The More Digital We Become, The More Human Partnerships We Need

Terri Griffith

Professor/Author/Speaker
Simon Fraser University

Terri Griffith holds the Keith Beedie Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business. She spent two decades in the Silicon Valley and, in 2012 was honored as a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Terri helps her students and their organizations accelerate performance and prepare for the futures of work. Through her speaking, writing, teaching, and research, she brings evidence-based leadership and innovation to high-tech, education, and global agribusiness organizations. She inspires and coaches groups on negotiating change and uniquely mixing existing and new capabilities. Her most recent work uses a “bottom-up” approach to automation, including artificial intelligence. Her award-winning book, The Plugged-In Manager:…...

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I’m preparing for the 50th Hawai’i International Conference on Systems Sciences and have taken the title of my contribution in a workshop there as the title for this post. As individuals, we need to “race with the machines.” However, at the organizational level, we need to create human partnerships as scaffolds for our broader digital relationships.

Greater Ties Across Organizations

For example, from my university perspective, I’m looking for tighter ties across universities, organizations, professional accreditation bodies, and job platforms. Hospitals may be looking for tighter ties across data repositories, governmental agencies, and search engine providers (great article about the rise and fall of Google Flu Trends). Digital connections will enable much of the trust and communication of these partnerships, but I’m left with these questions to pose to my colleagues at the conference:

• Do the founding human partnerships evolve into digital platforms?
• If so, how do we maintain needed agility in those platforms?
• These relationships seem to be more than liaison or advisory roles -- but what are they?

New Roles and Relationships?

More broadly, and clearly from my particular perspective, our companies and universities need to create stronger partnerships to support the increased pace of change afforded by a more digital world. Quarterly meetings of advisory boards, using an example of academic programs, may not be enough. For universities to effectively, agilely, serve students and the organizations that employ university graduates, we may need new roles and relationships as I note above.

The participants of this HICSS workshop perhaps understand the digital/human connection better than most. Membership in ISSIP is a common connection for many of us in the workshop. ISSIP, The International Society of Service Innovation Professionals (pronounced iZip) is a professional association co-founded by IBM, Cisco, HP, and several Universities with a mission “to promote Service Innovation for our interconnected world.” We come together in ISSIP, and in this workshop, to take on complicated questions and then offer our home organizations suggestions supported by our combined research and experience.

Data on Digital Transformation

I’m expecting to see unique data on how our environments are becoming more digitally enabled and look forward to sharing it after the workshop. For example, Paul Mugge, Executive Director of the Center for Innovation Management Studies at North Carolina State University, will present results from their on-going research on how to accelerate the process of repositioning and reshaping organizations. (You are invited to participate in their research here.)

We may also hear how digital transformation is affecting jobs. We’ve seen that the only US job growth is in non-routine work (see image below). This points to the need for individual and organizational agility as we work to fine tune opportunities across education and work experience.

New Partnerships

But what I hope for most from this experienced, well-connected set of colleagues, is the creation of new human partnerships that will help our universities, businesses, and communities. These human partnerships, I expect, provide the agility we need for our organizations to execute on their goals in a more digital, nonroutine, world.

Please share examples of the partnerships you're seeing and/or participating in -- there is a Comment button below the figure. How are these partnerships deeper given specific digital shifts your organizations are making? 

 

 

Future of Work Chief Executive Officer

Davos17: Dynamic Leadership; A Responsive And Responsible Approach

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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Today's Leadership Models Fail To Address Responsive And Responsible Leadership

The World Economic Forum kicks off January 17th to 20th in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. As the global theme for the annual meeting, responsive and responsible leadership begins a lofty conversation about the qualities required to bring generations together, create inclusiveness in growth opportunities, and to bridge cultural and economic divides. With the global system challenged by a confluence of political, economic, societal, technological, environmental, and legislative forces, executives seek leadership models that reflect this responsive and responsible paradigm. Moreover, the impact of technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics on the future of work plays a key driving factor in the development of policies that address humanity in a digital age.

This macro pressure at the global scale impacts the business world from many fronts. In fact, the digital disruption organizations face from non-traditional competitors, emerging technologies, and new disruptive business models requires a different type of leadership to manage the pace of change required not only for survival, but also for cultural agility. Past models of leadership play a key role, yet the continual over and under emphasis of one type of leadership design and style no longer is relevant for the challenges ahead.

Dynamic Leadership Provides A Responsive And Responsible Framework For A World Of Digital Transformation

One solution is a dynamic leadership approach. By identifying the immutable core traits and modulating the balance in foundational attributes of leadership, executives can achieve a contextually right time approach. Immutable core traits must be mastered and cannot be neglected. Foundational attributes require more finesse and self-awareness of contextual relevance in balancing out responsive and responsible traits. This dynamic style of leadership allows a framework to balance out traits as needed to achieve the mission, goals, and objectives over a defined period of time.

Five Immutable Core Traits Never Change For Great Leaders

Integrity, inspiration, inclusiveness, authenticity, and transparency form the five immutable core traits of leadership. These immutable traits do not change with time or the business trends at hand. Great leaders hone and refine these traits as part of their development and incorporate these traits into their DNA (see Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Five Immutable Core Traits Never Change For Great Leaders

1. Integrity. Leaders must have strong moral principles, demonstrate honesty, and uphold honor.
2. Inspiration. Leaders must stimulate and draw folks towards ideas, concepts, and actions.
3. Inclusiveness. Leaders must bring people together from different backgrounds and points of view to create equal opportunities.
4. Authenticity. Leaders must reflect a genuineness in who they are and what they stand for.
5. Transparency. Leaders must be accountable and provide clarity on decisions and actions

Seven Dimensions In The Art Of Leadership Require A Balance Of Fourteen Attributes

The art of leadership requires the balance and mastery of fourteen foundational attributes. Each of these 14 attributes on their own have often been used to simplify and describe traits of a great leader. For example, great generals have been known to be demanding. Leaders of freedom movements have been shown to be principled. However, other great leaders have won over folks by their compassion or have been known to be quite adaptive. As evident, this one dimensional approach to leadership often leads to imbalanced description of what it takes to succeed at that point of time and does not reflect the reality of the current or future environment. A more balanced or Yin-Yang approach segments attributes into responsible and responsive dimensions that consider decision making, demeanor, goals and objectives, policy and actions, motivational approach, performance expectations, and execution style. Responsible attributes include principled, focused, accountable, decisive, composed, demanding, and collectivism. Meanwhile, the responsive attributes include adaptive, aware, empathetic, pensive passionate, compassionate, and individualism. By taking a dynamic leadership approach, leaders can account for a more complex reality and attenuate an attribute as needed. These 7 dimensions of leadership include (see Figure 2.):

Figure 2. The Art of Leadership Requires Balancing Fourteen Attributes In Seven Dimensions

1. Decision making. In the Decisive versus Pensive decision making process, are rapid and clear decisions more valued than a thoughtful methodology to decision making?
2. Demeanor. For Composed versus Passionate demeanor, would a composed presence outweigh a passionate emotional manner?
3. Goals and objectives. When thinking about Collective versus Individual goals and objectives, should a leader think about the larger group instead of the individual self-interest
4. Policy and actions. In Principled versus Adaptive policy and actions, should leaders be lauded for staying the course or knowing when to make a shift?
5. Motivational approach. Does a Demanding versus Compassionate motivational approach require leaders to push hard for more or will reaching out with more compassion result in better esprit de corps?
6. Performance expectations. In Accountable versus Empathetic performance expectations, is a broad based policy and results driven style more important than a personalized approach to achievement?
7. Execution style. In Focused versus Opportunistic Execution strategy, should we emphasize laser focus on a task or sentient situational awareness?

The Bottom Line: Digital Transformation Requires Dynamic Leadership For Success

As leaders converge at Davos, the call for responsive and responsible leadership will require a new way to approach the timeless topic of leadership. Instead of taking a classical binary or rigid approach, consider the 5 core traits and develop a balance of 14 foundational attributes as a guide to successful and sustainable dynamic leadership (see Figure 3). Success at the leadership level will translate into much broader organizational values and capabilities.

Figure 3. Why Digital Transformation Requires A Dynamic Leadership Model

Your POV.

Are you ready to begin your digital transformation journey? Do you have the right leadership framework? Would you like to join a network of other early adopters? Learn how non-digital organizations can disrupt digital businesses in the best-selling Harvard Business Review Press book Disrupting Digital. Join like minded folks at the Constellation Executive Network. Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

Resources And Related Research

Reprints

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy,stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website. * Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions. However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt. Copyright © 2001 -2017 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved. Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience

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A critique of Privacy by Design

Steve Wilson

Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Steve Wilson is former VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, leading the business theme Digital Safety and Privacy. His coverage includes digital identity, data protection, data privacy, cryptography, and trust. His advisory services to CIOs, CISOs, CPOs and IT architects include identity product strategy, security practice benchmarking, Privacy by Design (PbD), privacy engineering and Privacy [or Data Protection] Impact Assessments (PIA, DPIA). Coverage Areas: -  Identity management, frameworks & governance-  Digital identity technologies-  Privacy by Design -  Big Data; “Big Privacy”-  Identity & privacy innovation Previous experience: Wilson has worked in ICT innovation, research, development and analysis for over 25 years. With double…...

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Or Reorientating how engineers think about privacy.

This blog is extracted from my chapter Blending the practices of Privacy and Information Security to navigate Contemporary Data Protection Challenges in the forthcoming book "Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Relations as a Challenge for Democracy", Kloza & Svantesson (editors).

One of the leading efforts to inculcate privacy into engineering practice has been the "Privacy by Design" movement, or "PbD". It's a set of guidelines developed in the 1990s by the then privacy commissioner of Ontario, Ann Cavoukian. The movement seeks to embed privacy "into the design specifications of technologies, business practices, and physical infrastructures". PbD is basically the same good idea as build in security, or build in quality, because retrofitting these things too late in the design lifecycle leads to higher costs* and compromised, sub-optimal outcomes.

Privacy by Design attempts to orientate technologists to privacy with a set of simple callings:

1. Proactive not Reactive; Preventative not Remedial
2. Privacy as the Default Setting
3. Privacy Embedded into Design
4. Full Functionality - Positive-Sum, not Zero-Sum
5. End-to-End Security - Full Lifecycle Protection
6. Visibility and Transparency - Keep it Open
7. Respect for User Privacy - Keep it User-Centric.

PbD is a well-meaning effort, and yet its language comes from a culture quite different from engineering. PbD's maxims rework classic privacy principles without providing much that's tangible to working systems designers. The first three principles are common generalisations. No. 5 and no. 6 simply reword standard privacy principles of security and openness.  User centricity (No. 7) is problematic in the era of Big Data and the Internet of Things, where the vast majority of Personal Information is collected or synthesised behind our backs, beyond our control. "User centric" is hollow as a call to action.

PbD principle no. 4 exemplifies the most problematic aspect of Privacy by Design -- its idealism. Politically, PbD is partly a response to the cynicism of national security zealots and the like who tend to see privacy as quaint or threatening. Infamously, NSA security consultant Ed Giorgio was quoted in "The New Yorker" of 21 January 2008 as saying "privacy and security are a zero-sum game". Of course most privacy advocates (including me) find that proposition truly chilling. Privacy should not be traded mindlessly for security.  And yet PbD's response is frankly just too cute with its slogan that privacy is a "positive sum game".

The truth is privacy is full of contradictions and competing interests, and we ought not sugar coat it. For starters, the Collection Limitation principle - which I take to be the cornerstone of privacy - can contradict the security or legal instinct to always retain as much data as possible, in case it proves useful one day. Disclosure Limitation can conflict with usability, because Personal Information may become siloed for privacy's sake and less freely available to other applications. And above all, Use Limitation can restrict the revenue opportunities that digital entrepreneurs might otherwise see in all the raw material they are privileged to have gathered.

Now, by highlighting these tensions, I do not for a moment suggest that arbitrary interests should override privacy. But I do say it is naive to flatly assert that privacy can be maximised along with any other system objective. It is better that IT designers be made aware of the many trade-offs that privacy can entail, and that they be equipped to deal with real world compromises implied by privacy just as they do with other design requirements. For this is what engineering is all about: resolving conflicting requirements in real world systems.

So a more sophisticated approach than "Privacy by Design" is privacy engineering in which privacy can take its place within information systems design alongside all the other practical considerations that IT professionals weigh up everyday, including usability, security, efficiency, profitability, and cost.

See also my "Getting Started Guide: Privacy Engineering" from Constellation Research.

*Footnote

Not unrelatedly, I wonder if we should re-examine the claim that retrofitting privacy, security and/or quality after a system has been designed and realised leads to greater cost! Cold hard experience might suggest otherwise. Clearly, a great many organisations persist with bolting on these sorts of features late in the day -- or else advocates wouldn't have to keep telling them not to. And the Minimum Viable Product movement is almost a license to defer quality and other non-essential considerations. All businesses are cost conscious, right? So averaged across a great many projects over the long term, could it be that businesses have in fact settled on the most cost effective timing of security engineering, and it's not as politically correct as we'd like?!

Q3 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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By now you know the idea... Check out the Q1 (here) and Q2 (here) shootouts on Next Generation Applications. These quarters were won by Microsoft with Conversation as a Platform and Pivotal / Cloud Foundry.  


 

 

 

In case you wonder about the methodology - check out the above links, too - no need to repeat here.

 

And here is Q3 2016 - all related to NextGen Apps - the research area that covers when enterprises build new software - what are the use cases, the tools, the platforms, the players, the best practises etc. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Apologies - time to market forced me to play the bracket right to left.]

 

Round #1 Dropouts

 

• Unit4 Business Prevero - 2016 was the year of predictive analytics morphing into Machine Learning, and for the aggressive messaging makers of the industry, into artificial intelligence. Unit4 did not miss out with the acquisition of prevero, strengthening the vendors BI and CPM capabilities (read here). But not a match to Dell's acquisition of EMC (read here).
     
• AWS Enterprise Summit Frankfurt - AWS continues its progress around the world, and while interest and projects are high, in more conservative locations, like Frankfurt in Germany, enterprises were not comfortable to share their plans, status, projects on a keynote stage (more here). Box's move to AWS / the public cloud garnered more CxO attention and goes on (read here).
   
• GE & Microsoft - It was also the year in which pretty all SaaS properties choose their IaaS partners. GE chose Azure in July, a good move by all vendors (read here). But compared to the massive announcement and progress of Oracle OpenWorld - not a fair match (read here).
   
• Pivotal SpringOne - The Spring network gains more popularity again, never count anyone out in application development, certainly fostered also by the popularity of CloudFoundry (our Q2 winner - read here). Interesting to see what enterprises are building on SpringOne (read here). But compared to the many announcements and developments of the Microsoft Ignite conference not a match (read here).
   

Round #2 Dropouts

 

• Box BoxWorks - BoxWorks was an impressive event - both from a Nextgen Apps perspective and Future of Work (see Q3 on Future of Work coming soon) - announcing new capabilities across the board (read here). But compared to the news of Dell Technology, the closure of the Dell / EMC deal not a close match (read here).
   
• Microsoft Ignite - Ignite was a good event for Microsoft, where the vendor showed progress and made announcements across the board, in my view the FPGA Azure architecture stood out (read here). But compared to Oracle OpenWorld, where e.g. CTO Ellison announced nothing less than 18 substantial announcements, read here.

  

 

Q3 Finals - Oracle OpenWorld beats Dell Technology

Two key events for enterprise software, next generation applications in Q3 of 2016, with massive consequences for enterprises... more than 2/3 of enterprises have some sort of Dell / Oracle product / services in place. But while Dell merits kudos for the courage or the largest IT transaction ever (read here), the road forward is much less clear than for similar categorized vendor Oracle. Oracle is more advanced in its formulation of its future than Dell at the moment, and the massive R&D push coming our of the Redwood Shores headquartered company is impressive (read here). 

 

So congrats to Oracle to win the Q3 2016 next generation applications shootout. 

 

How would you have scored the Q3 2016 news? Please comment!

  

 

Here are all blog posts:

 

• News Analysis - Unit4 acquires prevero; gets more strategic and intelligent - read here.
• Event report - AWS Enterprise Summit 2016 Frankfurt - The German Road to Cloud adoption is ... long - read here.
• News Analysis - GE and Microsoft partner to bring Predix to Azure - Multi-Cloud becomes tangible for IoT - read here.
• Event Report - Cloud Foundry Summit Europe - Europe & Cloud - A long path - read here.
• Event Report - Box BoxWorks - Box is on the run - now with a platform - read here.
• First Take - Microsoft Ignite - AI, Adobe and FPGA [From the Fences] read here.
• Market Move - Dell Technologies is here - 3 scenarios and a bonus perspective - read here.
• First Take - Early Oracle OpenWorld 2016 Keynotes - read here.

 

 

 

Other Shootouts for 2016:

• Q1 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
• Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
• Q2 2016 Future of Work Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
• Q2 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.

 

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016 (C) Holger Mueller - All Rights Reserved

New C-Suite Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Tech Optimization Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience unit4 box dell amazon Oracle Microsoft Leadership SaaS PaaS IaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service AR Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer

Final 2016 Editor's Picks: Hit 2017 at a Sprint

Director of Customer Programs, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Carole oversees the Constellation Executive Network, an executive community for innovative senior leaders who value strategic guidance from trusted advisors who understand the power of disruptive technologies. Carole brings over 15 years of marketing, strategic account management, and operations experience, specializing in high technology and professional services. She holds a BA from Santa Clara University and a MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management.     ...

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2016 is the year of M&A not to mention disruptive technology developments and forays into this brave new world of AI, robotics, machine learning, virtual reality, blockchain technology, IoT, and significant digital transformation. You can explore our Constellation Insights to see the big stories that we covered in 2016 or to get set for 2017.

This is our final installment on 2016 editor's reading picks for leaders who want quick answers on what to expect next or even a couple gold nuggets from the year. Also, here's an interesting roundup of the 10 Best Books of 2016, especially #6 with The Industries of the Future, which likely touches on Constellation Research's predictions. 

Byte-Sized Analyses

• Announcing Constellation Research's 2016 Enterprise Awards 
• 7 Predictions on 2017 Enterprise Technology
• Why A Bi-Modal Approach to Digital Transformation Is Just Stupid 

What's New?

Constellation ShortList Pick: Constellation ShortList™ Digital Experience (DX) Integrated Platforms - R "Ray" Wang
New Research Pick: Recommendations for Successful Digital Transformation in 2017 - R "Ray" Wang

Finally, check out our 2017 CEN Member Chat Schedule led by our founder, Ray, who'll set the stage on big trends and the great expectations of 2017 on January 10th from 10-10:30am PT. If you're not yet a CEN Member but would like to join us, email [email protected].

Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Data to Decisions Future of Work Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Distillation Aftershots Next-Generation Customer Experience Matrix Commerce AI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics Analytics Automation Cloud SaaS PaaS IaaS Quantum Computing Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service developer Metaverse VR Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief AI Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Product Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Operating Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Experience Officer

New Report: Why Artificial Intelligence Will Power the Future of Work

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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During the Fall of 2014 at Salesforce’s annual conference Dreamforce, I gave a presentation titled “From Clippy to JARVIS" where I explained how the next generation of software was going to assist people in getting their work done. Back then, terms like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning had not reached the massive level of hype that they are currently experiencing today. Instead, my presentation discussed topics like task automation, extracting insights, and providing recommendations. Since that presentation over two years ago, I’ve worked with dozens of enterprise software vendors, innovative new startups, and customers of Constellation on how AI can help their employees get work done. That work formed the foundation for my newest report, Why Artificial Intelligence Will Power the Future of Work.

This new report is intended for C-suite executives and Line of Business managers who want to understand why there is so much talk about AI these days, how it’s important to their businesses, the use-cases and benefits it can provide, and also prepare them for the challenges that the future of AI-enhanced software must overcome.

Below is a glance at what is contained in the report.

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
• Artificial Intelligence Delivers a Game Changer to the Future of Work
• AI-Enhanced Software Learns while Traditional Software Is Static
• How Does a Machine Learn?
• AI Requires Five Core Components for Success
• AI Will Augment Humanity over Time
• Expect AI to Rapidly Show Up in Applications
• Where AI Helps People Get Work Done
• AI Must Overcome Six Human Challenges
• Recommendations
• The Bottom Line

Executive Summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the most important trends affecting the future of work.  While the study of AI has been around for decades, advancements in computing power and access to huge data sets now bring AI capabilities closer to reality. Enterprise software vendors are working on new versions of their applications that use AI to help employees be more productive. For instance, these AI-enhanced programs can help bring to light important information, assist in expense reporting, automate content creation, and help connect the right people at the right time. This report serves as a Beginners Guide to AI, explaining some basic concepts and then providing examples of how AI-enhanced software can help employees get work done and augment humanity. Finally, Constellation provides recommendations on how organizations should prepare for artificial intelligence’s role in the future of work.

Constellation Research customers can purchase the full report, Why Artificial Intelligence Will Power the Future of Work, by clicking here.   
 

Future of Work

Q2 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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By now you will be familiar with my year end development and trends shootout, this one is about Future of Work trends and developments in Q2 2016. If you missed the Q1 Future of Work post - it can be found here.



 

Here you go for Q1 2016 - all related to Future of Work - the research area that covers how, when, what and if we work, what and how we get paid, stay motivated and balance the work / life relationship. If you wonder on the process - all laid out in the Q1 post - read here.



 

 

 

[Apologies - time to market forced me to play the bracket right to left.]

 

 

 

Round #1 Dropouts

 

• NGA HR - unshackled - NGA HR, the former NorthGate Arinso managed to renegotiate and shed itself of substantial debt, expecting a brighter future for the 'All Things HR' specialist - with a focus on Global HR BPO (read more here). Not enough to trump the Microsoft Hololens, but this was a match-up of non equals both in vendor size and announcement category (read here).
   
• Equifax EFX Forum - Another got event for the compliance specialist, one of the few vendors who can solve one of the top concerns of CxOs, compliance, with a Compliance as a Service (CaaS) offering (more here). But Cornerstone adding to its HCM automaton portfolio with adding HR Core capabilities had more impact (read here).
   
• SAP SuccessFactors Analyst Summit - SuccessFactors found a way forward, to lift all products with common horizontal and platform plans. Very important to consolidate the mixed acquisition history, and very welcome by customers and prospects (read here). But sparred against one of the biggest acquisitions in enterprise history, a clear win for Microsoft (read here).
   
• HireVue Digital Disruption - HireVue keeps innovating in the area of video recruiting and Talent Acquisition overall (read here). Good progress and an interesting foray into the (bigger) coaching market - but no competition to the sheer breadth of announcements and progress made by Oracle at HCM World (read here).

 

Round #2 Dropouts

 

• Microsoft Hololens - Much progress made by Microsoft Hololens in 2016, we had a chance to build a mini applicaiton during the developer conference Build in San Francisco (read here).The mixed reality vision is compelling - now Microsoft needs to convicne developers to build the apps for Hololens. More immediate impact by Cornerstone, and more direct talk of people leaders (read here). 
   
• Oracle HCM World - A broad push around the core was the key strategy and announcement trail at HCM World, with Helpdesk, Learning and more Work / Life offerings (read here). But more impact happened from the Microsoft and LinkedIn tie in (read here). 

  

 

Q1 Finals - Microsoft / LInkedIn wins over Cornerstone

While Cornerstone portfolio enhancement move remains impressive (read here), the acqusition of LinkedIn by Microsoft garnered even more interest. Not a fair match-up - but it all happened in Q2. More questions than answers specifically on the HCM side, but Microsoft probably acquired a Top 3 HCM vendor with LinkedIn - without mentioning it (more here and here). Congrats to Microsoft / LinkedIn to making it to the 2016 finals!

 

How would you have scored the Q1 2016 news? Please comment!

  

 

Here are all blog posts:

• Progress Report - NGA HR with new HR service offerings - unshackled read here.
• Event Report - Equifax EFXForum16 Good progress and CaaS looming - read here.
• Progress Report - SAP SuccessFactors makes good progress - now needs appeal beyond SAP - read here.
• Event Report - HireVue Digital Disruption 2016 - More Recruiing and now... Coaching - read here.
• Musings - Will Microsoft's Hololens transform the Future of Work? Read here.
• Event Report - Oracle HCM World - Innovation around the Core - read here.
• Progress Report - Cornerstone Convergence - HR Core debut, lot's of product, time to execute! Read here.
• Market Move - Microsoft acquired Linked - Tons of synergies, start with Cortana, maybe too many - read here.

Other Shootouts for 2016:

• Q2 Q2 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout - read here.
• Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
• Q2 2016 Future of Work Development & Trends Shootout - read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016 (C) Holger Mueller - All Rights Reserved

New C-Suite Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Tech Optimization SuccessFactors SAP Oracle Microsoft Leadership AR Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

Q2 2016 NextGen Apps Developments & Trends Shootout

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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By now you know the idea I had to square off the top news and developments of each quarter of 2016 in playoff / bracket format...  I started with NextGen Apps for Q1 2016 (won by Microsoft with its Conversation as a Platform (CaaP) launch - take a look here and Future of Work Q1 2016 - won by Ceridian with its overall suite wide push and next generation capabilities, read here. 


 

 

 

Of course this is a personal exercise - anyone can come to an different result - here is what I did: I picked the top 8 events, news, acquisitions, conferences, analyst events etc. of the quarter, they had to have a blog post published by yours truly. Threw them in a bucket, draw them and then had them 'play' out the bracket... based on what myPOV was in regards of enterprise relevance and impact for our clients, the CxOs, with special weight to people leaders out there. Needless to say - some where easier, some harder. 

 

Here you go for Q2 2016 - all related to NextGen Apps - the research area that covers when enterprises build new software - what are the use cases, the tools, the platforms, the players, the best practises etc. 

 

 

 

 

[Apologies - time to market forced me to play the bracket right to left.]

 

Round #1 Dropouts

 

• Unit4 Business World On - A complete, start from scratch, built on next gen capabilities that technology offers, ERP package was launched by Unit4. Runs on IaaS, uses BigData and Machine Learning, includes an assistant etc. (read more here). Unfortunately squared against CloudFoundry, which has seen broad adoption and mind-share amongst CxOs in 2016 (read here).
     
• AWS in India - Few locations, maybe Germany, have garnered more anticipation and interest for AWS opening up a location for its IaaS services than the one in India (read here). Unfortunately the draw squared it against another big AWS announcement, the joint statement of both Salesforce and AWS of making AWS its production IaaS. Both are important for AWS, but getting load leads to opening locations, so the partnership wins this one (read here).
   
• OpenStack Summit - What used to be the tangible, widely adopted alternative to public IaaS, OpenStack, showed signs of weakening at OpenStack Summit in Austin (read here), where no commercial company talked about usage in the keynote (ISVs and Telcos where there in force). SAP choosing Azure as the (or one? Not clear yet today.) IaaS partner for production loads eclipses this easily. (see here).
   
• Infosys Confluence - Infosys laid down its vision on how enterprises will operate in the future, but most impressively laying out its vision on how to disrupt its own business for the better with Mana (read here). But Google I/O was a tough opponent and wins this round (see here).
   

Round #2 Dropouts

 

• Salesforce and AWS - While an impressive partnership - that will show further announcements in the year (stay tuned, think foliage), it did resonate in the Salesforce ecosystem only (read here), but the CloudFoundry victory lap continued strong in 2016, dominating both CxO conversations and plans as well as IVS and IaaS uptake, read here (read here).
   
• Google I/O - Google staged its yearly developer conference in Mountain View this time and it was loaded with announcements, mainly in Machine Learning (by now everyone said AI), VR / AR, Assistants and much more (read here). But the SAP / Microsoft partnership garnered more, probably immediate enterprise attention and squares the #1 enterprise load in the direction of the #2 IaaS vendor, read here.

  

 

Q2 Finals - CloudFoundry beats Microsoft Azure getting SAP load

Two key evens in Q2 2016, both operating at different levels of the stack. The Microsoft / SAP partnership on attracting load for Azure on the IaaS level, also marking (the not confirmed) end of SAP's in house IaaS ambition (read here). CloudFoundry is squarely on a PaaS level, with load portability across IaaS being one of the major reasons to attract enterprises (read here). Even if they may never move loads across IaaS - they still remain very attracted to the topic, trying to avoid the dreaded lock-in. Apps beat IaaS here, so congrats to CloudFoundry to win the Q2 Finals of 2016 in the NextGen Apps category. See you in the Finals. 

 

How would you have scored the Q2 2016 news? Please comment!

  

 

Here are all blog posts:

•  
• News Analysis - Unit4 announces Business World On – A modern ERP offering - read here.
• News Analysis - Amazon Web Services Cloud now speaks… Hindi - Indian AWS Data Centers available - read here.
• Event Report - OpenStack Summit 2016 - Austin - OpenStack matures - read here.
• Event Report - Infosys Confluence - The Future Watch is Software + People - read here.
• News Analysis - Salesforce selects AWS as preferred Public Cloud Infrastructure Provider - Good move - read here.
• Event Report - Google I/O 2016 - Android N soon, Google assistant sooner and VR / AR later - read here.
• News Analysis - SAP and Microsoft usher in new era of partnership to accelerate digital transformation in the cloud - read here.
• Event Report - Cloud Foundry Cloud Foundry Summit - It's good to be king of PaaS - read here.

 

Other Shootouts for 2016:

• Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Development & Trends Shootout - read here.
• Q2 2016 Future of Work Development & Trends Shootout - read here.

 

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.

2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016 (C) Holger Mueller - All Rights Reserved

Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth Data to Decisions Future of Work Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity New C-Suite unit4 infosys Google salesforce amazon SAP Microsoft SaaS PaaS IaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service AR Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Operating Officer

Q1 2016 Future of Work Developments & Trends Shootout

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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There is always time to try something new - and instead of writing one more year review on what happened in my research areas, I thought I make this more entertaining, and provider a 'playoff' of the news in each quarter. I started with NextGen Apps for Q1 2016 - take a look here. 

 

 

Of course this is a personal exercise - anyone can come to an different result - here is what I did: I picked the top 8 events, news, acquisitions, conferences, analyst events etc. of the quarter, they had to have a blog post published by yours truly. Threw them in a bucket, draw them and then had them 'play' out the bracket... based on what myPOV was in regards of enterprise relevance and impact for our clients, the CxOs, with special weight to people leaders out there. Needless to say - some where easier, some harder. 

 

Here you go for Q1 2016 - all related to Future of Work - the research area that covers how, when, what and if we work, what and how we get paid, stay motivated and balance the work / life relationship. 

 

 

[Apologies - time to market forced me to play the bracket right to left.]

 

Round #1 Dropouts

 

• Unit4 Assistant / Slack Integration - Assistants were the key new functionality talked about in 2016, Unit4 was the first traditional ERP vendor coming out with an across suite assistant. Slack with its instant chat tool never got out of the headlines, and many vendors have jumped on the Slack band wagon - again Unit4 was the first larger ERP vendor to provide an integration (read here). But Ceridian with its broad next generation capabilities wins this round (read more here), capturing more people leaders mind share.
   
• Workday France Payroll - Announced for over two years, Workday delivered on is France payroll (read here), always good to deliver (read more here). But the impact was mainly with international and French clients, and pales compared to the cross suite innovation unveiled by SAP SuccessFactors. (more here).
   
• VMware Workspace One - VMware EUC has been on a roll, capturing market share and delivering (finally) for the industry on the long time promise of VDI, which changes fundamentally the Human / Machine relationship, away from the traditional PC (read here). But the progress ADP showed at Meeting of the Minds was more relevant for people leaders across the country (see here).
   
• Workato Bots - Workato kept innovating around its end user, no code integration platform, which changes the Future of Work as it enables business users to build their own work environment, solving the application integration problem (read here). However, Ultimate at UltiConnect provided more impact for people leaders in Q1 2016 (more here).

Round #2 Dropouts

 

• SAP SuccessFactors platform innovation - SuccessFactors (finally went back to broad across suite platform enhancements (e.g. Intelligent Services, Machine Learning) and renovation (e.g. new UI), read more here. But Ceridian pushed the envelope even more on all fronts (read here), very close but Ceridian wins. After all the only vendor doing payroll conversion from old to new in the multiple 100s each month.
   
• Ultimate UltiConnect - A good conference for Ultimate with a ton of innovation, interesting new approaches (e.g. Leadership Action) read more here, but ADP with Meeting of the Minds unwrapped their Data as a Service offering on pay grades and the ADP Data Cloud, a win by a buzzer beater here, too (read more here).

Q1 Finals - Ceridian wins over ADP

Well the semifinals were close, this one was even closer, both vendors pushed across the board, but Ceridian's push was even broader than ADP's (more here). Maybe because Analytics / Data as a Service and Benchmarking are still not the HR leaders best friend, but Ceridian got its user base a little more energized (more here). Congrats to Ceridian to making it to the 2016 finals!

 

How would you have scored the Q1 2016 news? Please comment!

  

 

New C-Suite Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity unit4 ADP vmware SuccessFactors workday SAP Leadership AR Chief Technology Officer Chief Experience Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

Q1 2016 NextGen Apps Trends - Impact News Bracket

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

Read more

There is always time to try something new - and instead of writing one more year review on what happened in my research areas, I thought I make this more entertaining, and provider a 'playoff' of the news in each quarter.

 

 

Of course this is a personal exercise - anyone can come to an different result - here is what I did: I picked the top 8 events, news, acquisitions, conferences, analyst events etc. of the quarter, they had to have a blog post published by yours truly. Threw them in a bucket, draw them and then had them 'play' out the bracket... based on what myPOV was in regards of enterprise relevance and impact for our clients, the CxOs out there. Needless to say - some where easier, some harder. 

 

Here you go for Q1 2016 - all related to NextGen Apps - the research area that covers when enterprises build new software - what are the use cases, the tools, the platforms, the players, the best practises etc. 

 

 

[Apologies - time to market force me to play the bracket right to left.]

 

Round #1 Dropouts

 

• Atos acquired Unify - This was one of the major surprises in Q1 2016, and by now the Atos strategy is clear - differentiate with more products (hardware - see Bull and software - see Unify). A bold move that made the Top 16, but a challenge from an organizational DNA (read more here). Future will tell more. And the IBM and VMware partnership had more impact on CxOs (read here).
• Hortonworks Analyst Summit - Well done summit (read more here), compelling vision of bringing data at rest and in motion together. But Microsoft had more impact with Conversation as a Platform (CaaP) (more here).
• Microsoft acquires Xamarin - A very important acquisition by Microsoft, that makes multi platform native development possible. but compare to Google's announcements at Google Cloud Platform Next (see here) not as relevant, a tough round #1 match up (more here).
• SAP Vora GA - An important step for SAP, making Vora GA, but not as impactful as Oracle acquiring Ravello (more here) - being able to provide heterogeneous load through a nested hypervisor is key to Oracle's overall cloud strategy (more here).

 

Round #2 Dropouts

 

 

• IBM and VMware partner - Great timing for an originally unlikely partnership, that is working well from what we hear (more here). But Microsoft CaaP captured more forward looking plans of CxOs, both events were Top 10 CxO topics in 2016, but Microsoft wins solid (more here).
• Oracle acquires Ravello - A key move by Oracle, that will get even more valuable later in the year (more here), when Oracle will unveil its 2nd generation IaaS strategy. But Google Cloud Platform captures the imagination of CxOs worldwide with its analytical and Machine Learning capability (more here).

  

 

Q1 Finals - Microsoft CaaP wins with a buzzer beater

 

Tough to call with both impactful announcements but Google (see here) and Microsoft. Microsoft Conversation as a Platform wins as Microsoft is the first one out talking virtual assistants and bots in what will become the year when all vendors needs to have an AI story (more here). Very clear and defined positioning by Nadella at the Build developer conference. Very close to call. Congrats to Microsoft to make it to the 2016 Finals.

 

How would you have scored the Q1 2016 news? Please comment!

  

 

Here are all blog posts:

• News Analysis - IBM and VMware announce partnership to accelerate enterprise hybrid cloud adoption >> Looking promising - read here
• Market Move - Atos completes acqusition of Unify - moves more into IP - read here
• Progress Report - Hortonworks wants to become the next generation data platform for the enterprise - a tall ask - read here
• Event Report - Microsoft Build 2016 - A platform vision and plenty of tools for next generation applications - read here
• News Analysis - Welcoming the Xamarin team to Microsoft - read here
• Event Report - Google Cloud Platform Next - Key offerings for (some of the) enterprise - read here
• Market Move - Oracle acquires Ravello Sysystems - makes good on nested hypervisor roadmap - read here
• News Analysis - SAP Vora now GA - a key milestone for SAP - read here

 

 

 

 

 

2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016 (C) Holger Mueller - All Rights Reserved

Tech Optimization Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Innovation & Product-led Growth Future of Work Hortonworks Google vmware IBM SAP Oracle Microsoft SaaS PaaS IaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service Chief Information Officer Chief Experience Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer