The iRise Blog

We’ve just launched the first in a series of podcasts. After listening to feedback from customers, partners and even our own sales staff, we’ve been able to generate a slate of issues that have become the editorial calendar for the show’s programming. In each episode, we’ll dive deep into the topic with an iRise executive, customer or partner in our extended ecosystem. The show is hosted by David Spark, technology journalist and founder of Spark Media Solutions. In this first podcast entitled, “How iRise Works with SAP,” Spark talks with Sherrick Murdoff, iRise’s VP of Business Development and Global Alliances.

Read the Transcript Download the MP3

• The business process behind using iRise to simulate custom SAP and other packaged applications (also see posts Top 10 IT Predictions (#2) and iRise Simulates SAP)
• Why visualizing your packaged application (e.g SAP CRM) in iRise takes 1/3 the time of existing prototyping tools
• How global systems integrators (e.g. Capgemini) leverage iRise for custom installations in specific verticals (e.g. finance, health care)

We also have a brief position paper on the topic which can be found here.

Subscribe to the podcast now to receive future episodes directly to your iPod or MP3 player.

We’ll be announcing more of these podcasts in coming months and in the meantime, if there’s a topic you feel we could shed some light on, drop me a line at carlas (at) irise.com.

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I really enjoy seeing companies you work with almost every day
(in my case, alliance partners), take a leadership position to embrace
what you have been evangelizing to the market. Last month, Capgemini announced the launch of the Rapid Design & Visualization (RDV) Lab. Though the Lab is now available nationwide through all their Accelerated Solutions Environments (ASEs), the RDV Lab has been in place for several year and iRise has been actively working with and a primary solution in the practice with many joint customers. The announcement was made at SOA World, an appropriate place since visualization is critical to understanding what business stakeholders want that can be enabled in a SOA environment (but more on that in a later post…).

The RDV Lab continues to expand Capgemini’s work in the field of simulation by using a methodology that combines the latest simulation and communication tools with new research on how people create complex software. Capgemini estimates that 60 percent of such programs – including ERP (SAP, Oracle, etc.), Web 2.0 and SOA initiatives – encounter rework following misunderstandings between project managers who write the specifications, and the engineers who build the programs.  The announcement states, “The RDV is designed to help all parties get the software right the first time” - sound familiar? Absolutely, because Capgemini and iRise both believe that people, process and technology are required to really bring the full benefits of getting software right the first time.

Corey Glickman, the national leader for the Capgemini RDV Lab,
has been a champion for simulation and visualization for years
and an iRise user, speaking on different aspects at iRise User Conferences and interviews. Corey recently stated, “The RDV lets designers substitute images for nouns, animation for verbs, and a full–blown simulation for a phone book of instructions.” Is visualization really is the new language for designing software? I think Corey hit it right on the mark.

Capgemini has really taken the lead among global system integrators in piloting this effort years ago and now launching capabilities nationwide. For example, last year I presented Capgemini with the iRise Alliance Advantage Partner of the Year award for its substantial work (among other things) with one of our large manufacturing customers. Though the market for simulation is still young and in the evangelism stage, with the help of Capgemini, more companies will experience the benefits of visualization and share their success.

I look forward to sharing more examples of iRise alliance partners adopting the new language for designing software.

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iRise has expanded its use into the area of packaged applications that include SAP, Oracle, Siebel, PeopleSoft and many other package applications.

I recently presented the value of simulating iRise for SAP along with Melanie Lucas, iRise Enterprise Solutions Manager at the 2007 Partner Summit, pre-cursor to the iRise Fusion 07 User Conference. Its important to recognize the value of simulation beyond custom applications and how similar benefits are achievable with packaged applications like SAP.

Validating requirements for SAP projects is never easy. Packaged software implementations suffer the same poor requirements challenges that custom applications do, the difference is much of the package is already defined. SAP tools exist to prototype SAP applications; however, the SAP tools are cumbersome to rapidly create and iterate with stakeholders and many implementations today are heavily customized and/or heavily integrated, making it very difficult to adapt the SAP tools to vizualize truly what the business has in mind.

Using iRise, Melanie showed how a business analyst can rapidly simulate the SAP screens, data and logic in order to validate requirements quickly and iterate often with stakeholders and IT in order to define the application and get alignment on the end-state. The iDoc is available on Catalyze to iRise customers & partners. Melanie gave examples of what SAP implementations benefit most from simulation:

• SAP CRM - typically involves heavy customization and multiple interfaces to other customer systems
• SAP SCM / Procurement - typically involves heavy customization, often a supplier portal, and integration to back office systems
• SAP HR Portal - HR systems benefit from heavy user validation and review
• Composite Applications using NetWeaver - SAP’s custom development platform, NetWeaver, is being used to create new, custom, “composite” applications that leverage existing SAP modules

Simulating the SAP system provides a way to rapidly assemble a working, functional prototype that can be reviewed and experienced (literally) by stakeholders and IT, with rapid, easy iterations on the prototype to quickly extract and validate the right requirements. Key stakeholders, end-users, analysts and SAP developers can all agree on the right model and requirements ahead of configuring, customizing, developing or integrating the live SAP system. During the presentation, I highlighted some of the benefits from simulating an SAP system:

• Requirements are validated before development/configuration starts
• Rework and mid-stream requirements changes are significantly reduced (by up to 70%)
• SAP simulations (masters, templates, models) can be re-used for greater efficiency in later projects
• Adoption of the system rollout is significantly higher, due to involving and confirming with more stakeholders and end-users upfront

A majority of simulations for SAP have been done by our alliance partners like Capgemini, Accenture and Deloitte - especially since they have the deep SAP expertise. Capgemini, for example, has gone much further and simulated many different SAP modules like CRM, Service Management, Call Center, HR, Supply Chain, etc. - creating an extensive asset library that they can offer to clients as a means to better validate client requirements and a jumpstart to getting started with the SAP blueprint phase. Its proven successful at many clients and demonstrates their deep expertise with SAP.

I am always interested to hear about more simulations involving packaged applications, including SAP.

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