Weekly Recap - Week ending October 10th 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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• HP splits in two - Enterprise and PCs & Printer
• My Event Report of IBM's Enterprise conference (read here)
• Attending Couchbase Connect and presenting about the future of Enterprise Application Development
• Cornerstone acquires Evolv
• Briefings at HR Tech Conference
• The panel we had with Brian Sommer (TechVantive), Narinder Singh (Appirio) and Mike Krupa (Mercer) - where we unfortunately missed Naomi Bloom
• Lumesse decides to develop on Salesforce1 for its next generation applications
• Ray's Friday keynote at HR Tech Conference

• HP splits into two - Enterprise and PCs & Printers 
• Progress Software user conference in Orlando

 

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

Event Report - IBM Enterprise - A lot of value for existing customers, but can IBM attract net new customers?

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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We had the opportunity to attend the IBM Enterprise conference in Las Vegas, the event designed for users of IBM’s STG (Server and Technology Group) products. Attendance rose by 30+% to over 3600 professionals, drawn to the event by a large number of training and certification sessions. It was good to see a more global audience than what I have seen at other IBM events for other parts of its large software portfolio.

Here are my Top 3 takeaways by the three STG areas - Power, mainframe and storage:

1. IBM keeps creating value for the mainframe - The often pronounced dead mainframe is doing well and contrary to many reports, is not going away anytime soon. Too many critical workloads run on mainframes today, one often used example at the conference is that it is pretty much impossible to withdraw money from an ATM anywhere in the world without interacting with a mainframe. IBM claims that about 55% of worldwide enterprise transaction need a mainframe to fulfill them.
 

Slide from Rosamilia keynote

Back at the STG analyst meeting us blogged about interesting and surprising use cases (mobile for instance) – so let’s look what IBM announced at Enterprise: The addition of BigData and analytical capabilities for the mainframe. This enables use cases like social media analysis and fraud, we will need to check in with IBM in a few months for use cases. Equally interesting is the announcement of IBM Cloud Manager with OpenStack for System z- allowing to run the mainframe like any other OpenStack resource, from one pane of glass.

Slide from Balog keynote

2. New Power Systems - IBM is not standing still with Power and fresh off the sales of its x86 server business to Lenovo even labels the Enterprise press release of Power as a replacement for x86 servers - well that was quick. IBM stressed the expansion of the OpenPower Foundation that during the conference reached 60+ members (the press release still had 59) – which underlines a dynamic community. I expect Open Power getting even more traction as Power is now the only platform for many other vendors to partner with IBM. And no surprise IBM is stressing the Power architecture’s ability to handle BigData well. IBM said that Power now offers up to 20% better price performance than Intel Xeon based systems, based on September 2014 SPEC Benchmark.
 

And for a moment we are reminded we are at hardware conference - Rosamilia and Balog unveil a new Power Servder

3. Storage becomes software defined – As previewed earlier at the STG analyst summit, IBM offers a number of new software defined storage options. The vendor did not get tired to stress that IBM was recently proclaimed the leader in flash storage by our colleagues at IDC. The interesting observation for me was, that IBM is practically forced into software defined storage. As IBM has System Z and Power as remaining architecture and as well wants to support a variety of existing customer system architectures, while not building storage systems for each platform - it pretty much needs to find a software defined solution to get storage done on its new storage machines. It was interesting to see such a system, offering 1 petabyte in flash storage. And let’s not forget the SoftLayer option, where IBM announced backup to the cloud. For customers operating on these platforms, these are good forces to align with.

Benefits of Software Defined Storage - from Thomas' keynote

MyPOV

A good event for IBM customers using System Z and Power Servers. Mainframe customer were able to clearly see that IBM is not leaving them behind, but keeps offering new options to bring new load to the mainframe. Power customers can be assured that IBM invests into Power, one of the main interests (relatively absent at the event, but there was a parallel event in New York) of IBM is Watson, and that alone will give Power a significant market share. Getting more software to run on Power will be crucial for IBM, new announcements like e.g. the one of Suse help, but more still needs to be done in my view. 

On the storage side my key realization at the event was, that IBM needs to make software defined storage a success. Offering the new flash based systems for System Z, Power etc. on the respective platforms will not scale so IBM needs (and wants) to provide a single (Flash based ideally) storage server and direct the storage needs from different platform to it. Given IBM customers have a similar and likely even more heterogeneous system landscape – a good goal alignment.

Overall IBM is focused on creating value for its platforms – if this will be enough to create brand new usage and sales for System Z and Power based server’s remains to be seen. Watson is a great potential growth driver for Power, but mainly created by IBM’s own decision. The big news would be net new System Z customers not only here and there but consistently buying the mainframe for a 21st century use case. We will see if 2015 will have that in store – or not. 

 

Tech Optimization Data to Decisions intel cisco systems Google IBM amazon Microsoft ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI AI Analytics Automation business Marketing SaaS PaaS IaaS Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP finance Healthcare Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

Dumbing down Snowden

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…...

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Ed Snowden was interviewed today as part of the New Yorker festival. This TechCruch report says Snowden "was asked a couple of variants on the question of what we can do to protect our privacy. His first answer called for a reform of government policies." He went on to add some remarks about Dropbox, Google, Facebook and encryption, and that's what the report chose to focus on. The TechCrunch headline: "Snowden's Privacy Tips".

Mainstream and even technology media reportage does Snowden a terrible disservice.

I've listened to the interview.  After being asked by a listener what they should do about privacy, Snowden gave a careful, nuanced, and comprehensive answer over five minutes.  His very first line was 'this is an incredibly complex topic' and he did well to stick to plain language throughout.  He canvassed a great many issues including: the need for policy reform, the 'Nothing to Hide' argument, the inversion of civil rights when governments ask us to justify the right to be left alone, the collusion of companies and governments, the poor state of product security and usability, the chilling effect on industry of government intervention in security, metadata, and the radicalization of computer scientists today being comparable with physicists in the Cold War. 

Only after all that, and a follow up question about 'ordinary people', did Snowden say 'don't use Dropbox'. 

Consistently, when Snowden is asked what to do about privacy, his answers are primarily about politics not technology. When pressed, he dispenses the odd advice about using Tor and disk encryption, but Snowden's chief concerns (as I have discussed in depth previously) are around accountability, government transparency, better cryptology research, better security product quality, and so on. He is no hacker in the conventional us-versus-them mould.

I am simply dismayed how Snowden's sophisticated analyses are dumbed down to security tips. He has never been a cyber Agony Aunt. The proper response to NSA overreach has to be agitation for regime change, not do-it-yourself cryptography. That is Snowden's message. 

New C-Suite Data to Decisions Future of Work Infosec Chief Information Officer

Dear Citrix, I Want To Work Here!

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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Yesterday I attended the opening of Citrix's new office in Raleigh, North Carolina. This new facility was built upon the foundation of an old factory and warehouse and will be used primarily by employees working on the ShareFile product family. But the scope of this building is much larger for community around it. Just a 10-15 minute walk from downtown, this new office is in an area dominated by abandoned warehouses. Citrix has spent more that 3 years working with local, state and federal officials to open this new office, with the hope that this will rejuvenate the area, bringing new businesses, housing and transportation to the area. The Governor, Mayor and other local politicians joined Citrix's executive team in the ribbon cutting ceremony.

MyPOV

In an era where technology is making it easier than ever to work anytime from anywhere, it's still important to create spaces where people want to gather to dream and create. As someone who's worked as a remote employee for more than a decade I can tell you, all the mobile devices and web-conferences in the world don't fully replace human interaction. Much like the cool startup offices found in Silicon Valley, Citrix has created a space where their staff wants to come to work. I candidly interviewed several employees yesterday and they could not be happier about this new facility. They talked about the cost of living in Raleigh compared to places like New York and San Francisco, the weather and walking or biking to work instead of having an hour or longer commute. After touring the high-tech open floor plan with desks that raise and lower, dual monitors, gym, and rooftop cafeteria I can honestly say I'm pretty jealous about their working environment. Right now the only issue is there is not much surrounding the office, but that's the point... this is intended to motivate stores and restaurants to open in the area. I hope Citrix invites me back in a year to see the progress that's been made.

Until then, here are some of my thoughts and pictures from the day.

 

Future of Work Chief Executive Officer

ServiceSource Announces Customer Service Success Management Platform Powered by Salesforce1

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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The Dreamforce-related announcements are already starting to come in. Today ServiceSource announced a Customer Success solution powered by Salesforce1. Mike Rosenbaum, EVP, Salesforce Platform said, "The Salesforce1 Customer Platform is a game changer for developers and partners because it helps them build engaging, next generation apps to connect with customers in a whole new way. By opening the platform, we have made it possible for customers and partners to get their apps and data in one place, where everything is connected and in the context of their business."

Are you a B2B business and want to make sure that your customer not only buys, but renews with you? The latest in this area is called Customer Success Management. These type of vendors not only manage the beginning of a relationship with a company but also have very smart analytics to help you see if the company is happy with your product or service way before renewal time. This is key in SaaS businesses because instead of selling the old way - on premise with maintenance upgrades, if a company is not happy with the SaaS solution, they can decide to not continue the contract. It's much easier to switch than it used to be. And that's what companies need to know if their clients are happy- not just at the time of sales, but throughout the life of the product / service, so when renewal time comes along, it's a yes!...

What this means to you, if you are B2B business, is that you are enable to  provide customer success teams with a platform-oriented way to implement proven success plans and engage users with planned, high-value activities that drive customer lifetime value, reduce churn and ensure customer satisfaction.

ServiceSource is a  global leader in cloud-based recurring revenue management solutions. So if your company wants to provide better service for customers to drive growth and build long-standing relationships across the customer lifecycle, this may be a vendor to look at.  ServiceSource has a comprehensive data management, analytics, automation and services capabilities. They deliver higher subscription, maintenance, and support revenue, improved customer retention, and increased business predictability through their Renew OnDemand^®, Scout^® and proven services offers.

The new features include:

@DrNatalie

VP and Principal Analyst, Covering Customer Service, Sales and Marketing to Deliver Better Customer Experiences

Constellation Research

Marketing Transformation Innovation & Product-led Growth Next-Generation Customer Experience Dreamforce Event Report salesforce Executive Events B2C CX Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer

21st Century Management: Agile, Connected, & Designed for Execution

Terri Griffith

Professor/Author/Speaker
Simon Fraser University

Terri Griffith holds the Keith Beedie Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business. She spent two decades in the Silicon Valley and, in 2012 was honored as a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Terri helps her students and their organizations accelerate performance and prepare for the futures of work. Through her speaking, writing, teaching, and research, she brings evidence-based leadership and innovation to high-tech, education, and global agribusiness organizations. She inspires and coaches groups on negotiating change and uniquely mixing existing and new capabilities. Her most recent work uses a “bottom-up” approach to automation, including artificial intelligence. Her award-winning book, The Plugged-In Manager:…...

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This week we premier our 21st Century Management executive education program. Designed and offered at Northwestern University’s James L. Allen Center, the program is five days offering:

• How to lead with all your resources — human, technical and organizational — working in concert
• How distributed teams, crowdsourcing, cross-cultural settings, and “new machine age” opportunities lead to broader, organization-wide considerations (e.g., building a strategic platform, creating a social business)
• Key issues that arise during organizational transformation; developing tools for managing challenges, mitigating risk, and balancing priorities
• New methods for motivating others, engaging teams, and leveraging innovation and networks
• How to use social network analysis to understand 21st century opportunities

Flow

My sessions cover Thursday and Friday, but I’ve had the opportunity to preview many of the slide decks and I’m happily familiar with the work my co-conspirators presented earlier in the week:

 

Background and More

To any of the involved executives -- here are links to some of the material we will cover and a couple of sneak peeks at what I’ll suggest for further reading (for the rest of you, think of it as a teaser and join us in one of our upcoming versions in July or December):

• Leadership Is More than Interpersonal Skills (One of my HBR Blog posts) 
• Innovation Catalysts (HBR article on Intuit) 
• Backgrounder on the Open Talent Economy (Deloitte) 
• Elance/Odesk Online Employment Report 
• Racing With the Machines TED Talk (Erik Brynjolfsson) 
• Zappos & Holacracy (Forbes) 
• Why Teams Don’t Work (HBR) 
• Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor (Warren Bennis et al.) 
• AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs (Pew Research) 
• Manager and Machine (McKinsey) 
• How Do You Design a Hospital That Can Foster Great Ideas? (Wired)

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

Disrupting Failure – The Secret to Success

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. ...

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In the world of startups we have been obsessed with failure. And learning. Or what Mick Liubinskas from muru-D calls “flearning”. You will, no doubt, have heard of the concept of “fail-fast” – a term borrowed from system design and applied to software engineering – where the focus is on fast, iterative design that irons out errors through the process of repetition and improvement. But failure comes with risk and with stigma. And no matter how bravely we celebrate our failures, as 99dresses founder, Nikki Durkin points out, “luck and timing are often huge factors in success and failure.”

So I was interested to see the way that this infographic by MaryEllen Tribby focuses not on the outcomes of success or failure – but on the attributes and behaviours of the individual. And I am wondering – if we are honest – could we find a way to disrupt failure on our way to being successful. Is there a way to observe and recognise some of our own behaviours and then work to move them from the right hand side (yellow/unsuccessful) to the left (green/successful)?

And beyond that, what if we moved beyond platitudes (and infographics), and ACTED ON some of these things. Or all of them? I am going to give it a try. I’m going to spend 30 minutes a day carrying out actions from the green side. And I will let you know how I go. Perhaps disrupting failure is the secret to success. Time will tell.

Marketing Transformation Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Future of Work AI ML Machine Learning LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI Robotics Analytics Automation Cloud SaaS PaaS IaaS Quantum Computing Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service developer Metaverse VR Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership Chief Marketing Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Analytics Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Operating Officer

Coming soon! Disrupting Digital Business - The Book

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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The Wait Is Over!

I am excited to announce Disrupting Digital Business will be published by Harvard Business Review Press for world wide availability in Q2 2015.  As many of you know, I started this journey to write a book almost 4 years ago.  It was around the time I had decided to leave Altimeter Group and start Constellation Research. I was kindly presented with a very generous book contract.  At that time, social media and social business was in full swing and a number of folks were putting out their social media story.

While social was hot, an underlying shift was in motion.  The combination of disruptive technologies, people to people (P2P) networks, and new business models seeded the beginning of a digital revolution.  It seemed that we had new laws of business emerging amidst this change.  This revolution may have started in the late 1990’s with the hype of dot.com business models.  However, the internet era was a foreshadow of things to come.

Right now, we’re standing at the dawn of a digital business revolution. In fact, we barely realize it. And as with the beginning of every revolution, those in the midst of it can feel it, sense it, and realize that something big is happening. Yet it’s hard to quantify the shift. The data isn’t clear. It’s hard to measure. Pace of change is accelerating. Old rules seem not to apply. You and I can’t seem to put structure around this.

Many of us have been here. But we can qualify the shift. We are articulating how these businesses are about to change. We’re doing it piecemeal, but a story is emerging. We have one-off stories about massive business model disruption. In fact, the impact of digital on our personal lives is an early indication. From how we interact with each other to how we engage with organizations, the shift is right in front of us. Our personal experiences foreshadow how businesses will be disrupted by this digital revolution.

In fact, 52% of the Fortune 500 have been merged, acquired, gone bankrupt, or fallen off the list since 2000.  The impact of digital disruption is real.  However, it’s not the technologies that drive this change. It’s a shift in how new business models are created through digital transformation.  Old line businesses are reinventing themselves as digital businesses.  New digital business models challenge existing incumbents.  We’re moving at a rapid pace of change and massive scale from systems of transaction (record) to achieving mass personalization at scale (digital).

The secret to success in disrupting digital business will require organizations and individuals to know who they want to be, and live and breath it.  Disrupting digital business requires leaders to be:

• Transformation focused: Incremental innovation is not enough. Organizations have to design for transformational innovation.
• Relevant: Context drives the ability to deliver mass personalization at scale.
• Authentic: Digital provides trust and radical transparency through massive data backbones and open access and support the brand promise.
• Intention driven: Best practices rules and processes aren’t enough, we have to predict what’s expected next.
• Networked: New P2P networked economies are guided by ephemeral self interest

Are you prepared to get ahead of the train and disrupt digital business?

What’s Next?

As the book takes final shape, I am working very closely with my editor Tim Sullivan and the Harvard Business Review Press team on book launch. A few important items:

• Book availability. Print editions and e-books will be available worldwide in Q2 2015. Pre orders on Amazon are expected January 2015.
• Roadshow and book tour.  A Constellation roadshow on Disrupting Digital Business is being planned for 2015 and we will seek sponsors for this roadshow.
• Keynote speaking requests.  The team is already booking keynotes for next year.  Dates are limited and speaking inquiries can be addressed to [email protected]
• In search of a publicity firm.  I’m in search of a good business press and media influencer publicity professionals.  The goal is exposure to a broader set of business influencers in both broadcast and print.
• Looking for a good speaker’s bureau.  I was with Monitor Talent and their model has changed since acquisition by Deloitte and Stern Speakers.  I’m seeking business events where digital and innovation are key themes.

Please feel free to send any inquiries to [email protected]

Constellation’s Connected Enterprise 2014 – Dominate Digital Disruption October 29th to 31st, Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton.

Join us October 29th to 31st for Constellation’s Connected Enterprise: The Executive Innovation Conference For Digital CXO’s and Leaders. These leaders convene to discover, share, and inspire each other on how digital business can realize brand promises, transform business models, increase revenues, reduce costs, and improve compliance.

The 3-day executive retreat will include mind expanding keynotes from visionaries and futurists, interactive best practices panels, deep 1:1 20 minute interviews with market makers, rapid fire high-energy new technology demos, The Constellation SuperNova Awards event, a golf outing, and an immersive networking event.

Your POV.

Ready to begin your digital transformation? Still looking for a CDO? Want to jump start your digital business efforts? Let us know how you are getting there and what first steps have worked.  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 Personal Log: Coming soon! Disrupting Digital Business – The Book appeared first on A Software Insider's Point of View.

 

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

Customer Engagement Optimization Twitter Chat with @rwang0 & @drnatalie

Join R "Ray" Wang and Dr. Natalie Petouhoff for a Twitter chat to discuss the latest trends, policies, and business models around customer engagement.

Details

• October 10, 2014 10:00a.m. PT/ 1:00p.m. ET
• Participate using the hashtag #VerintChat 
• @rwang0 and @drnatalie will answer your #custserv, #custexp, #custengagement questions!

 

Next-Generation Customer Experience B2C CX Chief Customer Officer

Oracle OpenWorld 2014 – focus on the decision makers to empower your supply chain

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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I just returned from a successful week spent at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco. A nice perk for being in the Bay Area at this time of the year was summer was in full swing! While it was raining buckets back in Boston, I was enjoying the close to 90-degree sunny weather…as I ran between meetings. The conference revolved around Oracle’s push into the cloud, talk of the importance of mobility, smarter access to big data and the demotion of Larry Ellison to CTO…okay the last item was some good humored self deprecation from Mr. Ellison himself while on stage for his keynote Tuesday. He even apologized for missing last year’s main stage demo since he had been pulled into watching some boat race.

Anyways, the area I was focused on was what Oracle was doing in the supply chain and retail/CPG spaces. Oracle did not disappoint with the large number of sessions dedicated to these spaces. So let’s look at 3 things I took away from both the CPG/Retail sessions and the Supply Chain sessions -

The shift in power in the CPG-Retail spaces means a change in how we address it:

• In the retail space Oracle discussed a persona-based approach for their offerings. Clearly traditional retail sub segments are not behaving the way they once did – the customer persona is becoming the driving force not the retail sub vertical. Retailers need to approach personas when it comes to how they best address the consumer need. It is the consumer that will dictate what the rules are. The retailer, with help from their service providers, need to focus on addressing the different personas they are servicing and build the software and solutions around this. This is what we are seeing with Matrix Commerce – as the number of intersections between the consumer and commerce supply chain grows, so does the need for the solution vendors to offer more nimble solutions. Oracle provided an example of how they could work with retailers to equip the retailer with an enhanced view of the customer. They designed a system that allowed the retailer to associate a persona to the way the consumer interacted with the retailer – pulling information from all possible channels. Allowing the retailer to more effectively address the consumers’ needs. Oracle Retail, staying true to what was being discussed on main stage, highlighted the fact the solution had a mobile aspect. Why is this important other than following the buzz? It places the information and analytics in the hands of those working on the retail floor. The mobile delivery of data and analytics means the people at the store level can make better decisions and service the customer in a much more personalized and effective manner. Getting the information closer to the decision makers.
• We are all aware that consumer influence has increased vis-à-vis retailers and CPGs. Oracle highlighted how their solutions are helping CPG companies to be even more efficient and effective in their relationship with the retail channels. Once again it boils down to focusing on better usage of retailer data and the subsequent enhanced collaboration that allows an effective partnership between CPGs and their retailers to meet increasingly savvy consumer requirements. Sony discussed working with Oracle to overhaul their managing of sales and promotions for their PlayStation products and how it was sold through retail channels such as Wal Mart, Gamestop, Target, Amazon and Best Buy. At the core Sony and Oracle worked to harmonize and ensure they had the most reliable data and a system of record from which to build upon. From this they worked on putting together an S&OP process that allowed for Sony to do greater analysis of the insights they were getting from the retailers and how Sony could do a more cost effective and smarter job in marketing and selling the PlayStation. Sony was able to look across all their channels, coupled with other sources of data, to improve their planning cycles for the PlayStation. As they stated – they have a very large competitor, with very deep pockets…so Sony has to do it smarter and more efficiently. Focusing on the fundamental blocking and tackling with the help of Oracle gives Sony a competitive edge in the space.
• Finally, and this was something I heard through many of the sessions for CPG and retail, but there is a real emphasis on how to take advantage of the confluence of mobile – big data – analytics – cloud and focusing on how to drive down more intelligence closer to consumer touch points. This is really about empowering all the players that are close to the consumer, the best data and analytics to make the right decision on the ground. Think about it, you and I as consumers have gained tremendous power in the past decade. Between the transparency the internet has given us to the ability to carry that internet everywhere we go – we as consumers have suddenly put intelligence and insight right into our purses and pockets. The Oracle solutions targeting CPG and Retailers are looking to give the same level of intelligence to the store associates servicing these smarter consumers. The reality is the large systems used to drive CPG and Retail businesses are vital for running the businesses at a macro level. But the trick is how to empower those that are “on the front lines” to have a similar impact on the process.

The overarching theme for CPG and retail was to provide the complete end-to-end solution and platform that will allow for this transformation. Overall they touched many aspects of what we are seeing in Matrix Commerce. The ability to push data and analytics down to the closest touch point of the consumer is vital to reducing the friction that often flares up at those levels.

Supply chain continues to be about better planning…but also easier access to improved execution

• My kingdom for a better plan! Clearly planning remains at the heart of supply chain…really at the heart of business and dare I say life? Yet for some reason it has a bad connotation at times. Yes we all know that all plans carry one similar trait: they are WRONG. But the reality is we really cannot do much without those plans. What was interesting in the discussions of planning was not that Oracle was professing a 99.9% accurate plan, or a faster plan but looking at offering a more responsive planning method. Since being responsive is different that being efficient. Again pulling on the themes of big data – cloud – analytics, they discussed continuing to work on their planning engines that are digging deeper into the data as well as making them more accessible within the planning organization. Panasonic Avionics (they are the division of Panasonic that builds and maintains many of the in flight entertainment units you may leverage when you are flying), for example, has a very challenging supply chain to service. With long component lead times, capacity constraints, high demand volatility and a large array of materials to service (they mentioned that they still need to support some systems that use video tapes!), Panasonic Avionics really needed a system that was able to rapidly identify where the plan would impact the product. In order to properly achieve this, Panasonic and Oracle needed to ensure the planning engine could truly understand the complexity of the BOM and identify where each part of that BOM could be impacted by any fluctuation in the plan. They highlighted the ability to improve the granularity of the information being pulled into the planning process, as well as the ability to run multiple plans to provide the most robust scenarios. The speed at which Panasonic Avionics was able to refresh their plans allowed for rapid insights into potential issues.
• Embracing the cloud – but not just for lower TCO and faster implementations. Like many vendors, dare I say most vendors; there was a strong message around putting solutions up in the cloud. Good. I agree with this thinking. What I also agree with, and what Oracle made clear was this does not mean you have to ignore continuing to offer on-premise solutions. When I sat through a session on Oracle’s transportation and global trade solutions being moved into a cloud offering, what was refreshing was the fact that they made a point to discuss continuing to offer the solution on premise. And that both would maintain the same high level of functionality. The same was true for the discussion around supply chain planning functionality and its migration to the cloud. What was evident was that Oracle seems to grasp the notion that while the cloud is important; it does not prevent them from continuing to offer and support on-premise offerings. I do think that the strategy to give a choice is important and will allow them to target mid-market and individual business units in larger enterprises. Long gone are the days of massive system overhauls and implementations. Supply chains need nimble solutions to keep up with their ever-changing environment.
• Making supply chain solutions even more business friendly. Let’s face it, when it comes to the supply chain function within business, it is still fighting for a place at the big table. Yes we hear of more companies with CSCOs, but I would still wager that number is small compared to CMOs, CFOs, CIOs and yes CEOs. But my last take away from the supply chain discussions is the way Oracle appears to be addressing this issue. For example, they spoke of better tying in what is happening in the supply chain to the marketing side of the house. The solutions stressed the need to drive analytics and better information down the planning stack – get as much rich information where it matters. Decoupling the financial flow from the physical supply chain to better understand how the two interact. Individually these are all nice efforts, but put together they indicate a view of the importance of the holistic supply chain – one that starts on a solid platform where the right data is leveraged. This mirrors what was spoken about on main stage Tuesday, and the overall drive by Oracle to ensure cross channel and cross identity customer experience. How true that is at the core of supply chain – being able to ensure the best view of the customer’s needs and orders.

Oracle’s overall Value Chain solutions are all rowing in the right direction. When you add to the discussion the continuing evolution of Oracle’s Warehouse Management solution that has added Yard management – clients have the ability to access a full suite of execution modules. When it comes to Matrix Commerce, one key need for the commerce supply chain is to ensure the elimination of friction, friction that arises from supply chain blind spots. Not having the full view of your fulfillment can cause supply chain blind spots to sprout.

Oracle continues to maintain its status as a “mega vendor.” Their breadth and depth in terms of solutions and industries make them a serious contender in most situations on the market. We will continue to watch with intent how they address the area.

Tagged: #oow14, Oracle, Oracle Open World, Supply Chain

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