all times attempt to bypass the “scope” rule through any tactic necessary

• At no time will the Home team be fully aware of the definition of “Scope” within the Game; if this happens then the Game is forfeit by the Away Side.

• “Functionality” will be defined by the Away team in very narrow terms

• The Away team shall attribute any delays, failures, or lack of progress to issues related to the Home teams lack of experience and preparedness. At no time, will the Away team take responsibility for any issues of this nature.

• The Home side will always ensure that the team managers see the Game as successful regardless of the opinions of others in the company

• The Away side will always refer to the plan as “dynamic”

Winning the Game

The ERP Game is one of the only games in the world where each Team has different criteria for winning. However, neither Team can let on that they have different goals and it is traditional to talk incessantly about a win-win.

Neither team can ever let on that they are winning.

The Away Team

• The Away Team wins if they earn more than they originally quoted to play the Game.

• Sales of extra software, functionality or services by the Away team will earn them bonus points.

• The Away team can only lose the game if they spend more than they earn for the game.

The Home Team

• The Home team wins the Game if they get what they wanted without paying more money. (The Home Team doesn’t normally win the game.)

• There are many ways that the Home team can lose the Game

• Successful adoption of the system by the users in the company will earn bonus points for both teams, but this is very rare.

Talking about the Game

Traditionally both Teams to refer to the Game as a success regardless of who wins.

This is often supported by a practice known as Creative Reporting; a skill that players seem to develop only after they have spent millions of dollars.

Where applicable these reports can be published and used at conferences to demonstrate how well the teams were able to play the Game.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­After the successful completion of a Game, either side can call for a rematch often termed an “upgrade”. This is common among evenly matched teams or where the Away side has won easily.