Comments on: More on Cast Iron Systems http://www.dbms2.com/2007/04/26/more-on-cast-iron-systems/ Choices in data management and analysis Sat, 17 May 2008 00:23:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Carel’s Conversations - blog » Integration with SAP http://www.dbms2.com/2007/04/26/more-on-cast-iron-systems/#comment-64946 Carel’s Conversations - blog » Integration with SAP Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:33:49 +0000 http://www.dbms2.com/2007/04/26/more-on-cast-iron-systems/#comment-64946 [...] his company is considering Cast Iron as a way to integrate their Salesforce.com system with SAP. Here is an interesting blog entry on Cast Iron and the following wikipedia entry lists more integration [...] […] his company is considering Cast Iron as a way to integrate their Salesforce.com system with SAP. Here is an interesting blog entry on Cast Iron and the following wikipedia entry lists more integration […]

]]> By: Integration with SAP « Carel’s Conversations - blog http://www.dbms2.com/2007/04/26/more-on-cast-iron-systems/#comment-44521 Integration with SAP « Carel’s Conversations - blog Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:04:46 +0000 http://www.dbms2.com/2007/04/26/more-on-cast-iron-systems/#comment-44521 [...] his company is considering Cast Iron as a way to integrate their Salesforce.com system with SAP. Here is an interesting blog entry on Cast Iron and the following wikipedia entry lists more integration [...] […] his company is considering Cast Iron as a way to integrate their Salesforce.com system with SAP. Here is an interesting blog entry on Cast Iron and the following wikipedia entry lists more integration […]

]]> By: LizardSlayer http://www.dbms2.com/2007/04/26/more-on-cast-iron-systems/#comment-38085 LizardSlayer Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:13:20 +0000 http://www.dbms2.com/2007/04/26/more-on-cast-iron-systems/#comment-38085 RE: "most of their customers rent rather than buying." That's because Cast Iron charges a 20%/yr maintenance fee on all purchases. Rent for three years - avoid $60K in fees on a $100K purchase. RE: “most of their customers rent rather than buying.”

That’s because Cast Iron charges a 20%/yr maintenance fee on all purchases.
Rent for three years - avoid $60K in fees on a $100K purchase.

]]> By: Simon Peel http://www.dbms2.com/2007/04/26/more-on-cast-iron-systems/#comment-27586 Simon Peel Sat, 28 Apr 2007 01:55:17 +0000 http://www.dbms2.com/2007/04/26/more-on-cast-iron-systems/#comment-27586 Evolution While it's easy to dismiss newer technologies as hype, a lot happens in the tech world in 7 years. Technology actually does move forward… One of the things we've all learned is that the complexity (which is inherent in integration) was being needlessly passed on to IT and not being absorbed by the technology products that were supposed to be solving the issues. This slowed down projects, made them labor intensive, and over-ran budgets. Some continued to sell those same tools. As a result, the price of these products has been driven down to match the value they provide, which is fortunate when you consider their associated IT headcount costs – which have to be paid for somehow. If we all keep our eyes on the product costs alone, we're missing the real issue which of course is the overall cost of completing IT integration projects. A free Hummer looks like a great deal until you see that the guy who gave it to you owns all the gas stations. Probably the best thing to do is to check out what's happened in the tech world recently and see the tremendous leaps that have happened - yes even in the integration space. Evolution
While it’s easy to dismiss newer technologies as hype, a lot happens in the tech world in 7 years. Technology actually does move forward…

One of the things we’ve all learned is that the complexity (which is inherent in integration) was being needlessly passed on to IT and not being absorbed by the technology products that were supposed to be solving the issues. This slowed down projects, made them labor intensive, and over-ran budgets. Some continued to sell those same tools. As a result, the price of these products has been driven down to match the value they provide, which is fortunate when you consider their associated IT headcount costs – which have to be paid for somehow.

If we all keep our eyes on the product costs alone, we’re missing the real issue which of course is the overall cost of completing IT integration projects. A free Hummer looks like a great deal until you see that the guy who gave it to you owns all the gas stations.

Probably the best thing to do is to check out what’s happened in the tech world recently and see the tremendous leaps that have happened - yes even in the integration space.

]]> By: David Inbar http://www.dbms2.com/2007/04/26/more-on-cast-iron-systems/#comment-27452 David Inbar Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:36:39 +0000 http://www.dbms2.com/2007/04/26/more-on-cast-iron-systems/#comment-27452 Simplicity The Cast Iron offering is not much different from our auto-match capability that has been in the product for 7+ years and provides default mappings. Their claim makes for good marketing hype, but in the real world of customized CRM's and ERP's users ALWAYS have to supplement these mechanisms with semantic reconciliation and, more importantly, business-process-specific logic. We provide a graphical process flow designer to help our users and, where needed, reduce this problem down to spreadsheet-like boolean syntax (hardly the Java-like code that most products force on users). Prices and real costs to the customer Yes, our SaaS customers also have the option of subscription vs perpetual licensing, and some of them prefer it. Adoption of this business model is growing, but we expect both purchasing modes to be around for a long time. The acid test for customers (and the challenge for Cast Iron) is the total cost of adopting and implementing SaaS or other integration solutions - our pricing starts at $300/month for SFDC plus 100+ adaptors and the Salesforce consulting group for corporate accounts (ie not Enterprise) uses us for tough SAP integrations. Cast Iron starts at $2,500/month for SFDC plus a single adaptor. Do your own arithmetic. Simplicity
The Cast Iron offering is not much different from our auto-match capability that has been in the product for 7+ years and provides default mappings. Their claim makes for good marketing hype, but in the real world of customized CRM’s and ERP’s users ALWAYS have to supplement these mechanisms with semantic reconciliation and, more importantly, business-process-specific logic. We provide a graphical process flow designer to help our users and, where needed, reduce this problem down to spreadsheet-like boolean syntax (hardly the Java-like code that most products force on users).

Prices and real costs to the customer
Yes, our SaaS customers also have the option of subscription vs perpetual licensing, and some of them prefer it. Adoption of this business model is growing, but we expect both purchasing modes to be around for a long time. The acid test for customers (and the challenge for Cast Iron) is the total cost of adopting and implementing SaaS or other integration solutions - our pricing starts at $300/month for SFDC plus 100+ adaptors and the Salesforce consulting group for corporate accounts (ie not Enterprise) uses us for tough SAP integrations. Cast Iron starts at $2,500/month for SFDC plus a single adaptor. Do your own arithmetic.

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