Market Maker 1:1: Beyond #BigData, The Shift To Decision Management w/ James Taylor (@jamet123)

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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From Data to Decisions – The Shift To Decision Management

Organizations have faced a constant technology arms race to achieve basic levels of decision management.  From data warehousing, to data marts, to reporting tools to BI, and now Big Data, organizations and leaders have been inundated with technology fads.  While the the latest buzz in technology may come and go, Constellation Research believes organizations seek a path from data to information to insight to action.  This path from Data to Decisions drives the science and discipline behind decision management.

Consequently, decision management in the data to decisions world examines the necessary tools, steps and methods for deriving insight from data and acting on it.  These tools are useful creating informed people and processes, but the continuation and follow-through to decisions and actions demands a robust set of performance monitoring and management practices. Those are the table stakes.  In many cases, application of decision automation, semantic technology and collaborative tools are also needed.   Data 2 decisions is about moving from insight to action and moving to fact based decisions making at all levels of the organization.

I sat down with James Taylor, a thought leader in this space to hear his insights on the latest trends.

The Inside View With James Taylor – One of The Leaders In Decision Management Systems

R “Ray” Wang (RW): James is the CEO and a Principal Consultant of Decision Management Solutions. He is the leading expert in how to use business rules and analytic technology to build Decision Management Systems. James is passionate about using Decision Management Systems to help companies improve decision making and develop an agile, analytic and adaptive business. He provides strategic consulting to companies of all sizes, working with clients in all sectors to adopt decision making technology. James has spent the last 20 years developing approaches, tools, and platforms that others can use to build more effective information systems. He has led Decision Management efforts for leading companies in insurance, banking, health management and telecommunications.

James is the author of “Decision Management Systems: A practical guide to using business rules and predictive analytics” (IBM Press, 2011). He previously wrote Smart (Enough) Systems: How to Deliver Competitive Advantage by Automating Hidden Decisions (Prentice Hall) with Neil Raden, and has contributed chapters on Decision Management to multiple books including “Applying Real-World BPM in an SAP Environment”, “The Decision Model”, “The Business Rules Revolution: Doing Business The Right Way” and “Business Intelligence Implementation: Issues and Perspectives” as well as many articles to magazines.

In addition to strategy and implementation consulting, James delivers webinars, workshops and training. He is a regular keynote speaker at conferences around the world such as the Decision Management Summit, Business Rules Forum, Predictive Analytics World and IBM’s Business Analytics Forum.

James was previously a Vice President at Fair Isaac Corporation where he developed and refined the concept of decision management. The best known proponent of the approach, James helped create the emerging Decision Management market and is a passionate advocate of decision management. He understands how companies buy and use these technologies and he has helped companies successfully adopt these technologies and apply them in the context of Business Process Management and Business Intelligence initiatives.

1. I noticed that you are tying Decision Management to the Customer Relationships? What are some basic principles that someone knew to this space should know about?

James Taylor (JT): Historically Decision Management got applied primarily in risk and fraud but the energy recently has shifted to customer decisions. Decision Management works best on high volume, repeatable decisions. For most organizations, decisions about customers are the ones they take most often. Focusing on how to manage these decisions offers companies tremendous value in becoming more customer-centric and improving their customer engagement and relationships. At the end of the day your customer relationships are driven by their reaction to the decisions you make about them. Developing systems to manage these decisions that are agile enough to change when that is necessary, that embed analytics to improve these decisions, and that are adaptive so they can improve over time is a critical need for better customer relationships. Managing customer decisions is not the only thing you can do with Decision Management, just a great place to start to unlock customer value and drive the customer journey.

2. What’s been the big shift in the journey from Data to Decisions?

(JT): I think there have been three big shifts. The first is an increase in the use of more advanced analytics. Where reporting and perhaps dashboards used to be the primary way to use data, now more organizations are using data mining, predictive analytics and advanced visualization techniques. We see a tremendous growth in these more advanced analytics. Second we also see a focus on operations and operational decisions, with more organizations trying to improve decision-making at the front-line of their organization – where they interact with customers and their supply chain – not just in their back office. Finally we are beginning to see organizations becoming explicit about the decisions involved. Instead of just putting data out there, summarizing it and perhaps visualizing it and hoping that someone will be able to make better decisions, organizations are explicitly identifying the decisions that they need to improve. Then they are building the right kind of decision support or decision management system to ensure that decision gets done right. This last topic is a personal interest and one of the most exciting sessions for me is the hands-on session where folks will actually get to do some decision modeling.

3. Where are we with this fad and hype around #bigdata? Is this just the beginning or will we morph?

(JT): We already see more folks talking about #analytics and #bigdata being used together. Instead of just focusing on managing big data we see organizations talking about how they manage big data AND do advanced analytics against those new data sources. We are learning to handle the velocity, volume and variety of data in our analytics. That said most organization’s “next” problem is not handling big data but making more analytic use of their current “small” data! We will see a morph away from a focus on big data as a technical challenge and towards handling big data being one of our analytic challenges. This whole issue of how we can take big data and actually use it to improve decision-making.

4. Have executives in the C-Suite grasped the benefits of Decision Management?

(JT): Some have. Decision Management is already well established in the banking industry with major consumer credit issuers having VPs of Decision Management for instance. We are beginning to see C-suite interest in Insurance and Telco also with Retail coming up fast, often led by the CMO. Like anything with an analytic component we do see resistance from many c-suiters who think that decisions are their business but once they realize that Decision Management is about improving the front line decisions of their organization and giving them the ability to truly manage and improve these decisions they often become big supporters.

5. Do you see 2013 budgets increasing for Decision Management?

(JT): Yes but most of those budgets are assigned to specific business uses of Decision Management – how do I personalize my marketing or manage customer service decisions across all my channels for instance. Most organizations don’t explicitly ask for Decision Management yet but they are assigning increased budgets to the kinds of things that require Decision Management such as risk management, fraud reduction and customer-centricity. Organizations making investments in analytics are increasingly seeing that an investment in Decision Management can leverage that investment and this is driving broader adoption too.

6. If you weren’t doing what you were doing today, what other profession would you pursue?

(JT): Well my passion is military history so it would sure be nice to be writing books or articles on military history and giving the occasional lecture on some interesting historical topic!

7. What’s your favorite sci-fi gadget or technology toy?

(JT): I always liked the Star Trek replicator and I find 3D printing technology fascinating – I am particularly looking forward to seeing how digital natives will use 3D printers to create art.

(RW): James, always a pleasure. We’ll catch up with you from time and time again!

(JT): Likewise. Have fun!

(RW): You can follow more of James’ thoughts here:

Twitter: @jamet123

Blog: JT on Everything Decision Management

Follow Data to Decisions at Constellation Research, Inc.

To learn more about this business theme coverage area, you can follow our analysts here.  Current coverage areas include Big Data, Data Quality, Decision Management, Insights, Information Management, Internet of Things, Master Data, Visualization Technologies.

Your POV

What do you think? Got a question for James? Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.

To be considered for Market Maker 1:1 series, please reach out to Elaine (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com. Previous series will be completed for 2012. Sorry for any delays.

Reprints

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact sales (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com.

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, see the full client list on the Constellation Research website.

News Analysis: Epicor Acquires Solarsoft, Moves Closer To $1B in Annual Revenues

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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In Epicor’s first major acquisition since Apax partners brought Activant and Epicor together, the near $900M Dublin, CA-based enterprise software announced its acquisition of Solarsoft from Marin Equity Partners.   Based in the UK, Solarsoft focuses on MES, ERP, and distribution software in specialty verticals for over 2500 customers.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Expected ramifications from the deal include:

• Solarsoft bringing deeper micro-vertical expertise to Epicor. Solarsoft’s offerings reflect a mini-version of Epicor.  Covering the manufacturing and distribution capabilities, key verticals include? automotive, building and construction, discrete manufacturing, food and beverage, general distribution, hi-tech product distribution, mills metals and chemicals, print packaging manufacturing, pharma and cosmetics, plastics and rubber, process manufacturing, and stamping forge and casting. Solarsoft brings MES capabilities to Epicor.
  
  Point of View (POV): In the latest Constellation Report on mid-market buyers, peace of mind and deep industry vertical were the two topics buyers sought from their solution provider.  Constellation expects growth in the micro-vertical process manufacturing areas, distribution, and  the MES solutions.  Solarsoft complements many of the legacy Activant distribution micro verticals.  Meanwhile, Epicor currently lacks a food and beverage offering which is a core Solarsoft strength.  With strong growth expected in Latin America, China and India, this market lacks many modern options for traceability and modern food and beverage requirements.  Natural resources will also receive a boost providing a competitor to JD Edwards as Solarsoft recently acquired Progressive Solutions which was a leader in the lumber and building materials supply chain.

• Epicor driving to global class economies of scale. Solarsoft’s annual revenues were estimated to be $100M.  Epicor’s estimated revenues are $850 for 2012.  Upon closure of the acquisition, Epicor will remain a stone’s throw away from the magical $1B mark.  Solarsoft adds 400 employeees to the overall coverage areas and brings technical expertise in barcode automation, wireless technologies, cloud, mobile, and real-time production systems.
  
  (POV): At $1B, Epicor will achieve a greater scale in back office operations and research and development.  Epicor has always supported global operations for the small to mid-market.  As Epicor moves more towards more micro-verticals, those economies of scale enable Epicor to focus deeper on last mile vertical solutions and provide the sales and support infrastructure expected in a maturing ERP market.  Epicor’s ability to go from shop floor to distribution provides a single source for many customers.  Epicor must also service almost $600M in accumulated debt from previous mergers and acquisitions.

The Bottom Line: Epicor’s Acquisitions Enable Market Viability and Vertical Industry Specialization

In less than a decade, the market has moved from 100 ERP vendors to about a dozen that matter. Epicor’s ability to continually acquire and innovate sets it apart in the market place.  As one of the few vendors who made the transition to a fully multi-tenant SaaS/Cloud ready SOA architecture, Epicor has a modern platform that can be applied to acquisitions over time.  Despite the diminished ERP choices in the market place, customers will find that consolidation will bring more vertical and industry specialization to the market.   Mid market vendors such as Epicor must go micro vertical, mobile, and cloud to win over SAP and Oracle customers.

Your POV.

Have you considered Epicor in the past 12 months?  What do you think of the acquisitions strategy?  Are you a midmarket organization looking for help in vendor selection and software strategy?  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.

Reprints

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.

Copyright © 2001 – 2012 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience!

Sensors Sensors Everywhere

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Test

Joseph is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc.  Covering all things related to Data Management and Analytics, he focuses on making better decisions through using new sources of data, innovative ways of interweaving the volumetric flow of data of increasing compexity, and disruptive techniques for drawing inferences and making predictions from that data. Sensor networks Mobile devices Machine-to-machine interchanges Machine-to-human interactiions Sensor Analytics Internet of Things Sustainability Self-quantification Since 1978, Joseph has been involved with renewable energy research, developing advanced statistical methods for complex system analysis, and creating analytical techniques and management methodologies for solving business,…...

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A sensor is anything that can create data about its environs. A more formal definition is

a device that detects or measures a physical property and records, indicates, or otherwise responds to it -New Oxford American Dictionary

A very simple example is a thermocouple.

This is a picture of a k-type thermocouple taken from the FAA under a CC By license

Essentially, two metals are bound together such that when the environment around this wire becomes hotter or colder, the metals produce a voltage. Through this thermoelectric effect, this strain translate into a voltage differential across the wire, producing an electrical signal. A simple voltmeter can read this signal, and one could calibrate that electrical signal to be read as degrees of temperature change.

You likely have one of these in your home thermostat. Perhaps you have a very simple thermostat that turns your home heater on and off.

This is a picture of an older model, simple home thermostat, with the cover removed, showing the inner workings, under a CC By license

Perhaps you have a more complex, programmable thermostat that can control the temperature and humidity of your home through a furnace, air conditioner, humidifier/dehumidifier and fans, with different settings for different times of the day and days of the week.

This is a picture of an advanced Honeywell Programmable Home Thermostat with a green backlit LCD display from the Honeywell website.

Perhaps you have something that looks very simple, but is now part of a complex system that includes not only your home HVAC system, but your computer and smartphone, and computers and analytic software at your utility company.

This is a picture of the very advanced Nest home thermostat, which looks very simple but connects to your computers, smartphones, tablets and more, from the Nest website press downloads.

And this progression is why the Internet of Things is about to explode with Connected Data, with sensors being the new nerve endings of an increasingly intelligent world.

This is a section of my Internet of Things mindmap showing just the sensor branches.

Imagine sensors streaming Connected Data from your home entertainment system, refrigerator & most of its contents, toaster, coffee maker, alarm clock, garden, irrigation, home security, parking on the street in front of your home, traffic flowing by your home to your destination, air quality, and so much more.

We will interact with the world around us in ways that will change our decision making processes in our personal lives, in business, and in the regulatory processes of governments.

If you want to learn more, join IBM and my fellow panelists on Thursday, Sept. 13, from 4 to 5 p.m. ET to chat about cloud and the connected home using hashtag #cloudchat.

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

How AMAG Pharmaceuticals Achieved Tech Optimization In a Highly Regulated Industry

Oracle Unveils New Social Relationship Management (SRM) Platform

Alumni: Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Yvette Cameron was VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc. focusing on next generation HCM processes and technologies, and is founder of NextGen Insights. Yvette is now a Constellation Research alumna. , Title: Big Ideas CRM concepts will transform HCM processes for new levels of Employee Engagement and Business Results Companies are investing heavily to understand and optimize their customer relationships, but less so with their employee relationships. We must apply the tenets of CRM to HCM processes to understand, engage and align the workforce, because customer success begins with employee success. From “Command and Control” to “Engage and Inspire” Traditional work practices and business structures are evolving at an unparalleled rate. New thinking and disruptive…...

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Today Oracle announced its new Social Relationship Management (SRM) Platform, an integrated software platform that helps organizations listen, engage, market and monitor their social interactions with all of its constituents across the enterprise (prospects, customers, influencers, partners, candidates and employees.)  

Oracle has been engaged in social-enabled business for a while, delivering Oracle Social Network and bringing social collaboration into processes like Fusion HCM via Fusion Network at Work.  Today’s announcement takes Oracle well beyond social conversations into a comprehensive platform play.  It is leveraging several of its acquisitions from earlier this year (Vitrue, Collective Intellect and Involver) to round out its initial offering in the SRM suite, but the vision for the SRM platform spans the many diverse business processes of the enterprise.

Today, the Oracle SRM suite is comprised of the following:

The two newest additions to the suite are:

Social Engagement and Monitoring, comprised of Oracle’s recent acquisitions of Collective Intellect and Involver, provide a best of breed solution aimed at listening to and engaging in customer in conversations.

Social Marketing, coming from the Vitrue acquisition, marries social channels, content and data with traditional CRM systems to make better decisions around social customer engagement and marketing initiatives. 

Beyond Social CRM – Oracle SRM aims for a holistic view of the individual (employees included)

During the launch, Oracle explained its philosophy of  “building the lifetime customer experience”.  That experience includes concepts such as combining the social understanding of an individual (as a social networker) with the enterprise understanding of that individual (as a customer) to deliver better insights and predictions – for example, not just measuring a customer’s value based on the revenue they bring into the organization, but also on the influence that customer has on revenue through social media.

Oracle envisions extending this holistic insight to the workforce as well. 

Within talent acquisition,  the new SRM platform will enrich the Taleo recruiting offering to bring monitoring, engagement and even social marketing together with Taleo to bolster talent acquisition and retention endeavors. By helping organizations leverage their internal and external social tools to create seamless environments, Oracle looks to help companies turn their employees into  “brand ambassadors” (where they are positively engaged and communicative through social channels to promote the company as a good place to work and/or to do business with). 

Beyond recruiting, the profile of the individual – their combined employee profile as well as social profiles – will be leveraged for greater insight and decision support across the enterprise.  I believe this holistic employee view is at least 12-18 months away from reality (with Oracle focusing most of its initial efforts on the ‘lifetime customer’ side), but I am nonetheless encouraged to hear Oracle presenting this future vision.

My POV:

The social landscape is highly fragmented, with hundreds of technology vendors servicing the many different aspects of social relationship management. While this fragmentation is providing innovation on all fronts, it is also resulting in a fragmented relationship and incomplete insights with customers, partners, and employees. Oracle’s SRM platform, through acquisition and native development, looks to unify that experience and provide a complete platform for end to end support for any enterprise relationship. With more than 380K clients across the world, and with the market for social technologies growing at close to 60%, the opportunity for Oracle is substantial.

Oracle speaks of close to 1000 clients on its new SRM platform, but almost all of these clients come from the recent Vitrue, Collective Intellect and Involver solutions.  Yet the platform presents  a good vision for supporting social-enabled business: one fueled by the opportunities externally and internally to drive new insights and results through effective application of emerging disruptive technologies. 

The technologies used to address people processes – or HCM considerations – are increasingly coming from non-traditional HCM vendors.  A CRM leader, Salesforce.com, is suddenly messaging and delivering in the area of employee engagement and performance.  Social task and project management tools are encroaching upon performance and goal management solution providers.  Even pure enterprise social networking technologies deliver on the fundamentals of social learning and knowledge management.  HR and HR technology leaders will find their areas influenced by these and other emerging tools; staying abreast of the advances in areas like CRM will help these HR leaders envision and plan for their new futures of work.

Filed under: Cloud, ERP, Future of Work, Mobile/Social, Oracle, Social, Talent Management Tagged: Cloud, CRM, future of work, HCM, Oracle, SRM, yvette cameron

News Analysis: Infosys Buys Lodestone for $350M

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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Global outsourcing and Bangalore Infotech bellwether Infosys (NASDAQ:INFY), announced its agreement to purchase Zurich-based Lodestone Management Consultancy for $350M.  A quick analysis of the news reveals:

• Infosys strengthens its EMEA and SAP vertical presence. Lodestone brings 850 employees which 750 are front line delivery personnel. Lodestone’s 200 clients span industries such as life sciences, consumer goods, automotive, financial Services,  banking and industrial equipment. across a profitable and strategic SAP customer base.
  
  Point of View (POV): The Lodestone acquisition gives Infosys a profitable and strategic SAP customer base.  While some may say this acquisition, which has taken some time to complete, is a late response to the July 2009 HCL – Axon acquisition, Constellation believes this is part of a larger but more conservative approach to shore up Infosys’ EMEA strategy.  In the short term, the economics of EMEA will work against Infosys as Eurozone concerns amplify into 2013.  Long-term, the acquisition may prove itself out as Infosys gains a greater foothold through consolidation.  Constellation estimates $1B in revenues from SAP alone post merger.

• Lodestone methodology and culture will transform Infosys. Lodestone brings it’s trademark IDEA methodology.  IDEA represents insight, design, execute, and achieve.  This approach aligns with Six Sigma standards and SAP ASAP to improve the quality of implementation outcomes.
  
  Point of View (POV): Infosys can gain from learning the IDEA approach in achieving business transformation across the project life cycle.  More importantly, Infosys gains deep local expertise in a wide range of SAP dominant industries.  Constellation believes the goal is to build out the Infosys 3.0. strategy, which is about expanding into management consulting and systems integration and away from outsourcing.

The Bottom Line: Traditional BPO Models Have Run Their Course and Traditional Outsourcers Must Act Quickly Or Suffer

With the growing backlash on outsourcing in the US elections spreading to continental Europe, traditional BPO models may no longer provide growth.  India’s info-tech giants must take the path to the next level and focus on IP innovation and creation (see Figure 1).   While these are new skill sets required to deliver the next generation of IT services, the shift will take time and a cultural revolution.  Can India’s infotech companies make the shift to a cloud meets subscription economy?  Will the shift from trusted advisor to innovation partner happen quickly enough?  Every global outsourcer faces these same questions amidst consumerization of IT, the rise of cloud computing, and oppression and domination by the mega software ecosystems.

Figure 1.  The Path From Body Shop Provider to High Value Creator

Your POV.

Are you ready for the new Infosys? Do you think they can make the shift from outsourcer to management consultancy?  Let us know your experiences.  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) com.

Related Constellation Research

Wang, R. “Best Practices – Three Simple Software Maintenance Strategies That Can Save You Millions” Constellation Research, Inc. March 8, 2012

Scavo, Frank & Wang, R. “Big Idea: Constellation’s Business Value Framework” Constellation Research, Inc.  January 31, 2012.

Wang, R. “Best Practices: Why Every CIO Should Consider Third-Party Maintenance.” Constellation Research, Inc. August 7, 2012.

Wang, R. “Market Overview: The Market For SAP Optimization Options” Constellation Research, Inc. May 11, 2011.

Wang, R. “Best Practices: The Case for Two-Tier ERP Deployments” Constellation Research, Inc. February 28, 2011.

Reprints

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.

Copyright © 2001 – 2012 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience!

The Answer is Talent Mobility. Now, What's Your Question?

Alumni: Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Yvette Cameron was VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc. focusing on next generation HCM processes and technologies, and is founder of NextGen Insights. Yvette is now a Constellation Research alumna. , Title: Big Ideas CRM concepts will transform HCM processes for new levels of Employee Engagement and Business Results Companies are investing heavily to understand and optimize their customer relationships, but less so with their employee relationships. We must apply the tenets of CRM to HCM processes to understand, engage and align the workforce, because customer success begins with employee success. From “Command and Control” to “Engage and Inspire” Traditional work practices and business structures are evolving at an unparalleled rate. New thinking and disruptive…...

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If there were a secret sauce to organizational success, then you would find “Effective Talent Mobility Program” as one of its first ingredients.

From addressing the top concerns of CEOs to the daily challenges of line of business leaders and the concerns of individual employees – an effective talent mobility strategy can have significant positive results at all levels, and on the business as a whole.

What is Talent Mobility?

Fundamentally, talent mobility is about the movement of talent across the organization (across projects, roles, teams, divisions, locations, etc.).  Based on the driving party, these workforce initiatives are typically called succession planning (employer-initiated) or career planning (employee initiated), but at the end of the day it all comes down to the readiness for and actual movement of talent in the enterprise.

When I refer to talent mobility as part of the “secret sauce”, I’m not talking about  yesterday’s strategies – where succession plans are based on senior job titles;  where “internal recruiting” means a job is posted internally for five days and then routed to the external job sites; or an employee seeking career growth is handed a listing of the next three job titles up the ladder and the associated required training and tenure for each role.

Instead, I’m talking about talent mobility for the future of work  – what works in an environment where five generations are converging on the enterprise but bringing divergent perspectives on work, rewards and motivation; where hierarchies give way to networks, and influence is the new social currency; where virtual teams and mobile devices drive expectations for an always-on, always-connected, always-informed experience.

What’s The Risk?

You can hardly view a blog, tweet or magazine article without hearing the extent to which employees are disengaged, mistrustful of leadership, and open to being poached by competitors. Consider the following stats:

• At any given time, more than 2/3rds of a company’s workforce is disengaged¹ – workers are essentially sleepwalking on the job.
• 65% of employees are looking – either actively or passively – to leave their organization.²
• Only 18% of Millennials expect to remain in their current job for the long term;³ 37% say they do not trust “big business” (read this one as “we’re recruiting challenges for big firms!”)

Improving employee engagement is paramount, as study after study correlates improved engagement with improved retention, productivity and business outcomes such as customer satisfaction, profitability and brand.  According to the Corporate Leadership Board⁴,

Employees most committed to their organizations put forth 57 percent more effort and are 87 percent less likely to leave their company than employees who consider themselves disengaged.

By incorporating a few key design tenets into their talent mobility strategies, organizations can propel engagement and bottom line results across the organization.

Five Tenets for Effective Talent Mobility

1. Focus on people, not titles.  Succession plans focused on replacements for certain titles and roles fail to account for the valuable hidden talent of the organization.  Such an  approach also fails to plan for the departure of critical employees who, despite being in individual contributor roles or holding nominal titles, nonetheless serve pivotal roles in greasing the wheels of success in the organization.  Uncovering your hidden talent is possible when social tools are part of the enabling technology of your mobility programs:  expanded profiles allow for greater talent insight, while social network analysis can uncover critical connections and impacts previously undetected.
2. Eschew the corporate ladder; embrace the corporate lattice.  The latest generation of worker is less motivated by factors such as pay and job titles, and more by recognition, engagement at senior levels, and the ability to work on projects of high interest. However, lateral or even downward moves in the organization may be required to access these opportunities.  If your company culture only values upward mobility, then your development, retention and mobility strategies can have limited results at best.  Embracing and celebrating moves anywhere along the corporate lattice will foster corporate agility while engendering improved trust and motivation from individuals. (Note: embracing the lattice also means embracing the actual movement of talent…an increased volume in transfers and cross-team assignments, or some level of ambiguity around corporate hierarchies, will be standard in such a culture.)
3. Broaden the focus beyond “jobs” to include “opportunities”.  Expanding one’s skills and experiences should not always require an official job change.  Temporary project assignments, virtual teams assembled for a defined period of time, dynamic org structures that constantly reform around strategic initiatives: these are the emerging realities of workplace structures in the future of work.  Beyond support for managing job openings, tools are emerging that enable users to share these more project-based initiatives across the enterprise social network.  Instead of staffing ad-hoc or short-term projects with the same resources again and again, extend visibility of the opportunities across the enterprise, creating new options for employees and improving communication, transparency, trust and engagement.
4. Incorporate mentorship and coaching. Process-wise this is a no-brainer, but many organizations still do not officially support mentor/coaching programs as part of talent mobility programs.   Today’s technologies support mentor and coaching relationships that range from highly informal and unstructured conversations to richly choreographed relationships with milestones, tracking, reviews and more.  The use of social technologies makes finding and connecting to mentors or coaches easier than ever before, and matching algorithms in the technology can further automate the mentor/mentee connection process, refining its calculations over time.
5. Give employees the tools they need to drive their own success. With today’s technologies, talent mobility does not have to remain a top-down process managed in complex systems.  Today’s social-infused tools foster employee engagement throughout the mobility program; recommendations of potential job or opportunity matches (for “passive” internal candidates) are delivered to employees’ devices of choice; individuals can scan or search across opportunities, engaging in conversations with opportunity owners and others; employees are able to promote their ‘brand’ by communicating successes, soliciting feedback and engaging visibility across the enterprise.  Intelligence in the form of recommendation engines, analytics and visualizations are part of the experience to drive employee self-sufficiency.

Internal mobility programs that continuously engage the workforce will also have beneficial effects on external recruiting initiatives, as members of your engaged workforce become positive brand ambassadors for your organization.

Want to hear firsthand how one Silicon Valley leader is doing it?

Join us for an exclusive luncheon in Palo Alto on Wednesday Sept 12. 

If you’re going to be in the Silicon Valley on Wednesday, September 12, please join me as I talk with Michael McNeal, Intuit’s VP Talent Strategy & Acquisition, and senior executives from UpMo, innovators in social talent management, on this topic of talent retention and mobility.  You’ll hear about Intuit’s path to creating a talent mobility culture and engage in an interactive session with peers from across the Valley on the cultural, technological and business implications of these initiatives.  This is a complimentary event, being held at the Four Seasons Silicon Valley in Palo Alto.  Register here

Exclusive Luncheon sponsored by UpMo.

Data sources:

¹ US Employment Engagement Survey, Gallup Management Journal 2012
² Deloitte “Talent Edge 2020, Building the Recovery Together” 2011
³ PWC “Millennials at Work: Reshaping the Workplace” 2012
⁴ Corporate Leadership Council “The Role of Employee Engagement in the Return to Growth” 2010

Press Release: Gavin Heaton Joins Constellation Research to Provide Digital Marketing Research and Advisory Services

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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Digital Media Luminary to Launch Constellation’s Newest Research Theme, Digital Marketing Transformation

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Constellation Research, Inc., the award-winning research and advisory firm focused on helping clients navigate emerging and disruptive technologies announced today the addition of esteemed digital media pioneer, Gavin Heaton to the research team as Vice President and Principal Analyst. Heaton will lead Constellation’s latest business-focused research theme, Digital Marketing Transformation. Heaton’s research, which focuses on the changing role and expectations of CMOs, the fusion of marketing channels and change-driven marketing innovation, expands Constellation’s ability to provide digital marketing research and advisory services to its early adopter clients worldwide.

Heaton’sresearch and advisory will enable clients to take advantage of the convergence of media, technology, brands, and business. Specifically:

• Understanding where social media fits within the business landscape
• Aligning business and online engagement strategies
• Channeling the passion of employees toward the achievement of business goals

Heaton commented: “We are seeing a dramatic shift in the role of marketing. Advertising is under pressure, social is changing our customer relationships and the Consumerization of IT is changing the way we do our work. There has never been so much change or opportunity. I’m excited to help chart the course between marketing, technology, customers and vendors.”

Heaton has been at the forefront of technology driven marketing innovation for the past 20 years. Recently Heaton served as Social Media Director for SAP’s Premier Customer Network. He is also the co-instigator of the ground-breaking crowdsourced marketing book series The Age of Conversation.

“The move to digital changes how quickly, effectively, and relevantly we listen, test, engage, and anticipate,” says Constellation CEO, R “Ray” Wang. “Gavin is among a handful of people who not only understands this shift to digital marketing, but also brings a converged experience from agency, enterprise, and client side. Our clients expect an experienced and trusted advisor who can speak their language and translate to the IT folks. In fact, our clients seek outcomes, not technologies. Consequently, Gavin’s experiences take them one step further towards this objective. As Constellation builds out our business themed research, expect us to serving more and more of the C-Suite.”

DIGITAL MARKETING TRANSFORMATION

Digital Marketing Transformation is the newest business-focused research theme at Constellation Research, Inc. The C-suite is realizing the futility of remaining analog in a digital world. CMOs can no longer live in the campaign to lead process – CMOs must also involve themselves in big data and analytics, social and community building, reputation, and loyalty. The future is real time convergence and its name is digital.

COORDINATES

Twitter: @servantofchaos

Website: www.servantofchaos.com

Linkedin: au.linkedin.com/in/servantofchaos

Geo: Sydney, Australia

ABOUT CONSTELLATION RESEARCH

Constellation Research is a research and advisory firm focused on disruptive and emerging technologies. This renowned group of experienced analysts, led by R “Ray” Wang, focuses on business themed research including the Future of Work; Next Generation Customer Experience; From Data to Decisions; Matrix Commerce; Technology Optimization and Innovation; and Consumerization of IT and the New C-Suite.

Constellation’s collection of prestigious analysts bring real world experience, independence, and objectivity to client solutions that span cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-industry points of view. Clients join Constellation Research for a fresh and business focused perspective.

Unlike the legacy analyst firms, Constellation Research is disrupting how research is accessed, what topics are covered, and how clients can partner with a research firm to achieve success. Over 100 clients have joined from an ecosystem of buyers, partners, solution providers, c-suite, board of directors and vendor clients.

For more information about Constellation Research, visit www.ConstellationRG.com

***

Constellation Research, Constellation SuperNova Awards and the Constellation Research logo are trademarks of Constellation Research, Org. All other products and services listed herein are trademarks of their respective companies.

Getting Work Done with Work.com?

Alumni: Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Yvette Cameron was VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc. focusing on next generation HCM processes and technologies, and is founder of NextGen Insights. Yvette is now a Constellation Research alumna. , Title: Big Ideas CRM concepts will transform HCM processes for new levels of Employee Engagement and Business Results Companies are investing heavily to understand and optimize their customer relationships, but less so with their employee relationships. We must apply the tenets of CRM to HCM processes to understand, engage and align the workforce, because customer success begins with employee success. From “Command and Control” to “Engage and Inspire” Traditional work practices and business structures are evolving at an unparalleled rate. New thinking and disruptive…...

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Salesforce.com will be unveiling its HCM platform, Work.com, at Dreamforce in San Francisco later this month. What can we expect?

• Work.com is a rebranding and redevelopment of Rypple. This comes directly from CEO Marc Benioff, who adds that the new version and future directions will be demonstrated at Dreamforce.
   
• Rewards and recognition feature prominently in next-gen workforce applications. Following its December 2011 acquisition of Rypple, Salesforce acquired corporate perks management platform ChoicePass in June 2012. With messaging that Work.com will “let managers set organizational goals and recognize employees,” we can expect a broader approach to rewards and recognition in this next iteration. In fact, the new Work.com platform will highlight a trend that we at Constellation Research have been seeing in our research: the convergence of goal/task management, rewards and recognition, performance support and analytics. Combining these elements delivers contextual social engagement in the context of Getting Work Done  – the next evolution of talent management through systems of engagement
   
• Work.com is a platform play – at least for now. Benioff recently had this to say with regard to the human resources space: “We’re working hard to integrate with [Workday] to deliver a full HR suite to our customers between Salesforce.com’s Work.com, and Workday….And you’ll also see Workday’s integration with Chatter as well. We’re very excited about our initial focus here into HR.”

  Delivering a comprehensive HCM suite is time consuming, to say the least. The delivery of a social framework in support of  goals, feedback, recognition, collaboration and other core networking concepts is one thing; support of complex regulations that vary by locality/state/province/country, core employee recordkeeping, payroll, benefits and time keeping processes…these are something else entirely.  So it is no surprise to learn that Salesforce will focus on “rewards and recognition” in this first iteration and partner with Workday to bring its Work.com platform to market.

  Whether this will be a long term play or an interim step along each vendors’ development path (Salesforce’s development of the broader suite; Workday’s social enablement) has yet to be revealed. In the meantime, the combined offering will deliver end-to-end cloud based HCM with social enablement, and another blow to rivals Oracle and SAP.

With its years of experience in customer relationship management (CRM), coupled with its recent acquisitions of Buddy Media and Radian6 (forming the Salesforce Marketing Cloud),  I wonder if Salesforce will take the bold step and apply its expertise and lessons learned in CRM to future directions in “ERM” (employee relationship management).   The current positioning of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud is to be the “platform of choice for brands to listen, engage, gain insight, publish, advertise and measure” social marketing programs.  Imagine the possibilities if Salesforce applied these concepts to their talent technologies.

Mobile device penetration at Constellation Research illustrates why BYOD is an enterprise issue

Constellation Alumni

"I am fascinated by understanding technologies, then explaining how to apply these within enterprises -- while still retaining common sense." Charles Brett is VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, Inc..  His primary focus is on all aspect of mobility and the use of mobile technology in the enterprise.  For 25+ years Charles Brett has focused on delivering common sense to the application of technologies, especially software ones, in organizations of all sizes around the world. While concentrating at Constellation Research on mobility and its management in the enterprise (sometimes known as MDM or Mobile Device Management) he also addresses: mobile app development and deployment mobile apps and associated data management BYOD (Bring or Buy Your Own Device…...

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