Record Calls from Remote Users, at-Home Agents and From a Mobile Device: Numonix Debuts RECITE for Allworx

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

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Numonix announced enhanced integration of its award-winning RECITE® interaction recording solution with Allworx VoIP business telephone systems.  It also announced a new Allworx distribution agreement with Vital Communications Inc., the world’s largest distributor of Allworx VoIP business telephone systems.  

“Users of Allworx business telephone solutions can now benefit from enhanced integration with Numonix’s RECITE interaction recording solution. In addition to Internal and PSTN call recording, RECITE has the unique ability to record calls from remote users and at-home agents and from a mobile device via the Allworx Reach™ client,” said Chard Johnston, VP of Product Management at Numonix.

RECITE now delivers enhanced integration with Allworx VoIP business telephone systems, including:

• Allworx View™ and RECITE application qualified to reside on the same server, which greatly reduces infrastructure costs
• Ability to record calls generated by Allworx Reach and Microsoft Lync® or Skype® for Business within a single RECITE deployment
• RECITE’s active and passive integrations into both Allworx and Microsoft environments — the only interaction recording solution with this feature
• Centralized management, storage and playback of Single, Multi-site, Regional and Geographic Allworx deployments
•  SharePoint & Azure cloud integrations for superior archiving and storage
• Proven software-based RECITE solution, which seamlessly integrates with Allworx at hundreds of end-user locations nationwide.

aul Friedman, VP of Global Sales at Numonix said, “We are very excited to continue working with Vital Communications to distribute the RECITE solution to the Allworx reseller community. With Vital’s 2000+ reseller base, we are able to comprehensively service Allworx customers.”

Here’s a Little About Vital Communications Inc: Vital Communications, Inc. was founded in 1996 and has been distributing IP Telecommunications and Networking Solutions to resellers for more than 18 years. It is one of the fastest-growing Value Added Distributors of IP telephony and network products in North America.  It distributes solutions from over 20 different manufacturers, and supply thousands of telecom resellers, carriers, interconnects and integrators throughout North America.  Vital Communications is the world’s largest distributor of Allworx VoIP business telephone systems.

Here’s a Little About NUMONIX Inc:  Numonix delivers award-winning interaction recording solutions that boost its customers’ business success for virtually every vertical market. Numonix’s award-winning, innovative RECITE interaction recording solutions helps enterprises gain and maintain a competitive edge by ensuring regulatory compliance, improving customer service, and helping resolve disputes. A Microsoft Partner, Numonix was one of the first companies to bring to market an interaction recording solution for Skype for Business. Compatible with virtually every cloud and on-premises business communication platform and interface available today, Numonix’s interaction recording solutions are scalable from five to 500,000 users and deliver a reliable and robust set of features at affordable price.  RECITE is available globally throughout the Americas, APAC and EMEA.

Customer experience is the number one competitive advantage in today’s marketplace. Companies need to determine what their customer experience strategies is as well as the process, people and technology to bring it to light.

@DrNatalie Petouhoff, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer

Looking Back At Some Of My Thoughts On Assisted/Intelligent Collaboration

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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Below are some of the thoughts I've shared over the last few years on assisted/intelligent collaboration. (which term do you prefer and why?)

This is the next stage in personally productivity and team collaboration software, where the tools (software) help people work more efficiently and effectively. I have several reports coming out on these topics, and look forward to continuing my work in this area.

Scroll through the Storify collection below...

Future of Work Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Tech Optimization Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI AI Analytics Automation business Marketing SaaS PaaS IaaS Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP finance Healthcare Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Experience Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief AI Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Product Officer

High Online Spend Expected for Valentine’s Day: Adobe Introduces Retail Innovations for Marketing Cloud and A Report on Holiday Shopping Trends

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

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At the NRF Retail’s BIG Show, Adobe introduced several solution innovations for the Adobe Marketing Cloud that help retailers unify data, rich content, and campaign management into one platform. The new retail innovations include:

• Data-driven remarketing: For the first time (via Adobe Analytics integration with Adobe Campaign), retailers can connect both consumers’ behavior online and contextual data to create and send a user-defined remarketing trigger such as an email, push notification or SMS to increase the likelihood of purchase.
• Personalized push notifications: Mobile push notifications are now supported with robust analytics for delivering intuitive & personalized messages. With Adobe Mobile Core Services and Adobe Analytics, retailers can create rich audience segments and engage consumers based on factors such as shopping behavior and user preferences.
• Shoppable media experiences for ‘you’: First introduced at last year’s NRF conference, Adobe Experience Manager’s shoppable media experiences now integrates with Adobe Target to enable retailers to test and target interactive content in real-time to drive conversions across mobile, social, and in-store.
• Digital-meets-physical shopping: Adobe is extending its Adobe Experience Manager Screens capabilities to shoppable media, enabling retailers to reach consumers at home, on-the-go, in-store or wherever digital content proliferates.

In addition to these retail capabilities, Adobe also released a new Adobe Digital Index report, recapping holiday shopping trends:

• A record $83B was spent online this holiday season (Nov – Dec 2015)
• Online sales the week prior to Christmas saw tremendous growth
  • Last minute shoppers increasingly looked to e-commerce to purchase their gifts in 2015 vs shopping at local retailers, resulting in a spike of online shopping 56%+ YoY
  • The Holiday season made up 28% of annual online sales
• Smartphones dominated online shopping, overtaking tablets
• Highest discounts from display and social
• High online spend expected for Valentine’s Day

The drive for the best marketing cloud continues, as vendors increase the capabilities and offerings. It’s important for a brand to evaluate what they currently have and decide what they need to reach their business goals.

@DrNatalie Petouhoff, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

Marketing Transformation Matrix Commerce Next-Generation Customer Experience Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Data to Decisions Future of Work New C-Suite Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience business Marketing eCommerce Supply Chain Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration M&A Enterprise Service AI Analytics Automation Machine Learning Generative AI ML LLMs Agentic AI SaaS PaaS IaaS Healthcare Chief Marketing Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Customer Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Growth Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Product Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer Chief Information Security Officer

Time Inc. Acquires MySpace: It’s All About the Customer Data

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

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Were you unsure MySpace still existed? Time Inc., who is the owner of Time, Fortune, and People magazines, has acquired Viant. Viant is the parent company of Myspace. So why would Time Inc do that? My sources say that it’s all about the data! News Corp bought Myspace for $580 million back in 2005. Then in 2011 an ad network Specific Media, another Viant-owned company, scooped up Myspace for $35 million in 2011. What did Viant get for that money? Viant received a database of more than 1 billion registered users. And we know that not all of those people have  the same email address from their Myspace days, but Viant felt it still has an enviable mass of first-party data.

Who Uses MySpace? MySpace may have slipped from the online ad world’s general consciousness, but it is actually doing fairly well, especially among young audiences of 17 to 25-year-olds, particularly music and entertainment fans” said Tim Vanderhook, chief executive of Viant Inc., Specific Media’s parent company. MySpace even features some original content as well as ads from brands like Jeep. Between desktop and mobile devices, MySpace reached 50.6 million unique users in the U.S. in November. That’s a massive surge of 575% versus the same month in 2013.

What Does MySpace Use it For? “MySpace was an early photo-sharing platform,” said Mr. Vanderhook. “So we still see a lot of people coming back to access old photos. They may not visit every day but they come back once a week or once a month.” There is a large return of visitors from MySpace’s mid-2000s –particularly on Thursdays. Many people have old digital photos stored on the site, which they retrieve for “Throwback Thursday.”  It’s a popular social media ritual in which people post retro photos on social media.

Why is first-party data so key? First-party data is considered the best when it comes to advertising online.  It means marketers know they are serving ads to the actual consumer they want to be targeting, rather than making probabilistic bets based on browsing behavior. What was key was the registration data that led to Viant launching its Advertising Cloud in 2014, which contains an “identity-management platform.” This platform allows marketers to connect their own databases with Viant’s data and it also contains a demand-side ad platform, an ad server, and a data-analytics platform.

So what does Time plan to do with Myspace (Viant)? Time says the acquisition of Viant will help the company by being able to target ad delivery to the optimal audiences as well as to link devices back to real people and then converting ad spending to actual sales and closing the ROI loop. They feel this data from Viant gives Time competitive advantage compared to its competitors or “rivals industry leaders Facebook and Google” when it comes to ad tech and provides a first-party data set.

Back in 2015 Viant lined up registration data from multiple online media companies to combine with the MySpace data Mr. Vanderhook wouldn’t say which companies are supplying the data, but noted it’s not Google, Facebook or Amazon). Viant takes that registration data, anonymizes it, and then connects it with advertisers’ own in-store shopping data. What Vanderhook feels is so valuable is that the combination of data, which he claims few companies outside of perhaps Facebook are capable of, which will provide advertisers with a true read on how their online advertising impacts real world sales.

Since May of 2015 the Advertising Cloud suite of products has handled $5 billion in ad transactions for a set of beta advertisers. Vanderhook said, “We’ve seen return on investment improve by a factor of 10 or 20.” Exactly what what Viant plans to do with Myspace, which still attracts tens of millions of visitors each month and counts pop star Justin Timberlake among its investors, remains to be seen. It’s very interesting though! Lesson? Never count anyone out!

@Drnatalie, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

Covering Customer-Facing Applications that Creates Awesome Experiences!

Data to Decisions Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Digital Officer

News Analysis - VMware unveils Workspace ONE – will the EUC adoption begin now?

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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Earlier in the week VMware unveiled its new capabilities in the end user computing (EUC) space, VMware’s offerings in the space of virtual desktop integration.

 

 

So let’s take apart the press release in our customary style – it can be found here:

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Feb. 9, 2016 – VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility, today unveiled a new platform for delivering secure digital workspaces for flexible workstyles and bring your own device (BYOD). Using the principles of consumer simple and enterprise secure, the digital workspace delivered by VMware will address the end user and enterprise IT business mobility needs by aggregating all devices, applications and services while securely managing them through unified common access and identity.

MyPOV - Good summary - mobile users are still less supported and less free to use their applications in a way that makes them productive. At the same time the need for secure and protected mobile computing is key for enterprises, so balancing the two is key for IT decision makers and VMware is trying to get there with Workspace One. Please note that ‘mobile’ includes tablets, more notably Windows based tablets (aka Surface) which is very popular in enterprises at the moment.

“In the mobile cloud era, employees, devices, applications and data increasingly live beyond the physical walls of the workplace, the datacenter, or the network,” said Sanjay Poonen, executive vice president and general manager, End-User Computing, VMware. “Digital enterprises are struggling to deliver a unified digital workspace due to disjointed technology and teams. We are proud to be the first to bring together identity, device management and application delivery on a single integrated platform so business can be conducted by mobile end-users regardless of platform, location, device or application.”

MyPOV - Good quote from Poonen - stressing the combination of identity, device management and applications. Effectively Workspace One is the product name for the ‘A Squared’ project that VMware talked about at VMworld (see my event report here), bringing together the abilities from VMware AirWatch and VMware App Volumes (hence A squared…).

A digital workspace can give IT a more efficient, simplified way of managing users, devices and applications. It can provide end users with a consumer simple way to seamlessly access all business resources regardless of device type. It also provides line of business a secure and powerful platform on which to build and rebuild business processes that enable a more effective mobile workforce to compete in the market.

MyPOV - This is the holy grail in the future of work - providing a consistent user experience, with all files and applications at hand across devices. In a secure and scalable way, good to see VMware getting closer to the holy grail of end user productivity, which is very much were the Future of Work should become reality - hopefully soon.
 

The Platform for Delivering a Digital Workspace
Organizations today are limited in their selection of solutions available to help mobile users maintain effectiveness and must choose between standalone point products for identity, device management and application delivery solutions. VMware Workspace ONE™ is designed to deliver a digital workspace that integrates device management, application delivery and identity management technologies. These combined benefits, on a single mobile platform, will enable secure management and delivery of business critical resources to employees for corporate IT, and consumer simple access for end-users. This solution will deliver options for all types of users from those with BYOD to corporate fully-managed devices.

MyPOV - Another good summary what Workspace ONE is about.

Capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE will include:

 MyPOV - Always notice the tenses in vendor statements - ‘will include’ - we are talking future here, though we are very close, I hear Q1. . 

 

· Consumer Grade Self-Service Access to Cloud, Mobile, Windows Applications – Will offer simple onboarding of new applications and employees. Employees will enjoy industry-first, one-touch mobile Single-Sign On access leveraging patent-pending Secure App Token Systems (SATS) that establishes trust between the user, device, enterprise and cloud. Once authenticated, employees will gain instant access to a personalized enterprise application store where they can subscribe to virtually any mobile, cloud or Windows application.

MyPOV - Good to start with the security aspect and good to see VMware IP in the space with SATS.

· Flexible Choice of Device: BYOD or Corporate Owned – Self-service, shrink-wrapped device provisioning through the new unified management platform will leverage mobile operating system (iOS, Android and Windows 10) management interfaces to self-configure laptops, smartphones and tablets for immediate enterprise use. Employees will be put in control of their BYO devices with the capability to choose the level of services and IT restrictions they are comfortable to use, increasing adoption of BYO programs, productivity, and reducing the risk of data loss.

MyPOV - Key takeaways are the cross platform capabilities - across iOS, Android and Windows 10. Maybe bad news for the few remaining Blackberry users - but this covers 98%+ of platforms. And good to see the flexibility between corporate owned and BYOD devices. It will be key to see the performance and usability on the BYOD devices, which in the past have not been at par and disappointing for users - across the industry.

· Secure Applications: Mail, Calendar, Content, and Chat – Employees want to use corporate mobile applications that work like consumer applications. VMware Workspace ONE will include email, calendar, contacts, content and chat applications that are consumer simple while invisible security measures protect the organization from data leakage. Workspace ONE will also build-in powerful swipe and touch integrations with web applications such as Evernote, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, among others and third-party SaaS applications such as Atlassian Jira, GitHub and Jenkins for developer operations teams to act and respond from anywhere.

MyPOV - Application access has always been an issue for virtual desktops. It is good to see the extensive list of applications supported in a V1. The provisioning of web applications will be an interesting architecture piece to understand down the road. The support of Atlassian, Jira, GitHub and Jenkins in a V1 product allows for the interpretation that VMware is going after developers and DevOps professionals. Definitively an attractive area - but a massive cultural shift of ‘my machine’ vs a corporate desktop - will be very interesting to watch.

· Data Security and Endpoint Compliance with Conditional Access ­– To protect the most sensitive information, VMware Workspace ONE will combine identity and device management with industry-first ComplianceCheck Conditional Access to enforce access decisions across any application or device. This approach is based on conditions that include traditional identity policies such as strength of authentication, network scope and add device compliance policies including GPS location, application whitelist/blacklist and third party plug-ins from AirWatch® Mobile Security Alliance partners. Meanwhile the AirWatch compliance engine can remediate compliance issues through a series of customizable, automated workflows for both scale and enhanced security.

MyPOV - Bringing the very mature AirWatch capabilities to Workspace ONE is a good move and will offer enterprises a wide range of access control options. On a high level this is becoming a more and more crucial area - if you follow the recent E.U. / USA privacy challenges (more here).

· Real-Time App Delivery and Automation – As the industry is seeing convergence between desktops, laptops and tablets, operating systems such as Windows 10 are also converging to use mobile-style, application management. VMware Workspace ONE™ will modernize application lifecycle management by simplifying application packaging, delivery and ongoing management. Administrators can automate application delivery and provide updates on the fly, and users can gain access to Windows applications on all devices. Workspace ONE will leverage industry-leading VMware AirWatch mobile management and VMware Horizon®, along with VMware App Volumes application delivery technology.

MyPOV - Very correct, devices are getting more similar and managing them consistently is key for enterprises. And VMware got lucky to a certain point, as VMware AirWatch supported Windows Mobile. With Microsoft making Windows the same platform across devices with Windows 10 - the former mobile device management (MDM) capabilities of VMware AirWatch are now available to manage Windows 10 based tablets - and PCs. This gives VMware a very mature device management product. Bringing together the VMware App Volumes capabilities was part of project ‘A Squared’ see above (announced at VMworld 2015). And no surprise, VMware Horizon is part of the mix.
 

“Cloud and mobile technologies are fundamentally changing the way companies run their businesses,” said Keith Lippiatt, senior managing director, Accenture Infrastructure Services. “Our Workplace-as-a-Service offering, working with VMware’s Workspace ONE, enables us to deliver unified data and application access and identity management capabilities to enterprise users regardless of their device or location. For example, for a large communications company, Accenture is enabling an agile, secure and flexible workplace accessible from any device, anywhere using VMware Horizon Air.”

MyPOV - Good customer quote, always good to see customer endorsement on a version 1 product, but Accenture is a both a customer and (likely) a partner, taking away some of the genuine aspects of the reference. But professional services companies are prime candidates for VDI - with the number of parallel engagements going dramatically up, system integrators need to provide secure and separated work environments for their consultants.

Availability and Pricing
VMware Workspace ONE is expected to be generally available this quarter. The solution will be offered in standard, advanced and enterprise editions with prices starting at $8 per user per month for cloud subscriptions and $150 per user for on-premises perpetual licenses. 

MyPOV - Good to see the availability date and good it is this quarter, in the very near future. And good to see an entry price that is aggressive with 8$ - if the high end with 150$ will work in the markets remains to be seen, and of course we talk list prices here, before discounts.
 

Overall MyPOV

As I keep mentioning on VDI, I keep waiting for the bubble to burst. By now it is clear that only (public) cloud backends can provide the scale, performance and cost savings needed to make virtual desktops work across devices. A (public) cloud backend can address both the uptime, maintenance (as operated by the vendor) and functionality (across device, to other web properties) – that on premises deployments of VDI instances always have struggled with. 

 

Workspace ONE also poses a challenge for the ‘other side’ of VMware – can VMware cloud offerings provide the scale and low cost needed to make the EUC products price and cost competitive. If this works it will be very compelling, it if does not it will not be good news. What matters is, that the executive in charge, Sanjay Poonen, understands the cost equation all too well (remember he moved SAP’s MDM product to Amazon’s AWSCloud), so we can take that as a comfort level that cost should have been a key part of launching the offering. But let’s not forget that there is another heavyweight with Citrix, and new entries like Google for Work and Amazon Workspaces want to grab a share of the market. 

 

What works for VMware is the ‘magical’ capabilities of VMware App Volumes (here the synergies for the overall VMware are obvious – ‘slice’ in apps from already running hypervisors into an end user desktop) and the strong MDM and Identify capabilities for VMware AirWatch. All that coupled with VMware Horizon makes it overall an interesting offering for enterprises. We are not yet in the ‘cover your ears’ phase before the VDI bubble bursts – but getting closer. People will be the winner, as they move further to a key pillar of the Future of Work – information at their fingertips (wait who said that?) and on all their devices.

 

 

 

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

More on VMWare

• Market Move - Dell plans to acquire EMC, VMware, Virtustream, Pivotal and more - read here
• Event Report - VMware VMworld 2015 - VMware stays the course - executes - progresses on fight for long term relevance - read here
• Musings – What will it be this year at VMWorld - read here
• Market Move - EMC to acquire Virtustream - More paths to the cloud - read here
• News Analysis - Pivotal makes CloudFoundry more about multi-cloud - read here
• News Analysis - Pivotal pivots to Open Source and Hortonworks - or: Open Source keeps winning - read here
• News Analysis - VMware makes progress towards the (hybrid) cloud - now let's watch the adoption - read here
• Speed Briefings at VMworld - read here
• Event Report - VMware makes a lot of progress - but the holy grail is still missing - read here.
• First Take - VMware's VMworld Day 1 Keynote - Top 3 Takeaways - read here.
• Progress Report - Good start for VMware EUC - time for 2nd inning - read here.
• Speed Briefings at VMworld - inside and outside the VMware ecosystem - read here.
• VMware defies conventional destiny - SDDC to the rescue - read here

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

Future of Work Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth Next-Generation Customer Experience New C-Suite Data to Decisions vmware Google Chief People Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Experience Officer

IOT; Introducing a Market Disruption A strategy for Market Leaders based on IoT Platform Collaboration

Andy Mulholland

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Andy Mulholland is Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on cloud business models. Formerly the Global Chief Technology Officer for the Capgemini Group from 2001 to 2011, Mulholland successfully led the organization through a period of mass disruption. Mulholland brings this experience to Constellation’s clients seeking to understand how Digital Business models will be built and deployed in conjunction with existing IT systems. Coverage Areas Consumerization of IT & The New C-Suite: BYOD, Internet of Things, IoT, technology and business use Previous experience: Mulholland co authored four major books that chronicled the change and its impact on Enterprises starting in 2006 with the well-recognised book ‘Mashup Corporations’ with Chris Thomas of Intel. This was followed in…...

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When faced with a new competitive situation the phrase ‘Build, Partner or Acquire’ is often used to sum up the possible responses. But are the three options enough when faced with the challenges of a global interconnected, interactive Smart Services business? In a market place potentially powered by hundreds of thousands IoT players individual Smart services can such simple contained options work for Market Leaders? Or is there a new more appropriate option for this new business and technology model?

Very few enterprises are systematically researching the IoT start-up activity within their sectors as they consider the new entrants too small, and scattered, to be a threat. This also creates an attitude that removes consideration of their potential as Partners, or Acquisitions in creating a market disruptive move.

IoT startups have received incredible cumulative investment since 2010. There are two obvious conclusions: first, the technology and business-savvy VC funds see IoT has the disruptive business force that will build significant new value for new businesses; second - and for this exercise of more concern - is that in many sectors, IoT startups have more investment to spend on disrupting the market than the existing market leaders have to spend on defending, or renewing their positions.

The relative ease of gaining Investment has created very large numbers of IoT start-ups in most, if not all, business sectors and markets. The low profile period of incubation to turn investments into products is ending and in 2016 the impact will become real. Invariably, these new players have set their sights on some aspect of the market leader’s existing business. As an example, analyzing Honeywell’s product range in the Building Controls industry, 31 startups are specifically targeting one or more Honeywell products for a market disruption by IoT smart services.

How many Market Leaders can name their new IoT startup competitors, let along know which parts of their current revenue models are under threat? By the time erosion of profitable parts of the business have started it’s very late to respond. Current strategic initiatives may be in place, but are they going to be quick enough, or agile enough?

Many market leaders have, with other market leaders, formed consortiums to try to shape the emerging IoT market their advantage using standards. Unfortunately, progress for any consortium built around ‘coopetiton’ members is slow. The competition is well-financed, single-minded startups that do not need consensus to move first, seizing connections, data, and market share for a defacto standard.

The following statements define their activities, impact, and possible abilities to drive new competitive rules into the existing market place;

• A wholly new set of “values” overturns traditional grounds of choice.
• The ‘noise’ of startup players will create new interest within the sector.
• Using App Shops gets access to the market bypassing usual routes
• Venture capital investments encourage and enable disruptive moves.

Recent experience has shown that, within a few quarters, a new innovative smart service from an unknown startup can be catapulted into a scale of market awareness beyond conventional marketing means. The democracy of the Internet allows the meritocracy of the new Digital Service product to be recognized, and promoted, globally very quickly!

The numbers of “black swans” or “unicorns,” defined, as companies that rise above a $1 billion valuation in a few years, has never been higher as digital business allows speed and access to markets at hitherto unknown rates.

Market leaders find it difficult to think about their hard won market in terms of the factors that will result in its destruction. But the reality is that their Corporate Products and passive Services are facing competitive Disaggregation. Replace by buyers switching to customise Re-Aggregation using selected Smart Services that match their precise requirements.

Digital Business Disruption and Transformation occurs as the customers choose to select and bundle Smart Services to match their perceived value, rather than be forced to take the current product bundle. The key to success is that as the customer finds new higher value then payment can be higher. Those who move first to lead this transformation expect higher margins from the higher customer value.

Todays IoT startups have the benefit of a connected Cloud and App shop Digital Economy to move quickly with relatively low investment costs to access profitable cash rich opportunities. A current market leader is denied many of these opportunistic advantages and looks to find new ways to create and add innovative products to their current position. A handful of additional Smart Services may actually add to numbers and rate oif the market dis-aggregation rather than improve the competitiveness of the traditional market.

The form and nature of IoT and Smart Services make the options of Build, Partner or Acquire difficult to use beneficially against such fragmented markets and competition. Instead a new option of Collaborate, or more particularly the form of market leadership collaboration practiced by players such as Amazon.

The strategic use of current market leadership assets to build an Industry Ecosystem Smart Services Platform with an App shop to induce IoT startups to empower your leadership. Think of Apple, or Google Android, as examples.

Market Leaders forget that they own a powerful mix of data, connections and customers that correctly combined can create a new Industry Ecosystem. Designing and deploying a platform using these advantages offers the new startup competitors a tempting and well targeted choice as a route to market, turning attackers into Collaborators. The resulting industry ecosystem reaffirms brand leadership and control whilst enabling new innovative forces to be harnessed and empower the enterprise.

IoT based Smart Services are both made possible, and directly increase in value, in proportion to the number of connections, services and data available for complex event processing into insightful outcomes.  Market leaders consistently don’t recognize how much value they have built since 2000 in Internet based technologies that can form the basis for an ecosystem platform strategy.

More than a decade of adding Internet, Web, Mobility and, more recently, Social Marketing initiatives have provided most companies with a surprisingly rich collection of capabilities to underpin their new competitive Internet (IoT) market strategy.

The Internet of Things shares the common foundation of the Internet. IoT adds different functionality that enables a new generation of disruptive business capabilities. However there are many synergistic alignments allowing the benefits of earlier Internet based waves to be re-used. More importantly these assets are not available to the new wave of competitors.

An excellent example of this approach is John Deere, a global leader in Agricultural Machinery who have successfully consolidated and built on earlier moves in Internet, Web, Mobility, and Social tools to establish a market-disruptive IoT platform. The first-mover advantage, together with the customer access, data, and connections, encouraged potential attacking start-ups (combined with significant existing Agri-Businesses) to join and multiply the customer advantages delivered.

The reuse of customer relationships and accumulated data in an open collaborative Ecosystem Platform has allowed John Deere to collaborate with innovative startups and their services and strengthened their own industry leadership and brand.

John Deere Example:

The MyJohnDeere.com industry Ecosystem platform delivers a complete value package to farm more efficiently in both increased yields and reduced costs. This in turn relates to the increasing use of the term “Precision Farming” in the Agri-Business sector. The strategy has transformed individual market corporate products, from tractors to seed supply, into a comprehensive set of Smart Services optimized around individual farmers. Importantly the platform makes available in a cohesive manner dozens of new innovative Smart Services from Startups that add a range of new innovative farm operational values.

John Deere developed its experience to launch its market-disrupting IoT Platform over a period of five years due to its business focus moving year by year – from a Web presence through mobility to smart app to IoT platform progression. Today, John Deere has a first-mover advantage by acting before the market leadership was threatened by IoT startups, and the company has enlisted many of the IoT startups to become market partners in their Agri-Business IoT ecosystems.

The John Deere’s timeline of adding Initiatives that built value for its market disruptive IoT based strategic move:

2011: The era of mobility and telematics introduced ‘JDLink telematics’, a first move into connecting John Deere tractors with simple sensing functionality based on GPS to remote data collection. The initial data collection might have been limited, but the value in creating a new type of relationship with the end customer around data created the first ongoing value for reuse.

2012: The era of smartphones, tablets and smart apps added John Deere Mobile Farm Manager. Farmers quickly proved to be very willing to use smartphones and tablets to run a new generation of apps. John Deere moved to closer interaction with its customers by using the low cost ease of apps and downloads to offer a broader range of services, all of which strengthened the bond around shared data and value generation. More sensors and sensing capabilities continue to be added to John Deere products to support apps focused on precision farming.

2013: A further era of progress sees John Deere Farm Sight realizing the power of connecting the ecosystem of John Deere dealerships into a range of smart services for reliable operational maintenance. A move that not only added new value to John Deere customers but also added new business value for dealerships themselves and encouraged dealerships to add additional services. Further additions to the range of sensing values were added, concentrating on operational and cost management.

2014: John Deere was ready to go ahead with opening its myjohndeere platform to the agri-business industry as a whole, creating a data and connection-rich IoT ecosystem platform that would attract start-ups and encourage agri-businesses to make use of its unique positioning and capabilities. By now, John Deere’s agricultural products are a well-integrated IoT fog computing cluster centered on the tractors reporting on many kinds of field and farming conditions.

New C-Suite

News Analysis - SAP SuccessFactors innovates in Performance Management with continuous feedback powered by 1 to 1s

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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Earlier this week SAP SuccessFactors announced its new capabilities in Performance Management, taking a first step at helping make Performance Management 'work'.



 

So take a look:



 

 

 

News Analysis: SAP Success Factors Goes Back to the Drawing Board on Performance Management

 

f you don't have a chance to watch - here are the key takeaways:

 

 

• Today Performance Management is broken - We know this already, champagne bottles are opened when the performance review cycle is being cancelled. Not only for software reasons, but software can improve and it is good to see vendors taking new approaches to make Performance Management a success.
   
• SuccesFactors innovates in Talent Management - For a long time the SuccessFactors R&D effort has been on Employee Central, Payroll, platform etc. with customers getting worried about the investment in the rest of the Talent Management capabilities. This forms the first major and pretty fundamental investment by SuccessFactors in Talent Management.
    
• Back to the Basics - SuccessFactors was founded with the idea of enabling Goals and Performance Management. Going back to the basics is hard for enterprise software vendors, so kudos for SuccessFactors to go back to the basics, and admit that something is not working in Performance Management (originally announced back at SuccessConnect 2015 in Las Vegas).
   
• 1 to 1s are a good approach - Looking at were the high frequency interactions are is a successful course to set in the journey to fix Performance Management. And surprisingly 1 to 1s have not been at all supported by HCM vendors.
   
• Multi-cultural Aspects matter - The 1 to 1 is a North American, more specifically US management instrument. SuccessFactors will have to look at what the high frequency interactions are that could form the base for continuous feedback leading to better performance management, e.g. in Europe and Asia.
   

MyPOV

Always good to see innovation, especially in an area where a vendor has long term strengths, or even was the inventor / innovator of the category. Continuous feedback is a known approach to address the Performance Management ailing, but it stands and falls with the usage of the 1 to 1 meeting management approach and (given the mobility of users) the uptake of the mobile app. You need the longitudinal performance and feedback data in order to really change the quality, ease of use of the quarterly or half yearly performance review. 

 

But for now a good start - we will be there to watch the adoption. 

Also, check out the Constellation Insights piece my colleague Chris Kanarucus wrote on the topic - here. 

-----------

 

More on overall SAP strategy and products:

 

• Event Report - SAP SuccessFactors SuccessConnect - Good Progress sprinkled with innovative ideas and challenging the status quo - read here
• News Analysis - WorkForce Software Announces Global Reseller Agreement with SAP - read here
• First Take - SAP SuccessFactors SuccessConnect - Day #1 Keynote Top 3 Takeaways - read here
• News Analysis - SAP SuccessFactors introduces Next Generation of HCM software - read here
• News Analysis - SAP delivers next release of SAP HANA - SPS 10 - Ready for BigData and IoT - read here
• Event Report - SAP Sapphire - Top 3 Positives and Concerns - read here
• First Take - Bernd Leukert and Steve Singh Day #2 Keynote - read here
• News Analysis - SAP and IBM join forces ... read here
• First Take - SAP Sapphire Bill McDermott Day #1 Keynote - read here
• In Depth - S/4HANA qualities as presented by Plattner - play for play - read here
• First Take - SAP Cloud for Planning - the next spreadsheet killer is off to a good start - read here
• Progress Report - SAP HCM makes progress and consolidates - a lot of moving parts - read here
• First Take - SAP launches S/4HANA - The good, the challenge and the concern - read here

 

• First Take - SAP's IoT strategy becomes clearer - read here
• SAP appoints a CTO - some musings - read here
• Event Report - SAP's SAPtd - (Finally) more talk on PaaS, good progress and aligning with IBM and Oracle - read here
• News Analysis - SAP and IBM partner for cloud success - good news - read here
• Market Move - SAP strikes again - this time it is Concur and the spend into spend management - read here
• Event Report - SAP SuccessFactors picks up speed - but there remains work to be done - read here
• First Take - SAP SuccessFactors SuccessConnect - Top 3 Takeaways Day 1 Keynote - read here.
• Event Report - Sapphire - SAP finds its (unique) path to cloud - read here
• What I would like SAP to address this Sapphire - read here
• News Analysis - SAP becomes more about applications - again - read here
• Market Move - SAP acquires Fieldglass - off to the contingent workforce - early move or reaction? Read here.
• SAP's startup program keep rolling – read here.
• Why SAP acquired KXEN? Getting serious about Analytics – read here.
• SAP steamlines organization further – the Danes are leaving – read here.
• Reading between the lines… SAP Q2 Earnings – cloudy with potential structural changes – read here.
• SAP wants to be a technology company, really – read here
• Why SAP acquired hybris software – read here.
• SAP gets serious about the cloud – organizationally – read here.
• Taking stock – what SAP answered and it didn’t answer this Sapphire [2013] – read here.
• Act III & Final Day – A tale of two conference – Sapphire & SuiteWorld13 – read here.
• The middle day – 2 keynotes and press releases – Sapphire & SuiteWorld – read here.
• A tale of 2 keynotes and press releases – Sapphire & SuiteWorld – read here.
• What I would like SAP to address this Sapphire – read here.
• Why 3rd party maintenance is key to SAP’s and Oracle’s success – read here.
• Why SAP acquired Camillion – read here.
• Why SAP acquired SmartOps – read here.
• Next in your mall – SAP and Oracle? Read here.

 

 

And more about SAP technology:

• Event Prieview - SAP TechEd 2015 - read here
• News Analysis - SAP Unveils New Cloud Platform Services and In-Memory Innovation on Hadoop to Accelerate Digital Transformation – A key milestone for SAP read here
• HANA Cloud Platform - Revisited - Improvements ahead and turning into a real PaaS - read here
• News Analysis - SAP commits to CloudFoundry and OpenSource - key steps - but what is the direction? - Read here.
• News Analysis - SAP moves Ariba Spend Visibility to HANA - Interesting first step in a long journey - read here
• Launch Report - When BW 7.4 meets HANA it is like 2 + 2 = 5 - but is 5 enough - read here
• Event Report - BI 2014 and HANA 2014 takeaways - it is all about HANA and Lumira - but is that enough? Read here.
• News Analysis – SAP slices and dices into more Cloud, and of course more HANA – read here.
• SAP gets serious about open source and courts developers – about time – read here.
• My top 3 takeaways from the SAP TechEd keynote – read here.
• SAP discovers elasticity for HANA – kind of – read here.
• Can HANA Cloud be elastic? Tough – read here.
• SAP’s Cloud plans get more cloudy – read here.
• HANA Enterprise Cloud helps SAP discover the cloud (benefits) – 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 (C) Holger Mueller - All Rights Reserved

Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Data to Decisions Next-Generation Customer Experience New C-Suite Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Marketing Transformation Distillation Aftershots SuccessFactors SAP AI Analytics Automation CX EX Employee Experience HCM Machine Learning ML SaaS PaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Enterprise Software Enterprise IT Leadership HR Chief People Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Customer Officer Chief Human Resources Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

New Report: The ROI Of Agile Customer Care: Reduce Training and Easy To Add Channels

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

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The word “agile” has been part of may conversations when it comes to software. This new report looks at the importance of agile customer care. What exactly does agile customer care and agile customer experience mean?

Traditional Customer Care Solutions Require Resources from IT and Result in Low Agent Productivity and ROI

The costs for customer service, customer care or customer experience often come in when a company wants to add a channel, say email or chat or mobile. Often times, depending on the technology stack they already have, there is a lot of code that has been written to add something new – i.e., it requires that a major pow wow of IT, customer care, business leaders, etc..  to all get in a room and meet and discuss the benefits, risks and timeline of adding a new channel. that timeline could be weeks or months.

Often adding that new channel means that the code that has already be written in the customer service software has to be adjusted. This often means IT has to get involved and this change to the code needs to be added to IT’s agenda of an already long list of “asks” from the business as well as what IT is already tasked with (maintenance, system upgrades, compliance, security, etc…) Perhaps we are unrealistic and have always been unrealistic to expect that IT can and should handle everything IT specific as well as all of the needs of the business. Maybe IT should be split into two different departments, one focused on purely IT issues and the other being the IT business liaison?

Agile Customer Care Results in High ROI and Less Stressed, More Engaged Employees 

In our research we found several areas that contributed to ROI:

1. Lower costs of implementation and maintenance of SaaS customer care and customer experience and
2. Better customer care technology leads to improved employee/agent experience and customer experiences

So agile customer care or customer experience software allows a company to add a channel very easily without affecting the code or requiring months and months of writing new code so the addition to the system doesn’t mess up what is already there.

In addition, when agile customer care is implemented, it is often so simple that customer service agents don’t need training. The use of the software is very intuitive. Agents are one, if not the most expensive re-occuring expense in a contact center. So anything that can reduce costs associated with customer service agents (without negatively affecting the service they provide) is extremely important.

It’s also important to look at the stress put on agents to learn new technology. Generally agile technology is more easily adapted because it is so much easy to use. Blame it on the consumerization of IT (CoIT) if you want, but people expect the technology they use to get their job done to be as easy as using a search engine like Google or Bing. (They forget that those types of softwares only have one function – to be a search engine and the software we use to service customers is far more complicated… Nonetheless, people still expect easy to use GUI interfaces that are intuitive. That you’ll only find in agile software. It was designed with the user in mind!
 

MY POV: Choose agile first. A company can’t be agile if the systems, infrastructure and technology it is using are not agile – meaning that they can’t be changed, added to or modified quickly, on the fly, without waiting in line for the IT department. IT should be supporting the business, customer care and customer experience by choosing agile solutions that allow for quick additions of new channels, workflows, fields and features. Agile should be part of the strategy, part of the process, part of the technology, and part of the culture. 

Design customer service into the customer experience, making sure that the complete customer journey includes an exceedingly better customer service experience. Because customer service needs to happen right where the customer is, it is key to use embeddable customer service tools, especially when it comes to mobile customer care. The key is to make the service experience more effortless.

All customer conversations (social, chat, email, messenger, Facebook, Twitter) should funnel into one place so nothing or no one is left behind. Help customers help themselves by providing amazing, agile self-service capabilities, with one customer portal and knowledge management base.

For more information you can download a courtesy copy of the report here.

@DrNatalie, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

Covering Customer-Facing Application that Make Awesome Customer Experiences

 

Next-Generation Customer Experience Revenue & Growth Effectiveness B2C CX Chief Customer Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer

Cyber Security is Now an Important Part of Your Brand

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. ...

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1

In workshops, presentations and executive briefings, I continue to push one clear message. Experience is the Currency of Your Brand. This new consumerverse that we have found ourselves in goes beyond the simple notion of being “customer centric” – to the heart of what it means to be invited into the lives of our customers. For no matter whether we are engaging prospects in a buyer’s journey and nurturing their engagement through to a purchase, or we are working with a community of passionate brand advocates (and yes, they do exist), it’s important to remember that the brand – our brand – never really sits at the centre of our customer’s lives. They sit at the centre of ours.

Increasingly, the experience of engaging with a brand occurs online. When you map out a customer or buyer’s journey, it soon becomes clear that the majority of brand touchpoints are digital. It could be a banner or Facebook ad that kicks off the process for a buyer. It could be an Instagram photo or associated hashtag. It is estimated that around 60% (or more) of the purchase decision is made before customers engage a brand – so that is a significant percentage of non-owned brand experience that is taking place.

Moving your customer from unknown to known

One of the simplest ways of moving your potential customer from unknown to known, is for them to share some information with you. It could be their name, an email address or a Twitter handle. They may leave a comment via Facebook or Instagram. Or they may even call your call centre. But as soon as they do, it means you have an opportunity to engage them more directly. It’s a great opportunity for personalisation or targeted content/engagement.

BUT there are also risks.

Cyber security is about brand trust

When storing customer’s details, you have a duty to do so securely. Not just because of privacy policies or even local laws. Your duty is to protect the TRUST that has been bestowed upon you. And we will hear more about this through 2016. As I write, books are being printed on the subject of “trust” by thought leaders, analysts and marketers around the world. It’s a hot topic because it has a direct impact on our ability to deliver our brand promise. This flows on to brand reputation and even market capitalisation.

Trust is also a hot topic because we are now seeing far more sophisticated digital attacks that are difficult to detect and fix. Take, for example, the strain of malware that impacted the Melbourne Health computer networks in early January 2016. Malware is a type of malicious software that is used to gain access to computer networks to gather information, show unwanted information/advertising and to generally disrupt computer operation. In more extreme examples, we are seeing a type of malware called ransomware encrypting whole networks and hard drives and demanding a ransom to unlock the system.

As IT News reported:

The malware downed the hospital’s pathology systems and forced staff into manual workarounds.

It made its way into the health department through an unnamed zero-day exploit in Windows XP computers, past the agency’s full enterprise antivirus suite.

The Melbourne Health attack has been programmed to “self mutate” which means that it is constantly changing its own internal software structure, writing and re-writing itself as a way of escaping detection. Three weeks after the infestation, it seems that the Melbourne Health IT Team is starting to come to grips with the challenge.

But ask yourself – could your business cope with three weeks of business disruption? How would your new “autonomous vehicle” product team deal with the kind of challenge that Fiat Chrysler encountered last year? Would your new “internet of things” startup cope with a security breach due to something like the Heartbleed bug?

Perhaps the greatest lesson we can learn from the Ashley Madison hack is about the importance of trust and fidelity. To paraphrase Ashley Madison’s tag line – “Customer attention is short. Have good security”.

Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Data to Decisions Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience Marketing B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience AI ML Generative AI Analytics Automation Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Growth eCommerce Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Customer Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer

Meet the 2016 SuperNova Award Judges #SNA2016

The Constellation SuperNova Awards are the first and only awards to celebrate the leaders and teams who have overcome the odds to successfully apply emerging and disruptive technologies for their organizations.

Constellation is excited to introduce the SuperNova Award judges, a notable group of technology thought leaders, analysts, and journalists who were selected for their futurist mindset and ability to separate substance from hype. The SuperNova Award Judges will carefully evaluate each SuperNova Award application, and will identify individuals who demonstrate true leadership in the application and adoption of new and emerging technologies.  Want to catch a judge's eye? Judges look for projects whose elements can be replicated in other enterprises.

Learn more about the SuperNova Awards

Note: this is an evolving list. We will continue to add thought leaders to the SuperNova Award Judging pool. Interested in judging the SuperNova Awards? Drop me a line courtney@constellationr[dot]com. 

Internet of Things

A network of smart objects enables smart services.

Paul Greenberg (@pgreenbe)
Board of Advisors (Constellation Research, Inc.) & President
The 56 Group, LLC
In addition to being the author of the best-selling CRM at the Speed of Light: Essential Customer Strategies for the 21st Century, Paul Greenberg is President of The 56 Group, LLC, an enterprise applications consulting services firm, focused on CRM strategic services including go-to-market strategies for vendors and integrators, CRM strategic planning and vendor selection. The 56 Group also provides writing, speaking and educational services.  Paul has years of experience with both CRM and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). He has built SAP and People Soft practices and, has extremely deep ties into the CRM and enterprise applications communities.

Andy Mulholland 
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research
Andy Mulholland is Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on cloud business models. Formerly the Global Chief Technology Officer for the Capgemini Group from 2001 to 2011, Mulholland successfully led the organization through a period of mass disruption. Mulholland brings this experience to Constellation’s clients seeking to understand how Digital Business models will be built and deployed in conjunction with existing IT systems.

Linda Tucci (@ltucci)
Executive Editor
Tech Target, SearchCIO
Executive Editor Linda Tucci oversees news and e-zine projects for SearchCIO.com. She has covered CIO strategy since joining TechTarget in 2005, focusing most recently on big data, mobile computing and social media. She also writes frequently about the CIO role and CIO careers for SearchCIO.com's weekly CIO Matters column. Prior to joining TechTarget she was a business columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Her freelance work has appeared in The Boston Globeand The New York Times.

Chris Meyer (@chrismeyer16)
Thought leader, Author
Constellation Orbits
Chris's mission is to anticipate and shape the future of business. He has pursued this goal as an author, executive, consultant, entrepreneur, speaker, Trustee, teacher and the leader of a think tank. Chris has been tracking the evolution of the information economy since the 1980s. He has provided perspective and counsel to many of the large and small companies driving change in how business is done. When he ran Ernst & Young’s Center for Business Innovation Consulting Magazine ranked him #11 among the Most Influential Consultants. He has published four books: the first, BLUR, was a Business Week Top Ten Best Seller, and his most recent, Standing on the Sun, was listed among the Best Books of 2012 by the Financial Times.

DATA TO DECISIONS

Using data to make informed business decisions.

Melanie Duzyj - Agency Lead
Senior Account Executive 
LEWIS PR
Melanie is a senior account executive for the global PR communications agency LEWIS PR, where she leads media and analyst strategies for integrated campaigns. She specializes in B2B technology and works with organizations focused on business intelligence, healthcare IT, HR technology and telecommunications. Prior to her role at LEWIS PR she worked in New York City on the PR teams for healthcare, management consulting and commercial real estate finance organizations. Her client base has included startup, pre-IPO and Fortune 500 companies.

Doug Henschen (@dhenschen)
Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research
Doug Henschen is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research covering big data and analytics. Henschen is a keen observer of how organizations utilize emerging analytics technologies to build new business models. Prior to joining Constellation, Henschen was executive editor at InformationWeek. 

Sholto Macpherson (@sholtomac)
SME Tech Commentator, Box Free IT
Contributor, Constellation Orbits
Sholto Macpherson is an analyst in online accounting software for SMEs and a business technology journalist for more than 15 years. Since June 2011 he has published DigitalFirst.com, a blog covering the latest cloud technologies for SMEs and disruption in the accounting profession. 

Esteban Kolsky (@ekolsky)
Board of Advisors (Constellation Research, Inc.) & Founder
ThinkJar
Esteban Kolsky is the Founder and Principal at ThinkJar, a research and consulting firm specializing in Customer Experience, CRM, and Feedback Management.  Esteban works with vendors to create go-to market strategies and with organizations leveraging his results-driven, dynamic Customer Experience Management methodology to earn and retain loyal customers.  He continues his research passion in the Social Networking space where he is helping craft the Social CRM (SCRM) market.

DIGITAL MARKETING TRANSFORMATION

Data-driven digital marketing effectively delivers brand messages.

Barbara Bates - Agency Lead
Founder & CEO 
Eastwick
Barbara is a respected industry strategist and connector, proven entrepreneur, former media professional and broadcast journalist with deep Valley roots.  She has been at the helm of one of tech’s top PR firms for 25 years. 

Gavin Heaton (@servantofchaos)
Independent Analyst
Constellation Orbits
Gavin is a marketing technologist, strategist and advisor. He is the founder of the Disruptor’s Handbook – a strategy and innovation firm that helps organisations design and create a collaborative future for a digital world. Gavin has worked at the intersection of marketing and technology for over 20 years for companies and clients including SAP, IBM, McDonald’s and PwC, has co-authored five books and is a regular speaker on marketing, technology, startups and innovation. 

Dom Nicastro (@dnicastro)
Reporter
CMSWire
Dom Nicastro is a Boston-based staff reporter at CMSWire. The former editor-in-chief of a daily newspaper, he reports on a wide range of topics, including social business, digital asset management, customer experience management and web CMS.

Judith Aquino (@JudithAquino)
Senior Writer
1to1
Judith Aquino is a senior writer at 1to1 Media, where she writes about customer experience topics for 1to1Media.com, Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog, and Customer Strategist Journal. Prior to 1to1, she was an associate editor at AdExchanger. Her work has appeared at the New York Daily News, TheStreet.com and Business Insider. She has an M.A. in journalism from New York University.

Kelly Liyakasa
Associate Editor
AdExchanger
Kelly Liyakasa is an associate editor at AdExchanger, where she covers the interplay of commerce, media and digital marketing. Prior, she was an editor at Information Today, where she wrote about sales apps and enterprise strategy at CRM magazine. 

FUTURE OF WORK - Social Business

These technologies help teams to overcome the challenges posed by the changing work paradigm, enabling them to work together efficiently.

Alan Lepofsky (@alanlepo)
Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc. focusing on the technologies organizations employ to 'get work done'. This includes collaboration technology, digital workplace analytics, project management, and communication tools. Prior to joining Constellation, Alan spent 3 years as Director of Marketing at Socialtext and before that, 14 years in a variety of roles at IBM/Lotus.

FUTURE OF WORK - Human Capital Management

Empowering employees and enabling companies to utilize their workforce as a competitive asset.

Holger Mueller (@holgermu)
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.
Holger Mueller is Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on next-gen apps and human capital management technology. Previously Holger was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There he lead the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a service (BPaaS) capabilities. 

Dr. Janice Presser (@drjanice)
CEO and Co-founder
The Gabriel Institute
Janice Presser is a behavioral scientist and the architect of Teamability® – a new technology that measures how people will perform in teams. She has been engaged in the research and development of talent science for over 25 years and is a recognized thought leader in qualitative assessment and human infrastructure management methods. Dr. Presser has served on SHRM's Human Capital Assessment/Metrics Special Expertise Panel, the Taskforce on Workforce Planning, and the Taskforce on Metrics and Measurements. She is Contributing Editor for Selection in ELLA®, Employment Labor Law Audit. She blogs for Constellation Orbits. 

MATRIX COMMERCE

Commerce responds to changing realities from the supply chain to the storefront.

R "Ray" Wang (@rwang0)
CEO & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.

R "Ray" Wang is Principal Analyst and CEO at Constellation Research, Inc. Wang is the bestselling author of Disrupting Digital Business. In addition, he is the author of the popular enterprise software blog "A Software Insider’s Point of View". With viewership in the millions of page views a year, his blog provides insight into how disruptive technologies and new business models impact the enterprise. Prior to founding Constellation, he was a founding partner and research analyst for enterprise strategy at Altimeter Group and one of the top analysts at Forrester Research for enterprise strategy.

Guy Courtin (@gcourtin)
Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research
Guy Courtin is Principal Analyst at Constellation Research covering Matrix Commerce. Specifically, Courtin's research examines the manner in which the Internet of Things will influence the future of commerce. Courtin has over fifteen years of experience in the supply chain technology space. Most recently he was the Vice President of Research at SCM World. In a former life Courtin studied supply chains as an analyst at Forrester Research. 

NEXT GENERATION CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Customers in the digital age require seamless service throughout all lifecycle stages and across all channels.

Susan Thomas - Agency Lead (@10FoldComms)
President
10Fold

Dr. Natalie Petouhoff (@drnatalie)
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research
Natalie Petouhoff is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research focusing on customer experience. Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic marketing and customer experience solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses.  Previously Petouhoff held positions as a Forrester Analyst, Chief Strategist for Weber Shandwick PR/Marketing Agency, Management Consultant at PWC, Hitachi and management at GE, GM and Hughes Electronics.

Divina Paredes (@divinap)
Editor 
CIO New Zealand & www.cio.co.nz
Divina Paredes is the editor of CIO New Zealand and www.cio.co.nz, the premium leadership and management resource for information and communications technology (ICT) executives and members of the CXO suite. She also organises and moderates CIO community events such as the CIO roundtable discussions and CIO leaders’ luncheons. Divina has been covering the information and communications technology sector for 15 years. She has postgraduate degrees from the University of Sydney (international studies) and New York University (journalism).

Mila D'Antonio (@miladantonio)
Editor-in-Chief 
1to1 Magazine
Mila D’Antonio is currently Editor-in-Chief of 1to1 Media where she leads the editorial direction of 1to1Media.com and 1to1 Media's Weekly Digest. She also oversees the production of 1to1 Media's two annual awards programs: The 1to1 Media Customer Champions and the Gartner & 1to1 Media Customer Experience Excellence Awards. She has worked in journalism for 20 years with 15 of them focused on customer experience and CRM.

Marshall Lager (@lager)
Managing Principal
Third Idea Consulting, LLC
Marshall Lager is the founder and managing principal of Third Idea Consulting, a firm founded to provide advice on the confluence of customer relationship management (CRM), social media, and brand management. Marshall is a former Senior Editor at CRM Media, where he wrote news, blogs, and feature articles on the above topics for CRM magazine and its website, destinationCRM.com.

Brent Leary (@BrentLeary)
Co-Founder and Partner
CRM Essentials
Brent Leary is a crm industry analyst, advisor, author, speaker and award winning blogger. He is co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. In 2009 he co-authored Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business. Recognized by InsideCRM as one of the 25 most influential industry leaders, Leary also is a past recipient of CRM Magazine's Most Influential Leader Award.  He blogs at BrentLeary.com.

SAFETY AND PRIVACY

The best strategies to secure sensitive data also save money and serve customers. ?

Kewal Varia - Agency Lead (@kewalv)
Managing Director
Spark Communications
Kewal Varia is managing director of Sparks Communications, a technology-focused PR firm located in the UK. Clients work with Kewal Varia because they like the mix of technical understanding,creativity and strategy that he brings to their campaigns. In a previous life, Kewal dabbled in freelance journalism.

Alex Crawshaw - Agency Lead (@alex_crawshaw)
Senior Account Director
Spark Communications
Alex has more than 15 years experience in B2B technology PR, working with a variety of blue-chip and start-up clients. Client experience includes working with the likes of BT, HCL Technologies, JDA Software, iPass and the UK & Ireland SAP User Group.

Steve Wilson (@steve_lockstep)
Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research, Inc.
Steve Wilson is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, focusing on digital identity and privacy. Wilson has over twenty-five years experience in ICT innovation, and research and development. Wilson is credited with numerous breakthroughs in difficult areas of identity infrastructure and governance, including national and industry level authentication frameworks, PKI systems, smartcards, digital credentials, fraud control, and privacy engineering. 

TECHNOLOGY OPTIMIZATION & INNOVATION

Innovative methods to balance innovation and budget requirements.

Aaron Pearson - Agency Lead (@apearson)
Creation North America
Aaron leads Creation, a division of Weber Shandwick. Aaron specializes in helping B2B companies creatively tell stories of technology innovation and disruption. He is also an adjunct instructor in the Master of Business Communication program at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.

Jon Reed (@jonerp)
Co-founder
Diginomica
Jon Reed has been involved in enterprise communities since 1995, including time spent building ERP recruiting and training firms. These days, Reed is a (cough) blogger/analyst and also counsels vendors and startups on go-to-market strategy. He is an SAP Mentor, Enterprise Irregular, and video content producer.

Ron MIller (@ron_miller)
Freelance Journalist
Enterprise Reporter, TechCrunch
Ron MIller is an award-winning freelance technology writer. His work currently appears in TechCrunch, CiteWorld, EContent Magazine, and SocMedia News. Recognition includes several Apex Awards for Publications Excellence in Feature Writing and the Churchill Award for Editorial Excellence at FierceContentManagement.

Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Future of Work Marketing Transformation Matrix Commerce New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth Supernova Awards AR Executive Events Chief Customer Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer