In an effort to sell more software vendors have come up with innovative ways selling their new and improved solutions. Marketing departments come up with innovative ways to describe their products and services which are not always correct and sometimes can be misleading to customers.
They often come up with short forms for phrases such as BPM for business performance management or business process management, two different things entirely but same acronyms. BPO is business process optimization or business process outsourcing, enterprise process management or enterprise project management or enterprise performance management (EPM), (CPRFM) corporate planning of replenishment and forecasting management are a few acronyms that can be easily misconstrued. By not knowing the differences can lead to misunderstandings when communicating your business needs to vendors. By using buzz words with no actual meaning such as “value chain” not only confuses buyers but leads them down the wrong path in misconstruing what is actually meant. Even with system types BI, ERP, ETO, EPM, CRM, SCRM, HR, HCM, TMS and WMS are examples of acronyms all have different meanings as well. For further system times see our site under system types under software evaluation for further clarification.
Another area of confusion is the fine line between IaaS and PaaS. There is hardly a variation as they tend to overlap in functionality and administartive areas. The many acronyms created within the virtualization space also create a whole new line of short forms and extra hype to clarify when selecting software.
We have recently seen several recent evaluations where organizations have evaluated different tiers of software as well as different types of software that were incorrect for their original purposes and initiatives. Their original intent, an ERP for services, would have been the correct fit, but their path led to evaluating a Tier 2 (some might consider it possibly a Tier 3) and then a manufacturing prevalent ERP. There could have been many reasons why this evaluation went off the rails. Improper consulting advice, vendor overpromising, strategic fit, miscalculation of ROI and TCO, comparing an on-premise to a SaaS (the ROI and TCO is calculated differently), not disclosing full business processes as a way to way to disqualify vendors by getting them to discover your business, misalignment of system to business initiative (including strategic fit, vendor viability) and using the vendor demo as the software evaluation are a few common mistakes that miscommunication can cause especially if you do not know the lingo that vendors speak. These are some factors that can lead to IT failure so know your business and disclose the right information to the vendor so that there is no misunderstanding and you can succeed at selecting the right enterprise software system.
How many more acronyms do you know just within enterprise software ?
Eval‐Source is a consulting firm that provides enterprise software selection and strategic technology consulting services for organizations. Our consulting practices encompass cloud and on-premise software evaluation services, ERP, Supply Chain strategy, social media, cloud and technology consulting. Eval‐Source is an industry leader in the analysis of software technology and our thought leadership has placed us in the elite of consulting/analyst firms. What sets us apart is our unbiased best in class consulting services that provide our clients with value, direction and success in selection, planning and infrastructure planning of their technology systems. Eval-Source can assist organizations in any phase of their selection process.
www.eval-source.com, twitter: @eval_source
Eval‐Source is a consulting firm that provides enterprise software evaluation and strategic technology consulting services. Technology and Business strategy go hand-in-hand and Eval-Source helps organizations align the right technology to their business. We are an industry leader in the analysis of enterprise software technology and our thought leadership has placed us in the elite of consulting/analyst firms. What sets us apart is our unbiased best in class consultative approach that provides our clients with value, direction and success in selection and planning of their technology systems. We understand technology from every aspect that can affect your business.
