The real cost of enterprise software implementations

January 5, 2014 / Telmo Silva
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    At ClicData we are faced many times with the question of how different we are from QlikView, Tableau, Business Objects, and many other well-known enterprise level solutions for reporting and dashboarding.

    Although it is a difficult comparison, one of the key elements that stand out is the price difference and how most people are doubtful that we can deliver as much value as those other solutions for so little?

    My first reaction is to raise the price 😉 but of course, that is not the intention.  You see, like many other IT professionals and consultants, I worked with large companies that selected well know software companies to implement their “best of breed” solutions.  Companies such as SAP, Oracle, Siebel, People Soft, JD Edwards, Cognos, Business Objects, MicroStrategy, QlikView, and many many others.  And like many, my clients and employers spent an outstanding amount of money on licenses, maintenance, support, training, implementation, consulting, interfaces, and rollouts.

    It is difficult to admit failure and many companies don’t and resort to keep pumping up their implementation with more money and more people.  Software vendors promise that newer releases will fix the issues that are not actually the fault of the software – mostly just a lack of adaptability to the needs or a lack of understanding of what is needed in the first place.  Here are a few of the articles from well-known companies that illustrate the reasons and challenges.

    So when I am asked what is the difference between us and the “other guys”, the first thing I say is: if ClicData doesn’t fit your business you will not regret having tried it first.  We use a concept that Thomas Edison used 100 years ago. It’s not a new concept but very useful for any company – “fail fast and fail often”.  

    In research and development, we fail often before we find a good solution to a problem or a successful product or process that we are creating.  If we take too long at failing then others will most likely be successful first.  So we need to fail fast so that we can try more combinations faster.  Obviously, we are hoping that you don’t fail with us and I am sure that you will not – BUT – if you do, it will be quickly and it will cost very little.

    However, if our initial investment and planning are so large and long then we enter a catch 69 cycle.  If we stop at the first sign of trouble we lose our investment (and most likely our jobs) if we don’t stop we will go over the investment and attempt to succeed by a brute force which will cause additional issues and create additional costs and time extensions.  New consulting and integration companies come in, we purchase add-on components to fix something that should have been working in the first place, we re-design to fit the business to the software, or we break the software to fit the business that can’t or is not willing to change.

    Cloud/SaaS applications, like ClicData, allow customers to minimize their risk. No servers, technicians, databases, and licenses to buy and maintain. No installation of software, settings or configurations to make. Use it for a month, upgrade if you like, or don’t if you don’t like it or need the advanced functionalities. It’s that simple.

    You should try ClicData to manage your business important metrics such as expenses, staff, projects, invoicing and profitability.  You will not regret it…