New Report: True Value of Technology in Food Supply Chains

Director of Customer Programs, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Carole oversees the Constellation Executive Network, an executive community for innovative senior leaders who value strategic guidance from trusted advisors who understand the power of disruptive technologies. Carole brings over 15 years of marketing, strategic account management, and operations experience, specializing in high technology and professional services. She holds a BA from Santa Clara University and a MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management.     ...

Read more

My March issue of Bon Appetit magazine arrived just days ago, and it's not just any issue. It's the culture issue. Why does this matter? It matters because we've been dubbed as food obsessed. Notice the smartphone with the pizza photo. That artisan pizza looks good enough to eat.

This scenario provides just one example among many of how consumers value food choices more and more these days. That cultural shift affects food supply chains. 

It's this new trend related to consumer preferences that makes this new report authored by Guy Courtin, Constellation Research VP & Principal Analyst, so relevant now. It validates the need for food supply chains to embrace technology that can deliver mass personalization to satisfy today's savvy consumers.

As Guy's executive summary points out, 

The food supply chain is challenging enough when it comes to the growing, harvesting, processing, transporting and distribution of food so that humans can safely consume it. As grocers, food manufacturers and restaurants strive to keep up with consumers’ needs and preferences, they must have the discipline to continually explore how technologies and processes can buttress their efforts to meet the evolving demands of regulatory compliance and consumer preferences. In addition, they must continuously battle for profit margin and market share that are being threatened from multiple angles.

This report looks at what companies in the food supply chain need to consider to thrive in these challenging times. This report offers insights on four of Constellation’s business research themes: Consumerization of Technology, Matrix Commerce, Data to Decisions, and Technology Optimization & Innovation.

Spoiler alert: Whole Foods Market, one of my personal favorites for grocery stores, is mentioned.

If you want to find out more, you can download a report excerpt here. 

 

Data to Decisions Matrix Commerce New C-Suite Tech Optimization Sales Marketing Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Next-Generation Customer Experience Supply Chain Automation Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software IoT Blockchain ERP Leadership Collaboration M&A Chief Supply Chain Officer Chief Experience Officer

McDonald’s breakfast gamble paying off…customer continues to dominate relationship.

pending

Guy Courtin was formerly Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research covering Matrix Commerce and how the Internet of Things drives the evolution of commerce.  Guy has over 15 years experience in the technology space and specifically in the supply chain space. Most recently he was the Vice President of Research at SCM World. Where he focused on the service providers that empowered supply chains. Prior to SCM World, Guy held numerous senior positions. He was responsible for product marketing at RSi, a retail supply chain solution provider. There managed RSi’s go to market strategy around their leading cloud based supply chain solutions. He also spear headed Progress Software’s supply chain group. Where he was responsible for driving revenue and market share as well…...

Read more

Last Fall, McDonald’s announced it would be offering their breakfast menu all day. It was widely seen as a bold move, but one that had a certain level of risk. Especially when it came to how their supply chain would be able to support the change. We took a cautiously optimistic view of the move – click here for our post. The gamble seems to be paying off for McDonald’s as well as to the detriment of their competitors. Players such as Jack in the Box basically admitted that their competitor’s offering all day breakfast has been detrimental to their business:

“Jack in the Box sales in the last part of the quarter were lower than we anticipated as several competitors began promoting aggressive value offers,” Jack in the Box CEO Lenny Comma said. “We also experienced weakness at breakfast and lunch throughout the quarter, which we attribute primarily to our decision to shift the timing of some of our promotional activity around breakfast to the second quarter as compared to the first quarter of last year. In addition, we believe a competitor’s messaging around its launch of all-day breakfast had some impact on our results, particularly in the 10:30 a.m. to noon period.”

Click here for the full post on McDonald’s breakfast results.

The undertone of this shift with McDonald’s and the positive results they are enjoying, goes back to the rise of the customer. The customer spoke, those that listened are reaping the benefits. The restaurant and food industries are retail sub-segments that are particularly sensitive to customers’ tastes…literally. As we have witnessed customers’ power growing in the relationships with retailers, this is never more apparent than in the food sub-segment.  Restaurants and grocers have to be acutely in tune with the changing winds of demand from their customer base. Especially as food has become a fashion extension – foodies of all shapes and forms are abound.

As McDonald’s offered all day breakfast, not based on a whim but due to what they perceived as an unmet demand from their customer base. The lesson to take from these results is not only that McDonald’s has found success with their venture, but they also had the proper basis to make this decision. Weighing perceived customer demand, pent up market need and impacts on margins have to be taken into consideration when launching into a new product and direction.

Congratulations to McDonald’s on finding success with their all day breakfast. But as we all know, success can be fleeting. The Golden Arches cannot rest on their laurels. Not only will their competitors refocus on how they can retake some market share but the customers’ demand will evolve in manners we have not yet thought of. It is up to these entities to try and stay ahead of this wave. Not an easy task.

For an in-depth look at the food supply chain, click here for our latest research.

Tagged: Food and Beverage, McDonalds, Restaurant, Supply Chain

Data to Decisions Matrix Commerce New C-Suite Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth Supply Chain Automation Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software IoT Blockchain ERP Leadership Collaboration M&A Chief Supply Chain Officer

NBCUniversal Launches One-Stop Shop for Data-Driven Ad Targeting

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

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

Read more

What is Audience Studio? NBCUniversal wants to make it easier for advertisers to use data to target audiences more precisely across TV, digital and social media. The media company, owned by Comcast Corp. , is introducing a new division called Audience Studio, which is dedicated to helping marketers employ data for ad targeting purposes by tying together four different ad buying products NBCU has introduced over the past few years. Audience Studio is being led by Denise Colella, NBCU’s senior vice president of data platforms and strategy who is in the midst of putting together a team of specialists for the new endeavor, including several planned hires.

Does Audience Studio Have a Data Management Platform? In addition to the group of ad targeting experts, at the heart of Audience Studio is a new “data management platform.” It’s basically a set of digital tools that advertisers will be able to use to match their own data with data from NBCU and third-party sources, in order to put together ad targeting segments, such as new moms in the market for a family friendly car. Marketers can then use that information to direct their advertising to those groups on TV and the Web.

What Four Offerings Does Audience Studio Include? Audience Studio will essentially tie together four recently launched NBCU ad offerings: Its Audience Targeting Platform lets advertisers target specific audiences on linear TV, and NBCUx is a similar product for digital media. NBCU+ Powered by Comcast provides marketers some access to Comcast set-top data for ad targeting purposes. And Social Synch helps brands extend the reach of their ad buys across various social networks.

Why Is Audience Studio An Interesting Opportunity for Marketers? Until now, a marketer looking to take advantage of two or more of these tools might have had to input data several different ways and come up with different definitions of potential ad targeting segments. Brands were largely then left to try to match up the segments manually. As more advertisers look to employ data-centric ad strategies across multiple media outlets, the process has the potential to cause major headaches, according to Krishan Bhatia, executive vice president of business operations and strategy at NBCU.

“If before you had this Chinese Wall between groups, with this, you are permeating that,” Mr. Bhatia said. “Going forward, a brand can now align their data inputs and outputs.”

What’s the Most Difficult Part of Targeting the Right Audience Segments? Naturally, advertisers want to eliminate any potential barriers when trying to increase their use of sophisticated targeting. Yet one complaint some buyers have raised recently is that they are worried that the each of the big TV companies will build its own unique systems and processes for data-driven advertising. That level of complexity might hold back the overall market’s potential, these buyers say.

In fact, some have advocated for a single technological solution that all the big TV players could employ for data-driven ad buys.

With Audience Studio, will NBCU be accused of going its own way? Mr. Bhatia said that he’d be more than willing to listen if such a broader effort were under way. But, we don’t have the luxury to wait for that solution to emerge,” he said. “We’d be the first people to think through how we might use that to help our clients. But right now we want to establish a leadership position and let our ad clients use any sort of data you could possibly imagine for advertising.”

MY POV: With yet another possible target marketing option in the marketplace, marketers need to take a really close look at the technology their currently have. It may mean that they do a “bake off” and determine, by comparing actual results, what technologies and platforms will really serve their needs to not only target the right audience, but also to increase lead conversion rates. The good thing is marketers have more choices than ever. The bad thing is, marketers have more choices than ever.

@Drnatalie, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

Covering Cloud, IOT, Marketing, Sales and Service to Create Awesome Customer Experiences

Marketing Transformation Sales Marketing Innovation & Product-led Growth Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Future of Work AI ML Machine Learning Generative AI Analytics Automation B2B B2C CX EX Employee Experience business Marketing SaaS PaaS Growth Cloud Digital Transformation eCommerce Enterprise Software CRM ERP Leadership Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Marketing Officer

How the Car Park exposes Digital Failures that Kill Customer Experience

Founder, capioIT
calitolIT

Phil is the founder of capioIT, a research analyst firm focussed on driving change in the analyst and research market through innovation and collaboration, with a strong focus on IT services and BPO strategies in the Asia/Pacific region. He has 17 years' experience in corporate strategy, consulting and market intelligence, gained in a diverse range of organisations and industries. Prior to founding capioIT, he established the Australian and Services business units at Springboard Research. Prior to Springboard Research, Phil was responsible for driving analyst firm IDC's research in the services marketplace across the Asia/Pacific region. During his 6 years at IDC, Phil led a large multi-national team of analysts across a range of IT related services with a particular focus on IT…...

Read more

1

The humble car park. It is difficult to believe that this is the frontline on the identification of digital failures and the need for Digital Devil’s Advocates – see – http://wp.me/p15cZf-ek . The humble piece of real estate that is the car park has become a clear example of how digital will fail when new technology or initiatives are locked on to legacy processes. This was clearly seen with the Westfield example – http://wp.me/p15cZf-dy. Note that the media finally caught up to capioIT with their breathless “exclusive” on the parking issue that only came out 3 months after we had first identified the issue.

Of course, Westfield is not the only parking issue, the rise of GoGet, ZipCar, Car2Go et al highlights how inflexible current frameworks can be in a digital world and how a new regime of thought and process and investment is essential.

As the photo highlights many car parks only allow one arrival per day for free parking periods. With photographic identification of license plates it is possible to know if a car enters and remains in the parking station. If you have two hours free parking in the pre digital time, you could remain for for 1 hr. 59 minutes, and then exit, only to return again to maximize free parking times.

Now the parking manager is now able to charge after the first two hours regardless of re-entry. I know this has caught me out. They do this because the model works for their limited thinking, car-parking revenue is increased, and car parks turnover. So far so good.

The rise of the shared car rental is anathema to this inflexible thinking and old school technology. An individual may have a share car for 2 hours to go shopping then return it. Someone else may take the same car and also do their shopping in the centre. They may find that they are charged for car park usage the moment they enter, getting a massive bill shock if they choose the wrong car park. Car sharing technologies tend to be local in nature, and often in high-density areas. This only amplifies the issue.

The irony is that the lowest technology car park, that is on street parking usually provided by local government has been able to find a cost effective and low-tech solution to the problem that remembers the customer experience. They use a tin of spray paint to maximize the customer experience.

Simply car park managers have clearly not caught up with the car sharing technology and consumer behavior. Unsurprisingly users are going to be unnecessarily punished as a result.

Yet again this example highlights the point that capioIT regularly is an evangelist for, and increasing consulting around for clients.

 Digital is more than a technology play.

• The customer experience has to be front and centre of the outcome.
• When the customer isn’t central digital fails whether it is online insurance, car parking or attending a sporting event.
• There is no compromise, or wriggle room digital investments have to be more than technology.

 

Capture Point

Digital is hard. Digital failure is easy. Disruption and Digital are clichéd, but there is a valid reason. This is so true when Digital becomes just a technology solution leveraging legacy. If you, your organization, or stakeholders rely on old technology and processes to become digital then you are significantly increasing the expectation of failure. Get the Digital Devil’s Advocate to ensure that you have the correct durable platform, not an investment that is on track to fail.

 

Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience AI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Analytics Automation B2B B2C CX EX Employee Experience HR HCM business Marketing Metaverse developer SaaS PaaS IaaS Supply Chain Quantum Computing Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology eCommerce Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance Social Healthcare VR CCaaS UCaaS Customer Service Content Management Collaboration M&A Enterprise Service Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Operating Officer Chief Customer Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer

Event Report - IBM Interconnect - IBM innovates and partners into the hybrid cloud era

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…...

Read more

We had the opportunity to attend IBM’s Interconnect conference happening in Las Vegas this week. The conference is a combination of the former Interconnect, the developer conference Pulse and the former Rational user conference. With over 25k attendees the conference was high in demand, spanning across the Mandalay Bay and MGM properties. 

 

 

For the top takeaways – check out my video – take a look:
 

If you have no chance to watch – read on:

The ‘Connect’ Offering group – IBM – as many other vendors recently (see Microsoft and of course Oracle), want their customers to leverage existing investment on premises in products tool and know-how and connect (pun intended) with the cloud offerings. IBM has been re-using a number of existing capabilities (e.g. Dataworks) and building new ones to enable this strategy option. When one considers, as I learnt on my question to Robert LeBlanc, that there are over 200M WebSphere instances out there – there is a lot of investment to protect and tap into.

The VMware partnership – No surprising partnership, LeBlanc and Eschenbach laughed when I asked them what took them so long (likely VMware had to make some progress on the SDDC offerings) – but this is a win / win / win partnership for customers, and both vendors. Customers get (finally) a global, single SLA, single bill if they want to move VMware loads to the cloud, VMware gets that outlet beyond its fragmented partner system and IBM gets load (more below).

New programming model with Whisk – Next generation applications require new constructs in regards of how software is being built, key qualities being light weight, declarative, portable and not being charged for putting them in place, but only when they are used. Whisk is now IBM’s answer to similar programming models like AWS’ Lambda, though it deploys differently across products. But the qualities are the same – provide lightweight rules to cloud services at no cost, and only pay when they are being utilized. A key capability.
 

Analyst Tidbits

A lot of additional interesting areas of innovation:

Blockchain – IBM has been doing work (as featured also at the Open Technology Summit on Sunday – see a Storify here). IBM is early among all the technology vendors, but given the exposure to the financial sector – not really a surprises. IBM will also allow on premises WebSphere instances to utilize Blockchain implementations on the web, an interesting capability making Blockchain ‘hybrid’.

BlueMix and Github – Making it easier to publish, find and reuse code artefacts is a key capability for all PaaS platform, the partnership with Github gives BlueMix users now better access to Github, a good move.

Watson gets ‘human’ – Watson has received new APIs, which allow the cognitive platform to understand visual expressions, sense emotions and interpret the tone of a human voice. Important advances for making Watson interact with humans, something that IBM has always wanted and now finally – (earlier implementations have e.g. been Wipro Holmes) available.

Swift on the server / in the cloud - A lot of room was given to Swift, Apple’s new mobile development language in the Monday keynote. IBM is extending Swift to make it run on the server side, which was also called the ‘cloud’ side. And IBM is not totally naïve on this – as it is building its 100+ mobile applications with / for Apple. Enterprise applications usually need a server side and to be able to use one programming language is of value, though we need to see how the overall adoption of Swift will be. It makes sense for IBM given the Apple parnership - but in general I think the days of mobile OS centric development platforms are counted.

Object Storage – This form of storage is crucial for next generation applications and IBM has acquired Cleversafe with that capability. Now Cleversafe and enhancements run on the IBM Cloud (aka SoftLayer) with a number of useful enhancements.

Siemens choses Watson IoT – The large customer announcement on Monday was that Siemens Building Technologies has chosen IBM to build its IoT platform. Cognitive capabilities were key according to CEO Matthias Rebellius. Two mini take aways: It once again confirms Europe leads in IoT, high price and quality manufacturer there need an IoT strategy and are choosing North American technology vendors for it (who is left in Europe in that category?). And it’s key for IBM to get same and similar decisions with customers in order to create more load for IBM cloud.
 

MyPOV

Overall a good conference for IBM customers, who can clearly see how IBM is helping them to leverage the on premises assets, during their journey to more cloud. As we know cloud is no longer an If? but a When? question for enterprises, so it’s good to see IBM is there to assist... If executed right the Connect offerings will be of huge value helping enterprises to move to the cloud. The VMware partnership is synergistic and helps customers with VMware loads. And then there are the many, many other innovations a vendor like IBM churns out, all of them move IBM’s capabilities more into the direction of a partner to be chose for the business model change (mostly digital transformation) – lying ahead of enterprises in the next years.

On the concern side, IBM is moving so many areas that it has to make sure they all work together. The times where IBM could get away operating like 5 independent companies (like 10-15 and more years ago) are over. Products and offerings need to fit seamlessly and well together. It is good to see that IBM is aggressively putting both organization and talent in the right places. E.g. all database offerings (including DB2 (!)) are under a single CTO, outside-in perspectives are not only valued, but put in charge (e.g. the new head of Watson is from weather.com). Now the move to become a software company needs speedy execution, as IBM operates under the market scrutiny and pressure of a record number of consecutive quarters with revenue decline.

But overall a good Interconnect event for IBM, showing progress on all fronts. We will be watching through the year if it is enough. Stay tuned.
 

2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016 (C) Holger Mueller - All Rights Reserved

Tech Optimization Data to Decisions Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience IBM PaaS SaaS IaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer

Imagining the IoT Stadium of the Future

Russell Scibetti

Founding Editor, The Business of Sports
The Business of Sports

My name is Russell Scibetti and I have an extensive background in sports business, including CRM and database marketing, interactive and digital marketing, social media, corporate sponsorships and activation, and applied market research. From 2007 to 2014, I worked for Arizona State Athletics, Comcast-Spectacor (Philadelphia Flyers) and the New York Jets to manage and implement CRM, database marketing, market research and other technology-based sales and marketing initiatives. In 2014, I joined KORE Software as their VP of Product Strategy, where I am responsible for the strategic vision, planning and development of the KORE ProSports Ticketing, Sponsorship and Suites/Premium software products. I earned my MBA in Sports Business from the W.P. Carey…...

Read more

1

Earlier his week I had the chance to attend the IBM InterConnect conference to learn about what IBM is doing in the sports and technology space and share some thoughts in that area via their blog and social media. The event itself has a large emphasis on technology infrastructure needed to support the volume of data and systems integration that all industries now require, and within that, the Internet of Things (known shorthand as IoT) kept popping up as a topic.

Now IoT isn’t a huge topic in traditional sports business, but it is quite relevant in the health and fitness industry (wearables, smart watches, sensors, equipment) and continues to expand in so many ways, from home appliances to vehicles and more. So what I want to do is have a bit of fun and brainstorm all the ways that IoT could live within the context of a “smart stadium.” Here are a few things that came to mind, some of which exist in various forms today and others that may never exist, but it’s fun to imagine.

1. Beacons: Beacons and other geo-location technologies are actively being deployed in sports venues and used to collect and deliver all sorts of information related to the gameday experience. We are learning about what fans are engaging with different parts of the building, what types of location specific messaging can drive behavior and gathering insights on fans that may otherwise be anonymous to the team.

2. Smart Seats: One of the most fundamental tenants of sports is putting butts in seats, so why don’t we make those seats smarter? We do get a lot of data from access control systems to tell us when people enter/exit the venue and what their seat location is, but we don’t know when that person is or isn’t sitting in that seat. Many modern venues with club spaces struggle with getting people out of the club and back in those lower-level seats we see on TV. We also have challenges around logistics for food stands, bathrooms and other non-seating spaces. In a way, I think the data that “smart seats” could generate would be quite interesting.

3. Hawkers: Another classic element of sports are the vendors that navigate the building selling everything from peanuts to pennants to fans in the comfort of their seats. While in-seat ordering has changed the value proposition of hawkers, many venues still use this to drive per-caps. Smart technology on where hawkers are and the volume of goods sold vs. available can really optimize this process.

4. Security: Loyalty cards are becoming the new norm for ticket management and access control, but one thought that came up in an earlier Sports & Technology session was that as these cards and related systems get smarter, they become a valuable tool for security. We’ve started to see this with things like Clear in use at some ballparks and many new security procedures becoming the norm. Anything that can minimize risk while streamlining the stadium ingress process would be quite valuable.

5. Alcohol: Ah, a big gameday money-maker, but one that also has an equally big liability issue. Right now, staff training is the primary method for teams to avoid overserving, but why can’t we be smarter? Let’s take those same ticket cards (which often have loaded value) and track the level of alcohol purchases on each card. And yes, there are ways around this, so maybe we can use the technology in a product like Breathometer (first saw them on Shark Tank) and see if there’s a logical way to scale this for wider use in a venue.

6. Personal Trackers: We already have team apps being made available on the Apple Watch, so maybe we can we take these one step further and incentive fans to opt-in to share additional data that these gadgets generate. Instead of a decibel level tracker on the big screen, can we show the collective heart rate of our fans or the opponent’s fans? Maybe we discover unusual fan movement patterns that can be used to improve facility operations.

7. Parking Lots: A combination of in-ground/above-ground sensors and cameras could be just the ticket to streamlining the ingress and egress issues that many stadiums are constantly dealing with. Combine that data with real-time analysis and a feed to the team’s mobile app and now your fans can know what route to use regardless of accidents or traffic changes.

8. Environment: With the ever-growing importance of developing environmentally conscious facilities, there would be a great opportunity to use sensors and other IoT devices to actively monitor everything from air and noise pollution to waste disposal and more.

9. Lighting: We’ve seen things like Nest and other “home automation” systems around thermostats, lightbulbs, audio systems and more, could we have smart lighting in the future? This might be hard for those massive lighting structures used during night games, but there is so much other lighting throughout a venue that could be automated based on data collection and analysis.

10. Robots: Ok, I’m getting crazy here, but in 50 years, who knows! No one predicted eSports twenty years ago.

I’m sure there’s a lot more IoT possibilities that I missed, but it’s fun to try to picture how this type of technology will become part of the stadium experience, especially considering how pervasive it is everywhere else. It’s this type of technology evolution that puts more and more emphasis on the infrastructure within the venue. As I mentioned in this tweet earlier in the week, the pipes matter. Teams need to do whatever they can to plan for the future instead of today.

Progress Report: Ceridian Makes Good Progress, Basics Done, Now for Next-Gen Capabilities

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…...

Read more

We had the opportunity to attend the Ceridian analyst summit held in Hollywood at the beautiful W Hotel.

 

 

Tough to pick the top three takeaways, but here you go - check out the video.

 

 

Ceridian Progress Report

No time to watch - read on:

New User Interface Across Products – The avid reader may know that I have been pointing out to UI modernization and usability issues around the Ceridian products for a while. It was good to see that the vendor has started to address the issue over a year ago, but upgrading user interfaces takes time. Ceridian took the smart route of addressing the high-frequency screens first, starting with employee and manager self-service. The good news is that Ceridian has now brought the new user interface to all products and screens. It looks modern, fresh, 21st century-like, and we know already from customers and prospects that it makes a difference. For those architecturally inclined, the vendor has moved to a declarative UI architecture, which should make future UI renovation and innovation much easier.

Compliance Make the Forte Stronger – Ceridian has never made it a secret that compliance runs deep in the vendor’s DNA. Not only on the traditional payroll DNA but also on the “infused” Workbrain DNA around workforce management (more labor rules, more schedules, etc.). This DNA combined with the integrated architecture of Dayforce puts Ceridian into the attractive position to take compliance further than most other players in the market. Take the omnipresent ACA challenges of enterprises; Ceridian not only offers the reports to understand where compliance is but also populates the statutory forms and reporting for its customers. A good direction - and knowing how much enterprises struggle with compliance, it’s a significant value in the marketplace. The other coin of the compliance equation is Payroll, and we saw promising “Payroll 2.0” capabilities with micro calculations and a well-designed global payroll dashboard.

HCM Anywhere – One of the best-kept but open secrets of the industry is that the bulk of users really do not use the HCM system much. But all people spend (way too) much time in email. Ceridian wants to tackle that system separation by bringing the HCM information and processes to email, more specifically to Outlook. A plug-on not only shows key employee information, but also key HCM information, and it even allows some lightweight information processing. Enterprise software history is literally littered (pun intended) with failed Email / Outlook integration products (anyone remember SAP’s Mendocino project?); however, technology and integration has progressed (OData, more below), making integration easier. And users are still in email, so kudos to Ceridian to trying it again. Equally important is the mobile support with emancipated iOS and Android native apps, something most vendors only manage to tackle over time, given the North American infatuation with iOS devices (in contrast to the rest of the world).

 

Tidbits

• Talent Management - Ceridian released its recruiting product a year ago. Now it is time to extend the functionality – both on the talent acquisition side with offering management and on the onboarding side. It was good to see that Ceridian is also thinking of internal transfers, an employee population generally overseen in regards to onboarding them (this is why I created “transboarding” some time ago – more here).
• Reporting - Ceridian has also spent R&D time on reporting – both on the usability of the report creation, as well as the export / exposure of reporting data through the powerful OData protocol. This opens up analysis options for enterprises using OData-compatible BI tools, e.g., Microsoft PowerBI or Tableau.
• Lifeworks – Ceridian keeps extending capabilities of its Employee Assistance Program product, Lifeworks. Its partnership with UK0based Workangel adds key employee engagement, recognition and rewards to the product, as announced last year at the Ceridian Insights conference (see here for event report).
• Services scaled – Ceridian has spent time to scale its support function better with the creation of a pod model, standardization of roles and a general follow-the-sun model across its locations in the U.S., U.K. and Mauritius. Metrix looks good with overall support trending down, while the number of customers is growing rapidly. On the implementation side, Ceridian has the good but challenging problem to grow fast to avoid an implementation backlog from becoming a problem. It is good that training is ramped up and certifications are in place, but Ceridian will have to sign larger SI partners, such as the existing partnership with TCS. It was very encouraging to see self-service setup capabilities coming to Dayforce; enabling customers to take implementation in their own hands is the right direction. 
   

MyPOV

Good progress at Ceridian on the Dayforce product. In general, the team has a good delivery track record and that shows after three years of significant investment in product. Now the question is where Ceridian will take the product next; more global is already a direction the vendor is executing on.

HCM anywhere is a promising direction but needs more validation and further investment. However, more business user empowerment is always a good “true north” for enterprise software vendors.

Next are advances on the (true) analytics side, big data and machine learning, where Ceridian needs to time investments and formulate its strategy. Another option will be the Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) area, where Ceridian has already millions of real-world data points; exploiting that capability will be a mutual benefit to both vendor and customers.

On the concern side, Ceridian operates its own data-center infrastructure, which is manageable today but with more statutory challenges on the horizon (see Russia, see Safe Harbor invalidation, etc.), partnering with an IaaS leader will give both Ceridian and its customers more peace of mind. To be fair, only a few of the HCM players are there.

Overall good progress with Dayforce at Ceridian, which has to address growth challenges on the services side, but that’s a good problem to have for a software vendor and something that has been done and mastered by every successful enterprise software leader. Now it will be key to invest the headroom gained on the R&D side by truly differentiating and creating long-lasting value propositions. 

More on Ceridian

• Event Report - Ceridian Insights - Momentum and Differentiation Building - read here
• First Take - Ceridian Insights Day #1 Keynote Takeaways - off to a good start - read here
• Progress Report – Ceridian executes on product, next challenge – implementation capacity, then sales … Read here
• Event Report - CeridianINSIGHTS 2014 - Ceridian innovates and adds key functionality - read here
• First Take - Ceridian INSIGHTS Day 1 Keynote - Top 3 Takeaways - read here
• Progress Report - Ceridian makes a lot of progress - but the road(map) is long - read here
• Ceridian transforming itself and with that the game – read here

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

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

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here and checkout my magazine on Flipboard.

 

2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015 (C) Holger Mueller - All Rights Reserved

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

Artificial Intelligence, IOT and Design: Building a Next-Generation Services Company: Infosys Orchestrating an Ecosystem Of Start-ups |

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

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

Read more

These are significant times when IT innovation will shape not only our business but the future of our world. Start-ups and new age companies are a leading source of innovation beyond many companies own internal initiatives. In early 2015, as part of Infosys Renew-New strategy they established a $500million Infosys Innovation fund. It was mentioned that the capital will be used to invest in companies across the globe innovating in areas such as AI, Automation, Internet of Things, Collaboration and Design. Infosys said they want to amplify the reach of startup companies,  bring them to market,  help them scale, grow and bring innovation to clients. 

Infosys received the Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2016. The benefits that Infosys offers for the start-ups as they create an ecosystem to bring innovation to our clients are many. Their areas of focus are: 

1. Machine Intelligence
2. Big Data & Analytics
3. Infrastructure & Cloud
4. Collaboration & Design
5. Convergence of Industries
6. Disintermediation of Layers
7. New Business Models

The Benefits to Start-ups: Financial Scale, Technical Scale, Market Scale, Social Impact, Incubation and Customer Validation.

What companies has Infosys invested in?

• Airviz Speck: The indoor air quality monitor empowering you to breathe. Airviz helps to empower everyday citizens to improve the quality of the air they breathe. Speck, a pioneering air particulate sensor can detect PM2.5 particulates and provide insightful analytics on air quality. Airviz is a spinoff from the CREATE Lab at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute.
• ANSR Consulting provides strategy and implementation services to help global companies establish Global In-House Centers (GICs) in India. Global companies are setting up GICs to harness new technologies such as social, mobile, analytics and cloud. India has emerged as a unique destination for GICs due to wide access to technical and business talent at a reasonable cost, and the growing ecosystem of successful GICs. ANSR Consulting, which has helped establish several GICs within India, creates joint ventures with companies such as those in the Fortune 500. ANSR Consulting helps the joint venture provide strategic, technology-driven solutions that drive competitive advantage and incremental revenue for the companies involved. This investment from the fund widens Infosys’ reach in the fast-growing GIC market.
• CloudEndure, a startup that provides Cloud migration and Cloud-based Disaster Recovery (DR) software. Many leading enterprises look to Infosys for guidance and implementation services associated with large-scale infrastructure transformation projects. CloudEndure provides enterprise grade cloud migration and cloud-based Disaster Recovery (DR) software that uniquely supports migration and DR for both on-premise to-cloud and cloud-to-cloud scenarios.
• Nova provides image generation capabilities (platform and toolset) as a service, APIs to allow customers to create film-quality 3D assets, video and static advertising imagery enabling the delivery of highly personalized and interactive videos to customers. Vertex
• Ventures is a new, early-stage fund formed by technology veterans Jonathan Heiliger and In Sik Rhee.
• Waterline Data Science, a leading provider of data discovery and data governance software. Waterline Data Science provides data scientists and business analysts with a self-service data catalog to help discover, understand and provision data, and an automated data inventory that enables agile data governance across metadata, data quality and data lineage
• WHOOP, an early stage company offering a performance optimization system for elite professional sports teams. WHOOP’s system includes a device worn by athletes on their wrist that continuously measures key strain and recovery variables, and actionable analytics powered by proprietary algorithms that generate intensity and recovery scores. This enables athletes and coaches to gain visibility into the drivers of high performance, guide training and make optimal game day decisions.

Certainly the ways products are developed has really changed. Before companies would hire a bunch of developers, create a strategy and start building. It looks like the question of buy or build is becoming less and less of a question. The answer in developing new products seems to be trending towards developing starts-ups and then acquiring them, partnering with them and  building a more evolved ecosystem.  We have seen that for many years, starting with some of the social media monitoring and listening platforms, as well as customer service and marketing applications. The future looks very bright and interesting!

@DrNatalie Petouhoff, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

Next-Generation Customer Experience Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Data to Decisions Future of Work Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Matrix Commerce New C-Suite AI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics Analytics Automation Cloud SaaS PaaS IaaS Quantum Computing Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service developer Metaverse VR Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief AI Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Product Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Operating Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Experience Officer

Social Cloud Customer Service Has Dismantled the Old Marketing Funnel

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

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

Read more

Old Marketing Funnel Days: In the days before social media, marketers would target key customers and go through an awareness, desire, interest and then action (buying) process; essentially the old marketing function. The marketer would start with a large number of customers at the top of this so called “funnel” and as the customers in the “funnel” were approached, there would become fewer customers, narrowing down to those with the desire, interest and ending up with enough customers that would eventually take action and buy whatever was being offered.

The Way a Company Manages Their Social Media Can Destroy the “Old” Marketing Funnel. Today, we know that social media plays a significant role in the purchase decisions of potential buyers. That’s why the way a company manages their social media can turn consumers from brand advocates to troublesome trolls. And there’s an invisibility of social media that has completely destroyed the marketing funnel.

How Does Social Media #Fail Affect the “Old” Marketing Funnel? What do I mean by this? Let’s say I am a customer who is having issues and I post #fail and the brand’s name. And then let’s say there are 1, or 10 or 100 or 1,000 people who might have been interested in becoming aware of that company’s products and services. But because they saw my #fail, they make a mental note and a decision, unbeknownst to the brand, to never buy from that company. They saw the company didn’t have that customer back when they had a question or need help. And this is essentially why Social Cloud Customer Service is the New Marketing. How customers get treated in Customer Service and when they share that affects the future purchasing power of that pool of customers who might have been interested.

Customers Opt Out Without The Brand Even Knowing They’ve Lost a Customer Because those customers opted out, they will never be in the companies “old” marketing funnel. They may have had the potential to become part of a targeted segment that could have gone through the various stages of awareness, desire, interest and then action. However, because those customers saw the #fail post, they will never be a potential customers. Essentially the pool of customers that company might have drawn upon is now much smaller.

Loosing Customers You Didn’t Know You Lost. The company many not realize they lost those customers. They make still send out marketing messages. But it’s every likely that those customers who made mental note of how another customer was treated, will never respond to any marketing messages and never buy from that brand. And that’s what I mean about the customers disappearing or becoming invisible to a brand. They are no longer available to be marketed to. They will just ignore the marketing messages because they saw when I tried to get help, the company didn’t reach out in social media and try to help. And this is the invisibility that is affecting many companies and they don’t even realize that by poorly managing their social media, they have shrunk their customer base.

Managing Your Social Media Well Can Be a Customer Attractor. On the other hand, let’s say there is a customer who complains in social media and the company is paying attention. They are monitoring, listening and respond quickly and resolve the issue. 1 or 10 or 100 or 1,000 customers will have seen this and as a result, they make mental note of it. They might not be in the market for what the company is offering at that exact moment, but when they are and they have to choose a brand, they are going to choose a brand that has their back or a company that they have seen take care of another customer’s issue quickly and meet the customer expectations.

Not Responding To #Fail Is No Way To Manage Your Current and Future Customers. The failure to meet or exceed those expectations can drive away new and existing customers. This is why I think the old “marketing funnel” has really been dismantled. With more and more companies turning to social media to communicate with consumers, it’s important to manage the channels in a way that builds brand loyalty and converts users into advocates. Today’s consumers turn to social media when they have a question about their purchase. The way your company manages customer service via social media can build brand loyalty & turn users into advocates.

You can get the full infographic from IntelliResponse here.

Where do you stand? Are you monitoring, listening and responding? Or are you not even paying attention to social media?

@DrNatalie Petouhoff, VP and Principal Analyst

Constellation Research, Covering Customer-Facing Applications that Create Awesome Customer Experiences

Marketing Transformation Data to Decisions Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Sales Marketing Next-Generation Customer Experience Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity 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 Chief Marketing Officer