Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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News: Microsoft Acquires Semantic Machines

Why is this important?

It’s becoming more common to interact with our devices and applications using natural speech patterns. This could be done by speaking out loud (voice) or typing (chat). However, most of today’s interactions are simple command and response. We ask our phone what the weather is like, dictate a text message, or ask an Amazon Echo to play a song or set a reminder. While these interactions are useful, for similar interactions with business applications to be truly valuable, we need to be able to have multi-step conversations. Imagine asking your CRM system a question and having it first reply with a high-level answer, but then ask you for more details in order to provide you a more detailed response. Imagine your calendaring and scheduling system not just looking for free-time to book a meeting, but also asking if it could forward the attendees the required documents before the meeting begins. These types of actions with “chatbots” or “digital assistants” are going to play a key role in the Future of Work.

This is not Microsoft's first foray into conversational chatbots. In addition to Cortana, Microsoft has many other chatbots / digital assistants, including the very popular Xiaoice (on Weibo) and Zo on Kix.

The acquisition of Semantic Machines is not only for the technology, but also the people that work there. The staff they've acquired include people that worked on products like Apple Siri, Google Assistant, and Dragon Natural Speaking. This helps Microsoft compete against Google (who recently showcased Google Assistant having a bi-directional conversation), Amazon, Facebook, Apple, IBM, Samsung and others working on artificial intelligence and conversational user experiences.

What Does This Mean For Microsoft Customers?

Microsoft has several areas where they could leverage conversational UI, from Windows and Cortana, to Xbox, Office 365, Surface Hubs and more.

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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This morning Informatica hit the wires with a press release about its major release, Spring 2018, fittingly timed with Informatica World, being held in Las Vegas from May 21st till 23rd in Las Vegas at the Sands Convention Center. 

 

The press release can be found here - so let's dissect it in my customary style:

Redwood City, Calif., May 22, 2018 – Informatica®, the enterprise cloud data management leader, today announced the general availability of the Informatica 2018 Spring release during the 18th annual Informatica World® conference. This release of Informatica's hybrid data management solutions delivers innovative advances across all its core components, leveraging AI powered by the CLAIRE™ engine, to enable employees at every level to unleash the power of data.

MyPOV – Good summary on what is important for customers at the moment, hybrid data and integration capabilities. As all vendors Informatica talks AI with CLAIRE, but will have to show the value of its offering, starting at the conference to convince CxOs.


The Spring 2018 release enables increased productivity by helping organizations manage the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities provided by multi-cloud and hybrid environments, new use cases, user types, data challenges, and compliance requirements.

MyPOV – Summary paragraph, but gets to the other key aspect – (public) cloud and hybrid environment support. New user types are also important, and in the week that GDPR regulation goes live, compliance gets a lot of attention.


The Informatica 2018 Spring release includes:
Big Data for Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
• The industry's first big data management cloud solution for iPaaS increases productivity and agility, accelerates self-service analytics, and empowers data engineers, data analysts, and data scientists to automate and fast-track data management work. MyPOV – BigData is the first of the three drivers to infinite computing (the others are cheap cloud compute and deep neural networks (DLN). And BigData needs data movement and many working projects fail due to the fickle nature of the underlying open source platform as well as the shortage in experienced skills to build, extend and operate BigData solutions. Good to see a packaged offering.


Cloud Application Integration and Intelligent APIs
• New capabilities for Informatica's iPaaS – Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services℠ (IICS) – simplify multi-cloud and hybrid integration with API management and near real-time application integration.

MyPOV – The traditional DNA off Informatica that is moving to the public cloud, is moving from batch to real time. Real time, via APIs is crucial for many next generation applications that enterprises are building next generation applications for. And cheap compute in the cloud is taking out the human in tedious and repetitive integration work,


Enterprise Data Catalog with Intelligent Metadata APIs and Enhanced AI Algorithms
• New capabilities for Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog simplify democratization of data and provide faster, more relevant data discovery for self-service analytics.
MyPOV – Another offering that is from sometime ago, but still relevant for enterprises. Though in my view it needs a rebranding, the days of the venerable data catalogue are gone in the self-discovering, self-exploring and self-integrating era of microservices. That era needs platforms and Informatica is working hard to become a partner for these.



Intelligent, Automated Enterprise Data Governance Powered by AI
• The integration of Axon™ Data Governance with Informatica Data Quality, Enterprise Data Catalog and Secure@Source® powers a new, comprehensive enterprise data governance solution that fuels strategic business initiatives, drives privacy and protection, and supports regulatory compliance efforts.

MyPOV – Data Governance remains important, especially given the recent data breach news… but governance has to happen on a day to day, and in the era of the cloud, minute by minute basis. Not sure how well Axon can perform here, but it needs to very automated, ideally almost human free in the operational aspects, so it really empowers an enterprise and does not suffocate if with compliance and admin needs.



AI-driven Data Privacy and Protection
• Informatica's comprehensive data privacy and protection solution brings enhanced support for privacy and compliance initiatives across the enterprise.

MyPOV – A very thing paragraph, makes the analyst wonder why…. Will have to learn more at the conference.

[..]

Tweet this: News: @Informatica announces 2018 Spring release general availability @infaworld http://infa.media/pr180522b #INFA18

MyPOV – A new best practice in the era of social media and news amplification – good to see Informatica practicing it.

The Future of Integration Source: Holger Mueller, Constellation Research

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…...

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Commerce Finally Comes To Adobe

On May 21st, 2018, Adobe announced a $1.68 billion acquisition to acquire Magento for commerce capabilities and the developer ecosystem. When the transaction closes, the Campbell, Ca based company will be part of the Adobe Digital Experience team with Magento's CEO Mark Lavelle reporting to Adobe's executive vice president and general manager Brad Rencher.

Traditional bifurcation in the ecommerce landscape has led to vendor proficiency in B2B or B2C commerce. Few organizations have succeeded in delivering on both B2B and B2C. Meanwhile, the death of the CRM and CX market has led to demand for end to end campaign to commerce solutions. SAP's acquisition of Hybris and Salesforce's acquisition of Demandware and Cloud Craze have left Adobe behind competitors who have had a commerce offering. While Adobe has successfully worked with partners to create a friendly environment for commerce integration, customers and design partners have repeatedly asked when Adobe would acquire or build these capabilities. Sources confirm that Adobe has actively sought a commerce partner and acquisition over the past five years as the market for campaign to commerce has heated up. Magento plays a key role in shoring up the commerce offering and B2B chops missing in Adobe increasing dominance in the B2C world.

Constellation believes that the acquisition (should it close) gives Adobe customers:

• End to end creative to commerce support. Adobe customers can reduce the clutter of best of breed solutions and offer a one stop shop for customers. Commerce brings together a defined end point for all the marketing and customer experiences. Magento even brings a light supply chain offering that includes order management, fulfillment, logistics, and shipping.
• B2B credibility in commerce. As organizations from B2C and B2B to P2P commerce, customers seek the ability to find one vendor with both offerings. B2B capabilities in Magento Commerce 2.2 have started to gain traction and Adobe's channel can bring that to customers across the globe.
• Open source ecosystems and platforms. Despite leveraging and contributing to open source initiatives,Adobe's platforms and culture lack an open source DNA. Magento's heritage of customer communities and developer ecosystems will bring fresh air to Adobe customers used to a very planned and prescribed approach. Access to a broader ecosystem of developers and customers that can expand Adobe's reach.
• Mid-market and lower price points. Magento's CMS is simpler to use but supports less use cases than the flagship Adobe AEM product. Channel development and new price points can potentially serve smb customers who have been priced out of Adobe's offerings.
• Industry expertise. Magento built a strong capability in industry verticals such as automotive, fashion, food and beverage, and health and beauty. This expertise can be applied to other areas of Adobe's industry strategy.

Constellation believes that the acquisition (should it close) gives Magento customers:

• Access to a full scale CMS. While the full blown AEM may be overkill for many Magento customers, customers seeking to expand or go up market will have options within the Adobe family. Those customers who seek to move off Acquia now have options.
• Rich analytics. The flagship analytics cloud offering will most likely replace usage of Google and provide a full end-to-end approach in an area Magento under invested in.
• Long term stability. Adobe had improved its ability to acquire vendors from a product offering, customer service and support, employee retention, and customers success point of view. Adobe's profit margins, management stability, and long term revenue provide a long term investment road map for Magento's offerings and should give peace of mind to larger enterprise customers.

The Bottom Line: Adobe's Vision Is Creative To Commerce Reimagined For An AI Driven Digital World

The combination of machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and cognitive computing changes the ways that customers and prospects interact with their environments. AI-driven smart services will sense one’s surroundings, know one’s preferences from past behavior, and subtly guide people and machines through their daily lives in ways that will truly feel seamless. This quest to deliver AI-driven smart services across all industries and business processes will usher in the most significant shift in computing and business this decade and beyond. Commerce will be the biggest use case for this type of AI driven mass personalization as organizations accelerate their digital transformation efforts and Adobe is in a great position to deliver this to customers.

Both Adobe's and Magento's customers stand to gain a lot from a one stop shop on this digital journey. As commerce velocity has slowed given the complexity of integration and technologies, customers and partners are asking for a consolidation in the market to de-risk the complexity and improve platform resiliency. Adobe's made extensive commerce and marketing specific Sensei investments that will be available to customers in the Fall of 2018. Adobe promises integration of Sensei into Magento starting 2H 2018

Customers can expect these efforts to bring AI to the end to end process in early 2019. The quest to deliver on creative to commerce for B2B and B2C will require additional acquisitions in subscription billing, CPQ, personalization, and contract management in order to step up the competition with SAP Hybris and Salesforce.com. Customers stand to benefit with this level of investment and consolidation in the market. Adobe will have a lot to learn from Magento on how to improve their ecosystem and open up their platforms. If this occurs, the overall ecosystem will have the innovation required to support innovative vendors at the edge and allow for a complete reimagination of commerce.

Your POV.

Are you excited about commerce offerings from Adobe? Will you still use Shopify, Episerver, ElasticPath, Demandware, Sitecore or Hybris? Let us know what you think? Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .

Resources And Related Research

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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There are several challenges related to information and application overload which impede the speed of work. One of the ways to reduce these challenges is by limiting the scope of the content and conversations that are displayed, to just the items that are contextually relevant to the desired task and topic. In my new report: How Digital Canvases Enable Hyper-Collaboration, we examine how this new user-interface can speed up the way people work.

Doug Henschen

Former Vice President and Principal Analyst Constellation Research

Doug Henschen is former Vice President and Principal Analyst where he focused on data-driven decision making. Henschen’s Data-to-Decisions research examines how organizations employ data analysis to reimagine their business models and gain a deeper understanding of their customers. Henschen's research acknowledges the fact that innovative applications of data analysis requires a multi-disciplinary approach starting with information and orchestration technologies, continuing through business intelligence, data-visualization, and analytics, and moving into NoSQL and big-data analysis, third-party data enrichment, and decision-management technologies. Insight-driven business models are of interest to the entire C-suite, but most particularly chief executive officers, chief digital officers,…...

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Kaplan uses SnapLogic and Amazon Redshift to cut costs, optimize its product portfolio and boost profits.

Kaplan Test Prep is well known for helping students prepare for college-entrance exams, such as the SAT and ACT; post-grad admissions tests, such as the GRE and GMAT; and licensure exams for medical, legal, nursing, financial and other professional careers. Unfortunately, the company wasn’t making the grade when it came to using all available information for data-driven decision-making.

Founded in 1938, Kaplan has decades of historical data, scores of legacy systems and diverse applications. From 2013 to 2015 it made a methodical move to a virtual private network and cloud-based application stack on Amazon Web Services (AWS), an effort that helped Kaplan modernize infrastructure and consolidate from 12 data centers down to four. But from an analytical perspective, Kaplan continued to rely on siloed tools and reporting capabilities. It lacked a centralized store where it could consolidate and analyze data from many data sources.

“We had one, small [Microsoft SQL Server] data warehouse that was ingesting data from just two systems; that’s it,” says Tapan Parekh, director of analytics and data architecture. “It wasn’t a complete view of data, and nobody was happy.”

When he joined Kaplan in November 2015, Parekh immediately began developing an architecture for an analytical data platform. Given that the majority of data sources were now running on AWS, Parekh was considering Amazon Redshift, the vendor’s columnar database service. His biggest challenge was figuring out how to get data into Redshift.

“We have many different applications using different underlying databases and technologies,” says Parekh. “We had different velocities and volumes of data coming in. Ingesting from a relational database is straightforward, but we also have data coming in from streams, which is nonrelational, JSON data, and we have one or two applications that are XML-based. So, a traditional [batch] approach wouldn’t work.”

Anticipated data-velocity requirements ranged from once-per-month loads from accounting systems to daily, interday and microbatch loads from relational and NoSQL sources, to real-time requirements from Amazon Kinesis-based streaming applications.

Kaplan looked at integration options including Informatica,  Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services and hand-coding with Python, but it quickly narrowed its choice to SnapLogic, based on factors including ease of use, cost competitiveness and security features, according to Parekh. But the selection wasn’t finalized until SnapLogic and Redshift passed a proof-of-concept test in which data was loaded from Salesforce and Zuora SaaS services as well as from a homegrown system of record running in Kaplan’s VPC on Amazon. Once the data was loaded into Redshift, the next step was to build a data mart making all these sources of data available for analysis.

“We were able to do it all within three months using all of the data within these systems, not just dummy data,” says Parekh.

In the first year of the production deployment that followed, the focus was on getting data into the Redshift-based platform. The Kaplan team doing this work varied between three and four people. In one project after another, they managed to build SnapLogic pipelines for data ingestion from more than 30 applications into Redshift. Most of these applications are still active, so Kaplan continues to load copies of incremental data changes at latencies ranging from monthly and daily to hourly, near-real-time and streaming speed. Sources range from systems of record, learning management systems and financial systems to Salesforce CRM, Workday, Zuora and Google Analytics. Underlying database management systems include Oracle, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB and DynamoDB.

In some cases, Kaplan is consolidating data using Redshift, doing one-time migrations from legacy applications that have since been retired or that will soon be retired. In these cases, Kaplan moves all available data onto Redshift, retaining historical information that might fuel seasonality, time-series and other long-term trend analyses.

Kaplan is using Redshift’s Spectrum capability to provide access to variably structured information. Examples include JSON data from Kinesis-based streaming applications and Mixpanel data on mobile app clickstreams. This data is stored in the Amazon S3 object store. Redshift Spectrum SQL commands query data in S3 through external tables, effectively joining this data with the structured data on the core platform. Kaplan is exploring the use of Amazon Athena as the unstructured data querying opportunities expand.

As detailed in my latest case study, “Kaplan Graduates to a Cloud-Based Data Lake on Amazon Web Services,” Kaplan has already seen a greater than 10 X return on its investment, and the benefits keep coming. Not only has the company retired aging software and systems to the tune of more than a $1 million in one-time savings, the new platform is powering activity-based cost analyses that are streamlining operations and boosting profits. What’s more, data-archiving workflows powered by SnapLogic are expected to cut CRM system storage costs by $150,000 annually. To find out more about this case study, follow this link and download the free excerpt.

Related Reading:
Danske Bank Fights Fraud with Machine Learning and AI
How Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence Will Change BI & Analytics
Ultra Mobile Takes an Affordable Approach to Agile Analytics

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst Constellation Research

Holger Mueller is VP and Principal Analyst for Constellation Research for the fundamental enablers of the cloud, IaaS, PaaS and next generation Applications, with forays up the tech stack into BigData and Analytics, HR Tech, and sometimes SaaS. Holger provides strategy and counsel to key clients, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Product Officers, Chief HR Officers, investment analysts, venture capitalists, sell-side firms, and technology buyers.  Coverage Areas: Future of Work Tech Optimization & Innovation  Background: Before joining Constellation Research, Mueller was VP of Products for NorthgateArinso, a KKR company. There, he led the transformation of products to the cloud and laid the foundation for new Business Process as a…...

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We had the opportunity to attend Microsoft's developer conference Build, held from May 7th till 9th 2018 at the Seattle Convention Center in Seattle. Attendance with over 7k attendees, and a large global representation of the press colleagues makes this one of the best attended events from an influencer perspective. 

Prefer to watch – here is my event video … (if the video doesn't' show up – check here):

 

 

Here is the 1 slide condensation (if the slide doesn't show up, check here): 

Event Report - Microsoft Build - AI, Azure, IoT and Windows Push from Holger Mueller

Want to read on? Here you go:

Big push on IoT. IoT got a lot of keynote time across Nadella and Guthrie, Microsoft is pushing big on the IoT edge with its offering Intelligent Edge for IoT, where it can deploy a subset of its capabilities, in similar way like Azure Stack. It might be even that both capabilities share similar product features. For enterprises to be able to deploy the same code – e.g. for analytics, on Azure as well as IoT edge is an interesting product strategy and roadmap. Microsoft also announced support for Cloud Events, the CNCF Event Grid project, it's the only public cloud vendor at the moment to be able to consume and produce events. That matters as it can make Azure the preferred cloud for evend driven computing. Certainly the other IaaS players will not rest, and may well come up with the ability to product / publish events. We will have to see if this big push pays off on the next quarters. 
 

Nadella opens Build 2018

AI getting ready. Microsoft has a long history investing into AI, this Build conference was the culmination of that effort. In general, the vendor has adopted neural networks now, offering a collection of 25+ machine learning services, that can be easily consumed. The race is on to make every developer a data scientist, and Microsoft has tied the competition now – both on an algorithm and ease of adoption level. On the partnership side, Microsoft confirmed the progress on project Brainwave, as well as ONNX. Both are initiatives aimed at interoperability of ML algorithms and the desire to catch up to Google. The most prominent members are AWS, Facebook and Microsoft. Good to see the progress, but adoption vs. the popular Google Tensorflow will be the real test. Interestingly, the Windows ML capability that powers Windows intelligence processes, is as well ONNX based. That's a key step, to potentially open Windows ML / AI capabilities to ONNX build models. Microsoft also announced the availability of its FPGA infrastructure. Announced a few years ago, Microsoft reported in September 2016 (see here), at Ignite, that most of its Azure servers now have a FPGA. Not sure what took 1.5 years, but good for Microsoft to be here today. 
 

Nadella and the two Microsoft platforms: Azure and Microsoft 365

 

Windows with Innovation. The 2018 edition of Build marked the first time that Microsoft did not have a Windows keynote at Build. I have previously voiced my concern on the way how Microsoft split up Windows (see here), the job at Build for the most Windows messaging was with Microsoft veteran Joe Belfiore in the Tuesday keynote (as part of the Modern Worklplace keynote). And Microsoft has done a lot in Windows, especially in the April Update. The underlying magic sauce remains the Microsoft Graph, the ephemeral graph of users, their devices, and their digital assets. It was good to see the Graph in action as part of the developer demo. The new Timeline feature is an interesting innovation and making Windows a human operating system. Humans don't think in file and folder structures, but in time, so being able to get back to a document a user created last week – by the time and not by the folder is a key step to make the working with Windows more human. The same principles apply to the new Sets capabilities, which bring together browser assets as well as Win32 assets – all neatly in tabs next to each other. It's a key step to make Windows more of a workspace – than a collection of apps and files. Both Sets and Timeline are a key innovation with integrative DNA, bringing capabilities together that previously had to be take care of manually, through navigation by the Windows user – a change for the better. Lastly all these capabilities need intelligence, and Microsoft added Windows ML, the ability to run ONNX models. That's a nice compatibility move for the overall Microsoft AI / ML strategy – and gives ML developers an instant, huge install base. Smart move.

 

Belfiore opens the Day #2 Keynote

Azure with Innovation. Azure captured the post Nadella keynote spot, that Scott Guthrie executed in his usual reliable fashion. Kudos to Guthrie with the best keynote punchline at Build ("Let me add value" – when holding a microphone). Apart from more data centers, location and the above-mentioned Event Grid (that runs on Azure Service Fabric) the key attraction for enterprises in Azure remain Cosmos DB. Debuted last year, on the assets of the former DocumentDB, Cosmos DB is what powers the Microsoft Graph (my stipulation, never confirmed by Microsoft to my knowledge) and as such is a super powerful, distributed database, that runs in pretty much all Azure data centers. The synergies of Microsoft opening datacenters for Office, that requires Graph, that requires CosmosDB are at full work. If a CxO decides to build on CosmosDB it's highly likely it will be, in the latest version, in all Azure data centers. Adding the 5 9s to read and write reliability is an amazing SLA for next gen applications. 

 

Guthrie adds value (joke) w Hanselmann

Visual Studio gets more team support. Always good to see Microsoft's continued innovation in Visual Studio, it's Microsoft's premier IDE… and a key reason why developers attend Azure. More team and group support are coming, as well as more comprehensive DevOps support. All good progress coupled with former investments in Xamarin and more. The main concern remains the lack of a packaged PaaS offering from Microsoft, I asked Guthrie if that is coming, and it doesn't seem to be in the plans for the next 12 months. And with that Microsoft misses the opportunity to be the partner of the CIO / CTO who needs to build and deliver a next gen application – from the requirements collection all the way to device management. Microsoft has many of the required pieces, but the need to get stitched together on a project level – something which is additional, and if done incorrectly, risky work. CxOs want that from a vendor, not to be a task for their development teams.
 

Visual Studio Dashboard - can a developer portal look so good?

 

 

MyPOV

Another good Build conference for Microsoft, with almost too many announcements and progress across the board. The biggest impact is likely the AI push, that (finally) has moved to the new gold standard, neural networks (not just in pockets, but across the board). Good to see the FPGA feature getting delivered, but when compared to the hardware innovation of Google, it is slow progress, maybe even too slow delivery here. Between the announcement and delivery of the FPGA capability of Microsoft, Google has been comfortable to announce TPU 3.0 in the same week, an 8x improvement over the TPU 2.0 pods. Microsoft needs to move faster here, as next to data gravity, we are seeing a new gravity emerge, the one of the custom ML hardware, that is faster and cheaper than the competition to create and operate neural networks, powered by deep learning networks (DLN). Microsoft is not alone in the dilemma, its Seattle neighbor AWS has the same challenge here (a likely driver for Project Brainwave in in my POV. The cost of crating and running AI / ML is a key consideration of future next gen App deployments. Finishing the concern section, Microsoft, as the top three cloud vendor with the deepest enterprise roots and access, needs a better PaaS strategy to attract enterprises and their next generation application load. A partnership with CloudFoundry is not enough. An end to end, packaged PaaS suite that takes advantage of all the fast growing capabilities of Azure, AI, ML and more is what enterprises want and expect from Microsoft.

It's too early to say what will happen with the new Windows setup, I learnt positive aspects of the move, but my concerns remain intact at this early point after the announcement, future will tell. What is certainly true is that the elimination of Windows from a nominal platform perspective makes the overall Microsoft platform message simpler. It's now Azure and Microsoft 365 (Windows part of the latter). Compared to e.g. 5 years ago - where it was Windows, Azure and Office.

On the bright side, Azure service fabric, the push on IoT, the edge capabilities, Azure Stack, Cosmos DB are all valid differentiators for Microsoft and CxOs are paying attention to them. And the direction where Windows is heading, also based on a private conversation with Belfiore, towards a more human Windows, that brings together work artefacts in a better way, are all positive takeaways and differentiator. Now let's see what happens in the next months of 2018… stay tuned.

 

 

Cindy Zhou

CMO Level Access

Cindy Zhou is a practicing CMO.  Prviously, she was Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research covering Digital Marketing Transformation and Sales Effectiveness. With over 18 years of practitioner experience in corporate marketing, product marketing, product management, and sales operations, Zhou has spearheaded marketing transformation at multiple technology companies. She advised Constellation’s clients on strategies to light-up demand generation, prove revenue contribution, and maximize sales productivity. Prior to joining Constellation, Zhou was Global Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales Operations at BackOffice Associates, a global provider of data quality and information governance solutions to the Fortune 1000 and SAP SolEx partner. Before…...

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• Be respectful of the analyst's time. Our free briefings are 30 minutes, and if I’m able to, I will often extend to 45 mins (at my discretion).
• A little light research to understand who I am and my coverage areas (Marketing (B2B and B2C), Sales, and Customer Experience. I prepare by visiting your company website and learn about you on LinkedIn before the call, please extend that courtesy.
• The best way to utilize the 30 minutes is to have a concise/tight deck to walk me through the following:
  • 1 slide on company background - Where's your headquarters, who your investors are, revenue (or you can share a range), highlight any unique experience of your executive team, and the space/market you play in.
  • 1 slide on who your customers are - “Nascar-style" logo slides are fine, but please highlight 3-4 customers and tell me what you do for them. For example, I often see the same logo for multiple competing marketing companies. Tell me the group using your solution and the context. Also, Who is your target customer and their role?
  • 1-2 slides on your go-to-market strategy.
  • 1 Marchitecture slide to illustrate your product or market slide on your solution and where it fits.
  • Tell me about your pricing model, how do customers buy?
  • Share what's new or coming soon. Whether it’s an upcoming product launch, you sign(ed) a new customer, secured new funding, etc. You would be surprised how many times the news gets buried and forgotten in a briefing.
• Prepare a demo. Especially if I agree to extend to 45 minutes, I want to see your solution in-action.
• Send me your slides the day before the briefing. This way I can save you time by not asking questions answered on a later slide.

• Spend time to educate me on the market. If you looked at my background, you’ll know that I was a practicing marketing executive then an industry analyst. I do understand what the market challenge is for marketers and sellers and have the battle scars to prove it. So telling me the marketing technology landscape is more complicated than ever with 6000+ vendors or that the sales process is broken - is well, wasted time.
• Come unprepared and attempt to do a “discovery” call first in a briefing. Talking through your product architecture with no visual representation only adds confusion. Our time together is limited, preparation is key.
• Ask me or emphasize every 5 minutes, “This is under NDA right?”. As an analyst, I respect our confidentiality and take it very seriously as a matter of integrity. If there is something I’m interested in tweeting about or sharing publicly, I will ask you if the information is public or ok to share. Otherwise, understand our briefing is confidential.
• Say, “we don’t have any competitors” when I ask who your competitors are. I am not asking because I don’t know. I want to know who YOU think your competitors are.
• Follow-up with me asking what kind of “article” I will write after the “interview.” Please understand the differences between industry analysts and the press/media.

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…...

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It's The Experience, Stupid!

Over 18,000 customers, partners, prospects, and influencers gathered at the Sands Convention Center and Expo in Las Vegas for the annual ServiceNow Knowledge Event (see Figure 1). The vendor best known for its success in IT Service Management has been on a growth tear. In March 2017, CEO Frank Slootman handed over the reigns to John Donahoe of eBay and Bain fame. His goal is to bring a consumer experience and brand to the enterprise story as ServiceNow expands its reach within the organization to new roles from employee experience (EEX) to customer service management (CSM).

Figure 1. The Massive Investment In Four Pillars of Customer Success

While the Day 1 keynote with CEO John Donahoe felt like a long in the tooth Bain & Company purpose exercise in finding your mission, organization, and goals, the Day 2 keynote with Chief Product Officer C.J. Desai, showcased to customers, prospects, and partners the ServiceNow product pipeline and release schedule (see Figure 2). The demos artfully and deftly walked through cross-role, inter-departmental, business flows and how ServiceNow can pull from existing transactional and engagement systems to easily craft new experiences in a low code, no code democratized developer fashion.

In the traditional "hangover" Day 3 keynote, Senior VP of DevOps Pat Casey did an excellent job highlighting how organizations can use ServiceNow as a catalyst to bring artificial intelligence into existing systems, ease the pain of integration, and rapidly deliver experiences. As ServiceNow acquires more components of AI such as the recent Parlo acquisition for natural language understanding (NLU) and conversations as a service (CaaS), customers can bring an AI platform to existing systems with ServiceNow.

Highlights from the three days of keynote include (see Figure 3):

• Day 1 Keynote CEO John Donahoe focused on purpose. In his trademark approach to taking over as CEO, he brought back founder Fred Luddy's as chairman of the board.
• Day 2 Keynotes showcased new products and possibilities with new apps and offerings
• Day 3 Keynotes demonstrated the NowPlatform capabilities giving customers more choice
• Partnership announced with Microsoft Teams product
• Agent Workspace delivers a command center for next best action (limited release for London Q3 2018 and GA in Madrid Q1 2019)
• Virtual Agent goes from chat to resolution with prebuilt convos (London Q3 2018)
• Enterprise DevOps enables faster creation of apps in any org (London Q3 2018 and Madrid Q1 2019)
• NowPlatform powered for mobile apps (Madrid Q1 2019)
• Commitments made to two release schedules a year with London, Madrid, New York, Orlando, and Paris coming next

Figure 2. The ServiceNow Roadmap and Release Schedule

Figure 3. Event Report Summary For ServiceNow Knowledge 2018

The Bottom Line: Customers Use ServiceNow To Deliver On Last-Mile Experiences In The Cloud

Constellation's market leading and fast following clients often use ServiceNow to design, abstract, build, and orchestrate new experiences throughout the enterprise. After standardizing their cloud vendors for customer, employee, supply chain, finance, and commerce, they often have to bring these systems together. While customers may have started with ServiceNow for ITSM, their need for last mile experiences has moved beyond just the IT department. In fact, they often lock down their cloud systems from customizations, configurations, and extensions in their native cloud applications, but tell their teams to build new experiences in ServiceNow. Why do they choose ServiceNow? The capabilities of the NowPlatform alllow departments, entities, or roles to craft those new experiences and not have to worry about missing:

• ITSM
• Security
• Process Flow
• Integration
• UX including easy mobile (new)
• AI (new)

As organizations move from transactional systems to eventually AI and Cognitive systems, ServiceNow enables organizations a mechanism to keep their legacy systems and embark on a journey of digital transformation. This is the heart of Infinite Ambient Orchestration. ServiceNow has reached a unique point in the marketplace where they must understand how their platform plays a key role in enabling enterprises to succeed in their efforts. Constellation believes that ServiceNow will not only continue to grow organically with new offerings, but also apply its expanding free cash flow to acquire many other technologies and vendors over the next five years. This will create tension in the market as ServiceNow must determine if they are a platform ecosystem or a direct competitor to many of the systems they connect with. The partnership models must change over time and require partners who can help customers see the broader vision beyond their large ITSM practices. And all this comes back to ensuring that the leadership team truly understands their purpose at the enterprise level. This is more than a well heeled consultant study that sounds like motherhood, Chevy's, and apple pie or bringing back the founder for credibility. The good news - ServiceNow has much more substance in product than other vendors with older tech and smaller ambitions. Customers who make the plunge to expand from IT to business will expedite their ability to complete their digital transformation aspirations.

Figure 4. ServiceNow Helps Customers Move from Transactions To Engagement

Your POV.

Are you ready to craft new experiences in ServiceNow? Do you use ServiceNow for ITSM today? Are your business leaders ready to explore ServiceNow? Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .

Deadline for applications August 1, 2018

The SuperNova Awards honor leaders that demonstrate excellence in the application and adoption of new and emerging technologies. 

In its eighth year, the Constellation SuperNova Awards will recognize early adopters who demonstrate true leadership in digital business through their application of new and emerging technologies. We’re searching for leaders and teams who used disruptive technologies to transform their organizations. 

We’re searching for the boldest, most transformative technology projects out there. If you or someone you know transformed their organization with disruptive technology apply for a SuperNova Award. Fill out the application here: 

Apply

Apply for a SuperNova Award in two easy steps:

1. Download a copy of the application
2. Submit your application online

Timeline

• August 1, 2018 deadline
• August 28, 2018 finalists announced and invited to Connected Enterprise.
• September 3, 2018 voting opens to the public
• September 13, 2018 polls close
• October 26, 2018 Winners announced, SuperNova Awards Gala Dinner at Connected Enterprise

Rewards

• SuperNova Award finalists are awarded one ticket to Constellation's Connected Enterprise 2018
• Winners receive one ticket to Constellation's Connected Enterprise 2019

Judges

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

Categories

• Blockchain - The application of distributed ledger technologies across the enterprise. Constellation will accept research and development case studies for this category. 
• AI and Augmented Humanity - A culmination of technologies that attempts to attain human learning and intelligence capabilities of humans. This category addresses the business outcomes and preparations being made for a future in which software can improve itself.
• Data to Decisions - Employing data to make informed business decisions. (big data, predictive analytics)
• Digital Marketing Transformation and Sales Effectiveness - Data-driven digital marketing and revenue generation (configure price quote, mobile marketing, account based marketing, sales by design)
• Digital Safety, Governance, and Privacy - Enabling customers dictate how personal information is used, strategies for effective compliance, privacy best practices
• Future of Work: Employee Experience - Strategies to deliver the best possible employee experience as a means to maximize wellness and productivity
• Future of Work: Human Capital Management - Technologies that enable organizations to utilize the workforce as a competitive asset. (talent management, benefits, HR core)
• Internet of Things - A network of smart objects enables smart services. (sensors, smart ‘things’, device to purchase, fog computing)• Matrix Commerce - Technologies supporting the future of commerce from payments through supply chain management (digital retail, supply chain, payments, 'ubiquitous-channel' retail)
• Next Generation Customer Experience - How organizations keep brand promises as business shifts to systems of engagement and mass personalization. (crm, customer experience)

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…...

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Boardroom Failures Reflect Years Of Focus On EBIDTA and Return On Capital

Faced with massive pressure to embark on their digital journey, boards and CEOs have sought case studies and examples of success to avail without realizing that each journey remains unique. While there are many proof of concepts in play, much of the innovation in play requires a transformational mindset. When boards ask, "Has this has been done before and where", they miss the point. Why? The task at hand requires a shift from operational efficiency or regulatory compliance to a revenue growth and strategic transformation mind set.  Over a decade of digital transformation experience has shown that seven factors create mass board failures in digital transformation (see Figure 1):

Figure 1. Seven Common Boardroom Issues With Digital Transformation

1. Illogical deviation from brand mission causes confusion. While the brand mission can be expanded to a higher order, failure often arises when the brand attempts to solve a problem that the existing customer base finds too deviant. For example, Avis Rental Car has a stated mission to move from rental car company to fleet management. This is a shift from a transactional consumer relationship to an experiential B2B and outcomes based relationship based on their data driven skill of fleet management. Customers find this a reasonable extension. However, If an apparel brand jumped into a new space such as fast food without explaining a larger shift in their mission, that deviation would be too much.
2. Inability to attract top talent due to lack of leadership. Top talent attracts top talent. A players attract A players. B players attract C players. Tech companies in the midst of transformation know how to sell their company's higher mission to recruit top talent seeking a higher purpose. For years, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff sold a vision of no software that appealed to the tech community looking to transform the software business model. Today, his appeal on "tech for good" attracts the best and brightest. The founders of Ultimate Software started out with a People First mission that has stood the test of time. Meanwhile another large tech company has had years of a CEO who has failed to not only attract top talent, but also has failed to retain top talent by creating an environment of instability and insecurity across the ranks as that CEO enriches themselves despite a string of quarterly losses. Change in workforce policies disguised as a reduction in force and the promotion of unqualified individuals under the guise of diversity and inclusion have stripped the ranks of any sense of meritocracy and led to a brain drain that will require a new CEO to arrive prior to that CEO's retirement this year.
3. Laggard market perception cascades failure and customer disillusionment. Declining brands and organizations in laggard industries stripped of brand equity enter an era of negative market perception. Instead of redefining the mission and purpose with new business models, orgs often take a short cut of branding without substance. Seen as devoid of innovation with a commoditized non-differentiated offering, every stakeholder from employee, customer, partner, supplier, and investor lowers expectations of success. The result – leaders who focus on short term gain, declining employee morale, lack of interest by investors, and lower quality from suppliers. Partners lose interest in creating co-innovation and co-creation ecosystems with laggards. Customers no longer find an affinity for a brand that has sold its soul and will not pay for premium pricing when they no longer see value.
4. Short term profit mentality leads to lackluster leadership team. Modern leaders must be able to not only articulate the vision and mission, but also live the values of the organization. Leaders use stories and authentic purpose to attract the right talent. However, the battering of hostile take overs and transformation by fake growth based private equity (PE) firms focused on greater amounts of EBITDA have led to a generation of "Yes Person" CEOs without an understanding of growth. A focus on standard operating practices that focus on efficiency and not growth creates anorexic innovation environments. The definitiveness of cost cut impacts to growing share price result in leadership teams devoid of leaders who know how to create a culture of sustained innovation and long-term growth. This driving out of innovation and growth hurts organizations in the long-run.
5. Dearth of innovation leads to non-differentiated offering and fear of success. Nothing wreaks of failure more than the copycat offering that arrives a cycle late in the marketplace. Organizations who are just doing the bare minimum and rationalizing their product portfolios often have had the EBIDTA militants and legal teams dictate product direction. One can argue that playing it safe and riding on the remaining vestiges of brand cache can help a short term CEO and board hit their targets. Yet this leaves an organization without any differentiation and creates a long term hit. The US auto industry in the 1980s provides a great case study on how not to ruin a market entered by low cost challengers. If the goal is to be the most profitable copycat in the industry, that game has already ended in commoditized markets where the battle for return on equity leaves few players battling a digital death match with no winners. To be clear, there are exceptions. Korean electronics firms for a period of time managed to take innovations from the Japanese and build bigger and profitable challenges. But over time, they also realized they had to commit to innovation in order to not only grow but survive market annihilation.
6. Illusory superiority results in failure to partner while on top of the market. Delusions of grandeur and ego often beset successful market leaders. Thinking that their organization knows best and that others have little to offer create a divide the pie mentality that stifles grow the pie growth and transformation efforts. The result – arrogant partner policies, poor treatment of the ecosystem, and disregard for new adjacent opportunities. As egos take over rationality, a belief that the organization can create whatever a partner has to offer results in a cognitive bias and failure to understand limitations and capabilities. Blackberry's dominance in the 2000's came to a standstill as their failure to tap into the partner ecosystem reflected their overall market and leadership hubris as the management team could not believe they could be displaced by Apple's toy which didn't even have a physical keyboard. Today, one may question whether Apple still has the innovation chops to survive despite crushing it on EBIDTA and return on capital.
7. Short term thinking leads to poor deployment of capital for innovation. Decades of cost cutting, mergers and acquisitions, and activist shareholder fights have decimated the growth and innovation culture at many organizations. In a graph often cited from Clay Christensen, the average investment of profits in 1981 was 50% allocated to research and development and 50% to shareholder dividends. Today that investment number is allocated to 50% stock buy backs, 49% dividends, and 1% research and development (see Figure 2). This strangulation of capital funding for innovation has decimated legacy enterprises.

Jump Start Growth By Re-prioritizing Focus Areas

Over the next few months, Constellation will provide a model for helping boards and CXO’s understand where they sit in the continuum of growth and innovation.  Five focus areas will emerge that boards and CXO’s should consider in their digital transformation efforts to ensure success.  Stay tuned for more.

Your POV.

Ready to roll out your plans for digital transformation.  Do you understand the business model implications?  Are you ready to disrupt the board and jump start growth?  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.