deal architect

Analyst Cam: Sapphire Now - Industries perspective, Part 2

As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission ), as part of my Analyst Cam series. 

SAP's annual event - Sapphire Now - is usually about drinking from a fire hose.  Content for customers across so many industries and global regions, and so many products in the SAP portfolio screaming for attention. This year, the second year where COVID restrictions have precluded travel to Orlando where it is normally held, the event was again virtual. I took a industry viewpoint, especially since a major announcement this year was the verticalization of its RISE initiative for an initial set of 5 sectors - utilities, consumer packaged goods, automotive, industrial machinery and components (IM&C), and retail.

In part 1 yesterday, I excerpted from CEO Christian Klein's keynote and from an interview of Dr. Hasso Plattner.

In Part 2 below, CMO Julia White leads off with a nice summary across industries. At 4:41, the focus shifts to changing business models - an increasingly common trend as industries morph. It is a discussion with Peter Maier, President of SAP Industries and with executives from Discovery Limited which is a South African-founded financial services firm in healthcare, insurance, banking, and wellness markets. Lots of discussion around outcome based models. Finally at 11.47, Georg Kube, Global Vice President of the Industrial Machinery & Components vertical drills down into his sector and details the RISE offering there.

 

 

Long live long-form content

I have just finished work on my eighth book. Correction - it’s NOT my book. I have narrated it for a visionary tech CEO and his incredibly innovative team. We interviewed over 50 of their customers, partners, executives and industry watchers. You will hear more about the book and the impactful trends they are driving in the next few weeks when they finish the imagery and other production details.  I have also contributed a foreword to a book about automation in SAP world. You will similarly hear more about that shortly.

Every one of these books has been written since Mashable declared ‘How Twitter conquered the world in 2009’. Yes, social media has taken off exponentially in the last decade - and I have contributed thousands of blogs, videos and tweets to the world. But I am here to tell you books continue to be a far better format for storytelling. If you want entertaining, yet logical, content there is nothing like the long, written and graphical form.

The recent project showed me a book can be written in a few weeks, not years. We created the first draft in roughly 3 months. I have used Zoom interviews for previous books, but this time every single conversation (across 12 countries) was digital thanks to Teams and Zoom. The transcripts, by themselves, totaled over 2,500 pages. Then there was plenty of other industry research.

The intensity reminded me books are hard work and authors, editors, transcriptionists, project managers and designers deserve plenty of kudos. My way of saluting is to invite them to my video series. Here are some authors I have profiled in the last few months.

Sabrina Horn: Make it, don't fake it 

Ray Wang: Everybody wants to rule the world 

Ben Pring: Monster 

Robin Gaster: Behemoth - Amazon Rising 

Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway: The Startup Community Way 

Rich Karlgaard: Late Bloomers 

Evangelos Simoudis: Transportation Transformation 

Many more coming. If you are an author or a publisher, happy to consider profiling your upcoming book. And if you have long thought about writing a book, I am here to cheer you on. Please drop me a note.

Analyst Cam: Sapphire Now - Industries perspective, Part 1

As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission ), as part of my Analyst Cam series. 

SAP's annual event - Sapphire Now - is usually about drinking from a fire hose.  Content for customers across so many industries and global regions, and so many products in the SAP portfolio screaming for attention. This year, the second year where COVID restrictions have precluded travel to Orlando where it is normally held, the event was again virtual. I took a industry viewpoint, especially since a major announcement this year was the verticalization of its RISE initiative for an initial set of 5 sectors - utilities, consumer packaged goods, automotive, industrial machinery and components (IM&C), and retail.

I reviewed hours of video and have excerpted in Part 1 below, from CEO Christian Klein's keynote. He nicely lays out how 2020 turned the world upside down and the impact on most industries. I found fascinating CMO Julia White's interview of Dr. Hasso Plattner, one of the co-founders, who for me is still the "Chief Enterprise Architect" at SAP (for legal reasons, he does not have a formal executive position).

Starting at 9:40, the conversation is partly a history lesson, and partly a "state of the possible" when it comes to business processes facilitated by technology. Let's face it, most vendors, SAP included, have done much better with horizontal, cross-industry processes. Most vertical operational processes are still done by custom applications or by specialist vendors, so it is interesting to hear what may be different going forward.

In Part 2 tomorrow, CMO Julia White will lead off with a nice summary across industries. Next the focus shifts to changing business models - an increasingly common trend as industries morph. It is a discussion with Peter Maier, President of SAP Industries and with executives from Discovery Limited which is a South African-founded financial services firm in healthcare, insurance, banking, and wellness markets. Lots of discussion around outcome based models. Finally, Georg Kube, Global Vice President of the Industrial Machinery & Components vertical drills down into his sector and details the RISE offering there.

 

Analyst Cam: Salesforce Industries Summit, Part 3

As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission ), as part of my Analyst Cam series. 

Salesforce held an Industries Summit earlier this month. They invited me to an analyst pre-briefing and gave me access to keynotes and sessions across 8 sectors - Communications, Energy and Utilities, Financial Services, Government and Public Sector, Healthcare and Life sciences, Manufacturing, Media, Retail and Consumer Goods.

I have excerpted segments across the sectors and am posting them into three parts.

Part 1 covered 3 "mega-trends" I heard during the sessions, around sustainability on the energy sector, servitization on the industrial sector and the impact of "everything from home" on the communications and media sectors.

Part 2 yesterday profiled Jujhar Singh, the EVP and GM of Salesforce Industries with the theme of "industry success from anywhere" as we move into hybrid work and shopping world. There is a demo of a new Salesforce offering for investment bankers. Next, Kristen Jensen of the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity brought a public sector perspective on change. Finally, there were demos relevant for channels in retail and consumer goods covering rebates, incentive management and trade promotions.

In Part 3 below Bret Taylor, President and COO of Salesforce touches on the "digital first" and "transform now" themes in every industry. He also covers industry specific AI and Hyperforce - Salesforce's infrastructure architecture that allows customers to scale rapidly and securely using its public cloud hyperscaler partners. Next at 5.34 is a demo of a local government application - the use case revolves around licensing of a day care facility. We next switch at 10.09 to a telco and the opportunities 5G is opening up.  Mallik Rao, CTIO at Telefonica Germany is certainly qualified to describe that. Finally there are two product discussions - one around wealth management at 18.42 aimed at financial services customers and the other at 21.54 on patient appointments aimed at healthcare customers.

While every vendor is talking up "industry clouds", the breadth of vertical processes covered during the Salesforce Summit was truly impressive. I have excerpted only a small fraction of what I saw and heard. You too can sign up and watch the full range of sessions or an industry specific track by registering here

 

Analyst Cam: Salesforce Industries Summit, Part 2

As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission ), as part of my Analyst Cam series. 

Salesforce held an Industries Summit earlier this month. They invited me to an analyst pre-briefing and gave me access to keynotes and sessions across 8 sectors - Communications, Energy and Utilities, Financial Services, Government and Public Sector, Healthcare and Life sciences, Manufacturing, Media, Retail and Consumer Goods.

I have excerpted segments across the sectors and am posting them into three parts.

Part 1 yesterday covered 3 "mega-trends" I heard during the sessions, around sustainability on the energy sector, servitization on the industrial sector and the impact of "everything from home" on the communications and media sectors.

Today in video below, Jujhar Singh, the EVP and GM of Salesforce Industries leads off with the theme of "industry success from anywhere" as we move into hybrid work and shopping world. At 4.48 there is a demo of a new Salesforce offering for investment bankers. Next, at 10.06, Kristen Jensen of the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity brings a public sector perspective on change. Finally, at 16.26 there are demos relevant for channels in retail and consumer goods covering rebates, incentive management and trade promotions.

In Part 3 tomorrow, Bret Taylor, President and COO of Salesforce will touch on the "digital first" and "transform now" themes in every industry. He also covers industry specific AI and Hyperforce - Salesforce's infrastructure architecture that allows customers to scale rapidly and securely using its public cloud hyperscaler partners. Next is a demo of a local government application - the use case revolves around licensing of a day care facility. We next switch to a telco and the opportunities 5G is opening up.  Mallik Rao, CTIO at Telefonica Germany is certainly qualified to describe that. Finally there are two product discussions - one around wealth management aimed at financial services customers and the other on patient appointment aimed at healthcare customers.

While every vendor is talking up "industry clouds", the breadth of vertical processes covered during the Salesforce Summit was truly impressive. I have excerpted only a small fraction of what I saw and heard. You too can sign up and watch the full range of sessions or an industry specific track by registering here

 

Analyst Cam: Salesforce Industries Summit, Part 1

As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission ), as part of my Analyst Cam series. 

Salesforce held an Industries Summit earlier this month. They invited me to an analyst pre-briefing and gave me access to keynotes and sessions across 8 sectors - Communications, Energy and Utilities, Financial Services, Government and Public Sector, Healthcare and Life sciences, Manufacturing, Media, Retail and Consumer Goods.

I have excerpted segments across the sectors and am posting them into three parts.

The part in the video below covers 3 "mega-trends" I heard during the sessions. The first is around sustainability - while the desire for clean energy is affecting every sector, it is especially impactful on utilities. I have excerpted from a conversation with Yves Le Gerald, EVP at Engie, the French multinational electric utility company and Megan Lorenzen, Sustainability Manager at Salesforce. It is nice to hear the perspectives of both a procurer and a producer of energy.

At 13.10, the focus shifts to "servitization" - a growing trend in the industrial sector as product makers get more revenues from services and move to as-a-service, subscription and outcome based business models. It features Thomas Gocke who heads digital business transformation at Koenig and Bauer, the German company that makes printing presses and is very well versed in servitization trends.

At 21.19, focus is on "everything from home" - the impact of working, dining, studying, entertaining at home and the impact on broadband and media. Linda Yaccarino, Chairman of global advertising sales and client partnerships at NBCUniversal has a front row seat watching the massive changes that the pandemic accelerated.

In Part 2, Jujhar Singh, the EVP and GM of Salesforce Industries will lead off with the theme of "industry success from anywhere" as we move into hybrid work and shopping world. Then, there is a demo of a new Salesforce offering for investment bankers. Next, Kristen Jensen of the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity brings a public sector perspective on change. Finally there are demos relevant for channels in retail and consumer goods covering rebates, incentive management and trade promotions.

In Part 3, Bret Taylor, President and COO of Salesforce will touch on the "digital first" and "transform now" themes in every industry. He also covers industry specific AI and Hyperforce - Salesforce's infrastructure architecture that allows customers to scale rapidly and securely using its public cloud hyperscaler partners. Next is a demo of a local government application - the use case revolves around licensing of a day care facility. We next switch to a telco and the opportunities 5G is opening up.  Mallik Rao, CTIO at Telefonica Germany is certainly qualified to describe that. Finally there are two product discussions - one around wealth management aimed at financial services customers and the other on patient appointment aimed at healthcare customers.

While every vendor is talking up "industry clouds", the breadth of vertical processes covered during the Salesforce Summit was truly impressive. I have excerpted only a small fraction of what I saw and heard. You too can sign up and watch the full range of sessions or an industry specific track by registering here

 

Burning Platform: Leading with authenticity

In the 49th episode of the series we have a repeat appearance by Sabrina Horn, CEO of Horn Strategy

We discuss her new book "Make it, don't fake it". The book shows how authentic leadership eliminates the need for the shortcuts that sabotage success. “Fake it till you make it” just doesn’t work—at least not long enough to build a sustainable business.

It is being released this coming Tuesday. She sent me an advance copy and it has great quotes and monikers  - Fake-o-meter, "Work-life balance? Here’s why I gave up on it" and " Leader and loser both begin with the letter L" but overall it is about values in  the tech industry which is overwhelmingly driven by unicorn valuations and Wall Street attention. 

It is part autobiography, part thank you to mentors like Dave Duffield and Geoffrey Moore,  her parents, her employees and kids, but chockfull of examples on how to behave ethically in a variety of situations.  She must identify "50 shades of lies"  - some of the 'white lies" variety, some of the other extreme, fraudulent kind. She has spent a lifetime in PR, so this must have taken plenty of introspection on whether she and her firm(s) advised clients on doing the right thing, not just hyping what they had in their bags. 

We also discuss activism around so many "causes" these days - racial/ gender matters, equality, climate change etc.

I particularly like the fact that she wrote the book during the pandemic. While so many of us were so distracted by the crisis and the politics of 2020 she managed to concentrate on her first book, and it is an excellent one.

Get a copy of the book, in the meantime, enjoy the sneak preview below.

SAP SapphireNow: An early report

Let's start with the positives from the keynote last week: I loved Julia White's (the new CMO who has joined from Microsoft) omnipresence and bundle of energy. Christian Klein has come of age in the age of digital keynotes. He is so comfortable in the format. It was good to see Hasso Plattner again - wish we could have had our annual (unscripted) session with him.

However, this split schedule over 3 weeks has been tough to work with. I have asked for replays of several sessions for the Analyst Cam series so will get a chance to watch them in detail. Not sure when SAP can deliver those. I do miss not driving to Orlando and blocking out a few straight days on my calendar. Hopefully next year, Lufthansa will bring back its gorgeous 747-8 to Orlando - as a thank you to SAP executives for holding a live event.

3 themes from the keynote and my questions

a) Five Vertical RISE with SAP offerings

When RISE was announced earlier in the year, I thought it was too ambitious as I wrote here and here. I also thought it glossed over the SI/implementation portion which has been SAP's Achilles Heel for a long time. Books have been written about that:)

So, now they announce 5 vertical versions of RISE - for utilities, consumer packaged goods, automotive, industrial machinery and components (IM&C), and retail. I would like to understand how those 5 rose to the top. Given all the activity in Life Sciences around the COVID vaccine and therapeutics and SAP's strong presence in that industry, that would have been high on my list. Ditto with oil and gas which has been building a cloud for upstream functionality.

The good news is SAP (appears) to have taken a stand on the 5 verticals. In the past, going back a decade or longer there has been vague talk about "we are strong in 20+ industries" or "we are working with one of our large partners". My big question is what is new functionally for these 5 industries? So much changed in 2020 - hopefully RISE is not just a pricing package, but a major feature/function leap forward. Look forward to learning more about each of these industry solutions.

b) Business Networks

Christian summarized it well "Our new vision will build the world’s largest business community, enabling customers to easily connect with companies across supply chains and creating networked economies across industries.”  With so much supply chain chaos last year and continuing this year (Google for PPE, toilet paper, cold chain, Suez Canal) , it is bound to catch executive attention. But much of SAP's networks - Ariba, Fieldglass, Concur, AIN - deal with indirect spend - pencils, temporary staff, travel,MRO. I would love to spend some time with John Wookey and hear how direct suppliers and their tiers will become part of this network given those relationships tend to be tight and very proprietary in terms of contractual and IP protection details.

c) Sustainability

A decade ago, SAP was hot on sustainability. My concern back then was they were mostly focused on analytics and reporting of carbon data. Now you can argue "you cannot manage what you cannot measure". My point to SAP was don't stop there - work with your vast ecosystem and look for ways to get to the "source" - in factories, R&D, data centers and reduce the emissions, not just report on them. They did not back then. I hope they do this time, as they try again.

The other thing to watch is how they will navigate the politics. To me, renewable energy has hijacked the sustainability conversation, when the circular economy with reuse, better product design, packaging and other topics deserve as much attention. Christian brought up EVs a couple of times. There is much to like about the early wave of EVs. They have a much lighter BOM. With web sales, OTA updates, mobile techs they are redefining the auto experience. But I don't think we have asked the tough questions - what will happen to used batteries? How much will ubiquitous charging infrastructure cost around the world? Why are EVs still so much more expensive than internal combustion cars even with the much lighter BOM and direct sales models? And lets face it, an EV is only as clean as your public utility. The vast majority of utilities around the world still run on gas, oil and still way too much coal and in Germany, even dirtier lignite. So, I hope the analytics SAP presents reflect the TCO of EVs not just the positive angle that is being presented in our current infatuation with them. 

The good news is you can at least have these conversations with SAP. Not too many vendors I can even ask - how did you decide to prioritize those 5 verticals?

Burning Platform: Not your grandpa's Services economy

In the 48th episode of the series we have Peter Bendor-Samuel of Everest Group, a research firm focused on IT, business process, and engineering services since it was founded in 1991.

I enjoy catching up with Peter on a regular basis to get his perspective on trends in outsourcing and the broader IT, BPO, strategy services market.

He says the market is broadly strong - "rising tide raises all boats" - with the confluence of digital transformations, modernization projects/ related legacy outsourcing and pent up demand from projects slowed down or postponed in 2020.

What's different is the influence of hyperscalers like Google and Amazon and strategy firms like McKinsey, BCG and Bain. We also discuss the trend of "servitization" - where industrial and other sectors are generating more service revenues around their products and moving to "as a service" models with subscription revenues and outcome based models.

BTW, on the last point about servitization, I have been researching that trend in detail over the last few months. You will hear more from me on that in the next few weeks. In the meantime, enjoy this conversation.  

We cover wide ground, as is common with my conversations with Peter. I always learn something new from him.