R3Now.com – ERP, SAP, and IT Solutions for IT Decision Makers

Using Key Performance Indicators for Building a Strategy Focused Organization

The key performance indicator acronym (KPI) is used so much that it has come to be associated with any type of business measure.  Everything is called a KPI and it is a silly distraction from an important business tool.  Not every measure is a KEY Performance Indicator, only those measures that are critically important to making a difference in the marketplace are truly KEY to your company health and performance. Because of this confusion what many call Key performance indicators often lo...

SAP Failures: Is Lack of Sr. Mgt. Commitment the REAL Issue?

When ERP projects fail it is popular (and easy) for consultants and the project management team to simply throw up their hands and site “lack of senior management commitment” as the evil force behind it. However, like much of the conventional ERP wisdom out there today, the real issues can be much deeper than that.  In my previous blog entries, I posed the following questions: Why would any management team spend hundreds of thousands or perhaps  millions of dollars on ERP with the goal...

Business Strategy and IT Strategy to Reproduce Apple Innovation

I recently read a Fortune Magazine article extolling the virtues, or more the impact, of Apple's Steve Jobs on business.  Certainly under Steve Jobs’ guidance Apple has come to represent the best of business innovation for several reasons:  Jobs built Apple as an innovative company After he left Apple the company nearly collapsed He returned and turned the company around from the brink of collapse Jobs at Apple, through his innovative guidance, has transformed three primary...