What do you want to know about the internet of things? Here's what we want to know.

The Importance of Addressing the Unknown

Here's a question: why, with the growing number of IoT "experts" in the field, are there unanswered fundamental questions about IoT?

It seems that in the excitement over the potential of IoT, industry experts and their audiences have glossed over some basic details regarding how, exactly, IoT will work. Leaving us with questions!

Here's another question: what can we learn from this 'excitement blindness' that we can apply to disruptive technology implementation strategies in our own organizations? 

Join R “Ray” Wang as he interviews entrepreneur and technology scholar, Richie Etwaru about this 'excitement blindness' about our knowledge of internet of things.

You will learn:

• 10 things we want to know about the Internet of Things
• How will connectivity work? What about privacy? Can our internet infrastructure even handle the demand?
• How to avoid the pundit effect (talking a lot, but knowing little) when implementing new technologies 

Webinar Details:

• September 19, 2014 11:00a.m. PT / 2:00p.m. ET
• Speakers: R "Ray" Wang, Richie Etwaru

Digital Transformation Adoption: A Point-by-Point Update

We did it!

Finally, we reached peak of the hype cycle for Digital Transformation.

Congratulations, we couldn’t have done it without your help.

Thank you!

I first wrote, seriously, about it earlier this year after many years of mentioning the coming paradigm shift that would revolutionize business (not an evolution like social media and social networks).

Since then just about every Tom, Patty, and Rene has written about it (that my gender neutral version of Tom, Dick, and Henry by the way…) and taken a stance about it.  Most of those stances are — nuanced, to say it a way that is not using the words “biased” and “wrong” but at least they managed to move the needle in some direction.

I would like to take the next few minutes of your attention (about 15-20 if you believe Wikipedia) to help you understand where we are, where we are going, and what’s going on right now in the world of Organizations in regards to Digital Transformation.

Two caveats: first, I won’t link to anything or anyone else unless I see value and lack of hype in what they are saying.  If you want hype, you can Google “Digital Transformation” (yes, with the quotes) and you can get as much hype as you can stomach.  Second, I don’t have all the answers (likely don’t have many either) but I can give you some data and information that will help you feel better about this paradigm shift (read my past post to understand why this is a paradigm shift).

Ready?

First: the Hype

About that hype statement above.

If you ever used Google trends you know how this works: any topic is scored on a scale from zero (no substantial amount of searches or content created around it) to 100 (top trending topic in Google searches and content found via spidering).  While I don’t know the algorithm used to compute the score, I have found them very accurate in the past.

Here is the chart for Google Trends for Digital Transformation (click on the chart to navigate to Google Trends site for more details)

By contrast, here is the chart for Google Trends for Social Media (click on the chart to navigate to Google Trends site for more details)

And the first thing you will notice is that the both took different lengths of time to get to the top.  Which is why, as Gartner has said from the beginning, hype only serves as birddogging for early adopters (more on that below).

Second: The Progress

That brings me to the second point I want to share: this is early adopter’s time for digital transformation.

By definition-ish, early adopters are those organizations that are comfortable with managing risk and taking chances with untested technology and tools and even concepts.  They foresee a potential value that exceeds the potential damage that could occur if they were to move forward.  Of course, this is done within a framework of risk management and methodical trial-before-commitment – but that is risk management 101 and the topic for another post.

The reality is that without those early adopters jumping in ahead of everyone else and “testing the waters” we wouldn’t be able to move to mainstream adoption (around 30% of the overall market adoption).  There are about 5% of organizations that fit into the early adopter category – and not all topics and tools apply to all of them: thus, when I say “early adopter’s time” I mean a handful of organizations around the world actively doing digital transformation.

Which means, there are more people talking than doing this – and use that as a yardstick when someone tells you they “know how to do digital transformation”.

Third: The Management Stance

I often, read every day many times a day sometimes, get asked who is doing digital transformation? who can i point to that has done a good job and can be used as an example.

Funny thing happened on the way to this answer, everyone now is doing digital transformation… and naming CDO (chief digital officer) and CTO (chief transformation officers) along the way.

Is this the right move?  Read on.

If you need a generic statement, this is a key top-level strategic initiative that is often led by the CEO, the COO, or in very few cases someone below them.

There is no single purchaser of “digital transformation” projects – nor should it ever be (and I did mentioned this in my previous post also).  This is not a software purchase – this is about transforming your business (and that is led by executives if it is to be successful).

There is positively no way this is going to happen in a “ground-up” or grassroots way.  The fact that a lot of people in the organization know about digital, understand the impact, and (frankly) are devoted users of digital makes no difference.  There may be some lab-based projects here and there of tools and technologies – but this is an infrastructure-level, all-in initiative.  Nothing short of that would work, and nothing like that works without executive support.

Mea Culpa, I did say last year at a conference that CDO is the mix of CMO and CIO as a visionary statement together with friend Ray Wang (of Constellation Research).  Since then, we both retracted that statement (we actually did it in the same conference this year, video is forthcoming soon) and provided some guidance as to how to embrace digital transformation.

If you absolutely, positively need to point to someone that is “buying” or leading the efforts, there is another trend to consider…

Remember your CIO?  yeah, that funny person who is always worried about deploying tablets, laptops, securing and integrating and managing data, and developing custom applications for you — but that does not get it?

Guess what? They have been getting it.  Big Time.

As I highlighted in my first post, this is about infrastructure.  Cloud underlies the transformation.  Without PUBLIC cloud, there is no possibility of transformation.  Go ahead and debate me below if you want.

Who owns the cloud infrastructure? Yep, you got it. The CIO.

But, wait – there’s more! (wanted to say for a while now)…

Before you pack your bags and head to haunt every CIO in the world for budget, read a little bit more.

Business stakeholders are represented in this debate by the CMO.  A large part of that is because Gartner said that technology budgets would explode by 2017 for CMOs.  Which is likely true, except…

Except that they forgot two points surrounding that “explosion”:

1. They did not mention that CMOs budgets are for more than just technology.  The technology portion of their budgets are not what is exploding – the expense in advertising, media, content generation, etc. is what is exploding.  And there is not a lot that can be moved from there to technology (we will argue allocation from traditional media to digital in another post if you want, but not part of this discussion).  Even if the technology budgets were to be exploding, the starting point is so low compared to IT budgets (which even if continuing their slow 5% average expansion would still crowd over CMO budgets) that the amount of spend is — well, not worth the expense to target it (as a lot of vendors found out in the last few months).
2. CMOs had a hard time proving the use of the “expanded” budgets in social as they allocated the money in the past few years.  Let’s face it, Social was not what was supposed to be.  True, a communications evolution happened – and brands needed to be there.  But the change to consumer behaviors, the link from social to expanded revenues, the correlation between social presence (or lack of the same) and higher revenues was not there.  Promises made around the social revolution did not, for the most part, come true – and that hurt the reputation and credibility of the CMOs that lined up behind it.

So, if the CMO is not the one with budgets for digital transformation, and the CIO is the gate-keeper (but not the purse keeper) what’s going in the organization? Is this another “who owns social?” discussion.

Hardly, there is a massive change adrift – but you have to pay attention to notice it.

Enter your old, ignored friend – the COO.

Who? COO? What is that? Do we even have one?

Yes, you do – and she (or he, to be politically correct) is becoming the unsung hero for digital transformation.

There is a change in organization chart, partly driven by the fact that CMO-as-a-proxy-for-business-stakeholders were not able to deliver for social initiatives, and partly because CEOs realized that strategies don’t get implemented just because you think about them.

The new dynamic duo of the CEO and COO work in tandem, with the Executive handling the vision and strategy and the Operations chief handling tactical and implementation.  The rest of the C-level peeps end up reporting to one or the other – as need be.  Yes, even if you don’t have C-level people but SVP, EVP, GVP, or MVP – or whatnot, the concept is the same: CEOs strategize, COOs operationalize.

OK, you say, fine.  This is happening – but who is holding the budget for digital transformation?

No one.  Yet.

There is no budget yet allocated, and very little I am seeing being allocated for 2015 budget cycles, for digital transformation.  And that brings me to the next point.

Fourth: The Gurus

If no one is spending money, and few are doing it, then who do I turn to for help and assistance in understanding this paradigm shift?

Well, first of all – me.  This blog will continue to publish more and more content about this transition as we move forward.  I am always happy to extend conversations from this “printed” world to the real world anytime.

Second, turn to those that have been talking and writing about it for some time now.  In no particular order (and because I am too lazy to put them in alphabetical order) they are:

IBM (good research, but lacking field-level people IMO that can extend that research), Accenture, Ernst & Young Advisors (or just EY so their branding police don’t get me), and Deloitte are all staffed with good people that have been writing, researching, and talking about it for some time.

Their research reports, published in the past few months, are worth reading as they reflect the thoughts of executives around the world (which highlight the intent, but not the execution yet on these ideas).

These are the players in the US Market (and not so much at a global level – yet).  If you are in EMEA, then Cap Gemini has been doing quite well, and EY (see? I learn) is gaining ground as well.  Accenture had a slow start, but is gaining ground quickly there also.  My good friend Jesus Hoyos from Solvis Consulting as always has the coverage on the Latin American market.

Most of the outsourcers have been also doing quite well in expanding their presence in this field (including some of the names I mentioned above) but I will let my good friends at Horses for Sources cover that in more detail as they are far more entrenched in that world that I am.

There are many others that have been talking about it – but in my interactions with executives in all countries and of all sizes I have not heard many compliments – nor have I seen a change in their organizations to support their thought leadership.

As I mentioned above, many people talk about it (which is why we reached the top of the hype cycle), but few have actually the bandwidth and knowledge to take it to the next level.

Fifth: The Model

When I first released the “model” for Digital Transformation I challenged you to take it and improve it.  I said, this is just an idea – but it need to get better.

There were a few people that took me on it, and apparently still working on it – had limited contact since they started, but no major changes.

However, since I have been using this model extensively in conversations and consulting with vendors and brands, I came up with a few changes to it.  Look right below

I am not going to send you to the previous post (although it is linked here if you want to go there) to compare, so let me tell you some of the discoveries I made since (and feel free to add your links to the comments if you have expanded on the previous model since).

The most notable one, the interfaces layer at the top.

This used to be part of what is now the legacy pillar on the right side, but have since separated.  Why?

Glad you asked…

I used to say that interfaces and legacy were all part of one giant layer: you collected information from legacy apps, processed it, and because for the most part the interfaces were not “upgraded” yet (read, not mobile or IoT or similar) then we would just process it back to legacy.  While I still maintain that is the case for most (read again, most) situations, to future-proof the model the interfaces layer had to decouple from the legacy layer.

Once I did that, I also looked at the flow of process and information through the framework (the whole idea for the framework was to have a blueprint of sorts that could be used to manage the transformation for the organization) and in doing that I realized also that the interfaces layer must be overarching and cover direct output from analytics and direct output from legacy pillars.

In this way, there is a more natural flow that happens in this model:

1. The interfaces layer requests an experience (regardless of the client or channel)
2. The experience layer deconstructs the requests and determines what to deliver
3. Queries are then dispatched to the information, analytics, and legacy layer to secure the necessary data / knowledge and / or content to build the outcome
   • If necessary, it may also use the cloud layer to obtain ancillary but remote information)
4. All this information is delivered back to the experience layer
5. Then it is prepared for delivery via any interface

Pretty simple flow, with lots of work to make sure it is delivered as expected.

For a deeper discussion of how this works and how it can be adapted to any situation (including how it applies to your specific situation) contact me.  That is too much to include in this post.

Phew, thanks for hanging in there…

Yes, close to 3,000 words – but it is shorter than last time, and it is still a brief summary.

I have often been told two things:

I don’t do things on the timeframe that I propose.  Yes, I know it is a shocker – but sometimes practice takes longer than intent (which is why I have been trying to write this for about 2 months now – needs time to “solidify” in my mind first).  And there is no better “push” for me to do things than committing them in public as I have you to push me to do it (and I hate to not deliver on a promise).

I need to write a book about “this”.

Thus, I am going to use this platform to tell you that I am committed (now that I said it publicly) to write the book about “this”.  What this is and what shape the book will take is to be decided in the next few weeks.  However, this will be researched, expanded, and delivered in the form of a book next year.

With that in mind, I will use this medium to publish summaries of each of the layers and pillars in the model above, starting with the cloud layer.  Yes, Mr. Sameer Patel -I will finally write that post you have been pestering me about for a long time – including the one-page-summary of cloud models… Geez, the lack of patience.

I hope.

Comments? Arguments? Disagreements? Agreements?

Comments section below is open to everyone and not moderated (although WordPress will ask me to confirm if you are first time commenter; I don’t even look at the comment and I approve them).o

Challenges in Customer Service - Today - The Mirage Las Vegas

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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After a delayed flight back from the East Coast to Las Vegas, I made it to the Mirage shortly after midnight, and was still in a good mood - tweeting that only in Las Vegas you have a line checking into a hotel after midnight...

But then the challenges started to pop up fast and furiously:

• Despite having a non smoking room reserved the receptionist told me that they had only smoking rooms left. Not a good start.    
   
• In my hope that my MLife loyalty would change something - I wanted to provide my loyalty card number, only to note that I didn't have it. But I knew from other MGM properties that the receptionist can look that number up with the address. Not so my receptionist - she said it's not possible.... But I pressed and she then 'found a way' to do it, excusing herself for a 'brain fart' (her words!).
  
  [Epilogue - she gave me a number - but it wasn't mine as I discovered back home...]
   
• So I make myself to the room - enter, can't find the light switch, but can see the bathroom, find the 'standard' setup of the light switch and ... there are toiletries on the sink. As I make my discover a female voice says faintly 'Hello?' - to which I retreat with profuse apologies that this was my room according to the front desk and my key opened the door... I doubled check once outside again - and yes it was my room.

• So off to the service phone on the floor (22nd) only to find out - that it doesn't .... work.
   
• Next down and to the service telephone at the bottom of the elevator...
   
• Receptionist asks me to come back to reception, which I politely decline with my luggage and given it's almost half a mile and its quarter to 1 AM. So he says he will re-program my key and give me a new room over the phone. Incredously I ask if that worked, as I never have seen that working - but he reassures me this will work.
   
• Back to 22nd floor and of course... it does not work.
   
• Back down (service phone broken) and guess I sounded irritated - as the switchboard offers to connect me with the hotel manager... I though the cavalry is here.
   
• The hotel manager can't offer an apology but says he will send someone with the key. 15 miniutes later as I am picking up the phone again - a young gentleman shows up and gives me the new keys... promises to call me if I make it in the room (...).
   
• I make it to the room and find new - never seen equipment - an air purifier.

• Needless to say I never get a call in the room - and being 1:10 and having a 5 AM start I resort in my fate... needless to say the most smoke stinking room I ever was in. Luckily I was able to open the window, but let me tell you that the slightest move in the bed of a smoking room unleashes plenty of smoke.
   
• The next day - on a conference call I took from my (smoking) room - the house cleaning maid walks in on me - no knocking whatsoever. Before your phantasies go wild - I was decently dressed.
   
• Around 2 PM - I was supposed to get my new room assigned by noon - I call myself the hotel manager. The reply is 'oh yeah - let me send someone'.
   
• And yes - 10 minutes later another young gentleman shows up and gives me the new room keys.
   
• I was glad to be in my new non smoking room. 2 more house cleaning walk ins - I know use the deadbolt. And they left me a present:

• Also it looks like taking away trash guests need to leave lying around - as there was no dust bin - does not get picked up either. Or hotel dishes: 

]

• Generally it looks like the Mirage Las Vegas is falling apart - just two pictures from my bath room door. Door handle not secured by screws and broken off wood at the door.

 

Throughout my 3 day and 3 night stay - where I documented all of the above on Twitter, no one of the Mirage bothered to reach out to me. It was like all of this did not happen... 

Why CIOs Attend Connected Enterprise

IT budgets are shrinking, and you know that investing in emerging technology will give your organization a competitive advantage in the era of digital disruption. You know that innovation is no longer a luxury, but a necessity to remain competitive.  You're ready to make the case for new and emerging technologies. 

Connected Enterprise is not for every CIO.

Connected Enterprise is for the forward-thinking CIO. CIOs who attend Connected Enterprise are not interested in simply maintaining IT systems. CIOs who attend Connected Enterprise are interested in challenging the status quo, breaking down silos, and experimenting with new business models in order to introduce emerging technologies to their organizations. 

Forward-thinking CIOs Benefit from Connected Enterprise's Technology Optimization & Innovation Programming

Connected Enterprise's Technology Optimization & Innovation sessions analyze the strategic balance between investing in innovation while optimizing the cost of providing support to existing IT systems. New economic realities and shrinking IT budgets necessitate that IT organizations become better at justifying new projects, more efficient in delivering IT services, and smarter at adopting new technologies that can deliver business value while reducing costs.  Organizations must work together to optimize the cost reduction that funds innovation, and learn how to balance the needs of business with the responsibilities of IT.  Is your organization ready for the shift to innovation?  Have you developed a strategy to fund innovation with optimization? 

Connected Enterprise's Technology Optimization & Innovation sessions will teach you how to create a strategy to balance innovation and IT optimization. You will discover new technologies and learn how to justify innovation projects to your organization. You'll learn how to instill a culture of innovation in your organization from other CIOs who successfully implemented disruptive technologies in their own organizations. 

Technology Optimization & Innovation Sessions:

• EXECUTIVE EXCHANGE: Infusing a culture of Innovation In an Age of Digital Transformation
• VISIONARIES: How to fund innovation through technology optimization and innovation
• EXECUTIVE EXCHANGE: Industry Spotlight - How Sports Has Changed With Digital Business

What It's Like to be a CIO in Silicon Valley panel from Connected Enterprise 2013

Register soon! Early bird pricing ends September 30!

Event Report - SAP SuccessFactors picks up speed - but there remains work to be done

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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SAP SuccessFactor’s yearly North America user conference, SuccessConnect concluded this week in Las Vegas. It was the largest SuccessConnect ever, with over 2200 attendees, a good indicator that the acquisition and integration of SuccessFactors by SAP is on a good track. That was not a guaranteed outcome a year ago – my takeaways of SuccessConnect 2013 as reference are here – and of the Day 1 keynote are here.

A lot of important product and services news were announced, tough to pick the Top 3 – but here you go:

1 - Roadmap Sharing 

As Ettling keynoted on Day 1 of SuccessConnect, SuccessFactors is now sharing its roadmap for the next 12 months to come. To deliver on that was the task for Dmitri Krakovsky on Day 2. He didn’t share the dates – but the roadmap items – see below. 

 

SuccessFactors Roadmap items as shared by Krakovsky

 

And that were indeed a lot of roadmap items for the next 12 months to come. Let’s look at the ones with the most impact:

• SuccessFactors is doing its integration homework - After a conservative first year (besides EmployeeCentral) the SuccessFactors product team is picking up on a number of innovations coming from SAP.
  
  • More Localizations, more Payroll countries and more documentation are leveraging SAP scale, investment and processes. 
  • On the technology side, new customers will be running fully on HANA at some point in 2015, the Fiori UX will be uptaken and SuccessFactors will use HANA Cloud Integration (if that will be the bye bye for Dell Boomi remains to be seen). 
  • And SuccessFactors will also leverage and work with other SAP acquisitions, improving the Fieldglass integration and using KXEN’s InifiteInsight for Analytics.
     

• On the functional side SuccessFactors focusses on Learning (more below), improved Workforce Planning (positive Time), Auto Sourcing (in Recruiting), Offboarding and extension of Global Benefit.
   
• Mobile gets a big push with new native support for Apple (demoed in the keynote) and Android (coming next year).
   
• Moreover SuccessFactors will support the visually impaired with additional color palettes, that help e.g. the red / green blind user population. Why this did not morph into a full ADA support announcement / roadmap was one of the questions I did not manage to ask, but this is a first step in that direction.
   
• And last but not least SuccessFactors has already an Applications marketplace, a good instrument to help partners to promote and monetize their offerings, something not seen too often in the industry yet (see e.g. Cornerstone’s announcement here).
   
• Finally there was an entry on the slide named ‘Model S’, the codename for SAP’s new simple Suite. If there by accident or dropped by purpose to start a conversation, it certainly means that a part of the SuccessFactors capacity will go towards SAP’s next generation suite. 

 

New iPhone Learning Client

2 - Learning front and center

SuccessFactors is executing a major learning push, leveraging its acquired Plateau products and expertise to advance two critical functions that so far have been more or less inexistent or badly broken in learning management: The user generated, self-creation of content and the easy identification of relevant learning content, aided by analytics. If SAP can solve both of these challenges in their next generation Learning product, then enterprises should take note.

I was impressed by the approach taken with analytics – Krakovsky called it analytical racks – that just run to predict the best course recommendations – and are added or taken off when obsolete. That comes the closest to where I see analytics going, I call it model thrashing. Just run as many models you can get hold off and use the one for the day or even for the hour that has the best prediction fidelity.

Ettling presents Service Improvements on Day 1

3 - Services strengthening

The services announcements made by Ettling made my top three event takeaways on the Day 1 keynote and now as well for the event. The separation of the upgrade time frames for the test vs. the production instances is a key quality for SaaS customers. And knowing 6 weeks before a release what will likely be part of it is essential to take the necessary preparation in learning and change management that enterprises may have to prepare for.

Tidbits

• EmployeeCentral - moving on - Good to see more traction in EmployeeCentral, starting with plans on UI improvement, the addition of more countries and more payroll support as well as the addition of positive time. It is also clear that SuccessFactors plans to use EmployeeCentral and its technology framework (MDF) as the basis for its next generation HCM SaaS product, as more talent management functions are being built on the same framework. 

• Analytics - InfiniteInsight coming -  SuccessFactors already has a very good intelligence platform with the acquisition of Australian infoHRM that is widely used acroos the suite. The product team is now actively working with the InfiniteInsight product of KXEN (acquired by SAP, my takeaways here), which will beef up SuccessFactors analytical capabilities significantly. 

• Recruiting - improved - A number of enhancements for the Recruiting product, the most important being the improved and automated interview scheduling, which brings SuccessFactors to par in this critical productivity / efficiency function with Workday. 

• Jam - plowing on -  The SAP social product is always close to the HCM products, so SuccessConnect was no exception. The product is making good progress in the usability side, the Work Pattern approach has proven itself with partner uptake and it now comes back to foster an ecosystem to garner the uptake. The SuccessFactors Marketplace certainly helps here. 

MyPOV

SuccessFactors is making good progress on all fronts. Tackling the user interface with improvements, up taking more synergies with what SAP can offer and closing competitive gaps are all good practices that every software vendor should practice, but not all manage to pull that off.

The Services improvements received a very warm welcome by customers already at the event, now SAP has to deliver on them.

But then SuccessFactors still has to do a lot of work on harmonizing architectures of acquired products – or rebuilding of these on the new EmployeeCentral / MDF architecture. Or maybe in Model S – or Simple HCM? The sharing of the roadmap for the next 12 months is very good news for customers in order to have the opportunity to align their rollout plans with the product roadmap. Now SAP needs to wrestle some of the thought leadership and commercial success away from Workday, a major task to be undertaken, the starting position has certainly improved compared to year ago.

And more on overall SAP strategy and products:

• 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:

• 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.

SAP SuccessFactors picks up speed - but there remains work to be done

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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SAP SuccessFactor’s yearly North America user conference, SuccessConnect concluded this week in Las Vegas. It was the largest SuccessConnect ever, with over 2200 attendees, a good indicator that the acquisition and integration of SuccessFactors by SAP is on a good track. That was not a guaranteed outcome a year ago – my takeaways of SuccessConnect 2013 as reference are here – and of the Day 1 keynote are here.

 
 

A lot of important product and services news were announced, tough to pick the Top 3 – but here you go:

 

1 - Roadmap Sharing 

As Ettling keynoted on Day 1 of SuccessConnect, SuccessFactors is now sharing its roadmap for the next 12 months to come. To deliver on that was the task for Dmitri Krakovsky on Day 2. He didn’t share the dates – but the roadmap items – see below. 

 

SuccessFactors Roadmap items as shared by Krakovsky

 

And that were indeed a lot of roadmap items for the next 12 months to come. Let’s look at the ones with the most impact:

• SuccessFactors is doing its integration homework - After a conservative first year (besides EmployeeCentral) the SuccessFactors product team is picking up on a number of innovations coming from SAP.
   
  • More Localizations, more Payroll countries and more documentation are leveraging SAP scale, investment and processes. 
  • On the technology side, new customers will be running fully on HANA at some point in 2015, the Fiori UX will be uptaken and SuccessFactors will use HANA Cloud Integration (if that will be the bye bye for Dell Boomi remains to be seen). 
  • And SuccessFactors will also leverage and work with other SAP acquisitions, improving the Fieldglass integration and using KXEN’s InifiteInsight for Analytics.
     

• On the functional side SuccessFactors focusses on Learning (more below), improved Workforce Planning (positive Time), Auto Sourcing (in Recruiting), Offboarding and extension of Global Benefit.
   
• Mobile gets a big push with new native support for Apple (demoed in the keynote) and Android (coming next year).
   
• Moreover SuccessFactors will support the visually impaired with additional color palettes, that help e.g. the red / green blind user population. Why this did not morph into a full ADA support announcement / roadmap was one of the questions I did not manage to ask, but this is a first step in that direction.
   
• And last but not least SuccessFactors has already an Applications marketplace, a good instrument to help partners to promote and monetize their offerings, something not seen too often in the industry yet (see e.g. Cornerstone’s announcement here).
   
• Finally there was an entry on the slide named ‘Model S’, the codename for SAP’s new simple Suite. If there by accident or dropped by purpose to start a conversation, it certainly means that a part of the SuccessFactors capacity will go towards SAP’s next generation suite. 

 

New iPhone Learning Client

2 - Learning to the front

SuccessFactors is executing a major learning push, leveraging its acquired Plateau products and expertise to advance two critical functions that so far have been more or less inexistent or badly broken in learning management: The user generated, self-creation of content and the easy identification of relevant learning content, aided by analytics. If SAP can solve both of these challenges in their next generation Learning product, then enterprises should take note.

I was impressed by the approach taken with analytics – Krakovsky called it analytical racks – that just run to predict the best course recommendations – and are added or taken off when obsolete. That comes the closest to where I see analytics going, I call it model thrashing. Just run as many models you can get hold off and use the one for the day or even for the hour that has the best prediction fidelity.

 

Ettling presents Service Improvements on Day 1

3 - Services strengthening

The services announcements made by Ettling made my top three event takeaways on the Day 1 keynote and now as well for the event. The separation of the upgrade time frames for the test vs. the production instances is a key quality for SaaS customers. And knowing 6 weeks before a release what will likely be part of it is essential to take the necessary preparation in learning and change management that enterprises may have to prepare for.

Tidbits

• EmployeeCentral - moving on - Good to see more traction in EmployeeCentral, starting with plans on UI improvement, the addition of more countries and more payroll support as well as the addition of positive time. It is also clear that SuccessFactors plans to use EmployeeCentral and its technology framework (MDF) as the basis for its next generation HCM SaaS product, as more talent management functions are being built on the same framework. 

• Analytics - InfiniteInsight coming -  SuccessFactors already has a very good intelligence platform with the acquisition of Australian infoHRM that is widely used acroos the suite. The product team is now actively working with the InfiniteInsight product of KXEN (acquired by SAP, my takeaways here), which will beef up SuccessFactors analytical capabilities significantly. 

• Recruiting - improved - A number of enhancements for the Recruiting product, the most important being the improved and automated interview scheduling, which brings SuccessFactors to par in this critical productivity / efficiency function with Workday. 

• Jam - plowing on -  The SAP social product is always close to the HCM products, so SuccessConnect was no exception. The product is making good progress in the usability side, the Work Pattern approach has proven itself with partner uptake and it now comes back to foster an ecosystem to garner the uptake. The SuccessFactors Marketplace certainly helps here. 

MyPOV

SuccessFactors is making good progress on all fronts. Tackling the user interface with improvements, up taking more synergies with what SAP can offer and closing competitive gaps are all good practices that every software vendor should practice, but not all manage to pull that off.

The Services improvements received a very warm welcome by customers already at the event, now SAP has to deliver on them.

But then SuccessFactors still has to do a lot of work on harmonizing architectures of acquired products – or rebuilding of these on the new EmployeeCentral / MDF architecture. Or maybe in Model S – or Simple HCM? The sharing of the roadmap for the next 12 months is very good news for customers in order to have the opportunity to align their rollout plans with the product roadmap. Now SAP needs to wrestle some of the thought leadership and commercial success away from Workday, a major task to be undertaken, the starting position has certainly improved compared to year ago.

And more on overall SAP strategy and products:

 

• 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:

• 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.

Event Report: AirWatch Connect Continues Market Momentum In Enterprise Mobility

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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New Enhancements, Products, and Partnerships Delight Attendees

Over 1500 customers, partners, and influencers gathered September 8th to 11th, 2014 at the Atlanta Hyatt Regency for the latest US edition of AirWatch Connect. Key announcements from the event include:

• Launch of Chat for Secure Enterprise Messaging . Chat delivers a containerized and secure instant messaging application for iOS and Android. The offering takes advantage of FIPS, a US Government computer security standard, compliant algorithms to ensure security. The product is available at the end of Q3 2014. Point of view (POV): Consumer SMS applications often do not provide enough security for highly regulated customers. In conversations with over 20 customers in industries such as financial services, healthcare, telecom, public sector, and pharma, every customer indicated a demand for secure messaging to replace aging platforms such as Blackberry Messenger (BBM).

• Enhanced Capabilities for Comprehensive Mac Management. The Mac Management offering includes application management, enhanced compliance policies, enhanced tasked automation, interoperability with Apple’s Device Enrollment Program, and streamlined staging. New profile configurations include global HTTP proxy, advanced Active Directory, and settings to prevent the exporting of private keys once the certificate is installed on the device. (POV): The growing importance of Mac and OSX in the enterprise because of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs and growing acceptance of Apple in the enterprise requires consistent and cost-effective device management. The AirWatch solution should be considered in short lists as Mac Management can be incorporated into a streamlined process to enforce and deploy consistent corporate policies and manage virtually all end user devices.

• Availability of new Inbox for iOS and Android. AirWatch's Email Management suite gets an enhancement to Inbox. The new functionality extends security to email, calendar, and contacts on iOS and Android. The solution is planned for general availability late September 2014 on iOS and is available on Android. A Windows version is slated for next year. (POV): Conversations with clients indicate general excitement to extend selective S/MINE for iOS and Android. The extra security for email delivery allows customers to manage on a per-message basis. Improving granularity of cryptographic security services on S/MINE include features such as message integrity, privacy, authentication, data security, and non-repudiation of origin using digital signatures.

• Interoperability with Mobile App Dev Platforms Via AppShield. AirWatch announced the launch of AppShield which adds an extra layer of security and management capabilities to existing deployments without requiring additional development. The offering builds on top of the AirWatch SDK and App Wrapping functionality. In addition, nine charter mobile application management platform (MADP) providers agreed to inter operate with AirWatch AppShield. Customers can also deploy Inbox as a managed application or within the dual persona Workspace containerized solution. (POV): The announcement may appear to be inside baseball to customers at first. However, the agreement by Adobe, Appcelerator, Kony, Microstrategy, Oracle, salesforce.com, Sencha, Telerik, and Xamarin to enable interoperability, allows AirWatch customers to wrap more than 100,000 existing applications. The result - improved technology optimization of both current and legacy investments as organizations mobilize their applications landscape. Customers with investments in the nine charter providers and AirWatch stand to gain efficiencies in end user computing.

• Partnership with CapGemini for Enterprise Mobility Management. AirWatch will provide a centralized console to access applications and content from any device. Capgemini will provide mobile development, managed mobility, and mobile strategy. The Capgemini offerings are offered as part of the Capgemini Mobile Solutions portfolio, which includes as-a-Service packages (POV): The partnership creates an opportunity for both Capgemini and AirWatch to provide industry optimized EMM offerings. AirWatch gains access to Capgemini's client base while Capgemini adds a key digital technology to its offerings for CXO's. Constellation expects deals to accelerate from the Capgemini side..

Figure 1. The AirWatch Connect FlickrStream #AWConnect

The Bottom Line: Mobile Is More Than A Device And End User Computing Needs To Be Streamlined

As a key entry point to digital transformation, mobile is more than a device. It’s about getting stuff done in motion and in between time. It's about a new user experience. It's about a way to capture inputs and signals. It's about a communication platform. However all these devices require investment, management, and support. End user computing is driving this movement. Keep in mind, mobile plays a key role in digital transformation when leaders:

• Realize digital business disruption is a mindset and mobile first is a significant entry point
• Understand that mobile is more than just a device
• Begin at the business process and end at experiences to drive business value
• Capture data that provides relevancy and right time context
• Use mobile as an interface, interaction point, and data collection sensor
• Include mobile ROI as part of a larger initiative around digital
• Expect mobile to enable P2P networks

Your POV.

Ready for digital disruption by starting with mobile? Do you have your bases covered on enterprise mobile management? What are your reactions to the #AWConnect announcements? Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

Resources

Event Report: Glassdoor Employer Branding Summit

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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Employer Branding Comes of Age

On September 12th, Glassdoor kicked off its Employer Branding Summit in San Francisco at the Hotel Nikko.  Social recruiting, employer branding, and talent acquisition pros gathered to hear how branding impacts the recruiting landscape.  Robert Hohman, CEO of Glassdoor welcomed the audience to set the stage (see Figure 1).

Guest speakers included Lars Schmidt – Amplify Talent, Josh Bersin – Bersin by Deloitte, Bryan Chaney – IBM, Jennifer Tharp – AT&T, Arie Ball & Anthony Scarpino – Sodexo, Jen Powell – Deloitte, Stacy Zapar – Zappos, and Shannon Smedstad – CEB who shared their stories on their journey to the employer branding movement.

Inside The Glassdoor For Employers Approach

Glassdoor for Employers has taken the crowd sourcing review approach and inverted it as a feedback and insight tool for employers.  In short the Vault meets Angie’s list for a digital age metaphor applies in its key offerings:

• Employer Branding.  Think segmentation and targeting of recruits through content strategy via messaging, social media videos, and other dynamic content.  Most employers have taken advantage of the analytics on candidate demographics and site activity.
• Corporate Reputation and Employer Brand.  This employer offering is the recruiting equivalent of brand monitoring used for social media command centers.  Employers gain insights on rankings by category including work – life balance, benefits, cultures and values, and others.  Of interest to most CEOs is the ability to implement reputation management.

Bottom Line: Apply Principles Of Brand Authenticity To Recruiting For A Digital World

Companies such as Glassdoor and Smashfly have been pioneering the application of CRM principles to recruiting and employer branding.  Lessons learned from the speakers as well as the experts in the audience reinforce the following principles required to not only win the war on talent but also disrupt digital business:

1. Recruiting in a digital age requires trust and transparency.
2. Your brand drives the type of talent you attract.
3. Apply marketing principles to recruiting.
4. Use the 9C’s of engagement for out reach to prospective talent.
5. Brand marketing and HR converge in this growing category of employer branding.

Figure 1. A Short FlickrStream From #GDSummit San Francisco

Join us October 29th to 31st for Constellation’s Connected Enterprise: The Executive Innovation Conference For Digital CXO’s and Leaders. These leaders convene to discover, share, and inspire each other on how digital business can realize brand promises, transform business models, increase revenues, reduce costs, and improve compliance.

The 3-day executive retreat will include mind expanding keynotes from visionaries and futurists, interactive best practices panels, deep 1:1 20 minute interviews with market makers, rapid fire high-energy new technology demos, The Constellation SuperNova Awards event, a golf outing, and an immersive networking event.

Your POV.

Ready for employer branding? Are you working closely with your marketing team to implement these changes? What’s your strategy?  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.

Related Research

• Event Report: Seven Trends From This Year’s Human Resources Technology Conference 2013 (#HRTechConf)
• Tuesday’s Tip: Understand The Five Generation Of Digital Workers
• Monday’s Musings: Who Gets To Be A Chief Digital Officer?
• News Analysis: New #IBMWatson Business Group Heralds The Commercialization Of Cognitive Computing. Ready For Augmented Humanity?
• Monday’s Musings: Insights From GE’s Global Innovation Barometer Show Executives Need To Be Disruption Ready
• Tuesday’s Tip: Five Steps To Starting Your Digital Transformation Initiative
• Monday’s Musings: What Organizations Want From Mobile
• Research Summary: Economic Trends Exacerbate Digital Business Disruption And Digital Transformation (The Futurist Framework Part 3)
• Research Summary: Five Societal Shifts Showcase The Digital Divide Ahead (The Futurist Framework Part 2)
• Research Summary: Sneak Peaks From Constellation’s Futurist Framework And 2014 Outlook On Digital Disruption
• Research Report: Digital ARTISANs – The Seven Building Blocks Behind Building A Digital Business DNA
• Research Summary: Five Societal Shifts Showcase The Digital Divide Ahead (The Futurist Framework Part 2)
• Research Summary: Next Generation CIOs Aspire To Focus More On Innovation And The Chief Digital Officer Role
• Trends: [VIDEO] The Digital Business Disruption Ahead Preview – NASSCOM India Leadership Forum (#NASSCOM_ILF)
• Monday’s Musings: The Chief Digital Officer In The Age Of Digital Business
• Slide Share: The CMO vs CIO – Pathways To Collaboration
• Event Report: Metaio’s #InsideAR Conference Hails The Future Of An Always On, Always Augmented Reality
• Event Report: CRM Evolution 2013 – Seven Trends In The Return To Digital Business And Customer Centricity
• Research Summary And Speaker Notes: The Identity Manifesto – Why Identity Is At The Heart of Digital Business
• Trends: Seven Priorities In The Shift From CMO to Chief Digital Officer
• Monday’s Musings: Understand The Four Organizational Personas Of Disruptive Tech Adoption
• Monday’s Musings: Balancing The Six S’s In Consumerization Of IT
• Monday’s Musings: A Working Vendor Landscape For Social Business
• Research Summary: Software Insider’s Top 25 Posts For 2010
• Monday’s Musings: 10 Essential Elements For Social Enterprise Apps

The post Event Report: Glassdoor Employer Branding Summit appeared first on A Software Insider's Point of View.

Why HR Pros Attend Connected Enterprise

By now you know Constellation's Connected Enterprise is the Innovation Summit for the Enterprise. You know that as an attendee, you will learn how the brightest minds in the enterprise are using disruptive technology. You know you will learn how to instill a culture of innovation in your organization.

You already know the big picture. Now you want to know how attending Connected Enterprise will benefit you as an HR professional.

HR Professionals benefit from Connected Enterprise's Future of Work programming 

The Future of Work sessions analyze the confluence of technological, demographic, and cultural trends challenging the traditional work paradigm. Where we work, when we work, how we work, what we work on, and why we work have dramatically changed.  The Future of Work is Collaborative, Social, Mobile, and Remote. Is your organization ready for this shift? Will you be prepared to inspire five generations of workers to reach their full potential?

Connected Enterprise's Future of Work sessions will teach you how to harness the power of these paradigm shifts to create an engaged, empowered and efficient workforce. 

Future of Work sessions:

• Executive Exchange: Digital Proficiency - What are the Implications of 5 generations of digital workers not by age?
• Visionaries: Which comes first - digital business transformation or globalization?
• Executive Exchange: Industry Spotlight.  How does the public sector benefit from Digital Business Disruption?

 Future of Work Visionaries Panel from Connected Enterprise '13

Register soon--early bird pricing ends September 30!

Progress Report - The mainframe is alive and kicking - but there is more in IBM STG

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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I had the opportunity to attend the yearly STG (System & Technology Group) analyst meeting in Greenwich earlier this week. STG is the 4th division in Steve Mills responsibility area of IBM – which by itself is larger than many of the large players in the information technology industry (the other 3 are Cloud and Solutions, Database Solutions and of course Watson).
 

The event was well attended with over 80 analysts and IBM did their usual great job of the mix of general sessions, group sessions, and 1 to 1s. 

Here are my three top takeaways from the event:

• The mainframe is alive and kicking. Often pronounced dead the first computing architecture is doing well, better than I personally thought – even though the mainframe in 2014 is no longer what the Zuses or ENIACs used to be. Substantial load runs on today’s mainframes, 92 of the top 100 banks, 22 of the top 25 US retailers, 10 of the 10 largest insurances on the planet and 23 of the 25 largest airlines are substantial enterprise load. Indeed it was mentioned it is unlikely that the average USA inhabitant touches a mainframe powered product in form of an application or other artifact (e.g. letter, invoice etc.) more than 3 times per day.
  
  Interesting was also that mobile applications are a substantial driver for mainframe growth - the use cases being the above mentioned industries. There is compelling reasons to power your next generation applications via the mainframe – because data and processes are there.
  
  Even more interesting, IBM shared an internal TCO study, bench marking the cost of virtualizing server load on the mainframe – and it was significantly cheaper than on a well know public cloud. Certainly we want to learn more about that study – hopefully soon. 

 

How Mobile Demand creates Mainframe Load

• We were treated by an insight of how IBM’s research arm, that supports the enterprise's products, delivered by Head of R&D John Kelly. And while IBM has a great track record of basic research, much of today’s world's products run on the base of IBM inventions, it was interesting to see how Kelly showed examples how basic research fuels and innovates IBM business. From the Watson group, Project Lucy, BlueMix, the New York Genome Center, R&D is always involved and contributes to these key initiatives.
  
  This is great to see – but I would love to have a conversation with Kelly how IBM makes sure more of it basic research really comes through in monetized products – a challenge for all innovation and R&D centers.
  
  To pick one area of the five top R&R directions, labelled ‘Silicone to Extreme’ – it was fascinating to listen to imminent advancements of 3D chip stacking and silicon nano photonics.  

Silicon to the Extreme Slide

• Hybrid Cloud and Software defined Loads – The hybrid cloud theme could not be missing, and STG has a stake in the game with its storage products. The rise of the software defined data center has also arrive in the IBM product palette, and Jamie Thomas presented advancements in software the space. A lot of that storage is more and more on SSD, an area where IBM showed solid arguments to convince CIOs to move to this new storage medium.
  
  And of course IBM is good at honing the hybrid cloud message. With software defined loads on premise – compute, storage can float between on premise and public cloud resources, with Softlayer being part of the public cloud infrastructure.

Hybrid Cloud - where Software defined Storage plays

 

MyPOV