SAP takes a new business model

To keep growing, launches software aimed at small and medium enterprises

Giant SAP AG technology became a major software companies to sell a program equivalent to a Mercedes Benz-large, expensive and highly engineered. It is applications that help the largest companies in the world handle everything from payroll to manufacturing and bills.

Currently, SAP is launching a business software simpler and cheaper that targets small and medium enterprises. This rudder movement represents a cultural shift and a major challenge for the company.

The product, known internally as A1S, but whose name will be unveiled today in New York, with access via the Internet. This helps companies to manage their administrative tasks and important tasks such as driving a sales force.

Instead of charging high amounts for licenses, customers pay a monthly subscription per employee using the system, which makes accessible to companies that can not spend millions on information technology.

Instead of charging high amounts for licenses, customers pay a monthly subscription per employee using the system, which makes accessible to companies that can not spend millions on information technology.

At the same time, there have been other competitors selling Internet-based software through a subscription, as the California-based Salesforce.com. Another rival is NetSuite Inc., which is backed by Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and preparing to go public in the United States.

A1S is SAP's attempt to reach this new market and deal with these competitors. "Not only are we launching this new product," he said in an interview CEO Henning Kagermann.

"'We are creating a new business model and a new market."

For that SAP will have to learn new tricks. The company can no longer create software and collect the profits, all at the same time. Should help companies to install and use the software permanently, something that is usually done in large companies with the help of a group of consultants.

In addition, its sales force, accustomed to court only to large customers, will have to sell in large volumes at lower prices and more inexperienced customers.

SAP also will begin offering services to customers using its Web-based software. The company has established what it calls its "service factory" which offers cheaper and faster services to customers of A1S, such as migration of data and analytical reports based on sales or inventory information.

Kagermann said that this work will be done by SAP staff in lower-cost countries like India and China.

The risks are considerable, but so are profits. James Clark, an analyst at Credit Suisse, believes that A1S could reach 471 million euros (653.2 million dollars) in revenue for 2010 and 2,130 million euros (2.98 billion dollars) by 2015.

SAP's revenue amounted to 9,400 million euros last year (U.S. $ 13,040 million).

"It would be a blow to their reputation if they are wrong," says Clark. "But if they do good, the service will be an important driver of profitability and income stability for business."

Leila Abboud The Wall Street Journal

En 2009, el 25% de la población mundial trabajará desde su casa. En la Argentina, ya hay 980.000 oficinas hogareñas, y un nuevo proyecto de ley apoya esa modalidad.

Working from home, or somewhere in Paradise was the dream of many, but today can be a reality. The proliferation of information technologies and communication technologies (ICTs) transformed the world of work while giving greater freedom inthe times, better yields in productivity and shortened distances.

Technological advances, WiFi Internet access from virtually anywhere in the world and the cultural change that is unfolding slowly will give the employee the ability to have greater flexibility to work and do so not only in the office, but also from home or elsewhere, if it can stay connected.

If we add these advances the study of IDC Consulting which provides mobile workers by 2009 will make up 25 percent of the employed population in the world, we can say that we are facing a rising trend.

The most recent surveys on the subject of the Carrier and Associates Consulting indicate that 980 000 are in the country home office, 80,000 more than in 2006. This is because, according to Enrique Carrier, director of consultancy, changes in labor relations, the emergence of new technologies that bridge the gap between office and home, and the impact of the 2002 crisis, especially in middle and upper levels, which have a good training in technological tools.

The method, used for several years but gained new momentum today bears the name of telework and includes any form of work that does not require the presence of the person in the office or company, and to use telecommunications to communicate .

"This way of developing a cultural task requires a reorganization so that it can be applied efficiently," says Sonia graduated Boiarov, director of the Center for Tele and Tele-race Labor Relations of the UBA.

"One of the great advantages is that it facilitates the incorporation of the population excluded from the labor market as these technologies may enhance different abilities of people making invisible issues such as age, disease, visual impairment or physical disability. Some people with disabilities, telework may be your only chance to work, "adds Boiarov.

The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security decided to accompany this growth with the introduction of a bill that he entered the Senate in July this year and is in parliamentary treatment.

"The goal is that this method is considered as work as an employee, seeking to respect the equality of treatment between a teleworker and an employee who serves on the company and ensuring that both enjoy the same rights," says Dr. Viviana Diaz, coordinator of the Telework Commission of the Ministry.

The Commission was formed in October 2003 and invited to participate in various sectors including business, unions, associations, academics and the judiciary to make decisions by consensus. Now working actively in several agreements, one with the Ministry of Employment on Certification of competence, with which they want to draw the right skills to telework and that the Ministry may grant a certificate to those who fulfill the requirements.

On the other hand, the Pilot Program for Monitoring and Promotion of Telework in Private Enterprises (ProPeten) is a testing experience with different companies that are working with this modality. From the Commission to monitor compliance with appropriate precautions.

Diaz says that there must be in the country a PDA to reflect the progress and complementarity between technology and labor, to support the growth from decent work.

Angélica Abdallah, president of Argentina Telework Association, explains in relation to telework as an employee if the company management decided to adopt this mode, will overcome all difficulties as they arise, such as technological failures and address training needs by objectives.

"This last point is crucial, because when it comes to teleworking, supervision by objectives, not lack of control, but of a different control," says Abdallah.

"Among the advantages of this way of working is the possibility of development. Do not forget to mention the classical virtues, such as saving the company, the probability of recruiting specialists without the distance is an impediment, his contribution to environmental pollution abatement. In addition, one advantage that has gained special importance in recent years is disaster because the telecommuting by continuing to develop the activities normally, "he adds.

In the playroom

A Fernando Figuerola, 38, project manager for IBM, it was not hard to accept the offer making it the company to work from home. "Three years ago I'm home working nine to work in the company. I have the office in the playroom of the house, so I made my furniture," he says.

Figuerola has 20 dependents, working for IBM in the maintenance of enterprise applications for fast food. "Once a week I have meetings with the client and another day I go to the company where I meet with my team," he says.

"This year I was awarded the Service Excellence Award. This indicates that we are continually evaluated and controlled," concludes.

Paula Fiszman, public relations manager for Cisco, says that since the company promote telework. "Upon entering, we give the employee his job kit, which includes a personal computer with software from which you can access the phone as you would use the office."

The most used is the option of working from home some days and others in the office. Fiszman says more than 80 percent of employees using this system. "There are no disadvantages. On the contrary, employees are more motivated. Productivity does not decrease," he concludes.

Maria Laborda is 32 years and is manager of Cisco's Human Resources for Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, and works in the company two years ago. "One of the priorities that I asked at the time of entry was the opportunity to work one day from home. I live in the north and I have a total of three hours of travel by day," said Laborda.

Saia Gisel, manager of employee relations, diversity and human resources communications at IBM, says that at the global level the company put up this practice since the 80s. In Argentina in 1995 began to use it in principle with the vendors, that were close to the customer and more connected.

"The exponential advance of technology and the Internet helped that we could equip almost all employees with laptops to connect from anywhere," he says

"The philosophy of the company is working towards objectives. We evaluate performance, aligned to business objectives work. Yes or yes our rating system is organized in this way. Little by little cultural change is occurring, the mentality America has well-established physical contact. It is a process, does not happen overnight, "he concludes.

On Wednesday and Thursday of this month will be held the 2nd Latin American Congress of Telework in the Falkland Islands Chamber of the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security. Participation is free. The registration can be done in: www.cit2007.citvirtual.org. A good opportunity to further deepen the subject.

Daniela San Giovanni

Information systems as a business support company, today defined a new paradigm for application development, SOA, SAAS, and even Web 2.0, are some of the responses given the industry today.

COLOGNE (Uruguay) - Think of a software solution to address a specific problem involves adjusting to a predetermined series of steps that enable to ensure its success, ie effectively fulfill the objectives for which it was created.

Then different models are proposed work defined stages that must transit the solution development, from birth to become the expected response.

Today, because of the close relationship between a company's business and technology, as support for the storage, control and distribution of information, "properly design such a solution can be of vital importance for the purposes of the organization.

Given this, is that it seeks to apply a systems architecture that can assemble, the best way, each of the components involved in various stages of developing a software-type response: the requirements, work tools, equipment support, etc..

In the middle of this month, in the Uruguayan city of Colonia, Microsoft held the Regional Architect Forum 2007, a meeting where architects of systems of partner companies and customers of the Southern Cone region of the giant computer (including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile , Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay) discussed the new paradigms of software industry, related to the creation of solutions.

Combined. So long ago as the discussions were framed around the use of centralized or distributed models for processing data, the constant interaction of different systems that occur within a company, and out of her, "now define a new context for application development.

Precisely, the focus of the RAF 2007 was to show that this interplay of information sources currently describes new models for the creation of programs, such as a resolution to problems in living systems, "that point to take the best of both percent-oriented models percent to software, such as one hundred percent focused services.

This tendency to seek joint solutions, based its implementation on the following factors:

The user experience, increasingly demanding in response time and quality The delivery of information (or how a user can access it) The logic associated with access control applications and constant composition, service data and functionality the concept of federation user ID on multiple systems cost structure (transactional, airtime or number of uses)

S + S: software service. One model that accompanies this new line is called the SOA architecture (English, Service Oriented Architect).

SOA is not a product: it is a style of system design, standards-based development, Web Services, XML, etc .- collaborating with business agility.

"More than two years that the industry is talking about SOA as a role model in terms of how the internal organization of a department of systems and, more precisely, how to organize these systems," he said in a conversation with Eduardo LANACION.com Mangarelli, Microsoft country manager of Uruguay and group director of new business technologies in the region.

- What are the characteristics of this new concept?

SOA based his model on the flexibility and maintainability, as two key elements of the organization of systems. Aims to address the handling of large amounts of information, such as to integrate different systems to efficiently manage and build out integration of the company.

- What leads a company to think of SOA as a solution?

Today integration teams are extremely important within the organization. For example: I need my company's ERP to communicate with the CRM to exchange information or systems or distribution warehouse. But I also want my system to communicate with my suppliers, my customers or my partners. Then, within this framework of requirements, is that SOA, in terms of organizing the systems and services that expose certain features, appears as a reasonable response.

-- Under what context applies this model of architecture?

The basic concepts of SOA apply to any type of organization, although there is a very important influence generated by large technology providers. When asked what the response to this model, one answered on the basis of the large companies in major application servers that address issues of this kind. But the truth is that SOA can be solved in a few lines of code using the appropriate technology.

- What is the reaction of firms to environmental changes that mark the technological advances?

For 7 or 8 years ago it seemed that technology was adopted because it: there was a maelstrom of all that is new I have to use. Today the industry is much more demanding in expecting a return of the technology it uses. Microsoft sees SOA not as an end which arrive, but as a road ahead in mind that new applications will go to this model and reap the rewards on the fly without this means putting together a mega-project, and that we are finding with other proposals in terms of organization of systems are valuable and that require amendments to it now.

Internet as a return. Applications and experience a step change in terms of its design, also live from his "form of monetization," says Mangarelli.

This is where does the concept of SAAS (English, Software as a Service) as a model that fits a new trend to deliver software as a service.

And at this point, the Internet emerges as the great actor. Mangarelli describes it: "given an application, imagine the same provided through a browser. That software becomes a service for a company that will be consumed from the Internet."

In terms of customer, the main advantage of raising a SAAS model can be found in the optimization of infrastructure and administration costs. However, it must not neglect certain aspects that make the concept of service: how will it affect my system, my business, any change of provider? What are the risks I assume by using codes from a third party?

From the point of view of development, Web 2.0 opens many possibilities to accompany the implementation of such architectures: rich user interfaces in content, with the inclusion of multimedia objects mashups (crosslink data from different sources), the advertising as a way to sustain the business model, the participation of users under the concept of community.

Professional challenge. Speaking in terms of software as a service, SOA and SAAS, is to refer simply to a conceptual model: a way to help address a problem with the fulfillment of the objectives of the company.

Under this premise, Ezequiel Glinsky, group manager of Microsoft South Cone architecture, understand that it is important that systems professionals "learn from history not to think that there is one successful model" for developing applications.

According to Glinsky, "the role of architect will be aware of each of the elements of these styles of design, understanding them to make the best of each one and then apply them to the organization."

Ignacio Bonaverdi - LANACION.com

The academic training is irreplaceable in IT

Does the IT sector growth is conditioned only by the possibility of having qualified human resources? Although Argentina is taking advantage of various competitive advantages-such as the current exchange rate, to support its position as a producer and exporter of software, I think the training of our professionals in new technologies is what best expresses the ability of a country to play a leading role in the global market. It is the people that make the difference, which brings ideas, which implements improvements, and is why it is so important partnership between universities, government and businesses to improve education and training of our professionals.

At current rates of postgraduate students and graduates, what is the future that awaits the Argentine IT sector human resources? According to the latest communications CESSI in 2006, technology companies generated nearly 10,000 new jobs. The forecast indicates that 2007 would add another 8,000 new professionals, but the industry demands three times: 3500 technical professionals and 4,000 more than those who graduate today. And in 2010 will require 10,000.

How does state and private actions to promote the study of careers related to IT? What changes should be made and what levels to promote choice of careers in technology? I think the government is working very positively in promoting IT careers. In fact, Microsoft supports and actively works with the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education in several such initiatives that seek to increase the number of qualified professionals in the software industry.

Recently, the Ministry of Education's Office presented the Project to Support Computer Technical Training, which aims to improve the quality of training of computer technicians in national universities. From this project is already working to meet what we believe are the main needs of the local IT industry. That is, adapting the curriculum of computer courses to the demand for skills relevant to the labor market and increase the number of enrolled in universities.

At Microsoft we help solve this deficit on both the university and in school. Through Plan + MAS-we carry out together with the Ministry of Labour, the CESSI and universities-students and developers can access technology training grants. NET and then pass exams, have the opportunity to apply for jobs that offer Microsoft customers and partners.

Furthermore, with the aim of promoting the study of technology careers among high school students last year at Microsoft we do Gaming.NET initiative, from which were offered free training in game programming and then followed a national competition in San Luis province. In this way, we create an opportunity for students in their final years of secondary approach to programming in a fun way through games.

"Training programs should be modified to suit the needs of business? While there are basic and fundamental knowledge that every IT professional should have, I think it is important that the curricula are updated and adapted to market needs. For example, from Plan + MAS, we seek that training. NET adapt to the demand for knowledge of the companies, aiming to train professionals to date, that can be inserted quickly and easily in the labor market.

From the private sector is questioned colleges and universities not to be flexible in their curriculum and structures to accelerate the student's arrival to the labor market. What do you think about it? I believe that Argentina has an excellent academic level to that effect, but I also believe it is of utmost importance to maintain the updated curriculum to train qualified professionals who can quickly and easily inserted into the labor market. Microsoft's experience in working together with universities has always been excellent. The success of employment and training programs we conducted was largely driven by the commitment of universities in solving this problem.

From the education sector and academic challenges to companies failing to or waiting times for IT professional training, which militates against quality. What do you think about it? The deficit of professionals pushing for more and more job offers more attractive and IT students to abandon their careers. However, academic training is irreplaceable.

According to official figures, currently, the demand for programmers is covered with undergraduate students who drop courses. Project Support Computer Technical Training of the Ministry of Education's Office supports Tecnicatura and through this, it formalizes what happens de facto in the industry for years while they are working to improve student training.

César Dergarabedian

The difficult problem of estimating

Making estimates is one of the most complex problems of the various software developers face every day. It is also one that we have historically failed in solving. This is precisely why this is the question I chose for my first participation in this column.

I also take I do not intend to comment on these pages give specific solutions, mostly because, in my view, the software development there is no universal recipe, but move people to read it to think differently, in a way agile, the problems we encounter every day when we try to develop software.

'm Going to speak, in this issue, on which weapons developers have traditionally used when making estimates of how it is a complex problem, perhaps unsolvable, and how agile methodologies are borne and live with it. But first I would like to make clear once again that in this subject, perhaps more than any other, the only absolute truth is that it has been fully demonstrated that there are no silver bullets.

Let's take a look at how it has addressed the problem of estimation so far and the advantages and problems, very roughly, of each approach.

First, we used the expert's opinion. It is a simple and direct approach. Just looking for a developer who has developed a similar system as possible we want to estimate and to tell us what your estimate. The drawbacks of this approach are: First, it is difficult to find someone who has built a system similar enough to get a good estimate, they often develop systems that do not exist, if you need our customer and there is better than simply purchase. Second, each project is different. Each project evolves in a different way, takes place in a different environment, a different team in a different technology. Then it is clear that the expert's opinion is not reliable enough. In addition it is the voice of one person, which always introduces risks.

The next step was to approach the problem from a more engineering, more mathematical. Hence arose a whole series of techniques based on using mathematics as COCOMO and raised enough tools that implemented this model. The problem is that data we discovered that feeding these tools was too costly to obtain results which was not much tighter than that obtained using the expert's opinion.

The next approach was the basis points. The idea is simple, using historical data we can evaluate our business what it costs to make a form or report, based on what cost reports or similar forms earlier. Then, when estimating a development, we just have to multiply that value by the number of reports or forms that we have. But it turned out that although the method is simple and certainly works, it is very difficult to collect a significant amount of reliable data that support subsequent estimates. Collecting this data is something that requires time, and in that time have changed (technological, human or organizational, to name a few) that invalidates the data previously collected.

It is clear that before the advent of the RAD was much more complex to a form or report, for instance easily understandable.

That estimate is a difficult problem, not to say that there is a significant problem. The developers have an ongoing relationship with the estimates: we estimate, we get estimates and estimates suffer wrong people, business, managers, marketing departments, etc., without sufficient knowledge of the problem, committing it for us. Many common problems and risks that appear in the management of the projects are related to a poor estimate. It is a problem that deserves much attention.

But we can not ignore the relationship that our industry has to estimates, the stark reality we all live: never respected and are never tight enough, no matter the technique we use. Therefore it is very important when estimating not consume too much time. At the end of the day, date or price of the project will probably have already been established for reasons unrelated to software development, long before the development team was able to even build your estimate. Indeed, in many cases before there is a development team. Furthermore, the estimates are based on the requirements and constantly changing requirements or at least from the approach of the agile methodologies assume so.

Another phenomenon which could tend to forget is that the estimates are much more reliable the more information we have about the issues we are considering. In software development projects, usually this is equivalent to saying that we can only have reliable estimates on the part of the development that we will address in the near future. With this and the principle of economy in mind (estimate has a high cost, for which we seek a return), the agile methodologies proposed only to estimate the near future and not put too much effort in this estimate. The idea is to be estimated adds a lot, but much to refine an estimate or use very formal methods generally expensive in terms of time spent, does not provide much and above all, it is not economical from the point of view of the relationship between effort and results. In summary, to estimate whether, but what is fair and just in reference to the near future.

The obvious next question is, if estimate is inevitable and traditional formal methods require an effort that is not enough reward, what remains?. An approach to estimation that is gaining adherents every day is a Wideband Delphi estimation process very light and you get very similar results to estimate processes heavy or complex. The process is simple and does not require much preparation or previous training.

• It meets a few people (two to five). Ideally there will be people who have worked on similar applications and people who do not, it's interesting to have different perspectives.
• Each person will have an overview of the issue to estimate and who knows better exposed orally their knowledge of it.
• Each person present at the meeting of Estimate and record their estimate without collaborating with others. Not even this estimate will be displayed to other participants.
• A facilitator calculations revealed anonymously, then, have a discussion about the assumptions underlying the calculations. Those who wish may reveal what was your estimate.
• Step 3 is repeated until the calculations converge. The intention is that each person learns from the other participants, updated its estimates and provide a new one.

There are several variations on this technique, such as making public the estimates and simultaneously to speed, only the owners of extreme estimates, the most pessimistic and most optimistic, discuss the reasons for their estimates. For some time I use this method of estimation in a project managed with Scrum to estimate and plan for each of the Sprints, and the truth is that after the initial process of adjustment necessary, I can say is working excellently.