deal architect

Burning Platform: The demise of the mainframe has been greatly exaggerated

In the 79th episode of Burning Platform, we host Hari Candadai, SVP of Service Innovation and Thought Leadership at Origina. They are a third-party software maintenance company focused exclusively on providing IBM Support. As he says “Over the last decade Origina has perfected the third-party software maintenance model for IBM Passport Advantage customers around MQ,  Cognos, DB2, Informix, FileNet and  other products down the list.”

We discuss why we have for decades discussed the death of the mainframe and how it continues to survive and thrive especially in airlines, banks and other high transaction volume environments. IBM continues to breathe life with the latest z Series architecture and is reporting numbers which are delighting Wall Street.

However, that is no reason to put up with the high cost and shrinking talent in that world. We cover why third-party maintenance is attractive around IBM products – the lack of skills at customers and even at IBM (and how Origina has built its talent pool), the high cost for relatively stable environments (and how Origina can shave half off), and the need for interoperability with all the systems that keep on mushrooming around the backbone applications on the mainframe.

He goes into plenty of detail and spends some time describing their long journey with the utility. Southern California Edison.

McKinsey recently wrote “For many companies—and many industries—the COVID-19 pandemic set off a period of head-spinning change. They realized they were capable of moving faster than they ever thought possible. They went digital in a matter of days, not years. They offered new services almost overnight.

If companies sustain this newfound speed and agility, it’s conceivable that more innovation will happen in the next ten years than in any previous decade in modern history.”

That innovation will need money and staffing commitments. Another reason to consider a firm like Origina. Nicely covered by Hari in about 20 minutes  

 

Burning Platform: The enterprise suite does not always win - Zoho One is a standout

In the 78th episode of Burning Platform, we host Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist at Zoho, a repeat guest in this series

Zoho One – also branded as “the Operating System for Business” - is a suite of 50 and growing applications across sales, marketing, finance, hr, legal, collaboration and other functional areas – see the full list here (btw it does not list the 50+ mobile apps which are also included)

We discuss a major milestone in the evolution of Zoho One – its fifth anniversary.

In those 5 years, it has been adopted by over 50.000 customers. Notably, it has also penetrated markets like UAE, Nigeria, Kenya, Mexico and others that few enterprise vendors ever cover.

The glib statement in the enterprise applications market is “the suite always wins”. Yes, it is compelling to have an integrated solution with a common UX, single version of truth across the enterprise. The reality is first-gen ERP, CRM and other suites were inconsistent in their functionality by module, often cobbled together via acquisitions, attracted lots of Sis who were comfortable in HQ functions but not in operational areas the suite promised to cover, resulted in massive overruns. My view is that experience has made enterprise buyers much more cautious and back to buying at a much more modular level. With that backdrop, Zoho One has done very well.

Raju discusses many things Zoho has done right – “a dollar a day” pricing; organic, self-discovery of applications so users expand their use of the suite at their own pace, rather than being oversold what ends up becoming shelfware; and a focus on customers without much of a legacy application portfolio to migrate.

He also discusses what’s next in the evolution of this success story.

Crisply (and modestly) done in 16 minutes.    

Gartner and Oracle: Why I am missing their major events this week

Burning Platform: IFS Unleashed in Miami

In the 77th episode of Burning Platform, we host Oliver Pilgerstorfer, CMO of IFS, a repeat guest of ours

He provides a sneak preview of their upcoming Customer Event, Unleashed scheduled from October 10 to 14 in Miami.

We discuss their decision to go with Miami when most tech vendors prefer Vegas or Orlando or the Bay Area for their events. We cover some of the agenda – it will center around the theme of “Moment of Service” which CEO Darren Roos does a great job articulating. Every business has multiple, fleeting moments where it either delights or disappoints its customers. Darren is passionate about orchestrating your assets and your people to deliver those Moments of Service. And his customers do so in complex, multinational settings.

We discuss the show floor which will showcase IFS’s growing ecosystem. Finally, we discuss some of the fun items they have planned.

As I tell him, Miami is an inspired choice. While we are partial to the West Coast of Florida having lived here for 3 decades, Miami is a vibrant, cosmopolitan city. With his guests a short walk from the city’s famous beaches, Oliver and his team are putting together a compelling agenda to match that competition.

Feel the excitement in this short session. As he says it will be great to get the band together again. And join me in experiencing it.

See you in S. Florida!

Burning Platform: Startup Boards

In the 76th episode of Burning Platform, we host Brad Feld of Foundry Group, a repeat guest and discuss the new book he has co-authored, Startup Boards and a whole slew of other tech industry topics

As Brad explains, the book is written in laypersons rather than in technical legal language. “What we tried to do with this book was bring out how startup boards work, and make them productive and accessible to CEOs, to existing and to prospective board members.”

The biggest change in this edition -  the first was published in 2013: “we had about 20 sidebars, from people who wrote stories of their own board experiences…of those 20, only two were women. So we refactored that and this one has 10 women.  For men, we carefully chose a bunch of new contemporary voices and have a few people of color in the mix as well. So it wasn't all just middle aged, white guys prognosticating about how boards work.”

We drift to an area Brad is always fascinating to listen to. How startups themselves keep evolving – location wise, focus/category wise, how they are capitalizing given the current state of financial markets.

Re categories he talks about “deep tech” and covers space tech, quantum computing and bio-engineering. “It is a truism that tech today is woven into every industry.”

We also talk about cleantech and EVs of course that brings up China. He also has an interesting perspective on reshoring and other global trends.

We talk about the joys and pains of writing books, how second editions allow you to see the world from a different lens. He invokes Jeff Lawson of Twilio and Steve Case of  Revolution among others

Fascinating 40 minute session. Also get a copy of the book here. It a practitioner’s guide to startups from someone who has seen them from every possible angle.

Burning Platform: The Right to Repair and Service

In the 75th episode of Burning Platform, we host Tomas O’Leary, Founder of Origina which provides independent support for IBM software products. He is also President of Free ICT, a not-for-profit foundation actively promoting the ICT Secondary Market. Their objective is to secure the right of ownership and the freedom for consumers and businesses to freely choose their providers to trade, maintain and repair products.

We have moved to a world of “everything as a service”. Whether labor-based or digital services, everyone wants a piece of the post-sales service business. In the industrial world, product companies see “Servitization” as a way to differentiate against global competition which can rapidly commoditize core product margins. Being asked to deliver on outcome-based contracts, they increasingly want to also own the service chain. Many are not offering products for purchase but on a long term contract. Keeping ownership of the product allows them to better manage repair, refurbish and other “circular economy” activities.

These new models are leading to friction with other customers who would prefer to pay and own, service the products on their own or with a service provider of their choice. It is also leading to legislation supporting customer “right to repair” on their own.

Tomas brings his perspective from the enterprise software sector where as products age, we have seen that prices do not decline and for that the quality of service is often pretty poor or non-existent. Tomas is passionate about customer choice and we spend the entire episode discussing why such choices are being compromised, how customers can protect themselves and also how regulators are starting to help.

Fascinating and much needed conversation.

Burning Platform: Experience, Inc.

In the 74th episode of Burning Platform, we host yet another author, Jill Popelka, President of SAP SuccessFactors. She kindly took time out of her book launch schedule to summarize themes from Experience. Inc.

She describes the inspiration for the book - her observation of the “loss of human connection” during the pandemic and the need to double down on improving experiences for employees, The book is a guidebook to business executives on how to deliver those.

She covers major takeaways from the book – employees need purpose, agency, a sense of belonging, recognition and what she explains as a “storm home”

She also talks about how technology can help improve employee experiences and talks about the SuccessFactors opportunity marketplace which employees can use to discover new learning and development opportunities within their companies. She also discusses their Workzone which fosters employee belonging and with tools like Appreciate drive recognition.

The book is already a best seller. Get your copy at Amazon here

Burning Platform: Winning in the 4th Industrial Revolution

In the 73rd episode of Burning Platform, we host (again) Marty Groover, CTO at C5MI

In previous appearances he has talked about applying 4^th Industrial Revolution concepts in companies like Caterpillar.

Here we use his new book, Speed of Advance  as backdrop to discuss the changed US industrial sector with more reshoring and supply chain rethinking. SoA is a Navy term which calculates the speed of a ship anticipated along an intended track. As a surface warfare officer, Marty Groover spent more than two decades leading an intricate operational symphony of communications processes, computer systems, and weapons programs.

In our digital world, we often underplay the role of the physical, blue collar world - we still have to make, grow, transport, service lots of "stuff". Or we try to just throw technology at the problem and think that will work miracles. The labor shortages, process changes and breakdowns during the last couple of years have been a wake up call.  

In this book, Marty shows how to create an enhanced, synchronized system between technology and the people who use it to produce winning results in the 4th Industrial Revolution. The technologies include robotics, 3D printing, IoT and others which are helping redefine the shop floor, the warehouse and so much else.

Marty has a Kindle eBook launch pricing promotion at 99c for the next few days. Take advantage of the offer here

Burning Platform: Architectural Trends in Enterprise Software

In the 72nd episode of Burning Platform, we host Sayan Chakraborty, EVP of Product and Technology at Workday.

Sayan is, in many ways, a rocket scientist. He has degrees in aerospace engineering from MIT. He started his career as an engineer on interplanetary spacecraft at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and on the early commercialization of global positioning systems (GPS).

However, in his career he has influenced more of the arc of enterprise software. He arrived at Workday in 2015 through their acquisition of GridCraft which he co-founded. Prior to that, he led teams focused on next-generation collaboration products at Oracle. Leading up to that he worked at several startups for two decades

So, the conversation is a bit of a walk down memory lane. We invoke terms like SOA, CPU speeds and OLTP as we discuss today’s microservices and how Workday deals with scaling of massive transaction volumes across finance, hcm, procurement functions while also becoming a powerhouse in the planning/analytics space.

We have a bit of a debate on whether consumer tech is leading enterprise tech when it comes to ML and AI. That leads to threads on data regimes and bias in AI.

We have an interesting section on the need to rethink enterprise application categories and definitions, to break down traditional silos and to rethink business processes. As he says, the pandemic has forcefully shown us an enterprise is not just a “campus of buildings”. He discusses how Workday’s string of acquisitions has already helped challenge some of the traditional thinking.

This a master class on IT architectures.  You can see and hear Sayan's high-energy and passion for his role in shaping the industry in his body language and tone.

An absolute must watch.

 

Burning Platform: Enterprise Software in Emerging Markets

In the 71st episode of Burning Platform, we host Hyther Nizam, President, Middle East and Africa for Zoho.

Let me start off by saying I became a fan of Zoho way back in 2006 after this session with the CEO, Sridhar Vembu. Over the years I have written plenty about their business model,  his leadership style,  his humble philosophy about life and rural revival and what he calls “transnational localism” 

I had a chance to talk to Hyther about an exciting new product release (he also wears a product development hat) announcement planned for early March. I asked him if we could also talk about “transnational localism” as applied to his region which spans 10 countries across the Middle East and Africa. He does in the conversation below and you have to marvel at the product enhancements (like RTL – right to left UX needed for Arabic and other scripts), the sweat equity, the pricing subsidies and other investments Zoho makes in developing each market.

Contrast that to most other enterprise software vendors who try to replicate their expensive direct sales, partner heavy model when they look at global expansion. Additionally, most of them prioritize English speaking countries in their global plans. No wonder most SaaS applications, even after two decades, have very little customization for most of the world’s local languages, currencies and regs.

Zoho’s investments in MEA are clearly paying off as Hyther shares. His is one of the fastest growing regions at Zoho. Not sure other vendors can match their pricing model, but there are several philosophical and behavioral attributes they should consider emulating.

Personally, I am in awe of how Hyther managed to accomplish so much with global travel constrained in the pandemic affected last couple of years. And how he seems to fairly easily juggle his product responsibilities as well.

More on the product announcements next week.