deal architect

Burning Platform: Data-Infused Apps

In the 45th episode of the series, we have Pete Schlampp, EVP Product Development at Workday.

Last week, I had the chance to present to some Chief Data Officers. I made the point that 2020 was an inflection point for data and analytics. We saw countless new data streams - related to COVID-19 data, the new census, shortened sports seasons stats, polls from the turbulent US elections, countless supply chain disruptions and many more. We also saw a new generation of players that leverage enterprise data go public and otherwise gain prominence - Snowflake, Palantir and C3.ai among them.

Workday is better known for its transaction capabilities in finance, hcm and procurement but it has gradually become an analytics powerhouse with acquisitions like Adaptive, Platfora, Gridcraft and others. During the pandemic they launched several bite sized apps which leveraged their analytics which I profiled in the Analyst Cam including VIBE for diversity management  and Vaccine Management. 

As Aneel Bhusri, the Co-CEO recently said "the future is about data, insights and predictions" 

So it was nice to spend time with Pete, who has been the key architect of Prism Analytics which is the cornerstone of many of the apps. We also discuss his expanded role which extends beyond analytics, his world view of "data-infused applications", machine learning and the role of Workday partners and their domain knowledge in the creation of many more bite-sized apps.

 

Burning Platform: Workday Nation

In the 44th episode of the series  we have Webb Armentrout, Group VP, Global Partners at Workday.

Workday has historically done a better job managing its SI ecosystem than many other vendors including some I have written books about. They certify at the individual consultant level and require re-certifications with every new semi-annual release. They have also kept their partner count relatively small to allow for better collaboration and management at the firm level.

We discuss how the pandemic, related WFH and need for virtual implementations severely tested the SIs, and how they have collaborated with Workday, its customers and often with each other during the trying period. Emily McEvilly, Chief Customer Officer had given me a preview in our conversation in November. (Toward the end, Webb brings up meeting at Concourse B at Atlanta Hartsfield airport. We had spent a few minutes before the formal conversation discussing our respective admiration for Delta Airlines which is based there)

We also discuss the likely changes as Workday partners leverage its Extend development platform, as Workday evolves to more solution selling, more verticals and countries as it marches toward a major milestone of annual revenues of $10 billion. The addition of Chano Fernandez as Co-CEO, the promotion of Emily McEvilly and other executive moves reflect the increased scope Workday is taking on.

Clearly the ecosystem will need to step up, and I will keep pushing for more automation in their delivery but the Workday track record to date has been reassuring and bodes well for a smoother evolution.  

 

Burning Platform: The future of "as a service"

In the 39th (yesterday) and 40th (today) 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 2 below we talk about how business models are evolving and how servitization has become a significant trend in every industry vertical, not just in enterprise technology - as Phil calls it Everything as a Service.

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

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: Cloud Wars!

Brian Sommer and I have recorded 12 episodes in this series - see index here  Last few weeks, we have had several guests - Rob Kugel of Ventana, Josh Greenbaum of EA Consulting, Bonnie Tinder of Raven Intel, Frank Scavo of Avasant, Dennis Howlett of Diginomica, Cindy Jutras of Mint Jutras, Dave Hofferberth of SPI Research, Holger Mueller of Constellation Research, Tamas Hevizi of Automation Anywhere, Bob Ferrari of Supply Chain Matters, Sabrina Horn of Horn Strategy and Sandra Lo of Zoho

This has been the year of the cloud - unbelievable scaling of ecommerce, wfh etc - so nice that I can wrap up the year with an episode with Bob Evans who authors the Cloud Wars site. As you can see, both of us are basking in the sun - helps the mood at the end of this crazy year.

We cover a lot of ground - how the hyperscalers have picked up momentum as companies look at lifting and shifting on-premise, legacy apps to their clouds. Google, Oracle, Microsoft and AWS in particular get a fair amount of time during the session.

We discuss the increasing focus of both the infrastructure and application vendors on the platform layer and the likely turf wars there.

We cover recent public offerings from Snowflake, C3, Palantir and momentum of vertical players like Teladoc, Shopify, nCino and what that means for the incumbent players. 

Bob also talks about every company in every vertical becoming more of a software company and what that means to the industry as a whole. The SaaS, IaaS etc definitions of the last few years look increasingly dated. 

More episodes to come in the New Year!

The Analyst Cam: Sapient Insights Group 2020-2021 HR Systems Survey

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

Stacey Harris, Chief Research Officer and Managing Partner at Sapient Insights Group presented highlights from their "2020–2021 HR Systems Survey White Paper, 23rd Annual Edition” As she says, there is a lot of conjecture about how HR groups have reacted during the pandemic, so it's nice to have results from a huge sample polling 1,900 organizations in 64 countries, representing 27 million employees.

Stacey provided more background on the survey: "The survey stands alone as a global view of the current and future plans for HR Technology adoption, crucial practices, and emerging technology trends from. The research covers organizations in all ranges of size, industry, and location and is focused on capturing the Voice of the Customer - reaching  beyond over sampled early adopters and global brands; to gather realistic data from HR and HRIT leaders working every day, often in anonymity, to achieve outcomes for their organizations .This is a valuable resource for anyone making critical decisions about HR Technology and its value to organizational outcomes and the future of HR Tech."

The research shows lots of shifts in HR systems spend and direction in a year dominated by COVID-19 and WFH in a year where the world turned upside down. One example: "15% of organizations are planning on decreasing traditional HR Technology Spend in 2021, by an average of 23% of their current budgets. In contrast 28% of organizations are planning to increase spending in non-traditional HR Technology areas like infrastructure and remote working tools."

As we discuss, HR may not still not be considered strategic by many, but nobody will argue with the point that it has become Essential with a capital E. We cover a lot of ground - how talent management tech has paid off during the crisis, automation trends, moving from WFH to blended models,  

Watch the video below, and also download the full report here. The report is about 100 pages, but skimming the graphics - almost one to a page - is just as rewarding. You will find it is one of the most realistic looks at the day in the life of the new, dramatically changed HR function.

 

The Analyst Cam: Workday VIBE

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

Barbry McGann, Executive Director, Office of the CHRO, Solution Marketing at Workday presented on their new VIBE Index and VIBE Central offerings. VIBE is acronym for Value Inclusion, Belonging, and Equity.

Their definition of diversity includes a wide range of dimensions like ethnicity, generation, even political affiliation. Employees self-identify, and Workday functionality across every stage from the hiring process to promotions and Prism analytics allow you to generate the Index. Surveys allow you to quantify sentiment - the employee sense of belonging. What's powerful is they offer  "intersectionality" so you can filter, for example, by "Native American, Male, Veteran, Frontline Worker". Dashboards make up VIBE Central and allow for drilldown across the detail.

She describes how the product originated internally at Workday and how customers have rapidly embraced it especially with a heightened focus on diversity and inclusion this summer. Workday continues to actively partner with customers, with response very positive so far – 300 customers signed up to participate in VIBE Central workshops immediately after launch, and three early adopter customers are now underway with their VIBE Index pilots.

Very crisp presentation and demo - look forward to bringing her back with one of the early adopter customers.

 

 

The Analyst Cam: Salesforce Industries Part 3

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

Salesforce recently had a Industries Summit where they showcased 12 "industry cloud" tracks. Each track had 8 to 10 customer, partner and product episodes. I attended sessions across most of  the tracks.

I am showcasing lightly edited episodes in each of the Cam entries this week. Here are Tuesday's  and Wednesday's  Each of my videos is about half an hour in length. I have tried to balance industries and geographies across my entries. I gave preference to those which highlighted their handling of the pandemic. Fair warning - what I present is my small sample from a very broad Salesforce portfolio on display during the Summit

Today, it starts with Utilities and Rory Briggs of Centrica Business Solutions. They provide services to utilities across the UK and Ireland, Europe and North America and he discusses complex quotes and proposals to customers

At 10.06, the focus shifts to Insurance and executives from Generali Group in Switzerland. They discuss marketing through a network of agents and related customer data management complexities.

At 22.29, it is Life Sciences. Theresa Zataveski of Merck discusses how they digitally engage through multiple channels with health care providers. I was particularly interested in her comments about digital experiences in Japan and how content in a highly regulated industry has becoming increasingly customized to channels and personalized.

The Analyst Cam: Salesforce Industries Part 2

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

Salesforce recently had a Industries Summit where they showcased 12 "industry cloud" tracks. Each track had 8 to 10 customer, partner and product episodes. I attended sessions across most of  the tracks.

I am showcasing lightly edited episodes in each of the Cam entries this week. I posted one yesterday. Each of my videos is about half an hour in length. I have tried to balance industries and geographies across my entries. I gave preference to those which highlighted their handling of the pandemic. Fair warning - what I present is my small sample from a very broad Salesforce portfolio on display during the Summit.

Today, it starts with the Healthcare sector. Dr. "Romi" Chopra at MIMIT Health describes how the Salesforce platform helps with what he calls the Amazonification of healthcare. Most doctors tell the same story - they have invested lots in Electronic Health Records (EHR) but that has not helped the patient experience much. He also describes how they were able to move to Telehealth in a mere 3 days at the start of the pandemic.

Next at 16.40, we move to Financial Services. Mark Murphy, CEO of Salesforce partner, Fenergo describes their Client Lifecycle Management solution for banks. I especially liked the discussion on the on-boarding experience that banks can improve for customers.

At 25.17 we feature a very different partner, Amazon Web Services. Mary Wilson, lead for the Power and Utilities sector, does not just talk about hyperscaler "speeds and feeds". AWS brings much more strategic value to their utilities as they prioritize de-carbonization, predictive maintenance and digital transformations. It's not just bookish knowledge - AWS and Amazon broadly are innovating around energy efficiency, renewables etc.

Another episode tomorrow

The Analyst Cam: Salesforce Industries Part 1

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

Salesforce recently had a Industries Summit where they showcased 12 "industry cloud" tracks. Each track had 8 to 10 customer, partner and product episodes. I attended sessions across most of the tracks.

I am highlighting lightly edited episodes in each of the Cam entries over the next 3 days. Each of my videos is about half an hour in length. I have tried to balance industries and geographies across my entries. I gave preference to those which highlighted their handling of the pandemic. Fair warning - what I present is my small sample from a very broad Salesforce portfolio on display during the Summit.

Today, it starts with the CPG sector and Dan Moisan, Chief Commercial Officer of PepsiCo, Latin America. It is a $ 7.6 billion unit. In addition to discussing the challenges of homogenizing and scaling operations across 40 countries, he tells a great story about how 25,000 route sales reps who are used to weekly visits to 3 million customers (most of them small stores) have coped with COVID-19 travel and other restrictions.

At 15.21, the focus shifts to the public sector and a discussion of  the recently launched Salesforce offering, Work.com for Vaccines. It is designed to help governments and healthcare organizations manage vaccine programs at scale, from patient registration and appointment scheduling to inventory management, outcome monitoring and public health notifications. Obviously, the immediate opportunity with be around vaccines being developed for COVID-19, but the applications should be broader

At 22.28, we move to Renee Newman, Chief Strategy Officer at a community bank, First Interstate Bank. At the start of the pandemic, the US initiated the emergency PPP (Payroll Protection Program) loan program. The SBA approved over 5 million PPP loans over a couple of months. Many community banks handled these much better than larger banks in this intense phase, and Renee discusses the program among other operational topics.

More episodes coming later this week.