Forget Big Data, It’s Time for Big Narratives

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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It is easy to get excited about big data. After all, it’s lots of small pieces of data woven together into a patchwork that stretches our imaginative capacity. Just think, we’re creating more data every two days than was produced from the dawn of civilisation up to 2003 (or so Google’s Eric Schmidt claims). That means that every photo, status update, movie, podcast, purchase, share and any other form of interaction that we make on a digital forum – PLUS all the metadata of that interaction – is adding to a massive pool of data that sits like a great digital artesian basin underneath our digital experience.

The question about all this data, however, is what do we do with this big data? Sure we can mine it, connect internal and external data. We can use it for retargeting. Or forecasting. Or analysis. We can put it into charts and infographics and in doing so, add our own efforts to the big data explosion. But it feels like we are just scraping the surface. It feels like we are in our digital infancy when it comes to big data.

But there are a few companies who are innovating on the edge and taking a different approach. For these companies, big data is just a means to an end. The real value is not in the data but in the capacity to tell stories with that data. It’s the realm of big narratives – and it is as exciting as it is terrifying.

The team at Narrative Science have been focusing on machine learning and linguistics for some time. Their natural language generation platform takes big data and applies artificial intelligence to it in such a way that reports are not just visual but contextual. That is, there is the result and the reasoning all-in-one report.

I have written about QuillEngage previously, the platform that turns your Google Analytics data into a summarised report email. So I was interested to see what would come out of their new Twitter report.

Based on an analysis of my Twitter traffic and the traffic of my recent followers, Quill examined around 13,000 tweets to produce the report. Most interesting to me was the analysis of my own tweets and the topics that “my community” engage in. While my follower numbers and ratio put me in the “99th percentile of Twitter users measured by followers”, the report provides little in terms of suggestions for growth / improvement. But it does confirm what I suspected. And in most cases, that’s how many marketers are using big data at present – as a sense check. A validation.

But as technologies like this get better, more automated and programmatic, there’ll be less sense checking. Less validation. And more action. It’s just that that action won’t be taken by you or I.

Lesson 10 From Disrupting Digital Business - Segment By Digital Proficiency Not Age

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

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

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Get All 10 Lessons Learned From Disrupting Digital Business

As with the beginning of every revolution, those in the midst of it can feel it, sense it, and realize that something big is happening. Yet it’s hard to quantify the shift. The data isn’t clear. It’s hard to measure. Pace of change is accelerating. Old rules seem not to apply.

Sometimes when you are in the thick of it, it’s hard to describe what’s happening.  In the case of digital business, these models have progressed over the past 20 years.  However, non-traditional competitors have each exploited a few patterns with massive success. However, as the models evolved, winners realize there are more than a handful of patterns.

Lesson 1 – Transform Business Models And Engagement

Lesson 2 – Keep The Brand Promise

Lesson 3 – Sell The Smallest Unit You Can

Lesson 4 – Know That Data Is The Foundation Of Digital Business

Lesson 5 – Build For Insight Streams

Lesson 6 – Win With Network Economies

Lesson 7 – Humanize Digital With Digital Artisans

Lesson 8 – Democratize Distribution With P2P Networks

Lesson 9 – Deliver Intention Driven, Mass Personalization At Scale

Lesson 10 – Segment by Digital Proficiency Not Age

In fact, the impact is significant and now quantifiable with 52% of the Fortune 500 gone since 2000 and the average age of the S&P 500 company in 1960 is down from 60 years to a little more than 12 projected in 2020.  That is a 500% compression that has changed the market landscape forever in almost every industry.

Over the course of the next 10 weeks, I’ll be sharing one lesson per week.  For traditional businesses to succeed, they will have to apply all 10 lessons from Disrupting Digital Business in order to not only survive, but also relearn how to thrive.

Segment By Digital Proficiency Not Age

Age is not the deciding factor in five generations of customers, workers, suppliers, vendors, people.  When discussing the future of work, most folks immediately jump to the discussion of millennials, generation Y, generation X, baby boomers, post war, etc.  However, the shift to digital business finds a different type of five generations.  This segmentation describes how digitally proficient people are with digital technologies and culture.  In the intersection of comfort level with technology and likelihood to apply the technology, we see five generations (see Figure 1):

1. Digital natives – people who grew up with the internet, comfortable in engaging in all digital channels.
2. Digital immigrants – people who have crossed the chasm to the digital world, forced into engagement in digital channels.
3. Digital voyeurs – people who recognize the shift to digital, observing from an arms length distance.
4. Digital holdouts – people who resist the shift to digital, ignoring the impact.
5. Digital disengaged – people who give up on digital, obsessed with erasing digital exhaust.

Figure 1. Five Generations Of People With Different Digital Expectations And Values

Homework

In normal segmentation models, most leaders use age as a primary attribute.  Take the time to apply a behavioral model first and the stratify by age.  See if you can identify any trends or patterns that buck the age related stats.  Use digital proficiency in helping with change management as well as persona design.

The Complete 10 Lessons Learned From Disrupting Digital Business

For those attending the full keynotes and book tours, you’ll get the complete session and in many cases a copied of a signed booked.   For those following virtually, I’ve provided the slimmed down slide share deck for your use.

You now have the 10 lessons learned to disrupt digital business in your hands. You can take this information and change the world in front of you or choose to sit on the knowledge as the world passes you by and digital darwinism consumes your organization.

I trust you will do the right thing. And when you want some company, come join us as a client at Constellation Research where we’re not afraid of the future and the art of the possible.

Get The Book Now Before Digital Darwinism Impacts You

Purchase on Amazon
Bulk Orders: contact [email protected]
About Disrupting Digital Business

Join the Digital Disruption Tour. Events in San Francisco, Atlanta, London, and Amsterdam!

Your POV.

Are you ready to disrupt digital business?  Have you ordered the book?

Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

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The post Book Summary: Lesson 10 From Disrupting Digital Business – Segment By Digital Proficiency Not Age appeared first on A Software Insider's Point of View.

CapGemini is ready for the Digital Economy - but challenges remain

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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We had the opportunity to attend the CapGemini global analyst summit held close to Paris at the beautiful conference hotel LesFontaines. A great location always contributes to a great meeting and that was the same here, it had the unique mixture of a classic chateau with a modern conference center, a balance the French know how strike very well. Due to thunderstorms (!) I was 8 hours late to the event and missed the first half day of the event, so checkout my colleagues Alan Lepofsky and Guy Courtin takeaways (Guy’s is here already) for more color and perspective on the event.

 

It is always tough to select the Top 3 takeaways, but with global system integrators like CapGemini, it is even harder, nonetheless my best effort here:

CapGemini is in transition – It became clear that CapGemini is not only in the transition all major services players see –shifting client needs, faster implementation, more partnership, globalization, and more – but is also transforming itself from a Europe an player with a little global activity to a more global player with a European DNA. E.g. in 2010 European revenue was 79%, in 2015 it was down to 62%, with North America taking the bulk with 30% (these are numbers before iGate). As such CapGemini brings a unique European DNA to the mix, with all its pros and cons. On the pro side it does not have to chase every latest trend in North America and can take a more wait and see European approach. And it truly understands global, that for some competitors is more lip service than understanding. On the con side it has a more rigid skill base. It was good to see that CapGemini acknowledges the issue and had Head of People Management and Transformation Hubert Giraud speak to the analyst attendees. The training and re-skilling plans and progress are interesting and look successful, but they better be as CapGemini needs to work with the people they have in Europe for the next decades to come. 

 

Unique Setting at LesFointaines (picture credit to +Alan Lepofsky)

 

The Cloud is coming – CapGemini sees the cloud as the most profound technology shift hitting enterprises. CTO Cohen walked us through how CapGemini wants to leverage cloud in the form of a combination of products and services that CapGemini calls the Business Cloud. CapGemini sees itself offering a complete cloud implementation and management portfolio from Cloud Strategy and Workload Migration all the way to BPaaS and CyberSecurity. CapGemini then walked us through an example vertical, financial services, on how it has offered these services successfully to a number of references. The example were a regional government and a postal delivery serviced, which both have benefitted from the CapGemini Business Cloud. Remarkably one of them is live on Amazon AWS already. As usual with system integrator events, the customer references were very good, talking about their experiences with ease and authority, as usual presenting with a CapGemini partner. 

 

A very relaxed Hermelin addressing the analyst crowd

Ready for customers – but ready to transform itself? – It was good to hear CapGemini executives candidly and openly speaking about the challenges ahead, actually quite remarkable given the cultural background and the usual reclusiveness of system integrators. It was pretty clear that CapGemini has the skills, understanding, expertise and vision to play with all next generation application use cases of the 201x years (Digital Transformation, Customer Experience, IoT, BigData etc.) – but the integrator still sees that very much from a services angle. In some areas we have seen CapGemini making bets on products, for instance IaaS (e.g. Amazon AWS), PaaS (e.g. IBM Bluemix and SaaS (e.g. on Salesforce), but it seems not be fully on board with them, the service provider mentality is still strong (‘we can make you successful on any product / platform / tool’ mentality). Nothing wrong with that, as it has served the industry well for many decades, but things are changing in the 201x years, where customer want to have ready to use, pre-built solutions beyond the ‘prebuilt IP’ toolset. We live in exciting times, where business best practices have to be redefined and reinvented on top of the new technology capabilities available now – but we are not sure how well CapGemini is going into more of a product direction than the classic services business. Future will tell.

 

 

How CapGemini and iGate complement each other

 

MyPOV

A very good analyst event, in a very nice setting, with a ton of content and very good attendance. It is clear that CapGemini can be the right partner for enterprises facing strategic transformation projects – in all aspects of use cases that are thrown towards them (see above). And CapGemini is very well positioned to take advantage of a multi-national and multi-cultural perspective, given its European roots. At the same time the integrator is becoming more global, in particular more North American and more Indian with the iGate acquisition (it just closed – see here).

On the concern side CapGemini needs to become more global, successfully re-skill its European workforce and find more productized go to market offerings. It is good to have identified over 4 dozen IP assets, now they need to be built out into product, something system integrators have traditionally struggled with, but the prize is too big in the 201x years for trying (at least). We would like to see CapGemini make a few full hearted (real) product bets. Customers want faster, shrink-wrapped, business user driven solutions that do not require RfPs, project teams and people travelling the world in small boxes.

Overall CapGemini is ready for the Digital Economy, as ready as a system integrator can be in 2015, with all the questions that we are facing in the age of uncertain business best practices. It is fast paced and exciting times, we will be watching.


 

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

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

Global Payroll BPO The Future for NGA HR

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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We had the opportunity to attend the NGA HR (formerly known as NorthgateArinso) analyst summit in Chicago. 

 

Here are my top 3 takeaways:

Clearer Positioning – For the longest time NGA struggled with positioning in the different HR markets where it operates. The one stop shop for all things HR seems like a simple message at first, but is not so trivial when you consider that NGA plays in HR Consulting, Payroll Services, HR Outsourcing and Application Management Services (the maintenance of mostly local HR systems). Then spread that across multiple partner and own products, multiple regions and it makes NGA a different vendor in each market. The overall challenge that NGA faces is that HR Consulting, that is implementation services, is undergoing a massive transformation due to the shift to SaaS. Implementation timelines, budgets and revenues are under immense pressure, very few traditional on premise implementations remain and SaaS implementation revenues are very small in comparison.

The good news a year ago was that management acknowledged the challenge, the strategy then was to partner with SaaS properties and become their respective implementation partner. Fast forward 12 months and only the partnership with SuccessFactors has been flourishing, implementation partnership ambitions with other SaaS vendors have been scaled back or stopped.

The challenge for NGA is a shrinking HR Consulting business in the short term and in the long term the deriving reduction of the Application Management Services. Maybe making a virtue out of necessity, SVP of Global Enterprise Sales Sternklar made it crystal clear (pun intended) that the future will be in HR Outsourcing, heavily global payroll focused. That’s welcome clarity that should help position NGA in many markets.

 

The 4 NGA Business Fields

Payroll Exchange live – A year ago NGA shared its ambitions around the Payroll Exchange, a software layer that allows NGA to operate global payroll customers in an efficient way. Not only does Payroll Exchange connect between NGA products (e.g. euHReka, ResourceLink and Preceda), but also to partner products (e.g. Workday Payroll, the SAP Cloud Payroll) and further 3rd party payrolls. It also gives visibility and access to payroll status and processes to customers, a very good level of transparency, especially if considering running payroll for a global employee population. Payroll Exchange is now available since January, 2 NGA customers are live and many more implementing. It is good to see NGA delivering on what it said it would deliver, now it needs to drive adoption to the platform. 

 

A glimpse at Payroll Exchange Analytics

US targets mid-enterprise – NGA walked us through its renewed plans for the US SMB market, which the vendor calls mid-enterprise. It has pained NGA since many years that it did not have a solution for the considerable amounts of employees it needs to service in the US as part of global BPO contracts, but that by themselves were too small to warrant an individual setup of a euHReka system. So NGA has decided to use either the Workday or SuccessFactors Talent Management, partner with a local payroll provider and offer this as a mid-enterprise solution. Such an offering needs amounts of standardization, and NGA decided e.g. that paychecks would only be electronic, the language is only English etc. to share a few. Executives shared that there is substantial interest in the market, but it is too early to see customer adoption.

MyPOV

It is not the easiest of time for NGA with two (HR Consulting and Application Management Services) of its four businesses undergoing major market changes. We think the focus on global HR, complex payroll for global employee populations and deliver via BPO remains the sweet spot for NGA. The vendor has captured a signiificant share of payroll business, operating both Workday and SAP / SuccessFactors' payroll. It is good to see more focus on that business. We think NGA could be more aggressive in this market, and should start taking market share from competitors who are less committed since a few years. NGA certainly had to wait for the Payroll Exchange product to be ready, now it will be interesting to see how aggressively NGA can sell, deliver and operate global BPO.

We received a more North American update than at least year’s summit, but NGA promised to give us more insight on its business beyond North America, and more details on the roadmaps of its IP around euHReka, ResourceLink and Preceda. On the concern side NGA in under pressure to grow, and it will be key for the vendor to find those growth potentials and realize them in the next quarters. Prospects, clients, ecosystem, influencers and employees don’t want to see shrinking vendors, and frankly there is no reason for NGA not to grow – or at least maintain revenue levels.

Overall good progress for the North American region that this analyst summit was all about. But given its global capabilities and ambition, it will be good for NGA to have their global leadership present at the next analyst summit (again). Regardless we will be watching on developments, stay tuned. 

More on NGA HR:
 

• Progress Report - NGA moves on - but in many directions - read here
• NGA executes - but what is the ultimate positioning? Read here

Here is a quick Storify Tweet collection of the event:
 

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

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

Workday to Expand Suite of Applications for Healthcare Industry - with a SCM twist

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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Today Workday informed the markets via a press release that it is expanding its footprint in healthcare with a functional extension that goes beyond its traditional HCM and more recent efforts in Financials, with the addition of inventory management.

So let’s take the press release apart in our usual commentary style (it can be found here):

 

PLEASANTON, CA -- (Marketwired – July 9, 2015) – Workday, Inc.(NYSE: WDAY), a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, today announced plans to deliver a new application, Workday Inventory, as well as new features for Workday Procurement – designed to meet the supply chain management needs of healthcare providers. Combined with Workday Financial Management and Workday Human Capital Management (HCM), this new supply chain management functionality will equip healthcare providers with one system that offers visibility into talent needs, the flexibility to quickly adapt to new regulations and industry standards, and the ability to manage inventory and supplier interactions. Workday plans to design the expanded suite based on feedback from charter members of the Workday Healthcare Advisory Council, including Christiana Care Health System and Community Health Services of Georgia.

 

MyPOV – Workday extends its capabilities with Workday Inventory, tuned to the needs of the healthcare industry. Healthcare has been a strong industry for Workday before already, so this addition will help the vendor, its customer and prospects in this vertical. The Healthcare industry has some specific inventory requirements (expiry, storage requirements, access, replenishment etc.) so it is a good industry for Workday to pick as it offers enough differentiation, but then it is not a full-fledged, horizontal SCM capability.  

 

Extending the Power of One System for Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers – such as hospital systems, academic medical centers, and long-term care groups – are faced with dramatic industry changes including widespread industry consolidation and new business models which are forcing them to rethink their talent and organizational needs. Current systems are inflexible and costly to maintain, making it difficult for them to adapt to changes, and get the insights they need to move their organizations forward. 

 

MyPOV – This is a nice way of Workday saying that many of the incumbent systems in the healthcare industry are older, not cloud based systems. This is an opportunity for Workday and competitors to replace many of these older systems, but healthcare providers don’t want to break existing integrated automation assets for the sake of modernization, so they may have well asked Workday (and others) to step up roadmap plans for Inventory / SCM.

 

With Workday, healthcare providers are already equipped with one system that:

 

• Adapts to Change: Customers are able to navigate reform-driven changes, mergers and acquisitions, and organizational restructuring via a flexible business process framework. 

• Delivers a Comprehensive View of Talent: With Workday, customers are able to better attract and retain talent through powerful recruiting tools, rapid onboarding, performance and talent management, and insights to help increase retention. 

• Provides Visibility to Drive Growth: To continually drive operational efficiency and business growth in a dynamic industry, Workday offers analytics to monitor the financial performance of different business models – including new service lines such as outpatient clinics – and insights into developing talent.

 

MyPOV – This is the overall Workday value proposition. Workday is doing a good job at selling the ‘higher’ ground with its core strength of being cloud based and key HCM assets.

 

The planned introduction of Workday Inventory and new Workday Procurement features will give healthcare providers the supply chain foundation they need to:

 

• Closely Manage Supplier Relationships: With Workday, customers will be able to manage supplier and group purchasing contracts, track inventory, and automate replenishment to reduce costs. In addition, they will be able to more clearly understand detailed supply utilization and costs to make better contracting and standardization decisions.
• Drive Sustainable Cost Savings:  Workday will enable customers to increase compliance with standard purchasing processes such as applying requisitioning and approval controls. In addition, purchasing teams will have one centralized view of spend by category that they can monitor and analyze to identify opportunities for cost savings. Mobile access, real time analytics, and the flexibility to configure procurement practices based on an organization’s preference will also allow for quicker decision making and adaptability.
• Effectively Manage and Cultivate Supply Chain Teams: With Workday, customers will have a comprehensive view of talent, and insights on how supply chain teams are performing against business goals. Additionally, supply chain leaders will be able to better develop their teams, measure talent utilization, and cultivate employee skills to better serve the needs of patients and clinicians.

 

MyPOV – Workday already had Procurement functionality as part of Workday Financial Management (see here), but that was more of a horizontal self-service purchasing functionality that does not need to have inventory at hand. Employees do order as they have need and contracts, approvals, budgets, suppliers etc. are managed to make it happen. For Healthcare a more capable inventory functionality is needed (see e.g. above). Again Workday does a good job at what all suite level vendors do – leverage existing automation assets to manage supplier relationships from Workday Procurement, mobile access, analytics and the whole HCM aspects for talent, goals etc.  

 

Availability

Workday plans to make Workday Inventory generally available to customers in September 2015. Healthcare-related features in both Workday Inventory and Workday Procurement are scheduled to be delivered in calendar year 2016.

 

MyPOV – Close deliver dates are always a good thing, so kudos for a fairly near availability horizon. It makes sense to deliver general capabilities before vertical ones, but interestingly the press release is bare horizontal implications, what can e.g. a non-healthcare customer / prospect of Workday expect from Workday Inventory?

 

[…]

 

Overall MyPOV

Workday keeps extending its automation portfolio capabilities. It’s another data point validating that Workday is in the game for a suite of enterprise functions, not only beyond HCM, but also HCM and Finance. It makes sense for Workday to limit functionality to specific verticals, and verticals that the vendor is strong on already, like Healthcare. It’s too early for Workday to compete in breadth and depth with full-fledged SCM / Purchasing automation vendors. So certainly a valid and viable strategy. It is also another data point that Workday plans to go to market more from a vertical approach, this press release mentioning and focusing Healthcare. That makes sense as it allows to build vertical functionality and messaging, but has product implications.

 

On the concern side it is one more investment area for Workday, no matter how small and well defined it may be. With new automation come commitments to roadmap, support, maintenance and education. Expanding into SCM also requires Workday to ramp up go to market efforts and expertise, including a partner ecosystem that is different to its existing more service industry and HCM / Finance oriented portfolio, so more investment is needed and Workday already needs to invest on many fronts. And personally I would like to see Workday to do more on HCM, but I am sure the executives in Pleasanton are keeping a watchful eye on Workday remaining competitive in that key area. And it needs to keep that functionality (very) compelling – as it keeps using it (rightfully) to get product efforts like (today’s example) off the ground.

 

But overall it is always good to see vendors grow their automation portfolios, as it creates value for customers and prospects. So congrats to Workday for moving deeper into SCM, with the addition of healthcare related inventory capability and new features for Workday Procurement. We will be watching.

 

For more closer SCM coverage, follow my colleague Guy Courtin here.  
 

And more on Workday

 

 

• News Analysis - Workday supports UK Payroll - now speaks (British English) Payroll  - read here
• Workday 24 - 'True' Analytics, a Vertical and more - now needs customer proof points - read here
• First Take - Top 3 Takeaways from of Workday Rising Day 1 Keynote - The dawn of the analytics era - time to deliver Insight Apps - read here
• Progress Report - Workday supports more cloud standard - but work remains - read here
• Workday 22 - Recruiting and rich Workday 22 are here - read here
• First Take - Why Workday acquired Identified - (real) Analytics matter - read here
• Workday Update 21 - All about the user experience and some more - read here
• Workday Update 20 - Mostly a technology release - read here
• Takeaways from the Salesforce.com and Workday parnership - read here
• Workday powers on - adds more to its plate - read here
• What I would like Workday to address this Rising - read here
• Workday Update 19 - you need to slow down to hurry up - read here
• I am worried about... Workday - read here

 

You can find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here.

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

Constellation's Ten Most Popular Research Reports of 2015 YTD

Here's a list of Constellation's most popular research reports from 2015 (Q1 & Q2)  

These reports reflect the trends that are currently resonating with our early adopter audience. Download your copies today. 

The Top 10 Research Reports of 2015 (Q1 & Q2)

The Elements of Business Architecture for Digital Transformation by R "Ray" Wang

Retail: Prepare for the IoT Revolution by Guy Courtin

This report identifies the benefis of the Internet of Things for retail. It examines how retailers and CPG companies should prepare an IoT investment strategy. The report includes use cases applicable for retail.

The State of Collaboration in 2015 by Alan Lepofsky

This report explores key trends in how employees collaborate with their colleagues and customers. It examines how the tools in use today are changing and what new tools and cultural shifts will play key parts in how people get their work done. 

9 Cloud Trends Every CXO Needs to Know in 2015 By Holger Mueller

The cloud has transitioned from the responsibility of the CIO to the responsibility of the entire C-suite. Consequently, all CxOs should be aware of major trends in cloud technology. This report assesses the state of the cloud market and identifies nine trends influencing cloud technology.

Inside the Future of HCM By Holger Mueller

This report reveals seven trends influencing the future of HCM. Find out how organizations will manage their most valuable resource--their people

The Five Interconnected Internet of Things Business Models By Guy Courtin

Constellation expects all five business models will serve different levels of maturity for IoT adoption. Each business model will play a cohesive and integrated role in an organization’s overall IoT strategy. CxOs looking at deploying the IoT should understand the technology as a means to achieving a business model shift. 

The State of Identity Management in 2015 By Steve Wilson

This report identifies six trends influencing identity management and explains how organizations should take advantage of identity trends to reevaluate their risk management strategies.

The State of Marketing in 2015 by Dr. Natalie Petouhoff

This report identifies seven trends influencing the future of marketing, and explains how organizations should prioritize customer experience in the digital age. 

Customer Data: The Missing Link to Strategic Success By R "Ray" Wang

Harness the power of your organization's most strategic asset with Constellation's seven-step customer data framework. This technology trends report addresses why organizations must embrace master data as a strategic asset.

The State of Digital Privacy by Steve Wilson

This report identifies the political, economic, societal, technological, environmental, and legislative trends affecting digital safety and privacy in 2015.

The Future of Work: Collaboration Tools Become More Intelligent - CxOTalk

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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On July 7th I had the honour of participating in CxOTalk with Michael Krigsman and Vala Afshar.  We discussed the role of collaboration in the Future of Work.
 

Topics included:
- The history of collaboration tools
- Struggles with adoption
- The impacts of cloud and mobile
- The roles of technology, culture and most importantly purpose
- How in the future, data will be used to provide insights that can guide us to working more effectively and efficiently
- And much more

Below is the recording of the 45 minute session.  

If you have any questions or comments I'd love to hear from you.

Want digital employees? Hire graduates, retrain existing employees

Founder, capioIT
calitolIT

Phil is the founder of capioIT, a research analyst firm focussed on driving change in the analyst and research market through innovation and collaboration, with a strong focus on IT services and BPO strategies in the Asia/Pacific region. He has 17 years' experience in corporate strategy, consulting and market intelligence, gained in a diverse range of organisations and industries. Prior to founding capioIT, he established the Australian and Services business units at Springboard Research. Prior to Springboard Research, Phil was responsible for driving analyst firm IDC's research in the services marketplace across the Asia/Pacific region. During his 6 years at IDC, Phil led a large multi-national team of analysts across a range of IT related services with a particular focus on IT…...

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Graduates and graduate recruitment programmes have never been more important in enabling the Digital outcome for both providers and users of digital solutions in all measures. 

Rampant short term thinking in organisations has mean that many graduates were traditionally looked down upon because of “a lack of experience” and the time required for productivity factors. Certainly over the past 20 years I have noted many organisations have cut back on graduate programs, or narrowed focus.

Now we are accelerating through the digital age the tide has turned rapidly. Graduates are Digital Natives. They live act and breathe the new economy more than any jaded worker with 25 years of experience.  Social media, analytics, mobility are second nature in professional and personal capacities. Imagine the skills that the next generation of workers will have in say 10 years as they come through knowing absolutely nothing else but integrated digital functions.

Clearly this has resulted in a significant reduction in time to productivity for graduates, in fact the model may well have been turned on its heads. Arguably the existing long term employees are the ones who need to realign skills due to the time required to make them more productive.

One point, whilst the suitability of new graduates for the new economy cannot be questioned, it would be naïve to think that academia has caught up with the shifting skill base and requirements. In general it hasn’t so more transformation is required.  From a technology graduate point of view the problem becomes the choice between training a general graduate in technology, or training a technology graduate in business.

Focus Point

Graduates have never been more important, subsequently, nor has a revitalised graduate recruitment program. Focus on training will increasingly be needed to reskill older legacy workers not younger Digital Natives.

IBM Cloud makes good progress, but needs to attract more load

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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We had the opportunity to attend the analyst summit for IBM’s cloud efforts, held last week in New York at the brand new and beautiful Watson HQ at Astor Place. The event was very well attended, despite the summer season and the Friday date, showing the interest that IBM has gained in cloud matters in the analyst community. 
 

 

We learned a lot of things, tough to distill the Top 3 – but here you go:

Messaging Improvement – Discounting transcontinental travel and a hot day in New York City, I was impressed by the improved messaging by IBM executives, listening to LeBlanc, Rippert et al. It looks to me that the formation of the new Cloud Business Unit has helped, also that IBM has hired a number of key executives from the outside. So it’s no longer about speeds and feeds, but about business model change, creating differentiation for customers, enabling new business models, understanding the power and relevance of open source as a platform, and enabling enterprises to build next generation applications with a modern PaaS, Bluemix. It is still early days, but IBM can speak more about customers using this than ever before, we were walked through about a dozen customer scenarios and references as the day progressed. The good news is not only to have these customers stories, but getting uptdates about their usage of the IBM cloud product and equally learning about broader initial uptake of the IBM cloud product in new accounts. 

 

LeBlanc opens the Cloud Summit

Hybrid is on the rise – We have advised, talked, presented and blogged about 2015 being the year of the rise of the hybrid cloud in terms of product enablement. And no surprise IBM is no exception, with most of Sabbah’s presentation focused on the topic. IBM plans to deliver a product (I guess for now) called the ‘Hybrid Controller’, which is tasked to combine on premise and cloud resources securely and reliably across different data centers. It is clear that IBM hears from its customer that pure public cloud is not the immediate path and desire for all of them, so for IBM to enable to play on all angles of the cloud economics spectrum, from value on traditional servers in traditional data centers, over private, to dedicated (aka managed) to public cloud is key. Being able to do this across public clouds (Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure were logo mentioned on the slides - see below) is important for IBM to keep its position as a trusted advisor of the CIO, beyond only IBM product and brands. Finally the acquisition of BlueBox (see my News Analysis here) is a key enabler in the immediate future for IBM to enable the hybrid cloud reality.

 

The IBM Hybrid Cloud vision

 

Bluemix more and more in the mix – It is becoming clear how essential Bluemix is for the IBM cloud strategy, and that starts with adoption. Robinson shared uptake numbers of Bluemix and given the product is only officially 1.5 years old – they are notable: Bluemix is the largest CloudFoundry deployment on record, it has over 400k users and is adding 8000 users every week. In April Bluemix logged 1B API calls, an impressive number. But IBM still wants to see even more and has put social media / community veteran Carter on the community outreach for Cloud / Bluemix. IBM is also doing well on the partner front with Twitter, CitiBank, Box, Apple and NASA, as well as very good system integrator uptake, with Accenture, CapGemini, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PWC, TechMahindra and Wipro being mentioned.
 

IBM Bluemix traction

 

MyPOV

IBM momentum keeps growing, as IBM keeps investing into datacenter locations, additional software capabilities and ecosystem building. It looks like the organization with a dedicated cloud group under LeBlanc is paying off, as the team is in place, seems to be working well together, and most importantly is focused only on the IBM cloud success.

On the concern side, IBM is the only cloud player with no ‘organic’ load. It reminds us of the 1000 SaaS properties that are in the IBM fold, but that’s not enough to reach the economics of scale that are needed to succeed long term in the cloud. When I asked LeBlanc on this, it was good to see that IBM has realized this and sees them main growth of load coming from Strategic Outsourcing deals. IBM has signed a number of those in the last quarters, but will need to push the gas pedal down even more, as traditional (hardware) competitors Cisco, Dell and HP get their cloud game (finally) together and will create more competition. But it is good to see that IBM executives are aware of the challenge and are addressing it.

Overall a good event for IBM, that is focused and investing into cloud and has some key differentiating assets over the competition, starting with more data center locations around the world, an enterprise grade PaaS product with Bluemix and attractive differentiators in cognitive computing with Watson, Analytics, BigData and Security. And last but not least IBM has access to almost all CIOs around the world, so it will be interesting to see how well IBM can leverage that going forward. We will be watching.



 

More on IBM :

 

• Market Move - IBM gets into private cloud (services) with Blue Box acqusition - read here
• Event Report - IBM InterConnect - IBM makes bets for the hybrid cloud - read here
• First Take - IBM InterConnect Day #1 Keynote - BlueMix, SoftLayer and Watson - read here
• News Analysis - IBM had a very good year in the cloud - 2015 will be key - read here
• Event Report - IBM Insight 2014 - Is it all coming together for IBM in 2015? Or not? 
• First Take - Top 3 Takeaways from IBM Insight Day 1 Keynote - read here
• IBM and SAP partner for cloud - good move - read here
• Event Report - IBM Enterprise - A lot of value for existing customers, but can IBM attract net new customers? Read here
• Progress Report - The Mainframe is alive and kicking - but there is more in IBM STG - read here
• News Analysis - IBM and Intel partner to make the cloud more secure - read here
• Progress Report - IBM BigData an Analytics have a lot of potential - time to show it - read here
• Event Report - What a difference a year makes - and off to a good start - read here
• First Take - 3 Key Takeaways from IBM's Impact Conference - Day 1 Keynote - read here
• Another week and another Billion - this week it's a BlueMix Paas - read here
• First take - IBM makes Connection - introduces the TalentSuite at IBM Connect - read here
• IBM kicks of cloud data center race in 2014 - read here
• First Take - IBM Software Group's Analyst Insights - read here
• Are we witnessing one of the largest cloud moves - so far? Read here
• Why IBM acquired Softlayer - read here

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

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

Time To Convert Your Social Engagement Into a Sales Funnel?

Partner, Sensei Marketing
Partner, Sensei Marketing

Sales & marketing veteran with almost 30 years’ experience and now 1800 digital projects to his credit for clients including Morgan Stanley, AOL, Hyatt Gaming Management, Snyder's of Hanover, Hitachi, the Home Depot, Kraft Foods, Drees Homes, American Idol, and hundreds more, including leading agencies around the North America.     ...

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We’ve all heard the analogy of social media acting like a megaphone, digitally amplifying your voice to a large crowd. While this is technically correct, amplification  no longer the end-goal of social media marketing.  Well, at least it shouldn’t be.

When we were first introduced to “Web 2.0,” marketers were excited about the fact that technology would allow two-way conversations to occur via the web (as opposed to traditional one-way broadcast messages found in print and television advertising).  Where the Internet promised a free and open platform to market yourself or your business, Web 2.0 gave everyone  – individuals, small businesses, and large businesses alike – the option to be content producers and offer real-time feedback to others’ content.

With the addition of social networks into the mix, marketers sought to take advantage of platforms where large groups congregated around ideas or associations. With a timely tweet or an inventive video, their messages could quickly go viral among those platforms and communities.  Yet, not all campaigns met with success.

Social Media Failing to Meet Expectations

Enterprising marketers understood that certain people in those communities were more likely to generate buzz and garner attention and so influence marketing re-surfaced as a “the next big thing” in social media marketing. However, it didn’t take long for businesses to realize that social media – as insanely popular as it was – was still in the early adopter stage, and digital platforms, devices, and channels were still relatively few.

Today, as more people are using the Internet and social media for longer periods of time, for more reasons, and through more devices, we’re hitting a saturation point on content; capturing people’s attention is becoming near impossible.

Using the megaphone model, where we used social media to attract and engage larger and larger communities, was a good first step in the evolution of the media for the marketing industry. Eventually, CIOs began challenging the practice by asking for bottom-line results for the investment incurred in building the communities – and the results were not to their liking. It’s not that social media and community building were not worthy investments; marketers simply did not yet understand how to close the loop.

Social Media as Microscope Instead of Megaphone

The practice of influence marketing has taught us that engaging people who can use social media as a megaphone to amplify a brand message or product recommendation may earn valuable earned media, but the positive correlation between that earned media and sales or profit are often anecdotal.

Still, now’s not the time to throw in the towel when it comes to influence marketing. The key is to stop focusing on using the medium as a megaphone and start thinking of it as a microscope.  The large communities of active fans are only valuable to a business’s bottom line if marketers, sales teams, and customer service departments can effectively data mine those groups to understand the relationship between engagement and purchase behaviors or the effect on customer life-time value.  This analysis could include:

• define who influences actual purchase decisions instead of who simply drives brand awareness
• use natural language processing to identify and segment who within the social community is active and what stage they are at in the customer life cycle
• identify triggers in those engagements that propel someone to the next stage of the life cycle and use those lessons learned as a blueprint for future communication efforts
• identify how the digital touch-points your brand has with consumers affect their impression of the brand and their likelihood to continue to purchase and/or advocate for it
• synchronize consumer communications in social channels with sales and customer service programming so each department has a real-time view of the brand-customer relationship and is triggered to take action at the right time (this is where social relationship software comes in)

Time To Convert Your Social Engagement Into a Sales Funnel?

It really just comes down to closing the loop on the increased community engagement in which businesses have been investing  for the past ten plus years.  Traditionally, marketing teams built the sales funnel and salespeople worked on converting those leads. Closing ratios were analyzed and compared to the factors that drove the lead, the demographic of the consumers, and the campaign strategy used.  That data was used to improve the quality of the funnel.

Social media marketing should allow marketing and sales professionals to access this information and better analyze it more quickly and effectively, but too many are stuck on building and measuring the size of the community and not treating those communities like traditional sales funnels.

Sensei Debates

Can/should social media communities be managed like traditional sales funnels to be worthy of investment? Or are the earned media benefits enough? Share your point of view in the comments below.

Sam Fiorella
Feed Your Community, Not Your Ego

The post Time To Convert Your Social Engagement Into a Sales Funnel? appeared first on Sensei Marketing.