Progress Report - IBM BigData and Analytics have a lot of product potential, time to show it

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 IBM’s BigData & Analytics Summit 2014 held in June 11th and 12th in New York. Needless to say, that IBM has a staggering portfolio of Analytics and BigData products and services, just consider 15000 employees in the Strategy and Analytics practice. And the good news is that when IBM talks about analytics, it’s the ‘true’ analytics – the one that take an action, or at least suggest one (more on ‘true’ analytics here).

From many insights and learning points, here is the distillation of my top 3 takeaways:

• Transformative Power of Analytics – While there is almost no vendor not talking about analytics today, there are fewer that understand ‘true’ analytics like IBM. What sets IBM apart is the understanding that analytics are truly transformational, and not just in one business dimension, but spanning all professions and business processes. Smith had a great slide representing the transformation for the C-Suite which illustrates well what impact BigData and Analytics have on enterprises and their care takers. And she delivered the punchline that executives that do not understand these key trends we be challenged in their careers and are likely going to trouble the success of their enterprise.

Slide from Smith's Presentation

• Speed matters – It was also good to see that IBM realizes there is a limited time window for the opportunity to be one of the key players to leverage the transformation enabled by BigData and Analytics, so speed is of the essence. And IBM has certainly gained even more speed in 2013 as the below chart illustrates both trough internal R&D and acquisitions. 

Slide from Smith's Presentation

• Watson is the differentiator – As previously stated, the cognitive capabilities of Watson are a key differentiator for IBM’s products and services. With the Watson Foundations IBM is betting on an ecosystem of consultants, developers, startups and mature ISVs to build cognitive applications on top of Watson Foundations. With BlueMix there is now a modern PaaS platform available that should help the adoption of next generation applications (in general, but also in the BigData and Analytics) space. 

 

MyPOV

IBM has a very attractive portfolio of capabilities across its analytical and BigData capabilities. Complemented with Watson, SoftLayer and BlueMix this becomes an even higher potential combination, as next generation applications can be built in a modern PaaS (BlueMix), leverage cutting edge cognitive insights (Watson) and can be deployed efficiently and flexibly through SoftLayer datacenters.

IBM now needs to make all these products work together, create value for IBM customers and partners and deliver more next generation application showcases. We know that IBM can build and deliver these with the help of GBS – but the real yardstick is to see them delivered as true cloud products, that create insights and spontaneous benefits to business users with no (or very little) involvement of consultants and IT professionals.

IBM’s massive GBS business in these regards is both a blessing and a curse. It’s is a blessing, that allows IBM to go further than any of its competitors and allows IBM to gain valuable insights from customer engagement. E.g. the transformative nature for the C-Suite is not as well understood in the market by competitors – and most likely the result of deep, cross project harvested, consulting insights delivered courtesy of GBS. The curse for IBM is, that it may fall short in regards of aggressive standardization, mass adoption based on viral distribution of its products, as well as the “holy grail” of analytics, the self-service setup and enablement of analytical applications by business (end) users. But that is still a few years out, realistically – so plenty of time for IBM to address and handle this challenge.

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Resources

Latest reports by Holger Mueller

How ARCA Re-Organized Sales and Put Revenue Growth into High Gear

Globalization, HR, and Business Model Success

More on IBM by Holger Mueller:

• Event Report - What a difference a year makes - and off to a good start - read here

• First Take - 3 Key Takeaways from IBM's Impact Conference - Day 1 Keynote - read here

• Another week and another Billion - this week it's a BlueMix Paas - read here

• First take - IBM makes Connection - introduces the TalentSuite at IBM Connect - read here

• IBM kicks of cloud data center race in 2014 - read here

• First Take - IBM Software Group's Analyst Insights - read here

• Are we witnessing one of the largest cloud moves - so far? Read here

• Why IBM acquired Softlayer - read here

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Big Privacy Webinar Recording

With powerful big data analytics tools, digital businesses are scooping up data from consumers and archiving it until they can determine how they should analyze it. While there’s huge potential in analyzing this data, businesses need to respect the privacy of their customers and provide their customers fair value in exchange for their data. This means entering into a pact with customers, Constellation has termed, ‘Big Privacy’. 'Big Privacy’ calls on companies to practice restraint, transparency and provide customers fair value in exchange for personal data. Big privacy is designed to be an open conversation between business and consumers, and will play an essential role in ensuring we make progress toward realizing the benefits of big data analytics.

"Big Privacy": The New Big Data Privacy Pact with Steve Wilson

Resources:

Big Privacy Rises to the Challenges of Big Data - by Steve Wilson

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The Case for the Chief Digital Officer

1

I’ve just published a new report focusing on the role of the Chief Digital Officer (CDO). CDO is a relatively new role and many organizations desperately need them to help build capabilities and competitiveness.

Making the Case for the Chief Digital Officer

In summary:

Digital disruption has affected every industry around the globe, bar none. Emerging technology has shifted the balance of power from long-standing institutions to newly formed entities that have been designed to capitalize specifically on the contemporary operating environment.

Constellation’s PESTEL (political, economic, societal, technological, environmental, and legislative) framework helps identify the major elements of the shift to digital, but today’s brands are not staffed or structured properly to succeed in this transformation.

A Chief Digital Officer is the leader to help companies navigate successfully through the current era of digital disruption. The CDO charter includes formulating digital business strategy, activating operational initiatives, and managing organizational transformation.

But the roles of CDOs are not one-size-fits-all; brands should hire and focus this executive on a critical set of industry-specific challenges.

The responsibilities of a Chief Digital Officer vary based on industry and company need; I’ve identified three major types of CDO segmented by business model and customer value proposition.

For additional perspective, see Beyond the CIO/CMO – The Rise of the Chief Digital Officer from my former colleague Dion Hinchcliffe.

Marketing Transformation Chief Executive Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Digital Officer

Event Report: #PowerPlex At The Crux Of The New Manufacturing Renaissance

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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Plex Plays A Key Role In The Digitalization Of Manufacturing

Over 900 customers, partners, and Plex Systems gathered at the DeVVos Plae on Michigan’s West Coast of Grand Rapids for the 13th annual Plex Systems user event.  New features and a significant funding round book end the major announcements from the June 10th, 2014 Day 1 keynote:

• New funding round accelerates sales expansion and market awareness. T. Rowe Price, Accel Partners and Francisco partners join to invest $50M in new financing.  The $50M adds to the original $6M from Apax Partners November 2009 and the $30M from Accel Partners in December 2012
  
  Point of View (POV): The round led by T.Rowe Price provides another validation point on the success of Plex in riding the manufacturing renaissance wave.  Customers can expect a continued influx of enterprise software talent and product investment.  Constellation expects greater sales and marketing coverage and improved business development and alliances.

• Enterprise Edition adds to up market capabilities. New financials and supply chain applications expand the reach of the Manufacturing Cloud.  Accounting now includes general ledger structures, enterprise chart of account management, inter-entity journal accounting, inventory transfers and consolidated financial reporting.  Cash management solves key banking requirements such as receipts, account reconciliation, and centralized payments.  Supply chain adds sales order management and purchasing.  The latest release also includes new multi-site manufacturing requirements
  
  (POV): New Enterprise Edition makes it easier to consider Plex as part of a two-tier ERP/Manufacturing strategy.  New financial features make the product more CFO friendly.  Meanwhile, the supply chain features such as centralized sales order and billing, and purchasing functions set the stage for future commerce capabilities as manufacturers explore direct sales versus distributor models.  A key win is the ability to complete automated inter-entity billing as part of the distributed order fulfillment process.

• New features and enhancements build on the core Manufacturing Cloud. SmartPlex Mobile is delivered on both Android and iOS.  Manufacturers can now access key reports and analytic dashboards.  Plex Finite Scheduling helps customers plan and manage availability and utilization of employees, tools, fixtures, work-center space, and other resources.  Key features include capable to promise analysis, dynamic calendars, forecasting, and complex job scheduling. Global capabilities also include VAT calculation for EMEA, Brazil tax calculations, and nine languages.
  
  (POV): Customers at PowerPlex raved about the role based library of IntelliPlex dashboards and reports.  They applauded the ability to access a full view at any point in time with the new mobile capabilities.   Finite scheduling also received a warm welcome as the dynamic calendar user experience showed how easy it would be to run a job schedule. Plex has improved its globalization capabilities as new customers across 1,100 facilities in 20 countries, and nine languages add requirements to each release.

• Improved user experience takes a role-based approach and supports augmented reality. New role based user experiences cover from the shop floor to executives in the top floor.   User experience transcends device and deployment options.  The Google Glass integration enables operators to see and act on live data and shop floor transactions.
  
  (POV): The new user experience serves up contextual information by role which is a best practcie.  If properly designed, Constellation believes this should improve relevancy and relieve operators of information overload.  Roles include manufacturing but also financial and administrative leaders.  The integration with Google Glass improves the human to machine interaction and also keeps hands free for work and safety.

The Flickr Feed From PowerPlex 2014

The Bottom Line: Manufacturing System Replacement Cycles Have Woken Up From Their Dormancy

In the past three years, Constellation has seen an increase in inquiries and vendor selections for manufacturing ERP.  The shift to local based manufacturing, cheaper domestic energy, and more automated complex manufacturing has created a new manufacturing renaissance in North America.  While Plex is often in short lists, Plex is not a newcomer in the market.  In fact the company began in 1995 as a client/server shop built on Progress.  In 2001, the company moved to a cloud based approach.  Still early in the market for manufacturing system replacement cycles, the company plowed ahead.  As cloud adoption increased, interest increased in cloud based manufacturing solutions as an opportunity to replace aging systems.

Plex has done a great job moving beyond it’s initial automobile OEM roots for discrete manufacturing.  Plex’s signature features are the rigorous traceability, quality, and safety capabilities and has expanded its market share in aerospace, food and beverage, life sciences, and medical manufacturing.  In addition, the product is well positioned for sensor and analytical ecosystems critical to the Internet of Things.  At PowerPlex, Constellation had the opportunity to interview craft beer manufacturers, small batch food manufacturers, and small A&D shops.  Constellation sees this space as an emerging growth category given the estimated $50B manufacturing and tier two ERP replacement market over the next 20 years.

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Progress Report – NGA Human Resources moves on - but in many directions

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 chance to attend the NGA HR (NGA) analyst summit last week in New York. About two dozen analysts got briefed by NGA CEO Al-Saleh and his management team.

Here are my top 3 takeaways from the event:

• Positioning challenges remain – NGA keeps operating under the ‘IP lead Services’ positioning, meaning that it invests into IP (Intellectual Property) offerings for its services offerings (e.g. the BPaaS products) but at the same time has veritable IP in its own products (e.g. ResourceLink and Preceda). The unique positioning here is that on the one side NGA operates a very successful BPO business for large, international enterprises, offering its services on top of the euHReka platform (that again leverages SAP as its backbone) – on the other side operates like a software vendor on the SMB side with products like ResourceLink and Preceda. And it means good news and challenges at the same time that NGA wants to grow both businesses. The good news is the significant growth potential NGA can tap into, the challenges are short term that it needs to fund R&D investment across multiple products and longer term it may get on a collision course with its partners (Workday, SuccessFactors to name two) – as they will target more the SMB space. But it may not have to be competitive as NGA’s successful partnership with Workday around SMB services in the US shows, but that is an easier positioning as both are complimentary. NGA does not have a SMB product offering for the US market (yet) and Workday is looking for services to make its push to SMB happen. The scenario would be outright competitive if Workday would target the SMB market in the UK. But then who says that partners cannot have complex co-opetitive (cooperative & competitive) relationships depending on the markets they operate and compete in.

Slide from Presentation

• Payroll Exchange is the crown jewels – It looks like NGA has concluded its long R&D investment in making its different payrolls work together. The product tasked with this is the Payroll Exchange product that for now allows flexible pay across the euHReka, ResourceLink, and Preceda products, with HR Core data coming from the same three and additionally Workday and SuccessFactors. True to the positioning challenge mentioned before, NGA stresses that the Payroll Exchange (PEX) is not a product (or standalone offering), but IP that complements the NGA Gobal Payroll offering (not a product, either). Assuming PEX works, then NGA is missing out on a potential market opportunity to offer its PEX capabilities as a Software as a Service (SaaS). But then it is quite a leading offering by itself, being able to pay (with the help of partners) in 145 countries, the large majority of them being powered by NGA IP.

Slide from Presentation

• More to come – investment happening – The good news is that it looks like NGA will be able to come up with even more product and IP investment going forward. The vendor has ambitious plans to free up resources and to invest in net new opportunities both on the product and the services side of is offerings. It is also good to see that NGA has addressed longer term challenges in its services infrastructure around its networking and phone infrastructure, an important investment from which customers should see immediate benefits.

Slide from Presentation

MyPOV

NGA is unique in the vendor landscape with having a sole focus on HR, but then NGA pretty much offers every possible service (except RPO) for their customers. From general strategy, over implementation, hosting, payroll services, BPO and Product IP, NGA plays and wants to keep playing in all these markets. It will be key to watch how NGA will be able to grow the base of such a vast and diverse portfolio. All these different areas need management attention and financial investment to get off the ground and keep flying – not an easy task for a mainly services oriented vendor. The next 12 months will show if NGA can grow the base and invest in this portfolio or if it will have to streamline the offering. Sometimes doing less is more for your customers, but you cannot fault NGA for trying.

In the meantime there is only very few to no alternative to NGA ,when a multinational company is looking at outsourcing its global payroll work to someone, a position the company should capitalize on in the near future.

My takeaways from the analyst briefing from a year ago can be found here.

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Resources

Latest reports by Holger Mueller

How ARCA Re-Organized Sales and Put Revenue Growth into High Gear

Globalization, HR, and Business Model Success

Future of Work Tech Optimization Next-Generation Customer Experience Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Data to Decisions ADP SuccessFactors workday Oracle AI Analytics Automation CX EX Employee Experience HCM Machine Learning ML SaaS PaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Enterprise Software Enterprise IT Leadership HR Chief Customer Officer Chief People Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Human Resources Officer Chief Technology Officer

Call for Applications: SuperNova Awards for leaders in disruptive technology

Deadline for applications August 1, 2014
 

The first awards to recognize pioneers, leaders, innovators who use technology to transform business

In its fourth year, the Constellation SuperNova Awards will recognize seven individuals who demonstrate true innovation through their application and adoption of new and emerging technologies. As always, we’re searching for leaders and teams who have overcome the odds to successfully apply emerging and disruptive technologies for their organizations. Special emphasis will be given to projects that seek to redefine how the enterprise uses technology on a large scale.

We’re searching for the boldest, most transformative technology projects out there. If you or someone you know has what it takes to compete in the SuperNova Awards, fill out the application here: 

 

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How Delta Uses Microsoft Dynamics and Avanade to Create Next-Generation Customer Experiences

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Role: Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on the IOT of Customer Experience and how the cloud is driving more flexible, agile, and robust customer service and customer experiences. In-app or in device customer service is the future. Coverage Areas: Next Generation Customer, Digital Marketing Transformation Bio: As a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc, Petouhoff works with Fortune 100 and 500’s Senior Leadership teams to create strategic customer experience (marketing, sales and service) solutions which engage customers, build brands and grow businesses. Combining her experience as a former Forrester software analyst, PWC systems integrator and change management consultant, Petouhoff leads executive workshops to discuss to not only…...

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Delta Air Lines’ legacy in-flight point-of-sale system (POS) system could only provide very basic transaction data for items like meals, headphones and duty-free items. Declines in credit card purchases remained undetectable until the flight landed, leading to lost revenue. In addition, the in-flight POS system lacked the ability to communicate in real time with Delta’s CRM system, resulting in a disjointed customer experience.

Learn how Delta Air Lines enhanced customer experience and reduced lost revenue by implementing a mobile, in-flight POS system powered by Microsoft Dynamics and Avanade.

Table of Contents:

• The Company
• The Challenges
• Improving Efficiency and Effectiveness In-Flight for Beverage, Food and Duty-Free Purchase System 
• Time Data to Improve Customer Experience and Revenue
• The Solution
• The Technologies
• The Impact
• Enhanced, Real-Time Customer and Employee Interaction Data  
• Increased Enterprise Manageability
• Future Improvements
• The Takeaways
• The Recommendations

Download the report snapshot:

Have a disruptive technology implementation story? Get recognized for your leadership. Apply for the 2014 SuperNova Awards for leaders in disruptive technology.

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Hotel database security

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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International hotels are a fantastic target for identity thieves. Hotel databases don't just hold credit card numbers and billing addresses (which are held for weeks in advance of a stay and for weeks afterwards to cover incidentals), but for many customers the hotel also has their home address, mobile phone number, driver licence number, airline memberships and arrival flight details. And even passport number is routinely collected by hotels in Asia. It's a complete cornucopia for criminals.

And the most dangerous, most difficult to control threat vector in the hotel industry won't be war-driving or SQL injection attacks or any of the other high tech hacking tools used by organised crime. It will be the inside job. Thousands of itinerant hotel workers in every corner of the world have the opportunity to access office systems after hours, and simply download the contents of central databases to a thumb drive.

The vulnerability of hotel databases to identity thieves has clear implications for national security. I trust that counter terrorism agencies are working on this problem? These databases reveal the forward travel plans for thousands of VIPs worldwide.

We should expect that organised criminals and terrorist organisations are tapped into hotel databases as we speak, and are mining them systematically.

Have a disruptive technology implementation story? Get recognized for your leadership. Apply for the 2014 SuperNova Awards for leaders in disruptive technology.

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Latest Research by Steve Wilson

"Big Privacy Rises to the Challenges of Big Data"

Update on the FIDO Alliance

 

New C-Suite Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Security Zero Trust Chief Customer Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Privacy Officer

For SAP Customers The Future of Work Is Collaborative

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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At SAP, collaboration is more than a 3 letter word. (Jam)

In late May, SAP released the latest version of their collaboration platform, Jam. A week later at their annual SAP Sapphire event I had the opportunity to speak to several members of the Jam team. The three key themes I took away from those conversations are:

- Integration Is Essential
- SAP Understands How People Work
- It’s Time To Build An Ecosystem

MyPOV: These are excellent business focused areas that provide more substance than the highly overused "cloud, social, mobile and analytics" rhetoric I hear from so many companies.


Collaborate Where You Work

As “sharing” becomes an accepted, and even expected part of way people work, it’s important that software supports, not hinders collaboration. One of the ways to accomplish this it to integrate social/sharing features with the tools and processes that people already use to get their jobs done. SAP clearly understands this, and since the introduction of SAP Jam in 2012, the software giant has focused both product development and marketing on making sure SAP Jam is not just a stand-alone enterprise social network, but rather an integrated part of their vast software portfolio. (CRM, ERP, finance, HR, BI, learning)

One manifestation of this integration comes in the form of widgets which can now be added to a group’s home page to display content from other platforms. 

A second example of integration is the new add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook, which enables people to create status updates or blog/wiki/forum posts in Jam, right from their inbox. It’s wise of SAP to provide this integration, as email is still one of the primary tools of the business world.

MyPOV: I’ve written extensively about #PurposefulCollaboration, where social features are no longer something people need to think about, as they seamlessly become part of the standard way of working. SAP is a leader in this area, enabling SAP Jam conversations to be embedded inside other SAP applications as well as letting SAP applications be embedded inside Jam. As you’ll read below, they are also now extending this to 3rd party applications. 


SAP Understands Business Workflows

Very few people have “being social” in their business titles. Most people work in Sales, Marketing, Engineering, HR, etc. Knowing this, SAP has studied several of the most common business areas and created templates for SAP Jam to match the workflow of each. They call these SAP Jam Patterns, and first introduced them in Nov of 2013. With the May 2014 release they have added a few new work patterns (Service Requests and Event Planning) which also included the introduction of new features such as integrated calendars and subgroups.

MyPOV: In order to get people to change the way they work, it’s essential that the new tool/process provide value above and beyond what’s already in place. As customers start to use SAP Jam, it’s critical that the barrier to entry be low. Having templates that pre-populate with workflow specific content and connections to other systems makes it much easier for people to get started and find value in their new SAP Jam groups. SAP is not unique in this area, nor are templates a new concept. Lotus Notes had these in the 90s, Microsoft SharePoint followed with them in the 2000s, and Jive Software delivers them today with what they call Purposeful Places. Still, it’s good to see SAP providing them for their platform. 


A Platform Not A Product

Perhaps the most important announcement at SAP Sapphire (wrt to Jam) was that 3rd party developers will now be able to build their own add-ons and customizations to Jam.  That means business partners with specific domain expertise will be able to build their own Work Patterns, or add features to Jam that SAP is not delivering themselves. Similarly, customers with their own in-house developers will be able to extend Jam to meet their specific needs. Documentation, code samples and other information about the SAP Jam Developer Community can be found here.

MyPOV: A vibrant ecosystem is critical for long term success. The new OData and REST APIs could help SAP compete with the collaboration platforms from vendors such as IBM, Microsoft and Salesforce, each of whom already have robust partner communities developing on their platforms. SAP will need to educate and financially motivate their existing partners on the value of adding collaborative features to their applications.
 

Top Down Messaging

Even though the key theme of SAPphire was "Simplify", the importance of collaboration was still weaved throughout the show. While SAP Hana Cloud Platform may have gotten the most attention, SAP Jam was mentioned in the keynote and was prominant in both the sessions and showcase floor. SAP Jam has a complex history, evolvling from products like Cubetree and StreamWork. The SAP Jam team should leverage the new Simplify theme to help customers understand that the Future of Work is collaborative, and SAP Jam provides simple deployment and simple user expereince, but at the same time has a deep intergation with the business patterns people use to get work done.

Have a disruptive technology implementation story? Get recognized for your leadership. Apply for the 2014 SuperNova Awards for leaders in disruptive technology.

 

Resources

Latest research by Alan Lepofsky

•  Segmenting Audiences by Digital Proficiency 

• A Guide to the New Objects and Actions of the Digital Workplace

 

Future of Work