Musings - How Technology Innovation fuels Recruiting and disrupts the Laggards

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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Innovation has been fueling the recruiting industry for quite some time. And given the competitive nature of recruiting – one of the few areas in the HR practice where a professional can be fired pretty quickly for non-performance – it’s not a surprise.

To visit the areas where technology innovation can help in the recruiting process – let’s break the recruiting process down to its most fundamental pieces, the FQSO process:

• Find
  Find the candidates, and get them to interact, then to apply. 

• Qualifiy
  Qualify the candidates that have (or have not) applied. 

• Select
  Select the best candidate from interviews (and other means). 
• Onboard
  Onboard the candidate, make the offer, get them signed up with benefits etc. etc.

Have a case study? Get recognized for your innovation. Apply for the 2014 SuperNova Awards for leaders in disruptive technology. 

 

Find – Social reverses the process with micro headhunting

The largest innovation we see is the reversal of the Find process from the honey-pot model to micro headhunting. Instead of waiting (and hoping) for candidates to be found on job boards, candidates will be actively recruited through social networks. We know this works both from the employee referral success – where basically the employee has done a real world social network analysis on the candidate and the executive headhunting model, where successful headhunter place their Rolodex members multiple time over their careers. The micro headhunting trend can be best seen with the success that LinkedIn has with its recruiting offerings.
 

Qualify – Analytics and BigData drive change

Candidate qualification has been left for the longest to personal judgment of the recruiter and hiring managers. Not that they won’t matter in the future – but most humans cannot select by more than 5-7 criteria from a number of decision options. Will that decision get better when you go to 20, 50 or 100 criteria? It certainly will. The good news is, that with the rise of BigData we can for the first time store the wealth of information and consider it all. Couple the data storage with next generation analytics – that are model agnostic and simply bootstrap analytical models over the data – and we will see some never before seen candidates at the front of the qualification queue.

Assuming an enterprise has added the micro headhunting capability it also enables that enterprise to go back to actively Find the candidates of the right caliber – should the first wave of candidates not been qualified enough.
 

Select – Scheduling and Video increase quality, mobile drives efficiency

In the traditional recruiting modus operandi we would now see candidates being invited for phone and onsite interviews. Scheduling these is a logistical nightmare – so scheduling software that is tuned to the needs of the recruiting process (aware e.g. the hiring funnel, candidate attractiveness etc.) makes a huge difference. And video allows to replace the single sensory phone interview into a multi-sensory experience that unquestionably leads to better selection results in the Select phase. With the support of tablets and smartphones during the interview process, vendors are already making the interview process itself more efficient.

Assuming an enterprise has added the Analytics and BigData capabilities in the Qualify phase – then it can treat the video data as qualification data, too. All of the sudden information on facial expression, body language, voice modulation etc. becomes part of the qualification data pool. And with that analytical models can factor all of those into the candidate selection process. While legal concerns may loom, anybody who has hired someone knows that all these factors play an explicit to implicit role in the decision process.
 

Onboard – Time to get it right

The irony is that the Onboard function is probably the least innovative one of the four, and therefore less subject to potential technology disruption. But the challenge is that Onboarding in most enterprises is fundamentally broken and practically an incarnation of the system integration mess many enterprises have created. But it’s time to get onboarding right, as the sooner the new hire is productive on the job, the better ROI of the hiring process – and with that it’s an area both the Chief People Officer and the Chief Executive Officer should ignore.
 

FQSO does not operate by itself

Let’s not forget that the whole recruiting process of the future will not run by itself – the role of the recruiter will fundamentally change, the hiring manager will take over the process and maintain a continuous talent depth chart for every existing and potential future position – as I have laid out here in more detail.
 

MyPOV

Innovation with technology has been mankind’s secret of success. Whoever mastered the technology earlier had a considerable advantage over the other players. Given the war for talent, the increased cost for personnel that are all trends enterprises are facing – the right usage and dosage of technology to innovate in recruiting while be a key success factor for enterprises in the remaining teenage years of the 21st century. Better to get started earlier than later.

Have a case study? Get recognized for your innovation. Apply for the 2014 SuperNova Awards for leaders in disruptive technology. 

News Analysis: Understanding The Microsoft and Salesforce Partnership From The Customers POV

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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Microsoft’s Platform DNA and Salesforce.com Quest For User Productivity Drive The Strategic Partnership

On May 29th, 2014, the Redmond based mega vendor Microsoft and the San Francisco based Cloud pioneer salesforce announced a partnership.  From the teleconference call with CEOs Satya Nadella and Marc Benioff; and in conversations with over 50 key executives, partners, and customers, Constellation sees the following impact for customers and competitors:

• Salesforce for Office 365 fills in a key functionality gap. A flagship feature of the deal is the planned interoperability between salesforce and Microsoft Office 365.  salesforce users gain access to business class email and calendaring services, online conferencing, and secure file sharing.  The first release should address basic integration.
  
  Point of View (POV): A big criticism of salesforce in the past was the poor integration options to Microsoft Office.  With Salesforce for Office 365, salesforce addresses a big gap in customer requirements while Microsoft gains a new market for its cloud based offering and some competition to Google Enterprise.  The ability to use OneDrive as a storage option will help with organizations using SharePoint looking for a migration path.  Microsoft Dynamics Partners should not lose competitive advantage in deal flow because the Microsoft Dynamics integration to Office 365 is much deeper and richer than the planned integration with salesforce and ties back closely with existing business processes.  However, salesforce gains the right to declare an integration to Office 365.

• Salesforce 1 for Windows and Windows Phone 8.1 opens up emerging markets. The agreement intends to provide customers with the ability to run and access salesforce from Windows devices.  General availability is slated for 2015.
  
  (POV): While few existing salesforce customers would move to Windows Mobile, the offering provides customers with long term choice on mobile platforms.  Today, most customers use iOS and Android.  In the future, Salesforce customers in emerging markets may seek Windows at a better value point to manage device platform versus Android and iOS.   In addition, Microsoft, Windows 8 devleopers, and partners gains access to a lucrative market of salesforce customers who tend to be more innovative than laggardish.

• Connection of Salesforce data to Excel and Power BI for Office 365 temporarily solves the lack of analytics. Salesforce users gain the ability to access Power BI.  Power BI is a self service analytics tool in Office 365.  Power BI proivdes the ability to bring in data from multiple sources.  Users will take advantage of the in-memory analytics to model with Power Pivot inside Excel.  Included are powerful data visualization tools such as Power View and Power Map.  Power BI provides sharing, collaboration, and subscription of live reports in a report gallery.  The natural language processing capabitilies enable users to ask questions on the fly and provide Q&A type functionality.
  
  (POV): While reporting has been a hallmark feature for salesforce, most cloud based systems of transaction (record) including salesforce lack the ability to deliver on analytics.  Microsoft will most likely see PowerBI as the greatest adoption by salesforce users seeking to free themselves from the shackles of expensive legacy on-premises BI tools.  Over time, users will want advanced capabilities than PowerBI for predictive modeling such as Birst or Good Data, however, the offer of PowerBI fills a much needed gap in the salesforce product offering.

2014 SuperNova Awards

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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Constellation SuperNova Award Applications Are Open!

Applications are taken here and I can guarantee great feedback and an excellent network.

The winners will be celebrated at the 2014 Connected Enterprise Gala in Half Moon Bay. I’m honored to be a judge for the Future of Work category.

We’ll look at the “confluence of technological, demographical and cultural trends challenging the traditional paradigm of work,” and I expect much more as the SuperNova awards are about disruption, not incremental change.

Alan Lepofsky is one of the Constellation guru’s covering the future of work. Here is a link to his work if you’d like to get the flavor of the topic: largely the where, when, why, and how we do our work.

Snippet from the SuperNova press release

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, May 27, 2014—Constellation Research, Inc. (@ConstellationRG), the research and advisory firm helping clients dominate digital disruption through business models and disruptive technologies announced today the call for applications for the 2014 SuperNova Awards, the first awards recognizing early adopters of technology that have overcome adversity to successfully implement disruptive technologies in their organizations. The 2014 SuperNova Awards will recognize seven technology leaders in the following categories:

• Consumerization of IT & The New C-Suite
• Data to Decisions
• Digital Marketing Transformation
• Future of Work
• Matrix Commerce
• Next Generation Customer Experience
• Technology Optimization & Innovation

Event Report: Answers To The Top 12 Questions About SAP Ahead of #SapphireNow #ASUG2014

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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In The Era Of Simplification, The Complex Still Remains Complex

More than 20,000 customers, partners, and prospects are expected to convene in Orlando, Florida for America’s SAP User Group (ASUG) and SAP’s annual conference known as Sapphire. Co-CEO Bill McDermott hopes to close a chapter in SAP’s history and open a new chapter as the sole CEO.   As the market shifts to a world of digital business and digital transformation, Constellation expects many changes to be announced, some more cosmetic than others.

The theme for this year’s Sapphire begins with Simplification.  Despite this push for Simplification, conversations with over 100 SAP customers, partners, and employees indicate a need for clarity in direction, not just simplification.  Constellation attempts to answer the top 12 questions in four key areas the SAP diaspora wants answer for:

OVERALL CORPORATE  STRATEGY

1. Given very few applications and offerings for SAP to sell and that we want to buy, will SAP build new apps or make acquisitions?

POV: In order to meet its financial targets and avoid attrition of the customer base, SAP would have to roll out new applications at a faster pace or acquire at a faster rate to achieve their targets.  Many believe that SAP has not successfully rolled out enough applications or platforms that customers want to purchase.  Constellation believes SAP will have no choice but to make more acquisitions in areas where customers have been pursuing a surround SAP strategy.  Some areas include customer engagement, big data, integration, internet of things, and mobile.

Customers will watch carefully where their maintenance dollars are used to make purchases.

2. What will change other than simplification at SAP in its marketing mesage?

POV: As we enter an era of digital business, SAP is shedding the IT centric, tech marketing terms such as social, mobile, cloud, and HANA.  A concerted effort is underway to move to business oriented marketing and attract line of business leaders.  New terminology can be translated in the following manner: HR or HCM becomes Future of Work.  CRM is now engaged customer.  Ariba, commerce and procurement evolves into the networked economy.  SMB turns into Think Like a Startup. Classic LOB turns into growing your next generation business.

Customers will be introduced to the new translation at SapphireNow.

3. Does SAP still care about innovation?

POV: No company will state they do not care about innovation.  However, Constellation believes that SAP will have to acquire innovation in products and talent via an M&A strategy.  The move back to ABAP is a bad signal to most customers.  Many of the gains made in opening up SAP to the broader tech world and start up community may be at risk.

Time will tell but customers expect innovation and a trusted face or many trusted faces to represent SAP.

 

FUTURE LEADERSHIP

4. What does it mean for Bernd Leukert to be in charge of global development now that Vishal Sikka has departed?

Point of View (POV): Bernd will focus in on the global development organization.  Germany is now in charge again of core development.  Constellation believes that organic innovation will be curtailed while the focus will remain on keeping the maintenance cash cow alive.  Many partners have signaled that Waldorf is undoing the work of Vishal Sikka starting with a reemergence of ABAP.  Constellation believes that Leukert will focus much of his time on post merger integration with acquired platforms.

Customers expect to see stronger and clearer leadership

5. Why was Rob Enslin, Head of Global customer Operations, appointed to the Executive Board?

POV: Many insiders have indicated that Enslin is Bill’s right hand man and a potential successor should McDermott depart.  Constellation expects McDermott to clear the deck where possible and add his chosen team to the board and management team.

Customers will want to know which cloud heads report to Rob and expect transparency on the org chart from an accountability point of view.

6. Who’s leading cloud leadership with Shawn Price’s departure?

POV: Currently Rob Enslin’s team owns the cloud sales and marketing efforts.  Constellation expects SAP to ramp up mergers and acquisitions.  In that process, SAP plans to acquire new talent to take these teams to the next level.

Customers expect to see clear lines of accountability.

PRODUCT AND TECHNOLOGY DIRECTION

7. How do the recent layoffs impact SAP’s ability to innovate and impact our ability to receive new innovation?

POV: Constellation understands that 2.5% to 3.0% of the workforce was targeted for rebalancing.  The rebalancing is in advance of skill and staffing changes.  Moreover, SAP expects future mergers and acquisitions to also add to the employee rolls.   Constellation believes SAP will gain acqui-hires (i.e. talent gained from mergers and acquisitions) who would continue to drive innovation.  Overall head count will most likely grow while SAP reallocates talent.

Clients need to know who the replacements are and that key services will not be cut.

8. What happens to the future of ECC 6.0 and the originally promised road map they made to us?

POV: Customers realize that the suite will move on to HANA.  What has not been clear is what they will pay for in that upgrade process and when there will be functional parity.  Customers want SAP to be clear on these details.  Further, customers want the industry vertical and micro-vertical functionality they thought their maintenance dollars should have paid for.  The inability to deliver critical functional requests from as far back as 10 years has been a sticking point for users.

Clients want a commitment on road map not a set of empty promises.

9. Has SAP management heard the fury over SAP Fiori?

POV: While the new products build on the user experience are quite fabulous, Constellation believes that SAP has been tone deaf on Fiori.  Many customers who have paid millions in maintenance over the past 15 to 20 years expect new user experience to be included in upgrades.  Instead, their maintenance and upgrade dollars were funneled into acquisitions that customers have to pay extra to purchase.   With few products in pipe to sell, SAP sales reps are trying to capture revenue where the vendor can and customers are not happy.

Customers are furious about the Fiori pricing and will remain so until this issue is addressed.

10. What platforms and skill sets should I focus on for SAP?

POV: SAP has done a poor job cleaning up and integrating its platforms on-premises and in the cloud. As with the multiple code bases and data models in on-premises, much confusion exists as SAP has multiple stacks of cloud from areas such as Ariba, ByDesign, HCP, HEC, and SuccessFactors.   In addition, the Sybase acquisition created a mess of mobile platforms.   Integration tools for a connected world are desired.  A common master data model is needed. A common set of APIs and composable processes are required.  A common set of user experiences is expected.

Constellation and clients hope Leukert addresses this issue of platform cleanup, despite the focus on applications.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH CUSTOMERS

11. Will SAP provide clearer direction on shelf ware and license credits?

POV: Many established and mature installs of SAP continue to face shelf ware issues.  Sitting on software purchased, not used, and paying for maintenance is a sticky and sore point for customers.  At this moment, SAP does not officially have a position other than they do not park licenses.  However, Constellation recommends an apps strategy review and contract negotiations to address these issues.  Success in reaching a win-win has been achieved by many clients.

Clients are tired of paying for shelfware and considering third party maintenance given the inability to extract concessions and access innovation.

12. Will my SAP sales reps stop their poor treatment of me?

POV: Constellation has had hundreds of interactions with customers who have dealt with sales bullying, contract bundling clauses, and indirect access audits.  Despite a pledge by Bill McDermott when he took the reins as Co-CEO to address this customer centricity issue, the memo must have been lost by many sales reps and sales management.  A common tactic by the sales team is to talk about the need for a good relationship and then bully the customer into accepting poor payment and contract terms in the contract in return for empty promises of guaranteed service levels or functionality commitments.   Customers who buy new products should read their contract terms carefully as SAP has new unbundling clauses which will make it impossible to remove products without triggering price increases or contract changes.  Constellation’s advice is “Never Ever Bundle”.  Finally, SAP and other vendors have stepped up indirect access audits.  This threat starts with since your system is connected and being accessed by another system we need to charge you more.  Short answer, fight back because this is not in the original terms of the license an it’s just another way for SAP to extract more value on licenses without delivering value.

Clients want to be treated with respect and to have a real partnership

Click here for a good resource guide on software contract negotiations

 

The Bottom Line: The Burning Platform is More Real For SAP Than For Its Customers

Bill McDermott has a unique opportunity to reinvent SAP.  The road will not be easy.  The technical debt incurred over 15 years of engineering mismanagement and the need to accelerate mergers and acquisition activity must be balanced by simplification.  The work required for simplification is complex and requires a lot of rolling up the sleeves.  As with many mature software vendors, SAP will need to show how it will

• Bring customers into the digital era
• Deliver products and services that customers seek to buy
• Improve how it treats its customers
• Identify a platform that will support an accelerated mergers and acquisitions strategy and the need for future integration paths
• Show partners that SAP can co-innovate and co-create
• Improve total addressable market size

None of the above are easy tasks on their own and the combination is quite a challenge.  Customers will want proof as they have many more alternatives today than in the past.  Customers expect show not tell on the simplification messsage.  But with the huge presence and install base at risk, there is a burning platform for change.

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

Your POV:

Are you investing more or less with SAP?  Do you feel SAP can innovate or will it buy it’s way to growth? Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.

Please let us know if you need help with vendor selection or contract negotiation efforts.  Here’s how we can assist:

• Vendor selection
• Implementation partner selection
• Connecting with other pioneers
• Sharing best practices
• Designing a next gen apps strategy
• Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
• Demystifying software licensing

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What I would like SAP to address this Sapphire

Holger Mueller

Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

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

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The Future

Line of Business – what is the vision?

Pricing and maintenance

A key Sapphire for SAP is coming up. While the executive changes are in the books and it will be interesting to see how McDermott and Leukert will perform – the key is going to be if and how SAP will address its vision for next generation applications. It is getting time for SAP to find its business automation DNA again. The technical innovation work with HANA has been done, SAP is now at a cross roads on how much the technology message vs the application message will be first of all in its overall messaging and then in its product roadmap and lastly product delivery mix. We will be there to observe.

Take Visa Without Paying For It – eCommerce Comes to Offline Businesses

Sholto Macpherson

SME Tech Commentator
Digital First

Sholto Macpherson is a business technology journalist and expert on cloud software and services for SMEs. Since June 2011 he has published http://DigitalFirst.com, which explores how SMEs can use the latest cloud technologies and the impact of digital disruption on the accounting industry.Sholto has 14 years’ experience contributing to magazines and websites, radio and TV segments, webinars and conferences on enterprise and SMB technology and the cloud-led productivity revolution. His stories have appeared in national and regional Australian newspapers and industry websites such as CRN.com.au and iTnews.com.au.Sholto won a national IT Journalism award for Best Columnist in 2012 for his Cloud Channel column in CRN Australia magazine on the transition from server software to cloud software…...

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Last year cloud accounting program Xero added the ability to take payments the moment a business issued its invoice through online invoicing with Xero Pay Now. Now payment providers are building on the service with advanced features that give offline businesses the advantages of e-commerce but without the cost. 

eWay is the first provider to release a surcharge option called PayThis that lets businesses add custom surcharges for MasterCard, Visa, Diners Club and American Express cards. The Xero user sets the amount for each type of card and the surcharge is applied when a customer pays an invoice through Xero’s online invoice portal.

Xero confirmed that eWay is the first provider globally to add this service and added that other providers would soon roll out their own versions.

“If you take PayPal and credit card on an e-commerce site you’re more likely to process a payment because the customer has more options. We’ve just brought that mentality to the Xero system,” says Trent McLaren, eWay’s “Xero ambassador”.

Surcharges present a neat solution to a growing problem. Businesses complain about high fees on card payments but customers often prefer using plastic.

Despite a proliferation of alternative payments systems, credit and debit cards remain the preferred method for making payments and are expected to make up three quarters of all point-of-sale payments by 2017, market research firm Javelin Strategy & Research has reported.

Businesses that help customers to pay invoices online are likely to decrease the amount of time it takes to get paid. “Instead of that eight-week cycle you’re (getting paid) in days, not weeks,” McLaren says. Even if a customer baulks at the surcharge for a credit card and opts to pay by direct deposit, “we’ve still done our job in terms of helping that customer improve their cashflow”, McLaren adds.

Xero claimed it had statistical evidence that online invoicing and payments reduce the time to collect on invoicing by nearly three weeks, based on analysis of four million invoices lodged through Xero.

Surcharges give businesses the flexibility that customers demand without paying the credit card suppliers’ costs, and they have received a lot of support in Xero’s feature requests forum.

“Partners and users want to pass that credit card fee onto the customer paying the invoice,” McLaren says. “It allows you to recover the cost of having an online payment system.”

The surcharge process is fairly simple. Payment providers can tell the type of card from the first six digits of the card’s number. Xero displays the surcharge on the online invoice’s payment screen in red and the customer is prompted a second time to acknowledge the surcharge before paying it.

eWay charges a range of rates that drop with volume and start at 2.9 percent of the purchase price plus 13 cents. The percentage can drop to 1.9 percent or lower by paying a monthly subscription of $49 a month and up.

This compares somewhat to PayPal’s 2.4 percent plus 30 cents standard merchant rate, which reduces as monthly revenue rises.

Online invoicing, online payment and credit card surcharges fall under Xero’s Banking 2.0 concept. It builds on the work done by MYOB with its M-Powered Services which pioneered the ability to add a tearaway chit on the bottom of paper invoices to receive credit card payments. (The M-Powered Invoices service hasn’t yet yet made it across to MYOB Essentials or AccountRight Live yet.)

eWay, led by technologist Matt Bullock, is pushing ahead with the Banking 2.0 concept. It has consolidated the admin and paperwork for businesses wanting to set up a merchant account for Xero Pay Now by handling the approvals process on behalf of the Xero user’s bank.

Innovation in this space should continue as payment providers jostle for market share through unique features. eWay’s next project is to add automatic late fees to invoices paid through Xero’s online invoicing portal.

Businesses taking advantage of this burst of innovation should see their payment timeframes drop as a result.

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

Big Privacy Webinar

Learn how to get fair value for your data. 

"Big Privacy: The New Big Data Privacy Pact" 

Calling for fair, restrained, transparent use of data

June 18, 2014 1:00p.m. PT / 4:00p.m. ET

While tremendous benefits of Big Data remain unrealized, the use of big data tools for the collection, extraction, and analysis of personal information challenges the contemporary concept of privacy. It's time for businesses and users to agree on a new standard of privacy. Constellation calls for "Big Privacy" a pact between digital businesses and users in which Big Data businesses exercise restraint in their use of powerful analytic tools, practice transparency regarding their business models, and offer consumers fair value for their data.

Join this webinar to learn:

• How digital businesses benefit from your data
• Why current laws may not protect your privacy
• Big Privacy - a new pact calling on businesses to grant you fair value for your data

Webinar details:

• June 18, 2014 1:00pm PT/ 4:00pm ET
• Speaker:       Steve Wilson

Constellation’s SuperNova Awards – Got a Great Case Study? Get Recognized for Your Innovation!

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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If you have implemented disruptive technology in your organization there is no time like the present to submit an application for the Constellation SuperNova Awards.  In our 4th annual The SuperNova Awards we seek to honor leaders who have overcome adversity to successfully implement disruptive technologies in their organizations. We’re looking for applications that demonstrate overcoming adversity, replicability (project’s ability to be replicated in organizations), and applications of disruptive technology that resulted in business model transformation.

The 2014 SuperNova Awards will recognize seven technology leaders in the following categories:

• Consumerization of IT & The New C-Suite
• Data to Decisions
• Digital Marketing Transformation
• Future of Work
• Matrix Commerce
• Next Generation Customer Experience
• Technology Optimization & Innovation

Rewards Include Research and Invitation to Connected Enterprise

Finalists in each category will be awarded one complimentary ticket to Constellation’s Connected Enterprise.  Finalists will receive VIP admission to the event and may be selected to share their implementation story on a panel at Connected Enterprise.

Winners in each category will win a one-year “Research Unlimited” subscription, which includes access to all Constellation research and premium content. Constellation’s “Research Unlimited” subscription is valued at $120,000.

Awards Ceremony

The SuperNova Award Winners will be announced live, on stage, at the SuperNova Awards Gala Dinner on October 29, 2014 on the first night of Constellation’s Connected Enterprise.

Timeline

• May 27, 2014 application process begins. Submit applications here: http://constellationr.com/events/supernova/2014
• August 1, 2014 last day for submissions. Judges select finalists.
• August 22, 2014 finalists announced and invited to Connected Enterprise.
• September 8, 2014 voting opens to the public
• October 1, 2014 polls close
• October 29, 2014 SuperNova Award winners announced at the SuperNova Awards Gala Dinner, held the first night of Constellation’s Connected Enterprise innovation summit.

“The SuperNova Awards honor the true industry heroes and innovators that are solving business problems by putting technology to work in new ways that are changing the outcomes of business,” said R “Ray” Wang, Founder, Constellation Research, Inc.  “The SuperNova  Awards program is fueled with the momentum of hundreds entries, and we’ll be honoring the most impressive this October at our Innovation Summit.”

If you want to spread the word – here’s a tweet all ready for you:

#DisruptiveTech early adopters apply for @ConstellationRG SuperNova Award   http://constellationr.com/events/supernova/2014 #SNA2014 #ensw

Why is Hybrid Cloud Important?

Why is hybrid cloud important and what are some use cases for it? How does hybrid cloud help companies expand globally? What's the deal with PureApplications, SoftLayer, and BlueMix? Get the answers to these questions and more in this series of videos discussing trends in hybrid cloud. 

Don't forget to check the Constellation Media Library for more great video content. 

Constellation analyst: Holger Mueller

Playlist: 

• Trends in hybrid cloud
• Why is hybrid cloud important? What are some use cases for it?
• How does hybrid cloud help organizations expand globally?
• How does PureApplication System extend to an off-premise environment?
• Why are clients making the move to cloud?
• What is the relationship between PureApplication Systems, Softlayer, and BlueMix?
• How are clients using cloud to innovate?