The economy is on practically everyone’s mind these days. We know we’re in for a bumpy ride over the next several months, and perhaps even years. Everywhere we turn, organizations are “battening down the hatches”, learning to do more with less. One way to do that is to evaluate our tools as well as our approaches to some of the routine tasks that we perform.
Are You Recession-Proof?
January 28, 2009 · 2 Comments
→ 2 CommentsCategories: Consulting · ERP · IT · LBI · ProcessFlow · Thoughts
All We Need is a Reset Button
December 19, 2008 · 3 Comments
I don’t know what it is about kids and iPods. Sometimes I think I should expand my consulting practice to include the fixing, resetting, and yes, disposing of unusable iPods. Seems my two boys have a knack for doing things to their iPods for which they just weren’t designed. Oh, you know: laundering them, leaving them outside in the rain, stepping on them, sitting on their chair on top of them. And then, they wonder why they don’t work anymore. Gee, how I wonder. 
One interesting aspect of this is an application Apple provides on there support site that let’s you completely reset an iPod. It’s called, quite appropriately, the iPod Reset Utility:
So simplistic, yet so powerful. Think of it as a mulligan for your iPod. Imagine how nice it would be to have a “do-over” available; the ability to reset after some awful experience. Let that be our thought for this New Year’s Day. A fresh start; a proverbial reset button.
→ 3 CommentsCategories: Thoughts
Are We Ready for Lawson Smart Office?
November 18, 2008 · 4 Comments
To paraphrase Dean Hager:
“This has been a ten-year dream for me; to deliver on the promise of a comprehensive all-encompassing Lawson user experience.”
In short, Lawson Smart Office integrates and delivers all facets of Lawson applications in a seamless fashion, providing a comprehensive user experience for all things Lawson. Smart Office is built on 3 pillars: intelligence, productivity, and personalization. As Dean says, Smart Office facilitates what Lawson is calling “The Process of Me”.
I agree that it’s slick. In fact, it’s gorgeous. It utilizes all the latest Microsoft technologies. But you know me—I’m the skeptic. So, let’s examine a few questions:
→ 4 CommentsCategories: Lawson · Lawson M3 · Lawson S3 · Thoughts
Customization: Risk vs. Reward
October 15, 2008 · 4 Comments
One of the realities of ERP is that organizations often feel they need to customize to meet their requirements. Customization is a tough choice to make and there really is no good answer. In this article, we’ll examine some of the reasons for customization of your Lawson S3 Applications, why to avoid it, and how to mitigate the risks if you do customize.
→ 4 CommentsCategories: Customization · ERP · Lawson · Lawson S3 · Thoughts
Do You Agree With Harry?
August 28, 2008 · 2 Comments
Lawson’s CEO Harry Debes certainly isn’t afraid to speak his mind or express his feelings. But Harry’s latest remarks deriding Software as a Service (SaaS) might just put him in the doghouse:
→ 2 CommentsCategories: ERP · Harry Debes · LWSN · Thoughts
LWSN Expands Support Options as SAP Narrows
August 14, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Over the past year or so, Lawson has been expanding their support offerings. It used to be that you had just one option: “Maintenance and Support”.
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The Art and Science of Troubleshooting
August 5, 2008 · 4 Comments
“How do I fix xyz?”
Thinking about how to troubleshoot reminds me of trying to fix my leaky shower.
→ 4 CommentsCategories: Consulting · ProcessFlow · Thoughts
The Bendable Work-Week
July 23, 2008 · 2 Comments
Consider an organization which, up until now at least, has had 7-hour workdays. And, not for all employees, but for most administrative staff, except IT. To justify the exclusion of IT, they say “IT workers make too much money already”. Gee, how appreciative.
But anyway. Most admin folks (like the Finance staff) get an 9:00-4:30 day, with the requisite 30-minute lunch (which naturally gets stretched to an hour, right?).
Being a non-profit, they “just can’t afford the salaries offered by other for-profit companies”, so they compensate in other ways such as offering up better benefits like more vacation and the 7 hour day. Which is being taken away.
→ 2 CommentsCategories: Thoughts
Pondering an Age Old Question
July 19, 2008 · 1 Comment
I think it goes something like this: “’tis better to have loved and lost, or to never have loved at all?”
To put a twist on it a bit, is it better to have competed and lost, or never to have competed? That is the question.
→ 1 CommentCategories: Rants · Thoughts
LSWN: Your Full-Service Provider
July 11, 2008 · Leave a Comment
An interesting comment in the recent FY08 earnings conference call, made by CEO Harry Debes:
“I think some of our competitors in the case of Microsoft delivers no services, in the case of SAP and Oracle deliver a lot less services. It’s a strategy of ours to in fact be intimately involved with our customer not just to sell them software, we don’t think of ourselves as a software publisher. We think of ourselves as a solutions company and that involves services.”
→ Leave a CommentCategories: ERP · Harry Debes · LWSN · Lawson · Thoughts
