Nakisa 2012 Wrap-up

[lukemarson]

As 2012 comes to a close, I thought it was time to summarize what happened in the world of Nakisa during the last 12 months. You can read my summary of 2011 here. This year began with some challenges, although there were many highlights. It was also a bumper year for blogs, with no less than 15 different bloggers that included 10 new bloggers. There is still a healthy appetite for Nakisa’s solutions, both from consultants and customers.

The news

Here’s what happened in 2012:

• Visualization Solutions by Nakisa 3.0 Service Pack 3 (SP3) was released to stabilize the solution suite, increase performance and integrate features from their Customer Enhancement Pack 3 (CEP3) release
• Andrew Simon, former Direct R&D Operations at Ericsson, joined Nakisa as Director of R&D
• Nakisa were Named a Finalist for 2012 SAP® Pinnacle Award in the Support Category
• SAP completed their deal for Cloud HCM and Talent Management vendor SuccessFactors
• At HR2012 SAP announced that SuccessFactors would be their “go forward” solution for Talent Management, but Nakisa would remain their strategic partner for on-premise org and talent visualization solutions
• SAP released their initial strategy for Talent Management, minimizing innovation for on-premise Talent Management – leaving Nakisa to step in and lead innovation in this area
• Nakisa held an experts and customers panel at HR2012 Las Vegas and HR2012 Milan to discuss implementation best practices and current topics, featuring Yannick Peterschmitt (SAP Solution Management) and Luke Marson (Gavdi Group) in Las Vegas and Milan, David Pereles (Accenture) and Keith Jones (MillerCoors) at Las Vegas and Stephen Burr (ROC) and Anna Sorokina (Japan Tobacco International) at Milan.
• The SAP Press title Talent Management with SAP ERP HCM by Tim Simmons, Joe Lee, Luke Marson and Jon Jenkins was released and features STVN SuccessionPlanning in the section on Talent Development
• Nakisa hosted both Customer Roundtables and Microforums at Sapphire NOW in Orlando
• Nakisa and NorthgateArinso signed a global partnership agreement
• The first Partner Forum was held by Nakisa at their HQ in Montreal, inviting Luke Marson from Gavdi Group and Stephen Burr from ROC
• Nakisa hosted their first thought-leadership webinar, Rock-Solid Talent Management, hosted by Tak Kusano, Agatha Kurjanowicz and featuring guest Luke Marson
• All of the 7 webinars that Nakisa hosted in the second half of the year had record registration and attendance levels.
• Sapphire EMEA saw Schott and Telefonica give presentations on how they’re using Nakisa for Org and Talent Management
• Visualization Solutions by Nakisa 4.0 was released in November, featuring new capabilities such as live write-back in the new OrgModeler and Development planning on the Talent Management side, as well as and Nakisa’s first mobile app
• Nakisa had a record number of Go-Live’s in 2012
• SAP released Org Chart visualization functionality by Nakisa as part of HR Renewal
• Nakisa’s Cloud solutions were announced giving customers the ability to use all of Nakisa’s products in a hosted environment

The blogs

Here’s what people blogged in 2012:

• History of SAP Talent and Org Visualization by Nakisa Solution Extensions - Ibrahim Nagy
• Leveraging qualifications management with SAP ERP HCM (part 1) – Julien Tuerlinckx
• Flash Island based Organizational Chart Visualization in MSS – Shankar
• The Future of SAP HCM Consulting and SuccessFactors – Jarret Pazahanick
• Some pros and cons on using Live v Staged for OrgChart – Luke Marson
• Performance improvements in Nakisa 3.0 SP3 – Luke Marson
• Visualization Solutions by Nakisa 3.0 Service Pack 3.0 – Luke Marson
• PA-TM notes related to Nakisa – Matthew Stapleton
• The Power of Visualisation – Stephen Millard
• MSS Embedded Org Chart Visualization-Free (Ehp5 with MSS Add-on) – Prakash Kumar
• 10 Benefits to Implementing SOVN OrgChart – Stephen Millard
• Upgrading Visualization Solutions by Nakisa (Part 1 , 2 and 3) – Stephen Burr
• Filtering for Errors in Log Files – Stephen Millard
• How to set up SOVN OrgChart application – Mercedes Martín Llamas
• Visualization Solutions by Nakisa (VSN) Terminology – Luke Marson
• Enhancements and customizations of Nakisa Succession Planning 3.0 SP3 – Nathaniel Lacroix
• Support Questions you will be asked when creating a message – Matthew Stapleton
• A guide to AppResources for VSN (Part 1.) – Matthew Partridge
• Nakisa SSO using SAP Logon Ticket – Satish Ramaiah
• New Nakisa SAP notes for June, July & August 2012 – Luke Marson
• SOVN OrgChart: What can you configure and what can you customize in 3.0 SP3 – Mercedes Martín Llamas
• Future of visualization – Alexander Chebotarev
• Nakisa Partner Forum 2012 – Luke Marson
• Nakisa Partner Forum 2012 – Stephen Burr
• Nakisa OrgHub™ for Mobile app – Luke Marson
• An opportunity for Nakisa to make a difference – Venki Krisnamoorthy
• New Org Chart Functionality – Raja Kuncham

The articles

Here’s what people wrote in 2012:

• Managing Talent and Organizational Bench Strength: Are You Game-Ready? – Lillian Reaume and Oliver Conze
• HR’s Next Top Model – Romeo de Leon and Sylvia Strangfeld

2013

Here’s just some of what’s going to happen in 2013:

• Nakisa will continue to be SAP’s strategic partner for on-premise organizational management and talent management visualization solutions
• SAP will continue to sell and support Nakisa products!
• Nakisa will continue to expand the functionality in their products with additional Service Packs for 4.0
• A new training program will be launched to better equip consultants and align the skillset required for implementations with the new features delivered in 4.0
• Nakisa will launch a new Certification program to help distinguish the skilled and experienced consultants in the marketplace
• At HR2013 in Las Vegas Nakisa will yet again hold another experts and customers panel: “Panel discussion: HR managers and experts share insights and lessons learned from their implementati...”

Summary

2012 was a solid year for Nakisa, despite SAP acquiring SuccessFactors and announcing the SuccessFactors BizX suite as their go-forward solution for Talent Management. Many customers are still looking to leverage their existing on-premise investment and do not wish to move to the cloud, so many opportunities still remain for Nakisa, SAP and their partners. Although at board level SAP are pushing for some large SuccessFactors deals, the jury is still out on whether the BizX suite can match the expectations and needs of highly strategic, global enterprises at this time. Integration remains a challenge, although SAP is working to roll-out their SAP NetWeaver Cloud Integration platform from Q1 2013.

Nakisa, like many software companies, still face challenges with “rogue” implementations by unskilled partners, but with a revamped training program being introduced and Certification being launched then it should be easier for consultants to gain the skills they need and customers to find the right expertise for successful implementations.

Nakisa are planning to ramp-up further innovation in their product suite while also expanding their portfolio of products, both for “desktop” and for mobile. Further enhancements are due to be released in Service Packs and there is a possibility of 5.0 release in the latter part of 2013 or early part of 2014.

Despite the early challenges of 2012 there is still significant demand for Nakisa’s solutions, especially in the growth areas of South America, MENA and APAC. Consultants should be encouraged that there will still be demand for skills and experience with Nakisa’s solutions and that 2013 will continue to present many opportunities.