The Use and Misuse of PaaS

One of the key advantages of modern cloud systems is that they often come with rapid development platforms that allow the vendor, partners, and even customers to build extensions and customizations to the system without affecting the underlying code or architecture of the base system. These are generally known as Platform as a Service (PaaS).

Examples include the Salesforce Lightning (formerly Force.com) platform, the SuiteCloud platform of Oracle’s NetSuite, Acumatica’s xRP platform, Sage Intacct’s Platform Services, Microsoft’s Power Platform, and many others.

However, as with so many good things in life, PaaS can be used and abused.

Read the rest of this post on the Strativa blog:
The Use and Misuse of Platform as a Service 

Big Shift: NetSuite Moving to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

In recent years, Oracle has been intensely focused on its cloud strategy as the key to its growth. At Oracle Open World 2016, with the announcement of Oracle’s second-generation cloud infrastructure, Larry Ellison said, “Amazon’s lead is over.” It was an ambitious goal: At the time, Oracle’s cloud infrastructure (OCI) business was bringing in less than $200M per quarter.

Uptake of Oracle’s cloud applications is great, but when it comes to Oracle really competing with Amazon or Microsoft as a platform for independent software vendors (ISVs), the story is different.

The absence of multitenant ISVs on OCI is not because of a lack of capabilities. Oracle’s flagship database, since v12c was released in 2013, has built-in multitenancy in the form of database containers, which allow multiple tenants to share a single Oracle database, with individual containers assigned to each tenant. This approach puts the multitenancy into the infrastructure layer, allowing developers to focus their efforts on application development, not on the mechanics of multitenancy.

Oracle’s lack of commercial SaaS providers building on OCI is about to change.

Read the rest of this post on the Strativa blog:
NetSuite on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure: What It Means for Customers

In Vendor Evaluation, Don’t Shortcut the RFI Process

In some enterprise software selection projects, clients are tempted to skip the Request for Information (RFI) stage and go straight to a Request for Proposal (RFP). This is a mistake and often the result of not fully understanding the value of a well-written RFI.

What is the difference between an RFI and an RFP? In our software selection consulting services, we develop an RFI near the beginning of the vendor evaluation process. The RFI includes a description of the client’s organization and the client’s project. It also includes a list of key requirements for the new system—not an exhaustive list, but essential functionality or processes that are distinctive for the client. Vendors are asked to respond as to their ability to satisfy those key requirements. Vendors are not asked for a cost proposal at this time. We typically make the RFI available to as many vendors as we think are qualified to respond, or to those that express an interest in responding—usually five or more.

An RFP, in contrast, is published near the end of the evaluation process, after each finalist vendor (typically 2-3) has conducted its demonstrations or other proof-of-concept. The vendors are asked to provide a cost proposal, along with their proposed license/subscription agreements and a high-level implementation proposal with costs and schedules. The vendors’ RFI responses are incorporated as an attachment, which they can revise based on what they’ve learned since they first responded to the RFI.

Read the rest of this post on the Strativa blog: In Vendor Evaluation, Don’t Shortcut the RFI Process

Free Resources on the New Strativa Website

After much work, we've launched a long-overdue redesign of website for Strativa, my business and IT consulting firm.

Visit the new website at Strativa.com. 

Free Resources

In addition to giving the site a fresh new design and new content, one of our motivations was to be able to offer free resources for download to our website visitors. A starting collection is now online:

• The Need for Independence in Advisory Services: An informal video interview that I gave recently on the history of Strativa and the value of independence.
   
• Business Strategy Case Study: The Critical Few: A case study from one of our business strategy client engagements, where the client achieved outstanding financial results.
   
• VAR to Solution Provider: Strategies for Business Transformation: A research report providing an example of our thinking around business strategy.
   
• Elevating the Role of the CIO: A research report on how CIOs can elevate their role within the organization to take the lead on innovation.
   
• Trends in ERP and How to Ensure Success: A 10-minute video presentation highlighting current trends in ERP adoption and key factors for success.
   
• The Whats and Whys of the IT Service Catalog: A research report from Strativa Practice Director Wayne Meriwether, giving a primer on the basics of IT service catalogs.

These are just the start. We plan to add to this collection over the coming months and will announce new free resources here as well.

Design Principles

The new site was designed by Streetwolf, a digital creative studio in Los Angeles. Click the link to see some of the major brands its developers have worked with. (Disclosure: the founder is my son, Steve Scavo.) They designed the new site with three key principles:

• Responsive design: The site is written in HTML5, featuring responsive design. If you're not familiar with that concept, it means that the site detects whether you're running on a desktop, tablet computer, or smartphone, and automatically adjusts to optimize viewing on that device. If you're viewing the site on a desktop or laptop, you can see the responsive design in action, by taking your browser out of full screen mode and dragging the window more narrowly. You'll see the site automatically adjust to the new size, and at some point you'll see the menu bar shrink down to a "hamburger" (those three horizontal lines indicating a menu is behind it).
   
• Readability: The site is content-rich, focusing on the primary services that Strativa offers. It also includes a blog. With so much content, the site is designed for readability, from the font choices to the color palette. The text is primary. Images are spare and serve to illustrate the content, not overwhelm it. 
   
• Fast: No one likes to wait, especially when looking for information and especially when viewing a site on a mobile device. Images are compressed and we deploy caching of website content where appropriate to optimize the site for fast performance.

If you have feedback on the new site, please let me know through the Strativa contact page.