Hello. This is Jeff Kelly, associate editor at SearchSMB.com. I’ll be contributing to SMBlogger on a regular basis. 

After less than successful efforts in the past, SAP has decided to have another go at the SMB market. Timothy Prickett Morgan over at IT Jungle reports that the German uber-software vendor has committed up to $500 million “to market an SOA-enabled, easy to use set of application software that would be more economically and technically appealing to SMB customers.” 

The main thrust of SAP’s SMB strategy revolves around the company’s soon-to-be released A1S application suite, Prickett reports. But it remains to be seen if SAP will finally be successful in tapping the midmarket. Jim Schaper, CEO of would-be SAP competitor Infor, didn’t seem too frightened, as he made clear to Prickett: 

“One has to wonder if SAP truly understands the mid-market or whether this strategy is solely an effort to detract attention from the slowing growth of their Fortune 500 base … Medium-sized customers do not want all-in-one products that need massive customization efforts to address their line of business. That approach is a relic of the past, when ERP implementations were akin to corporate open heart surgery. Infor has built a strong growing company on delivering solutions with industry experience already built in. The bottom line is that customers want more functionality, less complexity, and the lowest total cost of ownership. That is not the plan we see from SAP.” 

Sounds like fightin’ words to me. Guess we’ll have to wait to see how this one plays out.

Hey there, this is Shamus McGillicuddy, news writer for SearchSMB.com. I’ll be a regular contributor to SMBlogger.

Last week I reported on research which suggested that SMBs go live with an ERP implementation much faster than large companies. Cindy Jutras, VP at Aberdeen Group, said SMBs use speed of implementation as a metric for success. She argued that this focus on speed leads many SMBs to stop short of getting the most out of their ERP system.

But an argument could be made that a slow, thorough implementation can be just as troublesome. For instance, this reader, an IT employee at a large multinational corporation, shared his thoughts on his company’s SAP project.

According to management, installing SAP has been one of the main number one priorities since around late 2002. We are due to go live with the first country in 2007. On current schedule, the last country will get the system around 2011 or 2012. The aim is to have a common platform in all countries of our operations

My one-liner to describe this is that installing SAP takes twice as long as it took to fight and win the Second World War. I believe that was quite a big project, and this time the Germans are on our side.

The annual fee alone for SAP (once installed!) will be several times what we currently pay for our old steam-driven accounting system… A lot of people on the SAP project at the beginning will have retired by the time it gets finished.

And new versions of SAP and other systems keep coming out. By 2010, Microsoft Dynamics may have a system which is faster, cheaper, and more flexible than SAP… So in IT projects, it is almost always a bad idea to even start a project which will take 5 years or more for payback. By then there will be something else available.

Perhaps there is a balance to be struck between speed and thoroughness. If you can find a vendor that can offer that balance, you’ll have struck gold. Good luck.

2006 closed on a high note for India’s biggest outsourcing providers, aka The Big 3. Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys Technologies all reported major profit growth in Q4.  

In a trio of stories, Forbes.com reports Tata posted a 47.3% rise in profits and revenue was a record $1.1 billion, up 40.7% from 2005; Wipro, whose quarterly profit rose 40% and beat expectations, saw an almost seven-year high of its shares; and Infosys reported a 52% rise in profits and a net income of $218 million for Q4 of 2006, up from $143 million in Q4 of 2005. 

But does this matter to SMBs? In our last readership survey, we asked SearchSMB.com readers if their organization outsourced in 2006 and if they planned to in 2007. The responses didn’t shed any new light on the topic — 49% did outsource in 2006, 46% didn’t; 40% plan to this year, 39% don’t — except to say that there doesn’t seem to be a gray area with outsourcing: You’re either for it or you’re not.

Have you been to a spa lately? If your thumbs are aching from typing on your BlackBerry or your face is breaking out from being pressed against your cell phone all the time, you may want to book an appointment at one of the many spas offering services to remedy these new workplace maladies. At Completely Bare Salon in New York, the Purity Plus facial includes an herbal mask, steam treatment and massage to clear clogged pores and clear up cell phone acne. Graceful Services, another NYC-based spa offers massages to relieve “BlackBerry thumb” and “tech neck.” I wonder if they have a treatment for those itching for an iPhone.

A recent Forrester Research report, The state of security in SMBs and enterprises, confirms what you have already told us — security will be the No. 1 priority for SMBs in 2007.

IT security enhancements tied for first place among infrastructure priorities this year, and they took second place among software initiatives. Furthermore, firms of all sizes will be investing in a bevy of security technologies in 2006 and 2007: The widgets most in demand are network access control, security information management, and network firewalls.

Forty-six percent of respondents to a recent SearchSMB.com poll on 2007 priorities said security was first on their list. What I found interesting was Forrester’s breakdown of security topics. Do you agree with Forrester’s list? Let me know what areas of security your organization plans to focus on in 2007.

To help you with your security needs, make sure you check out all of our content in our security resource center, including how-to tips, expert advice, the latest news, learning guides and more.

Hello, and welcome to SMBlogger, the Weblog of TechTarget’s SearchSMB.com.  

As an IT professional at an SMB, you need to keep informed of developments in many technologies and be able to act on that knowledge to put together and support solutions for your business problems with the limited resources you have. Our goal with this new site feature is to provide news and information that will help you do all of those things.  

If there’s a topic you’d like to see us cover, feel free to let us know by commenting here, or by sending me an email. Each of our editors and news writers will contribute to this blog. Take a moment to “meet us.” We look forward to talking with you. 

– Sarah Lourie, Editor, SearchSMB.com, TechTarget