deal architect

New Normal: A conversation with Rob Enslin of Google Cloud

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up. Here is the index to the growing list of interviews. 

This time it is Rob Enslin, President, Cloud Sales at Google.

I have known Rob over the years from his long stint at SAP. He is not one to brag but if you parse some of the statements he makes in the video below, you get a sense for the tectonic changes coming to most economies and how technology will play what he calls a "massive role". The formidable range of offerings Google and Alphabet already offers to consumer world will increasingly be leveraged by the enterprise. With Thomas Kurian and Rob that should accelerate.

He touches a wide range of industries across the conversation - auto makers, banks, food and beverage, hospital, universities, call centers, public sector agencies, travel companies. He covers scenarios such as running a virtual annual general meeting, banks moving from branch to digital banking,  machine inspection of shop floors and automation of thermal checks at airports.

He describes how many customers start with "lift and shift" of legacy apps to Google infrastructure for the cloud economics, scalability and security. Then they start to leverage Google's machine learning, collaboration, vast data sets (like health related ones from Google Health and Calico), mapping and other digital assets.

I was struck by his personal productivity during the shelter at home. He describes a day of customer calls to Japan, Indonesia, Germany, Brazil, Florida, New York and California. Organizing all that a few months ago would have required 2-3 week trip. He says Google has always been a video-savvy workplace (which has also made their WFH a lot easier), but he says it is striking how the rest of the world has moved that way.

He is rightly proud that the cloud has managed to support so much traffic without too many hiccups - all the massive uptick in ecommerce, video, banking and trading volumes, telemedicine and other digital activity from home. As he asks - could we have done that a decade ago? 

He also touches on delivery models and how even complex machine learning projects are being supported remotely. He expects much more productivity going forward in delivery of services.

When I asked him about leadership, he complimented Google leadership like the CEO Sundar Pichai for decisiveness - about quickly moving to work from home, ending large group meetings, being conservative about moving back into physical workplaces. He also cites his personal experiences during the dot.com recession in the early 2000s, and that in the 2008 financial meltdown as helping him lead during this crisis. He says he shares with his employees how he personally relaxes. He also participates in many virtual happy hours, virtual Peloton group rides with staff.  

He was immensely popular at SAP  - read this post I did on his earlier career and his leadership style. No surprise he has continued that at Google.

I found it an extremely uplifting conversation. I think you will too.

Oracle Nation update

Last August, I had floated the idea of writing Oracle Nation. This blog post laid out the reasons why I was thinking about it. I added in a comment the changing industry landscape I hoped to explore

"The next wave of apps are going to be in vertical operational areas and many geographies beyond the bigger Western countries. The competition will change as more customers are moving back to custom developed and even building industry solutions for sale. Also there will be more regional players and others on Google, AWS and Azure platforms. Got to factor all that in my decision."

Oracle and I discussed various options. They offered access to 6 events around the world as a way for me to meet customers and Oracle executives to interview. That was very generous and would have given me a very nice exposure to Oracle's global reach. However, none of the events was vertically focused. And, honestly, I find conferences a tough place to get decent face time with executives. Much better to catch them in their comfort zones in their offices. Not that it would have mattered. Given the COVID-19 crisis, most of those events have been cancelled.

I also managed to get a dialogue going on verticals. Mike Sicilia, EVP of Oracle's global business units, gave me a nice overview of key verticals such as hospitality, retail and utilities. We were supposed to arrange for drill downs into many of the sectors but again COVID-19 has disrupted scheduling.

I had hoped to re-engage and make Oracle part of the "acrobatics during the crisis" Zoom series I have been running. However, the Oracle executive I approached declined. I understand. While the vast majority of executives I invited have participated, some have not - they don't want to come across bragging during the crisis or for other reasons.

In background, to get a 360 degree perspective I had also talked to Oracle partners, competitors, user groups. Long and short - my books tend to be case study heavy and I don't think I can get a broad enough range of customers for the book.

I will be honest - in my polling I got several comments that I should instead write about SaaS leaders like Salesforce, Workday and ServiceNow or the hyperscalers, Amazon, Microsoft and Google (Oracle IaaS is showing more recent momentum but did not come up much in my earlier conversations). The acrobatics and digital transformations during the crisis (watch the interview I did here) are also really timely fodder for a possible book. BTW these conversations are showing a lot of interest in vertical edge applications (like telemedicine, drive-thru support, PPP loan processing etc) less ERP or other transactional system refreshes in the short-term. Less tech focused, I have also thought about writing a book on US policy matters - our middle class, immigration, global trade etc. I find there are plenty of what I call "toxic myths" about those topics.

Seriously, I am learning so much from my Zoom interviews and can share them on a much more timely basis that I plan to continue doing those. I have several more great executives lined up.

Oracle is continually fascinating. There will be a time and place when we will be able to engage meaningfully. Just not this year.

New Normal: A conversation with Brian Sommer of TechVentive

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up. Here is the index to the growing list of interviews. 

This time it is Brian Sommer, President of TechVentive which analyzes and advises on the ERP, HCM and Financial software markets. Here he discuss heroics as HCM executives deal with a slew of new demands.

He describes expectations of HR related to layoffs, getting people ready for work from home, site re-opening protocols, reacting to regulatory changes as government emergency programs like the Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) loans in the US. All this is in addition to their regular day jobs which is being done remotely. In addition, HR is squarely in the middle of corporate response to diversity issues and protests. He describes the risks as corporations re-open sites and re-hire employees. We also discuss impact on employer brands coming out of the crisis.

We discuss how cloud applications performed in support of work from home formats, and how HR can find justification to move to the cloud as enterprises try to optimize IT budgets and prioritize revenue-facilitating vertical applications. We also discuss moving legacy application to cloud infrastructure, and using third party maintenance to support those applications, and outsourcing opportunities.

As usual, Brian is entertaining and uses terms like "finding true love elsewhere". But most of it is serious stuff - a lot of empathy for the crushing load that HCM groups find themselves buried under.  

New Normal: Conversation with Sridhar Vembu of Zoho

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.

This time it is Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho Corp.

We talk about some of their heroics. Zoho was one of the first technology vendors to launch a set of tools, Remotely to help customer employees work from home. And several thousand customers have been grateful for Zoho's emergency assistance of subscription waiver during the crisis. In a feel-good section he describes how many customers have asked them to  save the offer for needier customers. We also talk about how cloud applications have scaled impressively to help businesses during this lockdown. 

Just as impressively, Zoho's employees have been preparing and delivering 10,000 meals a day to the needy, been designing UV sanitation devices and have built a hospital on their campus.

When I last met him in Austin, TX in February we had talked about his passion for rural revival and the world of digital nomads. That was prophetic - we did not know the world would soon have severe food supply chain disruptions. We also did not know so many of us would be quarantined. We revisit his philosophy on both topics.

One of the most motivational sections in the conversation is when I ask him how he manages to stay so positive and lead during the crisis. He responds "Pain is real, suffering is optional". What a great attitude for our turbulent times!

By the wonders of modern technology, he did his session on a 4G mobile network from a remote village in Tenkasi in Southern India, at the edge of a wildlife sanctuary. I used Google Meet for the first time. Other sessions in this series have mostly been on Zoom. Next time, we will use Zoho Meeting, or even better, meet in person.

Very inspirational session!

New Normal: Conversation with Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh of Salesforce

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.

This time it is Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh, EVP, Industries at Salesforce.

I especially enjoyed this conversation because she brought out so many examples of response to the crisis across 6 major industry sectors she leads. Too many vendors are still trying to sell what was in their bag pre-crisis.

She talks about Salesforce support for emergency response at public health agencies in many of the "hotspots" for the virus.

She next describes their work with many US banks as they processed thousands of the emergency PPP loans to small businesses.

She also describes Work.com which is designed to help companies plan for safe re-opening of their work facilities as their communities gradually allow for that.

 

New Normal: What to expect from SAP and its partners

Tom Wailgum of ASUG interviewed me as part of the virtual edition of its Executive Exchange last week. It had originally been scheduled in Orlando as a companion to SAP's annual Sapphire event. SAP's event has been postponed till next month and ASUG turned its event virtual, and utilized the ON24 platform for the broadcast.

Tom and I covered wide ground about a post-COVID world in our 30 minute session including

• My recent Zoom interviews with a number of C level executives and VCs and what I have heard across industries/regions - acrobatics, views on return to work, overall recovery
• How customers will likely deal with SAP - cloud applications v on prem, vertical v horizontal functionality, expectations of more integration in the SAP portfolio,  re-shuffling spend, acceleration of digitization
• What customers can expect from SI partners - travel restrictions, more shared services, automation
• CIO performance during the crisis, likely new C- level health-centric exec, expansion of HR role with increased focus on health, work from home etc

New Normal: A conversation with Andre Blumberg of CLP Power

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.

This time it is Andre Blumberg, Senior IT Director at CLP Power. Based in Hong Kong, he is the first executive in this series who did the interview from his corporate, not home, office. He is able to speak from the vantage point of being in the recovery/reopen stage, while most of US is still planning for that. Hong Kong and Asia also benefited from their experience with SARS in 2003 and Andre describes that advantage.

He describes how energy consumption patterns have evolved over the last few months - consumer v. commercial, across Asia-Pacific. He also describes the 3 Ds driving their business - decarbonization, decentralization and digitizing - and how the crisis has influenced their thinking  

He also describes their recent annual shareholder meeting - a hybrid physical and streamed one. Only 50 shareholders were picked via raffle to be physically present. Directors on the board were split to provide physical distancing.  

Just because they are a utility, they don't waste energy. Half way through our conversation the lights in the board room went off. The motion sensor had not detected enough activity in the room. That's ironic since Andre is an ultra-marathoner - full of energy!

Very educational talk. And hopeful to all of us stuck in home offices and eager to get back to physical worksites and on the road to watch him talk from his corporate office.

 

Microsoft Business Applications virtual summit - a missed opportunity?

James Phillips, President of the Microsoft Business Applications group had a nice slide in his keynote this morning at their virtual Applications Summit. He showed call centers evolving every twenty years - in his voice over he said "there are more differences in hairstyles and clothing than in the applications "

I was thinking he could have added a setting for the last two months - masks, video cams, young kids at home Zoom bombing (ok, MS Teams, not Zoom).

Also that the entire session could have completely focused on agility in the last few weeks. The keynote mentioned some of the customer acrobatics in passing but the session overall came across aspirational that business will continue as usual.

They mentioned how Swedish Hospital in Seattle has worked with them to develop a COVID-19 Emergency Response App (CERA). But it was 50 minutes into the session and they only spent a minute on it. They mentioned mixed reality at Ikea but could have expanded that section to talk about how Ikea has scaled eCommerce and shipping logistics with its stores shut during this phase. They mentioned l'Oreal hand sanitizers but could have drilled into impact that new SKU has had on their sourcing, manufacturing and distribution. They had a section on Chipolte but did not touch on workplace or supply chain hygiene, or contactless delivery. They mentioned stats on MS Teams usage but could have had a nice customer case study on extensive use of that platform. They could have included gesture and voice interfaces and examples of how ML and AI have helped customers.

I have been conducting Zoom interviews with C level executives in many industries and they are telling me about acrobatics in their sectors and likely new normal going forward. Last mile delivery, production planners at auto companies repurposing components for medical equipment, optimization around supply chain breakdowns, food sector drive throughs and home deliveries, retail curbside pickups, pop-up hospitals, telemedicine, distance learning, work-from-home and massive video traffic demands on IT, professional services doing remote configurations and testing, their extensive planning for return to work as states re-open and on and on. Over and over I hearing expressions like “years of change in a couple of weeks”

Microsoft has a web page called "Together" which summarizes some of the ways they have been helping customers during this phase and they could have pulled many other examples from there.

It was a professional keynote but Microsoft could have hit it out of the park by largely focusing on applications which have been dreamed up and delivered in the last quarter.

In fairness, the event goes on a couple more days and somewhere on the agenda they likely will cover other customer heroics. Perhaps Microsoft will help me navigate to relevant replays and I will post an update.

Not just Microsoft, I hope SAP, ServiceNow and other application vendors do similar in their upcoming virtual events. There is a new normal or abnormal they need to reflect.

The New Normal: A conversation with Bill Berutti and Jerry Foster of Plex Systems

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.

This time it is Bill Berutti, CEO and Jerry Foster, CTO of Plex Systems. Plex is a cloud ERP and MES vendor, but this conversation is not just for manufacturing customers. They talk about how they closed two deals in March virtually -  without visiting prospects. That's unheard of in enterprise software. They describe acrobatics in their customer base - so many of them pivoted to make parts for medical ventilators, masks and other PPE gear and hand sanitizers.

The piece de resistance is a set of slides starting around 9:55 where Jerry shows a summarization of production data across the Plex customer base. The dramatic drop in production in the auto sector, a bit less so in food and beverage, then the promising resurgence. As he says, just watching the few weeks in a few slides, especially the V shaped rebound in Chinese production provides hope for everyone.

They also discuss how the cloud made work from home so much easier for their customer base. They cover the theme of not being too dependent on "one thread" in the global supply chain. And what the "new normal" for the factory floor may look like.

Like I said, even if you are not in the manufacturing sector this will give you some great ideas and make you more optimistic about the re-opening of the economy.      

Workday continues its innovations in Analyst Summits

A decade ago, Workday pioneered with its Technology Day format. I wrote back then

"Few vendors have the guts to be open to such a smart and opinionated bunch as Workday was during its Technology Day yesterday. Like a marathon tennis match with plenty of volleys and lobs and aces, the back and forth was something to watch."

They have continued Analyst Summits every year, adding new twists, and hosting them at enjoyable places like Cavallo Point at the foot of Golden Gate Bridge.

I was sure they would cancel this week's event given the COVID-19 crisis. They persisted and made it virtual.

Several things they did very well:

• They spread it over multiple days. Zoom fatigue is real (see this National Geo article) so that was considerate of them since most analysts also other have video sessions on MS Teams, Skype etc.
• They varied the platforms. Day 1 was on the ON24 platform with slides. I appreciated the uncluttered UX - many vendors use all four quadrants of setting that platform allows. Day 2 and 3 were Zoom calls - Town Hall, Q&A format. Very well moderated. That's saying something with a smart and opinionated bunch now 10 years older and crankier. Back then, they had a U shaped seating arrangement. This time, the Zoom gallery view provided a similar, open vibe even with a much larger audience.
• They had the majority of the management team on hand - and again in the spirit of variety, some presented from their home libraries, others from game rooms etc. Couple even had Cavallo Point as their background - a nice reminder of better days we can look forward to.

Much of the content was under NDA and Workday is in its quiet period. However, the mood was confident, yet empathetic. Some of its customer base is in the doldrums, others are literally hiring tens of thousands of employees during the crisis.

I have a video interview coming up with CEO Aneel Bhusri. I will ask him to share some of the heroics they are seeing from their customers during the crisis, and how cloud applications have made the transition to work from home one less thing for companies to worry about.