deal architect

Burning Platform: Industry Clouds

In the 43th episode of the series  we have Jujhar Singh, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Salesforce Industry Clouds.

Salesforce has had significant vertical momentum, especially in the last year. See my interview with Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh last May, my Analyst Cam posts from their Summit last June where they showcased 12 "industry cloud" tracks - Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3 and my October note about Salesforce's "acrobatics"

Jujhar Singh does an amazingly rapid-fire update across many of those industries in the video below.

Bob Evans of Cloud Wars recently placed Salesforce as # 1 in his listing of Industry Clouds. He used revenues, vision and other rating factors.

I was already convinced of Salesforce vertical momentum last year, and Jujhar reinforced it this week, so I agree with Bob for 3 additional reasons

1. Salesforce's industry functionality is in a multi-tenant cloud. Most of the other vendor industry functionality and customer bases are still largely on-prem or in private clouds and other single tenant settings
2. Salesforce functionality reflects a more modern state of industries. Most other vendor industry functionality was developed over a decade ago or even further back and has been updated only mildly - spray painted as I like to call it. Their industry apps looked dated before 2020. With the pandemic forcing so many changes (see the many episodes of industry specific interviews I did in this series last year) many of their industry offerings look outright ancient now. 
3. Salesforce has leveraged vertical application partners on its platform better than the others (and frankly, I would like them to do even better with these focused partners) - with players like Veeva, nCino, Vlocity and many others

Jujhar invited my audience to this year's Industry Summit coming up in  June. I would highly encourage it - you can register here 

Burning Platform: Work Anywhere - Tertiary Towns and Rural Revival

In the 42nd episode of the series we have Raju Vegesna of Zoho Software.

While the COVID-19 pandemic and related WFH protocols have turned many of us into recluses, the big realization is you can WFA - as in Anywhere. We have seen an significant acceleration in relocations - for tax, weather, safety, many other reasons. We had Mark Brooks who has been working and living for ages across the world - Shanghai, Bali, Malta, now Dubai. Next, we had Tammie Hilend, CIO at the space tech company, Maxar who discussed how she has done her demanding job on the road in her RV 

Zoho has long had a very different approach to talent - they build it versus buying it from other companies or prestigious universities. They have long located themselves in secondary cities in Japan, Netherlands, Mexico, the US. The CEO, Sridhar Vembu has long had a passion for Rural Revival - see my interview with him last year after he relocated from Silicon Valley to rural India. 

Raju describes their move from Pleasanton, CA to Austin, TX. Quality of life and cost of living for employees are far more important to him than universities and airports are to other companies. Now, with Austin attracting so many other companies, he describes how they are shifting focus to even smaller towns in Texas and even more so in India.

In keeping with the rural revival theme, even the Austin location has become more of an organic, employee-nurtured farm.

He compares this distributed talent model to the move we have seen in computing - from a centralized, mainframe to a network model.

It is a fascinating conversation. He readily admits they don't have all the answers or that it will work for others, but post-pandemic, if we all don't explore such models and changes in lifestyle shame on us.

Coding + Farming just may be a winning combination!

Burning Platform: More work from Anywhere

In the 41st episode of the series we have Tammie Hilend, CIO of Maxar Technologies

While the COVID-19 pandemic and related WFH protocols have turned many of us into recluses, the big realization is you can WFA - as in Anywhere. We have seen an significant acceleration in relocations - for tax, weather, safety, many other reasons. Couple of weeks ago, we had Mark Brooks who has been working and living for ages across the world - Shanghai, Bali, Malta, now Dubai.

This time is Tammie Hilend who has been working from her RV as she travels around the US. Her company, Maxar is in space technology. Her COO, Jeff Robertson had presented at the start of the pandemic last year about the complex protocols they had to consider during the lockdowns especially when it comes to some of their sensitive, classified work.

Tammie describes her personal experience managing her demanding job from the road. With Starlink and many of Maxar's telecom customers generating excitement about satellite internet, it is timely to hear about her bandwidth around the road. As she says, managing around extreme weather has been more of challenge.

She also describes how in her other role managing facilities they are reimagining their "future of work" including work locations and hybrid formats.

It is a fascinating conversation. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. We can ALL be digital nomads.

Burning Platform: 25 years of "as a service"

In the 39th (today) and 40th (tomorrow) episode of the series  we have Phil Wainewright of Diginomica and Jeff Kaplan of THINKstrategies, two of the pioneering influencers in the SaaS/cloud marketplace.

In part 1 below, we take a walk down memory lane on how the SaaS, cloud infrastructure and platform economies have evolved over the last 25 years.

In part 2 tomorrow we will talk about how business models are evolving, new entrants, and how servitization has become a significant trend in every industry vertical, not just in enterprise technology.

Burning Platform: Digital Nomads

In the 38th episode of the series we have Mark Brooks, CEO of Courtland Brooks.

While the COVID-19 pandemic and related WFH protocols have turned many of us into recluses, the big realization is you can WFA - as in Anywhere. We have seen an significant acceleration in relocations - for tax, weather, safety, many other reasons.

Mark Brooks has been working and living for ages across the world - in Shanghai, Bali, Malta, now Dubai. He explains his checklist on how he decides on places to call office and home for his family. He also describes the creative way he does virtual schooling for his daughters with tutors from around the world.

He also spends some time on his specialty - advising dating sites and how technology keeps helping that sector continue to grow at a nice pace and how those technologies will affect the future of work for all of us

It is a fascinating conversation. And one for employers and politicians everywhere to factor. People do vote with their feet. And their choices keep expanding around the world

Burning Platform: Amazon, automation and society

In the 36th (yesterday) and 37th (today) episode of the series we have Dr. Robin Gaster, President, Incumetrics Inc. and Visiting Scholar, George Washington University Institute of Public Policy. We discuss various aspects of Amazon's growing empire from his new book, Behemoth, Amazon Rising.

In part 2 below we talk more about Amazon and other automation trends which accelerated during the pandemic. Throughout both episodes, we cover Amazon's amazing growth and its impact on retail, book publishing, data centers, ecommerce and many other industry sectors. The discussion is part admiration especially from a consumer pov, part concern from a societal pov about Amazon's ruthless efficiency.

 

Burning Platform: Relentless Amazon

In the 36th (today) and 37th (tomorrow) episode of the series we have Dr. Robin Gaster, President, Incumetrics Inc. and Visiting Scholar, George Washington University Institute of Public Policy.

We discuss various aspects of Amazon's growing empire from his new book, Behemoth, Amazon Rising.

In part 1 below we cover Amazon's amazing growth and its impact on retail, book publishing, data centers, ecommerce and many other industry sectors.

The discussion is part admiration especially from a consumer pov, part concern from a societal pov about Amazon's ruthless efficiency.

We also talk about Amazon and other automation trends which accelerated during the pandemic.

Part 2 link

Burning Platform: Entrepreneurial Trends

In the 34th (yesterday) and 35th (today) of the series we have Brad Feld, Founding Partner, Foundry Group and Ian Hathaway who leads the global ecosystems business at Techstars,

In this episode, they discuss new opportunities they are investing in, the challenge of mental health and new opportunities they see there, and the changed environment for startups with a new administration in the US.

Burning Platform: Startup Communities

In the 34th (today) and 35th (tomorrow) episode of the series we have Brad Feld, Founding Partner, Foundry Group and Ian Hathaway who leads the global ecosystems business at Techstars,

In the episode below, they discuss their book, The Startup Community Way  

They also discuss how the pandemic has led to population shifts away from several urban centers and the resulting opportunities and challenges for new startup communities. They discuss how things are likely to shake out as we come out of the pandemic. Brad describes the trajectory the city of Boulder, CO has seen over the last few decades in its evolution as a startup magnet.

In tomorrow's episode, they will discuss how the world has changed for entrepreneurs with the pandemic and with the new administration in the US.

2021 - just like 2020

OK, don't freak out. 2021 will hopefully not be as miserable as 2020. However, from a Deal Architect content point of view, 2021 can only look back at 2020 with envy.

We initiated or accelerated contributions to 5 series in 2020:

• 75+ executives shared their heroics and industry perspectives in the Acrobatics during the Crisis series
• 60+ vendor executives and analysts presented on new products and surveys in the Analyst Cam series
• 50+ folks proudly described their hobbies, charities, personal pursuits in the Technology and my Passion series
• 20+ analysts and influencers commented on industry trends in the Burning Platform series
• 25+ Florida towns are profiled in the West Coast on the East Coast series

We uploaded over 3,000 minutes of video to our YouTube channel.

2021 is turning out to not be a slouch, even as our advisory business has picked up.

Here is the content progress to date:

Analyst Cam

Otpimizely: Digital Experiences

Zoho: ZohoDay excerpts

Zoho: ZohoDay Social Hour

Supply Chain Matters: 2021 Trends

IFS: Cloud sneak preview

SAP: Industry Cloud

IFS: Rebranding

Adobe: Developers Live

Workday: Vaccine Management

Rimini Street: Investor Day

SAP: RISE with SAP

IT Central Station: Tech Buying Trends

Cella Technologies: Optimizing material handling on shop floors

C5MI: Industry 4.0

Burning Platform

Business Continuity with Mark Smith of Ventana Research 

A review of RISE with SAP with Dennis Howlett of Diginomica

Exciting world of Citizen IT with Amit Zavery of Google Cloud

More on RISE with SAP with Geoff Scott of ASUG

Evolving expectations of CX with Mark Taylor of Cognizant Digital Experience

Developers, developers...with James Governor of Redmonk

Modern Decisioning with Bret Greenstein of Cognizant

Global Grand Challenges with Jyoti Banerjee of North Star Transition

Technology and my Passion

Barbara Boardman Beekeeping

Susanne Beck Jigsaw Puzzles

Sandy Silverberg Broadway Productions

Alan Alper Pandemic positives

Rob Kugel Diving and Reef Check

West Coast on the East Coast 

St. Petersburg - more of the new Pier

St. Petersburg - Sunken Gardens

St. Petersburg - Museum of Fine Arts

St. Petersburg - Sunken Gardens with Google Lens

St. Petersburg - Mobility of every sort

Tampa Bay Area - a living museum

Tampa - River Walk prep for Super Bowl 55

Tampa - Raymond James Stadium - Super Bowl 55

Tampa - River Boat Victory Parade - Super Bowl 55