IBM bets on the hybrid cloud

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

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

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• The products gets ready for the hybrid cloud – In hindsight it became clear to me that 2014 was all setup by IBM to show that the vendor understood cloud, was ready for it and a player in the public cloud game. With that established, barbs traded with Amazon, IBM can now pivot to where both business and expertise are – in the combination and co-existence of both on premise and cloud assets for its customers. In short the hybrid cloud scenario. More specifically this means that new code needs to run on premise, and as new code is built with BlueMix, it means BlueMix needs to run on premise. And that is exactly what IBM unveiled with BlueMix Local. BlueMix Local enables customers to deploy BlueMix on local hardware, with IBM taking over the maintenance of the environment from a product code support perspective. More specifically this means that IBM will upgrade all BlueMix Local instances for the customer, in synch with BlueMix cloud releases. Or maybe a few days later. Cloud Purists will be shocked, but customers are likely to see value, e.g. in regulated industries, government, cloud sceptic and high latency geographies. Once you have the infrastructure to propagate and install code like this, it is also easy to create dedicated managed instances of BlueMix, something IBM calls BlueMix Dedicated and has signed a first partnership on this with Indian SI Tech Mahindra.

LeBlanc kicks of with Airbus

• The Organization gets ready for hybrid cloud – To enable the better support for hybrid cloud, IBM has re-organized its development organizations, pretty fundamentally. When a software vendor supports hybrid deployments, it can no longer align product organizations along deployment paths. Inevitably, the development organizations shifts into a matrix modus operandi, with assets being re-used in multiple product or deployment options. When the vendor, like IBM needs to execute a push in a certain direction (here cloud), it means that dotted reporting lines need to be created in the development organization. As such IBM has likely just done the most significant re-organization of its development organization. Speaking with IBM veterans the last similar re-organization of that scale was when IBM created the software group itself. More remarkably the newly created very large product teams have also gone new ways (for IBM) to organize themselves – one of the largest one opting for a functional organization with a centralized product management lead for the complete team. It’s good to see IBM taking bold steps to address the product development organization to align with what the vendor wants (and needs) to deliver to prospects and customers.
  Does it matter how vendors are organized in their product development organizations? Certainly, as software is still build by people and understanding as prospect, customer or ecosystem player how e.g. IBM is organized is important to understand when trying to predict future success, software quality and overall organizational agility.

Hybrid Cloud is the way forward

• BlueMix is the Future – As mentioned above, BlueMix is the PaaS but also the 21st century Rational for IBM, running on premise with the announcement of BlueMix Local. BlueMix is the way how IBM wants customers and developers to build applications, regardless of the deployment and operational model. While BlueMix is based on Pivotal CloudFoundry, it was interesting to see how IBM executives kept stressing how much more IBM had to create around CloudFoundry to make it work for the IBM purposes. And while in the past CloudFoundry was the one and only deployment option, with InterConnect it was clear that IBM considers CloudFoundry only as one of three deployment options, as BlueMix applications can be delivered to run on OpenStack as well as container (Docker – what else) environments. Considering BlueMix is not even one year old (it was launched February 28th 2014) it has made massive progress. A year ago IBM needed partners like Twilio to show standard orientation, partner openness and cool tools, as the vendor had very little functionality / services compared to today… Today BlueMix has over 50 services, and they are not lightweight, but real and key components to build a next generation application.
   

  3 User Categories

  
  So let’s look at the key BlueMix additions beyond Local / Dedicated (see above and the press release here):

• Container support – BlueMix goes the trend of time, but not without IBM making the containers ‘enterprise grade’ and containers deployable in a hybrid way.

• DataWorks comes to BlueMix – Originally a new development from the former InfoSphere family, DataWorks was everywhere with its capabilities to make sense, transform and combine data value added services. Something a PaaS needs, and IBM did well leveraging this asset.
• Collaborative Operations – With this IBM refers to the management tools for hybrid environments, a logical consequence from supporting hybrid.
• Orchestration – Vendors that support hybrid deployments create an orchestration problem, and IBM does well addressing that.
• Security – Always a potential concern and IBM is bringing its security assets to BlueMix, powered by analytics that predict threats and vulnerabilities.
• Secure Passport Services – When enabling hybrid operations, another set of security issues is introduced, using the passport concept to regulate what users are allowed and now allowed to do is a key consequence of supporting hybrid.
• API Harmony – No conference without API management these days and IBM is adding this service to BlueMix, too.
• Watson Zone – Watson brings a significant attraction and differentiation to BlueMix and IBM is shrewd at leveraging this capability in the new BlueMix Watson zone.

So overall good progress with BlueMix, which has focused IBM’s effort more than any development platforms of the last years. The bigger work that is happening behind the scenes is that IBM is working hard to realize the vision it laid out almost two years ago, with the API economy direction. And while BlueMix can consume existing and create next generation application APIs, IBM still needs to make APIs available for its 100+ product SaaS portfolio. And the code and deployment behind these applications needs to become more elastic to allow for cost efficient operations. Moreover IBM is active at signing up data provider partnerships, though it has stopped short of declaring that it is in the DaaS (Data as a Service) game (maybe we see at Insights 2015?).

Analyst Tidbits

• Has Watson stalled? In contrast to Insights 2014 we saw only little progress on the Watson side. And maybe the InterConnect dates came at a bad timing for the product, but it was disappointing to see the same partners and customer on stage at InterConnect as at Insights. And an exclusive Healthcare focus as in the keynote does not do a good service to the potential of Watson, something that was corrected in more detail sessions, but you only have one chance to make a keynote impression. More Watson APIs and Services in BlueMix is certainly the right direction, as it helps Watson adoption and gives BlueMix a unique differentiator in the PaaS market. And maybe we analysts just have too high expectations for Watson, the engineering challenges behind Watson are certainly not trivial.

Watson at MD Anderson Cancer Center

•  IBM Design is on track for its massive objective – It is around 2 years that IBM has started a push into the design space. The vendor has raised its profile in the creative and design community that is taking note of new developments like the IBM Design Language and a massive hiring drive. Like all vendors IBM has to address the challenge to move 100s of products and development teams and it has opted into a central hiring and training model that later embeds the designers with the product teams. It was good to see what thought has been put into putting designers into the right locations, work environment and review processes. In the past many UI initiatives at many vendors have fizzled, faced with the sheer enormous task. But the ongoing IBM effort is roughly 1/3 on the way in terms of product team reach, and the first results are encouraging.

SoftLayer expanding global footprint

• SoftLayer keeps plowing on – IBM announced new recent locations, as usual and seems to be on track for the declared 48 locations by end of 2015. When IBM finds something that works for its customers, it puts its weight behind it, and SoftLayer is a great showcase for that. The need for finding load remains and IBM keeps signing up large deals, but by mid-year it will really be time for a load check on how much runs in SoftLayer across the world. The addition of Power and Watson services will certainly help, with Watson IBM has the option to create a unique environment to operate cognitive (aka performance sensitive and potentially data sensitive applications) applications more locally around the world than any competitor. And the addition of container support in BlueMix allows for the operation of unique applications where the code comes to the data, not the classic model of the data having to find the code.

Tables + Power = Happy Analysts!

MyPOV

IoT Solution Building; Managing and Using Operational Data to change the game!

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…...

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Your enterprise relies on sophisticated management of its manufacturing processes together with its network of sub contractors to utilize expensive assets. Increasingly you need to improve the cohesive operational management in response to calls for more ‘agility’ in responsiveness to market demands. Q. How do you really get the operational game change needed by using real-time IoT sensing data?

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

A. The key lies in utilizing ‘Operational’, or ‘Industrial’, data that describes machine, or other physical activities, as opposed to the process transaction recording data of IT. The manufacturer of a complex machine wants to monitor and record data about a series of operating parameters that relate to both setting, and managing, its operational efficiency.  The parameters and formats this requires are simply not the same as the data created and used by Enterprise IT applications. This difference introduces new terms to describe both the data itself, and the application of Internet of Things in this environment.

Terminology for this new environment would describe; Using the ‘Industrial Internet of Things’, IIoT, to manage with ‘Operational Data’ in an ‘Industrial Technology’ environment. Other terms in use include The ‘Industrial Internet’ referring to an US alliance started by General Electric, and ‘Industry 4.0’ started as an alliance of leading German manufacturing companies, but now including other European manufacturers.

There are numerous ‘standards’ emerging all of which focus on creating a data model with a dictionary that suit a particular industry, or type of application. A list of six major ‘standards together with their major technology vendors supporters can be found here, this is not an exhaustive list, but does show the some of the mainstream generic standards together with their major technology supporters.

Before getting into the detailed data aspects it is useful, or even necessary, to have gained a bigger picture of how sensors are connected in order to provide the data. The proceeding blog entitled IoT; Solution Architecture; Network Integration Groups and Fog Computing. provides this overview and is recommended reading. The blog on The Enterprise Digital Business Platform similarly provides good background on how Enterprise Architecture integrates IoT, or IIoT sensing, and other Internet based Front Office activities with Information Technology Back Office Enterprise Applications.

However, first moves into gaining the advantages of IoT, and IIoT data can be obtained relatively simply by using one of the ‘solution packages’ offered by Salesforce, SAP, and others. These provide for a number of permanently connected sensors on the customers own network using suitable, predetermined, formatted data outputs that support direct coupling to their products. These may be to a Services Hub to remain in the Front Office Services environment, or to feed data into a Back Office ERP suite. This closed internal use is often thought of as the ‘Intranet of Things’ due to the resemblance to first generation Internet based technologies of the past always starting as controlled local deployments on in-house networks.

The whole reason for adopting Internet based technology is to create ‘open’ environments that effectively scale externally, therefore the first generation ‘proprietary’ defined direct data connectivity deployments of the Intranet of Things quickly move to require access to a wider range data from increasingly specialized Internet of Things, or Industrial Internet of Things sensors. Data Models and a new form of Data Translation quickly becomes an important issue.

Various names are used to describe the challenge of collecting and rendering usable the data from a wide range of different types of IoT/IIoT sensors, ranging from ‘the final mile problem’, ending up with the more accurate description of the issue as requiring ‘Intelligent Integration’. A further term that defines the solution, and is easier to understand, is the use of an ‘Inter-Layer’ between the sensors, and the services, servers, or other destination devices, that collects, transforms, buffers and forwards the data when required in the format of the request.

There is an important first step in deployment before the data even starts to flow and that is to find, and align, relevant legacy data to provide the contextual information about each sensor and its location. As this data will be spread across the Enterprise in many different applications this is a costly and time consuming activity that needs to be included into the deployment cost cycle. It can be performed by a specialized set of tools or service provider to both drastically reduce both the cost and time; failure to do so can reduce, or defer, the cost benefit of large scale IoT/IIoT deployment.

The ‘Alignment of Sensors’, during deployment is a seldom-mentioned start-up cost and to gain a good appreciation of exactly what alignment delivers, and why it is important, the demonstration of ‘Aligned Sensors’ shown in this Building makes the point clearly. The three examples show the creation of a physical location, usually required to be a graphical display simply to make recognition faster and easier, followed by the alignment of existing data to the sensor. This data might include full details on the sensor itself including its data types and formats, but there will be a great deal of relevant data in legacy files. This might, as an example, include details on the machine type, its history, any service contracts, and similar data that will help to place context on the real-time data being provided by the IoT/IIoT device.

The task of Sensor Alignment results in what is generically known as Asset Mapping. The second task of the Inter-Layer beyond the primary role of managing data flows and formats, is to ensure that an Enterprise can identify in full all its information about each of its Assets which are deemed important enough to require sensing.

 Asset Mapping tools for Sensor Alignment may in time become part of the developing Enterprise Digital Business Platforms from major Technology vendors, but currently it is usually provided with the Inter Layer from a handful of specialist vendors such as the www.AssetMapping.city the source of the examples. A properly performed Asset Mapping deployment ensures that all IoT/IIoT sensors remain individually recognizable. This then leads to the prime role of the Inter Layer in providing usable data from the entire IoT/IIoT installation regardless of type and format, together with control over who may access what sensor data under what conditions.

IoT, and IIoT, devices will produce massive amounts of data, many analysts suggest huge, almost unmanageable, amounts, in reality most of this data will only be used after an event has occurred to provide the context as to why it and how it occurred.  The Inter-Layer also manages short-term buffering for the stream of small data direct from the sensors, consolidating and forwarding this data in blocks to be processed more efficiently.

There are three standard conditions that result in this collated data file in the buffer being sent to a nominated receiving Service, or Application. Firstly, and most obvious, is a preset trigger on an individual sensor, or a collective threshold on a group of sensors, being exceeded. The resulting data forward may be for the individual sensor, or more likely for a Network Integrated Group, (see proceeding blog on Fog Computing), of sensors that will help provide a broader, context on the circumstances surrounding the individual sensor data. At triggering event can also result in a shift from collating data to real-time forwarding of data from the selected sensors to allow continuous monitoring.

The second standard condition uses time stamped forwarding at pre-selected intervals such as once an hour, or once a day, for stable conditions where longer-term trends are of interest. In first generation Intranet of Things and Industrial Internet of Things this is the most likely sensing condition to be deployed.

The third type of request is a reverse of the first, created by an event at the receiving Service, or Application resulting in a call for the data file to be forwarded, and possibly a shift into real-time sensor data forwarding. This may be referred to as ‘taking the query to the data’ as it can be used to gain access to selected data without creating huge volumes of low value data flooding across the Network. Proactive requests from Services, and Applications as a crucial part of dynamic operational management is set to grow in importance. As the Internet of Things becomes established with a growing number of sensors accessable as part of sophisticated activity management. This relates to the example provided in the previous blog IoT; Solution Architecture; Network Integration Groups and Fog Computing.

The diagram below is taken from this blog and was used to illustrate how sensors are discovered, integrated into a Network Integration Group, to be a virtual network that relates directly to the activity of a single factory call off. This process would be repeated for other call offs, or any other process activity that gains from real-time, or near real-time data monitoring of process.

Building onto this the Operational data flow as outlined in this blog together with the use of the three standard conditions for data forwarding would present the following addition to the scenario;

1. Time stamped forwarding would be used as routine background monitoring to make sure that progress of IoT/IIoT sensed activities were in line with planned expectations, and crucially match the planned manufacturing production schedule.
2. If the logistics truck became caught in a traffic jam and fell behind schedule then a trigger event would result in notification to the Manufacturing Production scheduler.
3. This would result in the Manufacturing Production scheduler requesting data to be forwarded from other call offs in order to plan a re scheduling of planned production based on their availability projections.

First generation deployments of IoT, and IIoT, sensing is straight forward resulting in immediate, usually impressive gains, though Asset Mapping and Sensor Alignment may be an unexpected, possibly costly, element. However, as with all rapidly developing technology that is forming the basis for transforming business capabilities it is necessary to have a broader understanding of the direction and types of capabilities that will be emerging.

In particular with any Internet based technology, where a significant part of the benefit in the longer term will be through external connectivity to gain participation with others, the importance of ensuring that your approach will not turn into a barrier preventing longer term advantageous capabilities, makes an understanding of direction absolutely critical.

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

Social Business / Collaboration Vendor List

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

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

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New Research: Inside the 9 Cloud Trends Every CXO Needs to Know in 2015

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

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

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Here’s an excerpt of the report. Over the next few weeks I’ll dive into detail on the trends outlined below.

Consumption at the Pace of Innovation Requires Adoption of the Cloud

Changes driven by innovation have affected IT since its very inception. Whenever a piece of hardware or software gets released to the enterprise, most vendors of these products are already working on the next release if not the next generation of these products. The result – generally available products are already “old” when released. Consequently, all constituents in the market know that the next and better product is right around the corner.

However, enterprise technology leaders must invest at some point with a bet on a distinct combination of hardware and software to accomplish their current and future business objectives. As of a decade ago, these projects required a sizeable capital expenditure (CAPEX) investment with a planned lengthy write-down period. Hence, IT leaders would cling to their IT infrastructure for as long as they could.

With Software as a Service (SaaS), leaders found an alternative to owning applications. Enterprises rejoiced at no longer having to pony up funds for large capital expenditures to purchase perpetual licenses. In fact, organizations celebrated access through subscription. CAPEX was saved, despite the fact that the behind-the-scenes hardware infrastructure of vendors was highly proprietary and tuned to the nature of their SaaS offerings. Only later did stand-alone Infrastructure as a Services (IaaS) offerings come into place.

To a certain extent, the IT world has come full circle. It was a best practice for owners of mainframes in the 1950’s, 1960’s and even 1970’s to rent out excess capacity of their mainframes to interested third parties. Today, the very same effect happens in the public cloud, with the difference that the providers have invested into their IT infrastructure for the sole purpose of renting it out. A number of now defunct players were doing the same last century - buying mainframes with the purpose of renting them out to other enterprises. With the public cloud here to stay, a business model emerges that actually is very familiar to IT leaders of two generations ago.

Looking ahead, Constellation identifies nine key trends in the state of the cloud for 2015:
 

Read more about the report: Inside the Nine Cloud Trends CXOs Need to Know in 2015

Download a snapshot of the report

Stay tuned. Next week I’ll dive deeper into the trends above.

Drones still useful in supply chains despite FAA regulations

pending

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

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Last week the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) published their rules and regulations for the oversight of drone usage within the United States. Many will and have argued that these rules are too restrictive for companies such as Amazon or Google to truly take advantage of the technology. The basic parameters of the guidelines set by the FAA:

• Drones must be less than 55 lbs in weight
• Can only fly during the day in good weather
• Must not fly close to airports
• Cannot fly faster than 100mph
• And must be within visible site of the operator

On the surface these restrictions severely limit the dreams of the likes of Jeff Bezos. One of the great opportunities for drones within the supply chain and particularly with the delivery side – is the ability to enhance the last mile portion. The last mile is always a challenge since you have to break down the orders to the individual level. Drones seem to offer a affordable and flexible solution – but not necessarily if the FAA rules are in place. This does not mean there are not some use cases that supply chains can take advantage of immediately:

• Asset monitoring – this is already taking place in agriculture, oil & gas, mining to name a few. Drones provide the flexibility for activities such as survey work, monitoring of assets, determining crop growth etc. In countries such as Australia, mining companies are already leaning heavily on the pilot-less aircrafts to assist with the activity on the ground. By some estimates the usage can save close to 90% of the $2000 an hour cost for a helicopter.
• Remote delivery: Logistics firms such as DHL have been able to expand their reach via drones. The ability to connect remote German islands in the North Sea has enhanced the remote locations with a more regular delivery service. Of course these drones are clearly flying outside of site lines of the operator.

These use cases are not necessarily replicable under the FAA rules. However I have to believe that as the technology continues to evolve the FAA will loosen their grip on the regulations. So what could we expect from more open drone rules? If and when the drone rules become more open here are some opportunities that supply chains might enjoy:

• Smaller window of delivery for certain items. Think of Kozmo.com with drones rather than people on bicycles. Companies from Amazon to CVS to Giant Eagle to Five Guys will be able to deliver a whole host of items to your door at the drop of a hat. Well maybe not that fast. But why couldn’t books or other items from Amazon be delivered within the hour? Or CVS deliver your prescriptions. Giant Eagle your groceries and Five Guys your cheeseburger. Once drones become a more viable delivery extension of the supply chain, look for businesses to take advantage of the new reach this provides into the home.
• Untethering the consumer from a physical address. Drones, coupled with the explosion of mobile, will allow delivery systems to ignore the limitations of roads and physical addresses. Today deliveries rely on infrastructure such as roads, as well as fixed addresses in order to manage delivery of goods. What happens when you have a drone that has far fewer restrictions? Couple this with a mobile device that is provides the digital location of the recipient. Your mobile can send the drone the exact coordinates, GPS, and the drone can then fly its way to your location. We will not longer have to worry about having a package delivered to our home or office…we can just tell it what time to deliver it to us as it hones in on your GPS coordinates.

I realize these changes are a ways off. But these are examples of how the supply chain will be expanded beyond the traditional links – loading dock, retail store to name a few. These types of digital disruptions will begin to turn  our homes into an extension of our supply chains.

Now I wonder where I should build my drone landing pad… 

Resources

  The State of Retail in 2015 and Beyond  

  The State of Post Sale Commerce  

  The State of Supply Chain Management  

First Take - IBM InterConnect Day #1 Keynote - BlueMix, SoftLayer, Watson

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

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

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It is end of February and it is time to make it to Las Vegas for IBM InterConnect, the new mega IBM event, combining three separate previous events. Spanning from Mandalay Bay to MGM Grand it will for sure get those health tracker stats up – but better one mega event than 3 trips… 

Here are my Top3 takeaways

PaaS keeps rolling - On the BlueMix side IBM announced key new capabilities for its PaaS product. DataWorks is a nice re-use from its data management group, which makes it easy to move, cleanse, mask (and more) data. In the demo data was then uploaded to the cloud and enriched with the capabilities of Cloudant. With API Harmony it will get easier for developers to publish and leverage APIs. Finally the local deployment option will be a welcome option for regulated industries, enterprises that hold out for cloud, but also sister applications that complement cloud applications with handling local processing

 

Jerry Cuomo built a nextgenApp with BlueMix

SoftLayer keeps rolling – IBM confirmed to be on track of the close to 50 data center location rollout in 2015, just announcing Montreal and Sydney as the next locations. When using the new container capabilities and BlueMix local it open new options for enterprises to deploy nextgen Apps locally – satisfying statutory demands (and potential out of country data center concerns). Moreover IBM is bringing its Power servers to more data centers, which is key for IBM's converged system strategy. It will be interesting to see how much load Power will run in the IBM Cloud by summer.
 

The growing #SoftLayer network

Watson pushes into healthcare – It looks like IBM wants to make healthcare the main thrust for Watson’s capabilities, certainly a noble cause. It was back to Coriell Life Sciences as partner to explain their approach – but it would have been good to see the next set of partners taking IBM Watson into healthcare. At the very end we learnt that Watson will be available as a Watson Zone in BlueMix. 

 

The NextGen App built with Watson and BlueMix (?) at MD Andersen Cancer Center

MyPOV – A great start for the new IBM mega event, IBMInterConnected – bringing together the former IBM Impact, Pulse and Innovate conferences. A ton of announcements that we will try to take apart and validate with prospects, customers and partners in the next days. Stay tuned.
 

What Are the 4 Pillars Of Social Selling? What Creates Social Selling Success?

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…...

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My latest report, How Sales Leaders and Sales Reps Can Create a Social Selling Organization, is a best practices guide for sales leaders and teams looking to use social to transform their average-performing sales teams into top performers ^1-2. Did you know that seventy-eight percent of salespeople who use social media outsell their peers? ³ Nearly sixty percent of a typical purchasing decision—researching solutions, ranking options, setting requirements, benchmarking pricing, and so on—happen before the potential buyer even has a conversation with a supplier. ⁴ Research into actual use of social selling has revealed that sales professionals who use social selling are fifty-one percent more likely to exceed quota, three times more likely to go to a special sales event for top sellers and get promoted to vice president seventeen months faster. ⁵

Is Social Selling Going to Make a Difference in Your Sales Organization?

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…...

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My latest piece of research: How Sales Leaders and Sales Reps Can Create a Social Selling Organization

In speaking to many sales leaders and sales reps (especially outside of Silicon Valley) they were wondering, “Would social selling make a difference to my sales organization and our sales results?” Having been in the “social media / digital world” for a while I found that an interesting question. But often if you are in the mix of something you can’t see what others can’t see. So I did some research on social selling to back up what my gut what was telling me, i.e., “Yes, social selling makes a tremendous difference to a sales organization’s bottomline.”

You might be wondering what types of statistics are out there around social selling and it’s effectiveness. Here are a few:

• Sixty-five percent of the most successful sales people who use social media as part of the selling process believe social media is critical to their success
• Studies show 78% of salespeople who use social media outsell their peers
• Research into actual use of social selling has revealed that sales professionals who use social selling are 51% more likely to exceed quota, three times more likely to go to a special sales event for top sellers and get promoted faster*

Why might this be the case? Nearly 60% of a typical purchasing decision—researching solutions, ranking options, setting requirements, benchmarking pricing, and so on—before even having a conversation with a supplier. Sadly, however, 2/3 of firms do not have a social media strategy for their sales organization, even though 80% of the sales people surveyed believe the sales force would be more productive with a greater social media presence.

So I began looking at the critical components of social selling and found that sales managers, despite the few that are very successful, many are unsure how to use social selling. Sixty-eight to 84% of salespeople surveyed feel the sales process is changing faster than sales organization are responding. However, according to the report Powering Profitable Sales Growth: Five Imperatives from the 2014 Sales Performance Optimization Study, Accenture and CSO Insights, digital transformation, digital selling, applying digital tools, online and social media to enable digital relationships and drive sales across multiple channels is fast emerging as a primary driver of market differentiation, business growth and profitability.

Here’s some of the reasons sales team leaders and members are not leaving social media and social selling:

1. Sales leaders are not moving their teams to social selling.

2. Sales individuals and teams don’t have online professional brands.

3. Sales and marketing teams are not working together as a united front.

4. Salespeople don’t have the digital proficiency to develop an effective online brand to drive more sales.

Sales leaders must understand how to leverage social selling to advance the relationship between their prospects, potential customers and current customers. In addition, businesses need to learn how to make the most of each individual salesperson’s online brand while keeping the company’s social persona intact. And I will explore more about social selling and solving these issues in the next blog post.

A snapshot of the report is available. 

@drnatalie

VP and Principal Analyst, Covering Marketing, Sales and Service To Create Amazing Customer Experiences

Catch Constellation’s Connected Enterprise – The innovation summit for the enterprise November 4 – 6, 2015. The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, California.

*LinkedIn Research Surveys and Analysis of Using Social Selling Tools Data 2014- 2015

Research Preview: Enterprise Healthcare Management (EHM) Market Overview

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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Enterprise Healthcare Management Comes Of Age

Enterprise healthcare management (EHM) technology is a category of software that incorporates analytics into the typical employer-provided healthcare solution. EHM enables employers to maximize their healthcare investments by improving the delivery of healthcare for employees, and identifying previously unknown opportunities uncovered by data.

Enterprise healthcare management will help enterprises confront the healthcare affordability crisis by providing insights into usage and highlighting areas for optimization. Organizations should evaluate the benefits of enterprise healthcare management as the forces of healthcare technology and future of work trends continue to converge.

My latest report provides a market overview of the EHM market.  The report will be published February 23, 2015. Check back soon for more details.

Report Highlights

• Constellation expects healthcare expenditures by U.S. organizations to increase as total healthcare spending grows from 17.1 percent to a projected 25.8 percent of U.S. gross domestic product by 2025
• Healthcare costs and efficacy of health and wellness programs remain top of mind for CEOs, CFOs, and Chief People Officers.
• Business objectives of EHM
  -Incentivize employees to make responsible healthcare decisions
  -Guide employees to maximize available benefits
  -Improve healthcare efficacy for employee and employer
  -Reduce unnecessary care
  -Reveal usage patterns that create business opportunities
  -Five drivers of the Enterprise Health Cloud
• Bottom line: EHM addresses the affordability crisis

The report will be available here on February 23, 2015

Your POV.

Ready to take on healthcare costs and improve health outcomes with technology?  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

Resources

The post Research Preview: Enterprise Healthcare Management (EHM) Market Overview appeared first on A Software Insider's Point of View.

First Take - SAP Cloud for Planning - The next spreadsheet killer is off to a good start...

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

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

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I had the pleasure of attending a FP&A conference yesterday (#FPAWest) – conveniently located here in San Diego. SAP chose the event to launch a new product – ‘SAP Cloud for planning’, so let me share my first take. The press release can be found here.

Many enterprise vendors (and others) have tried to crack the Microsoft dominance with Excel as the Swiss Army knife of the business professionals. Almost no vendor has even been able to put a dent in the armor (as I described here already). The main reasons why Excel has kept its dominant role are that it can be found on nearly every enterprise desktop in the world, the power of the Excel grid control and the functional richness of Excel itself (though most users use less than 5%). The irony of the Excel killers is, that they mostly start – and then even end in Excel – creating value add for users in between. Most enterprise vendors have found a way to co-exist with Excel – allowing for the popular import and exports of Excel spreadsheets.

But it is good that vendors are trying, with good success (see e.g. my take on Informatica Springbok here) and now we can see SAP throwing its hat in the ring with Cloud for Planning. (In good SAP tradition a confusing name, given the S4HANA launch, it needs an upgrade to Cloud 4 Planning maybe? Going forward I will refer to the product with C4P in this post).  [Update Feb 20th - SAP correctly reminds me that C4P was named before S/4HANA and is following the SAP product naming conventions. MyPOV - Fair enough, sill a mouthful.]

Here are my top 3 takeaways from meeting with the C4P team extensively yesterday:

HANA makes a difference – any spreadsheet maker’s dream – I have written, blogged and spoken about the pros and cons of HANA, SAP’s in memory database many times. But C4P is different than the traditional enterprise application, as it essentially stands and falls with memory capabilities. As every heavy Excel user knows, even on today’s generously endowed machines, memory can become an issue. But memory is available plenty with HANA, so to a certain point, HANA is any spreadsheet builder’s dream. But HANA also has a nifty calculation engine, and the C4P product takes advantage of SAP owning both the C4P product and HANA (many on the product team come from the HANA team originally), embedding and adding key spreadsheet capabilities right into HANA. Granular security, the flexibility of the columnar database help additionally to build what C4P is – a great spreadsheet that was not build by a productivity tool vendor (aka Microsoft) but an enterprise software vendor. Finally the nature of HANA of being a database, gives the C4P product a distinct different capability than the conventional approach to FP&A, holding large models / matrices in memory. By its very nature, certainly aided by the often mentioned compression algorithms of HANA, C4P has a much lesser footprint than its traditional FP&A competitors.
 

Ivo Bauermann kicks off the C4P launch

A great tool has many uses – Despite being just launched as a product, C4P does so many things right already, that additional planning usage scenarios will be in demand. It should be only a question of time when prospects, customers and internal SAP product teams will ask to use C4P for usage beyond the classic FP&A usage, looking at e.g. S&OP, Workforce Planning etc. At the same time the product certainly needs to keep growing, as it takes a delicate balance between capabilities in C4P vs Excel to win over the trust and then the brains of the business user. In the past most attempts failed, as vendors could not win over the business user. What makes me optimistic (for now) in the C4P case is, that the first version if already pretty rich as a spreadsheet, but even more that the product team though of the next step, beyond the spreadsheet. Finance professionals don’t create spreadsheets for themselves, but to share them and collaborate with other employees in the enterprise. With an inbuilt collaboration option, C4P becomes instantly more valuable. And yes, for the FP&A heavy users, I saw a calendar, too.

Screenshot from SAP website, here