deal architect

Analyst Cam: Salesforce – Industry Solutions

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

This time it is Jujhar Singh, EVP and GM, Salesforce Industries. He presents an update on their vertical clouds – he presented last year in the Burning Platform series

He covers a wide range of industries. He drills into micro-verticals within Financial Services, one of their strong focus areas, talking about Rocket Mortgage and investment banking. How they are helping government agencies reinvent themselves. How Slack and conversational interfaces are influencing higher ed and healthcare. How their own experiences with nonprofits and internal experience with philanthropy and net zero programs are helping verticalize ESG for various sectors. How their anonymized data across 150,000 customers in the cloud and Einstein AI are allowing for “Insights” – like a Shopping Index from over a billion shoppers and Pandemic Insights for Manufacturing. It is allowing them to move customers to more ‘impact-based” thinking – their version of “outcomes”

I like how he emphasizes their ISV, hyperscaler and SI partners.  His colleague Tyler Prince had spent much longer on their ecosystem here. Throughout the session you see the state of the economy – hybrid, working, shopping, learning from anywhere from an industry lens.

I like how he responds to my question about the vertical competitive landscape. He says “the more the merrier” and it is "heartening" that competitors are validating what Salesforce has been executing for the last few years. That reminded me of the Pulitzer Prize winning "The Soul Of A New Machine" by Tracy Kidder. It described an ad that Data General produced but never ran. It read:

"They Say IBM's Entry into Minicomputers Will Legitimize the Market. The Bastards Say, Welcome"

Jujhar is too polite to say that but he does a really nice job in half an hour given the wide scope he covers.

Analyst Cam: Google Cloud – Industry Solutions

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

This time it is Lori Mitchell-Keller, VP Industry Solutions at Google Cloud.

Lori covers wide ground in about half an hour. She discusses solutions across a wide range of  verticals – Vertex demand forecasting, intelligent manufacturing, contact center AI, real estate document AI, supply chain twins and retail search among them. She describes use cases across a wide range of brands - Home Depot, P&G, BNY Mellon, Newsweek, Macys, Mr. Cooper, GE Appliances and HCA

While many competitors are verticalizing on top of their core ERP or CRM capabilities or leveraging their ecosystems, Google is coming in with different value points:

• They appeal to companies which want to become “the best tech company in their industry” and are looking for a partner for “long-term, durable transformation”
• They are selling the promise of consumertech speed and agility to the enterprise
• They are presenting their ESG strengths on the back of their own internal net zero/renewables, diversity and other initiatives
• They are verticalizing their Search, Translate, massive infrastructure, mobile development, image and voice recognition and other already scaled capabilities
• They are emphasizing outcomes – like 10X improvement in worker productivity – more than product feature/function
• They can show more dexterity in “lifting and shifting” older vertical operational apps to their infrastructure rather than requiring expensive and risky upgrades to a modern application

Very nicely done. Next I look forward to a drill down for some of the solutions Lori presented. 

Analyst Cam: Tecsys Supply Chain execution

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

This time it is Guy Courtin, VP of Industry and Advanced Technology for Tecsys, a Toronto based supply chain software company. He had previously presented in this series about warehouse bots when he was at 6 River Systems

Tecsys is not a new company by any means (they were founded in 1983)  but with all the supply chain chaos in the last couple of years, they have seen growing opportunities especially in the health care, retail and distribution verticals they focus on.

While Guy goes into product details I liked how he covered trends in those verticals. He talks about cold chain logistics in vaccine delivery and Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs) in healthcare. We talk about reverse logistics, micro-fulfillment, direct to consumer and private label trends in retail and distribution. We spend some time on Costco’s Kirkland brand.

We talk about how lean inventories may be a thing of the past and how that is affecting inventory depot and warehouse sizing and design. He discusses the impact of sustainability on supply chains. And how consumer expect similar experiences across industries. (Accenture’s design agency Fjord has a term for that - “liquid expectations”)

He talks about how the supply chain planning market is evolving – still cannot handle the execution intricacies they can. And how broader planning vendors are still better at financial and hr planning, not supply chain.

He also discusses their own journey from an on-prem to a cloud vendor.

Nicely done in about 25 minutes

Analyst Cam: Salesforce Revenue Cloud

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

This time it is Meredith Schmidt, EVP of Revenue Cloud at Salesforce.

She paints a vivid image of the complexity of what she calls “revenue operations”.  We are witnessing an explosion of business models – single sales, subscription, pay as you go, servitization etc combined with a proliferation of customer and partner channels – eCommerce, via resellers, in product etc

Managing the whole revenue cycle – the prospecting, the selling, the order taking, margin analysis, the billing, collections, the renewals – across channels and responsive to vertical nuances and location regulations around the globe is complex to say the least. And exponentially so when you throw in trade promotions, warranties and reverse logistics,  They need functionality which today is fragmented across CRM, ERP, EAM, IoT, document management and other applications and various custom solutions and spreadsheets. She calls it “product to cash” – so much more elaborate than “order to cash”.

Meredith does a nice job explaining this in around 20 minutes, Salesforce’s progress and plans including how Einstein AI and how collaboration via Slack provide them an extra edge. I compliment her toward the end that it is impressive when someone as large as Salesforce can say their deals are “simple”.

Most rev ops teams dream of getting there some time soon.

Burning Platform: Sustaining Digital Transformations

In the 67th episode of Burning Platform, we host Dion Hinchcliffe, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in digital strategy, the future of work, and enterprise IT.

We talk about the progress around digital transformation projects and how the pandemic has affected them. Dion responds “the pandemic showed us we could transform quicker than we thought we could. IF we had the will to do it.”

Dion starts off distinguishing between “digitization" and “automation” as efficiency plays versus digital transformations which have at least some element of disruption, and think about the “art of the possible.”

We cover examples from retail, healthcare, food service, real estate and several other industries. He talks about tools which are definitely helping customers – digital transformation target platforms, process mining, low code and AI driven code generation. He cites use of incubators, industry consortia and centers of excellence around emerging technologies.

We discuss service providers – firms like Accenture and Deloitte, growing role of strategy firms like McKinsey and of hyperscalers like Google on such transformation journeys.

Are we hitting a point of exhaustion with such programs?  We better not  – he says only 15% of enterprise workloads have moved to the cloud. In some ways we are still in the “crude, cave painting” phase of the journey. He is worried about mid market companies and companies with plenty of technical debt and those who have under invested in technology. We also cover the risk that companies will take short cuts like they did during the re-engineering wave in the 1990s. We reinforce it is a marathon, not a sprint.

We also discuss his personal digital lifestyle. This blog post about his "every day carry bag" shows you he practices what he preaches.

It is a fascinating half an hour of wisdom from Dion.

Analyst Cam: Origina 3rd party support for IBM/HCL Products

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

This time it is Hari Candadai, SVP, Strategic Alliances and Analyst Relations at Origina, Inc which provides third party support for IBM and HCL IT infrastructure products like DB2, Informix, MQ, Tivoli and Rational. It is a sprawling product family even after IBM divested several of its collaboration, commerce, digital experience, AppScan, & BigFix solutions to HCL in 2019.

The conversation with Hari and IBM’s recent announcement it is selling some of its Watson Health assets to a PE firm made me reminisce about the storied technology vendor. As a young PwC auditor I remember the PC introduction in 1981 (IBM was an audit client).  Like many in our industry my early years in computing were on the 4381, the 390, S/38 and AS/400s. I remember “what if” conversations about how our industry may have evolved if IBM had not been forced to unbundle its systems software. And how that move later allowed IBM to evolve beyond hardware in the 90s. I recall conversations with several colleagues at Gartner whose own evolution in its early years heavily depended on tracking IBM. We would often discuss scenarios if IBM would ever get serious about application software. At Deal Architect, I have helped several clients evaluate IBM outsourcing services.

I have seen the center of gravity at IBM evolve from hardware to software to services over my career. Watson’s bumpy trajectory over the last decade can be tracked back to that transition. Along the way, IBM has significantly morphed its talent base. Firms like Origina have become a safe haven for many IBM software experts. They are offering that talent as a shared service 

I have been a broken record about third party support – you can read posts on this blog going back to the last decade. Indeed in some circles, I am still called “Vinnie Maintenance”. I have long said just because you buy a new car you should not required to buy service at the dealer. If anything Consumer Reports has shown independent garages often offer better value and service. And especially if you are talking about a long used Dodge or Ford product. Most of IBM software products similarly go back decades.

Hari does a nice job in a little over 20 minutes describing the cost savings, service quality improvements, the product expertise they offer, the ability to upgrade at your speed – “take back control” as he says

A tribute to Kurt Marko and to social media friendships

Jon Reed of Diginomica called this morning with some shocking news. Kurt Marko passed away - he describes what we know so far here. As we were talking, it struck me the lengths Jon had gone to find out about a colleague across the country, including getting local police to go visit his family. 

It brought back memories of countless messages of concern I had received when I had my health hiccup a decade ago. We may argue like crazy but we have made some really strong bonds via social media.

Jeff Nolan said nicely in his tweet “His wit was just as sharp as his analytical brain, perhaps only overshadowed by his independent spirit.” I can vouch for Kurt's independence - we had many spirited conversations (most unrecorded) on a variety of STEM topics.

As was common with Kurt, he did not say what was politically expedient. As a Stanford electrical engineer, he could and would speak with a lot more authority than so many who claim to be “science based” in their opinions. You can see that on this Burning Platform episode on energy trends we recorded during the COP 26 Climate Change summit in Glasgow. There I mentioned “Kurt has the uncanny knack for demystifying complex technical topics."

My one regret – I never met him in person. We had arranged to meet in his hometown in Idaho on one of my trips and I had to cancel that trip at the last minute.

Somebody asked me a while ago if I missed anything about not working for a large company. I said “Christmas parties”. I then told this person “I hope we can convene once travel opens up, a holiday party for folks who mostly meet over social media and don’t have a corporate event to celebrate”  

Over New Year’s Eve, Kurt had shared with a few of us the wine from the Loire Valley he was planning to open that evening. Kurt, when I do convene that Christmas Party, I promise we will have a bottle of that and raise a toast to you.

Cheers, my friend.

Unpacking the “Great Resignation”

There is a lot of talk these days about the “Great Resignation” wave. To start off with, its not just resignations, there also retirements and relocations. But people are not staying home watching Netflix or playing golf, many of these ‘migrants” are starting a new generation of small businesses. It is in a wave of what I call micro-capitalism.

The changes have actually been happening for a while but the pandemic has significantly accelerated them. 5 years ago, when researching labor trends for my book on automation, Silicon Collar, I observed what I called the Alt-Job economy. People were glibly calling it the gig economy – there were many cross-currents underneath. Developers in the iOS ecosystem, people selling arts and crafts on Etsy, franchise owners, ethnic grocers, alternative healthcare practitioners among them – I summarized them in this blog post.

The last couple of years have only increased the fragmentation. Lots more small merchants are taking advantage of micro-fulfillment platforms that Spotify and others provide. Many savvy real estate professionals are launching syndicates with knowledge of regional markets and getting funded via sites like Crowdstreet.  VCs are broadly investing LOTS more in startups. According to CB Insights, Global venture funding reached a record $621B in 2021, more than double the 2020 mark of $294B. According to Venture Forward, a multiyear research program from GoDaddy to quantify this entrepreneurial activity, Americans created 2.8 million more online microbusinesses in 2020 than in 2019. If they are not starting new businesses, lots of them are actively trading on platforms like Robinhood.

I have seen it first-hand at home. My daughter is a global traveler and would come back and tell of “digital nomads” working from Chiang Mai and Bali.  As the pandemic started, she left her job in the hospitality sector and started a life coaching service and has clients around the world. After a long stint at psychiatric hospitals and clinics, my wife recently retired. But it is not “retire” in the traditional sense of the word. She is inspired by Tom Brady, the ageless quarterback of our home team, the Buccaneers. I am also seeing the “Great Relocation” as countless people move to our state and others like Texas. Some moved because their employers allowed them to work from anywhere. Many others did not move for a job. They are attracted by the potential for a more vibrant, entrepreneurial lifestyle. It is also fascinating to see them move to secondary and tertiary cities. Lots more people want a semi-rural lifestyle and retailers like Tractor Supply Co are growing exponentially as they provide them with poultry and other small farming needs.

Going forward, I plan to cover this trend of micro-capitalism a lot closer. Hopefully, in doing so, I can also help investors with some of their analysis. Ditto with HR and Procurement vendors and professionals who help with talent acquisition/development and supplier diversity. There are some truly profound changes happening in the entrepreneur, talent and supply chain economies. 

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

• Rebalancing of private and public sector

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.

• Upheaval in most industries

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. 

• Ascendancy of customer service

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.

• Man-machine rethink

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.   

• Further content fragmentation

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.