Episode 39 |Gen AI’s Impact on Business The Big Themes: The focus of technology buyers. Buyers are paying attention to Gen AI’s potential to transform a business. There are going to be increasingly more enhanced, or entirely new, roles, like prompt engineer, to help companies harness the power of new technology. Getting off the sidelines. Technology buyers and other executives who did not adopt technologies like the PC, internet, and mobile fast enough were left behind. Tony remembers people not...
Sep 13, 2023•25 min•Ep. 386
Banking's move to the cloud: The banking industry is shifting from building and maintaining on-premise infrastructure to adopting cloud services to improve efficiency and agility. The shift is gradual due to the responsibility of safeguarding data and complying with stringent regulatory requirements. Global regulations: Navigating diverse global privacy laws and regulatory requirements remains one of the industry's biggest challenges. There are few common positions, although regional agreements ...
Sep 12, 2023•36 min•Ep. 385
Episode 31 | Keeping Customers Happy Today’s customer success: Customer success is not just about selling products but ensuring that customers achieve value and satisfaction from their purchases. In terms of software implementation, early stages are critical for customer success, with the first year being defining. Evolving sales team: Sales teams are involved longer than they have been in the past. Having the same salesperson throughout a multiyear contract is ideal. The emphasis on customer su...
Sep 07, 2023•28 min•Ep. 381
Innovating Insurance The Big Themes: Cloud adoption challenges and benefits: Cloud adoption has been relatively slow because insurance companies and financial institutions tend to act conservatively, but now it's picking up. A core cloud enabler has been the need to standardize and centralize systems in order to increase speed, bring down costs, and bring in more data quality and transparency. Generative AI integration: GenAI is the next step after the movement from on-prem to cloud is completed...
Sep 01, 2023•36 min•Ep. 384
We’re on the Road to Oracle CloudWorld . From September 18-21 in Las Vegas, Oracle will bring together its customers and partners. Acceleration Economy’s Road to Oracle CloudWorld series will feature Oracle execs previewing what’s to come at this year’s conference. For this podcast, I spoke with Peter Jazowick, CIO, Specialized Bicycle Components, who will be a featured speaker at the event. Road to Oracle CloudWorld | A Cloud-First Transition The Big Themes Pandemic innovation opportunities: Sp...
Sep 01, 2023•8 min•Ep. 383
Road to Oracle CloudWorld | IAC’s Oracle Journey The Big Themes IAC’s use of Oracle Technology : IAC, a conglomerate of diverse companies, employs various Oracle products to streamline transactions, accounting, finance, and reporting, ensuring accuracy and efficiency. It historically used third-party hosting facilities but has migrated everything to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Innovation and growth : Oracle applications provide tools for intricate revenue and lease accounting rules, negat...
Aug 28, 2023•7 min•Ep. 382
Episode 29 | Don't Miss the Parade Note: this episode contains explicit language. The Big Themes: Carrots and sticks : Maintaining a balance between rewards and consequences is important for society. The absence of effective deterrents, such as appropriate punishment, can lead to a decline in individual responsibility and social cohesion. Shift in VC investment behavior : There's a strong trend towards investing in AI-related companies. Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) has gripped the VC community, dr...
Aug 25, 2023•47 min•Ep. 379
Road to Oracle CloudWorld | Shifting CX Dynamics The Big Themes Attendee conference goals: A conference shouldn’t only be a product showcase. At CloudWorld, attendees can expect not only to hear about new features and products but also to network with peers and Oracle leaders and learn about what’s changing for CX practitioners. Generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) and CX transformation : Gen AI is having a huge impact on the CX domain. Many customer processes benefit from large language ...
Aug 22, 2023•21 min•Ep. 380
Road to Oracle CloudWorld | Databases with Jenny Tsai-Smith The Big Themes Inclusive to all customers : After last year, when some on-premises customers mistakenly thought that the conference might be geared exclusively to cloud customers, Oracle is using the name "Database World at CloudWorld" to make it clear that cloud, hybrid, and on-premises Oracle Database customers are all included. AI integrated into Oracle Database : Oracle has incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learn...
Aug 11, 2023•15 min•Ep. 378
Episode 21 | Thriving in Change The Big Themes: The power of curiosity: Follow your curiosity. It may not be readily apparent how one activity will connect to another, but you might find unexpected synergy. Christian had no idea that his interest in high-tech lavender farming would actually help his consulting business, but it has deepened his knowledge of ag-tech. Fear has multiple aspects: Fear is ever-present, but can be overcome. Fear may obviate curiosity and keep you on the known path. One...
Aug 09, 2023•33 min•Ep. 377
The Big Themes: The current era could be compared to 1995, when there was a lot of hype around the internet. John Doerr said then that the internet was underhyped. Today, AI might be underhyped. In business, there are two types of people, those who are the stewards of the status quo and those who work on the exponential different. The exponential different break the status quo and create new things. Now is the time for the exponential different: an example is Larry Ellison and Oracle. The tradit...
Aug 04, 2023•50 min•Ep. 376
Episode 46 | The Profile of the Modern CIO The Big Themes: Co-creation and business relationships: The relationship between an IT function and a non-IT organization has to build on a foundation of co-creation; IT functions must engage with the business. CIOs are a part of the business: Gone are the days when the role of a CIO was to simply "support the business." The modern CIO is now part of the business and must build parallel connections across all business functions. "We engage at the bottom...
Jul 27, 2023•21 min•Ep. 374
Episode 30 | Customer Learnings on Software Implementation Projects The Big Themes: Oracle: As it relates to Oracle, customers have expressed on ravenintel.com that a particular challenge was around user acceptance testing (UAT). Specifically, one customer noted to "ensure ample time is built in for UAT and assume there will be errors and fixes that need to be done." Another customer noted that "it's essential that all key stakeholders at the operations level are included." SAP: A top challenge ...
Jul 21, 2023•28 min•Ep. 373
S/4HANA is a force multiplier: S/4HANA is part of the "next generation of ERP," meaning its intelligent, sustainable, and collaborative. The product is truly a "model A suite of applications," leveraging the best ERP systems have to offer. The company ensures the time-to-market for the product is quick, offers great value to users, and is an overall end-to-end product for customers. Industry-specific business networks: With the S/4HANA Cloud, SAP is able to go beyond helping individual companies...
Jul 18, 2023•29 min•Ep. 372
How Oracle Brings Horizontal, Vertical Solutions to Bear for Financial Services Industry The Big Themes: Shifting needs for financial services companies: Generational shifts are taking place, explains Sicilia. Traditionally, banks have "built a lot of it themselves on top of bespoke systems." As such, it can become expensive and "non-elastic" to maintain these systems. The combination of Oracle's ERP and its core banking system is something that big banks are leaning into very heavily. Fusing ho...
Jul 17, 2023•23 min•Ep. 371
Innovation: Upwards of 70% of IT spend is dedicated to compliance, leaving only 30% of the budget for innovation. This is a tremendous drag on productivity, as organizations and business leaders want to be innovating. IBM partners with over 70 financial institutions to "put the industry muscle together." Global Financial Services Councils: In an effort to help mitigate the complexities associated with regulatory and compliance guidance which varies across both regions and industries, IBM has est...
Jul 13, 2023•13 min•Ep. 370
VCU Health and Workday | A Unified Platform The Big Themes: Process improvements: In order to enable healthcare workers to perform to the highest degree of their license, VCU Health recognizes the importance of technologies that enable process improvements. By working with Workday, VCU Health is able to optimize its resources, and people, by leveraging Workday systems and technologies to the greatest degree. Cultural changes brought on by Workday: Change has taken place at VCU Health as a result...
Jun 06, 2023•15 min•Ep. 369
Episode 45 | Infrastructure, Software, Applications The Big Themes: CIO "Lego blocks": CIOs in tech are looking for vendors to provide the "building blocks" that are necessary to develop applications. When CIOs approach the board, they are not looking to describe servers and storage, but rather, systems, or applications. Vendors compete on the strength of their products: Wayne praises Oracle for competing with the strength of its product(s). The company is not looking to lock customers in. He sa...
May 31, 2023•30 min•Ep. 368
Episode 20 | Combatting Declining Productivity The Big Themes: Declining rates of productivity: For five consecutive quarters, productivity rates in the United States have been steadily declining. In the most recent quarter, it was down nearly 3%. "It's very clear worker productivity is in jeopardy, or so we say as corporations." Work from home may be a factor: Employers are facing economic and market pressures. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that remote work styles are contributing to the lack o...
May 26, 2023•31 min•Ep. 367
Episode 29 | Key Takeaways from Oracle Summits, Customers, Partners The Big Themes: Bonnie's lens: When attending analyst events, Bonnie looks for the impact that products and related announcements have on customer experience, and how the technology or software is, or can be, implemented. Market demands for customers: As of late, customers are focused on hiring faster, more effectively, and controlling the cost of labor forces. "That's really top of mind for the entire industry," says Bonnie, in...
May 23, 2023•30 min•Ep. 366
The Big Themes: Delivering solutions that create agility for the business: Aviatrix handles the compiling of security enforcement into the fabric of the network. All a customer needs to do is tell Aviatrix the policy of what they want to do, and Avaiatrix puts it into the CI/CD pipeline. Distributed cloud firewalls are the way: In trying to "fix" network security, distributed cloud firewalls offer a great deal of promise. Competing vendors might disagree, but customers will love it, and many alr...
May 18, 2023•23 min•Ep. 365
How Workday Applies AI and ML Technologies to Healthcare Industry The Big Themes: Patient-centered care: Workday applies AI and ML technologies to deliver on its promise of delivering patient-centered care, by looking closely at past patient records. "Already, we have seen that AI and ML apply to help our diagnosis, to help with automation, to help guide our care recommendations, and so much more," notes Kravitz. Industry-specific capabilities benefiting patients and providers: Workday's industr...
May 17, 2023•23 min•Ep. 360
The Big Themes: Do more with less: Finance is a highly volatile business environment where things are rapidly evolving. As a result, finance teams are challenged to work within their current processes, yet still need to respond to ongoing change. Arima proposes that a company should be aligned with its data model, data definitions, business drivers, and hierarchy structure. How Workday Adaptive Planning is changing the conversation: Cross-functional collaboration between Workday's finance and HR...
May 16, 2023•23 min•Ep. 364
Episode 14 | Lost Your Job? Here's What to Do The Big Themes: Company names and personal networks: Pat suggests that new hires create two lists: one to list companies, and one to list personal networks. This is a simple and effective way to "do your research" and will help guide your job search. "The reality is your network is going to be your biggest avenue" for finding a new job, explains Pat. The importance of emotional EQ: Job candidates must demonstrate their emotional intelligence, persona...
May 09, 2023•47 min•Ep. 363
The Big Themes: Creating room for innovation: Financial services companies spend 60-70% of their IT budgets on compliance, leaving little room for innovation. This is a critical area that the IBM Cloud for Financial Services, a solution that is co-created and co-built with the industry, addresses. Real-time compliance monitoring: IBM offers real-time, constant compliance monitoring to banks and financial institutions, reducing their time to implement a solution to 6-12 weeks, which is significan...
May 04, 2023•21 min•Ep. 362
The Big Themes: Purpose-built solutions centered on people: Managing resources to deliver for customers can be a challenge for companies with large services organizations. Certinia's solutions are purpose-built, focusing on the people and the service economy business, rather than product ID, which was formerly considered to be the "center of the universe." Synchronous process flows: When looking at process flows, most companies find that they have silos of automation, and the "as quoted" verse "...
May 03, 2023•20 min•Ep. 361
The Big Themes: Be intentional about the use of generative AI: Christian advises that when bringing generative AI into the workforce — or any technology, for that matter — that humans must ensure they remain the "master" and the technology remains the "servant." Consider trust: Christian encourages everyone to "get smarter on these things" but within the context of their companies. Business employees must trust that the leaders of their organizations won't use generative AI technologies to get r...
Apr 25, 2023•31 min•Ep. 359
Episode 44 | How Partners Ecosystems Drive the Acceleration Economy The Big Themes: The four types of partners: Value-add re-marketer (VAR), independent software vendor (ISV), implementation support consultants, and co-creation partners. Each of these partner types multiples a businesses ability to deliver. How partners are changing the game: Gone are the days where partners roles are limited to just fulfillment. Now, businesses need partners through every stage of the customer lifecycle "helpin...
Apr 18, 2023•29 min•Ep. 358
Episode 28 | Generative AI and the Impact on Enterprise Software Purcashing, Use, Implementation The Big Themes: Extensive experimentation: Bonnie tested the impacts and effectiveness of generative AI around the area of software selection and implementation, prompting the tool to provide scenarios and advice around purchasing and implementing software, from the perspective of a customer. Generative AI as "revolutionary": Generative AI, and tools such as ChatGPT, are revolutionary in the fact tha...
Apr 17, 2023•26 min•Ep. 357
How Workday Adaptive Helps ENMAX with Forecasting Capabilities The Big Themes: Workday Adaptive Planning helps ENMAX discover a single version of the truth: With this software, everyone in the company is working off the same data set and can be used for whatever purpose is necessary. A single view across three applications: ENMAX utilizes Workday Adaptive Planning, Workday HCM, and Workday Financials in congruence, which has removed constraints associated with effective planning. Flexible soluti...
Apr 07, 2023•16 min•Ep. 355
