| Constellation Research

The 5 Interconnected Internet of Things Business Models

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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…...

The Internet of Things (IoT) landscape appears confusing to those just entering the market. From hardware to software and even networks, IoT plays a major role in business model transformation. Market leaders see IoT as a means of enabling devices to provide insight and improve context in interactions. The goal is to take the real-time data stream and apply right-time contextual relevancy. In my latest report, The Five Interconnected Internet of Things Business Models, I identify the five business models emerging out of the Internet of Things.

Constellation expects providers of IoT products and services to enter the market in one (or multiple) of the following business models.

CXOs entering the IoT should start solidifying the partnerships required for their businesses to thrive in IoT.

An excerpt of this report along with the table of contents is available to download

Level 1: Sensors and Connectors Provide the Hardware Required to Start the Revolution

IoT requires a layer of hardware to actually connect devices and data sources. Large capital expenditures and traditional manufacturing processes characterize this space. Constellation anticipates the connected vehicle space to drive demand in this area of IoT.

Level 2: Engineered Stacks Emerge as the Norm

Moving forward companies will design their products with IoT connectivity embedded. Stacks inclusive of all the technology required for a product to operate in IoT will emerge. Think of the smart vehicle and all the technology required to operate in IoT as a 'stack'. The biggest challenge for these stacks will be creating alliances and partnerships between the network service providers and the vertical technology providers.

Level 3:Insight Platforms Bring Relevant Context to IoT

The much of value of IoT derives from the ability to connect data sources. Insight platforms will be able to quickly deliver insights derived from data pools. Working alliances must be forged across different data sources.

Level 4: Brokers Create New Markets for IoT Insights

IoT Data merchants will soon emerge to sell data derived from IoT much in the same way Bloomberg, Thompson Reuters, and Nielsen sell data about information such as point-of-sale data.

Level 5: Networked Ecosystems Bring Diverse Stacks Together to Create Massive Opportunities

Large corporations such as General Electric and Siemens are striving to create and monetize large ecosystems built on IoT. Think of a connected city where the power grid, water, roads, communications, and public services are all connected.

This is the zenith of the IoT business model ecosystem as the feasibility of the networked ecosystem relies on the operation of the four other IoT business models. Look for players in this space to be large corporations that align closely with governments.

Download an excerpt of this report

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

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JDA Software Announces Cloud Collaboration with Google

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…...

This morning Google and JDA software surprised the markets with a press release announcing Google Cloud Platform (GCP) as JDA’s public cloud infrastructure. This is obviously a first for JDA and Google, but not for the market (see below).

Let’s dissect the news release (it can be found here):

Scottsdale, Ariz. – June 10, 2015 –JDA Software Group, Inc. today announced an innovative new collaboration with Google aimed at leveraging the core strengths of both companies to deliver JDA’s next generation cloud-based omni-channel and supply chain solutions via Google Cloud Platform, a powerful public cloud offering. Through this collaboration, Google will provide a uniquely scalable and flexible technology platform via the cloud to support JDA’s future application development and delivery.

MyPOV – Good move by JDA, as choosing a public cloud provider saves substantial CAPEX that would have gone into data center build-out. Now JDA can invest those savings into product. For Google it means more load for GCP, more enterprise exposure and likely the start of a number of ISVs signing up for Google as cloud provider. Load is essential for all IaaS vendors, as it ensure the economies of scale they need to procure attractive supply chain prices and rates. The untapped potential of on premises enterprise software is one of the largest growth potentials for public cloud vendors overall. Take JDA with 4000 customers, ultimately they will all have to go to public cloud solutions. That is a lot of server capacity. And finally a lot of customers to cross sekk Google Apps and Google for Work to.

“Google Cloud Platform offers the unparalleled speed, performance, scalability and reliability we need to launch truly differentiated solutions. After thoroughly evaluating potential Platform as a Service (PaaS) providers, JDA chose to work with Google due to its unsurpassed technology platform, investments and deep culture of innovation,” said Serge Massicotte, executive vice president and chief technology officer at JDA Software.

MyPOV – There is little doubt GCP outperforms other clouds on the performance side of the overall infrastructure. My recommended simple test is to monitor the speed of email provisioning when travelling internationally. I do that a lot and still have to find the place on earth where my Gmail account does not beat e.g. my Office account. And it is no surprise – the core business model of Google, advertisement, needs very, very fast servers and networks. More surprising is that the JDA statement refers to Google as a PaaS, likely meaning Google App Engine (GAE), which has been a less popular choice by enterprise software vendors. We need to learn more about JDA’s plans and use case to understand this better.

This collaboration, which will significantly accelerate the development of JDA’s next generation cloud solutions, is JDA’s most recent initiative aimed at delivering innovative products and services for its customers. With an unmatched R&D investment in supply chain and omni-channel solutions, the company recently formed JDA Labs – a dedicated research and development group committed to delivering patents, best practices and entirely new products to the market. Google Cloud Platform initiatives will be developed out of the JDA Labs in Montreal. JDA’s work with Google also complements JDA’s newly announced FLEX platform strategy, which easily connects JDA’s existing cloud-based solutions and on-premise solutions with next generation solutions built on Google Cloud Platform.

MyPOV – Two good moves by JDA. Forming a lab for more innovative work has been a proven approach in enterprise software, see e.g. also the SAP Lab network. The FLEX platform is an interesting approach bringing together more traditional JDA platforms with its next generation cloud strategy.

“With thousands of successful customers — including 21 customers named as part of the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2015 — JDA has clearly established its leadership in delivering world-class retail and supply chain solutions,” said Massicotte. “To maintain and expand that leadership, JDA is focused on developing new innovative products and services that will truly change the supply chain landscape. By working with Google — an established innovation leader — JDA will concentrate on working with our customers to co-develop these groundbreaking solutions with Google Cloud Platform, providing an unmatched foundation. It’s a huge win-win for JDA customers, who will benefit from best-in-class solutions, delivered rapidly, from two proven market leaders working together.”

"We're thrilled that JDA has chosen to work with Google Cloud Platform to develop their next generation of products and services that will change the supply chain landscape," said Dan Powers, director, Google Cloud Platform. "The supply chain and omni-channel industry is ripe to benefit from the innovation, scale and flexibility of our public cloud offering, and by betting on Google, JDA can now focus on creating high impact business solutions while quickly adapting to meet customer needs." […]

MyPOV – The usual quotes – no commentary needed.

This month, JDA will be part of the keynote at a series of Google Cloud Platform Next events worldwide that highlights our work together. JDA executives will be featured speakers at Next events in New York on June 12, San Francisco on June 16, London on June 23 and Amsterdam on June 25. Learn more about the Google Next event series here.

MyPOV – Well good to be able to promote the new offering at Google events. I would not be surprised to hear a repeat of ‘Infor – who?’ (like at AWS Cloud event in March 2014 in San Francisco) in the form of ‘JDA – who?’ – at these events – but that is all part of becoming known as a vendor build on the public cloud.

Overall MyPOV

It is a Win / Win / Win for the partners and JDA customers. JDA customers should see a better return of R&D given the choice JDA has made for GCP. Let’s not underestimate the TCO aspect in this partnership, too – as Google has recently lowered prices (again – read here) – and many JDA customers turn the penny twice before they spend it. JDA saves CAPEX that it can put into its product organization and roadmap. Google gets load that helps it to scale better.

On the concern side, JDA is the first enterprise vendor to opt for Google. Certainly JDA has done good due diligence and Google is motivated to make it a success, but being first has risks – but also rewards when done right and successfully. And it is clear for JDA customers that the bulk of R&D going forward will be on public cloud platforms. Like it or not, customers should prepare and accommodate for that.

But in the meantime congrats to both vendors for a synergistic partnership, very likely many more to follow.

Tech Optimization Matrix Commerce Sales Marketing Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Next-Generation Customer Experience Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth Future of Work Google SaaS PaaS IaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service Supply Chain Automation Leadership M&A Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer Chief Experience Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Operating Officer

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Hadoop Enters Awkward Teenage Years

Doug Henschen

Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

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

Hadoop Summit Event Report: Hortonworks highlights technology progress and growing enterprise adoption amid growing pains and intra-Hadoop-family conflict.

Hadoop is enterprise viable and growing quickly. That’s the message Hortonworks CEO Rob Bearden communicated from the start of his opening keynote at the June 9-11 Hadoop Summit in San Jose, CA. Billing Hadoop as “one, central platform for batch, interactive, and real-time applications,” he focused mainly on the big-picture possibilities for innovation and “game-changing new business models.” But he also acknowledged “incredible progress” in Hadoop basics such as operational performance, security and data governance over the past 18 months.

Progress certainly has been made, but Hadoop is best described today as entering its awkward teenage years. Its (analytical) voice is breaking and it sometimes throws tantrums when faced with adult (enterprise workload) expectations. Talking to customers here (running on Hortonworks and Cloudera), I heard tales of cluster crashes and cranky, uncooperative operational behavior.

Hortonworks CEO Rob Bearden kicks off Hadoop Summit 2015.

Hortonworks introduced the 2.3 release of the Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) at Hadoop Summit. But executives didn’t spend much keynote time talking about the improvements to Ambari systems management, project Ranger security and access controls, or Apache Atlas metadata management. The list of upgrades also includes broader SQL coverage, visualization of SQL queries, and easier installation and configuration of HDFS, Yarn, Hive and Hbase.

To discuss such basics would only underscore the relative immaturity of Hadoop. Instead Bearden and others focused on support for cutting-edge options like Apache Spark and streaming analysis with Kafka and Storm. All three were featured in on-stage demos.

Thankfully, Hortonworks also didn’t beat its chest in public about the Open Data Platform (ODP) initiative. Announced in February, this is the partnership led by Hortonworks, IBM, Pivotal and Infosys and since joined by Telstra, BMC, DataTorrent, Syncsort, Unifi, zData, and Zettaset. The goal is to get behind a stable core of Apache Hadoop components that all members use to promote interoperability and to speed adoption of Hadoop.

ODP members insist that they have invited all Hadoop distributors to join the group, but the starting-point was agreeing to interoperate with HDFS, YARN, MapReduce and Ambari. Ambari is the sticking point, as Cloudera and MapR have their own management software, so they’ve declined to join ODP. The choice of Ambari gets back to Hortonwork’s “100% open source” ethos, but this sort of intra-Hadoop-family drama also does not inspire confidence in Hadoop. In my view, Hortonworks and other ODP partners would do well to pursue this initiative from a purely technical perspective rather than using it as some sort of branding seal of approval.

As the proud parent of a maturing Hadoop distribution, Hortonworks was smart to put the public emphasis at Hadoop Summit on enterprise adoption. More than 75 Hortonworks customers presented at the event. Luminaries included Progressive insurance, oilfield services firm Schlumberger, online auto buying site TrueCar, telco giant Verizon, and web-measurement firm Webtrends. Progressive is analyzing all that Progressive Snapshot driving data IoT style, helping good drivers to save money on car insurance. TrueCar studies everything from the color of a car to localized buying trends to accurately price vehicles. In a real-time scenario, Webtrends can spot abandoned shopping carts and lost shoppers on e-commerce sites within seconds so retailers can respond and try to save the sale before customers leave the site.

MyPOV on Hortonwork’s Progress

Hortonworks is nothing if not consistent. It sticks to its mission of delivering 100% open source Hadoop software. In some cases it gets to features and functions after chief rival Cloudera has developed something first. Ranger, for example, provides access controls that Cloudera previously introducing in Sentry. And Cloudbreak, the cloud-deployment tool/service introduced in HDP 2.3, follows in the footsteps of Cloudera Director, introduced last fall.

First does not always mean best. Ranger, for example, provides more granular access control (and auditing) than does Sentry across all the components of Hadoop. Given the impressive and growing customer list, it’s clear plenty of companies like Hortonworks’ approach and are confident in the roadmap.

As for the some of the latest features from Hortonworks and competitors including MapR, let’s hope routine system-admin and security features won’t be what ultimately differentiates Hadoop distributions. These are the sorts of features that enterprise customers just expect to be there. When Hadoop is truly mature, the boundaries between the menagerie of projects within Hadoop will disappear. The complexity that still confronts Hadoop administrators and day-to-day users will diminish. And the competition will center on ease of data management, ease of workload management, breadth of analytical capabilities, and emerging, next-generation big data applications.

Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth Event Report Hortonworks Hadoop Executive Events 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 Experience Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

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Globoforce Workhuman - Growth everywhere - customers, partners and product

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

I had the opportunity to attend Globoforce’s Workhuman event, currently being held in Orlando.

Here are my Top 3 takeaways of the event:

Engagement matters – No surprise, engagement was core and center at this conference, and that’s what Globoforce is known for and very good at. The perspective angle changed though a little bit – as the view now is more about working more ‘human’, bringing back the ‘humanity’ to the workplace. Humans do well with feedback, especially when it is positive, and all of that leads to more engaged employees. It was interesting to learn that video feedback works even better, something seems to kick in in inside our brains when we see positive feedback being given to us.

And more engaged employees don’t leave, don’t call in sick and deliver more, are overall more productive. So engagement is something that employers should all strive and go for. Why they aren’t remains one of the mysteries of the 21st century – and a challenge for vendors like Globoforce. Performance Management at large remains broken in North America and Europe, and we know that more continuous feedback is key. CEO Mosley went so far as to call it ‘crowdsourcing’ the feedback process. With an aging and more and more expensive workforce, we think time plays in the hands of Globoforce (and similar vendors), as employers cannot afford a disengaged workforce as little as they cannot afford to understand where and who their talented employees are.

CEO Mosley welcomes attendees

Partnership with IBM – Globoforce and IBM unveiled a partnership at the event. Basically Globoforce will become a data source for IBM’s cognitive computing platform, Watson, where combined with the Kenexa and other data it will help to create more powerful analytics for HR professionals (using the IBM Kenexa Talent Insights product, powered by IBM Watson Analytics). As common these days the integration will be vendor supported, with Globoforce maintaining the interface for their data towards IBM, which is a sensible approach. Both vendors will explore common analytical offerings, but I guess it was too early for more specifics here. A good move for both vendors as Globoforce gets access to a cognitive computing platform that is being built by a R&D team funded by multiple times Globoforce revenue (no numbers disclosed – guestimate here) and IBM gets another data source to make Watson predictions more powerful. On the IBM side the move is another step in IBM’s strategy to acquire data sources for better insights, on a macro level see e.g. the recent partnerships with Twitter and weather providers. The press release on this announcement can be found here.

Happy Workers work Harder, from Mosley' presentation

Rich roadmap – Closer to home for Globoforce, the vendor plans to improve reporting and analysis capability. Not surprising as reports can show if the social engagement and feedback solution that Globoforce offers, really works. As typical for a SaaS vendors, releases come out quarterly and the roadmap is rather fluid and dynamic, so it will be interesting to see what Globoforce does on the overall functionality side as well as what will come out of the partnership with IBM in regards of ‘true’ analytics (those who take an action and / or make a recommendation and in 99% of the case don’t show colorful pictures).

Visualization of recognition in Globoforce product

MyPOV

The setup for Globoforce is favorable, as its product needs only minimal setup - e.g. users - and is good to go - so perfect for a cloud based, next generation Application.

On the concern side we found a few inconsistencies in the Globoforce user interface, something the vendor can address with some easy and quick housekeeping releases. The basic functionality – reward / recognize – is straight forward and easy to use.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the overall employee recognition space in the next 4-6 quarters – we will be watching. In the meantime congrats to Globoforce to a great event.

More interesting blog posts:

Musings - Speed matters for HR - how to accelerate - Part II read here - Part I read here
Musings - Is TransBoarding the future of People Management - read here
Musings - What are 'true' analytics - a manifesto - read here
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.

Future of Work Sales Marketing Innovation & Product-led Growth Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Data to Decisions New C-Suite 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

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Experience Management: How to Deliver Integrated Customer Experiences

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…...

In my latest report, Experience Management: How to Deliver Integrated Customer Experiences, I researched the key elements required for superb experience management in the digital business era. Use document as a resource for planning. Distribute this report to, both, business and technical teams to ensure your organization delivers on your brand’s promise. The concepts covered in this report regarding how to deliver integrated customer experiences will only grow in importance as the shift to digital and mobile transforms how brands engage prospects and customers. For many organizations, customer experience management will prove crucial to the success of their overall customer engagement strategy.

Download an excerpt of Experience Management: How to Deliver Integrated Customer Experiences

There are many points along the customer experience journey where something could “fall through the cracks” and not meet expectations. Market leaders realize the future requires proactive digital enablement of the business to support the future strategy of their organizations. The challenges to driving integrated customer experience management include:

While are most brands are recognizing they need to provide superb, integrated experience management, challenges include the conceptualizing, creating, executing delivering this integrated experience, and in particular integrating the website, social, mobile and commerce experience and interactions. The perception that creating a superb customer experience is easy, is the downfall of most organizations.

While most leaders understand that they need to deliver on superb experience management, organizations often can not move fast enough for three reasons:

Outdated systems and platforms that can not delivering on an integrated customer experience. Most brands, when they began CRM or their experience management strategy, did not anticipate the need to integrate the website with mobile and commerce. Often each of those disciplines were owned by different parts of the company and rarely did they speak, much less put their heads together to figure out how to deliver on an integrated approach. Thus, brands are left with legacy, point solutions that leave much to be desired.

Technology platforms didn’t provide truly integrated. Frequently brands tried to bring point solutions together, often hiring system integrators and management consulting firms to integration those solutions. But unless a platform is built with it’s very core centered on driving more than the old CRM (transactional customer relationship management), hundreds or millions of dollars or more were spent trying to piece technology together, only to result in thwarted attempts to create experience management across channels like web, mobile and commerce.

Organizations lack leadership and governance for experience management success. Excellence in experience management requires a cross-functional team strategy, but because companies have functioned in silos, this is more the exception than the rule. Along with a team and strategy, experience management requires budget decisions, often shared among various functional areas. Budget is never an easy topic, but experience management is pushing organizations to face these difficult conversations. New roles and expertise will also be required, with skill sets that span more than one functional area.

MY POV: The solution is to formalizing an interdepartmental, multi-functional department collaboration using strategy, technology and best practices for customer experience management. As brands realize experience management is key to their overall strategy and long-term growth, Constellation Research recommends considering the following to deliver an integrated web, mobile, social, email and commerce experience:

Decide Who Will Lead The Experience Management Strategy: A Competitive Advantage
Choose Multi-disciplinary Skill Sets for Chief Experience Management Officer
Evaluate Experience Management Technology and Integration
Consider an integrated, interconnected technology platform
Strive for unity among channel connectivity
Use predictive insights to deliver real-time, optimized responses
Evolve commerce with interaction and behavior pattern analytics by putting big data to work

Unfortunately, in almost every segment, Constellation estimates that the top three competitors control from 43 percent to 71 percent of market share and 53 percent to 77 percent of the profits. In the technology space, only 80 companies since 2000 have made the billionaire’s club in annual revenue. Meanwhile, intense competition, short-term shareholder and management thinking, and minimal investment hamper the pace of investment and innovation required by business leaders to survive today’s competitive landscape.

It’s time to get serious about customer experience, social and digital media.

Download an excerpt of Experience Management: How to Deliver Integrated Customer Experiences.

@drnatalie, VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research, Covering Marketing, Sales and Customer Service to Deliver Amazing Customer Experiences

Next-Generation Customer Experience B2C CX Chief Customer Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer

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Replace Customer Service Departments with Customer Experience Teams

Partner, Sensei Marketing
Partner, Sensei Marketing

Sales & marketing veteran with almost 30 years’ experience and now 1800 digital projects to his credit for clients including Morgan Stanley, AOL, Hyatt Gaming Management, Snyder's of Hanover, Hitachi, the Home Depot, Kraft Foods, Drees Homes, American Idol, and hundreds more, including leading agencies around the North America.     ...

Modern business is faced with a greater challenge than its predecessors: Growing demand for revenue and profit at a time when the Internet has increased both competition and consumer power. Ironically, the Internet, which promised greater opportunity for business to reach a larger audience, has increased the obstacles those businesses face in engaging and selling to new and existing customers.

Businesses must now contend with a new type of competitor beyond competing business entities.

a. The volume and immediacy of peer-to-peer recommendations on social and digital channels means businesses must re-train existing staff, hire new skill sets, and/or invest in new software to take on the new disciplines of monitoring and analyzing the positive and negative effects of user generated content in the decision-making process. And that doesn’t include the time and expertise required to leverage customer advocates and influencers in digital channels.

b. Consumer expectation around self-service options, including the immediacy of resolutions, has risen dramatically. We’ve all been trained by digital communications (texting, email, social media, etc.) to expect and demand faster and easier communication. Executives who have been demanding their staff be available 24/7 through their digital devices must now face the consequences: Employees are also consumers and they’ve been trained to expect immediate and satisfactory responses to their digital demands.

c. The availability and variety of the internet-enabled devices we carry increases consumer expectations further. While most consumers don’t understand the term omni-channel, they know to expect and demand cohesive and consistent service from your business regardless of the channel from which they choose to engage you.

d. Personal data security threats and the rise in software piracy mean that businesses must add ever greater levels of authentication in digital communications, which multiplies the barriers to a consumer’s ability to access more information quickly and efficiently. That, in turn, increases their frustration with digital support and, by extension, with your brand. A simple example is the need to have passwords, such as those enabling access to online support services, comprised of 12+ digit alpha-numeric codes (that also includes special characters, the blessing of the Pontiff, and rubbed with the blood of a lamb). Oh, and they must be changed every 30 days, cannot contain sequential numbers or known words. WTF?! Instead of dealing with this, I think I’ll just make myself a bowl of popcorn, wrap myself up in a blanket, and watch Netflix while I wait on hold for an actual customer service rep to answer my call to their service desk.

Replace Customer Service Departments with Customer Experience Teams

The reality is that customer service teams are no longer capable of handling the monster created when digital and social media channels were imposed on businesses (yes, the Internet is imposed on all businesses regardless of whether the business chooses to engage in it or not). Customer service will always be reactive, chasing customers in an arena they will never be equipped to cover properly.

I challenge businesses to replace their customer service departments with customer experience teams responsible for proactively improving the relationship their brands have with customers, and to facilitate a unified and positive experience across every touch-point between the business and the consumer.

In this case, being proactive means allowing cross-channel and cross-departmental communication sharing that includes comprehensive and unified customer data, as well as allowing front-line employees to make more decisions. Yes, for 90 percent of you this means a change in your corporate cultures but that’s a topic for another discussion.

Here are four strategies that will help guide the creation of customer experience team:

1. Develop omni-channel communication and service options – anchored on a single engagement platform – that are easy to access by consumers, contain simple-to-use interfaces, and deliver a consistent message/experience across all channels.

2. Track customer experiences across each channel and make that data available to staff or other channels when customers choose to engage you there. Consolidate practices, experiences, and lessons learned from each department into a single knowledge bank, which is then used by staff to proactively manage customers and mitigate customer or staff frustrations.

3. Design each engagement to offer personalized experiences based on the customer’s profile, history, past communications, customer value, and chosen method of communications. Don’t just offer reactive customer support; deliver proactive experiences that surprise the customer or make their lives or businesses better.

4. Capture customer conversations in both owned and third-party channels, and use them to drive more personalized experiences and generate improved customer insights for future business initiatives.

Executives expect the Internet to decrease the cost of personnel and customer support; it’s important to remember that the Internet is not about less, it’s about ease. Use it to make the customer’s experience with your brand more meaningful and simpler, not cheaper. Don’t focus on providing self-help options to decrease employee costs; proactively engage consumers with tailored experiences that make each feel unique, wanted, and special.

Sensei Debates

Can customer service departments be replaced with customer experience teams? Should they?

Sam Fiorella
Feed Your Community, Not Your Ego

Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer

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News Analysis - Unit4 acquires Three Rivers Systems

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

This morning, Unit4 a European ERP vendor, announced the acquisition of Three Rivers Systems, a vendor specializing in efficiency in the Higher Education sector.

Let's dissect the press release in our custom style (it can be found here):

Unit4, a fast growing leader in enterprise applications for service organizations, today announced the acquisition of U.S.-based student management solution provider, Three Rivers Systems, Inc. The acquisition supports Unit4’s strategy to offer market leading industry-specific solutions to people-centric businesses. Education has always been a key pillar of the company’s strategy. Together with Three Rivers Systems, Unit4 serves more than 1,000 clients in Education globally.
MyPOV – A focus for Unit4 is to grow further in North America, and buying local vendors who have the local market knowhow, understand the market and requirements and also have customers is a proven expansion strategy for enterprise software vendors.

The Unit4 People Platform enables Three Rivers Systems’ student management system to seamlessly work together with Unit4 applications, creating the first next generation end-to-end ERP for Education. The system incorporates a powerful and flexible localization framework, which allows Unit4 to cater to local needs, such as Financial Aid in the U.S. or the Student Loan Council in the UK.
MyPOV – Acquisitions are always a good showcase for platform flexibility of the acquiring vendor. It is good to see that Unit4 sees the People Platform being able to handle the Three Rivers Systems application. And good point to raise the local market expertise of Three Rivers Systems.

“The Education market currently lacks a modern and complete business application platform ready to be deployed globally. This is exactly what Unit4 and Three Rivers Systems will jointly deliver,” says Jose Duarte, Unit4 CEO. “This acquisition has created a global market leader for Education ERP solutions, and significantly strengthens Unit4’s market position in North America. By combining technologies and resources, we are the first to deliver the full suite of next-generation ERP for the global Education community.”
MyPOV – The usual quote, but very true on the lack of a modern enterprise platform for higher education, which faces a piece meal IT infrastructure. With higher education institutions under pressure to reduce costs, IT needs to find ways to run more efficiently, while supporting 21st century best practices for both students, parents and employees.

With three decades’ experience developing enterprise solutions exclusively for colleges and universities, Three Rivers Systems is highly regarded in the U.S. for its best in class student management solutions. The acquisition of Three Rivers Systems’ Student Management technology and tight integration with Unit4’s broad and feature rich Finance, Human Relations and Research Management applications will result in the industry’s first and most advanced and complete global ERP for Education. New and updated features of the combined offering include: Human Resources & Payroll, Finance Management, Research Management, a complete Student Management system covering Student Acquisition, Course Management, Retention, Degree Auditing and much more.
MyPOV – Good description of the upcoming planned scope.

Whether adopting new process models or integrating with a newly introduced system, Unit4 is able to easily adapt to the ever changing business requirements and needs of Education institutions. The platform helps grow enrolments, improve student success, and improve overall institutional effectiveness through e.g. the incorporation of built-in data analysis. A truly innovative and clean interface lets users benefit from an easily responsive system with optional touch based capabilities when using a tablet.
MyPOV – Good description of the aspiration of the future system and some of the capabilities that the system has.

“Unit4 and Three Rivers Systems shared focus on product innovation plus people and student centric applications perfectly cover the front and back office of today’s Education institutions,” says Amir Tajkarimi, President & Founder of Three Rivers Systems. “Unit4 will help to expedite innovation cycles around Three Rivers Systems’ advanced student management technology, while also bringing it to the global market. The acquisition will result in strengthened global sales and support teams as well as increased bandwidth for ongoing research and development around our combined product suite.”
MyPOV – No need to comment on the usual quote.

Three Rivers Systems aligns tightly with Unit4’s Cloud Your Way deployment model, so that the new Campus suite will support higher education institutions’ preferred ERP architecture, whether in the cloud, on premise, or hybrid. Unit4 and Three Rivers Systems’ solutions will be integrated via the Unit4 People Platform with Social, Mobile and Analytics driven capabilities.[…]
MyPOV – Good to mention, guess it was to easy to offer a roadmap, but that is the next logical questneeion.

Unit4’s ERP is the only system designed from the ground up for people-centric industries. It empowers people to better engage and create impact, while automating low-value repetitive tasks.

Overall POV

A good move by Unit4, which needs to find ways to grow fast in North America. Though Higher Education is only the 3rd most important vertical for the vendor, it is currently a good opportunity in North America to capitalize on. Higher Education institutions are in an innovation cycle, after almost decade(s) in the doldrums. Credit goes to Workday with steering up the industry with its new Student offering. A good momentum to exploit, especially with a smaller scale customer target.

On the concern side it is one more thing for Unit4 to do. It not only needs to push Higher Education now, but the other verticals it is focusing on, too. On the product side Unit4 needs to integrate 3 Rivers Systems – and we are not concerned of the new People platform not being up to task – but it is work that needs to be done quickly.

Overall a good acquisition for Unit4, I am sure we will learn more about it at the vendor’s analyst day this week.

Tech Optimization Future of Work Matrix Commerce Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Data to Decisions unit4 Chief Information Officer

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Teradata Backs Presto, Evolves Big Data Strategy

Doug Henschen

Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Teradata adds Presto SQL-on-Hadoop option plus new streaming and analytics offerings. They’re all part of the vendor’s Unified Data Architecture strategy, but Teradata’s biggest challenge remains cost-per-terabyte thinking.

CEO’s are no longer asking for big data strategies, according to Randy Lea, vice president of Teradata’s Big Data practice. Now they’re asking for analytics strategies.

If that’s really the case, few companies are as well qualified as Teradata to offer advice. That much was clear at last week’s Teradata Influencer’s Summit in San Diego, where the company detailed a tremendous breadth of software, cloud services, applications, packaged solutions and consulting services.

It’s a good bet, though, that plenty of C-level leaders are still beguiled and befuddled by big data and all the competing claims. Teradata itself is contributing to the confusion this week by throwing its considerable weight behind Apache Presto, the open-source SQL-on-Hadoop option developed by Facebook.

Teradata introduced supported Presto SQL-on-Hadoop software on Monday, and it's contributing development work to the open source project.

Teradata introduced a supported distribution of Presto SQL-on-Hadoop software on Monday, and it’s contributing planned development work to the open source project.

This move will confuse some because Teradata has partnered with the three leading Hadoop vendors: Cloudera, Hortonworks and MapR. Yet Presto competes with Cloudera Impala, Apache Hive, Hadoop’s incumbent query tool supported by Hortonworks, and Apache Drill, the open-source project supported by MapR.

All of the above support SQL querying of data in a Hadoop cluster. But Teradata insists its new Presto distribution, available as a free download with a subscription-support option, promises better performance than rival tools, thanks to its in-memory architecture. Teradata points to Presto adoption by Airbnb, Facebook, Teradata-customer Netflix, DropBox, and others as proof of Presto’s scalability and performance. Facebook, for one, also invented Hive, but it came up with Presto to get around Hive performance constraints tied to MapReduce processing.

MyPOV on the Presto Move: Adoption by Internet giants notwithstanding, Teradata has work to do help Presto meet enterprise expectations. For starters, Presto currently lacks YARN support, but it also needs integrations with Hadoop-system-management tools like Ambari, security-system connections, a better ODBC driver and, most importantly, broader SQL coverage and BI system integrations. Teradata says it’s working on all of the above and will contribute the work to the open source project.

Teradata’s contributions will obviously improve Presto’s fortunes, but it’s clear that the project’s independence – it’s ability to run on any Hadoop distribution — was as much an attraction to Teradata as Presto’s performance. Hive and Apache Spark (with Spark SQL) also run on any Hadoop distribution (and they already have YARN support). But those projects are under the control of the Hadoop and Spark communities, respectively.

Teradata clearly chose Presto in part because it can have greater influence in that community, even if the project itself is less mature than Hive and, in some respects, Spark. Indeed, Teradata execs acknowledged that Presto will have to work side-by-side with Hive for the foreseeable future because that tool is so widely used.

Teradata Evolves Unified Data Architecture

Teradata was once focused exclusively on great big enterprise data warehouse deployments, but my how times have changed. The company responded to the data warehouse appliance craze of the last decade by introducing its own broad range of appliances (from memory-intensive speed demons to archival boxes) all sharing the same database.

The company responded to the big data craze first by acquiring Aster Data. Now billed as the vendor’s Discovery Platform, Teradata Aster handles multi-structured data and multi-mode analysis including MapReduce, machine learning, graph analysis and R all invoked through SQL and SQL-like queries. A second response to big data was embracing Hadoop. Teradata is now partnered with the top-three Hadoop distributors, and it resells and deploys Hortonworks’ distribution on a Teradata appliance or on third-party hardware. A third response to the big data craze was buying Revelytix for big data metadata management, Hadapt for SQL-on-Hadoop expertise and ThinkBig Analytics for bid data application and deployment consulting.

Teradata, Aster, and Hadoop are now the three legs of the company’s Unified Data Architecture (UDA), and Teradata Query Grid is the connective data fabric that lets customers bring all that information together into analyses on Teradata or Aster. (Query Grid previously used Hive to tap into Hadoop, but now Presto adds a low-latency querying option.)

The latest push in the UDA strategy is into the cloud. Last year the vendor started offering multi-tenant Teradata and Aster instances hosted in two U.S.-based Teradata data centers. (Plans call for additional data centers in Europe and Asia, but there are not firm dates on that.) Cloud use cases include backup/disaster recovery, test-and-development, Aster (Discovery Platform) deployments, consolidation of shadow-IT data marts, and support for system-integrator and Teradata-partner cloud deployments.

Seeing Amazon’s success with Redshift, Teradata also believes it can go down-market, serving customers who want agile cloud deployment, but who also need consulting, industry domain knowledge, and deployment and operational hand holding that Amazon Web Services doesn’t offer. Teradata cited “complete” pricing for a 24-terabyte Teradata cloud deployment, including DBA as-a-service, at $250,000 per year with a three-year commitment.

Teradata says it has tuned Query Grid and other software for cloud delivery, adding REST APIs and breaking out micro-services. It’s also testing Teradata Listener, a cloud-ready streaming-data capture option (late to the streaming party, but welcome nonetheless). Based on Kafka and Spark processing and set for Q3 beta, Listener is aimed at real-time analytics and Internet-of-things applications.

The bigger picture with UDA, Query Grid, and the new cloud options is providing yet more flexible options for analytics. Teradata has 17 industry solutions covering everything from warranty and product-quality analyses for the automotive industry to customer-segmentation and network-planning apps for utility companies. The company has also built an Aster App Center offering “bundles” (think app blueprints) for site-search optimization and customer satisfaction analyses. The former is for improving product-search success and sales-conversion rates. The latter helps subscription-service providers in the telco, cable, and satellite industries spot likely defectors and avoid churn.

MyPOV On Teradata’s Evolution

One sticky metric that has pained Teradata in recent years is cost per terabyte. Hadoop vendors, in particular, trumpet this measure as a differentiator. Indeed it’s a big reason why Hadoop is quickly gaining adoption. Whether you call them data lakes or data hubs, Hadoop-based repositories look like they’re here to stay. Clickstreams, sensor data, log files, mobile data and social data at scale are some of the high-volume data types that beg for a low-cost-per-terabyte storage option.

But what about the analysis? There’s a race on to analyze the data within Hadoop without having to hire armies of data scientists and without writing and managing thousands of lines of arcane bespoke code. Lots of database providers (including Actian, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Pivotal as well as Teradata) have come up with ways to query Hadoop using SQL. Hadoop vendors have done that, too, with Impala, Hive and Drill.

Far fewer vendors from the database camp have gone beyond SQL. With Aster, Teradata’s advantage is invoking machine learning, graph analysis, R-based algorithms and MapReduce techniques all with SQL and SQL-like statements. Query Grid also supports push-down techniques, so you can do the heavy processing on Hadoop or Teradata when the big data lives there.

When Teradata first acquired Aster in 2011, my first thought was “who wants to have to run three platforms,” meaning Teradata and Hadoop, plus Aster? But the only option that matches Aster’s breadth (at present) is Apache Spark, and that, too, is another platform. Spark is an open-source platform with a fast-growing community, so it will only get stronger, but it does not invoke all these modes of analysis through SQL and SQL-like expressions.

Teradata is making as strong a case as ever for Aster, but as my colleague Holger Mueller pointed out in this blog, the vendor has at least acknowledged other options by maintaining ThinkBig as a separate business unit. Presentations by ThinkBig at last week’s event clearly showed Spark and other open source options in the thick of the company’s consulting plans.

In short, if you’re only thinking about data and how big it might get, you’re susceptible to cost-per-terabyte thinking. If you’re thinking ahead to the range of analyses you’re going to need to support, and if you want industry domain expertise and guidance on deployment and platform integration, measures such as price-per-analytic, price-per-user, and time-to-successful-deployment will matter most. That’s when Teradata belongs on the RFP list.

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News Analysis - Teradata Launches First Enterprise Support for Presto

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

We attended the Teradata Influence Summit last week in Del Mar, North of San Diego, (Progress Report here) and fresh off the heels of this event, Teradata announces support for Presto.

Let’s dissect the press release (find it here) our customary style:

SAN DIEGO – June 8, 2015 – To make it easier for more users to extract insights from data lakes, Teradata (NYSE: TDC), the big data analytics and marketing applications company, today announced a multi-year commitment to contribute to Presto’s open source development and provide the industry’s first commercial support. Based on a three-phase roadmap, Teradata’s contributions will be 100 percent open source under the Apache® license and will advance Presto’s modern code base, proven scalability, iterative querying, and the ability to query multiple data repositories.

MyPOV – Interesting and good move by Teradata, partnering with a promising open source initiative with good DNA (originally from Facebook) and proven practical usage (e.g. AirBnb, Facebook and more). As part of the Teradata UDA, the vendor used to execute its federated queries on the Hadoop side on Hive, with Presto it get a more generic and more powerful support for these queries. And good to see that Teradata will be a ‘good citizen’ for open sources, becoming a (substantial) contributor to Presto. Also good to see it is a multiyear commitment, and the roadmap (we saw it under NDA) is rich, but realistic.

Developed and used by Facebook, Presto is a powerful, next-generation, open source SQL query engine which supports big data analytics. There is a growing interest in Presto, as these corporations have adopted it: Airbnb, DropBox, Gree, Groupon, and Netflix.

MyPOV – And here is the value, Presto is SQL base, a commonly known language for millions of business users and analysts. Bringing the ‘SQL back to no-SQL’ is a giant quest, and Presto is one of the more successful initiatives on that strategy path. It also has great user DNA.

Presto complements the Teradata® QueryGridTM and fits within the Teradata® Unified Data Architecture™ vision. Presto integrates with the Teradata® Unified Data Architecture™ by providing users the ability to originate queries directly from their Hadoop platform, while Teradata QueryGrid allows queries to be initiated from the Teradata Database and the Teradata Aster Database all through a common SQL protocol.

MyPOV – Teradata lays out the strategy here, which is good for transparency. Querygrid will be used on the Teradata and Aster side, throwing off queries to Presto as needed, no surprise. But Teradata will make its Presto offering open for direct Hadoop queries, a good move.

Presto is agnostic and runs on multiple Hadoop distributions. In addition, Presto can reach out from a Hadoop platform to query Cassandra, relational databases, or proprietary data stores. This flexibility allows Presto to combine data from multiple sources, allowing for analytics across the entire organization through a single query. This cross-platform analytic capability allows Presto users to extract the maximum business value from data lakes of any size, from gigabytes to petabytes.

MyPOV – The paragraph describes the value that Presto brings pretty well, from Presto a user can query pretty much anything. So Presto gives Teradata flexible data access again, but not from the Teradata level, but the Presto / OpenSource level. A very new approach for Teradata, but a good sign as it shows that Teradata is walking the path of times, which has a clear rise of open source at its end.

Teradata’s three-phase contribution to 100-percent open source code will advance Presto’s enterprise capabilities, which benefit customers.

Phase 1 - Enhance essential features that simplify the adoption of Presto, including installation, support documentation, and basic monitoring. The Phase 1 capabilities are available today for download at Teradata.com/Presto or on Github

MyPOV – Kudos for laying out a roadmap, always something appreciated by the ecosystem. Apparently the installation of Presto was not trivial, so Teradata focused on that logically as Phase 1/

Phase 2 - Integrate Presto with other key parts of the big data ecosystem, such as standard Hadoop distribution management tools, interoperability with YARN, and connectors that extend Presto’s capabilities beyond the Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS). These features will be available at the end of 2015.

MyPOV – This will be the key release for the Teradata / Presto offering.

Phase 3 –Enable ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) and JDBC (Java Database Connectivity API) to expand adoption within organizations and enhance integration with business intelligence tools. Enhance security by providing access based on job roles. These enhancements will be completed and available in 2016.

MyPOV – And this will be to make the Teradata / Presto release very, very attractive to SQL savvy business users (and developers).

In addition to its open source contributions, Teradata commercial support is now available from Think Big consulting. Think Big will offer its proven expertise in three areas to enable users to feel confident about putting Presto into production with assistance:

Presto Jumpstart – In the cloud or onsite, Think Big will assist with piloting new functionality
Presto Development – In the cloud or onsite, Think Big consultants will help customers design, build, and deploy a Presto solution
Think Big Academy - Two-day workshops will help customers understand the best uses and criteria for architectural decisions.

MyPOV – No surprise – Teradata will offer services here, and Thing Big is the place where Teradata offers these. A good move.