deal architect

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.

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

Analyst Cam: SAP's ERP portfolio for SMEs

As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission ) as part of my Analyst Cam series. https://bit.ly/34eWDMD

On the best of days, it is difficult to navigate SAP’s very wide product portfolio. And from a marketing pov, S/4HANA and cloud properties like SuccessFactors get much of the attention. So, one of my goals this year was to get exposure to SAP Industries and to SAP offerings for small and mid-market customers. You can see my extensive vertical coverage summarized here.

Rainer Zinow, who heads SAP product management for its mid market ERP offerings has been very generous with his time over the last few months and presents below crisply on the positioning of Business One v Business ByDesign and also v S/4HANA. As he points out customers can be confident they will not outgrow SAP’s product portfolio.

We discuss plenty of topics of interest to SMEs including multi-tenancy, augmented reality, ML and in case of MNCs, the opportunities and challenges of two-tier implementations to blanket their smaller subsidiaries around the world.

He next invited Jory Lamb, CEO and Founder of VistaVu, a SAP B1 and BYD partner to join him to discuss innovations and verticalization for the SME market. I will run that as a Burning Platform episode tomorrow.

The two episodes bring out nicely SAP’s strength in the mid-market contrary to the market perception as them only being a choice for large, global companies

Analyst Cam: Sora

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 Laura Del Beccaro, Co-Founder and CEO of Sora, I was introduced to them by Workday Ventures.

As with so many companies these days, the focus is on "employee experience". However, in their case it is also about a HR "command center" (Sora is Japanese for sky, to convey that top-down imagery). Besides reducing the need for users to access multiple applications in a HR process, it helps automate tasks like sending out standardized emails and assigning tasks.

She uses the example of migrating a spreadsheet based on-boarding process which syncs data from ADP, Ultipro, Expensify and several other applications and assigns tasks to staff in recruiting, marketing, IT and other departments. The pandemic has opened up many new processes like return back from wfh, vaccination status tracking and others where Sora can act as the "glue"

I think it is the shortest presentation (under 12 minutes) and Sora is also the youngest company (founded 3 years ago, with funding so far around $20 million) in the Analyst Cam series. Laura crisply articulates the value proposition and the employee experience is indeed pleasant once you remove the need for hunting and pecking, and ensuring data integrity across applications.

Analyst Cam: SAP Industries - Life Sciences Trends

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

I have invited SAP to present updates on various verticals as I discussed here 

This time it is Mandar Paralkar, Head of the Life Sciences sector at SAP.

He discusses increasingly personalized medicine, Big Data coming from public health, personal fitness tech and other sources, and the growing impact of regulatory focus on compliance and the massive cost of healthcare.

He discusses how SAP is helping customers with digital supply chains and leveraging a growing ecosystem of startups via the SAP store. He also covers the SAP RISE offering for the sector.

I would have also liked to have heard more about the extensive SAP role in the COVID Vaccination supply chain, but you can watch an overview video of that here.

He did a nice job summarizing a wide number of trends in 20 minutes. 

Analyst Cam: SAP Industries - Retail 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. 

I have invited SAP to present updates on various verticals as I discussed here 

This time it is Achim Schneider, Global Head, SAP Retail Business Unit. It is a two part conversation.

In Part 2 below he discusses logistics/supply chain issues, the store of the future  and new business models, and a roadmap for further SAP innovation.

Yesterday, in Part 1 he covered customer centricity and a "Segment of One" - the front office focus.

Analyst Cam: SAP Industries - Retail 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. 

I have invited SAP to present updates on various verticals as I discussed here 

This time it is Achim Schneider, Global Head, SAP Retail Business Unit. It is a two part conversation.

In Part 1 below which runs about 18 minutes he discusses customer centricity and a "Segment of One" - the front office focus.

In Part 2 tomorrow he will cover in a slightly longer episode,  logistics/supply chain issues, the store of the future  and new business models, and a roadmap for further SAP innovation.

Analyst Cam: SAP Industries - Utilities

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

I have invited SAP to present updates on various verticals as I discussed here 

This time it is Markus Bechmann, Global VP Innovation and New Business Models for the Utilities industry at SAP.

He discusses the gradual transition in the industry away from fossil fuels. The resulting intermittent energy is leading to new trading networks. The rise of the "prosumer" is also leading to more fragmentation and bi-directional business models. New entrants like auto makers are reshaping the industry. The industry is also learning to monetize data from its extensive asset base.

The utility industry has a reputation of being slow-moving. Markus will change your mind in this 25 minute conversation.

Analyst Cam: Altec - Connect right people at the right time with the right document

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 Don Howren, President & COO at Altec, Inc.

Most ERP, CRM and other enterprise vendors like to call themselves "books of record". More often than not, they just have the meta data. The record itself is in some document system - often messy paper files, or in an unlinked digital archive.

Don presents on his DocLink product aimed at the SME market. It could used as a standalone document management system with multiple tags, rules engine and configurable forms. However, the solution becomes much more powerful with its integration with Acumatica, Epicor, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage and SAP Business One. It is designed to support cloud and on-prem integration to give customers deployment flexibility. There is a lot of rich data which is available independently without cluttering the ERP or other enterprise system.

I particularly like the wide range of use cases he discusses including Payables, T&E, Receivables, Seasonal recruiting, Disaster recovery,  Regulatory compliance and Annual audit prep. Of course, over the pandemic, it has facilitated all kinds of remote access to documents, with appropriate security, as everyone has moved to WFH.

Connect right people at the right time with the right document. The value proposition is simple and compelling, especially for paper-intensive processes.

Analyst Cam: Workday Skills Cloud update

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 Cristina Goldt, GM Talent products at Workday who provides an update on how nicely the Workday Skills Cloud has grown.

You would think the demand and supply of talent is largely driven by the skills enterprises need, and those that employees and contractors can provide. In reality, this matching is chaotic, not the least because building a decent taxonomy of skills is daunting. The Bureau of Labor Statistics catalogs over 850 occupations and has a paragraph describing each one of them, but nowhere near the detailed skills each requires. Of course, across industries the same occupation calls for slightly different skills, and each employer in turn adds their own unique nuances. So, many enterprises fall back on traditional talent filters - educational credentials, referrals, cultural fit etc.

Workday has been on a mission to respond to what Cristina calls the "Skills Imperative" and training their machines using data from their customer community with over 55 million employees.  She does a really nice job describing their journey over the last several years, their skills "foundation" including their ontology and inference algorithms, how the Skills Cloud is being used by over 1,000 organizations over the "lifecycle" - hiring, up-skilling, retaining etc. their workforce, and the growing number of Workday products including Talent Marketplace, Career Hub, and Learning which leverage the skills infrastructure.

She mentions a press release during her comments. It is available here with a lot more detail about Workday's response to the Skills Imperative. 

Really invigorating half an hour.