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News Analysis - Microsoft opens Windows Holographic to partners for a new era of mixed reality

News Analysis - Microsoft opens Windows Holographic to partners for a new era of mixed reality

Earlier this week, when day broke in Asia, Microsoft used the Comdex event happening in Taiwan to make a major announcement around its holographic product plans, making Windows Holographic available to partners.

 
 
 
 
So let’s dissect the press release in our customary way, it can be found here:
Microsoft Corp. invited its Windows 10 hardware partners to create virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality devices and everything in between with Windows Holographic, the platform that powers Microsoft HoloLens. In opening up Windows Holographic to partners, Microsoft shared its vision for mixed reality — a world where devices interact with each other to change the way people work, communicate, learn and play.
MyPOV – Microsoft move back to its DNA, going back to the OEM model that has served the vendor and partners well in the past for the PC. Back at Microsoft’s Build conference earlier this year, we pointed out who Hololens was the first new category platform that Microsoft has completely built from scratch. Microsoft now abandons this exclusive (Apple style) strategy now, which is probably a good move, as it goes back to the Microsoft DNA, working with hardware manufacturers to produce devices, while maintaining the standards and control of the software platform.

“With Windows 10, we’ve been on an incredible journey with our partners, and today we usher in the next frontier of computing — mixed reality,” said Terry Myerson, executive vice president, Windows and Devices.
MyPOV – Good quote by Myerson, good pitch on Microsoft’s vision for the future of enriched experiences, that Microsoft calls ‘mixed reality’, differing the offering from augmented and virtual offerings with other vendors in the market.
 
Windows: The only holographic platform
With over 80 million virtual reality devices expected in the market, per year, by 2020, the business opportunity for virtual reality is vast. Yet, today’s devices are built with related but differing technologies — ranging from virtual to augmented reality. These devices and experiences do not work together today, because of different user interfaces, interaction models, input methods, peripherals and applications. Most virtual reality experiences can’t mix real people, objects and environments into the virtual world, making creation and collaboration difficult.
MyPOV – Good description of both the market opportunity and the challenge, the confusion and different standards, of course pitching the Microsoft direction of ‘mixed reality’. My hope would be so to see more device diversity as a consequence of this move for the Microsoft ‘mixed reality’ ecosystem – it’s the diversity that has propelled Android to the clear leader as mobile OS. Doing this around a common standard is a very important move to make sure that the still to be created software can reach enough customers.
 
Windows Holographic unites these worlds and enables innovation across a range of devices. Windows Holographic offers a holographic shell and user interface, perception APIs, and Xbox Live services, enabling a familiar experience across apps and content. All Universal Windows apps can run on the Windows Holographic platform. Today there are nearly a thousand Universal Windows Apps that run on Windows Holographic.
MyPOV – Good description of what Holographic is, effectively a platform for Microsoft’s mixed reality vision. Surprising in our era, that strongly emphasizes platforms, that the word platform is missing here. And good to see the link to the Universal Windows Apps, a key value proposition from Microsoft to developers, as these apps run across different Windows devices and form factors.

In a mixed reality world, devices can offer experiences that extend beyond the virtual world. Imagine wearing a VR device and seeing your physical hands as you manipulate an object, working on the scanned 3-D image of a real object, or bringing a real-life holographic representation of another person into your virtual world so you can collaborate. In this world, devices can spatially map your environment wherever you are; manipulating digital content is as easy and natural as it is in the real world. Interested partners can learn more at http://www.winhec.com.
MyPOV – Unusual to see use cases for products in press releases – obviously Microsoft was compelled to describe the advantages of the mixed reality proposition.
 
In addition to opening up Windows Holographic to its partner ecosystem for the future, Microsoft is working with Intel Corporation, AMD Inc., Qualcomm Inc., HTC Corp., Acer Inc., ASUS, Dell Inc., Falcon Northwest, HP, Lenovo Group Ltd., MSI and many others to build a hardware ecosystem supporting great virtual reality experiences on Windows 10.
MyPOV – This is an impressive list of partners and it is good to see Microsoft tapping into the partner ecosystem.
 

Overall MyPOV

There are two schools of thought when bringing new platforms to market – there is the Apple model – that controls all aspects of the platform, including manufacturing… the alternative is Google’s Android (or Microsoft Windows) model, defining the spec for the platform but leaving it to the market and competition of many manufacturers to provide the devices. There are pros and cons for both approaches, what is hard is when vendors who follow e.g. the Google / Android model switch to the Apple model. I saw that being the case with Microsoft and Hololens, but with this announcement Microsoft has headed back to familiar waters. And maybe it was all creating enough of a proof point for Hololens to create attention, attract demand and test and validate the platform.

And maybe Microsoft planned it that way, maybe it had to react to Google, which equally went into a partner spec model for its AR / VR offerings – see my event report of Google I/O here. And for Microsoft Build below.

Overall this is a key first step for Microsoft to make its mixed reality platform reality in the markets. First you need to sign the partners up, then they need to make money etc. – The good news for enterprises is that the partner model creates choice and competition. Chances that an attractive Hololens offering comes along in a second tier market have gone up. Purchasing managers are sleeping better knowing there will be more of competition for devices. Developers can already see uptake of the Windows Universal Apps, an important promise that Microsoft came through from the last Build conferences. Now the main challenge remains – as with all of augmented / virtual and mixed reality – time to create the new apps that these platforms need. With this announcement Microsoft has done a key step towards success for the Holographic platform… stay tuned for more.



More on Microsoft:
 
  • News Analysis - SAP and Microsoft usher in new era of partnership to accelerate digital transformation in the cloud - read here
  • Musings - Will Microsoft's Hololens transform the Future of Work? Read here
  • Event Report - Microsoft Build 2016 - A platform vision and plenty of tools for next generation applications - read here
  • First Take - Microsoft Build 2016 - Day 1 Keynote Takeaways - read here
  • Event Preview - Microsoft Build 2016 - Top 3 Things to watch for developers, managers and execs...  read here
  • News Analysis - Microsoft - New Hybrid Offerings Deliver Bottomless Capacity for Today's Data Explosion - read here
  • News Analysis - Welcoming the Xamarin team to Microsoft - read here
  • News Analysis - Microsoft announcements at Convergence Barcelona - Office365. Dynamics CRM and Power Apps 
  • News Analysis - Microsoft expands Azure Data Lake to unleash big data productivity - Good move - time to catch up - read here
  • News Analysis - Microsoft and Salesforce Strengthen Strategic Partnership at Dreamforce 2015 - Good for joint customers - read here
  • News Analyis - NetSuite announced Cloud Alliance with Microsoft - read here
  • Event Report - Microsoft Build - Microsoft really wants to make developers' lives easier - read here
  • First Hand with Microsoft Hololens - read here
  • Event Report - Microsoft TechEd - Top 3 Enterprise takeaways - read here
  • First Take - Microsoft discovers data ambience and delivers an organic approach to in memory database - read here
  • Event Report - Microsoft Build - Azure grows and blossoms - enough for enterprises (yet)? Read here.
  • Event Report - Microsoft Build Day 1 Keynote - Top Enterprise Takeaways - read here.
  • Microsoft gets even more serious about devices - acquire Nokia - read here.
  • Microsoft does not need one new CEO - but six - read here.
  • Microsoft makes the cloud a platform play - Or: Azure and her 7 friends - read here.
  • How the Cloud can make the unlikeliest bedfellows - read here.
  • How hard is multi-channel CRM in 2013? - Read here.
  • How hard is it to install Office 365? Or: The harsh reality of customer support - read here.
Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here
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What is an IoT Platform, and why does it need an AoT Engine?

What is an IoT Platform, and why does it need an AoT Engine?

As IT departments start to consider how to provide suitable quality support for their enterprises' IOT initiatives the adoption of a ‘Platform’ to reduce deployment times and costs is a logical move, but what exactly is an IoT Platform? Even more important than the technology definition is capabilities that a new generation of IoT business requirements will demand.

IT practitioners have had much of their thinking and understanding of 'Platforms' shaped over the last few years by their experiences with provisioning Applications, Apps, and some Services onto Clouds Platforms. It has taken more than five years for clarity to emerge on Cloud Platforms, partly due to technology maturing, but largely due to the new, and largely unforeseen in the early days, Business capabilities that became possible by using Cloud technology capabilities.

The shift from IT department initiatives to lower operational costs of traditional IT Enterprise Applications to creating business competitive value by Apps and Services caused many Enterprise investments in ‘Cloud Platforms’ to become ‘troublesome’. Planned moves for simplification with flexibility in provisioning delivery around Platform as a Service, PaaS, started to have to integrate with ‘Everything as a Service’, or XaaS at which point both Vendor and Architecture lock-in became issues.

Unfortunately deploying an IoT Platform looks likely to run through the same pattern as initial views on the use of IoT are most likely to be internally dominated around straight forward use of sensors for monitoring buildings, machines or expense assets. The longer term will see IoT as ‘anything and everything’ connected and interactively responsive in near ‘Real-Time’ heralding the new competitive Digital Business era.

The danger therefore is to take initial technology, (and first generation business), requirements to define an IoT Platform requirement. The IT department needs to some through research to understand IoT, (Internet of Things), and AoT, (Analytics of Things), in order to see beyond these initial requirements.  Thankfully there are now enough early adopter excellent business case studies published to be able to get a relatively clear picture.

Business Management sites are usually the prime source for case studies on how IoT and AoT are transforming Business, rather than Technology sites that by their very purpose are there to provide technical descriptions of the functionality of the current products.

In a way the very term IoT focuses the Platform requirement at the wrong end of the Business value chain. Yes, its true that without the ubiquitous connectivity of IoT devices of all types there would be no new capabilities. As ever the business value comes from the data flows from the IoT Devices, hence the increasing use of the term AoT, Analysis of Things. But its not more ‘Big Data’ to be analyzed in batches, instead the Business value is in as near to ‘Real-Time’ as possible ‘Reading’ of the Data Flows in order to create optimal individually ‘reactions’.

The ‘Digital Economy’, ‘Internet Economy’, or Services Economy’ are all terms for the same transformation; Changing the basis of market competition by using ‘real-time’ intelligence allied to a new generation of ‘Smart’ Services. Think of the impact of Social CRM around interacting and reacting with People, and then add the reaction to events fed by machines, events, and locations to understand how IoT/AoT will shape the future.

Those initial starting internally oriented requirements around connecting a finite number of defined sensors to on screen displays will soon be replaced by demands to deploy sophisticated externally oriented competitive Smart Services to compete in the market places.

This should read as a familiar pattern to those who have worked through the various stages of the adoption of Cloud technology, and the refocus of its capabilities into new Business value creating Enterprise advantage. The simple tool for internal cost reduction moved to becoming a key element in competitive business survival.

There are many pages of independent advice on choosing, operating, even contracting, for Cloud Platforms, but there is very little independent advice to be found on the topic of IoT Platforms. So what are the general characteristics that make an IoT/AoT Platform, or deployment environment, different?

Is there an equivalent to a Cloud Platform? A definition of a Platform as being able to facilitate the deployment of business software by hiding the complexity of the common underlying hardware and software layers. Key to this definition is that a Platform is generally ‘infrastructural’ by nature, provides constant connectivity between various elements, and has a stable set of common core functions. Indeed the whole concept of a Platform is tied to the stability, even predictability, of the environment.

In direct contrast with the stability of Cloud Platforms, and their environment, IoT creates its new business values from the ability to optimizing individual responses from dynamic, unpredictable, events. The often quoted ‘IoT/AoT Insightful Outcomes’ provides value simply because there is no previous foreseeable, or planned, relationships.

An IoT Platform has to simultaneously provide the simple, abstraction, of core technology elements for Developers of Smart Services; and the operational management of Data Flows occurring from unique dynamic event based activities.

An example may help to illustrate the point; Based on a group of IoT sensors triggering to report various event conditions from an Air Conditioner installed in an Office Building. The sensors are connected to an IoT Platform that collates the individual sensor event Data Flows into the recognition that the Air Conditioner has failed. The IoT Platform is supporting multiple IoT/AoT Smart Services, each providing a different and individual set of ‘Read and Response’ functions for some operational aspect of the Office Building.

Only one of those Services activates and manages the activities of an Air Conditioning Engineer and needs to recieve this particular Data Flow, with continuous ‘real time’ analysis optimizing the ‘smart’ operational reactions. However, in parallel there may well be several such event triggers and Data Flows invoking different Smart Services taking place at the same time.

An IoT ‘Platform’ has to support a complex, dynamic, multi functional capability covering both conventional Platform connectivity and common abstracted functions, AND, in addition to provide AoT ‘read and react’ with intelligent switching of Data Flows to individual Services as well.

This is most definitely not a description of the capabilities normally associated with a Platform, in fact the critical dynamic functionality closely resembles the definition normally applied to an ‘Engine’. In traditional computer programming the term Engine refers to a program that performs a core, or essential function for other program stating an ‘Engine’ to be an application program that coordinates the overall operation of other programs.

Architecturally an Engine is the central, or focal, program in an operating system, or subsystem. Once again the definition suits the role of an IoT/AoT Platform that in the decentralized ecosystem of IoT is performing the role of coordinating disparate activities into recognizable functional outcomes.

The simple Platform model derived from Clouds with their structured predictable use simply doesn’t fit with the requirements for the dynamic real time ‘Platform’ role needed to support Business valuable Smart Services driven by IoT/AoT ‘read and react’ optimizations.

The requirement IoT Platform definition comprises of three elements combining Platform, and Engine, into a sophisticated Enterprise and Business operational environment;

  1. Common IoT connectivity with associated levels of device management
  2. Abstraction of common functions to simplify delivery of Smart Services
  3. AoT Data Flow real time analysis with intelligent switching Smart Services

Additionally, IoT is, by definition, based on ever growing massive numbers of a huge variety of devices coming into use. An increasing majority of which will not be chosen, defined, or controlled, by the Enterprise that wants to make use of their data. Vendor lock in element of IoT/AoT architecture is a further risk to be considered.

Initial specifications for an IoT Platform will be to support initial IoT deployments and will often favor a particular vendor product that has been optimized for the installed IoT sensors, and data analytics. As Vendor lock has usually proved to be a major issue in successful long-term investment, and, with the recent experience of Cloud Platforms to offer further guidance, appreciation of the real functionality of this important Enterprise Business investment is essential.

The danger of early IoT requirements with direct-coupled simple Services masking the reality of the fast developing Business use of IoT/AoT with real-time Smart Services is all too obvious. The wise IT department will remember the opening part of this blog around how the role of Clouds changed and expanded redefining the requirements and uses of ‘Cloud Platform’.

As the era of IoT mass connectivity and real time AoT data drives market competitiveness based on Smart Services it will become imperative for an Enterprise to be able to have an IoT Platform, but it has to be close coupled to an AoT Engine.

Footnotes;

1)This blog refers to a fully functional integration Enterprise Platform capable of supporting interactions between multiple Smart Services by connecting IoT Sensors with AoT Dataflow analysis in an intelligent manner. This is NOT the same as an App Shop style Platforms currently in use and featured in the blog; Introducing market disruption strategies for market leaders based IoT platform collaboration

2) This blog is intended primarily to be read as part of the ongoing series of Blogs on the development of IoT, and now AoT, as Business Solutions supported by Technology integration and deployments. As such it uses terms and concepts explored in previous blogs; See for the full Blog series https://www.constellationr.com/users/andy-mulholland - profile2_main_account_group_research_agenda

New C-Suite

One Big Step for Commerce, One Giant Step for Salesforce

One Big Step for Commerce, One Giant Step for Salesforce

Salesforce’s $2.8 billion acquisition of Demandware will serve as the company’s Commerce Cloud. Demandware and Salesforce have a series of joint customers. This acquisition will enable more e-commerce for Salesforce along with Salesforce’s customer relationship management tools. CEO’a are realizing the value of platforms vs. point solutions and the trend is going towards the vendors creating more holistic platforms that offer a continuous marketing, sales, service process. In truth, only companies separate those aspects of their companies into different departments. But customers don’t see a company as separate departments. So the departments really need to act as a whole and software as a platform can be the key to that.

The acquisition will grow the sales “funnel” for Salesforce. There is the possibility to expand the relationship with existing customers. So it gives Salesforce a new group of customers to upsell for the other services that it already offered, from marketing and online analytics through to back-office software for sales and other IT functions. Who is Demandware working with now? Some customers include Design Within Reach, Lands’ End, L’Oreal and Marks & Spencer.

With more and more people buying on their phone and online, commerce and e-commerce is more and more important. This is a smart move by Salesforce.

@DrNatalie Petouhoff, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

Covering customer-facing applications that make great customer experiences

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News Analysis: Marketo Acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $1.8b, What It Means For Customers

News Analysis: Marketo Acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $1.8b, What It Means For Customers

Acquisitions Continue as Marketing Automation Space Consolidates And Slows In Growth

 

The consolidation of the Marketing Automation world continues with the latest news that one of the remaining independent enterprise marketing automation providers, Marketo, will be acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $1.8b.  Trading on Marketo stock has haulted this am.

Marketo Vista Analysis from Constellation Research on Vimeo.

News around Marketo engaging investment firm Morgan Stanley to prepare for a potential sale broke May 9th 2016, at the beginning of their annual conference, the Marketo Marketing Nation Summit.  Multiple suitors including Microsoft and SAP were rumored to be part of the bid process with Vista sealing the final deal. Here's Constellation's analysis to current Marketo customers and prospects.

*Disclosure: I was a happy Marketo customer at two different companies for a total of 5 years, and a 2016 finalist for the “Marketing Executive of the Year” Revvie Award. 

Vista Equity Partners Heavily Targeting CMO Spend

Vista Equity Partners focuses on enterprise software company investments and according to prior media interviews, has a track record of delivering 30% plus shareholder return.  To deliver this type of return, Vista is known to have their portfolio companies follow a “playbook” approach to maximize EBITDA.  This is often at the expense of talent retention and investments in marketing and R&D (just read some of the Glassdoor reviews of Vista companies).  Vista recently invested $1.65 billion to take event management software provider Cvent from public to private on April 18th, and they also own another event software company Lanyon and advertising technology company Media Ocean.  All of these acquisitions make Vista the PE company with the biggest stake in the Marketing and Advertising technology space.

My POV: Vista’s acquisition strategy could be to combine the digital marketing base of Marketo with Cvent and Layon’s physical event expertise to create an end-to-end marketing platform with the ability to provide analytics on customer behavior from digital to physical.  Add in Media Ocean for ad tech and done right, this could be a marketing customer journey analytics juggernaut.  I like the concept as there hasn’t been a smooth way to integrate the customer journey and behavior from physical events into a marketing automation platform without leveraging integration tools.  Most of the options today require much manual intervention and clunky at best. Even if Vista keeps all the companies operating separately, the opportunities for collaboration and integration still has much potential.

With the Lanyon, Media Ocean, Cvent and now Marketo acquisitions, Vista is making a big bet on the Chief Marketing Officer’s (CMO) growing budget authority and influence over technology decisions that involve customer engagement.

What It Means For Customers And Prospects

Advice for current Marketo customers:

  • Customers in a renewal cycle should lock in pricing and terms ASAP.  Customers who wait must be prepared to sign multi-year agreements during renewal time as part of Vista’s playbook approach.  Those 1-year renewal options that Marketo customers enjoyed will cease to exist.   For those looking for a good deal, sign a multi-year agreement with minimal CPI price increases as Vista's team will try to build price increases into future multi-year deals.
  • Expect delays on Project Orion and more.  The product releases Marketo announced at Summit such as their upcoming Orion platform re-write and new Account Based Marketing features should continue to be delivered, but expect delays as the Marketo leadership goes through the deal process.  Vista tends to slow R&D investment at portfolio companies, but if they look into the Marketo + Cvent + Media Ocean idea, that will likely be the innovation in the future. 
  • Prepare for the unique culture of Marketo to fade away.   The “fun” aspects of how Marketo has been marketing to customers and engaging the broader marketing community will likely suffer as Vista tends to scale back on portfolio company expenses and in particular Marketing expenses. Employee satisfaction has a track record of dropping under Vista (see Glassdoor reviews) and customer support is likely to suffer as talent retention will be an issue.  Try to build in SLA’s around support into renewals to ensure quality of service.

If you are a Marketo prospect:

  • Marketo remains a robust and attractive marketing automation solution. Marketo currently prices by package and database size (number of customer email contacts).  Get a good estimate on  database size and lock in  pricing and contracts asap.  Try to have language included for price protection on future license renewals. 
  • Work with a Marketo services or a partner to help in implementation planning.  Talk to other customers to get a sense of the real scope and impacts
  • Feel free to work with Constellation on how to negotiate that price into deals.   Many customers focus on the software subscription and forget services, which can be a costly mistake.

 

The Bottom Line: Expect Negative Impact From Vista In Short Term, Potential Positive Synergies In Mid-Term

With the Vista deal, Marketo can continue to operate independently and customers won’t be deluged with the cross-selling of various “clouds” by companies like Oracle, Salesforce and Microsoft.  This is positive for customers that take a best-of-breed approach to their marketing and sales tech stack, and good for Marketo’s ecosystem of partners. Constellation remains cautious on the future development of the company under Vista and their strict playbook.  One could expect a mass exodus of key leadership and talent as innovators and early employees struggle with Vista’s various employee tests and focus on expense reduction. As a former customer, I've enjoyed being a part of the “Marketing Nation”, and hope that the vibrant, fun culture Marketo has built doesn’t diminish too much. 

The consolidation of the Marketing automation space begun with Oracle’s acquisition of Market2Lead then Eloqua, Salesforce’s pick up of ExactTarget and Pardot, and don’t forget IBM’s Unica and Silverpop.   Now all eyes turn to Microsoft and SAP as they are both in need to beef up their marketing solution to round out their solution set.  Will HubSpot be the next?

Marketing Transformation Tech Optimization New C-Suite Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Innovation & Product-led Growth Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Future of Work salesforce SAP Microsoft Marketing B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience AI ML Generative AI Analytics Automation Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Growth eCommerce Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration SaaS PaaS IaaS Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Enterprise Service Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer

Cloud Foundry Cloud Foundry Summit - It's good to be king of PaaS

Cloud Foundry Cloud Foundry Summit - It's good to be king of PaaS

We had the opportunity to attend Cloud Foundry’s Cloud  Foundry Summit in Santa Clara, held from May 23rd till 25th 2016. The conference was well attended with over 2000 participants, coming from customers, prospects and the ecosystem.

 

So take a look at my musings on the event here:



 
 
 
 
No time to watch – here is the 1-2 slide condensation:
 


Want to read on? 

Here you go: Always tough to pick the takeaways – but here are my Top 3:

Growing, growing – staying humble – The part that strikes me the most with Cloud Foundry is that despite its substantial success in the PaaS market, the vendor remains humble… certainly kudos go to the management team and certainly the combination with open source on the foundation side helped. But a commercial software vendor, with similar success, would have a different attitude and conference. The humble approach maybe well the secret that attracts so many enterprises to make Cloud Foundry their PaaS of Choice.

It’s not about cloud only and not about single cloud – Cloud Foundry is also a data point that shows that enterprises don’t want a cloud only strategy, speaking to a number of attending customers and prospects, the on premises capabilities of Cloud Foundry are a point of attraction. And by now it is clear that cloud lock-in is something enterprise want to avoid, too. Right after on premise delivery option, the multi-cloud capability of CloudFoundry were the next mentioned reason for interest in the vendor.

No serious competition (for the moment) – Cloud Foundry is in a unique positon - for now. Much has been said and written about IaaS ‘eating’ the PaaS layer, and a number of PaaS players disappeared that way. Apart from large technology stack vendors e.g. Oracle and Microsoft making a big move, Cloud Foundry is setup very well in the PaaS market. The vendor has basically established itself as the ‘Switzerland’ of PaaS, with investment and uptake of almost all major players in the enterprise software and services market. And ecosystem adoption has ‘flywheel’ effects that are even strengthening this momentum. E.g. when the largest enterprise software vendor (SAP) chooses Cloud Foundry as its PaaS tool, that’s a major win for the platform, as it drags the probably largest services ecosystem in enterprise software on the platform.

 

MyPOV


There is very little not to like about Cloud Foundry at the moment. The multi-cloud support path the vendor has embarked on about 2 years ago is paying off. Breaking away from the VMware / EMC architecture was certainly a key move, making Cloud Foundry one of the (few) diamonds in the rough of the combined Dell / EMC portfolio. Now it is going to be key to make the next wave of partners and customers successful on the platform to continue the momentum.

On the concern side, much to this analyst’s dismay who always tries to paint a balanced picture, there is very little to be concerned about. Not being too religious on the paradigm of pair programming is a key course for Cloud Foundry, and I heard almost no ‘this way or the highway’ messaging on this at the summit. So the analysis needs to go more into the platform direction, where trends like AI / Machine Learning and the size of compute virtualization (VMs vs micro services) are features / capabilities that the vendor needs to approach and implement the right way, in order to avoid missing out on future ‘attraction’ point to other PaaS players.

But overall a very good Cloud Foundry Summit, vendor, partners and ecosystem are growing, very few, almost no things not to like at the moment. We will keep watching.

Want to learn more? Checkout the Storify collection below.


More on Pivotal / Cloud Foundry
  • News Analysis - Pivotal makes Cloud Foundry more about multi-cloud - read here
  • News Analysis - Pivotal pivots to OpenSource and Hortonworks - Or: OpenSource keeps winning - read here
  • New Analysis: Pivotal Now Makes It Easier Than Ever to Take Software from Idea to Production - read here

More on Next Generation Applications::
 
  • Event Report - Google I/O 2016 - Android N soon, Google assistant sooner and VR / AR later - read here
  • News Analysis - SAP and Microsoft usher in new era of partnership to accelerate digital transformation in the cloud - read here
  • Event Report - OpenStack Summit 2016 - Austin - OpenStack matures, grows up - read here
  • First Take - Workato’s Workbot cuts business users some slack with Slack integration - read here
  • Progress Report - Cloudera is all in with Hadoop - now off to verticals - read here
  • First Take - SAP Cloud for Planning - The next spreadsheet killer is off to a good start - read here
  • Market Move - Oracle buys Datalogix - moves into DaaS - read here
  • News Analysis - SAP commits to Cloud Foundry and OpenStack - Key Steps - but what is the direction? Read here
  • Event Report - MongoDB is a showcase for the power of Open Source in the enterprise - read here
  • Musings - A manifesto: What are 'true' analytics? Read here
  • Future of Work - One Spreadsheet at the time - Informatica Springbok - read here
  • Musings - The Era of the no-design Database - Read here
  • Mendix - the other path to build software - read here
  • Musings - Time to ditch your datawarehouse .... - Read here

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.
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Research Summary: The Algorithm of You: How IoT Transforms and Differentiates Customer Experience

Research Summary: The Algorithm of You: How IoT Transforms and Differentiates Customer Experience

Using the Internet of Things to Boost Revenue and Deliver a Brand’s Personalized Promise

The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to revolutionize the way business is run and to create differentiated customer experiences. IoT allows for the processing of massive numbers of device events and for commingling those events with business and customer events. This combination generates the next-best, in-context business actions, and thus, smart, differentiated IoT-driven customer experiences.

Companies use “the algorithm of you” to collect and process a myriad of data on each customer and potential customer via the IoT. This allows companies to know customers and prospects better and to deliver offers, products and services that are relevant and in context to clients’ real-time needs and desires via channels and devices customers prefer. In essence, the company learns over time about its customers and can automate the data processing and reasoning tasks to create superior customer experiences. In turn, these IoT-enhanced customer experiences, designed to impress, amuse and increase the customers’ loyalty to a brand’s products and/or services, will allow companies to gain more revenue and deliver on the promise of the brand.

Learn how can your company turn the idea of “IOT-driven customer experiences” into a tangible reality. This report details how to use IoT to create positive effects on both the bottom-line and the customer experience.

The next report in this series will examine how the Internet of Things powers the “as-a-service” economy, in which winners and losers will be determined by he quality and uniqueness of the customer experience.
Algorithm of You - IoT and Customer Experience

 

Your POV.

Have you explored IOT? What smart services will you enable to transform CX? Let us know what your experiences have been and feel free to reach out.  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

Please let us know if you need help with your Digital Business transformation efforts. Here’s how we can assist:

  • Developing your digital business strategy
  • Connecting with other pioneers
  • Sharing best practices
  • Vendor selection
  • Implementation partner selection
  • Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
  • Demystifying software licensing

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* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions.  However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.

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The Future of Work: People, Places and Technology

The Future of Work: People, Places and Technology

On May 25th I had the pleasure of participating in an all day Think Tank about the Future of Work. The event was hosted by Adobe and took place at One Kearny in San Francisco, in conjunction with the release of a new FoW study Adobe has just published.

The Think Tank brought together eight industry experts to discuss potential changes in the future of work that will take place over the next 5 years in the categories of people, places and technology. Some of the things we discussed include:
- What is work? Is it something we do for money or personal fulfillment?
- What is employment? Should we all be contractors? What is loyalty? 
- Where do we work? Office? Home? In transit? In shared spaces? In virtual environments?
- What is work:life balance, or life:work balance, or blending, or integration, or just life?
- Should work be fun? Should we have choices of what we do, or do we need to just accept what’s available?
- What’s wrong with the tools (software and hardware) we use today at work, and how can we fix them?   How will AI, VR/AR, wearables, IoT, etc. impact getting work done?
- How should performance be measured? Today jobs can scale on the web far more than they could in the physical workplace. What is the return per employee?
- How should we be paid for work? Is money the only currency? 
- Are robots and AI going to replace us all?
- Have we seen all this before, and we’re just living in the middle of a current cycle, or is something different this time?

I had a great time interacting with and learning from the experts on people and workplaces, and hope I contributed on the topics of technology. I found the event extremely beneficial, and will use the information to guide several of the topics I write/speak about in the future.

One thing I would have like to have seen us do more of is push the boundaries further. To be fair, the day was focused primarily on the next 5 years or so, but imagine the next 10 or 20! Think about transit to work via hyperloop subways, ramjet planes or self-driving cars. What about when “function specific wearables" go away, and their functionality is just woven directly into our clothes, shoes, glasses, hats, etc. ex: Imagine a map displayed right on the sleeve of your jacket. What will work be like when augmented reality provides us information in real time, right within our field of view? How will holographic displays or flexible/foldable/bendable screens impact our ability to create and consume information? The future is exciting, and I can’t wait to be part of it.

Below is the recording of one part of the Think Tank, in which Jeremiah Owyang moderates a 90 minute discussion with us all. Stay tuned, as more content will be released from the day long event, including short interviews and highlights from our brainstorming workshops. *I am looking into if anyone has indexed the 90 minutes, listing the questions and their timing.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the future of work.  Will is remain the same? Will it be completely different? What do you hope changes? What do you hope stays the same?

Future of Work Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Marketing Transformation Next-Generation Customer Experience Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Data to Decisions Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Experience Officer

Greenhouse Open Conference - Best of Breed Talent Acquisition is alive and well

Greenhouse Open Conference - Best of Breed Talent Acquisition is alive and well

We had the opportunity to attend Greenhouse’s Green House Open conference in San Francisco, held from May 25th till 27th 2016. The conference was well attended with over 900 participants, coming from customers, prospects and the ecosystem, roughly tripling to last year’s event. The event was held at the Hilton Union Square, one of the most confusing labyrinth like event spaces, kudos goes to the Greenhouse event team for making directions easy to handle. 



 

So take a look at my musings on the event here:



 

No time to watch – here is the 1 slide condensation:



 



Want to read on?

 
 
Here you go: Always tough to pick the takeaways – but here are my Top 3:

Best of Breed vs Suite – The number one concern of HR professionals has been and will remain integration. Suites have always addressed the integration issues, but usually with the price of lacking best practices. Given the competitive nature of Talent Acquisition it is no surprise though that there is a well doing vendor ecosystem in the space, and Greenhouse provides the data point for that once again. The vendor is growing, expanding its product (see below) and remains strategic for its user group, always good to see competition spurned from innovation. It was also good to see that Greenhouse spend a lot of attention to change management and empowering recruiters to get hiring managers to adopt the system. While the power user of a Recruiting solution is very small user population in the enterprise, hiring managers are a very large population. If hiring managers don’t use the recruiting solution the recruiters prefer, there is an adoption issue and a potential conflict. So good to help recruiters convince their ‘customers, the hiring managers on the merits of the solution.
Another sign of traction for Greenhouse is the ecosystem the vendor is creating, with substantial complimentary vendor sponsorship and show floor presence at the conference.

Onboarding becomes table stakes – As a general trend for Talent Acquisition, Onboarding becomes part of Recruiting vendor offerings. Onboarding itself has traditionally been the lightest weight talent management function in terms of revenue and relevance. It comes as no surprise that it is not the Onboarding vendors that acquire or built recruiting functionality, but the recruiting vendors buying (e.g. Greenhouse Parklet – see here) or building the functionality (e.g. Jobvite – see here). And the move makes sense, enterprises spend a lot for a superior candidate experience, if that falls into shambles once the coveted candidate becomes an employee – not a good outcome. In ‘employment at will’ states it may even lead to talent leakage. And reducing that leakage, may well pay for the whole Onboarding solution as Greenhouse’s Stross pointed out in his keynote. Greenhouse has integrated Parklet now, the small Parklet engineering team is part of the Greenhouse team and the solution work together out of the box. What surprised me is that Parklet has not moved to the Greenhouse look and feel, as we are 6+ months after the acquisition.

Innovation and good housekeeping – Greenhouse not only announced its new Onboarding capability, but also made a mobile interviewing application available (on iOS for now only), both good moves. Moreover, he vendor is addressing usability concerns with new dashboards and a general UIX overhaul, check out what is coming in tweets in the Storify below). In a keynote of Jon Stross, shared the 4 leitmotivs of Greenhouse product investment, which are usability, flexibility, more data driven functions and Onboarding. The doers in the audience received many of the planned innovations well, always a good sign. On the functionality side Greenhouse will add multi job posts, tiered departments, and an API for internal job posts (maybe next area of functional footprint extension?), better collaboration support, improved interview kits and support for more user roles to name those future capabilities that stuck out for me.

MyPOV

A good conference for Greenhouse, that is growing and expanding its footprint. The customer base is energized and loyal, and overall happy with the products. That fact that such a large number of recruiting professionals took out 2-3-4 days out of their busy schedule, risking they may be falling behind on hiring targets, is a strong indication of a loyal user base. And it is good to see that Greenhouse is listening to its customer base, expanding the functional footprint and doing the necessary good housekeeping duties, most prominently addressing usability improvements.

On the concern Greenhouse needs to enable recruiters and hiring managers with more intelligence, maybe more predictive / 'true' analytics (more here), not to write the buzz word of machine learning. But users should not look at lists of candidates that are not sorted by urgency / relevance in 2016 – something the vendor must and will address.

But overall a good conference, Greenhouse is making good progress – and we can state that the Recruiting (and no Onboarding) market is doing well. Stay tuned.



Want to learn more? Checkout the Storify collection below. 



More on Recruiting
  • Musings - How Technology Innovation fuels Recruiting and disrupts the Laggards - read here
  • Musings - What is the future of recruiting? Read here
  • HRTech 2014 takeaways - read here.
  • Why all the attention to recruiting? Read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard and my YouTube channel here.
 
Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization New C-Suite Data to Decisions Marketing Transformation Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity AI Analytics Automation CX EX Employee Experience HCM Machine Learning ML SaaS PaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Enterprise Software Enterprise IT Leadership HR Chief People Officer Chief Customer Officer Chief Human Resources Officer

Natalie Petouhoff's Research Agenda and Published Research

Natalie Petouhoff's Research Agenda and Published Research

If you are wondering what I have been up to lately, I thought I would put all the research I have published  into one place. Here’s a list of Dr. Natalie’s completed and published research and soon to be published content! It ranges from IOT, Analytics, Big Data, Customer Experience, Leadership, Organizational Change Management, Storytelling, Collaboration, Digital Transformation, Social Selling, Social Media, the Cloud, Marketing, Sales, SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, DaaS, AI, Machine Learning, Innovation, Social Networks, Social Media Monitoring, Mobile, Customer Service and Customer Success Management….and a few things in-between…

IOT (The Internet of Things), Innovation, AI, Machine Learning, Analytics and the Cloud

• The Algorithm of You: How IoT Transforms and Differentiates Customer Experience: Using the Internet of Things to Boost Revenue and Deliver a Brand’s Personalized Promise

• Digital Disruption: The Blind Spot That Could Sink Your IoT and CX Initiatives

• The Internet of Things Improves Customer Experience in Retail Supply Chain

• Halo Uses Xively’s Internet of Things Platform to Redefine Safety Devices

• The As-a-Service Economy: CX and IOT Mean You Have to Deliver Great Experiences- Upcoming

• Customer Experience IOT in the Automotive Industry-Upcoming

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Digital Transformation: Customer Engagement, CRM, Innovation, Customer Experience, Customer Service, The Cloud and Analytics

• Going Digital with Systems Integrators and Agencies: What to Expect

• The Future of Customer Experience - A Survey

• ROI Of Customer Service & Customer Experience

• How to Measure Customer Experience: Performance Management Maturity-Upcoming

• Case Study: Elaine Turner® Brand and Oracle Commerce, Marketing and Customer Service-Upcoming

• The Need for Inspiring Leaders to Orchestrate Customer Experience Initiatives-Upcoming

• Experience Management: How to Deliver Integrated Customer Experiences

• How Rackspace Creates the Next-Generation Customer Experience

• The ROI Of Agile Customer Care: Reduce Training and Easy To Add Channels

• Digital Imperatives for Omni-Channel Retail Customer Experiences

• Nine Pillar Of Successful Self-Service for Digital Customer Engagement

• 6 Pillars of e-commerce Customer Engagement

• 9 C’s of Customer Engagement – Delivery and Communication Styles: Channels, Content and Cadence

• 9 C’s of Customer Engagement – People Centric Values: External & Internal Culture, Community, Credibility

• 9 C’s of Customer Engagement – Right Time Drivers: Context, Catalysts, Currency

• How Delta Uses Microsoft Dynamics and Avanade to Create Next-Generation Customer Experiences

• How Microsoft Dynamics CRM Improves Productivity at Trek Bicycle

• Delta Uses Microsoft to Transform Flight Operations and the Customer Experience

• New Belgium Brewing Creates Great Customer Experiences Using Microsoft Dynamics

• Beyond Journey Maps, Delivering Mass Personalization at Scale

• The State of Customer Service and Support Evolves 

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Social Media, Customer Service, CRM, Analytics, Innovation and the Cloud

• How General Motors Using Social Media To Listen To Customers and Sell Cars and Deliver Service

• The ROI of Online Communities: Online Communities Provide Value Beyond Call Deflection

• Why Top Marketers Create Branded Social Networks for Customer Engagement

• The State of Customer Service and Support Evolves 

• ROI of Social Customer Service- Upcoming

• The Customer Service Playbook for Integration of Traditional, Digital, Social and Mobile Customer Service Strategies and Technologies-Upcoming

• Mobile Customer Service-Upcoming

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Digital Marketing, Analytics, Innovation and the Cloud

• Should the Chief Marketing Officer Oversee the Whole Customer Experience?

• Data-Driven Marketing Campaign Optimization

• VentureBeat: Should the CMO Run the Whole Customer Experience?

• Executive Brief: Can Brands Keep Their Promise?

• Oracle Moves Its Focus from the CIO to the CMO

• How to Staff the Team for Effective Content Marketing

• The State of Marketing 

• Marketing Funnels Are Dead, What’s Next?

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Digital and Social Sales; Commerce, Innovation, Analytics and the Cloud

• How Sales Leaders and Sales Reps Can Create a Social Selling Organization: Convert Average Sales Teams into Top Performers Using Social Networks

• Five Approaches to Drive Customer Loyalty in a Digital World

• The Modern Sales Experience

• Continuity of Customer Experiences Drives the Future of Commerce

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Customer Success Management, Analytics, Innovation and the Cloud

• The State of Customer Success Management

• Gainsight: Customer Success Management for a Post-Sale, On-Demand, Attention Economy

• ServiceSource: Customer Success Management for a Post-Sale, On-Demand, Attention Economy

• Bluenose: Customer Success Management for a Post-Sale, On-Demand, Attention Economy

• Totango: Customer Success Management for a Post-Sale, On-Demand, Attention Economy

***********************************************************************************

If you are interested in learning about any of these reports or research, a speech or webinar on any of these or related topics, please reach out to me here!

@DrNatalie Petouhoff, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

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Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer

Business Agility Delivered At The Pace Of Change

Business Agility Delivered At The Pace Of Change

Digital transformation is a methodology in which organizations change and create new business models and culture with digital technologies. Digital transformation has contributed greatly to a major business upheaval: since 2000, 52% of companies in the Fortune 500 have either gone bankrupt, been acquired or merged, gone bankrupt, or ceased to exist. These organizations failed to respond quickly to the pace of change. In fact, the lack of business agility led to their demise.

While most organizations face massive technical debt from legacy infrastructure and applications, market leaders and fast followers realize that the future requires making proactive and strategic use of digital technologies to support the future strategy of their organizations. They see the shift from analog to digital systems as a continued march to delivering business agility.

Modern systems start with an anticipatory approach aimed at solving the issue of massive individual scale and enabling connected experiences. These systems simplify the business environment by abstracting information from the older systems to create new paradigms. As business requirements evolve, these systems deliver platforms that enable organizations to continuously match an organization’s evolution. Consequently, new next-generation platforms and apps must deliver business agility at today’s and tomorrow’s pace of change. The progression to digital follows a progression from systems of engagement to digital systems that deliver mass personalization at scale (see Figure 1).

Constellation

Figure 1. From Analog to Mass Personalized Systems

Systems of engagement provide standalone and embedded social media and collaboration capabilities, which introduced new verbs to computing, including like, share, publish, collaborate, and subscribe. These systems started with a design point of “sense and respond,” with a goal of solving problems of massive social scale. These systems support interactive experiences, from touch-screens to gestures. Communication styles focus on conversations that happened in real time. The impact and reach shifts from departmental to more widely interconnected. Information moves from highly structured data to loosely structured knowledge. Intelligence builds on hard-coded or deterministic business rules, which provide a greater sense of smartness.

The next level of business agility is systems of experience. It starts with an agile and flexible design point. Experiential systems deliver massive contextual scale. Bionic, human APIs connect users to systems, with a communication style of role-tailored interactions. The speed of real-time, coupled with contextual relevancy, creates right-time interactions, where delivery of information and insight happen as needed. Right-time interactions improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Experiential systems move beyond the four walls of the corporate environment and push out to customer-, employee-, partner-, and supplier-driven segmented value chains. Knowledge flows into systems as immersive streams filtered by context. As these systems get smarter, intelligence gains a probabilistic, pattern-based, self-learning approach. To date, these systems do not exist out of the box, and market leaders must design, assemble, integrate, and build these systems from scratch. Early examples include ad networks, gamification models, and demand-sensing supply chain and commerce systems.

Leading technology providers are building for the future of digital with mass personalized systems. The shift to mass personalized systems delivers a customer segment of one and drives the goals of building a digital architecture. Leading technology providers assemble the components to deliver on an intention-driven design point for massive individual scale. These systems craft user experiences personalized from self-learning and designed by use case. The communication style reflects an appreciation for sentience, the ability to feel. Mass personalized systems move in a space-time continuum, as these systems not only anticipate personalized requests, but also build prediction models of what is most likely to occur. The impact and reach are tailored to people-to-people networks that move beyond corporations, but balance personal and business connections. Information management builds on context and then applies knowledge bases to deliver situational awareness. Intelligence is predictive. Early examples include decision-support systems, personal clouds, identity, and vendor relationship management systems.

As organizations have emerged more efficient from technical debt- and cost-reduction efforts over the past decade, leaders are poised to address the next set of business challenges, which require more than incremental innovation. In fact, incremental innovation is no longer enough. Organizations must manage the constant tension and expectation to create new business models or disrupt existing models with new technologies and the need to invest for the future without harming short-term profits. These market forces create a high priority for investing in business agility and will provide the catalysts to build the next generation of systems that meet the pace of change required to succeed in the digital world.

This blog post first appeared in Digital Magazine

Matrix Commerce Next-Generation Customer Experience Innovation & Product-led Growth Leadership Chief Customer Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Experience Officer