deal architect

Analyst Cam: Salesforce Industries & Revenue Excellence – a Post-Dreamforce Update

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

I attended Dreamforce last month fully expecting to be inundated with AI messaging–and I was, with Salesforce taking a sensible “trust-first” approach. I also wanted to get an in-person perspective on progress within Salesforce Industries and its Revenue Lifecycle Management offerings. While there, I watched several Industry Cloud presentations (Salesforce is now up to 13-plus Industry Clouds and solutions) and also spent time with many  industry-focused customers and partners, in addition to walking the show floor which offered plenty of industry-specific product demos.

Jujhar Singh, EVP and GM, Industries & Revenue Lifecycle Management for Salesforce, generously followed up with me in a post-Dreamforce video interview to share the latest on Salesforce’s Industry Strategy. See below for links to each of the eight segments, including an annotated description of each.

For more information about Salesforce Industry Clouds, click here; watch on-demand Dreamforce Industries sessions on Salesforce+ here.

Segment One: Introduction (3:46 minutes)

Jujhar sets the stage and explains the meaning of its five Product Pillars. He also emphasizes the importance of Salesforce bringing together all its core clouds based on one common metadata, stating “that’s our special sauce.” Finally, he stresses the company’s focus on AI, saying “the AI revolution is a data revolution more than anything else.”

Segment Two: AI Strategy (2:31 minutes)

Jujhar says the goal is to make sure that AI is a continuum from predictive to generative, not segmented in different boxes. The key to that is a solid data foundation. Salesforce was one of the first enterprise vendors to bring predictive AI to customers. Via Einstein, it claims to have made a trillion predictions. Now around vertical scenarios, it is packaging 31 industry AI applications out-of-the-box and looking at industry-focused LLMs and other verticalization. This segment includes examples of AI use cases.

Segment Three: Deep AI + Data Cloud Applications (5:46 minutes)

Jujhar highlights four vertical AI and Data investments announced at Dreamforce across a wide range of sectors:

• Connected Twins for Auto and other industrial markets (in a partnership with Qualcomm)
• Personalized Finance for Banking and Financial Services
• Trade Promotion Optimization & Effectiveness for Consumer Goods
• Unified Health Score for Healthcare – both at an individual and population level

He also emphasizes the “trust” factor which was repeated early and often at Dreamforce. “We don’t own the data. Customers do.”

Segment Four: Generative AI Scenarios (1:37 minutes)

Here, Jujhar highlights 10 industry-specific GenAI use cases. He also drills into Education Cloud, which is being built to support lifelong learning. Jujhar explains that as an institution designs courses, GenAI can recommend skills needed as a baseline for each course. As individuals complete different courses, they can see the aggregation of skills they’re building.

Segment Five: Revenue Management Foundations (1:44 minutes)

Jujhar discusses three solutions: Enterprise Product Catalog, Pricing, and Contracts. This segment includes Generative AI to generate contract language and collaborative redlining among other features.

Segment Six: Strengthen Scale Clouds: Financial Services and Health Cloud (5:07 minutes)

Here, we talk about two of Salesforce’s most successful verticals: Financial Services Cloud and Health Cloud, with the latter being complemented by the company’s latest industry offering: Life Sciences Cloud. He explains that Life Sciences Cloud isn’t just about the Pharma sector, but also includes MedTech. Jujhar also shares what’s going up-market with Group Insurance, expanding into compliance with more Know Your Customer (KYC) integrations for banks, and other new functionality for the Financial sector.

Segment Seven: Impact Portfolio: ESG, Nonprofit, Education, and Public Sector (6:00 minutes)

Jujhar covers four pillars in what the company calls its “Impact Portfolio.” For ESG, he talks about how the “E” is covered by the company’s Net Zero Cloud. He shares that Nonprofit Cloud provides a lifecycle approach, from fundraising, to program execution, and to a scorecard on outcomes. For Education Cloud, he says the company is starting to focus on lifelong learning, emphasizing that “You cannot be in a model of ‘one and done.’” And for Public Sector, he says “It’s one of our fastest-growing Industry Clouds. We’re getting traction across the board, really, whether it’s state and local, or the whole domain of federal, and across functions from benefits management to social, as well as licensing permits and inspections.”

Segment Eight: Maturing & Emerging Portfolio: Manufacturing, Connected Cars, Loyalty by Industry, Referral Marketing by Industry, Clean Energy (1:35 minutes)

Here, Jujhar talks about other recent investments, and they span across sectors. He says “the next set of innovation is going to come through the focus on clean energy.” For industrial sectors, he talks about a focus on assets and their maintenance, warranty management, and the concept of connected costs. He also explains how the company is investing in loyalty programs by vertical, and a referral marketing module for Education, Nonprofit, and Financial Services.

Burning Platform: Raise the bar for AI – aim at COGS, not just SG&A

For the 105th episode of Burning Platform we host Malcolm Frank, who is now CEO of TalentGenius and is active on several boards. I got to know Malcolm in strategy and marketing leadership roles and as President of Digital Business at Cognizant. He was part of the executive team that grew the company from 10,000 to over 300,000 employees. He is definitely one of the “Big Thinkers” of our industry and here we discuss his new AI startup and the massive changes he sees coming to IT Services providers, Digital Agencies and many other sectors.

We start with TalentGenius which he calls a “virtual talent agent”. “If you show us your resume, we can show you your entire future.” They promise to catalog your skills and show you exposure to likely AI impact on those skills. Their deliverables – What are the best jobs for you? What AI tools could help you in your journey? Who are peers who can help you in your journey? “There are hundreds, if not thousands, of doppelgangers who look a lot like you that are on the same path as you are”

Starting around 9.30 we discuss our respective perspectives on how AI is reshaping enterprise technology. He says the F500 are figuring out how to create their “AI core” and we will start to see “killer apps” from them in the next year or so. He has a fascinating observation – he thinks vendors are too focused on SG&A use cases when we should be looking at the much bigger COGS landscape. “The F500 collectively spends about $2 trillion on IT. But they spend $22 trillion in cost of goods sold.” He makes the points I have been making but much more eloquently - the AI value is less in the back office and exponentially greater in vertical operational areas and in unique data monetization.    

Around 22.00, we discuss the IT services sector and how it has fundamentally not evolved over the decades but now faces massive disruption. He uses historical analogies – how the development of refrigeration affected ice breaker traffic, how farming got so automated that from employing 40% of the US workforce it went down to 1% in a century, how trucking has done similar to horse-driven transport. In each case, we ended up with societal changes but a new generation of opportunities and jobs. He thinks IT services are similarly poised to see repetitive, low-level tasks get automated and commoditized and clients will spend the savings on a new set of projects. He expresses admiration for Accenture which continues to thrive as what he calls a “curve jumper” . There are plenty of “one-trick ponies” that do not navigate transitions well. He expects a new generation of AI-savvy firms like we saw with firms like Sapient, Cambridge Technology Partners, EPAM, Globant and others in previous tech transitions.

Around 29.00, we switch gears to discuss impact on the marketing function and on digital agencies. He talks about the recent screenwriter strike in Hollywood and the impact of AI on creative talent. He says a lot of basic stuff that drives CMOs nuts today and takes time and money with agencies will get optimized.

Finally around 33.00 we touch on the “future of work” and globalization. Hyperscalers have standardized DevOps around much of the world. He says he saw a trend which started during COVID, but has accelerated. Teams are becoming like recombinant DNA – being formed and dissolved all the time, many across borders. He also talks about the on-going impact on commercial real estate and traditional ways of working in offices.

He summarizes “It is going to be a really fun time. This is a Renaissance and, mid to long term, I think it's going to create entirely new markets. I think it's going to be a huge driver of productivity, which is going to be good for the economy. But where I get a little bit pessimistic is the impact on labor. Those who are able to think abstractly and think systemically will be rewarded. But those who don't have those abilities may be locked out of this new economy. So the faster that we can get out of our own way in terms of education, policy and funding the better. Because this is really taking off, and we're just at its dawn.”

You may not agree with everything Malcolm or I say, but there is plenty to chew on in this 40 minute episode.  

Burning Platform: All Things GenAI

In this 102^nd  episode of Burning Platform, we host repeat guest Tamas Hevizi, now in a new role heading the Office of the CEO at Automation Anywhere. As he says it was perfect timing with his focus on strategic initiatives with all the buzz around Generative AI

We explore many different aspects of GenAI and AI in general

We talk about a wide range of use cases across several industries - advertising, financial services, healthcare, railroads, retail and semiconductor among others 

We talk about the value of data. As he says we need to move away from ‘safe areas’ of the enterprise we have traditionally been comfortable in. Let’s focus instead on so many problems we haven’t been able to solve in the past 

We talk about technologies from Anthropic Claude to Microsoft CoPilot and approaches of enterprise vendors like Salesforce and Workday.

We talk about the economics of AI. He says ““There is this race going on in AI between data and compute. I don't know who's going to win that but so far, I'm betting on the hyperscalers and not the LLMs.”

We talk about the ethics of AI. Lots of perspectives you likely have not heard before.

Well worth spending half an hour on our back and forth. 

We end with the comment that we need to reconvene in a few months. This market segment is evolving so rapidly that we will likely have a completely different set of perspectives!

Analyst Cam: SAP - Farm to Consume Walkthrough

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

Most vendors have software demos as part of their events. SAP has taken that up a notch by blending the digital with the physical world. They showcase robotics, sensors and other physical world technologies in the many experience centers Sven Denecken had described in this episode.

Last year at Sapphire, the show floor had the Trilogy fashion/apparel demo company on the show floor which showcased next-gen tech for product innovation, sustainability, robotic manufacturing and retail experiences.

This year they went much further and actually served 25,000 helpings of (real) ice cream to attendees while showing off the Farm to Consume process flow.

I invited Andre Bechtold architect of the setting and other similar experiences to present. He has a 4 minute video of the show floor in Orlando then double clicks into the Farm-Source-Make-Deliver-Consume flow across agribusiness, CPG, logistics, retail and other industries. 

Andre also talks about a similar setting he is working on which simulates the energy-mobility sector convergence around EV charging. He also discusses the investment and logistics of repeating the experience in 3 consecutive weeks of Sapphire in Orlando, Barcelona and Sao Paolo.

Very nicely done in about 30 minutes - he makes the setting look so easy - took lots of coordination across partners, technologies and locations. Brings to life the art of the possible to re-imagine business processes in the midst of industry convergence.

Analyst Cam: SAP – Industry Convergence Perspectives

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

This time it is Sven Denecken, Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer for SAP Industries and Customer Experience. I had enjoyed his session on Industry Convergence at Sapphire last month and invited him to present an adapted version for this series. My write up from Sapphire is linked here

He discusses some of their research around industries creeping into each other’s turf including an extensive analysis of the SEC database for shifting industry density. He drills into the Farm to Consume process flow which was brought to life at the Sapphire show floor – bringing out SAP’s strong agribusiness, commodity trading, CPG, sustainability, traceability and supply chain credentials. He also describes the convergence of utilities and oil and gas sectors and the growing influence of retail and entertainment as EV charging opens up opportunities for new consumer experiences.

He describes four new Industry Networks – industrial manufacturing, life sciences, consumer products and high-tech - which plan to leverage progress over last couple of years in the automotive Catena-X network. These take SAP beyond networks of indirect materials like Ariba and Concur into tiers of direct suppliers.

Sven covers much more – Business AI around vertical operational data, two-tier ERP to transfer industry configurations from western markets to emerging economies, sustainability applications across industries including the Green Ledger announced at Sapphire, and Experience Centers across the world which increasingly bringing to life “the art of the possible” with SAP and partner applications, robotics and sensors    

All that in around 25 minutes. I have invited Andre Bechtold from his team to present more on the Farm to Consume show floor and invited Sven back to drill down into many of the topics he quickly presented.

Vinnie Vertical is always energized after such industry focused sessions!

Analyst Cam: SAP Verticals – Public Sector

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

This time it is Ulrike Kleifeld, VP Strategy, Global Public Services and Chris Atkins, VP Global Digital Transformation at SAP.

Ulrike starts off with some of the challenges government bodies face in nearly every country. The COVID pandemic accelerated digitalization in every industry but also exposed how much the public sector lags. This was followed by the Ukraine war and other geopolitical crises. We have economic burdens from the pandemic, and the energy crisis has only added to that. Disruptions have been coming in waves and governments are struggling to adjust to that “new normal”

They also address the loss of trust in government. I ask if it is lack of trust in politicians v  government agencies. They say there is a view that government is not agile or farsighted. Ulrike says “on the one hand we want governments to be cautious and risk-averse with tax payer funds, but we also need to help them accelerate their execution capabilities.”

Chris walks through the functional scope of their solutions across the value chain from policy and planning to public finance to supporting programs and services – the citizen facing part. He shares several customer examples. About the State of Arkansas he describes the amazing outcomes the project delivered: “they were able to achieve a 95% reduction in accounting processes, from a time perspective, going from four weeks to one click for many of their processes, a 91% reduction in cost allocation process from six months to 10 days. And, yes, you heard this right, a 1,150% improvement in creating their budget reports, what used to take days now take them minutes. And for the first time ever, they were able to submit their federal quarterly reports on time.”

I like that he represented multiple countries and the “end to end value business model for how they deliver value to their citizens”

Talking of different countries, they all have their own demands around data sovereignty, security clearances etc. Ulrike mentions one “In the US, we have the NS2 cloud, which is on US soil run by US personnel in a special secured environment that is FedRAMP certified.”

They do a really nice job covering a lot of ground about this complex but vital sector in about 20 minutes. 

Analyst Cam: SAP Verticals – Aerospace & Defense

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

This time it is Torsten Welte, Global VP and Head of Industrial Business Unit for Aerospace & Defense at SAP.

As you see in the image (and much more in the video ) below, the coverage is mammoth but as he says it's only the "guys that make the toys, not play with the toys". SAP's Travel and Transportation Group covers the airline operators, the Public Sector group covers space agencies like NASA and ESA, SAP's SuccessFactors and other units cover the human side of these large customers.

I tell him I am envious he gets to go to Paris, Farnborough and other airshows. The technology in modern spacecraft, avionics, eVTOLs and naval equipment he covers is drool-inducing and the design, manufacturing, monitoring, maintenance, earned value calculations, contract management have all evolved to keep up. Torsten talks about smart factories, digital twins, augmented reality, robotics, ML-enabled inspections and more as part of the solutions SAP and its ecosystem is delivering.

When we recorded the session, he was getting ready for the industry Innovation Day SAP hosts every year. This year it was in Huntington Beach, CA.

Torsten told me later they had “over 250 experts from the industry.  During the innovation days, the community comes together to network and exchange their best practices and learnings.  Our host company provides insights into their operations and innovations.  This year, Northrop Grumman was our host. Besides touring their facility, we got insights on the James Webb (telescope) project.  Truly an amazing innovation in technology and how it was launched in space.”

“Presenters showcased projects which tackled supply chain planning and manufacturing constraints.  It was all about visibility and operational improvements through digital. They showcased solutions to manage data to make the right decision to improve throughput, cost, optimize constraints, and stay flexible.

Very exciting to see SAP solutions helping the industry to not fly blind.”

Torsten does a really nice job covering all of that in half an hour.

Analyst Cam: SAP Verticals - Semiconductor

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

This time it is Jeff Howell, Global Vice President, Head of High-Tech Industry Business Unit at SAP.

We have all heard about the geopolitics and risks of continuing to be dependent on SE Asia for a steady supply of chips. We have heard about the chaos in the auto sector with the inadequate supply of that increasingly important component as vehicles get smarter and electrified.

Jeff takes us through a much more nuanced perspective on the complexity, the long lead times and capital intensity of the semiconductor sector. I was first introduced to him as I was helping SAP with research on the recently released Business as Unusual book (available on Amazon – click on badge on left)

Here are just a few excerpts from the conversation in the video below:

• The semiconductor industry amounts to 0.3% of the U.S. GDP, yet semiconductors are required to produce 12% of the U.S. national output. It is even more pronounced in Japan -  with impact on 30% of their national output
• If you and I decide to go into the chip making business we would need to come up with $10 to $15 billion and spend about two to three years building that production capability
• Over 400 chemicals are used in a combination of solids and gases to make those chips. Over a dozen noble gases on the periodic table are critical supplies
• Roughly 30% of the neon that's needed in the semiconductor industry comes from Ukraine
• 2 to 4 million gallons of ultra-pure water are required every day during the chip production process. Almost half of all the world's chips are manufactured in Southeast Asia. Well, a couple years ago, there were droughts in Southeast Asia  
• Every wafer produced in a typical fab generates two to three gigabytes of data and you multiply that by 24 wafers in a lot and 1000s of lots per day, it's very easy to come up with terabytes, and generate even petabytes of data every day.
• The little known fact is more than 80% of that data is never even looked at - not enough process engineers who can examine that data

He spends a fair amount of time talking about networks like Catena-X which is auto industry-centric but heavily depends on semiconductors. He cites use cases at companies like NVIDIA and Wolfspeed (a critical supplier of silicon carbide) and partners like PDF which helps companies analyze that mountain of operational data for better yields and other outcomes. He also discusses how SAP is blending financial and operational data for the sector.

It is a master class on critical components for so much of the economy and the unique systems the industry needs. Very nicely done in about half an hour – he could easily have gone much longer

Analyst Cam: SAP Verticals - Chemicals

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

This time it is Matt Reymann, Global VP of the Chemicals Business Unit at SAP.  He provides an overview of SAP’s extensive work in the sector. Did you know 99 of the top 100 chemical companies run SAP? And that SAP's first customer 50 years ago was a chemical company, ICI. So, as Matt says “Chemicals are in SAP’s DNA… as technology has evolved, as our customers have evolved, we've evolved with the industry.”

Matt has example after example of innovations in the sector like molecular recycling. He shares use cases across the enterprise as in the graph below.

He also covers business model changes where as with complex industrial products, chemical companies are learning to sell their products and capabilities as a service. He also cites examples from the new SAP book, Business as Unusual.

Very nicely done in 30 minutes. His passion for the sector really shines through. And you get a really nice perspective on the macro trend in a sector which has an impact on most everything we use on a daily basis.

Analyst Cam: SAP Industries – Partner Ecosystem

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

This time it is Frank Ruland, Global Head of Industry Ecosystem at SAP. As we know, SAP has a massive ecosystem with 23,000+ partners employing over a million people around the world. While many of them implement and support SAP’s ERP, CRM and other products, a growing number are helping SAP innovate industry specific applications. Besides traditional SIs and outsourcers, he discusses ISVs, strategy firms, SAP.iO Foundry startups, Industry 4.0 robotics providers and provides examples of several emerging vertical applications the ecosystem helps innovate and support.

I had a chance to profile this wide variety of industry partners in the book by SAP executives, Business as Unusual.  You can see 6 of the partner interview cameos in this post.

Industries are increasingly morphing and encroaching on each other. Frank provides an example of what today’s EV charging applications require – utility asset management capabilities. the investment planning capabilities of a utility, public sector features when it comes to infrastructure permits and licenses to operate, subscription billing and managing roaming charges among other capabilities. So, partners need to be broad enough to support this new breed of applications.  

A striking figure in his presentation is 80% of new customers come from partner introductions – obviously many of those are small to mid-sized enterprises but it brings home that today’s partners don’t just implement, they also help SAP innovate and sell.

Not your Dad’s ecosystem. Very nicely done in under 25 minutes