At Sierra Atlantic, we have always been at the forefront in aligning our business strategy with that of Oracle in terms of key technology and product focus areas. As a part  of this endeavor, our R12 experts, with their rich experience of successful multiple Oracle R12 engagements execution, have evolved  ACCLIVITY , a Cloud based R12 Accelerator to help Oracle ERP 11i Customers  Assess,  Strategize, Plan and Execute R12 Upgrades.

The breadth of services covered under the Acclivity tool program spans across the life cycle of an Upgrade Project ranging from pre-upgrade assessment services, impact analysis during the upgrade and data reconciliation efforts in the post upgrade phase.

To help our Oracle ERP customers align with Oracle’s direction, Sierra Atlantic has always believed in making available to its customers, cutting edge technology tools and Solutions that enable them to seamlessly upgrade and leverage the product benefits. These tools are aimed at managing the complexity associated with the myriad of customizations that enterprises have, so that they can have crystal clarity into their future application roadmap.

Having already implemented the Acclivity tool in several successful R12 engagements, we have yet again taken another generational leap in futuristic technology tools by migrating it to a cloud based paradigm that would help our customers access the tool from anywhere, pay per use, and leverage the compelling benefits that the multifaceted cloud computing architecture offers.

Greetings from the Sierra Atlantic Financial Services Business unit, Home of BankON™, the only commercially available turnkey software solution that links ERP systems to banks’ treasury execution systems.

We have several topics today that I wanted to touch on since our last communication before the NACHA show in Seattle:  the NACHA Payments Conference, the importance of STP and BankON™ 2.0

NACHA Payments Conference – Seattle, WA – April 25 – 28, 2010

The NACHA Payments Conference was a fantastic show.  Hundreds of banks and Corporations got together to share best practices on electronic trading, secure networks and new ways to initiate payments: like “Twitter-pay”!  The industry is moving as fast as possible to a paperless transaction society, for both B-2-C and B-2-B.  Convenience, ease of use, security, cost, speed, and managing change will always be the key determinants that Consumers and Companies consider when looking for a payments solution that makes sense.

The BankON™ team was there, showcasing and demoing Sierra Atlantic’s seamless ERP-to-bank STP solution.  We also issued a Press Release at NACHA which generated quite a bit of interest at the event.  We met hundreds of incredible people and their positive reinforcement and ideas were gratefully received.

BankON™ 2.0

BankON™ 2.0 was recently delivered on time and on target for final testing by one of our larger multinational banking partners.  This production release will go into end-user customer accounts late this summer.  If you would like to learn more about BankON™, visit our web page at www.sierraatlant.com/bankon, or contact Pat Lowery, our Director of Product Marketing, at Pat.Lowery@SierraAtlantic.com.

Please have a great summer and we look forward to working with you.

Phil

Get ready for a day of fun in the sun on July 18 as  Sevathon 2010 kicks off at Baylands Park, Sunnyvale at 7:30 am which is sponsored by Sierra Atlantic.  The premier walkathon, which derives its name from the Hindi word “seva” or service, is an initiative to bring the community together for  a common cause-supporting those in need of our service.

Over 2000 people are expected to walk/run in the 5k/10k/half marathon and attend the cultural extravaganza, the food fair and a health screening program, which will run simultaneously to the walkathon.

Sierra Atlantic CEO Raju Reddy at the Sevathon Torch Passing

Here is what the CEO of Sierra Atlantic, Raju Reddy had to say about the event in the press release of Sevathon: “It is a unique event that brings together over 38 of the largest and most vibrant non-profits in the Bay Area. We are embodying the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi-he inspired an entire nation via his walk and selfless “seva” to his nation. That’s our cause, “seva” in whatever form, manner or spirit and wherever on the planet. The Sevathon non-profits are working across the globe from village in Africa to the rural heartlands of India. We are simply bringing their work and their passion to the people. We are providing a common platform to our local communities to learn about the amazing work these organizations are doing and choose to help a cause they feel close to”.

So this would be a great event to attend and you can register at http://www.indiacc.org/sevathon/register and you read the Sevathon Press Release at http://www.indiacc.org/pdfs/SPR.pdf.

In a recent authoritative award selection for the China service outsourcing industry, Sierra Atlantic was honored as the 18^th among China Top 20 Software Export Companies and the 24^th among Top 25 China Service Outsourcing Companies.

(A picture of the award winners, 4^th from the right is representative of Sierra Atlantic)

Xiaomin Zheng, Vice President of China Operations of Sierra Atlantic, received the award and shared his vision of Sierra Atlantic’s development in 2010.

The award is issued by “China Software and Service Outsourcing Network”, which is the official website of the China Software Industry Association. The evaluation committee has extremely strict requirements and examination processes on the company data provided by hundreds of participants, in order to ensure the most authoritative, authentic and fair competition. This award selection has been held for its sixth year. It’s one of the earliest and most influential recognitions of the service outsourcing industry in China. It’s highly valued by government. Also hundreds of media outlets (including TV stations, newspaper, magazines, and websites) across the nation reported the release of the award.

With this great recognition, Sierra Atlantic remains constantly committed to providing world-class IT Services, Outsourced Product Development Services, and Business Process Integration Services to our distinguished clients.

More than a decade since I have been associated with global delivery based “Application Management” (read: Application Support) outsourcing, I have seen this service mature and transform.  “Application Management” outsourcing was first among American corporation CIO’s due to relative lower risk and quicker ROI. Among the first focus were; significant cost savings, SLA based services, continuous improvement and best practices to realize efficiencies.  The advent of ERP applications (both for SAP and Oracle Applications) saw benefits beyond  such as  speeding up capital projects implementation and further cost savings with business knowledge gained. The era of “Application Outsourcing” (AO) saw application transformation, optimization and consolidation as major source of efficiencies.

Off late “Revenue Model” coupled with “Application Portfolio Management” is gaining ground in the outsourcing market. This is generally used for support and projects combined.  Let me explain, considering an enterprise IT scenario. (1) Your key applications need a dedicated support. I.e. you’re critical business applications that have highest complexities and larger user base, needs highest level of support and hence a “Dedicated Model” from your service provider is a must to meet your business needs.  (2) Your less complex applications, even if large user base might suffice a “Shared Model”. When managed well, this will provide higher level of efficiencies and greater cost savings. Both these models have been in place for a while, the scope of shared services model has been growing. (3) There is always (small) set of applications that are low in complexities and small user base in most enterprise IT.  These are effective candidate for “Pay-Per-Use” model. I.e. a ticket/transaction based model and one pays for services only when required. Much like our toll roads, you pay when you use. I must warn you though “Pay-Per-Use” term is used in many contexts and generally for projects.

Applications management services are like buying insurance, as contingency. CIOs can now view the entire IT applications as portfolio and divide them to be serviced in “Dedicated, Shared and Pay-Per-Use” model for best efficiencies. The industry should see growing maturity with these offerings in next few years, but this is right time to ask your outsourcer(s). The availability of APM (Application Portfolio Management) tool should further help this cause.

I would love to hear your views or any experience.