Event Report - Microsoft Build Day 1 Keynote - Top Enterprise Takeaways

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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Microsoft’s build developer conference kicked off today in San Francisco – it’s well attended with over 5000 guests - and sold out since months. Day 1 was all about Windows Phone 8.1, the launch of Cortana, support for developers, a little Internet of Things and Nokia Lumia phones

 

Nonetheless there are some takeaways for the enterprise – here are my Top3:

• Universal Windows App – The dividend of running an OS from the same software vendor are synergies. So Microsoft creation of the universal Windows app is not of a surprise (more – why only now?). So one application can re-use most of its code artefacts (Microsoft says up to 90%) and be shared across smartphones, tablets and PCs running Windows 8.1. With the addition of xBox and Kinect there are new applications in store - as well as opportunity for enterprise applications to get on the first screen.
  For enterprises this means that achieving a consistent and familiar user experience is now in reach – even for in house custom apps. For purchased apps the informed enterprise buyer will ask their ISV in regards of ETA of bringing their applications to the universal Windows App platform.

• Nokia Lumia 63x – Stephen Elop presented a number of new phones and while the high end ones are surely interesting in richer markets around the world, the Lumia 6.3x will make an impact around the world (interesting it is not launching in the US early). It matters for enterprises as the price point of under $200 makes this an affordable, but powerful device to be deployed across the world.
  
  A common, worldwide user experience with all its benefits is now in reach for enterprise deployments. And the dual SIM card will make telecom procurement managers in enterprises really happy – as an elegant way to easily control and reduce roaming costs. 

• Free Windows for smartphones and small tablets – Microsoft also announced that it will make Windows available for no license cost – as long as it is supposed to run on phones or tablets with less than 9 inches screen diagonal. It matters for enterprises as now you not only have the software tools to build universal Windows apps, a price effective hardware device, you will also see even lower device prices going forward across the board due to no operation royalty costs.
  
  In one of the more ironic twists of the smartphone wars, Microsoft makes more in royalty from the sales of some Android phones from IP loyalties - than from selling Windows Phone. 

 

MyPOV

A more consumer and developer focused start of Build – but with plenty of repercussions and implications for the enterprise. More consistent user experience across more powerful and cost effective devices is a good news for enterprises.

2012, 2013 & 2014 (C) Holger Mueller - All Rights Reserved

 

New C-Suite Tech Optimization Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Chief Information Officer

Spredfast and Mass Relevance merger: What it means for marketing clouds

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On April 2, 2014, social relationship platform Spredfast announced that it had merged with content curation platform Mass Relevance. I spoke with CEO Rod Favaron about the deal and what it means for the rapidly changing marketing technology space.

The facts

• The new company will be called Spredfast
• Mass Relevance stock will be converted into Spredfast stock
• Spredfast has 200 employees and Mass Relevance has 150 employees; both companies are headquartered in Austin, Texas
• Spredfast has raised over $60 million in venture capital funding and Mass Relevance has raised just under $6 million; both companies have Austin Ventures in common as an investor

The companies have at least a half dozen common clients and they had already been working on integration pathways between the two solutions. So this deal is good news for 1% of the new firm’s client base and great news for the Spredfast sales team that now has over 600 new cross-sell opportunities.

But what exactly is this thing?

My take is that it’s a bit different than what I’ve been hearing from the massive marketing cloud vendors (Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce), that are focused primarily on integrating owned content across digital marketing channels.

In contrast, Spredfast is focused primarily on earned content, allowing “marketers to display [social media] content on every screen that matters, whether scheduled or unscheduled.” Mass Relevance helps brands curate the social web outside-in; Spredfast enables brands to publish owned content inside-out. The combined company enables content discovery, optimization, and distribution.

A content marketing platform powerhouse

My take: Spredfast has just created a formidable solution in the white-hot content marketing space. There are players here including Percolate and RebelMouse, potentially Sprinklr (+Dachis Group), and segments of the big three Marketing Clouds. One big advantage Spredfast may have over other firms is Mass Relevance’s native access to the full Twitter firehose, which has allowed it to make huge inroads with major media companies.

Favaron tells me that Spredfast intends to become a consolidator in the marketing technology space — which means the company needs to raise capital via a new funding round or IPO. In the case of the latter, given the amount of funding taken so far, the company’s valuation would need to be close to unicorn club territory to make sense. (Which, by the way, is not too far off from where Sprinklr stands financially as well.)

A native advertising play

Even if Spredfast gains access to a huge amount of capital, competing head on with the likes of Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce, and SAP may not make much sense given the headstart the others have on integrating broad marketing cloud solutions. Instead, the firm might decide to double down on its strong installed base of media clients and own the market for a new breed of native advertising solutions, combining large broadcast networks with major brand advertisers and user-generated content. 

This way to the egress

I’ll be keeping an eye on how competitors respond, especially Hootsuite which raised $165 million last year and acquired analytics firm uberVU last quarter. All firms remaining in the SMMS space need to map out a path to the exit because it’s clear that standalones won’t survive much longer.

Marketing Transformation Tech Optimization Data to Decisions Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Innovation & Product-led Growth Future of Work Marketing B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience AI ML Generative AI Analytics Automation Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Growth eCommerce Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Marketing Officer

Bridgette Chambers Joins Constellation's Advisory Board

Constellation Research, Inc. announced today that Constellation Chief Executive Officer, Bridgette Chambers will transition from the CEO role to a position on the firm's board of advisors. Chambers will launch and operate EmpoweredW, a community dedicated to advancing women into leadership and influencer roles. Constellation Research founder, R “Ray” Wang reassumes the CEO role and will continue to drive the company’s research and advisory strategy.

“Chambers spearheaded a strategic endeavor to build and launch a community of entrepreneurs and innovators during her tenure as CEO. As the community started taking shape, it became clear that a Constellation-independent structure with dedicated leadership would best serve the community’s broader set of interests that includes the need to transform their business models through the innovative use and adoption of disruptive technologies.  Thus, we are pleased to announce that Bridgette will continue on with that focus and formally launch and operate the EmpoweredW community”, said Chairman and Founder R “Ray Wang.

“EmpoweredW is a fast growing, global community of entrepreneurs, innovators, and thought leaders sharing a passion for collective female success.  EmpoweredW works with established professionals and millennials to share best practices, content, insight, and networking experiences that propel women into leadership and influencer roles. I could not be more proud to be part of this important and vital community. Moreover, I’d like to thank Ray for stepping up and offering Constellation Research as the community’s preferred content provider”, said Chambers

Chambers received her B.S. from The University of Houston and her MBA from Texas A&M University.  Chambers is a well-known keynote speaker and presenter.  Chambers honed her leadership skills while proudly serving in the U.S. Army Reserves and Texas Army National Guard.

Constellation Research is hosting its successful Connected Enterprise event, The Executive Innovation Conference October 29th to October 31st at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, CA.  The 2014 event theme will focus on helping brands, enterprises, and organizations dominate digital disruption.  Agenda and keynotes will be released in April 2014. 

Data to Decisions Future of Work Marketing Transformation Matrix Commerce New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth Chief Customer Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Procurement Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer

What's in a name? #gTLD

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Marketing Transformation New C-Suite Data to Decisions Innovation & Product-led Growth Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Future of Work Tech Optimization Leadership Chief Marketing Officer

Event Report - Equifax Workforce - Preventive Medicine for the HR department and a silver lining of DaaS

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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Earlier this week I had the opportunity to attend Equifax Workforce Solutions annual user conference in Scottsdale. It was an almost intimate affair with a little more than 200 customers attending – with its great advantages for all attending – like direct access to executives, a lot of networking opportunities and a great opportunity for Equifax customer to look at other Equifax products and offerings. Customers were overall very positive on products and direction, and even more open to exchange experience and best practices, when it comes to compliance HR professionals are (literally) all in the same boat.

 

Equifax Workforce Solutions (EFX WS) was started with the Equifax acquisition of TALX, which today forms the backbone of the Equifax employment verification business. Coupled with strong offerings in compliance, largely centered on the hiring process and subsequent onboarding, EFX WS helps to automate the hard part of the process with I-9 services, background checks, WOTC data capture, call outs to benefits etc. With employment verification and unemployment insurance validation EFX WS has equally strong offerings in later phases of an employee life cycle. And not surprisingly EFX WS customers are in high turnover and / or industries that show a lot of seasonal hiring (e.g. retailers, food and beverage etc.).

Compliance is the game

As general guidance, EFX WS seems to seek out areas of automation in the HR process landscape that are hard and unpleasant to automate and execute – but enterprises could get in significant trouble if they do not execute and run them well. Hence the headline that EFX WS is like preventive medicine for the HR department – similar as many people take their vitamins and minerals to prevent from disease taking over, EFX WS is happy to be the partner of taking care of all the ugly and hard compliance processes. Enterprises using EFX WS are generally buying automation of a vital, but not strategic service – unless it fails, so basically peace of mind and time to focus on other – often more deemed strategic HR activities.

And beyond Compliance

It was good to see that EFX WS is not resting on its laurels in the compliance area – but also looking at other strategic applications. And there are 2 key areas EFX WS is looking at:

• Analytics – With the acquisition of eThority EFX WS has a strong ETL and BI tool, but is looking at creating (true) analytics now, based on the TALX employment and more data. With over 70% coverage of the FT500 employments on file, there is a very attractive set of data to come up with insights that HR practitioners have been craving for since a long time.

An example of bench marking Equifax can provide.

• Credit – EFX WS sees an opportunity to become a source of credit for consumers. The scenarios goes along the lines that FICO scores of consumers have no recovered (yet) from the last financial crisis, and employment verification (coupled with salary), can be a strong (or good enough) indicator to extend credit to a consumer. The purchase of automotive vehicles is the use case at hand. 

Value to consumer and merchant of employment verification is obvious in this example.

MyPOV

This event showed once again the value of small events – great access, experience and best practice exchange. Equifax has a great track record of helping enterprises with the hard things most HR practitioners do not want to spend too much time on. But these things can be mines that enterprises may step on and then the damage could be catastrophic, just consider reputational damage. Moreover Equifax has all the data to its disposal to become a key analytical benchmark provider and information solutions provider, two areas with a lot of appeal and value – both for Equifax and its customers. The credit provider play has probably the most potential, though EFX WS has to overcome the fears of data being shared with its holding company, Equifax the credit bureau.

 

Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Data to Decisions Tech Optimization AI Analytics Automation CX EX Employee Experience HCM Machine Learning ML SaaS PaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Enterprise Software Enterprise IT Leadership HR LLMs Agentic AI Generative AI business Marketing IaaS Disruptive Technology Enterprise Acceleration Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP finance Healthcare Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief People Officer Chief Customer Officer Chief Human Resources Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

A Mosaic of Education

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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I'm just back from the Mazatlán Forum, “Technology and the Future(s) of Education: U.S. and Mexican Perspectives.” For three days and a couple of wonderful extra meals, leaders from education, industry, and academia worked to find a more effective future for students in the United States, Mexico, and the world.

"Education Will Be Cloud Based"

Howard Charney, Senior Vice President, Office of the Chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems, gave a clear message to all of us during the closing keynote: Education will be cloud based — the cloud becomes the repository and the structure of education changes. More broadly he noted, "If you think your area of expertise is going to stay unchanged, you're mistaken and you're going to be out of a job.”

We needed to hear this from someone as well versed in both technology and higher education as Mr. Charney. No one in the room denied that most educational institutions have been static for centuries -- San Jose State being an interesting exception, as per its President's, Mo Qayoumi, opening keynote. We were not as unanimous on universities’ need to change, though that was the argument I made in the first of the faculty presentations. I called for us to lead with a lighter touch (my full presentation is below).

"Lead With a Lighter Touch"

Specifically, I said we need to loosen our grip on our:

• Degrees: Move to smaller modules that are available when a student needs the knowledge
• Walls: Offer our modules freely to the world (sometimes free as in "free beer;" but always free as in "free speech")
• Faculty: It is a rare faculty member who is the best presenter across all the topics in a course. Instead, “faculty” for a course or module should be the best on the topic — just as we select readings written by others, we should select presentations done by others if they will do a better job with the material. This assumes share and share alike in that I need to offer my presentations to others (thus, why we must loosen our grip on our walls first).
• Assessments: Faculty-given grades are proxies for student capabilities and not necessarily tied to capabilities organizations are looking for. While we should certainly arrange feedback, organizations or down-stream consumers of student work may be in a better position to assess quality and fit. Educators need to work in partnership with organizations to provide relevant education.

To this last point, one of my colleagues noted that I had a “functional view of education.” To that I replied, "guilty as charged," but that perhaps my view of functional is not as siloed as might be expected. Ethics, self-understanding, critical-thinking, etc. are things organizations want as well.

Don't Let Learning Flatline

Rather than offering lumpy four and two year degrees (for that approach I showed two heartbeats and then a flat-line), we should find ways to provide knowledge when a person needs it (depicted by an on-going heartbeat). The cloud lets the material be always accessible, and then frees faculty to prepare other material rather than repetitively teaching the same topics. More topics go into the cloud and educators spend their non-authoring time coaching, responding, and challenging.

Mosaics are More Nuanced

This last is how I brought us back to the idea of a mosaic of education. Mosaics are not linear, but rather filled in by small pieces (in some cases as small as 5000 piece per square inch). If we think of capabilities being gained over the course of a lifetime — especially if today’s new employees will have 20+ different jobs in their careers — the mosaic form of education allows us to respond to changing needs.

This is a message I’ve shared before, but rarely in a room with so many in positions to take action. I look forward to what the future brings.

Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization SaaS PaaS IaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service Chief People Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer

Perficient Acquires BioPharm

Constellation Research

J. Bruce Daley is a former vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, Inc.  , Title: Big Ideas Age Before Beauty Before there can be a wholesale conversion to the Cloud legacy applications must be converted. This will take decades and not every vendor has taken this obstacle into account when projecting growth. Professional Services Firms Need a Recurring Revenue Model The services business has a lot of advantages but one big disadvantage in that you are always going out of business. Some organizations are using the Cloud to offer clients new ways to spend money than just time-and-materials or fixed price projects. ...

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Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRFT) has acquired  BioPharm Systems, a consulting firm specializing on the life sciences industry including Siebel.

“With the addition of BioPharm Systems, Perficient has strengthened our consulting offerings  to healthcare and life sciences ,” said Jeffrey Davis, Perficient’s chief executive officer and president.  "Furthermore, BioPharm Systems brings impressive bill rates and margins, important intellectual property assets and a proven track record.”

The acquisition of BioPharm Systems: 

• Strengthens Perficient’s overall Oracle partnership and capabilities by bringing extensive experience in the implementation, integration, migration, and hosting of Oracle's Health Sciences applications;
• Adds more than 50 consulting, technology, sales and support professionals; and
• Adds client relationships with leading life sciences enterprise customers including Bayer, CR Bard, Halozyme Therapeutics, Ikaria, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Pfizer, St. Jude Medical, Stryker, and Sunovion, among others.

BioPharm Systems President Alex Sefanov will stay on with the firm.

The closing consideration paid in the transaction is approximately $17.6 million and includes approximately $11.4 million in cash and approximately $6.2 million worth of Perficient common stock. BioPharm System's $15 million annual revenues will be added to Perficient’s annualized revenues which are now approaching $450 million, and the transaction is expected to be accretive.

Tech Optimization Oracle Chief Information Officer

Is It All About Mobile?

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Mobile First.

Mobile Only.

Mobile seems to be in everybody’s minds these days, no? I mean, name one person in #EnSw that has not added mobile to their credentials in the past 12-18 months.

(BTW, I was one of the originators of m-CRM while I was at Gartner back in the early 2000s – we pioneered this stuff; needless to say, I know more about for far longer than most of these new “experts”… sorry, where was I?)

There are  many, many, many issues with the way we are approaching mobile – from pretending it is a new way to work in the cloud (calling it Salesforce 1 mobile development client – or something like that), to making it a new channel for communication, to thinking it is a complete different way to do things.

If we did not learn the lesson with the recent Social debacle (seriously, try to get funding for a new social X application or project at any VC or organization today) and the end result (it was, is, and will continue to be part of the infrastructure, and only the outcomes matter – in the case of Social is collaboration), let me try to address it now in a simple manner.

Mobile is an interface, nothing more.

Anything you do via mobile (interface) leverages the device it is riding on (usually a smartphone or table, even a laptop or a kiosk in some cases), bur the device is not the solution (it cannot be, there are many, many more models of iOS and Android and Windows and even RIM based devices that you can ever plan for).  If it was, your testing would be in each device to make sure (for example) that the camera works equally well.

You don’t test in each device, because you don’t need to.  You are not developing for the device (with some exceptions) but for the interface.  You make sure that the display fits the information, you make sure that the information flows you need are available in your infrastructure (including, sometimes, social channels) and that your cloud architecture will support it (if not today, in the near future – trust me on this).

If you do all that, you can master the art of mobile.  Of course, there is a lot more to come – but understanding it is an interface it is the first step.

I have been doing a lot of work with mobile over the years (I was a pioneer, remember?) and I have compiled the lessons learned in a few pieces.

I did a session with Salesforce.com at Dreamforce last year (video included – well, more like audio over slides – below).

I am chairing an event on mobile commerce in Las Vegas today and tomorrow (link, but not sure if there is availability as it is by invitation only).

I wrote a white paper on how to master mobile customer service (an extension of the work done with Salesforce last year) with Bright Pattern.

You can download the white paper (I think you need to register for it) here.  The statement above is one of the three steps you I highlight in that white paper that will make you succeed at mobile.

Check it out, would love your comments as always – anywhere you want to provide them.

When it comes to mobile though, we are not even cracking the coconut — there is a lot more to come!

disclaimer: Salesforce is a retainer client (and it was last year as well, when I was paid to produce the content and present it).  Bright Pattern is a sponsored research client, where they subscribe to different topics and help me defray the costs of research for those topics and in exchange get content to use for their purposes.  I have no clients that produce mobile OS (mentioned above) nor do I expect to have any.  The research presented in this white paper would’ve happen anyways — but it is nice to know that I have nice clients willing to help me pay for my vices: my worst vice is research.  thanks for reading the research that I produce under that model. It is not pay for play research as, as you would see when you read it, I don’t endorse a vendor or technology – I simply present my research for free to the world thanks to my sponsors.

New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer Chief Executive Officer

Take the Australian Social Business Survey 2014

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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To call out the term “social business” seems almost anachronistic in 2014. After all, aren’t we all now working in “social businesses”? Haven’t we all been part of the digital transformation sweeping every business?

Well, yes and no.

When I ran my first social business survey back in 2011, I was interested to gather some data on Australian-based businesses. After all, there was plenty of information available about the US – but anecdotal evidence suggested that we were behind that curve. Way behind. And again, in 2012, the survey revealed that there was a gap – not only between Australia and the US – but between businesses and the customers they served. It was what IBM called a “perception gap”.

These days, despite what we hear at conferences and read on news sites and blogs, it seems that social business, digital transformation and (dare I say it) innovation continues to struggle. Sure there are pockets of connectedness. Campaigns for transformation and change. And even some success stories. But what is the true picture?

Participate in the survey and receive the report for free

When you participate, you not only have the chance to share your perspective on the state of social business / digital transformation in Australia. You will also receive a copy of the report when it is complete. This will allow you to get a sense of where you and your business stand in relation to others.

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. And if you already happen to have AskU on your smartphone, simply enter the Private Code social2014. And be sure to share it with others. The more responses we get, the better the report will be.

Marketing Transformation Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Chief Marketing Officer Chief Customer Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer Chief Revenue Officer

Event Report: #AdobeSummit Celebrates Digital Marketing From Creative To Commerce

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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Market Leaders And Fast Followers Celebrate Over A Decade Of Digital Marketing Vision

In 2004, Omniture founder Josh James, an avid skier, held the first Summit atop the Snowbird Ski Resort for 270 early adopters and converted. Fast forward eleven years to 2014, an estimated 5600+ customers, partners, influencers, and prospects gathered at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 25th to March 28th, 2014, in search of reinvention in digital marketing (see Figure 1). Since that time, Adobe Summit has emerged as a must attend event for those looking at the entire digital experience from creative to commerce. Despite the size, this year's event remained equally intimate. At almost every venue, restaurant, or session, attendees remarked on how easy it was to meet people and discover, connect, and engage on the future of digital marketing.

Figure 1. Adobe CEO, Shantanu Narayen Opening The General Session on the Need for Reinvention In Marketing

Source: Adobe

Adobe Summit 2014 Announcements Focus On Needs Versus Wants New product enhancements, a new release, and a few key partnerships highlight advancements in Marketing Cloud which includes a number of organically developed products and acquisitions of Omniture, Day Software, Efficient Frontier, and Neolane. Today, the Adobe Marketing Cloud includes Adobe Social, Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Media Optimizer, and Adobe Campaign (see Figure 2). This year's announcements reflect a need to improve integration among the acquisitions and deliver core needs versus nice to have capabilities. Main announcements from this year's summit include:

Figure 2. The Six Components Of The Adobe Marketing Cloud

Source: Adobe

 

• Adobe Marketing Cloud Core Services Improve Suite Value .  Adobe announced new cores services for Marketing Cloud.  These services include a key master marketing profile, shared assets, marketing mix planning, identity, contextual activation, tag management,  integration, and collaboration.
  
  Point of view (POV): The core marketing services are much needed to bring not only the acquisitions together, but also future partner integrations.   The Master Marketing Profile allows marketers to aggregate profiles information from multiple sources.  Shared assets put the power of the Adobe Creative Suite to work allowing marketers to create once use everywhere.  Marketing mix planning enables marketers to tie together attribution, analytics, media planning and execution to analytics and campaign activation.  The new identity capabilities are a good start, but much more will be required to support commerce apps entering a digital business world where trust is the new currency and transparency must balance privacy.

• Adobe Target Aims For Mass Personalization At Scale .  A new offering of Adobe Target premium provides advanced testing and targeting capabilities.  Key enhancements include automated decisions, deeper audience targeting, improved reporting, mobile support, and visual workflows.  The new best practices and expert onboarding helps customers access services from industry experts.
  
  (POV): Automated decisions provide a basic but easy to use self-learning algorithm.  At the demo booth, it became apparent how a marketer could quickly scale content to the right person at the right time with the right content.  Audience targeting is a noble effort but requires some work in integration master marketing profile to existing sources. Early view of reporting show improved integration to Adobe Analytics for source data.  Customers will love the visual workflow which brings the customer journey to life.  The new Adobe Target Premium automates many of the tedious tasks and allows digital marketers to focus on more strategic elements of mass personalization at scale, a key Constellation 2014 trend.

• Adobe Launches New Adobe Experience Manager (AEM).  The new AEM6 release adds improvements to sites, assets, apps, community, and forms.  Sites adds a touch enabled interface and easier to use templates.  AEM benefits from the shared assets in Adobe Marketing Cloud Core Services.  Apps allows integration with phone gap assets to enable create once deploy everywhere.  Communities gain a much needed machine translation for globalization. Forms provide a tie in to workflows which are much needed in regulated commerce.
  
  (POV): Integration with commerce engines in sites is a key time saver for brands and enterprises delivering on creative to commerce. A demo of AEM6 on the demo grounds show how new enhancements improve faster go live.  New assets capabilities make it easy to go from photoshoot to delivery with videos.  While the community features could use more advanced features, unified moderation with Adobe Social improves basic community management.   Customer facing mobile apps should prove to be a hit with brands.

• Mobile Enhancements Go Beyond PhoneGap Enterprise. The new mobile app development solutions take into account the entire digital marketing life cycle.  Adobe Mobile Services 2.0 provides measurement at key mobile apps stores such as Apple App Store and Google Play. Other features include Apple iBeacon support and re-engagement notification via the Adobe Campaign UI.
  
  (POV): The ability to create, edit, and modify content in real-time then publish across all development platforms in the Audi demo was a keynote highlight.  Support for Apple iBeacon provides a key component in location context that will prove important for ad networks and matrix commerce offerings.  These bluetooth low energy beacons will enable payments as well as content delivery.  Users will want to take advantage of the Adobe Campaign UI to track credit balances, share breaking news, find flight departure details, notify users of friends in proximity, and other right time data across all devices.

• Epsilon Provides Loyalty Platform To Adobe. The Epsilon Agility platform integrates with Adobe Marketing Cloud to deliver data, insights, analytics and transactional rules-based functionality.  Epsilon provides a loyalty platform that follows a loyalty lifecycle of identify, acquire, inspire, engage, award, and refine.  Adobe Marketing Cloud's Experience Manager and other solutions will organize, create, optimize, and manage delivery of creative assets across all digital channels.
  
  (POV): Epsilon has made some key partnerships with digital marketing leaders such as Acxiom, Facebook, Twitter, and now Adobe.  The partnership provides mass personalization at scale for loyalty programs using Adobe Experience Manager as the origin of assets and an important relationship for both Epsilon and Adobe.  Over time, expect the Epsilon Agility Loyalty offering to include Adobe Analytics, Adobe Campaign, Adobe Media Optimizer, Adobe Social, and Adobe Target.

Market Leaders And Fast Followers Focus On Completing The Digital Marketing Journey With Commerce

In speaking with over 100 attendees, matrix commerce has emerged as a key requirement. Just putting a site up, a mobile app, or even kicking a campaign is not good enough. The fusing of demand signals and supply chains creates a need for solutions that can deliver from creative production to commerce completion. The new customer centric world is agnostic to channels, demand signals, supply chains, payment options, enablers, and big data. This world of matrix commerce is an emerging frontier for brands and enterprises. Three partnership solutions play a key role in delivering creative to commerce:

1. Elastic Path. The Elastic Path Edition For Adobe Experience Manager received much fan fare from partners and customers at Adobe Summit. Attendees were drawn to the integrated CMS with AEM, advanced product/service bundling, personalized merchandizing, dynamic pricing, order experience, and trade promotion management capabilities out of the box. The recent partnership with MRM/McCann also adds credibility and momentum to Elastic Path's vision and strategy.
2. Intershop. The Intershop integration with Adobe Experience Manager drove massive interest on the show floor at Adobe Summit. A key draw to Intershop is the ability to drive both B2B and B2C commerce experiences on the same platform. Integration with call center channels was important to many attendees.
3. SAP hybris. SAP announced a partnership with Adobe to deliver on hybris Omni Channel Commerce and customer insights from SAP HANA. SAP will resell Adobe's Marketing Cloud and both vendors will invest in joint integration research and development. Conversations with many line of business customers exposed private concerns in adding to their SAP investment with SAP HANA. Why? Most marketing leaders seek to escape their SAP investment and have done so by moving to other products in CRM and customer experience. In speaking with an SAP hybris sales person, the intent is to reach out to marketing professionals and change their mind. Given the buzz on Elastic Path and Intershop, the real test will be licenses sold.

Figure 2. Flickr Photostream From #AdobeSummit

Source: © 2010 - 2014 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC. All Rights Reserved

The Bottom Line: Adobe Marketing Cloud Has Evolved Into A Major Contender For Marketing Suite Short Lists

The Adobe journey to enter into the enterprise software business began in September 15, 2009 when Adobe acquired Omniture, an online marketing and web analytics provider for $1.8 billion. Followed by the acquisition of Day Software, Efficient Frontier, and Neolane, the company has built and acquired a suite of marketing cloud solutions. Renamed Adobe Marketing Cloud in 2012, Adobe is the only provider to tackle the entire creative creation and commerce delivery market. As with any post merger integration effort, much work lies ahead in unifying identity, common objects, workflow, context engines, business processes, and other common components. This year's Adobe Summit highlighted the integration work required to complete the vision as well as reaffirmed the research and development investments committed to bring a unified offering. So far, much progress has been made. However, much work lies ahead in creating a platform for partners to expand upon. While Adobe's competitors also face massive integration work ahead, the good news for customers - individual components compete well against other best of breed offerings in their respective categories. Despite the work and challenges ahead, Adobe's Marketing Cloud should be considered in short lists with mega platforms such as IBM, Oracle, and Salesforce.com.

Your POV.

Ready for digital disruption? Are you an Adobe shop? Will you add additional modules of Adobe? How did you like Adobe Summit? Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

 

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