deal architect

Analyst Cam: Salesforce Industries Summit, 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. 

Salesforce held an Industries Summit earlier this month. They invited me to an analyst pre-briefing and gave me access to keynotes and sessions across 8 sectors - Communications, Energy and Utilities, Financial Services, Government and Public Sector, Healthcare and Life sciences, Manufacturing, Media, Retail and Consumer Goods.

I have excerpted segments across the sectors and am posting them into three parts.

The part in the video below covers 3 "mega-trends" I heard during the sessions. The first is around sustainability - while the desire for clean energy is affecting every sector, it is especially impactful on utilities. I have excerpted from a conversation with Yves Le Gerald, EVP at Engie, the French multinational electric utility company and Megan Lorenzen, Sustainability Manager at Salesforce. It is nice to hear the perspectives of both a procurer and a producer of energy.

At 13.10, the focus shifts to "servitization" - a growing trend in the industrial sector as product makers get more revenues from services and move to as-a-service, subscription and outcome based business models. It features Thomas Gocke who heads digital business transformation at Koenig and Bauer, the German company that makes printing presses and is very well versed in servitization trends.

At 21.19, focus is on "everything from home" - the impact of working, dining, studying, entertaining at home and the impact on broadband and media. Linda Yaccarino, Chairman of global advertising sales and client partnerships at NBCUniversal has a front row seat watching the massive changes that the pandemic accelerated.

In Part 2, Jujhar Singh, the EVP and GM of Salesforce Industries will lead off with the theme of "industry success from anywhere" as we move into hybrid work and shopping world. Then, there is a demo of a new Salesforce offering for investment bankers. Next, Kristen Jensen of the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity brings a public sector perspective on change. Finally there are demos relevant for channels in retail and consumer goods covering rebates, incentive management and trade promotions.

In Part 3, Bret Taylor, President and COO of Salesforce will touch on the "digital first" and "transform now" themes in every industry. He also covers industry specific AI and Hyperforce - Salesforce's infrastructure architecture that allows customers to scale rapidly and securely using its public cloud hyperscaler partners. Next is a demo of a local government application - the use case revolves around licensing of a day care facility. We next switch to a telco and the opportunities 5G is opening up.  Mallik Rao, CTIO at Telefonica Germany is certainly qualified to describe that. Finally there are two product discussions - one around wealth management aimed at financial services customers and the other on patient appointment aimed at healthcare customers.

While every vendor is talking up "industry clouds", the breadth of vertical processes covered during the Salesforce Summit was truly impressive. I have excerpted only a small fraction of what I saw and heard. You too can sign up and watch the full range of sessions or an industry specific track by registering here

 

Burning Platform: Not your grandpa's Services economy

In the 48th episode of the series we have Peter Bendor-Samuel of Everest Group, a research firm focused on IT, business process, and engineering services since it was founded in 1991.

I enjoy catching up with Peter on a regular basis to get his perspective on trends in outsourcing and the broader IT, BPO, strategy services market.

He says the market is broadly strong - "rising tide raises all boats" - with the confluence of digital transformations, modernization projects/ related legacy outsourcing and pent up demand from projects slowed down or postponed in 2020.

What's different is the influence of hyperscalers like Google and Amazon and strategy firms like McKinsey, BCG and Bain. We also discuss the trend of "servitization" - where industrial and other sectors are generating more service revenues around their products and moving to "as a service" models with subscription revenues and outcome based models.

BTW, on the last point about servitization, I have been researching that trend in detail over the last few months. You will hear more from me on that in the next few weeks. In the meantime, enjoy this conversation.  

We cover wide ground, as is common with my conversations with Peter. I always learn something new from him.

Burning Platform: The end of ERP?

In the 47th episode of the series we have Patricia Harris of Workday

Workday has coined a new category, Enterprise Management Cloud and is distancing itself from the ERP moniker.  Makes a lot of sense to highlight their cloud and analytical strengths. Besides, the market started looking more during the crisis in 2020 for bite-sized applications, not intergalactic commitments. So, we have a fun few minutes on Magic Quadrants.

But most of the time is spent on her solution marketing focus and Workday's path as it paces toward a $10 billion revenue goal. We also discuss how her background at IHS Markit and their extensive research on various industries is going to help Workday's vertical moves. We spend some time about her time at Hitachi Vantara, how the world of IT infrastructure is changing and how to navigate the growing influence of hyperscalers.

Nice, broad ranging conversation. 

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.