By David Espindola
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~Leonardo DaVinci
We live in a complex world. Each day we are faced with more choices, more decisions, and more information to absorb and to process. According to a 2011 Forbes.com article, every 60 seconds there are over 13,000 iPhone applications downloaded, over 70 domains registered, more than 60 new blogs launched, almost 700,000 searches on Google, and 168 million emails sent. According to Google, all the content created by humankind from the beginning of times until 2003 is now replicated in volume every 48 hours. It is mind boggling.
I am sure you have your own personal experience with increased complexity. More apps to download, more sites to bookmark, more username and passwords to remember, and more emails to sort through. In a world of increasing complexity and decreasing attention spans, we want to simplify the lives of our customers and make it as easy as possible to do business with Flexera Software.
To this end, the IT team at Flexera Software embarked upon a journey to consolidate, standardize and simplify our processes and systems. Because of growth, both organic and through acquisition, our journey started with a plethora of isolated systems across business processes and product lines, and is taking us to our vision of a simplified environment with only three core platforms: Salesforce.com, Oracle and our own Flexera Software products. Some call it eating your own dog food. I prefer to call it drinking our own champagne.
We looked at our entire Quote-to-Cash process, striving for consistency across geographies and product lines. For example, the initial quote is created in Salesforce.com, and once it becomes an order, the entitlement and electronic software delivery is managed by FlexNet Operations On-Demand. The customer then gets invoiced, and we collect cash in the Oracle eBusiness Suite. All the required data flows from one platform to the next with no human intervention.
As part of this standardization process we are developing Master Data Management processes that assure we have a single source of the truth that provides a 360 degree view of the customer. We want to make sure that when a customer inquires about any process across any of our product lines, anyone at Flexera Software can provide the same consistent answer.
Through the use of our very own FlexNet Operations On-Demand we can provide our customers the same single environment our ISV customers use for their own entitlement management and electronic software delivery needs. By standardizing on our own products as a core platform, our customers can benefit from the same reliable, secure, and easy to manage environment that many of our customers’ customers are accustomed to.
One user interface. One single sign-on. One single process. All Flexera Software product entitlements and downloads in a single location.
Simple is indeed beautiful.
Read the full success story: Flexera Software migrated their business systems to FlexNet Operations On-Demand, a web-based entitlement, license management and software delivery solution. In addition, they standardized on Salesforce.com for their CRM system and Oracle for their financial system.
Watch the video: Providing a Single System for Entitlement Management and Electronic Software Delivery
David Espindola, Vice President of Information Technology, Flexera Software
