Christmas is around the corner – what Santa Claus can teach us about supply chain

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

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You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town
Santa Claus is coming to town

Yup, the big guy dressed in red is getting ready to make his annual appearance. Bringing all the girls and boys, as well as some lucky moms and dads, presents and gifts for their Christmas trees. And all he expects in return is maybe some milk & cookies or even a carrot for his reindeer. But did we ever expect Santa Claus to provide us with some simple lessons that are applicable to our supply chains?

He has the global fulfillment thing down…

• He makes and list and checks it twice. Sage advice about how to handle all the data and information that extended supply chains produce and leverage on a weekly and daily basis. Many of the conversations I have had with supply chain practitioners and service providers comes back to getting a cleaner and more complete view of all the data that their supply chain produces on a weekly and daily basis. Look at what Santa is able to do – put all those wish lists in one aggregate list. He does check it twice to ensure consistency and correct for errors. Also good advice. Since we all know what garbage in gets us…companies like Avaya have worked with solution provider Kinaxis to create a more clear and single view of their distributor network and the data that is the connecting glue. One clean and unified view! Make sure to clear out that garbage before it gets into the system – or on Santa’s list.
• Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice. Yup Santa also looks at his data to segment his customers. Granted he has two simple categories. Our supply chains’ customers and suppliers are also segmented and they do not fall into simple “naughty” or “nice.” But maybe the simplicity of how Santa does his segmentation should drive our own. The key is identify what key variables matter to our businesses and supply chains. Determine which variables you need to identify and focus on to create the most effective segmentation. Santa might not explicitly state it, but his segmentation like our supply chains leverages a greater number of predictive analytics to drive better clarity. For example service providers such as Infosys work with a large office products manufacturer to better understand customer segments to establish service level engagements. Santa and our supply chains need to lean on tools and service providers that can help identify the variables to effectively and efficiently segment our target audience.
• He sees you when you’re sleeping …He knows when you’re awake. Maybe Santa has a secret deal with the NSA to eves drop on our calls…okay I joke…I think…but Santa makes sure he is aware of his consumers’ characteristics and where they are in the gift receiving pipeline. If we are awake he wouldn’t deliver our presents! Your supply chain needs to be sensitive to customers and where they are in the buying cycle. Think of how companies such as Steelwedge and Salesforce have worked together to help their customers better with the S&OP process by tying in the data coming from the Salesforce CRM to get a clearer view of where customers are with regards to the transactional pipeline. It is not simply about identifying our sleeping patterns, but understanding where we stand in terms of the buying cycle what our demand is and might be – are we in a position to have our gifts delivered by Santa?
• Santa’s a busy man he has no time to play…He’s got millions of stockings to fill on Christmas day. Wow, talk about solving the delivery to the home enigma. Santa and his reindeer are able to criss cross the global, in one night, and accurately deliver a vast number of packages, of different shapes and sizes, to millions of locations! Unbelievable. Santa is also ahead of the curve as he has been able to provide home delivery since day 1. Now I am not saying we can all find a Rudolfo with his nose so bright to guide our fulfillment and logistics departments, but there is something to say about how integrated Santa’s workshop is with his distribution center and his logistics. He cannot be expected to demonstrate this level of efficiency is he stocks the wrong goods, doesn’t properly load them to his sleigh and then takes poor routes to his delivery locations. Clearly the value for supply chains to integrate the warehousing and transportation is what Santa’s efficiencies demonstrate.  Vendors like Oracle with their integrated WMS/TMS and now yard management (that is like what Santa does with regards to managing the elves and ensuring their are efficient) or JDA with their TMS integrated with the WMS acquired in the RedPrairie merger, are prime examples of solutions that even Santa would appreciate to ensure seamless optimization between the workshop and the big red sleigh – ensure the inventory that he has to haul around the world on the night of December 24th is properly slotted and routed.

The one aspect Santa does not seem to have worry too much about, is with returns. He does not seem to have a good reverse logistics or after sales service department. But since he has gotten so much of the upfront part right he does have to worry about delivering the wrong items! Alas our supply chains do not have that luxury, and our supply chains do need to take into account reverse logistics, returns, maintenance and other after sales issues. But thanks to Santa Claus we have something to aspire to with regards to our supply chains.

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

What Uber, Netflix & Amazon can Teach Big Pharma

Pharma is no longer allowed to be tone-deaf. Public scrutiny, regulatory changes, and increasing real time access to stakeholder sentiments create the expectation to be timely and relevant. One industry reaction to be timely, relevant, and commercially empathetic is a paradigm dubbed multi-channel marketing (MCM).

However MCM does not automatically engage doctors. At best MCM messages, while digitally precise, are tone deaf.

Hence, MCM cannot be a final destination for pharmaceuticals; it is a rest stop. The increasing amount of data we know about healthcare providers (HCP) will create an auditable expectation for pharmaceuticals to “get HCPs” right. Netflix suggests what we watch, Uber knows our taxi preferences, Amazon guesses our purchases, and Google Glass presents live traffic; inevitably HCPs will expect pharmaceuticals to “just know” them.

MCM falls short of really “knowing” an HCP.

The differentiator between Netflix, Uber, Amazon, Google and the pharmaceuticals industry is a small thing called context. Knowing the context of a person, interaction, or message can improve how influence is exchanged. Brands can use context to engage instead of simply marketing. Context is not simple or easy, but powerful.

The importance of context to pharmaceuticals is not new; however, how context is identified, understood, and leveraged has shifted from depending on humans (sales representatives) to depending on information systems. This shift creates a problem.Information systems do not get context. As pharmaceuticals move further away from human-to-human interaction, increasing reliance on information systems to influence HCPs, the battle for context is lost before it has started.

We need a context renaissance.

To constructively discuss context, let us examine the difference between marketing and engagement.

What is a context renaissance?

At the core, the science of getting HCP context is about the buying journey more than it is about the selling journey.

While MCM focuses on optimizing how we influence HCPs on channels through selling, MCM + context focuses on how HCPs view themselves, and how they want to be influenced while buying, ergo engagement.

There is a pronounced inside-out, versus outside-in shift in thinking. Netflix for example is completely inside-out. Netflix does not suggest a movie based on external factors such as release dates, nor does it suggest only the best rated or most viewed. Netflix knows my internal viewer context and based on the time of the day, my location, my device, my connection, and my viewing habits, Netflix suggests the best movie for me.

Can the pharmaceutical CLM have the context sophistication to be the Netflix of brand presentations for HCPs?

This is a silly question, but a powerful idea.

Context is very personal, and it is behind a set of preferences that are not exposed to marketing channels. Context is nearly impossible for information systems to harness short of some miracle in contextual technology. We need to get into the circle of context, without invading privacy or overstepping boundaries.

To do this requires a delicate mix of psychology, information and analytics. Consider some examples.

Getting the psychology right.

1. Is Dr. Smith an introvert or an extrovert?
2. Is the persona of Dr. Singh that of a builder or an architect?
3. Does Dr. Sung lead with her head or her heart?

Getting information right.

1. Is Dr. Johnson discussing your brand as an alternative even when prescribing your competitor?
2. Is Dr. Jain growing his business with a new office in the town over?
3. Is Dr. Jerry reading your clinical trials, and to whom did she forward them?

Getting the analytics right.

1. What is the probability that Dr. Adams will change her perception of your brand relative to her peers?
2. Which of your sales representatives is better to influence a doctor who is an introvert?
3. Does a specific brand presentation provide more value to male doctors versus females, or young doctors versus older ones?

We currently cannot answer most of these questions easily, but the answers are not unreachable. More importantly, while the answer to a single question is not earth shattering, having the answer to all nine of these can fundamentally change the way we market to doctors digitally. It can set a brand apart.

It can help us stop marketing digitally, and start engaging digitally.

In the gene pool of engagement, context is the single differentiator.

Almost a decade ago, the thought leadership of a Customer Interaction Hub (CIH) was introduced to the marketplace. The CIH promised to focus on interactions, extending CRM via MCM, and enabling brands to get the channels, direction of information, and speed of influence right. While novel, the CIH fell short by ignoring context.

A decade is a long time in technology. As a result the value of the CIH has expired. During the decade the construct of context became digitally reachable with new information sources, and hence the arrival of the next generation of marketing dubbed engagement. With it comes the birth of something new, the CustomerEngagement Hub (CEH). The Customer Engagement Hub can be thought of as all that made CIH great plus context.

Cegedim is delivering a Customer Engagement Hub designed specifically for Life Sciences. The Cegedim CEH will enable pharmaceuticals to understand the context of HCPs and satisfy the growing desire from doctors to be precisely understood by pharmaceuticals. No more tone deafness.

The Cegedim CEH builds logically on our innovation stack of CRM and other MCM technology, our world class MDM (Nucleus 360), and our global gold standard of HCP data (OneKey).

It is about the context, not the content, or the channels.

I write as a labor of love, in exchange I ask that you share this writing if you think others may find value,

-Richie

Constellation Research Named Top Firm of 2014

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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Thank you to our amazing customers and to my hard working colleagues for making Constellation Research the #1 Independent Analyst Firm of 2014.



More information about the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations, visit their site here.
 

Amazon – increases the pressure on retail – 1 hour delivery

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

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Amazon announced earlier that in New York City…okay in one zip code of NYC – 10001 – it will offer 1 hour delivery of tens of thousands of items for customers in that zip code. Click here for press release. This service will be for those customers to are Amazon Prime members and cost an additional $7.99 (2 hour deliver is free), another “perk” for paying to be part of the cool kids on Amazon.com. It would appear that the new Amazon store on 34th street will be tasked with handling much of the distribution for these potential customers. While the 1 hour delivery is limited to this area code for now, the retail giant plans to expand to other cities in the near future. I wonder if Boston is on their list of potential target cities…hmmm.

This should come as no surprise as Amazon continues to act as the 800lb gorilla when it comes to retail and supply chain. The idea of such rapid delivery is also not a new one. Anyone remember Kozmo.com? During the dot com boom that cool .com company could be seen in many an office lobbies delivering everything from ice cream to the latest CD from TLC. Alas they could not solve the issues of having to carry such a wide array of inventory with order runs that could not cover the carrying costs, delivery costs etc. So should we expect Amazon to fare better? Maybe. The have a couple of factors in their favor that Kozmo.com did not:

• Years of experience with running distribution centers – unlike Kozmo.com that really started as a company leveraging bike messengers to pick up small orders and deliver them, Amazon is a well oiled machine when it comes to understanding the nuances and challenges of running DCs with large arrays of SKUs. Their move into the 34th street location was seen by some as curious. But for Amazon it was clearly just the ability to place another potential distribution hub closer to its target audience.
• Vast amounts of buying behavior data for those Amazon Prime members in that zip
  

  Just this little slice of the Big Apple

  code…and else where for that matter. Amazon has years of historic data for those that sit in the 10001 zip code (about 20,000 people). And as we all know, Amazon is very good at figuring out what to suggest for our next purchase and even claim to know what to put on the truck before we even order it. Of those tens of thousands of items that could be delivered in that zip code, I have a feeling all the purchase data being analyzed in the Amazon cloud has identified the 1,000s (maybe only hundreds) of most likely items that are most likely to be ordered for those customers.

• A war chest that Kozmo could only dream of. I think it is safe to say that Kozmo.com could only dream of one day having the war chest Amazon can dip into. With over $5b of cash on hand, Amazon can afford to lose money on their delivery model as they work out the details. And unlike Kozmo.com, Amazon is only servicing one part of Manhattan. I bet the bike messengers from Kozmo.com would have appreciated that much more!

What cannot be under-emphasized is the impact this will have with regards to firing another salvo across the bow of the retail world. Just like with other bold moves – think drone delivery – this  move by Amazon is as much to test out a new fulfillment and commerce model as it is to cause ripples through the retail world and beyond. The digital disruption it will create is  disproportional to the actual disruption, but it will force companies and supply chains to once again figure out how to combat Bezos and Amazon.

I wonder how de Blasio will feel once Amazon looks to fly drones up and down 34th street.

Constellation Named Independent Analyst Firm of the Year

Today the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations named Constellation Research Independent Analyst Firm of the Year! The Constellation team is humbled by this great honor. This is the second IIAR award bestowed upon Constellation since our founding in 2011 when we were named New Firm of the Year. 

IIAR's members and other carefully vetted AR professionals  evaluated Constellation against a rigorous set of criteria to independently and informatively select Constellation as Independent Analyst Firm of the Year. The most knowledgeable and critical analyst relations professionals comprise IIAR's survey pool. 

"We're honored to be recognized and we appreciate all the hard work influence relations professionals face in navigating their organization's mission and the mission that industry analysts and influencers play.

 

The team has worked hard to put together the right culture to serve the needs of a modern analyst firm.   From Silicon Valley insights, to innovative solutions, to a community of market leading buy side clients our goal is still to help our clients achieve the art of the possible." - R "Ray" Wang, Chairman and Founder, Constellation Research

Weekly Recap - Week ending December 12th 2014

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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Another week - another recap done (late, soory).
 

So here is the content:

• Webinar with Cornerstone - Unified vs. integrated Talent Management 
• Webinar with TideMark / Proformative - New trends for FP&A and ABB 
• Webinar with Intellicorp - How to lower the cost testing SAP 
• Briefing with SAP / Ariba - Insights on Spend Management
• Briefing with Retarus - Message Systems with innovative approach

The Ruble reminds us – our supply chains do not operate in a vacuum

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

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This week has not been a good for the Russian currency, as it has dropped close to 20% versus the US Dollar. Some analyst fear that the Putin and Russia will default on their debt and this might throw the global economy into a tail spin. The impact could have graver consequences in places such as Ukraine – where Russia has already acted belligerently this year – in Eastern Europe or the Baltics. It is not simply the Russian ruble that should enter our thinking process for our supply chains – look at what is happening this week in Belgium as well. As union workers have gone on strike, halting ports, airports and highways it has brought much of Belgium to a halt.

But this is not meant to be a post about geo-politics and world history, although those are the areas of my early formal training. What the issues in Russia and Belgium remind us, especially those of us in the supply chain space, is that we do not operate in a vacuum. I realize that I am stating the obvious, but at times I am surprised at how many turn a blind or an ignorant eye when it comes to global events. There have been and will continue to be articles and studies done on risk management. Something that is crucial for our supply chains. However

You need a complete view…otherwise the world remains blurry

one aspect that remains missing from these conversations is how to account for these global events. Much thinking has been done around assessing risk for suppliers, customers, geography, transportation, raw material costs, weather and natural disruptions to name a few. Yet it remains difficult to quantify geo-political risk. In other disciplines this has been marginally tackled, but for supply chains it still takes a back seat.

When it comes to assessing our supply chain risks we need look to an index that looks at a number of geo-political aspects. A combination of credit rating, political stability, regional history, religious tension, border fluctuation, socioeconomic make up, relationship with neighboring nations to name a few, could make up a supply chain exposure and risk indices that would compliment the other data points we study.

Companies, such as General Electric, have chief economists on their executive committee, this is should be a role all businesses that are international and that have extended supply chains have – which means 99% of companies. But let us not limit ourselves to economists…as a political scientist at heart…I would argue corporations need to also look to have geo-politically focused assets at their disposal. Our supply chains touch all the four corners of the globe, if we do not have the assets in place to provide better insight into the impact history and politics have on the geographies, we risk exposing our supply chains to a greater array of disruptions.

Tagged: Belgium, Geo-politics, Matrix Commerce, Risk, Ruble, Russia, Supply Chain

9 Actions to Consider Before 2015

This year end checklist offers suggestions designed to enable you to take control of your digital strategy in 2015. Consider these actions to ensure you dominate digital disruption in the new year. 

1. Matrix Commerce: Scrub your data

By Guy Courtin

When it comes to Matrix Commerce, companies need to focus on the basics first. What are the basics? Cleaning up and getting your data in order. Much is discussed about the evolution of supply chains and the surrounding technologies. However these solutions are only as useful as the data that feeds them. Many CxOs that we have spoken to have discussed the need to focus on cleaning up their data. First work on a data audit to identify the most important sources of data for your efforts in Matrix Commerce. Second, focus on the systems that can process and make sense of this data. Finally, determine the systems and business processes that will be optimized with these improvements. Matrix Commerce starts with the right data. The systems and business processes that layer on top of this data are only as useful as the data. CxOs must continue to organize and clean their data house.

2. Safety and Privacy - Create your Enterprise Information Asset Inventory

By Steve Wilson

In 2015, get on top of your information assets.  When information is the lifeblood of your business, make sure you understand what really makes it valuable.  Create (or refresh) your Enterprise Information Asset Inventory, and then think beyond the standard security dimensions of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability.  What sets your information apart from your competitors?  Is it more complete, more up-to-date, more original or harder to acquire? To maximise the value of information, innovative organisations are gauging it in terms of utility, currency, jurisdictional certainty, privacy compliance and whatever other facets matter the most in their business environment. These innovative organizations structure their information technology and security functions to not merely protect the enterprise against threats, but to deliver the right data when and where it's needed most.  Shifting from defensive security to strategic informatics is the key to success in the digital economy. Learn more about creating an information asset inventory. 

3. Data to Decisions - Create your Big Data Plan of Action 

By Andy Mulholland

Big Data is arriving at the end of the hype cycle. In 2015, real-time decision support using ‘smart data’ extracted from Big Data will manifest as a requirement for competitiveness. Digital Business, or even just online sellers, are all reducing reaction and response times. Enterprises have huge business and technology investments in data that need to support their daily activities better, so its time to pivot from using Big Data for analysis and start examining how to deliver Smart Data to users and automated online systems. What is Smart Data? Well, let's say creating your organization's definition of Smart Data is priority number one in your Big Data strategy.  Transformation in Digital markets requires a transformation in the competitive use of Big Data. Request a meeting with Constellation's CTO in residence, Andy Mulholland. 

4. Next Gen CXP - Make Customer Experience Instinctual  

By Natalie Petouhoff

STOP thinking of Customer Experience as a functional or departmental initiative and start thinking about experience from the customer’s point of view. 

Customers don’t distinguish between departments when they require service from your organization. Customer Experience is a responsibility shared amongst all employees. However, the division of companies into functional departments with separate goals means that customer experience is often fractured. Rid your company of this ethos in 2015 by using design thinking to create a culture of cohesive customer experience. 

Ensure all employees live your company mythology, employ the right customer and internal-facing technologies, collect the right data, and make changes to your strategy and products as soon as possible.  Read "Five Approaches to Drive Customer Loyalty in a Digital World".

5. Future of Work - Take Advantage of Collaboration

By Alan Lepofsky

Over the last few years, there has been a growing movement in the way people communicate and collaborate with their colleagues and customers, shifting from closed systems like email and chat, to more transparent tools like social networks and communities. That trend will continue in 2015 as people become more comfortable with sharing and as collaboration tools become more integrated with the business software they use to get their jobs done. Employees should familiarize themselves with the tools available to them, and learn how to pick the right tool for each of the various scenarios that make up their work day.  Read "Enterprise Collaboration: From Simple Sharing to Getting Work Done".

6. Future of Work - Prepare for Demographic Shifts

By Holger Mueller

In the next ten years 10% to 20% of the North American and European workforce will retire. Leaders need to understand and prepare for this tremendous shift so performance remains steady as many of the workforce's highly skilled workers retire.

To ensure smooth a smooth transition, ensure your HCM software systems can accommodate a massive number of retirements, successions and career path developments, and new hires from external recruiting. 

Constellation fully expects employment to be a sellers market going forward. People leaders should ensure their HCM systems facilitate employee motivation, engagement and retention, lest they lose their best employees to competitors. Read "Globalization, HR, and Business Model Success". Additional cloud HR case studies here and here. 

7. Digital Marketing Transformation - Brand Priorities Must Convey Authenticity

By R "Ray" Wang

Brand authenticity must dominate digital and analog channels in 2015. Digital personas must not only reflect the brand, but also expand upon the analog experience. Customers love the analog experience, so deliver the same experience digitally. Brand conscious leaders must invest in the digital experience with an eye towards mass personalization at scale.  While advertising plays a key role in distributing the brand message, investment in the design of digital experiences presents itself as a key area of investment for 2015. Download free executive brief: Can Brands Keep Their Promise?

8. Consumerization of IT: Use Mobile as the Gateway to Digital Transformation Projects

By R "Ray" Wang

Constellation believes that mobile is more than just the device. While smartphones and other devices are key enablers of 'mobile', design in digital transformation should take into account how these technologies address the business value and business model transformation required to deliver on breakthrough innovation. If you have not yet started your digital transformation or are considering using mobile as an additional digital transformation point, Constellation recommends that clients assess how a new generation of enterprise mobile apps can change the business by identifying a cross-functional business problem that cannot be solved with linear thinking, articulating the business problem and benefit, showing how the solution orchestrates new experiences, identifying how analytics and insights can fuel the business model shift, exploiting full native device features, and seeking frictionless experiences. You'll be digital before you know it. Read "Why the Third Generation of Enterprise Mobile is Designed for Digital Transformation"

9. Technology Optimization & Innovation - Prepare Your Public Cloud Strategy

By Holger Mueller

In 2015 technology leaders will need to create, adjust and implement their public cloud strategy. Considering estimates pegging Amazon AWS at 15-20% of virtualized servers worldwide, CIOs and CTOs need to actively plan and execute their enterprise’s strategy vis-à-vis the public cloud. Reducing technical debt and establishing next generation best practices to leverage the new ‘on demand’ IT paradigm should be a top priority for CIOs and CTOs seeking organizational competitiveness, greater job security and fewer budget restrictions. 

Dominate digital disruption in 2015. Join Constellation Executive Network for exclusive research, advisory, and events. 

News Analysis - IBM had a very good year in the cloud - but 2015 will be key

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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MyPOV – This is a significant expansion to IBM’s original plans of moving to 40 locations as announced in January of 2014 – my analysis is here. And it’s a sign of something working for IBM here – as IBM communicates locations and signs up deals with customers, more locations than the 40 will be in demand. What works well for IBM here is that it has one of the smallest pod footprints in the industry, among the large players. We estimate Amazon AWS being 4-5 times and Microsoft Azure 2-3 times larger than the smallest IBM Cloud / SoftLayer footprint. That certainly helps when putting your flag around locations in the world, as less business needs to be acquired to reach economies of scale for a location.  

IBM will reach customers in 12 new locations including IBM Cloud centers in Frankfurt, Mexico City and Tokyo, and nine more centers through a strategic partnership with Equinix in Australia, France, Japan, Singapore, The Netherlands and the US.  

• SAP selected IBM as a premier strategic provider of Cloud infrastructure services for its business critical applications to accelerate customers’ ability to run core business in the cloud. SAP applications are now available through IBM’s highly scalable, open and secure cloud and enables SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud to major markets with the addition of the IBM cloud data centers.
• IBM and Microsoft are working together to provide their respective enterprise software on Microsoft Azure and IBM Cloud. This relationship will give clients, partners and developers more choice in the cloud, helping them drive new business opportunities, spur innovation and reduce costs.
• IBM and Tencent Cloud recently signed a business cooperation memorandum to collaborate on providing public cloud with Software-as-a-Service solutions for industries. The companies will focus on emerging small and medium enterprises in the smarter cities, healthcare industries and other fields to enable these industries to utilize mobile, cloud computing and big data tools to transform internal processes and operations, thus achieving cloud transformation in the era of mobility.
• AT&T and IBM are collaborating to speed business adoption of cloud services by extending AT&T NetBond^SM services to the SoftLayer platform for stronger security and performance. This extension of the IBM and AT&T alliance will allow businesses to easily create hybrid-computing solutions.
• IBM and Intel worked together to make SoftLayer the first cloud platform to offer its customers bare metal servers powered by Intel® Cloud Technology that provides monitoring and security down to the microchip level. Through this agreement, the Intel^® Trusted Execution Technology provides hardware monitoring and security controls that help assure businesses that a workload from a known location on SoftLayer infrastructure is running on trusted hardware.

• IBM reported cloud revenue of $4.4 billion for 2013 – up 69 percent year-to-year
• IBM cloud revenue has increased 50 percent through the third quarter 2014 with a $3.1 billion run rate in as-a-service revenue.
• IBM Cloud supports 47 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies
• For two years in a row, IBM has been named a leader in the IDC MarketScape on Cloud Professional Services.  (IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Cloud Professional Services 2014 Vendor Analysis, doc #250238, August 2014)
• Businesses across the U.S. recently ranked IBM the as the number one cloud computing provider, according to an IDC survey of US market preferences for infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). *Source: IDC's U.S Outsourced Cloud Services Survey, 4Q13
• In addition to overall top ranking, IBM was also rated the leader in six of eight major industries covered in the study including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Professional Services, Wholesale and Retail and Public Sector (government). *Source: IDC's U.S Outsourced Cloud Services Survey, 4Q13
• IBM also finished in the top three in Transportation and Telecommunications, the only vendor to lead in as many industries and rank no lower than third in any industry. *Source: IDC's U.S Outsourced Cloud Services Survey, 4Q13
• Synergy Research Group recently ranked IBM among the top three cloud providers and the leader in hybrid and private cloud engagement in a market analysis of public, private and hybrid IaaS and PaaS.

Overall MyPOV

• IBM certainly knows when it needs to invest into something that works. The race to the announced 40 locations of January 2014 – that was not responded for by the usual competitors – has even more accelerated with IBM tracking to 48 locations now.
   
• IBM’s reputation to help enterprises in technology transformation times is a well working and resonating messaging with customer and prospects.
   
• Bluemix is, remains and will be a critical component of IBM’s cloud success. How well IBM can not only attract the new ‘cloud developer’ but also the existing (Rational) IBM developer will be a key area to watch in 2015 and beyond.
   
• The service capabilities of IBM work to its favor with the enterprise need to be advised and often literally ‘taken by the hand’ to move to the public cloud.
   
• IBM knows how to partner and will have more partnerships in stock for us to see in 2015.

Racksapce Wins SuperNova Award For Next Generation Customer Experience With Zimbra Community

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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Each year at our conference, Constellation’s Connected Enterprise, companies submit case studies in several categories, including next generation customer experiences.

This post is about how Rackspace, who was a SuperNova Award Winner for Next Gen Customer Experiences, used a Zimbra Community, along with Rackspaces’s Knowgedge Center and Support Drawer to provide a global online community that provides its customers with a central place to share questions, discuss challenges, rate content and provide feedback.

Overall, the Rackspace community focuses on scaling the delivery of Fanatical Support, educating core customers, increasing customer engagement and sharing Racker knowledge.

Read "How Rackspace Creates the Next Generation Customer Experience" case study.