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DisrupTV: Building Human Connection in a Digital World

DisrupTV: Building Human Connection in a Digital World

“In this very digital world, the greatest disruptor is the human emotion.” While modern technology can enable advanced forms of interpersonal interaction, it must be used thoughtfully to produce meaningful results.

On episode 159 of DisrupTV, our hosts Vala Afshar and R “Ray” Wang interviewed Melanie Katzman Ph.D., Author of CONNECT FIRST: 52 Simple Ways to Ignite Success, Meaning, and Joy at Work; Les Ottolenghi, EVP & CIO at Caesars Entertainment; and Brian Fanzo, Speaker & Change Evangelist. Here are a few quick takeaways from the episode:

Connect with Colleagues to Enhance Worker Productivity

Whether technology is a helper or a hindrance for workplace communication all depends on how it is used. In her new book, CONNECT FIRST, author Melanie Katzman Ph.D. emphasizes the importance of establishing meaningful connections with your coworkers and business partners. Technology can certainly assist on this front by bringing people together from all over the world; unfortunately, as more people rely on computers to communicate, they can forget to form those fundamental human-level bonds with their associates.

Melanie’s book is grounded in the idea that maintaining human connection is essential to create meaning and joy at work. If you can create a meaningful experience for your employees, the spillover benefits will be immense: people will come to work engaged and motivated to do more for the organization. Conversely, Melanie warns that disengaged employees don’t produce at the level that they could. For those seeking to create a more connected workplace, Melanie’s book has several helpful tips to read up on.

IT Development is All About Finding and Solving Business Problems

Some big changes are occurring in sin city. Les Ottolenghi has led Caesars Entertainment down the path of digital transformation by overseeing the creation of a modernized IT infrastructure and software suite for all their properties, which has allowed Caesars to implement an entirely new customer engagement model. This massive transformation initiative epitomizes the process of establishing business goals first and using technology to reach the desired outcome.

In Caesars’s case, the underlying goal of their investments was to deliver a superb and innovative customer experience. To achieve this, they first needed to reach a deeper understanding of their customers’ individual needs. Using advanced data collection and analytics technologies, they have been able to determine consumer preferences for entertainment and subsequently create the standout customer experience that they had been striving for.

Les is one of the newest members of Constellation’s BT150. Each year, Constellation Research recognizes innovative executives who are leading business transformation efforts and making an impact within their industries.

Create Content Strategically to Build Trust

As brands realize the importance of creating content to engage with their customers, Brian Fanzo says that the key to connecting with modern audiences is developing trust. Companies need to be strategic with the content they choose to produce, focusing specifically on building and scaling trust. Brian says that podcasting has emerged as the most intimate medium for digital content. Almost like reading a book, people can listen to others’ stories while applying their own vision to what they are hearing. Being able to foster this kind of personal connection to the organization’s content can make a huge difference when attempting to reach diverse audiences.

While businesses face complex macro problems, concern for technology should never supplant concern for the individual. Thoughtfully forming connections with people is a good practice that won’t go out of fashion.

This is just a small glimpse at the great insight shared during the show. Please check out the full discussions in the video replay here or the podcast.

DisrupTV Episode 159, Featuring Les Ottolenghi, Melanie Katzman, Brian Fanzo from Constellation Research on Vimeo.

DisrupTV is a weekly Web series with hosts R “Ray” Wang and Vala Afshar. The show airs live at 11:00 a.m. PT/ 2:00 p.m. ET every Friday.

Innovation & Product-led Growth DisrupTV Leadership

Patient IDs: safety in numbers

Patient IDs: safety in numbers

Steve Wilson
Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Steve Wilson is former VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, leading the business theme Digital Safety and Privacy. His coverage includes digital identity, data protection, data privacy, cryptography, and trust. His advisory services to CIOs, CISOs, CPOs and IT architects include identity product strategy, security practice benchmarking, Privacy by Design (PbD), privacy engineering and Privacy [or Data Protection] Impact Assessments (PIA, DPIA). Coverage Areas: -  Identity management, frameworks & governance-  Digital identity technologies-  Privacy by Design -  Big Data; “Big Privacy”-  Identity & privacy innovation Previous experience: Wilson has worked in ICT innovation, research, development and analysis for over 25 years. With double…...

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The state of healthcare is often compared with banking. For 20 years we've had Internet banking; for ten years mobile banking. Why can't we access our health records and prescriptions just as seamlessly using digital technology?  It's a great question but as we embrace mobile and electronic health, let's not forget the basics. 

If I go to an Australian general practitioner, I might like her to upload a copy of my medical event summary to the national My Health Record (MyHR). To make this happen, the practice needs to know my Individual Health Identifier (IHI), the national index number for MyHR.  But I don't carry my IHI; it's an administrative number alloacted to all Australians, and is made available from a Dept of Health server. The way MyHR works is that I need to provide proof of identity to the GP's front desk so they can retrieve the IHI. They will typically need my full name with middle name, my Medicare card number, and date of birth, which are transmitted to an identity matching server in Canberra, which tries to find my IHI. Matching accuracy is a bone of contention with the government and reports vary, but some claim it's only around fifty percent. Sometimes it's possible to disambiguate multiple matches with additional data like postal code or residential address. 

Suppose I visit a department store to buy a three thousand dollar TV set. I'll dip my credit card into the merchant terminal and enter my PIN. That unlocks the chip, which then mutually authenticates itself with the terminal, and subsequently digitally signs the trasaction details, to prove it's really me in possession of the account, and that the card is genuine.  It all happens in a second. Secure, accurate, private, fast and universally familiar.

Heaven forbid retail payments was like healthcare. I wouldn't have a clue what my account number was, it wouldn't be written down anywhere, but instead the merchant would ask me for my full name, date of birth and so on, and would try to run these against a database to locate my account. The matching wouldn't always work so the clerk might ask me if I have other proof of ID. I'd probably find myself taking my passport with me whenever I go shopping.  Every transaction would involve extraneous and invasive personal information.  The system would be open to rampant fraud.  

If we really want to bring ehealth up to contemporary digital UX standards, then let's start with identity and privacy. Let's put healthcare IDs and entitlements into chip cards and mobile phone secure elements, with the same technical care as we apply to payment card numbers.  Let's empower patients to hold their IHI and Medicare details safely in personal cards and mobiles, so they can present them directly and privately, peer-to-peer at healthcare services. 

Australian readers might notice that we are half way there already in this country, with the "HICAPS" point of sale system.  Private health insurance details are presented by swiping one's membership card at the POS terminal at most private hospitals, dentists and allied health facilities, and rebates are applied automatically on the spot. Why aren't we reading the Medicare card in the same way, and presenting the IHI automatically, along with all the other human services IDs and entitlements? 

My thanks to Dr Tony Sara, Medical Adviser in the South East Sydney Local Health District (NSW Health) for a deep conversation about health sector identification at the HIMSS Asia Pacific networking event, Aug 29, and to Sukhjit Singh, HIMSS Community Engagement Manager for making the introductions. 

 

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

Constellation ShortList Portfolio Final Updates for Q3 2019

Constellation ShortList Portfolio Final Updates for Q3 2019

Aubrey Coggins
Aubrey Coggins

Constellation Research

Aubrey (Levinstone) Coggins manages Constellation's marketing and communications programs and is the producer of DisrupTV, a weekly Web series on innovation and the enterprise.  She previously served as a senior manager of corporate communications at Egnyte and held account roles at Access Communications and The Hoffman Agency. Born and raised in Texas, she received a bachelor's degree in Public Relations from The University of Texas at Austin – Hook ‘em!   ...

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Today, we launched the final set of updates to our Constellation ShortList portfolio, including 25 new and updated lists. The full set will be reviewed and updated again in Q1 2020.

Check out the update:

This portfolio highlights the key players when considering investments across all of our coverage areas, including digital asset management, healthcare, DevOps, RPA, marketing, customer experience, analytics, quantum computing and more. Each offering meets the threshold criteria as determined by our analysts through client inquiries, partner conversations, customer references, vendor selection projects, market share and internal research. These reports are part of Constellation’s open research library and are free to download.

For more information, visit https://www.constellationr.com/shortlist.

 

Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Future of Work Marketing Transformation Matrix Commerce New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization 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 Revenue Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer

Creating the Modern Digital Workplace and Employee Experience

Creating the Modern Digital Workplace and Employee Experience

Dion Hinchcliffe
Dion Hinchcliffe
Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Title: About Dion Hinchcliffe Dion Hinchcliffe is an internationally recognized business strategist, bestselling author, enterprise architect, industry analyst, and noted keynote speaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in digital strategy, the future of work, and enterprise IT. He works with the leadership teams of large enterprises as well as software vendors to raise the bar for the art-of-the-possible in their digital capabilities. He is currently Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. Dion is also currently an executive fellow at the Tuck School of Business Center for Digital Strategies. He is a globally recognized industry expert on the topics of digital transformation, digital workplace, enterprise collaboration, API…...

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How should we design the modern employee experience? Some form of this query is perhaps the leading question I get today from IT and HR teams as they grapple with the sweeping forces of technological and societal change happening all around us.

Many questions abound: Why isn’t tool adoption happening faster? What can I do to maximize the impact of existing technologies and investments? What is the design focus of the digital workplace today? How can I measure my employee experience? Is the intranet still relevant?  What do I do about Shadow IT? What about the super suites like Office365 and Google Suite? Are they inevitable or should we pick and choose? How do I design and integrate all of this into a more cohesive whole? Is low-code, no-code an end-user technology that I should be rolling out? Where does artificial intelligence (AI) fit into an overall digital workplace strategy? What else am I missing to stay ahead of the curve?

Modern Trends in Digital Workplace and Employee Experience

These and many other issues are top of mind in digital workplace teams this year. Such teams are a relatively new construct I’ve only seen emerging in the last half-decade or so. Created well, they can bring order to the complexity and confusion that often reigns in the overall digital employee experience today, and they tend to be found more often in larger, well-funded IT organizations. The responsibility of such groups, which in their best form are integrated into a center or network of excellence with HR and other groups, has become profound as it drives forward employee engagement with technology, improves worker effectiveness, and even contributes directly to the competitive stance of the organization as a whole.

To help digital workplace teams in IT as well as employee experience specialists in HR groups, I’ve assembled a brand new report containing what I see are the top trends coming together today that must be addressed and/or are becoming unignorable bottom-up issues in these vital domains for workers, especially knowledge workers that drive the growth in today’s global economy. 

The reality on the ground is that support groups that enable workers with technology are often simply overwhelmed and underbudgeted with a deep bench of legacy technology to manage, too many new systems, applications, and digital channels that need to be deployed, and are often well behind where they want to be to become a best-in-class organization, which has become crucial in an increasingly winner-takes-all digital operating environment.

Titled Modern Digital Workplace Trends and Emerging Practices, this just-published report aims to bring together a single view of the major issues and concerns that digital workplace and employee experience practitioners must face successfully to help their organizations thrive in the digital age. I believe this view, shown in summary in the visual above, can form a blueprint and checklist for how practitioners can not only succeed, but get ahead in their efforts today.

Modern Digital Workplace Issues and Key Topics

Here is a summary of the issues and topics addressed in this report, highlighted in red dots in the visual above:

  • Users caught between best-of-breed vs. large digital workplace suites.
  • Local tool choice trumps one-size-fits-all.
  • Design thinking and principles guide the overall realization of the digital workplace.
  • Building employee skills with just-in-time digital workplace training.
  • Employee experiences move to integrated digital workplaces.
  • Every employee is becoming a citizen developer.
  • Digital workplace hubs unite experiences.
  • Solutions are increasingly shaped by use cases and business processes.
  • Design and measurement take advantage of workplace analytics.
  • The digital workplace is extended and automated by intelligent technologies.
  • Work is more deeply digitized and coordinated. 
  • The digital workplace experience extends to more audiences.
  • Experience design drives a more effective and relevant digital workplace.
  • The employee experience is connected to the devices that drive the business.
  • Employee experiences will be guided by voice.
  • Digital transformation of the workplace gets more investment and organization.

Those using this report for their digital workplace and employee experience planning are recommended to adapt these ideas and trends to their organization. While I’ve attempted to cull the cumulative experience from dozens of digital workplace initiatives and projects that I’ve had the priveldge to lead, work on, or review, almost all strategies, concepts, and technologies must be shaped for a particular organizations’ culture, inclinations, and sensitivities.

Please contact me at [email protected] to discuss how these issues and topics can best be addressed in your organization.

New Report: Modern Digital Workplace Trends and Emerging Practices

Future of Work Tech Optimization New C-Suite adobe SuccessFactors salesforce Microsoft 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 Information Officer Chief Human Resources Officer Chief Technology Officer

DisrupTV: Establishing Sustainability as a Core Value

DisrupTV: Establishing Sustainability as a Core Value

“If we can go out and try to drive this kind of change, I think it’s possible for anyone.” Pursuing sustainability, much like digital transformation, can have its short-term risks, but there is value in being a purpose driven company for those who seek it out.

On episode 158 of DisrupTV our hosts Vala Afshar and R “Ray” Wang caught up with Tim O'Keeffe, Chief Executive Officer at Symmons Industries; and Heather Clancy, Editorial Director at GreenBiz Group, to discuss the pairing of business objectives and goals for sustainability. Here are the top 5 takeaways from the episode:

Improving Efficiency Goes Hand in Hand with Improving Sustainability:

Tim O’Keefe is pushing Symmons Industries into the future with an innovative and efficient water management solution, demonstrating that improved products can also be greener. Symmons’ breakthrough business model centers around the use of sensors and software to provide advanced insights into a building’s water management system. With their new solution they are targeting the hospitality sector and offering a vastly improved guest experience. The Symmons platform can predict problems with a building’s water system before they occur, ensuring that water at the right temperature is delivered to guests at the right time. Increased efficiency also reduces the massive amounts of water and energy wasted while guests wait for their water to get hot. Consequently, hotels save on their energy bills and can declare sustainability as an element of their brands. In the future, automation may even allow Symmons to offer a water-as-a-service business model.

Old Businesses Can be Taught New Tricks:

Only a few years ago, Symmons Industries was a traditional plumbing manufacturer. To push for innovation within the organization, Tim says it took perseverance and curiosity. When faced with hesitant stakeholders and the breakneck pace of technological change, Tim advocates “Firing bullets instead of cannon balls”. He says that Innovation is an iterative process of taking small shots, learning from the feedback, and pushing forward. Furthermore, Tim described Symmons as a purpose driven company. He was personally motivated to reimagine how water is managed and spread this vision across the entire company, inspiring a culture of change and innovation. It takes bold and visionary leadership to explore new possibilities and move the needle. Tim’s advice for others: “be comfortable being uncomfortable”.

C-suite Champions are Required to Shift Organizational Culture:

Pursuing sustainability not only requires a change in processes, but it also requires a culture shift that everyone in the organization must be bought into. Heather Clancy says that often the actions required for sustainability are basic; however, organizations need a C-suite champion to operationalize a culture of sustainability and make real change happen.

Long Term Thinking Delivers Lasting Rewards:

Smart, long term investments are necessary to survive in our rapidly changing world. To illustrate this fact, Heather detailed the redevelopment of Kearny point, a historic shipyard. The site’s developer decided to completely reimagine the location after Superstorm Sandy. With support from the public sector, they have worked to build green infrastructure, repurpose older facilities to house sustainable businesses, and encourage new jobs to move onto the site. The underlying goal of the project is to rebuild the area as a model for sustainable economic development. Although oftentimes passed up on, the opportunity to think in the long-term can help differentiate a product and extract sustained rewards. You can read up on Kearny point here: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/new-jersey-developer-charts-course-urban-resilience-historic-shipyard.

Sustainable Development Goals Should be Tied to Business Goals:

As companies reevaluate their objectives for the next 5 to 10 years, sustainable business goals could make a global impact. When organizations discuss sustainability, it should be established as a core value - not just a marketing gimmick. According to Heather, companies used to cherry pick a few peripheral initiatives that they could carry out for sustainability. In the future, when sustainability efforts have proven value, more companies may incorporate sustainability into their core business objectives.

Sustainable development, as with digital transformation, doesn’t happen overnight. These are challenging yet rewarding processes that will become more intertwined over time. Eventually, delivering excellent experiences must include delivering a sustainable future.

This is just a small glimpse at the great insight shared during the show. Please check out the full discussions in the video replay here or on the podcast.

DisrupTV Episode 158, Featuring Tim O'Keeffe and Heather Clancy from Constellation Research on Vimeo.

DisrupTV is a weekly Web series with hosts R “Ray” Wang and Vala Afshar. The show airs live at 11:00 a.m. PT/ 2:00 p.m. ET every Friday.

New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Chief Executive Officer Chief Information Officer

New Release: Week Two Q3 2019 Constellation ShortList™ Portfolio Updates

New Release: Week Two Q3 2019 Constellation ShortList™ Portfolio Updates

Aubrey Coggins
Aubrey Coggins

Constellation Research

Aubrey (Levinstone) Coggins manages Constellation's marketing and communications programs and is the producer of DisrupTV, a weekly Web series on innovation and the enterprise.  She previously served as a senior manager of corporate communications at Egnyte and held account roles at Access Communications and The Hoffman Agency. Born and raised in Texas, she received a bachelor's degree in Public Relations from The University of Texas at Austin – Hook ‘em!   ...

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As promised last week, we published an additional 24 lists from the Constellation ShortList portfolio today. 

These lists highlight the key players when considering investments across all of our coverage areas, including AI, commerce, HR, finance, marketing, customer experience, content management, planning, blockchain and more. We update the lists every six months to map to the quick changes within each market.

Today we released 24 new and updated lists:

•    Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Cloud Platforms
•    Campaign to Commerce
•    Cloud Customer Service and Contact Center Software
•    Cloud-Based BI & Analytics Platforms
•    Cloud-Based Planning Platforms
•    Compensation Management - NEW
•    Configure Price Quote (CPQ)
•    Customer Experience (CX) Services: Global
•    Digital Adoption Platforms
•    Digital Experience (DX) Integrated Platforms
•    Digital Transformation Target Platforms
•    Enterprise Cloud Finance
•    Enterprise File Sharing and Cloud Content Management 
•    Global HCM Suites
•    Global IaaS for NextGen Applications
•    Healthcare ERP
•    Healthcare IT Security
•    Hybrid- and Multi-Cloud Relational Database Management Systems RDBMS
•    PaaS Suites 
•    Price Optimization Solutions
•    Sales Productivity Solutions
•    Self-Service Advanced Analytics & Machine Learning
•    Synchronous Ledger Technology Services
•    Travel Management Platforms - NEW

Each offering meets the threshold criteria as determined by our analysts through client inquiries, partner conversations, customer references, vendor selection projects, market share and internal research. These reports are part of Constellation’s open research library and are free to download.

For more information, visit https://www.constellationr.com/shortlist.

Be sure to check back next Wednesday for the final updates for the quarter. 

 

Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization ShortList ShortList

2019 SuperNova Award Finalists Announced

2019 SuperNova Award Finalists Announced

The judges' votes are in. We are excited to announce the finalists for our ninth annual SuperNova Awards!

This year had some of the stiffest competition to date. After reviewing hundreds of submissions, we’ve narrowed it down to some of the most transformative, innovative and disruptive programs from across industries and geographies. Choosing the final winners will be a tough decision, so we need your help.

The polls open on August 19, and you'll be able to cast your votes for your favorite finalists in each category. Spread the word! Voting closes on September 13. Winners will be announced at the SuperNova Awards Gala Dinner on November 6, 2019 in Half Moon Bay, California. The dinner will take place at Constellation’s Connected Enterprise, our annual innovation summit.

Without further ado, we present…

Finalists SuperNova Award category:

 

AI and Augmented Humanity

  • Brian Banks, Global Water Challenge / Global Environment Technology Foundation
  • Professor Hwee Pink Tan, Singapore Management University (SMU) iCity Lab
  • Scott Barnwell, Nancie McCraw, Frances Ruiz, City of Asheville IT Services

Data to Decisions

  • Bobbie Goldie, Chubb
  • Daniel Goldsmith, Pearson
  • Daniel Jeavons, Royal Dutch Shell
  • David Burns, GE Aviation
  • Jennifer Austin, 3M
  • Michael Becker, RingCentral, Inc.

Data-Driven Digital Networks (DDNs) and Business Models

  • Douwe van der Heij, Syniverse Technologies
  • IBM Food Trust, IBM
  • Joan Zerkowich, AAIS
  • Mike Brusov , Cindicator
  • Vedant Sampath, Mediaocean

Digital Marketing and Sales Effectiveness

  • Justin Ritchie, Cox Automotive
  • Mike Daniel, Sportable Scoreboards
  • Oliver Gomes, Condé Nast
  • Richard Garner, Lincoln Financial Group
  • Sunny Sanyal, Hyster-Yale

Digital Safety, Governance, and Privacy

  • Ernie White , Melanoma Institute of Australia
  • Julie Esser, CULedger, LLC
  • Melissa Thomas, VyStar Credit Union
  • Phillip J. Windley, Sovrin Foundation
  • Taylor Lehman, Wellforce and Tufts Medical Center

Future of Work - Employee Experience

  • Amy Keelty, American Family Insurance
  • Jeff Banaszak, Creative Dining Services
  • Laura Valenziano, Walgreens
  • Mark Martynus, Accenture

Future of Work: Human Capital Management

  • Anie Chenarian, Henley Enterprises, Henley Enterprises
  • Elizabeth Navarro, Rubio’s Coastal Grill
  • Geoff Gerks, G4S
  • Guro Ruud Cedell, Norconsult
  • Martin Thomas, Royal Phillips
  • Melissa Forte, SiteOne Landscape Supply
  • Special Olympics’ Leadership Academy, Special Olympics

Next-Generation Customer Experience

  • Brian Osterloh, City of Albuquerque
  • Chris Salles, Audible
  • Dr. Clay Johnston, The University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School UT Health Austin
  • Gurmeet Singh, 7-Eleven
  • John Beaven, Golden State Warriors
  • José Lorenzo, Posadas (Grupo Posadas, S.A.B. de C.V.)
  • Julie Schweigert, New York Road Runners
  • Michael Menna, DuPont
  • Rizwan Patel, Caesars Entertainment (Emerging Technology and Innovation)

Tech Optimization and Modernization

  • Amanda Dolan, Purolite Corporation
  • Antonino Cisternino, University of Pisa
  • Jorge Frausto, General Electric Power
  • Kevin Long, ACI Worldwide
  • Kim Sammut, WSP
  • Matthew Singer, Twitter
  • Metra Utama, Telkomsel
  • Pamela Bakker, Laird Management
Innovation & Product-led Growth AR Executive Events

Field Force Multiplier: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire ClickSoftware

Field Force Multiplier: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire ClickSoftware

On August 7, 2019, Salesforce and ClickSoftware announced they had signed a definitive agreement for Salesforce to acquire ClickSoftware for approximately $1.35 billion in a combination of cash and stock. The deal is net of ClickSoftware shares Salesforce currently holds and expected to close by the end of October.

Rumors that the two companies were discussing potential acquisition at a price tag of $1.5 billion emerged in January, as reported by Reuters in Tel Aviv. The two companies have also partnered on field service since Salesforce released Field Service Lightening in 2016. So in a sense, this isn’t new news, but confirmation and conclusion of a deal that was already in the works.

Constellation’s Take:

Salesforce has the understanding of what its customers need and the vision to make it happen. It’s clear from Salesforce’s track record of acquisitions, as well as its internal development investments, that the company understands what its customers want and why. While field service doesn’t apply in every industry, it has a huge impact on customer experience in those where it does. Given Salesforce’s emphasis on helping its customers to build great customer experiences, it makes sense for the company to deepen its capabilities in this area.

Field service is a specialist area that requires deep expertise to get right. In both technology and process or workflow terms, field service is a complex, specialist area. Coordinating customers, technicians, parts, vehicles, warranty information, and service practices requires a deep knowledge of the processes required to make field service happen effectively. Technologies like AI play an increasingly important role in managing the complexity of dispatching service, but like all forms of AI, they are most effective when applied to specific elements of the problem. That’s tough to do well without specialist knowledge.

The technology challenges increase with use of IoT as well. The ability to pull information directly from devices that need repair is significantly changing the nature of field service, with tremendous potential to improve customer experience. Indeed, field service is the point at which customer data intersects directly with device or product data—and there’s still a whole lot of work to do to make this work as well as it potentially can. That’s not a game for generalists.

This acquisition builds capabilities and blocks competitors. Although Salesforce and ClickSoftware have had a close relationship for several years, it was by no means exclusive. ClickSoftware executives even joined SAP on stage at 2018’s Mobile World Congress to demo predictive field service capabilities. We believe that Salesforce’s acquisition of ClickSoftware, like its acquisition of Tableau, was as much about blocking other competitors from acquiring them as it was about securing desired capabilities.

Overall, it’s probably good news for customers. Although details on how the acquisition will be managed and who from ClickSoftware will remain, at this point, it seems likely that the ClickSoftware organization will remain largely intact. Given the specialist nature of this type of capability, we anticipate that Salesforce will be eager to keep ClickSoftware’s expertise. There’s already a good bit of overlap between the customer bases of both companies, so focus will likely be on extending that even further. If you’re in manufacturing or service, running Salesforce, and not using ClickSoftware, you’ll likely hear from your account manager by the end of the year. Likewise, if you're a manufacturer or in field service using ClickSoftware but not already use Salesforce, they may get to you even sooner.

Data to Decisions Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Digital Officer

On Complexity…or From Customers to Kubernetes

On Complexity…or From Customers to Kubernetes

Media Name: an00007497001l.jpg

Call it productive procrastination if you will. Working on a research piece recently, I started contemplating the inherent complexity of customer relationships. It wasn’t always so hard. Once upon a time, customers walked through the door, called, or wrote. Observing them and inferring their priorities and preferences wasn’t too difficult. Neither was talking to them.

Today, customers compare online while they’re in a store. They research whatever they’re about to buy before they ever call a salesperson. They expect transparency, consistency, and easy transactions both in their private lives as consumers and in their professional lives as decision-makers.

Meanwhile, for the companies they do business with, simply keeping track of all the ways customers communicate is a challenge. Email, chat, text, call, social media, in-app messaging—the list goes on. Want to really mess with the system? Try sending a snail-mail letter.

If communication channels alone present this level of complexity, I thought, how are we supposed to get the complicated things right, like personalization? Or using the insights we have about our customers to design great experiences? What about evolving our offerings and business strategy over time?

Managing complexity, it struck me, is the key—not just to getting customer relationships right, but to so many of the big business and technology challenges. Complexity always exists somewhere in the system. As businesses, we have a choice: we can put that complexity on our customers or we can take it on ourselves.

Then I remembered reading something long ago about how to do it well and why so few organizations seem to get it. Something about when keeping it simple was, well…just stupid.

Off to the other room I headed, and down, down, down the rabbit hole I fell…

There among the many treasures of my over-stuffed bookshelf at last I found it: Designing the Global Corporation by Jay R. Galbraith.[1] He wrote about organizational models and management practices in multinational companies, not customer experience per se, but Galbraith squarely focused on understanding the impact of complexity on customers.

Here’s the money quote I’d been looking for on page one (emphasis is mine): “At the heart of the issue is the manager’s difficulty embracing the complexity of the organization and building the capability to manage it. Most managerial mindsets…may also be influenced by the so-called management principle of ‘keeping it simple.’ Yet serious students of cross-border [read: complex] organization have arrived at the position keeping it simple is stupid; the world is complex, and a simple organization in a complex world becomes less and less viable.”

Galbraith’s main point is that—stay with me here—a company’s organization must be as complex as its business. That is, if your company is doing anything more than selling a single offering to a single type of buyer, you need something more than a very simple organization model. More importantly, you need the management capability to deal with the commensurate complexity. Otherwise, you make it the customer’s job to deal with complexity. And that’s bad for business.

The same principles apply to all kinds of customer relationships and interactions. Complexity exists somewhere in the continuum or value chain. Either we take it on as businesses and, hopefully, manage it effectively or we push it on to customers to manage for themselves. There are certainly cases where customers want and expect to deal with complexity themselves (think flea markets…I’m shuddering as I do). In the vast majority of cases, however, our priority and our vested interest as businesses is to understand and deal with that complexity in order to make things simple for our customers—whether B2B or B2C.

My fall down the rabbit hole continued. Throughout his book, Galbraith references the law of requisite variety or requisite complexity. The former originates in control theory and the latter is the application to organizations. My search for more background on control theory turned up multiple references to general systems theory and cybernetics.

Cybernetics?? My first thought was of L. Ron Hubbard. (Fear not. Scientology has no role in this story. Do like his first initial though.)

Back to my bookshelf and the comforting embrace of the Oxford Dictionary of English.[2] This is where things started to come full circle:

Here we are, back at the original challenge: how to use technology effectively to facilitate (dare I say simplify) communication and interactions between people. And increasingly, how to use technology tools to automate the things we want to make easy and fast.

As I emerged from the rabbit hole, this revelation blew my mind a little bit. I honestly hadn’t even thought about the name Kubernetes much before that moment.

We are at a unique and important moment in time when it comes to the intersection of business and technology. Technology has created many of our challenges; it also provides an indispensable means of addressing them.

Whether consolidating communication channels or containerizing workloads, we must as businesses keep finding better ways of using technology to help us manage complexity. That means, among other things, using technology tools to move up levels of abstraction so that we’re concentrating less on how the technology works and more on what we’re trying to do with it.

This is where we are—taking very old ideas (the steersman) and using new technologies (containers, chatbots, AI-driven analytics…you name it) to apply them in wholly different contexts. Today, we’re steering through the complexities of customer relationships that span digital and old-school modes.

To succeed, we must use these new capabilities to refocus on the some very old fundamentals—like understanding our customers—and get them right.

[1] Galbraith, Jay R. (2000). Designing the Global Corporation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc., A Wiley Company.

[2] Apologies to Merriam-Webster. I was living in England when I bought it.

Header image credit: The Siren Vase courtesy of the British Museum

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DisrupTV: Blockchain’s Fascinating New Use for Education

DisrupTV: Blockchain’s Fascinating New Use for Education

Blockchain technology will power a “lifelong learning adventure” for future students that will conceivably be more equitable and wider reaching compared to the current education model (Phil Komarny).

On episode 155 of DisrupTV, our hosts Vala Afshar and R “Ray” Wang interviewed Sharon Leu, Principal Executive Chief for the Committee Future Technology at the U.S. Department of Education, Manoj Kutty, Founder and CEO at GreenLight Credentials, and Phil Komarny, Vice President, Innovation at Salesforce.com, and discussed one particular opportunity area for blockchain technology: education. Here are a few quick takeaways from the episode:

Education Efforts Should Modernize While Staying Equitable

We are entering an age of digital first education, according to Sharon Leu. Students with access to the Internet generally perform better in school, in part because of the availability of materials that are catered to individual learning styles. As advanced technologies reshape the modern classroom, many educational programs need to be updated. Students without access to technology miss out on some of the newer opportunities that can help optimize their education. As a nation, we can’t move into the future with people left behind. Regarding contemporary education efforts, there should be a balance struck between creating advanced learning experiences and making sure that everyone has access to them.

Credentialing Through Blockchain Technology Will Create More Detailed Academic Records

Blockchain has a surprising new use in education: credentialing. For students who go through various degree programs and accumulate skills along the way, blockchain is able to provide detailed and verified academic records, demonstrating in detail what people know and what they can bring to the table overall. Introducing this holistic skills-based model presents a different way of communicating the value of one’s degree.

Manoj Kutty of Greenlight Credentials is working to translate this concept into reality. Greenlight’s solution gives employers a reliable way to find skilled workers while giving job candidates a better way to communicate themselves. Blockchain sits at the cornerstone of their efforts as a way to verify people’s skills over time down to the micro level. This type of solution could reduce barriers for diverse groups of people who want to go to college. Ideally, institutions would have a more accurate way of measuring a student’s potential success compared to what is available currently: using few data points such as SAT scores. One day, people may not even need to apply to colleges and will instead be selected for admission directly by the institutions. Even further, people may be able to skip the degree all together and show their competency for the job market through skills accumulated in other experiences.

Blockchain’s Breakout Use Case Could be Found in the Education Sector

Blockchain technology is ripe with potential but rife with image problems. While crypto currency is the best available application of the blockchain, there is a perception of Bitcoin that causes resistance from business leaders . Blockchain needs a really good use case to get executives to buy in to its potential. It’s use in education could be the necessary turning point, says Phil Komarny. In his former role at The University of Texas, Phil combined blockchain technology with CRM software to create student profiles that could be transferred across schools within their 14-instituiton system and demonstrated the skills that they accumulated. In this model, the distributed leger architecture centers around a student’s identity. Because these profiles could be built up throughout one’s education and career, students are in for a “lifelong learning adventure,” as Phil says.

This is just a small glimpse at the great insight shared during the show. Please check out the full discussions in the video replay here or the podcast.

DisrupTV Episode 155, Featuring Sharon Leu, Manoj Kutty, Phil Komarny from Constellation Research on Vimeo.

DisrupTV is a weekly Web series with hosts R “Ray” Wang and Vala Afshar. The show airs live at 11:00 a.m. PT/ 2:00 p.m. ET every Friday.

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