Random Thoughts from the Trenches

Software craft, leadership, estimation, and whatever else is on my mind.

12 articles in this theme

Want to become a CTO? Here’s the hard truth

Want to become a CTO? Here’s the hard truth

For anyone aiming to become a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) that means working out how to build the technical, strategic, and leadership skills to stay relevant and in demand throughout their career.…

Small is beautiful in uncertain times

Small is beautiful in uncertain times

We are entering a period of experimentation and innovation as the latest crop of cutting edge technologies mature and are adopted at scale. This moment could be a huge opportunity for smaller…

ERP Implementation: 5 Ways to Handle Change

ERP Implementation: 5 Ways to Handle Change

As organizations seek new enterprise solutions to meet evolving business needs , many are undertaking what can seem a daunting process: enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation. The…

Integration Isn’t Enough: The Business Case for Integration-as-a-Service

Integration Isn’t Enough: The Business Case for Integration-as-a-Service

Organizations use a variety of applications to handle business tasks, and at the center of many point solutions is the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. In an ideal state, data from various…

What the on-demand economy means for the future of work

What the on-demand economy means for the future of work

I’ve been the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Unit4 for around three years, but I joined as Chief Architect in our innovation labs closer to eight years ago. When I arrived, many of the questions my…

Vendors and customers alike are facing some frank discussions about their relationships

Vendors and customers alike are facing some frank discussions about their relationships

Gartner has suggested that by 2025, 75% of companies “will break up with poor-fit customers.” In reality, this will prove to be a two-way process. It's worth exploring the important reasons why this…

Forget the hype: think about ERP integration before AI

Forget the hype: think about ERP integration before AI

The technology sector has always been prone to hype and promises of silver bullets. Marketers get ahead of engineers and evangelize over the promise of the Next Big Thing. Conferences dedicated to the…

What You’re Getting Wrong About DevOps (and How To Make it Right)

What You’re Getting Wrong About DevOps (and How To Make it Right)

DevOps is now the top software deployment strategy by a mile — 77% of organizations say they use the approach to roll out new software. This is good news because a DevOps approach is an important…

The low-no-code series - Unit4: 3 reasons low-code is over-hyped

The low-no-code series - Unit4: 3 reasons low-code is over-hyped

I have worked in the IT industry for many years and sometimes it’s hard not to become a little weary of the hype around the latest trends. Low-code/no-code is one of those trends where hype can…

The architecture of future-proof ERP

The architecture of future-proof ERP

Every ERP vendor will tell you their software is 'future-proof'. But what characteristics really make enterprise software a smart investment in an unpredictable future? I believe there are four main…

Why edge computing matters to enterprise software

Why edge computing matters to enterprise software

Edge computing means processing data near where it's produced and consumed. It's another dimension to that age-old workload placement question, "Where's the best place to do this?" The trend this…

Making ERP [e]xpert, [r]emote-friendly and [p]ersonal

Making ERP [e]xpert, [r]emote-friendly and [p]ersonal

The criticism commonly levelled against enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is that they are monolithic and generalist software slabs: suites of applications, dense with features and functions, designed to cover just about any need an enterprise might have, with a uniform user interface layered over for a common look and feel.