The First (IBM) Verse in a Long Journey

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

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

Today IBM announced the availability of IBM Verse, their new email client that aims to help people manage the email overload problem that many people struggle with. I provided my initial thoughts on Verse (please read!) after IBMâ€™s launch event back in November 2014.

Given that five months have passed, Iâ€™d like to revisit some of the key points from that post and examine what progress has been made.

Who? What? Why?

> One of the most significant things about IBM Verse is the level of attention it has within IBM

IBM Verse combines communication and collaboration features with analytics that span several internal divisions of IBM. Itâ€™s good to see them working together, along with the IBM Design team and the SoftLayer team for hosting in the cloud.

As for marketing, IBM Verse has been shown at key IBM conferences, Mobile World Congress, CeBIT, SXSW and several IBM user groups around the globe. There is a dedicated IBM TV commercial about it, and IBM even had a skit about Verse run on the Jimmy Kimmell show. Iâ€™ll refrain from sharing my thoughts on that skit and let you make up your own mind.

While the breadth of marketing is a good thing, it brings to mind a very important question: â€œWho is the target audience?â€

Is IBM Verse intended for:
- Personal (consumer) use or businesses? If businesses, enterprises? SMBs? If personal, why would anyone choose this offering over a competitive one like Gmail or Outlook
- Upgrade for existing Notes/Domino customers? If so, is the focus on moving to the cloud or waiting until Verse is available on-premises?
- Upsell for IBM Connections customers? Connections has always worked well with Microsoft shops, is the hope that Connections + Microsoft customers will now go fully IBM
- Migration of Google or Microsoft customers? While Verse is primarily focused on email today (there is some chat and file sharing capability) is the goal to compete with the more complete Microsoft and Google suites?
- Brand new customers? Is IBM hoping to entice brand new organizations as they make their initial IT decisions? Will these new companies even be looking at email solutions, or instead focus on newer forms of communication and collaboration?

IBM needs to have a clear answer for this, and canâ€™t say â€œAll of the above.â€ I am hearing from some IBM Business Partners that they are getting inquires from small customers who are currently using Microsoft or Googleâ€™s products. However, I believe the vast majority of Verse customers will be those that have both Notes/Domino and Connections, and are looking to modernize their IT and end-user experiences.

Delivering On Vision

> The concepts behind IBM Verse are not solely focused on creating a better email client.
> While IBM Verse offers a vastly improved experience over existing IBM products, it is not yet a major leap forward in changing the way people work.

While the first manifestation of Verse is email-centric, IBM does have a broader vision for encompassing additional forms of communication and collaboration. I understand IBM needed a starting point, and email is a good one as it is still the primary communication tool used by businesses around the world today. However, given the marketing hype around #NewWayToWork and the impressive size of IBMâ€™s Design team, I am disappointed in v1.0 of Verse. This was a good opportunity for a new starting point in communication and collaboration, but instead itâ€™s essentially a bit better inbox than what exists today in iNotes. My major concern is that there very little #NewWayToWork about it.

Will it:
- Change the way Sales Professionals build pipelines, complete RFPs and close deals?
- Enable Marketing teams to run campaigns more effectively?
- Assist Support organizations in resolving customer issues faster?, etc.

Not today, as email is just one component in getting work done. Verse currently does not factor in social networking, task management and enterprise business process software. Verse does not provide a new â€œstarting point for the dayâ€ that aggregates together all the information people need to get their job done. Today itâ€™s a better inbox. Thatâ€™s a good thing, but itâ€™s not a #NewWayToWork. One of my primary research areas is the intersection of social and analytics. The combination of these two areas has potential to significantly improve the way people work. IBM is in a good position to leverage their vast analytics capabilities, but the current version of Verse offers very little in this area.

Help From Your Friends

> IBM BlueMix will provide the application development capabilities for business partners to expand and integrate the features of IBM Verse.

One of the keys to the success of a platform is the depth and reach of its partner ecosystem. In the early days of Notes/Domino, IBM built a huge base of business partners. Similarly, other enterprise software vendors like Microsoft and Salesforce rely heavily on their partners to sell, support and extend their platforms. IBM needs to do the same with Verse. At launch, the partners for Verse are ones that can assist in migrating customers to the cloud. That is a very logical starting point, but IBM needs to heavily invest in getting partners to create additional features, admin tools, security products, and other extensions to Verse.

Thankfully, IBM BlueMix is positioned to provide the platform for these partners. In the past, Lotus Notes/Domino was sort of an island in the vast sea of IBM products. But now BlueMix is a single platform where developers can leverage features of Connections, Watson Analytics and more. I am hopeful that IBM can entice business partners to build on the Verse platform similar to how Microsoft, Google and Salesforce have done with their partner ecosystems.

The First Verse in a Long Journey

My recommendation is that existing IBM customers speak to their account teams about IBM Verseâ€™s roadmap and where it fits into their 2015/16 IT plans. As others such as Volker Weber have pointed out the features and user experience of Verse are not ready for prime time usage yet. You can read Volker's posts here: Verse Beyond Powerpoint, What IBM should do to improve IBMVerse.com, No more talk about IBM Verse Freemium. Currently, I don't see Verse as a compeling enough platform to warrant enterprise wide migration from a competitive communication, collaboration and productivity platform.

While IBMâ€™s vision is solid, they need to improve on their execution and do so quickly. Their competitors are all working on next generation collaboration platforms as well, so 2015 is a critical year for locking down customers. IBM has excellent assets available to them in security, cloud hosting, analytics, mobile and design, so I look forward to seeing how quickly IBM can interate on Verse and create a compelling experience that matches the vision.

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

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Guy Courtin Landed Integrated Supply Chain Advisory Board Spot

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.     ...

For those of you who haven't met Guy Courtin yet, he's the analyst who can share what you always thought you should know about matrix commerce, one of Constellation's key business themes. We're excited to share that he was just appointed to the Advisory Board of Integrated Supply Chain, Ltd. (ISC), a organization serving global leaders that is headquartered in London.

The timing couldn't be better as he's speaking about the digital disruption of supply chains at the upcoming 'ISC' Turkey 2015 conference on April 28th and 29th in Turkey. He'll be sharing Silicon Valley insights with the world class organizations that make up the board and also participate in ISC's conferences and workshops.

If you haven't seen his latest research reports, there's four recent ones below. These belong to Constellation's State of Enterprise Technology series of research reports.

Constellation Executive Network members and Research Unlimited members get access any time to content like this by logging in here. If you want to suggest a topic for a report in the "State of Enterprise Technology" series, you can also feel free to drop us a line.

The State of Manufacturing

By Guy Courtin and R "Ray" Wang

Manufacturing Adopts Mass Personalization Ideology

In 2015 manufacturing will dive into digital transformation as producers take advantage of data insights to create ever-more customized products.

The State of Retail in 2015 and Beyond

By Guy Courtin

Digital Technologies Reshape Retail and Shift Customer-Retailer Relationship

The customer-retailer relationship will become more cooperative in 2015. Learn about the Amazon Trap, visibility, the Internet of Things, network insights, and more trends in the state retail in 2015.

The State of Post-Sale Commerce in 2015

By Guy Courtin

Post-sale commerce is set to be an important revenue driver for many organizations. Organizations moving to post-sale commerce must consider five key elements included in this report.

The State of Supply Chain Management

By Guy Courtin

The future of supply chains demonstrates how digital will transform business models.

Being demand-driven remains the goal to achieve, the Future of Work and BYOD will affect the supply chain, and data is the product in the state of the supply chain in 2015.

Matrix Commerce Revenue & Growth Effectiveness New C-Suite Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Future of Work Data to Decisions Sales Marketing Next-Generation Customer Experience B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience business Marketing eCommerce Supply Chain Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration M&A Enterprise Service AI Analytics Automation Machine Learning Generative AI ML LLMs Agentic AI HR HCM SaaS PaaS IaaS Chief Customer Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Product Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Growth Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Operating Officer

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Connected Smarter Products improve Customer Relationships through real-time data management techniques

Andy Mulholland

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Andy Mulholland is Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on cloud business models. Formerly the Global Chief Technology Officer for the Capgemini Group from 2001 to 2011, Mulholland successfully led the organization through a period of mass disruption. Mulholland brings this experience to Constellation’s clients seeking to understand how Digital Business models will be built and deployed in conjunction with existing IT systems. Coverage Areas Consumerization of IT & The New C-Suite: BYOD, Internet of Things, IoT, technology and business use Previous experience: Mulholland co authored four major books that chronicled the change and its impact on Enterprises starting in 2006 with the well-recognised book ‘Mashup Corporations’ with Chris Thomas of Intel. This was followed in…...

If the reality of Digital Business is the transformation of Business and Industry sectors driven by ‘everything becoming connected, and therefore ‘smarter’, how do you manage to make sense of the huge amount of data being generated? Big Data is a tough enough prospect today, but in a future world it looks impossible to continue to scale up the current approaches.

The simple answer to the question is that data will not be generated, recovered and analyzed through the reporting tools we use today. Instead the data itself will be ‘smarter’ and structured in new ways that suit being ‘flowed’ through real time analysis capabilities.

Research report now available: The Foundational Elements for the Internet of Things (IoT)

It helps start by reminding ourselves why we think the way we do in managing the use of data. Not surprisingly, much of our current view on Data, including the manner the way in which we make use of it through analytics, relates to the IT Back Office operational model. Our prime data source is from traditional Enterprise Applications focused on internal business operational processes, so sophisticated tools are required to provide reporting on enterprise business issues that are not covered by any single application and its data record of a transacted process.

A further point is that these are historical transaction data records leaving business always working some days, or even months, behind its own activities. Business Intelligence using In-Memory techniques, first introduced into mainstream Business Intelligence by SAP with its HANA technologies, sought to close the time gap by analyzing data as it is written and used, a radical and important improvement. However the challenge of the Application centric nature of the data versus the business view required still remains.

As a result our current views on data, and what can be achieved with it, are largely based on using data from the automation of Back Office internal Enterprise processes. Our current driving forces are coming from new technologies opening up the external business market leading to a focus on Front Office activities. As the nature of business markets is changing the importance of new data from new external sources has grown to be a crucial new imperative to master. The terms Digital Business and Big Data are usually used in connection with Sales and Marketing initiatives to better target sales activities.

Digital Business Social Marketing programs have introduced an impressive new source of data more closely reflective of sales and marketing activities, but Industry sector transformation is a disruptive force beyond this driven by connected and smarter products redefining what and how sales and marketing interact with customers in new smarter business models.

A previous blog, (Sell more today then its Digital Business; Survival is Smart Business), explored the difference between using Digital Business to improve selling the current business model more effectively and the impact of Industry Sector transformation caused by connected smarter products. The term ‘Smart’ is used to describe increasing number of products that are both connected and as a result are able to be used in ‘Smarter’ ways. The example used was the transformation of the motor industry towards having to increasingly compete around the technology of connected, personalized ‘Smart Cars’ rather than more traditional engineered features of power, or styling.

Smart Products produce exactly the focused data on how their use that Sales and Marketing require to define their customers profiles, and to offer further revenue producing services that are optimized to the individual customer this ensuring ongoing revenue a new level of customer supplier relationship.

The Internet of Things, IoT, even the Internet of Everything, IoE, is the generic term for this connected real-time sense and respond environment, and much has already been written about the resulting avalanche of data. And if the techniques in use today were applied to this then the sheer amount of data will overwhelm any useful targeted outputs in realistic timeframes. Fortunately current IoT first generation use of sensors to improve real time information of business process has resulted in entirely different techniques to manage the resulting data.

In previous blogs on IOT the three critical new technology elements have been outlined that together result in the capability to support scaled up ‘smart’ products. First, Fog Computing combining new network functionality with micro Cloud Computing; Second, Sensor alignment, physical mapping and legacy file alignment; Thirdly, and most importantly of all, new approaches to providing real-time Data Flow management.

The term ‘Smart Car’, (doesn’t refer to the Mercedes sub brand), as in the term Smart Phone, has a technology platform of sensors that provide a great deal of information about its use, its performance and many other factors. It also offers the challenge of providing a unique digital identity that would enable the resulting data to have new interactive levels of business value.

Smart Cars, just like Smart Phones, add a world of personalization that offers a new value partnership between the user/owner, and the seller/operator. The user/owner can add features and capabilities that customize the car to suit their personal use and interests, whilst the seller/operator gains the potential to offer upgrades and additional items that increase revenue. Most importantly of all both learn more about the other through a relationship that should prove increasingly intimate and well focused towards a long term relationship around services, rather than a one off purchase of the car.

All well and good, but to do this means the car companies must manage individually, with unique identifications thousands, even millions, of cars. This is something that Tesla Motors can do today, but at the level of thousands of individual cars. This is a different commercial proposition to the generic retail market for, as an example, household items such as Washing Machines, where the scale massively rises, but at the same time size and price of the products to be tracked decreases.

There are many consumer items that could benefit from being ‘Smart’ to allow customization, and an ongoing Services centric relationship, to do so requires provisioning with a unique IP v6 address for each, and understanding the use of the Internet of Everything, IoE, as a business platform.

There are some big conceptual differences in Internet of Everything, IoE, versus the Internet of Things, IoT, or the Industrial Internet of Things, IIoT. Both IoT and IIoT, have strong similarities in being deployed for business operational benefit as opposed to sales, marketing and consumer benefits with IoE. Where, and for what Business benefit, IoT/IIoT is deployed has been explored in the blog Defining the Business Benefit and knowledge requirement for your IoT/IIoT project.

In IoE and the consumer retail market the slogan of market leader EVRYTHNG.com (sic) defines the basic proposition and shifting to the open Internet and Web environment with its ubiquitous coverage and scale based on open standards, architecture and protocols;

www.EVRYTHNG.com Smart Product Platform makes products smart, interactive and trackable by connecting them to the Web.

The immediate value to the user lies in extra capabilities that make the product more desirable and a better ‘fit’ to their on going use; whilst the value to the manufacturer or retailer lies in increased intelligence as to what their customers want as well as additional ongoing revenue streams in supplying it. There should be value to both in the resulting development of a stronger interactive relationship.

EVRYTHNG generate an ‘Active Digital Identity’ or ADI based on their production of a unique IPv6 Internet addresses for each physical product, as long as there is Internet connectivity regardless of location, or even dynamic movement, the product is always connected to the EVRYTHNG Smart Products Platform. However the really important three further parts of the Platform beyond the services of managing protocols and interoperability and similar ‘house keeping’ tasks lie in;

1) The Temporal, Semantic Data Store channels temporal data streams through a semantic model into use through what EVRYTHNG call a Big-Little Data Store. A more straightforward description might be the ability to stream real time data into Business defined customizable headings in a data store. This makes the identification and value of the data to specific topics immediately accessible thus rending the huge amount of unfocussed Big Data into recognizable and relevant Small Data with its attributes and relationships intact.

2) The Rich SDK Toolkits to support quick development of new specific Apps, or the integration with existing consumer, and business, Services running on the Cloud. The range of Java Script libraries also extend to support traditional Applications in ERP Suites, all using only open standards protocols and services. The SDKs allow third party Business Intelligence, or Analytics Engines to be used if preferred to the EVRYTHNG provided capabilities.

3) Fine Grained Access Control via REST Parameters supports full authentication with, if required sign in User Identification Services that can link to Social Logins from Facebook or similar.

EVRYTHNG offer a white paper for download that provides full details on their Smart Products Platform and its capabilities.

In a relatively short period of time connected Products will become the norm as the buyers require them to be ‘smart’ in terms of their usability and customizable capabilities; Similarly the manufacturers/retailers will require the connections to deliver ‘smart’ data that will allow them to both delight their customers as well as support them with additional items that create revenue and strengthened relationships.

Note;

EVRYTHNG were chosen to be featured in this blog as an example of an advanced product set on the basis of their abilities today to deliver the business capabilities outlined in this blog, and on the basis of their wining several awards for the quality of their technology. EVRYTHNG as with other Technology companies featured in this series of Blogs provided a briefing on which this extract of their key features is based.

Research report now available: The Foundational Elements for the Internet of Things (IoT)

Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Future of Work AI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Analytics Automation B2B B2C CX EX Employee Experience HR HCM business Marketing SaaS PaaS IaaS Supply Chain Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology eCommerce Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance 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

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Constellation Will Review Your Legacy Analyst Firm Contract for $1

R “Ray” Wang to negotiate Gartner and Forrester contracts for $1

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, April 1, 2015—Constellation Research, Inc. (@ConstellationRG), will conduct complimentary contract reviews of legacy analyst firms for its clients and future prospects. Constellation Research, a Silicon Valley based analyst firm, recognizes many clients are locked into contracts with legacy analyst firms who don’t possess the specialized knowledge and ambition to serve customers in the digital era.

The legacy analyst firm contract has not adapted to new service paradigms in the on-demand economy.
Drawbacks of the legacy analyst firm contract:

1. Massive shelfware. Legacy analyst firms require their clients to purchase a minimum of reader and subscriber seats to research often in the tens of thousands wasted in order to access analysts.

2. Limited access to research. Whether sliced by roles, topics, or industries, legacy analyst firms have required a purchase of multiple subscriptions to research that no longer meet the needs of the digital executive.

3. Complacency of the analysts. Research quality has suffered with inconsistent coverage of emerging and disruptive technology, and lower levels of service. Analysts spend their times crafting squares of despair and tragic quadrants that are obsolete on publication. Further vendors tie up many resources as they feel forced to participate in antiquated evaluation process of technology.

Drawing on the experience of over 4000 contract negotiations, Constellation’s R “Ray” Wang will assist clients in negotiating contracts with their legacy analyst firms so they may receive the best services at the best price. This is no April Fool’s joke.

Know what you're paying for. Apply for legacy analyst firm contract review now.

Constellation will review your legacy analyst firm contract for $1.

The fine print:

Limited to 100 applicants
Timeliness of service dependent upon R "Ray" Wang's schedule
Apply here: http://info.constellationr.com/apply-for-legacy-analyst-firm-contract-review

About Constellation Research

Constellation Research is an award winning, Silicon Valley-based research and advisory firm that helps clients navigate tumultuous business environments with disruptive technologies and progressive transformation strategies. Constellation enables forward-thinking visionaries to harness the transformative power of digital technologies to solve tough business problems and advance their careers.

Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Future of Work Marketing Transformation Matrix Commerce New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Sales Marketing Innovation & Product-led Growth Chief Customer Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer

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Event Report - Oracle HCM World - Full Steam ahead, a Learning surprise and potential growth challenges

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…...

We had the opportunity to attend the 2nd edition of Oracle’s HCMWorld conference in Washington last week. The event was well attended, the audience had more senior HR leaders than the audience we say last year in Las Vegas. Customers were generally curious and excited of things to come and using the whole spectrum of Oracle HCM products. My First Take impression of the Day #1 keynote is here.

So here are my top three takeaways:

New Learning Module - Oracle Learning Cloud – Oracle has been sharing its roadmaps actively at HCM World and OpenWorld, but those did not contain the creation and shipping of a brand new Learning product in spring of 2015. That Oracle could keep the delivery of a new major Talent Management module under the wraps is both an indication of professionalism and the vast resources Oracle has working on its HCM products.

New Learning - Notice - not 'What to learn' - but 'What to watch'

The new Learning product has been built from scratch, uses the Oracle HCM data and object model (formerly known as Fusion HCM) and leverages Oracle Cloud foundation functions like Oracle Social Network (OSN) to make the product more powerful from the get go. The Learning module is a good proof point of the platform capabilities, as it heavily leverages OSN to provide in context learning suggestions and access to learning content. It is unlikely Oracle would have been able to ship as quickly and as powerful a business users without that, the module is tagging to specific content and creating learning scenarios. It also supports streaming of the content to various devices even considering bandwidth optimization. So a working first version of Learning, with all the new, 21st century requirements of self-created content, cross platform delivery and in context access. The roadmap will provide necessary compliance training in fall, with SCORM capabilities, class room training and external training capabilities coming in the next releases.

Leone talks Digital Disruption

Digital Disruption meets HCM – Next to Globalization and the Workforce Retirement situation, we see Digital Disruption as a key trend enterprises need to account for. But so far even the term Digital Disruption has not been mentioned in HCM (vendor) keynotes. So kudos to HCM product leader Chris Leone to combine this megatrend in its keynote. We are still at the early stages of realizing what Digital Disruption means for the HR departments but it is clear it is a key trend to reckon with. Leone presented well on disrupters, tied in the generations of users in the workforce (something frankly we are getting tired of) and then structuring the keynote along the acquisition, the engagement, training (sic – see above) and retention of talent. Good to see a keynote not following the well-worn down paths of too many HCM vendor keynotes.

A screenshot of Career Planning

Oracle Momentum – Oracle has found momentum in cloud sales, as shared already in its Q3 earnings call. And Oracle would not be Oracle setting its sights on cloud leaders like Salesforce.com (goal is to surpass that vendor in revenue) and Workday (goal is to surpass that vendor in customer count). It is clear that Oracle has work long and hard, invested billions to get to that stage – so it’s clear that executives are proud to be there. Unheard sales incentives with significant accelerators certainly help to keep the sales force motivated, and if continued in Oracle’s traditionally strong Q4, may accelerate the path to cloud for many enterprises, as the competition cannot and does not stand still. What is remarkable and CEO Mark Hurd made very clear that his proud of this fact is – that the on premise revenue was almost completely stable. So all eyes on Q4, earnings call likely toward the end of July.

MyPOV

A good event for Oracle customers and the vendor, who keeps showing traction in HCM. Oracle believes, as Hurd shared that when you have the ‘foot in the door’ with HCM in the cloud – the rest of the enterprises will follow. As much as we agree that the ‘golden rule’ of enterprise software that ‘suites always win’ should remain true for the cloud era, we also know that the PeopleSoft history (on premise of course) has shown us differently. But PeopleSoft lost a fair number of HCM installs in our view because the approach how the PeopleSoft suite was different than Oracle’s and SAP’s – something that does not apply to Oracle Cloud offerings these days.

All vendors with on premise business are working hard to ramp up their cloud revenues, it is good to see that Oracle has made progress on the sales side. When I asked about the implementation phase following the sales contracts, Hurd jumped right away in the provisioning of customers in the Oracle cloud – which seems to be going well. And anything else would be a surprise if Oracle cloud not handle the scale out of these customers. What remains my area of concern is in regards of skilled ‘hands’ to implement these customers – both internally and with partners. As we all know people don’t grow on trees and getting them qualified and trained quickly will become the critical path for Oracle soon. But as Hurd pointed out – partners are ultimately only really ready to invest when sales success is there – so it is solving one problem after each other, one at a time. We will be watching.

No time to read - here is my video takeaway - Meerkat quality - skip first 2-3 minutes:

And a Meerkat quality replay of the keynote:

Future of Work / HCM / SaaS research:

First Take - Oracle HCM World Day #1 Keynote - off to a good start - read here
Progress Report - Oracle HCM gathers momentum - now it needs to build on that - read here
Oracle pushes modern HR - there is more than technology - read here. (Takeaways from the recent HCMWorld conference).
Why Applications Unlimited is good a good strategy for Oracle customers and Oracle - read here.

Also worth a look for the full picture

News Analysis - Oracle discovers the power of the two socket server - or: A pivot that wasn't one - TCO still rules - read here
Market Move - Oracle buys Datalogix - moves more into DaaS - read here
Event Report - Oracle Openworld - Oracle's vision and remaining work become clear - they are both big - read here
Constellation Research Video Takeaways of Oracle Openworld 2014 - watch here
Is it all coming together for Oracle in 2014? Read here.
From the fences - Oracle AR Meeting takeaways - read here (this was the last analyst meeting in spring 2013)
Takeaways from Oracle CloudWorld LA - read here (this was one of the first cloud world events overall, in January 2013)

And if you want to read more of my findings on Oracle technology - I suggest:

Progress Report - Good cloud progress at Oracle and a two step program - read here.
Oracle integrates products to create its Foundation for Cloud Applications - read here.
Java grows up to the enterprise - read here.
1st take - Oracle in memory option for its database - very organic - read here.
Oracle 12c makes the database elastic - read here.
How the cloud can make the unlikeliest bedfellows - read here.
Act I - Oracle and Microsoft partner for the cloud - read here.
Act II - The cloud changes everything - Oracle and Salesforce.com - read here.
Act III - The cloud changes everything - Oracle and Netsuite with a touch of Deloitte - read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here.

Future of Work Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Data to Decisions Next-Generation Customer Experience Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Sales Marketing Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity User Conference Oracle ADP SuccessFactors SAP 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 Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

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On Electrical Grids, Cloud, And What We Are Doing Wrong

If you read my “stuff” you know I am a very big proponent of cloud computing.

I wrote a small e-book on how to be a cloud purist (which talks about and describes the proper way to — well, cloud).

I have engaged in numerous battles and debates (both online and offline) that were lengthy and passion-filled about this topic and have always tried to approach them as a way to explain why cloud computing should be the way organizations approach their computing.

There is so much potential and value in adopting cloud computing that it is almost impossible to understand how the bastardized concepts of private-cloud and hybrid-cloud even became a reality (don’t worry, Sameer Patel – no rant about that here… fodder for another post).

In keeping with the role of “thought leader” and “visionary” often assigned to me I wanted to find a way to explain why we are not approaching cloud the right way. Then the other day came to me in the middle of a run. Electricity.

We take electricity for granted in this country (well, in most places around the world where a comprehensive solution exists). We expect it to be plentiful, available, and low-cost. We use it to power our lives, businesses, and just about everything else (including cars lately). The true test for anything in this world is to compare it to electricity: you flip a switch and it’s there; you flip it again and it’s gone.

If you bear with me for a few minutes I can explain how we can make cloud work as electricity.

The entire US is covered by an electrical grid. This is what makes electricity always available (or shortly after it goes out in most cases). The grid’s purpose is to ensure easy sharing of electricity that is generated in any one region with many other regions. It also ensures that disruptions that occur in one location don’t affect a larger area and they can be easily and fast overcome.

In the old days, before the grid existed, each town and or region needed to have their own power-generation. A town that generated too much electricity could not “sell it” to a neighboring town (unless they laid out a cable between them – and another for every other city or region they wanted to sell it to) and would often end up being wasted (it is not possible, counter to popular sayings, to store electricity in a bottle for a long-term).

The grid that is laid out around the entire country (and parts of Canada) is used to backup power failures and ameliorate peak load usage. It also makes it far more efficient and cheaper to operate. It was established in the 1920s (and evolved many times since) on the same principles that made telephony and telegraphy work: sharing common infrastructure costs reduce costs and improve efficiency among the suppliers and providers.

The concept of cloud computing, based on models of distributed computing established around the same times as the electrical grid – even before computers, should work the same way. A public network connects myriad resources (storage, computing power, services, etc.) that should be shared. By providing a centralized set of security, management, and allocation rules enables anyone connected to that public network to use those resources.

Before the internet was the public network we could barely do cloud computing: it was a dream (if you remember, CORBA, COM/DCOM were early versions of distributed computing that failed due to the lack of a public network – think of them as “private network” technologies). The introduction of the ubiquitous and cheap network made it possible.

And this is where the story differs.

Software vendors decided, as the electricity and telephone providers did before them, that controlling their customers (and retaining them in their own private networks somehow) was more important than building a computing grid similar to electricity. Today, we are still undergoing that same problem.

The question that always kills me is when I hear someone ask “how many clouds do you have?”.

When we talk about cloud as if it was a storage location for files, or when we discuss how each vendor offers their own cloud (or even clouds – hybrid, private, government-only, etc.), or when we say that anyone that offers a product or service via a browser is “in the cloud” we are missing the big picture.

The public network, is not the cloud – it is the equivalent of the power lines that transverse the world (and having lived in Argentina and Roseville, CA I know power lines – trust me).

Delivering an application via a browser is not the cloud – it is the equivalent of selling someone an electrical generator.

Hosting your own “cloud” is not the cloud – it is the equivalent of selling someone a transformer.

A cloud requires infrastructure built by each participant and common standards to support the connections between those components. If you want to operate a power plant you better make sure you connect to the appropriate grid to take advantage of all the benefits of operating within it. While building your own power plant for your own purposes may work for some situations not every homeowner will benefit from doing so. Even if you have solar or wind energy in your house – you still need to connect to the grid to both sell excess production or power your house when there is no sufficient production.

The cloud is the grid that distributes all those resources so that anyone who needs them can use them with the assurance that their solution will not be “hacked”, changed, altered, or stolen. Just like you don’t expect an electrical appliance you plug into the electrical grid to be corrupted or blown away (as long as it complies with basic standards), you expect any application you plug into the cloud to be secure and perform as expected.

That is the model we need to strive for. Not owning electrical transformers, generators, or power lines.

Let’s build a cloud computing grid.

Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer Chief Information Officer

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The Thought Leader Journey

Gavin Heaton

Founder
Disruptors Co

Gavin is the Founder of Disruptors Co, one of Australia’s leading independent strategy and innovation companies. Gavin advises firms on strategy, marketing, product development and innovation. He is also a member of the Orbits program, the influencer network of  award winning analyst and advisory firm, Constellation Research. Gavin advises boards and leadership on innovation strategy, marketing, data-driven product development and corporate venturing. Gavin is on the board of Vibewire, a youth-led social enterprise based in Sydney, Australia and on the Technology Advisory Group for Good2Give – the workplace giving platform. ...

Up until recently, I have rarely listened to podcasts. They just did not seem to work for me. I didn’t have the regularity of travel or the time to focus. But podcasting seems to be riding a wave of new popularity – and an explosion in the type and number of podcasts combined with easy to use apps has seen me start to change my ways. And with an interest in supporting people and businesses I know, I started with some local casts – Trevor Young’s Reputation Revolution podcast and Mark Pesce’s This Week in Startups Australia.

Trevor’s podcast investigates personal branding and the do-it-yourself thought leadership route available to us all. I was able to join Trevor to share some of my own DIY thought leadership. Hope you enjoy it as much as Trevor and I had recording it.

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

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Event Report - Ultimate Software Connections - People first and an exciting roadmap ahead

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Ultimate Software is having their 25 year anniversary this year and having their user conference in Las Vegas at the Bellagio Hotel and Resort (again). The conference is well attended, with a record 2500 attendees, and participants are generally positive, excited of things to come and loyal to their vendor. One sign is how Ultimate manages to flood the airplanes with their customers wearing the conference shirts.

Here are my top 3 takeaways of the conference (my day #1 keynote takeaways are here):

A rich roadmap – Ultimate is sticking to its practice to share two years of roadmap, and went even further with sharing the leitmotivs of the 2+ years (and even further with the analysts where the 2017 roadmap was shared under NDA). So kudos first of all for keeping up the visibility and transparency that is vital for prospects and customers to plan and align their roadmaps and rollouts of their HCM projects.

For 2015 Ultimate is strengthening its Talent Management capabilities on the Recruiting and Onboarding side, which makes sense as both functions are relatively junior in the portfolio. But Ultimate also adds new Performance Management and Succession Management capabilities as well. On the Compensation side the major enhancement will be new Benefits capabilities, in time available for the fall benefits enrollment ritual. On the Payroll and HR Core side the major new module is Organizational Modelling. Ultimate has put a lot of thought into this key function and the first version has an attractive user interface, and robust functionality that makes us believe it will show instant value to managers. And on the Integration side Ultimate is adding a new Integration Studio that should make integration with 3rd party systems and applications easier.

For 2016 the Ultimate agenda gets more ambitious as the leitmotivs are centered on broader predictions and actions and culture and the organization. On the large ‘tectonic’ functional HCM pieces, Ultimate plans to deliver new Workforce Management and a (person centered) Learning Module. On the Payroll side Ultimate wants to deliver Global Leave Management and on the Talent Management side an almost ‘mythical’ function ‘Fulfill your Potential’. But if you think people centric as Ultimate does, fulfilling potential is a key functionality for employees / people. And on the Integration side Ultimate will support self-service imports – key to empower end users – and extend its developer network.

Along the way Ultimate is planning to become more global, with support of more statutory requirements and languages. The vendor just announced the support of German and Dutch during the Day #1 keynote.

The Ulimate Roadmap for the next 2 years

A strong analytical agenda – Ultimate keeps pushing its ‘true’ analytics (see more here) agenda – for now the vendor has three analytical applications in the field, around performance and the ‘infamous’ flight risk scenario that is the bread and butter analytics of the industry. As with all analytical applications it all comes back to ‘does it work’ – and the good news for Ultimate is that they have enough customers in production to tell their experiences. We heard from a bank that found that both performance and flight risk indicator worked better than the human judgement of its managers – a great proof point for analytical apps. And more is to come – and Ultimate has a ‘problem with plenty’ already – with a ‘Predictive Analytics Console’ planned for 2016, that will tie together all the analytical capabilities the vendor has created by then.

Ultimate's Person centric product philosophy

Partnership with NetSuite – The partnership with NetSuite was a surprise for the audience and we had the chance to sit down with both NetSuite and Ultimate leadership. NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson took the time to fly out to Las Vegas, which certainly shows that NetSuite is serious on this partnership. NetSuite has a long history of pivots in the HCM area – from doing all themselves, over partnering with many, partnering with Oracle at the high end, acquiring TribeHR till today. What all this shows is that NetSuite needs a strong HCM automation story and that Ultimate was the right partner for them. For Ultimate it means access to opportunities where customers are looking for more than HCM automation, given it competes with HCM vendor that have their own in house ERP capabilities. Both vendors are actively working on product development supported integration, a partnership integration level that is the ‘must have’ standard in the cloud world today, meaning that the vendors (and not a partner, or the customer) needs to maintain the integration. Both vendors have a number of joint customers together and answered all the questions the right way. Now the future will tell how well the partnership will work in day to day operations and ultimately customer success. You can find the press release here. And more on NetSuite here.

From the joint Ultimate and NetSuite presentation

Analyst Tidbits

Engaging user interface – Ultimate is investing a lot of time and effort on usability – last year the first fruits of that work were shown at Connections. The vendor is keeping up the commitment and the UIs seen at the conference are consistent, engaging and often deserve the moniker ‘beautiful’. The vendor has also done a good job of keeping the user interface consistent across the various applications, something never easy. We also saw some interesting prototypes and early thoughts around analytical applications that are encouraging.

Modern architecture – Equally a year ago, Ultimate unveiled its go forward architecture, which showed an opening to open source and a ‘best tool’ approach to architectural decisions. A good example is the new organizational modelling functionality that takes advantage of mongoDB, which is a perfect database for the job of administering a large number of organizational models. A new configurable workflow, more in memory capabilities and a new person search are further examples. And finally the vendor is already using micro-services, which is the craze of the year, and expanding their usage. Microservices are a key capability for HCM vendors as they bring the code to the data, which is often governed by statutory restrictions.

Developer Network – Ultimate has realized that it cannot be the sole source of innovation for its products – opening the technology stack more up for 3rd party developers. And Ultimate needs these to validate the platform and constructs like e.g. APIs, but also create a network effect that the vendor needs to accelerate growth.

Partner momentum – Ultimate is enjoying a lot of momentum on the partner side, as it changed its approach from doing all services in house to opening them up to partners in 2013. In less than 2 years Ultimate has garnered a lot of interest and investment from partners, one example is the number of partners exhibiting being up from 12 to 34 year over year. And Ultimate is doing the right things around partner enablement with training, material and certification, too.

MyPOV

A very good conference for Ultimate – which is on the run at the not so tender age for a sotware company at 25 years. It’s great to see the momentum on the partner side and it is good to see that Ultimate can attract strategic partners like NetSuite. One can argue though who needed who more – but at the end that doesn’t matter for a synergetic partnership.

But all the good work should not distract from the fact that Ultimate has to do some heavy lifting behind the scenes, moving older parts of its product portfolio to its next generation architecture. The vendor has an experienced product leadership team in place and a deep commitment to R&D budgets that make us optimistic on the effort, but it is not trivial and needs to be something for prospects and customers to be aware of. With end of 2016 concluding the Talent Management functionality with people centric learning, the vendor has a near enough complete date for this critical functionality, which is not only important going forward but a significant upsell potential for the vendor. But in the meantime a lot of interesting HCM functionality is being built by Ultimate that no HCM system prospect should miss to take a thorough look at.

More on Ultimate from me:

First Take - Ultimate Software UltiConnect Day #1 Keynote - read here
Event Report - Ultimate's UltiConnect - Off to a great start, but the road(map) is long - read here.
First Take – 3 Key Takeaways from Ultimate’s UltiConnect Conference Day 1 keynote – read here.

First Take - Oracle HCM World Thursday Keynote - off to a good start

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Here are my takeaways from Oracle’s second dedicated HCM event.

Oracle committed to HCM – from top down – Similar like last year Mark Hurd opened the event, which is a good sign showing the top executives are committed to keep up the HCM momentum. To compare – other vendors in the big, big category (SAP, Microsoft) have not shown the same presence – or not even formulated their HCM strategy. And Hurd has gotten remarkably better in the last 12 months on explaining HR relevant drivers, making Oracle a showcase of the overall challenge (having to interview about 60k candidates per year) and explaining technology to the HR professional. And Hurd is one of the few CEOs that is not afraid to take live questions from the audience.

Hurd presenting in his unique stage off style

Partner Keynote - The partner keynote from by Dan Staley from Price Waterhouse was solid – but the usual partner keynote. I wonder when the big partner keynote will be re-invented – away from the attempt to show ‘unique’ though leadership – which usually fails – to some real world implementation benefits and differentiators that help the audience to select the right partner. There is value for a partner in having prospects realize that they are not the right ones for that specific partner as it keeps the cost of sales down.

Staley on why enterprises move to cloud

Motivational Speaker – Condolezza Rice came and spoke and delivered a great keynote - as to be expected with insights during her government tenure.

MyPOV

A good start for Oracle's HCM World - following the typical format of executive, partner and motivational speaker. Apart from Hurd, the really interesting things will come with Chris Leone tomorrow - I hope.

----------

Future of Work / HCM / SaaS research:

Progress Report - Oracle HCM gathers momentum - now it needs to build on that - read here
Oracle pushes modern HR - there is more than technology - read here. (Takeaways from the recent HCMWorld conference).
Why Applications Unlimited is good a good strategy for Oracle customers and Oracle - read here.

Also worth a look for the full picture

News Analysis - Oracle discovers the power of the two socket server - or: A pivot that wasn't one - TCO still rules - read here
Market Move - Oracle buys Datalogix - moves more into DaaS - read here
Event Report - Oracle Openworld - Oracle's vision and remaining work become clear - they are both big - read here
Constellation Research Video Takeaways of Oracle Openworld 2014 - watch here
Is it all coming together for Oracle in 2014? Read here.
From the fences - Oracle AR Meeting takeaways - read here (this was the last analyst meeting in spring 2013)
Takeaways from Oracle CloudWorld LA - read here (this was one of the first cloud world events overall, in January 2013)

And if you want to read more of my findings on Oracle technology - I suggest:

Progress Report - Good cloud progress at Oracle and a two step program - read here.
Oracle integrates products to create its Foundation for Cloud Applications - read here.
Java grows up to the enterprise - read here.
1st take - Oracle in memory option for its database - very organic - read here.
Oracle 12c makes the database elastic - read here.
How the cloud can make the unlikeliest bedfellows - read here.
Act I - Oracle and Microsoft partner for the cloud - read here.
Act II - The cloud changes everything - Oracle and Salesforce.com - read here.
Act III - The cloud changes everything - Oracle and Netsuite with a touch of Deloitte - read here.

Find more coverage on the Constellation Research website here.

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

Read more about First Take - Oracle HCM World Thursday Keynote - off to a good start

Correspondence in Nature magazine

Steve Wilson

Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

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

I had a letter to the editor published in Nature on big data and privacy.

Data protection: Big data held to privacy laws, too

Stephen Wilson
Nature 519, 414 (26 March 2015) doi:10.1038/519414a
Published online 25 March 2015

Letter as published

Privacy issues around data protection often inspire over-engineered responses from scientists and technologists. Yet constraints on the use of personal data mean that privacy is less about what is done with information than what is not done with it. Technology such as new algorithms may therefore be unnecessary (see S. Aftergood, Nature 517, 435-436; 2015).

Technology-neutral data-protection laws afford rights to individuals with respect to all data about them, regardless of the data source. More than 100 nations now have such data-privacy laws, typically requiring organizations to collect personal data only for an express purpose and not to re-use those data for unrelated purposes.

If businesses come to know your habits, your purchase intentions and even your state of health through big data, then they have the same privacy responsibilities as if they had gathered that information directly by questionnaire. This is what the public expects of big-data algorithms that are intended to supersede cumbersome and incomplete survey methods. Algorithmic wizardry is not a way to evade conventional privacy laws.

Stephen Wilson
Constellation Research, Sydney, Australia.
[email protected]

Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Security Zero Trust Chief Information Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Privacy Officer

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Event Report - Oracle HCM World - Full Steam ahead, a Learning surprise and potential growth challenges

MyPOV

On Electrical Grids, Cloud, And What We Are Doing Wrong

The Thought Leader Journey

Event Report - Ultimate Software Connections - People first and an exciting roadmap ahead

Analyst Tidbits

MyPOV

First Take - Oracle HCM World Thursday Keynote - off to a good start

MyPOV

Correspondence in Nature magazine