Call for Papers

Below is the call for papers for the upcoming Cutter IT Journal issue The Transformation of the Enterprise SW, guest edited by Vince Kellen.

The Transformation of the Enterprise Software Market

The enterprise software market, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), has undergone unprecedented consolidation in recent years. Oracle gobbled up Seibel and PeopleSoft, who previously swallowed JD Edwards. Oracle's own CRM product line is a collection of prior acquisitions (Vantive and Annuncio). In prior years, Microsoft acquired Great Plains Software and continues to develop its CRM product line. Recently, large enterprise vendors literally devoured the business intelligence space, with IBM acquiring Cognos, Oracle acquiring Hyperion, and SAP acquiring Business Objects. Historically, Oracle's own business intelligence strategy has been one of acquisition after acquisition.

Where does this leave the enterprise software space? In the hands of a few vendors, many of which have redundant product lines, technology architecture in dire need of long-term rationalization, and many competing priorities and interests from their newly acquired massive customer base. Is all this transformation of the enterprise software market good for organizations?

One could argue that because most large firms already use enterprise software, further consolidation was inevitable. Is this the case? Has market saturation led to consolidation in enterprise software? Or is the current model for enterprise software firms -- which relies heavily on a direct sales force, complex and configurable software, and significant services -- the main cause of consolidation? After all, large enterprise software firms need to leverage their sales and support staffs to maintain profitability and gain market share.

Enterprise software solutions typically are designed to let customers configure and tailor the features within the software. This adds significant complexity to the products. Is this increased complexity both in features and associated contract terms here to stay? Or will enterprise software vendors try to simplify their products and their contracts?

Both SAP and Oracle have expressed a desire to consider further acquisitions down the road. This acquisition strategy can create integration challenges for the software vendors. Will this acquisition strategy spur or stall innovation? Will innovation occur in small firms whose primary purpose is to get purchased by a large player? Or is this M&A strategy merely "wreckage removal" designed to eliminate competition?

For several years now, we have heard about open-source ERP software, and some early adopters have implemented these solutions. Will the recent and future consolidation bode well or ill for the open source enterprise software market?

With a few large vendors providing broad solutions, what distinguishes the primary enterprise software vendors? Do software features and functions matter most, or are service and support the main adoption criteria? Given the breadth of these solutions, will CIOs find it easier or harder to sell enterprise software internally? CIOs may now have "one throat to choke" across a wide collection of software products. With one company to call, selling, theoretically, ought to be easier. Do the software vendors have sales forces up to the complex selling task?

Web services and service-oriented architecture seem firmly established in the enterprise software vendor community. While this increases interoperability between the enterprise software and niche or home-grown products, it also allows CIOs to "disaggregate" the enterprise solution, sometimes bypassing the vendor's efforts to bundle modules together. Do firms need to take advantage of these kinds of customizations? Or do firms appreciate the bundling of modules?

The recent consolidations have changed the competitive landscape for database and middleware tools. Oracle, for example, sells middleware and database tools while selling enterprise software that works with competing vendors' middleware and database platforms. Will this interoperability between competing vendors continue? Or will vendors need to "edge" each other out of different layers of the stack? Which vendors have the most to gain or lose in this new competitive landscape?

Much recent focus has been on the consumer IT product markets, especially on firms such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft with their strong consumer product lines. Microsoft already competes in the enterprise software market -- will Google and Apple be entering the fight?

The industry has been discussing the "cloud," and many firms already outsource some or most portions of the enterprise software stack either as a hosted data center solution or as a service (SaaS). Which model will predominate -- in house solution or a hosted/SaaS?

This issue of Cutter IT Journal will tackle the wide-ranging and numerous questions regarding the enterprise software space. TOPICS OF INTEREST MAY INCLUDE (but are certainly not limited to) a combination of the following:

  • Licensing models within enterprise software
  • How will vendors and customers manage complex product lines?
  • The role of open source enterprise software in this market
  • How will Web services affect enterprise software architecture?
  • The enterprise software business model: stagnant or changing?
  • ERP consolidation and enterprise architecture
  • Which portions of the enterprise software market are growing?
  • Is the enterprise software market headed in the right direction?
  • Enterprise 2.0 and ERP

TO SUBMIT AN ARTICLE IDEA: Please respond to Vince Kellen (vkellen[at]depaul.edu) with a copy to itjournal[at]cutter.com by March 12 with an article outline/abstract.

ARTICLE DEADLINE: Articles are due on April 24, 2008.

EDITORIAL GUIDELINES: Most Cutter IT Journal articles are approximately 2,500-3,500 words long, plus whatever graphics are appropriate. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact CITJ's managing editor Karen Pasley (kpasley [at]cutter.com) or Vince Kellen at vkellen[at]depaul.edu. Editorial guidelines are available at http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/edguide.html

AUDIENCE: Typical readers of Cutter IT Journal range from CIOs and vice presidents of software organizations to IT managers, directors, project leaders, and very senior technical staff. Most work in fairly large organizations: Fortune 500 IT shops, large computer vendors (IBM, HP, etc.), and government agencies. 48% of our readership is outside of the US (15% from Canada, 14% Europe, 5% Australia/NZ, 14% elsewhere). Please avoid introductory-level, tutorial coverage of a topic. Assume you're writing for someone who has been in the industry for 10 to 20 years, is very busy, and very impatient. Assume he or she will asking, "What's the point? What do I do with this information?" Apply the "So what?" test to everything you write.

PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES: We are pleased to offer Journal authors a year's complimentary subscription and 10 copies of the issue in which they are published. In addition, we occasionally pull excerpts, along with the author's bio, to include in our weekly Cutter Edge e-mail bulletin, which reaches another 8,000 readers. We'd also be pleased to quote you, or passages from your article, in Cutter press releases. If you plan to be speaking at industry conferences, we can arrange to make copies of the issue in which you're published downloadable for attendees of those speaking engagements -- furthering your own promotional efforts.

ABOUT CUTTER IT JOURNAL: No other journal brings together so many cutting-edge thinkers, and lets them speak so bluntly and frankly. We strive to maintain the Journal's reputation as the "Harvard Business Review of IT". Our goal is to present well-grounded opinion (based on real, accountable experiences), research, and animated debate about each topic the Journal explores.

The Transformation of the Enterprise Software Market