Oracle innovation score: 1-0(1 RBI)

Metaphorically...: It's a bit of a sticky wicket, eh?

Tormented sports analogies aside, there are actually multiple threads going on here at once, all of which could crave some more data and/or definition
1) innovation: one person's innovation is another person's waste of time. I think in general we haven't really arrived at a common definition of the term, and may never do so
2) users vs. buyers: big problem in discussing who is happy/unhappy/couldn't care less about IT investments. The data that might really be of use is the survey -- to my mind non-existent -- that looks at both satisfaction with functionality and satisfaction with TCO, and then tries to correlate the two. Problem is always who you ask: many users couldn't care less how much their apps cost, they just need the functionality. Many buyers just look at bottom line costs. Somewhere in the middle....
3) what is an appropriate return on R&D spend in our industry? Any industry? How do you even measure that: much of R&D is R, and never makes it to D. Does that mean someone wasted their money? And then how do you compare one company with another (especially with MSFT, which doesn't break out its ERP spend or revenues.

Bottom line: the debate continues, and from what I can see this debate can and should go on for quite a while.

Josh; Posted by: josh@... Posted on: 02/26/09 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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Metaphorically... josh@... | 02/26/09

| 02/26/09

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