Some of us are old enough to remember Workday’s pioneering analyst summit in August 2010. I wrote back then
“Few vendors have the guts to be open to such a smart and opinionated bunch as Workday was during its Technology Day yesterday. Like a marathon tennis match with plenty of volleys and lobs and aces, the back and forth was something to watch. As you can see from the Twitterstream and blog posts from the day a wide set of angles were covered - object models, user interface design, change management processes, analytics and integration tools (in a SaaS market where both are still weak), stuff from the labs - tablet and voice interfaces, mobile applications - and more.”
So, when we were invited to the latest iteration of their Innovation Summit for analysts last week, I had two questions:
- How many of my peers would show up given continued pandemic travel restrictions and worries?
- What would count for innovation at a company which is now almost 80 times as large and for an event whose theme was a confident “Made for this Moment”?
The first question was relatively easy to answer. I ran an informal survey when I arrived and tweeted to a colleague
“…talking to a few analysts here, we have become more selective about attending in-person events. Travel experience is still not that business friendly. Puts more pressure on vendors to rethink events. Well-crafted analyst summits like #wdaysummit are ideal format.”
It helped that this was their first in-person summit in 3 years and they took elaborate COVID testing precautions. They shipped a Lucira kit for PCR quality testing at home. We ran a test 24 hours before our flight to Silicon Valley and repeated that test upon arrival at the event hotel. About 20 analysts showed up.
The second question turned out to be far more complex. Ray Wang of Constellation Research would have liked to have heard about the metaverse, DeFi and more contemporary tech trends. Other analysts had other questions like “what about treasury management?” I myself would have liked a bit more about how Workday is reacting given the "made for the moment" theme to current events in Ukraine and the energy transition focus it has created in every country and industry.
I have been lucky to feature in my Analyst Cam and Burning Platform video episodes several Workday executives and products in the last 2 years. So, I expected a nice recap during the event.
What we did hear a lot about is Workday's architectural journey, their distinct M&A strategy and how their solutions enable what Workday calls the “Power to Adapt”.
I particularly liked the presentation by Sayan Chakraborty, EVP, Product & Technology where he said “We believe great applications can only exist alongside a great platform and from this combination - you get the 'power to adapt’”. Rather than try to just absorb acquisitions, Workday tries to benefit from the contemporary thinking at startups they acquire. More on how Workday’s architecture has evolved over 15 years in this episode of Analyst Cam with Sayan Chakraborty.
Pete Schlampp, Workday’s Chief Strategic Officer, told us about their growth in packaged solutions. “Since starting this program last year, Workday and our partners have published 15 Packaged Solutions supporting the oCFO and oCHRO, with another 20 slated for FY23.” Packaged solutions are small bundles of contemporary features like VIBE they had presented to me here .
I have been pushing Workday to get more into operational areas in industries where they have plenty of presence – most in the services sector. For now, I am not worried about Workday’s disciplined approach and continued focus on the financial, hcm and planning/analytical areas. Workday has been delivering plenty of innovation in these areas. They also have miles to go with their current focus. During the session, they talked about their global growth – there is so much more of the world to grow into. By my estimate only 5% of its employee base is in the APJ region. Same thing with the SME market – there are plenty of opportunities in subsidiaries of large companies and the higher end of the SME spectrum.
In my analyst role, I get to hear competition bashing on a regular basis. Workday is a frequent target. My question to the haters is “Why are you letting Workday so dramatically narrow your definition of addressable market? There is so much white space around them for you to exploit”.
Frankly, I wish they would speak like C0-CEO Aneel Bhusri did at the event. He generously complimented his peers and said he was proud of the software industry for how it had responded to the pandemic.
2022 will be MASSIVELY different!
Welcome back. Hope you had a relaxing break and are ready for a hectic, very different 2022.
Actually, “very different year” has been our annual guiding principle and reflects Deal Architect’s business model. Every year our revenue stream varies and we have learned to be flexible. Let me explain that first, then my belief why 2022 will be truly different.
Deal Architect will turn 18 this year. Back in 2004, I wrote our mission statement:
“We are a boutique advisory firm and content provider which believes in massive leverage. We use our intellectual property in small teams for disproportionate payback for our clients. Our focus is not just IT – we will also focus on energy, health, space and other STEM areas. Our consulting and research are symbiotic - our consulting clients benefit from our research, and our readers benefit from the practical, field feedback from our clients"
The mission has not changed much at all. The blend of our advice and content has, however, changed dramatically.
Our advisory work tends to be ahead of the curve. We started advising clients on India and other talent sourcing. In reverse, we started to tell some of them to rebalance that by the end of the decade given the quality and inflation issues we were seeing. We started helping clients with cloud computing and SaaS evaluations as early as 2005. Now, we are helping clients rethink business processes to reflect massive changes in every vertical industry sector and take advantage of a wide range of digital and automation technologies from robotics to wearables to machine learning. BTW, you don’t hear much about our advisory work. Some of our clients show up in book case studies or in some of our videos but I would never violate their trust - leave it up to them to share what they are comfortable publicly sharing.
Our content has similarly gone through significant change. We started off with two blogs – New Florence and Deal Architect. They have since cataloged nearly 13,000 entries in IT, but also in energy, food, space, travel and many other dimensions. We have published 7 books. Increasingly, we are helping narrate books for C level executives, even considering non-fiction. Hey, if John Grisham could make attorneys exciting, surely someone can do that to tech industry analysts, no? 2 years ago we started videos in the Burning Platform and Analyst Cam series. We have already recorded over 200 episodes.
Both for advisory and content we rely heavily on partnerships with other professionals. For each book, I have leveraged a transcriptionist, an editor and a design wiz. Most of our advisory projects are similarly with other small, highly driven teams.
We are always being asked to evolve our services and content. We have considered launching a “lite advisory” service – by the day or even by the hour. Content wise - people have asked me how about a podcast? How about a Substack newsletter?
All worthwhile, but to me it always comes down to form v substance. Each new delivery format takes time away from the substance. And substance wise, this year will be massively different. Here are some of our guiding principles for 2022
Going back to days of Keynes, government deficit spending has frequently revved economies out of recessions and other crises. But nothing like the pandemic has seen. In the US alone, our national debt in 2020 and 2021 increased over $6 trillion. That is unhealthy and addictive. Worse, it has given our politicians and bureaucrats almost autocratic power. I see a course correction and a lot more energy back in the private sector. In 2020, I ran a video series where I interviewed C- level execs. It was called “Acrobatics during the Crisis”. We expect to similarly catalog in 2022 private sector heroics and consult with them as they reshape broken supply chains, rebalance their work forces and rethink processes for a changed world.
Every industry learned to do something very different during the pandemic. Telemedicine in healthcare, distance learning in higher ed, micro-fulfillment in retail, last mile delivery in food service, virtual open houses in real estate among them. These will get baked into the business fabric for these industries. Climate change is having a similar impact – the circular economy has become a design principle in product design. Digital transformations are allowing for new business models like servitization in many industrial sectors. It is a hugely exciting or frightening time, but no industry will escape untouched.
One of the biggest casualties of the pandemic has been customer service. I have coined the terms “COVID copout” and “Brexit BS” for some of the excuses we have all experienced. It is universal - in our travels, at auto dealers, at financial institutions, at dining establishments. Here is my reaction – for the next couple of years, businesses which can provide consistent. predictable service while managing price inflation will ABSOLUTELY gain competitive advantage.
Five years ago I wrote Silicon Collar. The book looked at how automation – machine learning, robotics, unmanned autonomous vehicles, white collar bots, and exoskeletons – was changing the nature of work in over 50 settings – in accounting firms, on the basketball court, in banks, in the oil patch, in R&D labs, on shop floors, in the warehouse and many more. The conclusion “we are no longer white, blue or brown collar workers – we are all Silicon Collar workers since technology is reshaping all our workplaces”. The man- machine balance shifted significantly during the pandemic. People are also talking about the “great resignation”. I am also seeing the “great migration” and the “great retirement” as tens of thousands relocate to my home state, Florida. Many are technically not retiring but starting new careers. And like our quarterback, Tom Brady who at 44 continues to break the laws of aging, are inspiring others to extend their careers, and are attracting surround talent along with their own moves. Companies have long ignored age as a dimension in their diversity goals. I expect that to get rethought.
For my blogs, I have always read a portfolio of magazines and watched a wide range of non-political video channels. The pandemic and climate change focus has got us addicted to lots of COVID and weather and energy related news. I am seeing lots of citizens question government propaganda, media bias and social media censorship. The old Watergate “follow the money” guidance is alive and well when it comes to trust about information. As a result, information fragmentation has massively accelerated - I have been amazed how many fringe platforms and media personalities have gained market share. The good news is I tend to depend more on primary research and balance out a wide range of information sources. The more the merrier.
Long and short, I believe 2022 is the true start of a brand new decade after a couple of aberrant years. As Brady likes to scream “Let’s Go” and that is now part of his new Hertz endorsements.
January 03, 2022 in Industry Commentary | Permalink | Comments (0)