AMR Research Strategy 21 Recap

I wasn't able to make it to AMR Research's Strategy 21 conference this year, but there's been some decent discussion floating around the blogosphere. I'll elaborate on my reaction tomorrow but wanted to reference Randy Weston's official summary of the event for your perusal.

Link: Strategy 21 -- SOAs: The Future

UPDATE: Here are some of the salient points from the summary [I encourage everyone to read the original in its entirety]...

• It's all about the platform -- It should come as no surprise that Oracle, SAP, Microsoft and IBM all took turns touting the importance of an SOA platform approach and, you guessed it, how their individual approaches were worth embracing. SAP and Oracle exchanged barbs [is anyone surprised by that?], and Microsoft and IBM seemed to be screaming "hey, don't forget about us, we still matter too, don't we?"

• OnDemand vendors agree, it's about the platform...but a different kind of platform -- salesforce.com, Workday and Rearden Commerce all took their turns discussing the importance of SaaS and the natural progression of extensible, reusable, hosted component architectures as the platform approach. Of course this jives nicely with salesforce.com's own launch of AppExchange this week, and Rearden has similar aspirations as does Workday [plus, when does Dave Duffield ever pass up a chance to poke a verbal stick into the stomach of Oracle and SAP?]

• Hybrid pricing models are the answer -- I wholeheartedly agree with this notion. While everyone is focused on SaaS and the notion of subscription-based pricing, that's simply not the best option in many cases depending on the needs of a given enterprise. For some applications, it's ideal. For others, a traditional license model makes sense.

• Customers are from Missouri -- The "Show Me State" was well represented as customers were somewhat skeptical about the notion of SOA, platforms and SaaS in the absence of tangible deliverables. Customers want to see these advancements for themselves, and want a clearer picture of how SOA will materially change [and improve] business processes and cure pain points.

Related Blog Posts:

• Vinnie Mirchandani's Deal Architect: Feeling Half-full at Half-Moon Bay

Note: At the time of this writing I and/or funds I maintain discretionary control over may have maintained a long equity position in one or more of the companies mentioned but did not maintain a short position in any named equity.

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Comments

[vinnie mirchandani]

I like SaaS offerings - like the low maintenance, like the recurring fee model...appexchange is a great start. but it needs a lot more vertical and horizntal apps to be truly attractive. May be they should go to some of the "living dead" companies and offer to convert their products in to SaaS offerings...

[Jason Wood]

Vinnie, the summary is appreciated, I've appended it to my main post. I find it interesting [but not surprising] that platform, platform, platform was the message and yet the reality doesn't really meet the perception. While I think AppExchange is intriguing, some of the hyperbole I've seen [one headline was AppExchange is here and our world will never be the same] is far too over the top to be taken seriously. Would you agree?

[Vinnie Mirchandani]

my viewpoint from the conference if you are interested...

http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2006/01/amr_conference_.html