Event Report - CeridianINSIGHTS 2014 - Ceridian innovates and adds key functionality

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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And here are my top 3 takeaways from the event

• Ceridian delivers – It is always good to see when vendors deliver. When Ceridian laid down its ambitious product roadmap back at their analyst event in Boston in March of this year – many colleagues (and myself, too) were worried if the company could deliver. To give credit to the product team, they indeed did – there was a lot of innovation – a new user interface, performance management and a document solution to name some key ones. 

The new Ceridian User Interface (UI)

• The new user interface is certainly the most impactful. As all new user interfaces (UI) it is built in HTML5 – and with that struggles with information density. This becomes especially noticeable given the extreme richness of the previous Dayforce UI, which was built on Microsoft Silverlight. But Ceridian starts with Employee Self Service (ESS) and there information density it less of a concern. To give Ceridian credit, given Dayforce’s Workforce Management (WFM) roots, the new UI has a calendar and is ready for time entry. These are done well, but it remains to be seen how Ceridian can address more functional richer user interface requirements for Manager Self Service (MSS) and for professional users, like HR managers who work with the Dayforce product day in and day out. It is only fair to note that this is not a Ceridian specific challenge, but an overall HTML5 challenge the enterprise software industry struggles with. 
  
   

  
  

  My biggest concern around the user interface is that it may not be enough forward looking. Ideally vendors don’t want users to go through user interface revisions more often than every 3-4 years. For that the interface needs to ‘work’ but also have enough elements to not make it look ‘stale’ in a year or so. To be fair to Ceridian, the new user interface paradigm keeps known elements (like the top menu bar), which will help user adoption. Difficult tradeoffs but I’d like to see vendors in general err on the side of future. And Ceridian is not fully done with the user interaction – so will be good to see how the user interface evolves. Finally – the user interface was one of Ceridian’s biggest weak spots as mentioned earlier, so credit goes for addressing this right on.
  
  The Performance Management module is done well and competitive from the start. Multidimensional goals are nicely presented and intuitive to be used. With the existing (and remarkably popular Recruiting) module, Ceridian now has the key Talent Management pieces in play, and a roadmap till 2016 to build out the less important other Talent Management functionalities) (read more here).
  
  The new Documents functionality addresses one of the challenges that HR departments (and enterprises) have – the appropriate storage and sharing of personal employee documents. I’d say a lot of HR professionals are travelling home from Las Vegas with a good solution to a key problem in their department and enterprise. 

The new Ceridian BI / Dashboarding Product

• Ceridian does the hard stuff – What became clear to me at the conference is that Ceridian is one of the few vendors that do all the ‘hard’ stuff. And with that I mean Payroll and Workforce Management. These functional areas by themselves are challenging to build, but they get much harder due to ever changing legal and statutory changes. Add labor laws and union contracts to the picture and things are very complex, or hard. With that Ceridian provides a lot of peace of mind to its users, but needs to articulate more how the mastering of the hard topics helps enterprises to become more effective and competitive. Ceridian could answer questions like how a shift composition affects product or service quality and with that customer satisfaction. Or dynamically change shifts based on better customer fit in customer facing teams. Or many of the scenarios I have described earlier here and here on what could be done with the paycheck. 

The Global Roadmap

• Global Focus – It is good to see that Ceridian keeps pushing the global aspect of modern HCM solutions, as our research shows, globalization is a trend that only gets stronger. Making sure the people aspect of a globalization strategy is taken care of is key. And while the people aspect always mattes in any strategy execution – it is vital in terms of speed to action for a globalization strategy. Today Ceridian can pay in over 60 countries – beyond the traditional markets in Canada, USA and UK. It is step wise bringing these localizations in the Dayforce user interface, making visibility and access easier. Currently Ceridian has about half a dozen countries visible in Dayforce – moving to a teenage number in 2015. 

MyPOV

It is good to see how well Ceridian delivers to the roadmap it has published. It is key in order to overcome traditional Ceridian delivery issues under previous regimes – and to build the trust in the customer base that the rest of the (long) roadmap – till 2016 – will be delivered in time. Enterprise software is the business of trust and vendors earn that by delivering working software at the communicated dates.

Overall I would like to see Ceridian be more aggressive in both messaging / vision and technology strategy. Innovations like the new Documents module are valuable and powerful – but are again more operational (like Payroll and Workforce Management) than strategic, moving the needle for the enterprise using Ceridian. On the technology side the company makes solid, but conservative decisions. I mentioned the new User Interface earlier, the same approach is also seen in the area of Business Intelligence, which is a valuable, but implemented in a traditional (or conservative) technology approach. To be fair – both examples are first steps, a lot can follow and you can rest assured we will be watching closely.

In the meantime the Ceridian product offering is attractive for any enterprise looking for an integrated HCM system comprising HR Core, Payroll, Workforce Management and key Talent Management functionalities. With the addition of ACA needed automation and the existing LifeWorks product and the global capabilities – Ceridian is certainly a vendor to consider in buying decisions.


Also on Ceridian

• First Take - Ceridian INSIGHTS Day 1 Keynote - Top 3 Takeaways - read here
• Progress Report - Ceridian makes a lot of progress - but the road(map) is long - read here
• Ceridian transforming itself and with that the game – read here

And unrelated to Ceridian - but how important payroll can be for HCM innovation:

• Could the paycheck reinvent HCM - yes it can - read here
• And suddenly... payroll matters again - read here

 

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Retrospective - 2012 SuperNova Award Winner - ARI using SAP HANA

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 are taking a look at previous SuperNova winners, in advance of the 2014 SuperNova competition. The SuperNova awards are unique in the industry as they focus on how leaders and their teams overcame the odds and resistance to implement modern technologies in their respective enterprises. 

What is remarkable in my view is, that under the leadership of then SVP & CIO Stephen Haindl adopted the SAP HANA database very early - at a point when there were less than 100 customers using HANA. And implementing technology early is one thing, using it to transform the way how business is done is the key. And the team at ARI did that, by providing insights to executives on a faster, scalable way. E.g. reports that would take over 24 hours to run and would even often time out - are now available in minutes. If you want to read more about ARI using HANA - you can find the award post here.

Know an innovative technology adoption story? 

 

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Act-On’s New Platform Capabilities Give Marketers More Flexibility, Power, Control and Enhanced Usability

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

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

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Act-on Software provides marketing automation for small and mid-sized businesses. Their latest platform enhancements are designed to empower marketers to customize individual user experiences as well as reports for marketers based on unique business processes. Act-On focused its product innovations on feature sets they found to be most vital to its customers’ needs, i.e., simplifying the user experience through customization capabilities, while making the system more intuitive with personalization and dynamic reporting.  This means that marketers can have more flexibility and while still having control.

When I talk to clients, more and more of them are adopting marketing automation. The new features Act-on is providing are based on customer influence as well as market needs. This is because is Act-On paying close attention to the “whole customer experience” to ensure that Act-on’s clients realize the business success from marketing automation and remain delighted throughout the customer lifecycle.

Act-on’s New Marketing Automation Capabilities Include:

• Funnel Reports - Marketers can better define the stages of their marketing and sales processes and measure the results of their efforts through those stages. Unlike static, traditional reports that provide results for a given period of time, Act-On’s Funnel Reports take continuous snapshots of information in order to measure the overall flow and velocity of leads, track prospects through important conversion points, and compare results across different time periods. These reports can utilize data from multiple sources, including the Act-On Marketing Automation Platform (MAP), CRM systems and other external sources of data.
• Customizable UI & Dashboard - The new dashboard enables users to better manage their marketing assets by organizing them into groups, selecting favorites, and quickly accessing most needed items. They can also configure their dashboards into an instrument panel that gives them an immediate view of their favorite campaigns or performance reports.
• Responsive Design Content Management Editor - Act-On’s new content editor allows marketers to create content that is both responsive and adaptive, rendering properly on any device type. The drag-and-drop editor enables marketers to create attractive campaigns without needing to know HTML or CSS (cascading style sheets).
• New Integration Architecture with Expanded Integrations - A new integration layer provides native integration with all major CRMs, including MS Dynamics, Sugar, NetSuite and SalesForce.com. These high performance integrations give users the flexibility to switch CRM systems without losing any marketing automation functionality.
• Google Chrome plug – Act-On also adds a new Google Chrome plug-in to its growing list of email connectors, enabling users to send email through their corporate email systems like Gmail, Google Apps, and Microsoft Outlook, while using Act-On’s email design templates, personalization and message tracking.

Some Thoughts from Act-on Clients

“We’ve been working with Act-On because it’s the most user-friendly, easiest to implement, and fastest to start up of the marketing automation platforms we’ve used,” said Brandon Larocque, Managing Partner at Access Marketing Company.  “With Act-On Funnel Reports, our agency now has the ability to create a view into the most important output of our marketing automation service — customer movement through the funnel from top to bottom. The new reporting feature unifies marketing performance data from Act-On and our CRM, and allows us to show our clients how marketing is contributing to their bottom line.”

“The Act-On Funnel Reports have opened up a whole new avenue of measurement and analysis,” said John Stalnaker, Marketing Manager at Extensis. “The new reports provide incredible insight into our various marketing channels. We know which channels produce the most leads, opportunities, and revenue — it’s a great alternative to ‘last touch’ campaign tracking that we report through CRM. Because Act-On is our marketing database of record, only Act-On knows all the channels a prospect touches. I can’t get this kind of report out of CRM alone.”

So if you are a small to midsize business, the importance of automating your marketing has never been more important than ever. And what’s great is that marketing automation, which was once only available to larger enterprises is now available to smaller companies. With the ability to scale marketing activities, small companies have the opportunity of a lifetime to grow very quickly, like never before.  And that’s the way I see it.

@drnatalie

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The Executive Innovation Conference | October 29th-31st 

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 How to work with Dr. Natalie — VP & Principal Analyst | Constellation Research, Inc.

 

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How to Make the Case for the Digital CXO Webinar

•    Common CDO responsibilities
• How to tailor the CDO role to your organization's unique needs
• How to effectively make the case for the CDO
• Live Q&A with R "Ray" Wang

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The “Desktop” Of The Future

X1

Barry Murphy is the Senior Vice President of Product Marketing and Strategy at X1.  In this role, Barry leads X1's product marketing function, aligning X1's offerings to market needs for search and information access, eDiscovery, cloud and virtual search, and social discovery. Barry joins X1 from eDJ Group, where he was an analyst and thought leader in information governance, eDiscovery, records management, and content archiving. Previously, Barry was Director of Product Marketing at Mimosa Systems, a leading content archiving and eDiscovery software provider. He joined Mimosa after a highly successful stint as Principal Analyst for eDiscovery, records management, and content archiving at Forrester Research. Barry received a B.S. from the State University of New York at…...

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1

In talking with a business acquaintance recently, a question came up about the future of desktop search:  what happens when the desktop is no longer the interface of choice for business professionals?  It’s a great question, and one I clearly have a vested interest in given X1’s status as the leading desktop search engine.  The reality is that today’s workers access their information from a variety of interfaces across many devices.  What we need to do is think of the desktop less in a literal sense and more in terms of being a user interface for information.

Since the dawn of the PC, the desktop has been the user interface for most business professionals to access information and do their jobs.  The future of that desktop no longer lies in accessing it on a PC, or even a laptop or mobile device.  Given the speed of innovation, it is useless to try and forecast what the “desktop” will look like beyond a five-year timeframe.  Already, there are stories emerging about the desktop being built into things like tabletop coffee tables.  It is absolutely fun and inspiring to see developments like this and to know we are making forward progress in the tech world.  At the same time, we need to make sure that information – which will be stored in a variety of locations, too – is accessible to the business professional no matter what the desktop looks like in the future.

That is why X1’s Search 8, Virtual Edition is so exciting.  The flagship product, Search 8, represents years of experience providing a beloved user interface to a business profession’s most critical information – email, files, SharePoint, etc.  When the product first came out nearly a decade ago, most of that information was stored locally.  Thus, a local index could live on the desktop and X1 could provide fast-as-you-type search results and filtering on that local index.  Given the evolution of the desktop and the variety of devices accessing that desktop, a local index is not always a possibility.  That’s where Search 8, Virtual Edition comes in.  The client interface is decoupled from the index, which can live anywhere (typically off on a server farm).

This allows IT teams that have invested in desktop virtualization (VDI) to turn off Windows indexing (necessary to save virtual resources) and still provide business professionals the ability to find their information.  Desktop virtualization enables many of the things that businesses value highly – especially security and mobility – and comes in its own variety of flavors.  VDI can be either on-premise and through the Cloud, as Desktop-as-a-service (DaaS).  Increasingly, DaaS offerings such as Amazon Workspaces are becoming more enterprise ready and promise to deliver desktops in a “whenever, wherever” fashion (and, as I’ve posted about before, a good search experience will be crucial to getting the most out of DaaS).

That Search 8, Virtual Edition helps enable and optimal experience with desktop virtualization and DaaS is a great thing, but the value does not stop there.  The same concept – allowing the index to be decoupled from the client interface – will enable great search experiences for mobile, which is the next big stomping ground for enterprise IT.  And, X1 is the only search vendor providing this capability.  We know that the concept of the desktop could live anywhere.  And, our customers want to be able to use X1 Search 8 even if they are unable to have a local index on their machine or device.

The term “desktop search” is already out there and meaningful to many people, so it’s not about changing what we call this market.  Rather, it’s about changing the mindset – realizing that the desktop is not just the screen on your PC, but rather the gateway to all of your important information needed to do your job.

 

 

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

Personal Log: Upgrade Time! Inside The New Software Insider Blog V4

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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Unveiling The New Software Insider Blog

As many of you know, the old blog was just old.  Dubbed as “The Ugliest Tech Blog In The World”, I hoped that good content would make up for the lack of design sense, functionality, and well, very old WordPress template (See Figure 1).   The good news, most of you just took the RSS feed, retweeted the links, and avoided telling me how dated the site was.  I did find out who my real friends were when they pulled me aside to say, “Ray, it’s time for a blog refresh!” Your real friends are the ones who tell you the unvarnished truth, especially in passive aggressive Silicon Valley.

Figure 1. The Software Insider Blog From July 13th, 2014

Blog Refreshes Provide Opportunities To Refresh The Brand Promise

In building the new blog, I took a step back to think about  the design challenges and opportunities.  It had been quite some time since I had looked at the blog.  At first, the goal was to modernize the experience.  After looking at over 100 other influencer sites, I realized that I had to answer a few questions on my own:

• How would I not only keep my brand promise but also improve on it?
• How could I improve the overall visitor experience?
• How do you simplify content delivery. Could I filter and present massive amounts of content in a pleasing way?
• What were the top visited content of visitors? Were there any key patterns? How could I improve the experience?
• What new visual techniques and technologies should I adopt?

The result was a new blog that addressed the design challenges in a unique manner (See Figure 2).

Figure 2. The New Software Insider V4 Blog

Keeping The Brand Promise In A Digital World

Form does follow function in the new blog.  Here are design elements used to address the challenges of the previous blog

Flickr slide show

This captures the latest images from the Flickr stream. It’s tagged and the first 20 images rotate through as well as a few billboards that can be added.  The rich images reinforce the brand of extreme engagement, unique events, global coverage, and breathtaking experiences.

Curated tabs

The goal was to take the top content requested and make it easy to access. The top categories searched included Posts, MyPOV (Twitter Stream), Trending, Monday’s Musings, News Analysis, Event Reports, and Disrupting Digital.  Those were quickly made into tabs that visitors could quickly filter against.

Content tiles

The tiles visually present information and enable social actions.  While they take a bit longer to load, the tiles bring the content to life.  This does require better images with each post, but tiles with images tend to receive four times more click through.

Featured reports

Featured reports drive interest in the overall coverage areas of Constellation Research. The reports also reflect important content viewers may want to go deep into.

Rotating quotes

The quotes highlight key sound bites over the years.  They also provide an easy place to reference quotes that are often “stolen” without attribution.  This is a common occurrence in the valley.

Responsive design and mobile

The site traditionally sucked on mobile.   Now with a responsive design, the design point should go from the smallest iPhone to the largest screens.

Disqus implementation

While comments have gone down in general in all blogs, I felt it was important to standardize on a commenting platform that would make it convenient for power commentators.  I truly value the dialog in the comments of my most loyal visitors.

Videos page

With over 50 paid keynotes and speaking engagements a year, visitors often sough videos or interviews.  The dedicated video page addresses the need to cover this important medium.

Ideas page

Arguably the heart of the blog, the ideas bring together the concepts that drive my research.  The objective was to distill the top ideas and concepts in each of the key business themes.

Bottom Line: Take The Time To Refresh Your Blog Often, Don’t Wait Too Long

When you start your own company and attempt to write a business book, there’s really no time to sit back and think.  Yet, the blog is so critical to your personal brand.  A refresh to the blog should reflect the design point for a refresh on your personal brand.  Neglecting the blog for over five years is two years too long.  As I enter a new chapter in my journey of life, I hope this blog reflects the refreshed brand.  While I haven’t lost business, I have learned to improve how often I update my blog as it will improve business in general.

More importantly, I want to thank you, the visitors and readers for all your loyal support over the past fourteen years.  You’ve put up with the design despite the content. I hope now the design matches the quality of the content and the personal brand.

Your POV.

What do you think of the new blog? Anything else you’d improve?  Thanks in advance for your feedback. Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

The post Personal Log: Upgrade Time! Inside The New Software Insider Blog V4 appeared first on A Software Insider's Point of View.

 

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First Take - Ceridian INSIGHTS Day 1 Keynote - Top 3 Takeaways

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 Ceridian INSIGHTS conference in Las Vegas, held at the Bellagio hotel. The conference is seeing record attendance with over 1500 participants. 
 

Overall the keynote showed that Ceridian delivers on what it says it will deliver, in this case we had the insight into the product plans from the earlier analyst meetings this year – and the team around Ossip delivered what they previewed back then in March. Overall the largest impact for Dayforce customers will be the new Employee Self Service user interfaces, which looks modern and easy to use. 

Ceridian new ESS User Interface Screenshot from keynote.

Here are my other top takeaways from the Day 1 keynote:

• Ceridian continues to complete Talent Management - Ceridian keeps completing its Talent Management roadmap with Succession Management being the last member of the Talent Management family coming in 2016. In the meantime I see the offering being pretty competitive with good and solid Recruiting and Performance Management capabilities.

Ceridian Talent Management Roadmap. Screenshot from keynote.

• Payroll Innovation - Ceridian does not forget about its roots and one of the few innovations in Payroll has been to move away from large schedules Payroll runs, but to ad hoc, single employee centric payroll runs. These are key both for employees and managers to see work’s direct impact on the take home pay of an employees. Ossip showed that with an employee being scheduled for overtime and then previewing the employee’s paycheck.

Direct Payroll Impact of possible, planned overtime. Screenshot from keynote.

• Document Management – One of the dirty little secrets of day to day HR practice is that there are way too many documents with personal employee information – outside of the systems of record. And with that they are in most cases not stored, handled and accessed with the latest PII regulations. Seeing a HCM vendor like Ceridian taking care of it – with the HCM system being the system of record anyway for who can and should have access to employee information – is a very good innovative step in the industry. 

MyPOV

A very good start of the Ceridian INSIGHTS 2014 user conference. Customers and prospects are excited about the vision on one integrated HR core, Payroll, Talent Management and Workforce Management system. 

Now it is time to learn more in depth about the views of customers and prospects and to feel the pulse from the ecosystem. Stay tuned.

Also on Ceridian

• Progress Report - Ceridian makes a lot of progress - but the road(map) is long - read here
• Ceridian transforming itself and with that the game – read here

And unrelated to Ceridian - but how important payroll can be for HCM innovation:

• Could the paycheck reinvent HCM - yes it can - read here
• And suddenly... payroll matters again - read here

 

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

Translation Service Broker for Translating Global Marketing Content

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

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

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If you run a global company and are wondering how the heck do I take all my assests and may sure that they get properly translated, I want you to know (if you don’t already know) about Cloudwords. There’s lots of translation service – meaning the ones that do the actual translation. But how much time and money is your organization spending on looking and comparing translation services — comparing prices and then getting the content to them – getting it back and then being able to upload it quickly for a new marketing initiative or release? For many organizations, it can be quite an ordeal.

I recently had a briefing on Cloudwords, a new enterprise-ready solution. It’s newest feature is globalization content management capabilities so that marketers can easily orchestrate localized, multi-channel campaigns at scale from a single dashboard. With the Cloudwords capabilities marketers can, with a single strategic lens into all elements of multi-channel, multi-system, multilingual campaigns, programs and initiatives, allowing marketers to effectively plan, execute and track the localization of all marketing content required for successful global launches. By delivering a comprehensive view of all localization assets within one overarching campaign across geographies, departments, and customer touch-points, Campaign Manager helps marketers optimize efficiencies and maximize global returns for their organizations.

How Does a Broker For Content Translation Services Affect the Bottom-line?

To get to that answer quickly – here’s the scoop: Cloudwords, by enabling marketers to wholly execute global campaigns more efficiently and in multiple languages concurrently, Campaign Manager increases productivity, decreases risks of project delays, and speeds time to market internationally.

For maximum engagement and revenue impact, marketers are developing personalized marketing experiences to better target their audiences. To engage consumers in global markets, content must also be localized in the audience’s native language and be culturally relevant for the region. Marketers at enterprise organizations are challenged to localize all campaign content efficiently and effectively across communication channels and internal silos to fully take advantage of global revenue opportunities for their companies. With Cloudwords’ cloud-based Campaign Manager, global marketers are able to strategically manage the entire localization process of all assets and channels concurrently across all departments and regions, and quickly view the information needed in one snapshot to ensure projects are progressing on time and on budget.

What Does This Matter to the CMO?

More CEO’s Are Holding Their CMO’s to Deliver Real Top-Bottomline Results

“Marketers are on the frontline of revenue generation in today’s enterprise organizations. They’re increasingly responsible for generating the demand that ultimately translates into revenue, and if they’re unable to market efficiently on a global scale, they’re not capturing all of the revenue opportunities available to them,” said Scott Yancey, CEO and Co-founder of Cloudwords. “Cloudwords’ Campaign Manager was developed with the global enterprise marketer in mind. Campaign Manager is a one-of-a-kind solution that enables marketers to optimize their campaign globalization strategies to reach target audiences with localized messaging more quickly and in every market at the same time.”

As marketers, digital folks, agencies and the like probably had no idea as they entered this digital, social, online presence world that they would essentially become content producers and distributers, it seems like a service like this makes even more sense than ever. That’s true especially if you are a global brand. The ROI? Check out the costs and process, (FTEs) you are using to vet translators and the process and time it takes to get to market and compare what a vendor like this can do. Love to hear from some people that did that analysis! And that’s how I see it!

P.S. If you have a case study on this or other topics related to Marketing, Customer Experience and Customer Service, don’t forget to apply for a SuperNova Award! Click here to apply. 

@drnatalie

How to work with Dr. Natalie — VP & Principal Analyst | Constellation Research, Inc.

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Next-Generation Customer Experience Innovation & Product-led Growth AR Executive Events Chief Customer Officer

Is Your Job a Drug Addiction?

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You know the danger and risks of an addiction, but the feeling is so good or good enough you convince yourself to engage in the danger and the risk to continue taking/using the drug.

In a conversation with a good friend Rakesh Nigam this morning, we were discussing his pivot away from executive role in large enterprises, and into startups.

Rakesh left his job as a senior Managing Director at an Investment Bank earlier this year and has two entrepreneurial endeavors. He has become a Partner in a niche global consulting firm, Crossbridge whilst also pursuing his dream of a start-up; he co-founded the movie trailer app, which will help you remember the movies you want to watch, recognizing them using sound patented technology. The iOS app comes out this summer.

In discussing his role transition he shared, "The thing about an executive job in a large enterprise is that it is like a drug, it is good enough for you to do it over and over, and not bad enough for you to leave it and go start something of your own."

The reality is if the pay is good (and for many years, it was), the challenges/learnings are good, and the benefits are good it is difficult to leave a "cushy" executive job, and live the life of an entrepreneur.

This calculation cheats many brilliant professionals from the opportunity to go seek their dreams. The calculation sounds like this:
 

• I am making a six-figure salary in total today

• In ten or twenty years I can make a seven-figure salary, and even if I only make that for the last five years of my career I am set

• I have expenses I need to cover, and I can't take the loss of income for more than two years

• Plus I go in when I want, I leave when I want, and I am heavily employable

• Oh, and over 2/3 of startups fail

• Let me help ...

I am making a six-figure salary in total today - while many times your first startup fails, the second and third startup is where the value is. Your six-figure salary pales in comparison to the hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions (recently) that you can make. The trick is to keep doing the startups; the learning from one to another increases the likelihood that you succeed eventually.

In ten or twenty years I can make a seven-figure salary, and even if I only make that for the last five years of my career I am set - this could not be more of a myth. Most of the "Managing Directors" or "Global Vice Presidents" of companies never really make millions. The reason they are wealthy, is because they invest those high six-figure salaries well. The amount of executives that make seven-figured salaries is a very low percentage; I believe a lower percentage of executives get to seven-figures than the percentage of entrepreneurs that succeed.

I have expenses I need to cover, and I can't take the loss of income for more than two years - the assumption is that when you leave the cushy executive job, and you start a company you earn zero on day one. This is not the case; many folks still consult, speak, write and find "transient" sources of income until the startup begins to drive margins. In addition, you should start your company before you quit, this shortens your runway between quitting and being funded so you can draw a salary!

Plus I go in when I want, I leave when I want, and I am heavily employable - this is the most poignant part of the addiction. There is tremendous freedom in startups. More importantly, no one is ever that employable. You can always find work, but the bet that you can always find good work is as good as betting that you are special and will not get lung cancer from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

Oh, and over 2/3 of startups fail - not completely true, a large amount of startups that consist of folks who have never successfully started a company fail. Buy once you have partners that have BTDT "Been There & Done That" the probability of failure gets lower and lower. If you surround yourself with a management team, board of advisors and board of directors that have BTDT you may find that you have a much higher likelihood of success than you think!

So the question is, are you staying with that job because it is a good decision, or are you addicted to it?

I write as a labor of love, in exchange I ask that you share this writing if you think others may find value.

 

Data to Decisions Future of Work Matrix Commerce New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Innovation & Product-led Growth Chief Customer Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer

Work Design For All of Us: Knowledge to do the Work

Terri Griffith

Professor/Author/Speaker
Simon Fraser University

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

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If more work is being done with fewer jobs (I’ll review one source for this claim, The Second Machine Age, soon), the remaining jobs, and work in general, must be being done differently. What are the levers we can pull as we do this redesign? Who should be doing this redesign? These are the questions that everyone, from CEO to the newest freelancer, are -- or need to be -- grappling with.

Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth Chief Executive Officer