This list celebrates changemakers creating meaningful impact through leadership, innovation, fresh perspectives, transformative mindsets, and lessons that resonate far beyond the workplace.
President, Computer Economics and Strativa, Inc.
Computer Economics and Strativa, Inc.
Frank Scavo is skilled at formulating and communicating IT strategy, developing the business case for new systems, and facilitating the selection of enterprise systems, such as ERP, CRM, and supply chain management. He is also an expert in benchmarking IT spending and staffing levels for end-user IT organizations.
Frank was one of the first tech bloggers, beginning in 2002 with his launch of the Enterprise System Spectator providing independent analysis of issues and trends in enterprise applications software and the strengths, weaknesses, advantages, and disadvantages of the vendors that provide them. Frank has been quoted as an IT expert in numerous business and industry publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, CIO Magazine, ZDnet, eWeek, Datamation,…...
Dr. Qi Lu, Microsoft's Applications and Services Engineering Group
CEO Steve Ballmer published a long-awaiting memo this morning announcing corporate-wide organizational changes at Microsoft. Although the reorg includes changes across many Microsoft functions, what does it mean specifically for the Dynamics group, which is responsible for Microsoft's business applications?
The changes for Dynamics appear minor, but there is much written between the lines.
Ballmer wrote:
Dynamics. Kirill Tatarinov will continue to run Dynamics as is, but his product leaders will dotted line report to Qi Lu, his marketing leader will dotted line report to Tami Reller and his sales leader will dotted line report to the COO group.
There are two important implications in this short paragraph.
Strategic role of Dynamics. The dotted line relationships with sales and marketing are a recognition of the connections that Dynamics makes outside the customer's IT organization. In the enterprise, apart from Dynamics, Microsoft sells at a fairly low level--at best to the CIO. The Dynamics group is the one part of Microsoft that gets into conversations with other members of the C-suite and with lines of business leaders. As the consumerization of IT continues, it is essential that Microsoft break out of the IT organization. With its enterprise applications, Dynamics represents and excellent opportunity for it to do so.
Dynamics representing Microsoft's ISV partners. The dotted line relationship with Qi Lu, the newly announced head of the Applications and Services Engineering Group, points to the opportunity to leverage other parts of Microsoft's portfolio in its Dynamics line of business applications. These include products such as Bing, Lync, Office 365, Sharepoint, Exchange, and Yammer, among others. All of these products are enterprise-focused and should be tightly integrated with the Dynamics applications. If Microsoft expects its ISV partners to make use of these technologies, Microsoft needs to set an example by doing so within its own Dynamics apps. The tighter relationship between Dynamics and Qi Lu's business unit indicates the strategic role that Dynamics plays as showcase for the use of the broader portfolio of Microsoft products.
Finally some have asked, do these dotted line relationships indicate a lack of confidence in the Dynamics group? The answer is no. If there were a lack of confidence, a corporate reorganization would be the perfect time to replace the leadership. Clearly, that didn't happen. These changes, rather, point to an elevated role for Dynamics within Microsoft.
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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Over the last six months or so, I have taken a deep dive into the world of Marketing Automation, Digital Disruption and Mobility and Marketing Trends. And with every report, I see evidence of the situation playing over and over again – there is a growing distance between business and customers. It’s not just a gap anymore – it’s a chasm:
In reality, we are not really dealing with a gap. It could be better described as a “mismatch” – after all, a “gap” would indicate some alignment. But the problem for brands is that the distance between the two sets of expectations [customers and businesses] is growing.
The pressure in this relationship rests firmly with the marketing team. Digital and social media has not only transformed the way that most marketers work, it has significantly added to the process of marketing. There’s so much more technology involved, more analytics, reporting and monitoring. There are more agencies to deal with and more relationships to manage. And targets. And budgets. And so on.
So the title of Mitch Joel’s new book struck a chord with me. Ctrl Alt Delete – we certainly need a reboot in the world of marketing. Let’s take a look at just a couple of the mind blowing stats he starts with:
14% of businesses are not prepared to deal with the speed of today’s competitive landscape. Think about it. What happens to them? Do they just disappear Kodak-style? What happens to their customers and their employees?
74% ofbusinesses don’t have a plan to stay competitive in the mobile world. How many nimble competitors are already eyeing the potential markets that will become available?
The cost of entry to existing markets is so much lower than the cost of TRANSFORMATION. This is why new business models and disruptive competitors are able to quickly gain traction in YOUR markets. Here are a few ideas that you can use to help you cope:
Start a customer conversation: Who are your customers? I don’t mean “segments” or “personas” … I mean “real names”. Run a quick check over your records and identify 10 of your best customers and 10 of your worst. Reach out to them and ask them what they like and don’t like about you. See what you can fix and what you can do more of.
Run a poll on your website: Get feedback on one or two of your products by running a poll on your website. SurveyMonkey is great – or you could just use Twtpoll. You might be surprised about what you learn.
Dig into your website analytics: Don’t tell me you haven’t even installed Google Analytics on your website! If you haven’t, do so. It’s easy. And if you don’t know how, ask Twitter. Once you have stats coming through, look up “Traffic Sources” and learn about how your customers find you. Look at the search terms they use and the links they click to come to your site. Are you solving the right problems?
Make your website mobile friendly: “Responsive design” is a hot topic at the moment. But most of the robust content management systems have responsive design templates or plugins that can be easily added to your site. At the minimum, add responsive design templates/capabilities to your blog – after all, Google Analytics will show you that about 25% of traffic comes from mobiles.
Start or update your blog: What? Still no blog? That’s so 2003. If you haven’t started a blog, it’s never too late to do so. Start today (just check out IBM’s cool Tumblr as an easy-to-run example). Download WordPress and get going. And if you have a blog that hasn’t been updated for months, write a post and link to this article. Explain you are getting back on the bandwagon because you WANT to hear from your customers.
Go social: Whether you like it or not, social is here to stay. But you need to get your hands dirty. Setup an account on Twitter or on Facebook. Do a little stalking to find out what your customers are talking about. Connect and slowly build out a strategy. Be sure to own that strategy – and don’t delegate it to the intern. Make it part of your business and use it to learn more about your customers, partners, suppliers and even employees. CEOs all over the world are doing it, why can’t you?
Call for Applications: SuperNova Awards for innovators in disruptive technology
Deadline for applications July 22, 2013 August 7, 2013 The first awards to recognize pioneers, leaders, innovators who use technology to transform business
In its third 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.
Continuing the SuperNova Award tradition, 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: http://www.constellationr.com/content/supernova-awards-application
All entries are evaluated by our all star cast of judges which is comprised of the top enterprise technology journalists and thought leaders. Compelling applications stand to gain additional exposure as the judges may write case studies and articles about such applications.
Who can enter?
The awards are open to end users only. End users at vendor companies may enter the awards. We will disqualify any vendor applications.
July 22, 2013 August 7, 3013 last day for submissions.
August 22, 2013 finalists announced and invited to Connected Enterprise.
September 9, 2013 voting opens to the public
October 9, 2013 polls close
October 30, 2013 Winners announced, SuperNova Awards Gala Dinner at Connected Enterprise
Judging Process
The judging process is comprised of two phases.
Phase I:Judging panel reviews applications to determine SuperNova Award finalists
Phase II: Voting opens to the public. A combination of the public and judges votes will determine the winners of the SuperNova Awards. Judges votes are weighted at 75% of the total.
Winners are announced at the SuperNova Awards Gala Dinner during Connected Enterprise.
Award categories center around Constellation's business research themes. Award 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
Awards Ceremony
The SuperNova Award Winners will be announced live, on stage, at the SuperNova Awards Gala Dinner on October 30, 2013 on the first night of Constellation's Connected Enterprise.
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…...
HANA in Review: I had the pleasure of being hosted by SAP for a fully loaded day of HANA briefings - and it was an information-rich and very interesting day. Needless to say, I learned a lot - and need to review my position on HANA to be more positive, as more progress has been made by SAP than I previously thought.
Suite on Hana
So the Suite on Hana is really there. Except for SRM and some pieces of SCM. But the rest runs on HANA, using the existing database abstraction that SAP used before in R/3 to make it work with the different database vendors it supports today. I didn't get an ETA for the SCM pieces, but the SRM part should come later in the year. Customers license HANA the same way as any other database license, as a percentage of license revenue, and HANA shares the (steep) price tag with Oracle (RAC option). Good things have their price.
The database migration is a consulting project that is supported by pre-packaged offerings and tools - but remains an enterprise individualized effort, due to modifications (aka customization outside the Sapanese language world). SAP has developed a number of value points that customers can be pointed to and SAP consulting is ready to validate as well as identify further value points.
SAP knows the issues about the missing in action SD benchmark and is working on a new HANA benchmark - that will also come out later in the year. My best guess is the SAP TechEd timeframe in fall.
MyPOV - Good to see the progress for Suite on HANA. We will see further uptake by end of Q2 and Q3 which will be a good benchmark how well SAP customers continue to respond to the Suite on HANA value proposition.
SAP HANA One (Premium)
The product is alive and well, sees more uptake and is really a valid small scale HANA deployment - both for the experimenting organization and for the data scientist scenario. As it runs on Amazon's AWS it is very price attractive and really makes HANA adoption much easier.
What I missed so far and somehow oversaw in the Sapphire noise was the HANA One Premium offering, that allows enterprises to deploy small scale Suite on HANA and Business Warehouse on HANA or custom HANA applications also on AWS.
MyPOV - It's good to see these smaller and cheaper HANA offerings are gaining traction in the marketplace and that SAP made them cost effective and price competitive by running them on AWS.
HANA Enterprise Cloud
With HANA Enterprise Cloud (HEC) SAP has announced and runs the enterprise class managed HANA cloud platform. Customer interest for the reasons mentioned at the launch shortly before Sapphire are valid and are creating traction. At the same time a large number of validations and proof of concepts also run on HEC - which makes sense as it's the fastest to get them going and already runs on the potential cloud deployment platform.
MyPOV - As mentioned originally - a very good move by SAP - helping customers and itself to accelerate validation and sales cycles. It will be interesting to see how SAP customers will deploy HANA going forward - more on premise or on HEC. The latter is certainly the future and best solution for most of them. But concerns on elasticity remain.
HANA Cloud Platform
This is the next generation SAP development platform, ABAP free, largely built on open source, develop in Java or Java byte code compatible languges - and deploy to the cloud. Basically the new SAP platform. And while it can run on HEC - SAP understands it as a standalone PaaS platform that powers new SAP SaaS products on the SAP Cloud Infrastructure (SCI) - that is basically the cloud infrastructure on which homegrown (e.g. byDesign) and acquired (e.g. SuccessFactors) run on. Probably a hodge podge that some professionals at SAP are now cleaning out and harmonizing.
MyPOV - It's very important for SAP to have an attractive, modern application development platform that even can run as a PaaS. SAP is fulfilling a need that goes back to Shai Agassi back in 2004 (or was it 2005?) statements at TechEd, that SAP will need to support Java and can't expect to attract and retain programming talent on ABAP forever. The PaaS move is a bold but logical positioning we will need to find out and hear more about.
"Analytics" and Analytics
SAP - like many other vendors - is victim of the faux analytics term, that is used basically only as the latest buzzword for Business Intelligence. And there are good BI offerings, notable the next generation Business Objects - Lumira. And on the BigData side SAP now supports the usual co-existence scenario of many vendors, that are call outs to Hadoop clusters. Certainly look forward to a demo of that.
The good news on the Analytics side (the real one, the one that can action or at least suggest an action) is that SAP seems to have ended (the in my view ill fated) partnership with IBM SPSS. Instead SAP went down the common road of using R - and more importantly uses PMML in HANA for 3rd party developed decision models.
MyPOV - I heard a lot of talk and understanding for real analytics and I have not given up hope, that SAP will clean out the messaging and call analytics analytics and the new BI offerings... something else. And SAP should invest more into this area - as who wins the holy grailin the analytics area can unseat all the exitsing enterprise vendors.
Design Thinking
I also had the opportunity to learn more about the design thinking approach that has taken over for the better on the SAP application creation side. And the approach to build high value, high frequency scenarios out of the box and provide a tool based approach for the the lesser used and valuable scenarios is the right one. The task at hand is herculean, as SAP counts something around 300000 screens across products.
The good news is that the early children of the new design thinking process are promising, the consumer apps (myRunway is the most successful one) and Fiori - have a lot of traction and success.
MyPOV - We can only cross our fingers that the nth UI re-invention will be successful for SAP users and SAP. Granted, all enterprise vendors struggle with this challenge, a lot of work and questions remain - but it's good to see the progress SAP has made. The largest concern remains the limitation to the existing SOAP APIs that are exposed through the SAP Gateway - are they modern and 21st century enough? And if not - can SAP build them fast enough in 21st century best practice style?
SAP the technology company
My assessment here needs some caution - as I only met technology oriented executives at this visit. But looking at the recent SAP announcements, the Sapphire focus etc - its clear SAP wants to get the 2nd leg -- next to the application business - in the technology business. And SAP has promising technology in many areas - but the path to have a 2nd leg, successfully use it and be perceived as a two legged vendor (no offense here to anyone) - is a long one.
MyPOV
A lot of progress has been made by SAP on HANA and it's different delivery options, as well for Suite on HANA and HANA Cloud Platform. The design thinking approach is bearing promising fruits, positively affecting all SAP customers with Fiori. The recent re-organization should allow the company to pick up more speed as it puts responsibilities for single functions in single pairs of hands.
But becoming a company with enterprise application and enterprise technology credibility and success is a long and rocky path. As a reference - it took Oracle 10+ if not 15+ years to become a global enterprise application player. SAP does not have the luxury of that much time.
My impression is, that SAP has done important steps on product, has done key hires in marketing but now needs to execute on changes in the sales force, the partner ecosystem, the perception in the market etc. The world gets bigger and more complex when you have to legs - or are a switch hitter.
And SAP may end up as great technology company but with a neglected business application portfolio in the process. Not a desirable outcome in my view.
First Call Resolution? That’s Your Grandparents’ Metric!
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Continuing to explore the new world of Knowledge Management thanks to my sponsored research model, right now with my friends at Coveo, I want to take a moment to focus on an often overused, always misunderstood, and seldom (to the best of my knowledge – no pun intended) related to knowledge metric of FCR (First Call Resolution).
If you work in Customer Service you heard about it before: how can we ensure that customers don’t call back after we give them (what we believe is) the answer to their problems? Each return call or return to search for solutions to the same problems corrodes satisfaction and with it long-term loyalty and engagement. Thus, we want to make sure that the agents are empowered, knowledgeable, and with all necessary information to give a complete and total answer in the first interaction.
However, is this a valid metric? I mean, now that knowledge is changing to a new paradigm – is there a better way to measure resolution and satisfaction? Could we switch from FCR to a better way to measure? Could we make sure we deliver better satisfaction at every interaction?
To answer these questions I wrote my thoughts in a blog post you can find at Coveo’s blog. Go over there, read it, and please let me know what you think – am I expecting too much from what we know about customers and their needs? is it possible shift FCR to a new model? Have you done it – and if so, what’s your experience being?
Would love to hear you thoughts and comments.
disclaimer: I use a sponsored research model where customers contribute to my vices in exchange for content. Since my vice is writing content related to specific topics we are doing great! Coveo is now sponsoring research on the new knowledge paradigm, as Moxie and Stone Cobra have done in the past (and I am sure someone else will do in the near future as well – this topic is becoming pretty hot and has lots of need… but I digress, disclaimer- yes). As you can imagine, Coveo is a client – but that does not change the nature of the research, as I retain absolute and final control over the agenda, the content, and control of the publish button. So, yeah – this is my research, these are my opinions, and whether I get paid to support my vices or not, they won’t change. Questions?
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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As we begin to ramp up our efforts for the second half of 2013, it’s always worth taking a moment to reflect on what has emerged, what is emerging and the gaps that are becoming obvious in our marketing strategy and tactics.
For me, one of the things that has solidified is the notion that consumers are not only king, but the entire universe. As such they have become the centre of gravity around which brands now orbit.
Understanding and navigating this new “consumerverse” is a core requirement for any marketer.
And if you would like to learn more about how this connects to real businesses, some of the interesting proof points that are emerging and how businesses can embrace disruption as a business imperative, take a look at my interview with Which-50’s Andrew Birmingham.
Constellation Research Awards Ultimate Software Highest Designation for Cloud Buyer’s Bill of Rights
Third Cloud Based Vendor Certified As “Epic” For Constellation CosmosTM Cloud Buyer’s Bill of Rights Evaluations
San Francisco, CA– July 3, 2013 Constellation Research, Inc. the research and advisory firm focused on how businesses can be transformed by disruptive technologies today announced the publication of “Cloud Buyer’s Bill of Rights: SaaS Apps – Ultimate Software” by R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst and CEO, Constellation Research. This is the third Constellation CosmosTM Certification for the Cloud Buyer’s Bill of Rights: SaaS Apps authored by Wang. The Constellation CosmosTM Certification for the Cloud Buyer’s Bill of Rights is intended to help buyers and prospective buyers of enterprise cloud applications determine which vendors meet the spirit of customer friendly cloud contracts. Constellation’s goal is to recognize vendors for honoring the 61 Cosmos criteria including the 55 Bill of Rights criteria upfront in their existing contract language, and throughout the buyer and ownership experience.
Ultimate Software achieved the highest designation, “Epic”, for its performance in the CosmosTM evaluation in the Cloud Apps Suites category.
“The Enterprise Cloud Buyer’s Bill of Rights provides a tool for clients and vendors to change the tenor of contract negotiations from user subservience to an equal and collaborative long-term partnership.”, commented R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst & CEO. “Constellation has participated in over 1500 enterprise software contract negotiations including 250 for the cloud. We plan to certify over 20 vendors by end of 2013.”
This report fits into Constellation’s business-focused research themes: Technology Optimization and Innovation and Consumerization of IT & The New C-Suite
R “Ray” Wang is the Principal Analyst and CEO at Constellation Research, Inc. He’s also the author of the popular enterprise software blog “A Software Insider’s Point of View”. With viewership in the millions of page views a year, his blog provides insight into how disruptive technologies and new business models impact the enterprise. Ray is a prominent keynote speaker and research analyst working with clients on engagement strategies, social business, customer experience, and decision management. He advises Global 2000 companies on business strategy and technology selection. Ray is quoted regularly in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg, Reuters, IDG News Service, and other media outlets around the world.
More information about Cloud Buyer’s Bill of Rights: SaaS Apps – Ultimate Software can be found here: http://www.constellationr.com/research/cosmos-cloud-buyers-bill-rights-saas-apps-ultimate-software
ABOUT CONSTELLATION COSMOS
Constellation CosmosTM is Constellation's flagship quantitative and qualitative product and solution comparison tool. A typical Cosmos contains 50 to 150 exception-based criteria used to help buy-side clients with product and solution selection across the galaxy of choices. The evaluation comprises of six major categories on a 0 to 5 point scale where Constellation evaluates key criteria in:
Ownership experience.
Solution offering.
Use case support.
Market execution.
Corporate vision.
Ecosystem feedback.
The final ratings place solutions into 5 categories
Epic. Composite scores typically above 4.5
Stellar. Composite scores typically between 3.5 and 4.49
Emerging. Composite scores typically between 2.5 and 3.49
Nascent. Composite scores typically between 1.5 and 2.49
Laggard. Composite scores typically between 0 and 1.49
Press Contacts: Contact the Media and Influencers relations team at [email protected] for interviews with analysts.
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…...
With the general availability of the Oracle Database version 12c imminent upon us - it's time to look at what - for now - before more information at the launch webcast tomorrow and real client adoption - is the key feature of 12c.
The end of multitenancy as we knew it
We already discussed the implications on the multitenancy term in a previous post. And to quickly re-cap - in the past multi-tenancy in the area of databases was always referred to as a striped database, where different tenant's record were stored in the same tables and the software programs had to find a way to only feed the right records to the right clients. That was a design approach pretty much dictated by system and software capabilities about a dozen years ago.
Alternatively vendors would bypass this design by running one database per tenant. And this approach inherently had advantages in regards of portability, data security and tools availability. But it came along with a higher hardware price tag and higher operations and maintenance costs - as more hardware would be needed to support this configuration.
With 12c Oracle now makes the important separation of its database metadata and user storage data. The two were combined in the past and only Oracle would know how to separate the two. Originally this was conceived for performance reasons, but with significantly more RAM in today's servers, that technical separation is no longer necessary.
Oracle 12c effectively makes the metadata of its database multi-tenant, that is to support multiple user databases. The advantage is that the user data bases now do not need to be striped, made multi-tenant anymore. Confusing? Certainly, but once understood - it makes sense.
And as Oracle's perspective to view the world from the database as the vantage point is certainly legitimate - so 12c makes the meta data (and with that the user data) multi-tenant.
How can a database by elastic?
Well out post title is certainly a bit contradictory - as a database itself cannot be elastic - as it stores data... And data needs to be kept and stay on HDD (or other media). So let's not confuse elasticity with caching - though there are some common elements. [Sidenote - caching becomes very relevant if you are an in memory database like HANA - see my post here].
The elasticity with 12c does not come in from the storage side, but from how the metadata to access the user data is handled... and that is highly elastic, with system load determining what part of the metadata and for which user database it will be running.
Basically Oracle applies similar principles as any IaaS vendor does when starting virtual machines to the meta data code for specific user data bases that are being requested and / or used. We will need to learn more on the details here - as Oracle with the Oracle VM has it's own virtualization technology - but we expect that to be too much geared to the needs of general programs and applications than to server the specific needs of the database - but we will see.
The result is an elastic database - and with that users benefit from the key benefit of elasticity - more software can run on the same or even less hardware. And Oracle has not been shy with demonstrating this - checkout the slide below for the specific claims made at OpenWorld 2012:
Back then Oracle (rightfully) garnered some criticism in regards of the use case chosen - and we are sure Oracle chose something favorable for the cause. But looking back - if Oracle can deliver on only 30% better utilization - then they will have secured their market leadership for years to come.
The irony is - Oracle can effectively create a business case out of the inefficiency of their former database architecture. But to be fair - that was always known and customers more than willingly traded for that architecture and in return received scalability, stability and reliability.
Backward compatibilty
All this would be good and great - but much more difficult to sell, if Oracle would not claim - and again reality checks will have to happen - that moving to 12c is a seamless upgrade. And we need to intuitively give Oracle the point here, as they should and would know how to move a pre 12c database structure over to a 12c one.
I would even expect that the formerly striped multi-tenancy databases will be able to be upgraded programmatially, especially if the Oracle supported feature of Virtual Private Database was used.
Salesforce.com as the proofpoint
A lot has been said and written about this partnership. And there are pros and cons for salesforce.com to renew its dependency on Oracle. But it's clear salesforce.com will gain operating cost advantages from Oracle - as Marc Beniof is on record, that these are only about 1/3 of their current costs. [To be fair that included also the usage of ExaData - not just Oracle 12c].
MyPOV
Oracle has delivered a key database release with 12c, that if it stands up to the claims made, will solidify Oracle's position as a database provider for years to come. We also think that in combination with the recent alliances, Oracle has taking the step to overcome the disruptions the overall market will face by moving from internet based to cloud based architectures.
Nonetheless the NoSQL challenge remains, equally as does the in-memory challenge - and Oracle will need to address these. But for now it's about congratulating Oracle on 12c and looking forward to see the proof points in real end usage scenarios.
My latest take on Oracle overall can be found here - takeaways from the Oracle analyst summit.
Reprints Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contactSales.
Disclosure Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on theConstellation Research website.
* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions. However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.
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…...
I was invited by Microsoft to their Build 2013 event in San Francisco this week - and it was an interesting experience, contrasted to the modest events I used to attend in Europe with Microsoft - last century. Microsoft moved the event from Seattle last year to San Francisco and was blessed with unusual and nice warm weather and over 6000 attendees. Supposedly the event sold out in a mere 3 days, attendants were global, we chatted with attendees from 15 different countries, Latin America the most prominent region.
Day 1 Keynote
Microsoft's product landscape is breathtaking and to pack that all into two keynotes must have been a challenging game of riches. I don't want to to focus too much on the more consumer focused Day 1 - there the relevant news for the enterprise were that Windows 8.1 will come out soon, and the desktop will be more prominent and you will even be able to boot your machine to the desktop again. From all spontaneous applause during the keynotes - this was the most energetic and lasting one. Clearly Microsoft has taken the tile concept a little too far on the PC. But all in all fairness Microsoft should get credit for trying to get one consistent user interface across smartphone, tablet, and PC - and even more for rectifying the issue relatively quickly. And personally I do not think the issue lies with the tiles, but with the light weight nature of the Metro apps. Yes they need to support touch, but they don't need to be oversimplified... I was glad I heard some attendees even talking about the tile dummification since I felt often like that...
Ballmer also made clear that Microsoft is in the transition from a software company to a company that builds software powered devices (e.g. the Windows tablets) and software powered services (e.g. Azure).
After Ballmer it was time for the only woman to take the stage, Julie Larsen-Green showed how Windows 8.1 improves touch on small factor devices. She showed a more powerful Bing in connection with Maps that now provides a search across SkyDrive, XBox, HDD etc. - a good feature and similar to what Google showed at Google I/O. The accepting a Skype call without unlocking the computer or logging in is a nice feature - but begs the question who was logged in before - as otherwise in Skype as we know it today - the call will not be delivered. The added multimon capabities will be very welcomed in Windows 8.1 - not just by developers! And keeping DPI scaling dynamic, not determined by the primary monitor will be appreciated by millions of eyes using Windows.
Next it was Antoine Leblond to keep showing more new functionality but from a more technical angle. And my impression was - when enterprise vendors talk about 100s (see e.g. enhancements of Workday in Update 19 here) - then Microsoft needs to speak in 1000s - e.g. Windows 8.1 will introduce another 5000 new APIs for developers. Granted - no one needs and uses them all - but that is a massive scope for dot release. The good news - all this APIs are usually one liners to use - at least in the demos. Microsoft pays tribute to scripting languages here - one line, one statement, one API, one action. Developers do not have to hit the enter key as much as a decade ago...
And rightfully Microsoft creates value by making their development tools more complete. Adding a visualization and tooling for estimated power consumption certainly will help developers to reduce the power hunger of their mobile apps. And everything gets more connected and easier - e.g. a wizard to create mobile push alerts - delivered through Azure.
There were tons of more consumer, hardware, graphics and game whizbangs - but the endless collection of new capabilities here and firsts there becomes tiring - check out my twitter stream of the keynote. And granted this is a challenge for every keynote - but maybe Microsoft is trying to do too much for a Build conference audience - pitching both consumer capabilities and developer tools and productivity enhancements. Tough to get under one roof or in one keynote.
Then it was back to Gurdeep Singh Pall to show the latest on Bing. From his part of the keynote it is very clear now, that Microsoft is trying to become a platform company, that brings together all the different pieces of the large Microsoft product family all the way rom Bing to enterprise software. And Bing will expose more granular services and will make them available across for other products and services.
But the best demo of Build2013 was only to follow - a preview of Project Spark by Dave McCarthy and Rusty McClellan. It's from the gaming world - but has enterprise software relevance - as we witness the potential travolgimento of an entire industry. With Project Spark Microsoft transforms every Windows8 machine and xBox into a game design work station. In the few minutes of the demo, we witnessed the creation of a complete game, that was instantaneously playable. This has profound consequences on the gaming industry, where the game may start creating, extending, tuning and sharing it. Before you even play it. Crowd sourced projects of multiple designers are equally possible... If you ever tried to build a game 30+ years ago with TurtleGraphics - you would have been speechless, as have I.
Now if any of this creativity and personalization could be brought to the enterprise space...
Day 2 Keynote
On Day 2 Nadella opened the keynote and positioned the day to be the day for the backend. And Azure has come a long way. He claimed significant adoption of Azure – with 50% of the Fortune 500 using it, 250k customers overall and the addition of 1000 customers per day, and over 3.2M organizations using it with 65M active users. And Azure stores 8.5T storage objects per day and about 900k transactions per seconds. And there are 18+ data centers and 100+ co-locations. That is some serious workload and investment, and just 2 months after the GA of Azure as IaaS, the IaaS payload is already at 20% of overall payload (but it had the benefit of a long beta period).
Azure has one of the industry most diverse payloads
Nadella continued with pointing out how the firstparty applications (these are the Microsoft owned ones) keep Microsoft honest and to remain committed to the overall IaaS game. And to his point Azure today runs 300k servers alone for the Xbox community, SkyDrive has 250M accounts and 50M users of Office Web Apps. And then there is Skype with 190M users. And Bing is becoming more exposed to become a platform and uses Azure more and more, for instance for and expected 1B of notifications per month.
Luckily for customers, Microsoft assumes a first party equals third partywhich means that Azure customer loads are treated equally to Microsoft loads. An interesting argument as it would mean that it would take away any spare capacity considerations for the Azure cloud capacity. Which puts enormous pressure on the virtualization and elasticity capabilities of Azure – but later more on that.
Microsoft expands light blue stack
And true to previous announcements, Microsoft is opening Azure beyond the usual Microsoft tools and technologies – Nadella mentioned making Oracle a first class citizen, adding support of Java to existing node and PHP support. And while we applaud Microsoft to this step – it needs to realize that it will be difficult to create loyalty in this community beyond the IaaS deployments without more support in scaffolding and tooling. But it’s early days and remains to be seen where Microsoft goes with that.
Visual Studio - already with Oracle DBMS deployment capability
Websites? Websites! Websites?
I was surprised with Nadella starting the use cases of Azure with websites. Not something I was expecting too much of the Microsoft technology stack to be used. But the following demo showed again Microsofts new leitmotif of a platform that is easy to use – mostly with oneliners: In a demo a number of web site feature and animations were shown. And they were easy to create and maintain. So web site building seem to be one key focus for Microsoft, even made GA for a dedicated product – Windows Azure Websites.
Mobile matters
Micosoft has made it easier than ever to create mobile applications, true to the direction of exposing more services in the Azure platform. The good news is that developers can now deploy their applications not only to Windows Mobile, but also to Android and iOS. And needless to say that Windows Azure Mobile Services went… GA at Build.
Next it was Scott Guthrie’s turn on stage – finally – putting some light on what is going on at the backend to enable all these mobile apps and websites.
Finally – Auto-scale
To dynamically ramp up computing resources in Azure you had to write custom scripts or use other tools to enable this key cloud quality. So finally Microsoft has addressed that by adding auto-scaling capability to Azure. And for most apps this is a welcome change, as it puts the sizing burden, under a given SLA to the provider, in this case Azure. But some specific apps may have to be build up the trust in this brand new features. But at the end of the day the auto-scaling of a cloud provider should bet by far the average capability of an app provider to write scale up and scale down assets for a cloud infrastructure.
With the new auto-scale feature Azure can scale for websites, cloud services and virtual machines, the pretty standard folding lines to tackle scaling nowadays.
Now for the sizing of websites administrators can scale by min / max instances and target CPU utilization. And on the services side, the scaling seems to be service specific, Charles Lemanna showed scaling by CPU as well as queue depth – which is a nice capability, making scaling less technical and more business related. And lastly for virtual machines there is auto-scale capability between a min / max of instances. And with the recent industry change to minute billing and Azure not charging for stop VMs – this can equate into significant money savings.
Identity, Identity
For all cloud projects, identity matters greatly, so not surprisingly Microsoft focuses on this – and given it’s hold on Active Directory this is a home run easily. Being able to transfer Active Directory entries and privileges between on premise and cloud is a key claim on the cloud properties of the future. So Microsoft allows the easy federation of on premise Active Directories to Windows Azure Active Directory. And added an easy console that allows to add user privileges to other standard SaaS apps and platforms – we saw Box, Basecamp – but also Salesforce.com and Google Apps. Even AWS.
To prove the oppeness point the omnipresent Box CEO Aaron Levie came on stage – the surprise being that Box and Sharepoint do not have the easiest of relationships. But Build is not a collaboration and documentation management conference – but a developer conference. And have a co-opetitor on stage attesting to the new found openness of Microsoft certainly helps. And Levie obliged to fill the role.
BizTalk for Business Integration
And of course BizTalk cannot be missing here – if you want to attract enterprise class applications. Not surprisingly the examples was how hard it is to integrate a SAP system with other applications – SaaS or non. And Microsoft is re-using the already previously built adapters to SAP, Oracle, Siebel and JD Edwards (which shows a bit how dated the product is). But re-use is good and BizTalk services can make these adapters available through modern JSON and REST APIs, which make them much more easy to consume.
But even more value is created with the BizTalk servers being available in the cloud – what was a tedious, time consuming installation on premise – is now merely a mapping exercise of (hopefully) working APIs. A big deployment advantage for the cloud and shows how even old on premise assets like a BizTalk adapter to JD Edwards can get a fresh start with being deployed from the cloud.
Examples of out-of-the box authentication capabilities
BigData not missing
Needless to say Azure has a BigData strategy, which runs on top of the capabilities of Windows Azure Storage. With the recently launched HD Insight offering, it’s easy to spin out Hadoop clusters to the cloud.
Equally relational databases can be spun out to Azure. Oracle’s DBMS being the most recent addition and prominently featured in below snapshot.
Office for enterprise apps
A little bit surprising – but in line with the overall platform services strategy, Microsoft also exposes Office / Office 365 capabilities to be used in Azure. The demo example that was chosen was very document centric, and was a good one – recruitment. In the demo a decent good recruitment application was assembled in mere minutes. Office 365 provides new data types, like eg all documents of an user. And the demo tied it together with SharePoint and with the corporate social network (Yammer?). But there is not only document, but equally social and networking capability – as well as email capability. No more worries of building pseudo email clients into enterprise applications – now just authenticate to the user, use his emails, send them on his behalf – and all – if you stay loyal to the Microsoft framework – in a pretty and consistent user interface to the Office apps.
Azure... and the 7 dwarfs?
At some point in the keynotes - it started to remind me a little bit of Snow white - lot's of little helpers - so in likely infringement of copyrights I created the below collage of (Princess) Azure being aided by the 7 dwarfs...
But cartoonish views aside - the ability to support Azure - in the case of Active DIrectory even by just moving the product into the cloud - are opening new perspectives. As when for example more Bing is being used, more Bing will have to be put onto Azure, which by itself again provides more platform and better services to applications, which drive more usage to Azure. It's all connected to positively propel itself ahead.
MyPOV
Microsoft has picked up considerable speed - at least judging from the outside. I do not recall an enterprise software event with so many GAs being casually dropped left and right. The good news is that the company sees to listen - most notably around the new release of Windows 8.1 and the return of the desktop as the dominant control center of all actions Windows.
It is clear that the push to services is coming to fruition and all pieces of the Microsoft product realm are helping the use Azure, helping by providing services. If Microsoft orchestrates this right, it will be able to create a mutually beneficial symbiosis between the products providing platform services and their own respective growth. And Microsoft has done a great job with exposing these services in a simple and consumable way, we expect this to help adoption significantly.
And lastly - the newly proven commitment to openness - with the partnership with Oracle giving proof of that - should make Azure more attractive to future payloads.
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…...
Just 14 months after announcing the acquisition of Trinicom, Kana has revealed the latest release of its cloud customer service suite for the mid-market, Kana Express. Released on June 27, 2013, the new product reflects the company’s mission “To provide leading customer service solutions that empower our customers to create experiences that count, for their customers wherever they engage”.
Key features in the release include:
Advanced analytics and reporting. Kana Express features improved trend analysis, performance reporting, and forecasting. Personalization has been improved and new reporting options include an easy to use custom dashboard designer.
Point of View (POV): Analytics and reporting is often an after thought in design for mid-market solutions. Key reports such as contact flux, cockpits, and customer monitors provide not only information, but insight into what the next best action could be. The custom dashboard designer enables easy creation of visualizations and filtering of data by dimensions.
Anytime, anywhere, access. Improvements in access include mobile device usage, Section 508 disability compliance, and internationalization capabilities. Support for 30 languages out of the box, user defined time zones, double-byte character sets, and international address validation add to a list of features supporting international business requirements .
Point of View (POV): Prospects will most likely flock to they eye candy features of mobile support for device and screen readers. However, the internationalization efforts close the gap between large expensive enterprise solutions and what mid-market solutions traditionally offered. Constellation sees this as an immediate win for companies with an international footprint but not an international budget.
Improved browser based user experience. Kana Express supports Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari browsers. Additional enhancements include support for live chat, contextual next best options, and real-time access to the knowledge base.
Point of View (POV): Agents can tailor the new UI and personalize to their preferences, reducing click throughs and improving productivity. One powerful feature is the ability to automatically present contextual knowledge such as a related topic, interaction history information, or external system data.
Figure 1. Kana Express Screenshots Show New User Experience and Improved Accessability
Source: Kana
The Bottom Line: Consider Kana Express for Mid-market and Departmental Omni-channel Customer Service
Mid-market organizations are often challenged to find a solution that allows them to scale up growth and also priced at an affordable entry point. A successful post acquisition product launch, 30-day risk free money back guarantee, flexible subscription and pricing plans, and rapid implementation services provide strong reasons for organizations to consider Kana in short lists. Kana has found a balance with Kana Express and now has grown from 200 to 250 customers in the past 14 months in key industries such as retail, travel, media, and services. As customer experience expands, expect organizations to seek a bridge between customer service and marketing. This may be an area where Kana Express expands into as customers seek tighter integration in delivering on customer experience.
Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales.
Disclosure
Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website.
* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions. However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.
Deadline for applications 
As we begin to ramp up our efforts for the second half of 2013, it’s always worth taking a moment to reflect on what has emerged, what is emerging and the gaps that are becoming obvious in our marketing strategy and tactics.
Third Cloud Based Vendor Certified As “Epic” For Constellation CosmosTM Cloud Buyer’s Bill of Rights Evaluations
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