| Constellation Research

Aptos one year in and the future is bright

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Guy Courtin was formerly Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research covering Matrix Commerce and how the Internet of Things drives the evolution of commerce.  Guy has over 15 years experience in the technology space and specifically in the supply chain space. Most recently he was the Vice President of Research at SCM World. Where he focused on the service providers that empowered supply chains. Prior to SCM World, Guy held numerous senior positions. He was responsible for product marketing at RSi, a retail supply chain solution provider. There managed RSi’s go to market strategy around their leading cloud based supply chain solutions. He also spear headed Progress Software’s supply chain group. Where he was responsible for driving revenue and market share as well…...

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Around this time last year Aptos and their leadership team were still under the Epicor banner, after close to a year as an independent firm Aptos hosted their first user conference. Fortunately for me I was able to head back to Las Vegas for the fourth time in 6 weeks – this time I didn’t test my luck at the blackjack tables. Being in Las Vegas seemed to be appropriate as the investment firm Apax Partners is gambling on Aptos and their leadership team to be successful in a very competitive retail landscape. Time will tell if the gamble will pay off…but first some reactions to the conference:

It is about the people – at the end of the day, regardless of what business you are in, people buy from people. Maybe one day when bots have taken over they will purchase from each other and we will be left to fend off Skynet. Not only do we buy from other people, but the biggest driver for happy employees are the people we work with and for. Aptos is taking a refreshing take on this, emphasizing the importance of culture and people. The investors in Aptos took to main stage to reinforce this, stating that they were making an investment in the business but also the leaders, from CEO Noel Goggin on down. Noel also emphasized the importance in the team he has built to manage the growth and opportunity for Aptos. This focus on the people is refreshing…and at the end of the day business is about people working with and dealing with other people.
Leaning on a legacy of cloud – the cloud is no longer an enigma but is firmly entrenched as the preferred vehicle to deliver software. Not simply because it lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO) but today it is starting to show its true business value. Allowing for retailers and others to quickly scale whether in terms of product growth of geographical expansion. A number of the customers we visited such as Tory Burch, Michael Kors and Nike were looking to Aptos to help empower their global expansions – this was made easier due to the cloud-based solution. Other retailers such as Tumi were looking to lean on the cloud-based solution to have a much more dynamic and flexible inventory system. Truly tying together their inventory whether in the store, storage room or distribution center. The cloud is here, the cloud is the preferred vehicle for product and the cloud allows greater business value.
Further up to the customer or further back into supply chain? So where can Aptos go from here? Granted they have plenty of opportunity within their existing client base as well as closing net new opportunities. But is there a play for Aptos to push further back into the stack and provide their customers with greater views in the sourcing and manufacturing portion of their supply chain? Or move even deeper to the omni-channel needs of the consumer, building on their acquisition of ShopVisible, placing a bigger bet on eCommerce world where the likes of Demandware are present? They have shown an ability to build out the necessary assets, for example QuantiSense brining more powerful analytics to their portfolio. This will provide even greater insights into the customer demands. For Aptos to truly reach its potential we feel they will need to think through some of these strategies, whether they partner or develop their own solutions that is up to Noel and his team to figure out.

Thankfully what happens in Vegas isn’t staying in Vegas for Aptos. They come of out of a successful user event with the wind at their backs. Noel and the team have carved out a nice space to play in. However there are many fierce competitors out there, their honeymoon period is long over. The team is in place and with some strong customer stories it is up to Aptos to step up and really push their story.

If you were to place a bet, Aptos seems to have some favorable odds. But as we all know, nothing in Las Vegas is a sure thing!

Tagged: Aptos, eCommerce, Retail

Matrix Commerce Chief Information Officer

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Event Preview - Google I/O 2016

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…...

Later this week we will see Google's key developer conference, Google I/O start in Mountain View, so it's time to bring thoughts in order around what to expect.

So take a look at my musings:

No chance to watch - here is the one slide summary:

Event Preview - Google Google I/O 2016 from Holger Mueller

MyPOV

A key event for Google, first of all we will have to see if this will be a Google I/O in the format of the 2015 edition, which was focussed all over Android, omitting the broad coverage of the previous editions. Regardless of that it will be important for Google to keep developers focussed on the target, build more Android applications, and get more differentiation from Google Cloud Platform for them. No surprise - as shared at Google Cloud Platform - those differentiators are around Machine Learning, Analytics and Big Data. Google Now on Tap was going to make them more tangible for developers, but the relatively small uptake of Android M makes innovations like these less widely available. Backward compatibility of new features that Google is likely going to announce around Android N will be key. And lastly it will be all about generating load for Google Cloud Platform - may it come from Android or new innovations. It will be an exciting Google I/O. Stay tuned.

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

Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth Next-Generation Customer Experience Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Future of Work android Google 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 Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer

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Personal Information: What's it all 'about'?

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…...

For the past few years, a crucial case has been playing out in Australia's legal system over the treatment of metadata in privacy law. The next stanza is due to be written soon in the Federal Court.

It all began when a journalist with a keen interest in surveillance, Ben Grubb, wanted to understand the breadth and depth of metadata, and so requested that mobile network operator Telstra provide him a copy of his call records. Grubb thought to exercise his rights to access Personal Information under the Privacy Act. Telstra held back a lot of Grubb's call data, arguing that metadata is not Personal Information and is not subject to the access principle. Grubb appealed to the Australian Privacy Commissioner, who ruled that metadata is identifiable and hence represents Personal Information. Telstra took their case to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which found in favor of Telstra, with a surprising interpretation of "Personal Information". And the Commissioner then appealed to the next legal authority up the line.

At yesterday's launch of Privacy Awareness Week in Sydney, the Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim informed us that the full bench of the Federal Court is due to consider the case in August. This could be significant for data privacy law worldwide, for it all goes to the reach of these sorts of regulations.

I always thought the nuance in Personal Information was in the question of "identifiability" - which could be contested case by case - and those good old ambiguous legal modifiers like 'reasonably' or 'readily'. So it was a great surprise that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, in overruling the Privacy Commissioner in Ben Grubb v Telstra, was exercised instead by the meaning of the word "about".

Australia's Privacy Act (as amended in 2012) defines Personal Information as:

"Information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable: (a) whether the information or opinion is true or not; and (b) whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not."

The original question at the heart of Grubb vs Telstra was whether mobile phone call metadata falls under this definition. Commissioner Pilgrim showed that call metadata is identifiable to the caller (especially identifiable by the phone company itself that keeps extensive records linking metadata to customer records) and therefore counts as Personal Information.

When it reviewed the case, the tribunal agreed with Pilgrim that the metadata was identifiable, but in a surprise twist, found that the metadata is not actually about Ben Grubb but instead is about the services provided to him.

Once his call or message was transmitted from the first cell that received it from his mobile device, the [metadata] that was generated was directed to delivering the call or message to its intended recipient. That data is no longer about Mr Grubb or the fact that he made a call or sent a message or about the number or address to which he sent it. It is not about the content of the call or the message ... It is information about the service it provides to Mr Grubb but not about him. See AATA 991 (18 December 2015) paragraph 112.

To me it's passing strange that information about calls made by a person is not also regarded as being about that person. Can information not be about more than one thing, namely about a customer's services and the customer?

Think about what metadata can be used for, and how broadly-framed privacy laws are meant to stem abuse. If Ben Grubb was found, for example, to have repeatedly called the same Indian takeaway shop, would we not infer something about him and his taste for Indian food? Even if he called the takeaway shop just once, we might still conclude something about him, even if the sample size is small. We might deduce he doesn't like Indian (remember that in Australian law, Personal Information doesn't necessarily have to be correct).

By the AAT's logic, a doctor's appointment book would not represent any Personal Information about her patients but only information about the services she has delivered to them. But in fact the appointment list of an oncologist for instance would tell us a lot about peoples' cancer.

Given the many ways that metadata can invade our privacy (not to mention that people may be killed based on metadata) it's important that the definition of Personal Information be broad, and that it has a low threshold. Any amount of metadata tells us something about the person.

I appreciate that the 'spirit of the law' is not always what matters, but let's compare the definition of Personal Information in Australia with corresponding concepts elsewhere (see more detail beneath). In the USA, Personally Identifiable Information is any data that may "distinguish" an individual; in the UK, Personal Data is anything that "relates" to an individual; in Germany, it is anything "concerning" someone. Clearly the intent is consistent worldwide. If data can be linked to a person, then it comes under data privacy law.

Which is how it should be. Technology neutral privacy law is framed broadly in the interests of consumer protection. I hope the Federal Court in drilling into the definition of Personal Information upholds what the Privacy Act is for.

Personal Information definitions around the world.

Personal Information, Personal Data and Personally Identifiable Information are variously and more or less equivalently defined as follows (references are hyperlinked in the names of each country):

United Kingdom

data which relate to a living individual who can be identified

Germany

any information concerning the personal or material circumstances of an identified or identifiable individual

Canada

information about an identifiable individual

United States

information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity ...

Australia

information or an opinion ... about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable.

Data to Decisions Tech Optimization Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Distillation Aftershots Security Zero Trust Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Privacy Officer

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B2B Marketing Leader Interviews: Emma Rugge-Price

Gavin Heaton

Founder
Disruptors Co

Gavin is the Founder of Disruptors Co, one of Australia’s leading independent strategy and innovation companies. Gavin advises firms on strategy, marketing, product development and innovation. He is also a member of the Orbits program, the influencer network of award winning analyst and advisory firm, Constellation Research. Gavin advises boards and leadership on innovation strategy, marketing, data-driven product development and corporate venturing. Gavin is on the board of Vibewire, a youth-led social enterprise based in Sydney, Australia and on the Technology Advisory Group for Good2Give – the workplace giving platform. ...

In the leadup to the B2B Marketing Leaders Forum APAC 2016, I took the opportunity to speak with GE’s Vice President of Brand & Communications for GE Australia & New Zealand, Emma Rugge-Price about B2B content marketing and what it means to move from “interruption to interaction”.

Gavin Heaton: GE has taken a novel approach to content. Was there a trigger that prompted this?

Emma Rugge-Price: Our approach developed out of a shift in thinking in 2012-13 on the back of GE’s global growth strategy. We asked ourselves how we could become a global company rather than just a multinational company. A core part of that is building brand awareness in each market around what takes place in that market.

So we started out with locally developed creative above the line campaigns. It’s expensive to do that, but not just expensive – it’s challenging to be true to the brand.

At the same time, the media world was being disrupted, opening up new opportunities for creative content development and distribution. We launched a global media manifesto in 2013, which challenged us all to ‘think like a publisher’. This drove our content strategy.

Gavin Heaton: B2B marketing is often seen as B2C’s unsexy cousin. But GE has been bringing a cool factor to their content program – what is the secret?

Emma Rugge-Price: B2B may appear unsexy but it can also be very cool. Maybe it’s B2C’s SMARTER cousin, able to find compelling ways to influence what are often long and complex sales cycles.

Our media manifesto challenges us to shift our marketing focus from ‘interruption to integration and interaction” and it’s one of the themes of my presentation at the B2B Marketing Leaders Forum.

We have been co-creating content with publishers locally to reach our audience where they are consuming information, entertainment and media so that we are part of the conversation on the issues that matter to Australia. And, because GE works across so many critical industries, we bring substance and authenticity to those issues and those publishers. We augment that local content with what is often surprising and always innovative global content that showcases the brand with a-ha moments. This means that we can adapt big brand content, combine it with local content and business opportunity – to connect the dots for our customers and our business.

I think the secret to cool is that we like to be first – the copycats are rarely the cool ones. This means first with content ideas but also channels like SnapChat, WeChat, even Facebook back in the day.

Gavin Heaton: ROI is always a constant question for B2B marketers. How can marketers think differently to connect content to the bottom line?

Emma Rugge-Price: In B2B the sales cycles are long and the deals are complex, so you don’t get “click to buy” opportunities available to B2C. Our approach has been to create a halo around the customer as part of the sales process. For example, we used our content strategy to support positioning and business development in renewable energy to great effect. We partnered with the AFR to create some fantastic content and drive a dialogue for the industry which supported our local business strategy. It’s the holy grail – moving from content to the bottom line.

The B2B Marketing Leaders Forum 2016 runs 25-27 May in Sydney, Australia. It equips B2B marketers with the skills to cut through the technology hype and keep up with the many changes in digital disruption, industry and societal change and learn strategies for turning their departments into revenue generating machines.

Marketing Transformation Chief Marketing Officer

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SAP Sapphire Bill McDermott Day #1 Keynote

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

This morning SAP's Sapphire user conference kicked off in Orlando with the traditional CEO keynote.

Always tough to pick the Top 3 takeaways - but here you go:

Empathy is the new Leitmotiv - 2 years ago Bill McDermott used 'simple' as key messaging umbrella for SAP, today he switched it over to customer empathy. He had the heads / leaders of Ariba, Concur, Hybris and SuccessFactors including former CTO Clark on stage - all stating how much SAP has done already in regards of empathy.

Digital Boardroom - In a follow up to last year, we got walked through the latest version of the SAP Digital Boardroom, again with the statement that it was used 'just a few days ago'. Always good to see vendors drinking their own champagne, but in my view the Boardroom is too much about visualization and too little about insights and what ifs that are triggered by software, not the humans.

SAP & Microsoft - In a major partnership commitment, Microsoft CEO Nadella was on stage, sharing his view in a panel with McDermott on how business best practices are changing in the digital age. Good to hear their views - would also be good to have learned more on the new partnership announced today (see here), which basically means that SAP has found its first leading IaaS outlet to run both HANA and S4/HANA. Will be interesting to see what the benefits for customers are and what the implications are for SAP's own #IaaS ambitions.

MyPOV

A good start for Sapphire, a good keynote with McDermott, that instead of slides used a conversational format and not less than three panels to get multiple point of views on stage. The Microsoft partnership has the biggest impact - if executed. It is good news for customers, and setup well - as SAP needs to defined and build out its own IaaS capacity and that requires a lot of Capex, on the other side Microsoft is looking for load to keep expanding Azure. The biggest load with conformity that is out there is the load generated by SAP, so a good objective. But a lot of execution needs to happen to make the customer succeed, and that's what matters the most.

Check out below a Storify of my Day #1 keynote tweets.

Tech Optimization Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Innovation & Product-led Growth Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience User Conference 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 Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer

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Event Preview - NetSuite Suiteworld 2016

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

As attendees head to San Jose for this year's main SuiteWorld event of NetSuite, time to collect some thoughts and share what I will be looking out for at this event.

So take a look at my musings:

No time to watch - take a look at this 1 slide summary:

Event preview - NetSuite Suiteworld 2016 from Holger Mueller

MyPOV

An important event for NetSuite, like all successful cloud veterans, NetSuite operates on top of a 'mature' architecture. It will have to show how it renovates and innovates on a platform perspective to keep the momentum with its customers and the ecosystem, setting both up for success beyond 2020. NetSuite will also have to show functional extension beyond its current scope, though that is less of a direct priority, and it will do well when opening its platform for customers and partners to extend NetSuite applications - and maybe build their own. Stay tune for more today.

Tech Optimization Data to Decisions Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience netsuite PaaS SaaS 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 Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer

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Event Preview - SAP Sapphire 2016 - What to expect

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Taking a short moment to collect my thoughts on what SAP could / should address this Sapphire.

So take a look:

No time to watch - then read the one slide summary:

Event Preview - SAP SapphireNow 2016 from Holger Mueller

MyPOV

An important Sapphire for SAP - the vendor has to show value to its customer base in regards its big bets of network economy, S4/HANA and continued investment into HANA. By the bulk SAP has not (yet) convinced the install base to move to its new innovations, so it will be key how the vendor messages, positions and delivers its value proposition this SapphireNow, to keep customers, prospects, partners and the overall ecosystem interested in SAP - and even more readily to invest in the next generation of SAP products.

IBM Verse - Helping Shape 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…...

In January 2016 I published a report titled Collaboration Vendors Shaping the Future of Work. The report highlights 18 companies/products that show vision in improving the way people get work done. One of the vendors included was IBM, specially their IBM Verse messaging client. Today I've published a guest blog post on IBM.com that dives deeper into the why IBM Verse plays an important role in shaping the Future of Work.

An outline of the key points are listed below, and you can read the entire post here on IBM's site.

Why IBM Verse

Recognizing Email Needs to Evolve, Not Die: While it’s common to hear discussions about the frustrations people have with email, the reality for most workers is that it’s still a critical, even if frequently misused, communication tool.
The Bridge to Collaboration: With IBM Verse, they have started down the path of removing the distinction between the various product families.
Investment in Design: This IBM Design team’s work does not just impact individual products, but instead ensures consistency that spans the collaboration portfolio.
Introducing Cognitive Computing: Of all the things IBM Verse is doing, the most significant potential contribution to shaping the future of work is the proposed integration with IBM’s “cognitive computing services” from IBM Watson.

Conclusion: For more than 20 years IBM has been one of leaders in communication and collaboration tools. Their products are used by millions of employees around the world every day. With their renewed focus on design and the ability to leverage IBM’s Watson’s cognitive services, IBM Verse is an important product in shaping the future of work.

Future of Work Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Data to Decisions IBM Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Experience Officer

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It's Time To Link Salesforce's Marketing and Community Clouds

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

This week I attended Salesforce Connections, a conference focused on their Marketing Cloud offerings, which competes with similar platforms from companies like Oracle, Adobe, SAP, and IBM.

You can see my earlier blog post, Salesforce Strikes Marketing Cloud With Lightning where I discuss the main news from the conference:

Marketing Cloud is updated with the new "Lightning UI"
New Marketing Cloud mobile app
Advertising Studio for targeting ads
Email Studio for email marketing campaigns

In the video below I cover two things:

1) An overview of the products that make up Salesforce Marketing Cloud (from 00:00-08:30)

2) My thoughts on how the Marketing Cloud and Community Cloud should work together to a) provide collaboration for marketing professionals and b) add triggers for community events to Journey Builder (from 08:30-11:06)

Future of Work Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Data to Decisions AI ML Machine Learning Generative AI Analytics Automation B2B B2C CX EX Employee Experience business Marketing SaaS PaaS Growth Cloud Digital Transformation eCommerce Enterprise Software CRM ERP Leadership Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Experience Officer

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Anaplan Scales Platform, Prepares for Prediction

Doug Henschen

Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Doug Henschen is former Vice President and Principal Analyst where he focused on data-driven decision making. Henschen’s Data-to-Decisions research examines how organizations employ data analysis to reimagine their business models and gain a deeper understanding of their customers. Henschen's research acknowledges the fact that innovative applications of data analysis requires a multi-disciplinary approach starting with information and orchestration technologies, continuing through business intelligence, data-visualization, and analytics, and moving into NoSQL and big-data analysis, third-party data enrichment, and decision-management technologies. Insight-driven business models are of interest to the entire C-suite, but most particularly chief executive officers, chief digital officers,…...

Anaplan wants to promote broad use of its all-purpose planning engine, so it’s changing pricing and promising a bevy of platform upgrades. The only question is which new features will arrive first?

It’s all about the platform. That was the message at this week’s Anaplan’s Hub16 event in San Francisco. The company reinforced that message with new pricing and plenty of promised platform upgrades aimed at supporting yet more planning applications and use cases.

Anaplan is in the corporate performance management arena along with the likes of Oracle (Hyperion), SAP (BPC), Adaptive Insights, Host Analytics and others. But unlike most of these competitors, Anaplan is focused as much on operational planning -- in areas including sales, workforce, supply chain, marketing, IT and other areas -- as it is on financial planning and analysis. That’s why the company is building around its cloud-based, in-memory planning engine as a “smart business platform.”

Anaplan Hub 16 Focuses on Platform

Before any announcements were made at Hub16, Anaplan had to address the surprise resignation of its CEO, Frederic Laluyaux, just two weeks earlier. It did so by publically thanking Laluyaux for guiding the company from a tiny startup to a bantam-weight cloud competitor in just four years.

As for the reasons for the change, it’s not uncommon for fast-growing, VC-funded startups to seek new leaders who can “take the company to the next level” (with MongoDB being a recent example). The company had already brought onboard a new CFO and a new Chief Revenue officer in recent months, both with experience running multi-billion-dollar companies. An analyst town hall with seven top Anaplan executives at Hub made it clear there’s no shortage of talent or experience at the top of the company.

Anaplan now has more than 480 customers and 80,000 users, and it’s still growing quickly. The VCs that have invested more than $240 million in Anaplan want to ensure that the leadership is prepared to manage what they expect to become a $1 billion-plus-annual-revenue tech vendor.

Anaplan is growing quickly and attracting ever larger customers. The giants in the room at Hub16 included the Kellogg Company and Procter & Gamble. To meet the needs of such companies, Anaplan announced that it has increased the scalability of its underlying Hyperblock engine to handle single models with as many as 100 billion cells. That means Anaplan’s cloud-based platform can handle enterprise-class modeling challenges with fast, multidimensional analysis and drill-down insight into cost and profit drivers across detailed dimensions such as SKUs, stores and markets.

Scalability is also about handling dozens of small or average-sized models. Indeed, the crux of the platform appeal is supporting many planning use cases across the business. Unfortunately, Anaplan’s old pricing scheme, which was based on data usage, did little to promote broad use of the platform. Customers found it difficult to estimate costs and capacity requirements, so the hesitated to add new applications.

The new pricing scheme is based on per-user subscriptions coupled with Standard, Premium and Enterprise service tiers. The key point is that subscribers can use any app. Customers and partners I spoke to said the new approach is far simpler and more predictable, which is obviously a good fit for a platform that’s designed to make planning easier.

What’s Coming

Beyond the scalability and pricing news, Anaplan detailed a long list of coming enhancements, including:

Predictive capabilities. Anaplan already has a forecasting application supporting more than 20 statistical methodologies useful for demand planning, sales and operations planning, corporate planning and budgeting and sales forecasting. Anaplan also has Erlang call-center planning functions and constraint-based optimization in use by customers across use cases. At Hub16 the company announced it will add Monte Carlo simulations and multi-variable linear regressions. These additional predictive tools will support workforce optimization, supply planning, transportation assignment, product marketing, and risk modeling among other forward-looking analyses.

Social collaboration. Activity Streams will be embedded in models to support in-context collaboration. These Salesforce-Chatter-like streams will let you follow models with @people mentions and notifications. The streams will run across desktop, Web and iOS, Android and Windows mobile devices with the goal of reducing dependence on email.

Application integration. Anaplan has native integrations with Excel and PowerPoint. At Hub we learned that integrations with Google Sheets, Google Docs, Box and DocuSign are coming soon and that AdobeSign and Office365 are on the roadmap.

Data integration. Anaplan works with integration partners including Informatica, Dell Boomi, MuleSoft and SnapLogic to help customers get data into the platform. It also has native data ties with Salesforce and is working to add Workday. In response to customer demand, Anaplan announced at Hub that it will add a native data-integration layer to give customers flexibility and tools to link bespoke, custom applications.

Model mapping and lifecycle management. A Business Map feature announced at Hub is designed to give customers a holistic view of all planning activity, with tagging, searching and filtering by geography, use case, business process and so on. Anaplan is also promising lifecycle management features that will let customers split large models and synchronize model versions so you don’t have to replicate changes across development, testing and production instances.

MyPOV on Hub16

Anaplan’s emphasis on the platform came through loud and clear, as did its intention to let partners such as Accenture, Deloitte, EY and PWC flesh out domain- and use-case specific apps. Anaplan’s investments are aimed at making the platform as capable and versatile as possible so that customers and partners can build any planning app they can imagine.

There are now more than 120 apps in the Anaplan App Hub, and the intention is to keep adding more. In June, for instance, Anaplan will introduce a Data Hub app for setting up master data and transaction data that can be shared across multiple planning applications. It will also introduce a U.S. GAAP app for finance that was developed in consultation with PWC.

As for Anaplan’s long list of promised upgrades, they all sound promising. If I have one complaint it’s that Anaplan’s roadmap and release dates are rather fuzzy. There were lots of loose, six-to-twelve-month promises that left me with the impression Anaplan was polling customers at Hub and giving itself wiggle room on exactly what it will deliver by when. I’m hoping for a hefty chunk of those planned upgrades will show up in the company’s fall release.

The biggest win for customers coming out of Hub16 was clearly the new pricing. The per-user approach is straightforward, and subscribers will be able to use any number of planning applications. Data allowances and access to platform capabilities grow as you move up from Standard to Premium to Enterprise. Premium users, for example, will get access to the predictive capabilities. Enterprise subscribers will have access to higher-level administrative and oversight capabilities, such as the lifecycle-management and Business Map features.

In short, Anaplan is investing, pricing and partnering for platform use, and the more planning applications customers and partners can take on, the more valuable and powerful the platform becomes.

Data to Decisions Tech Optimization Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer

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Aptos one year in and the future is bright

Aptos one year in and the future is bright

Event Preview - Google I/O 2016

Event Preview - Google I/O 2016

Personal Information: What's it all 'about'?

Personal Information: What's it all 'about'?

B2B Marketing Leader Interviews: Emma Rugge-Price

B2B Marketing Leader Interviews: Emma Rugge-Price

SAP Sapphire Bill McDermott Day #1 Keynote

SAP Sapphire Bill McDermott Day #1 Keynote

MyPOV

Event Preview - NetSuite Suiteworld 2016

Event Preview - NetSuite Suiteworld 2016

Event Preview - SAP Sapphire 2016 - What to expect

Event Preview - SAP Sapphire 2016 - What to expect

MyPOV

IBM Verse - Helping Shape the Future of Work

IBM Verse - Helping Shape the Future of Work

It's Time To Link Salesforce's Marketing and Community Clouds

It's Time To Link Salesforce's Marketing and Community Clouds

Anaplan Scales Platform, Prepares for Prediction

Anaplan Scales Platform, Prepares for Prediction

Research

Analyst Services

Videos

Communities

Events

Insights Live

Results

Aptos one year in and the future is bright

Event Preview - Google I/O 2016

Personal Information: What's it all 'about'?

B2B Marketing Leader Interviews: Emma Rugge-Price

SAP Sapphire Bill McDermott Day #1 Keynote

MyPOV

Event Preview - NetSuite Suiteworld 2016

Event Preview - SAP Sapphire 2016 - What to expect

MyPOV

IBM Verse - Helping Shape the Future of Work

It's Time To Link Salesforce's Marketing and Community Clouds

Anaplan Scales Platform, Prepares for Prediction