The Big Themes: Servicing large enterprises for 100 years: So it’s just a natural motion to actually have this form factor there. Reimagining what you do: Everything has entropy, and they calcify and atrophy , so you forever have got to refresh this. But to do that, you’ve actually got to then deconstruct it. De-risking digital supply chains: Don’t just think about the cloud capabilities. Think about the compliance controls that we have built over the past two and half years. Living in the futur...
May 10, 2021•32 min•Ep. 213
The Big Themes: Digital transformation is off the charts: But is the customer experience any better as a result of all this digital transformation? Poll this week with my inner circle: Over half said customer service in the past year since COVID-19 is worse – with 14% saying much worse. Starbucks experience used to be a place of relaxation: Now you’re greeted with 15 rules before you walk in the door. You get your overpriced coffee, and you waited in line for 10 minutes and you can’t even sit th...
May 05, 2021•25 min•Ep. 210
The Big Themes: It’s all about orchestrating the work: If you really step back and start with our customer’s customer, you need to do different things from different industries. How businesses are redefining themselves: Wayne Gretzky says, “Skate where the puck is going.” The puck is coming directly at us. Still on this new journey: Really excited about where this is going – especially the way we are building the solutions and taking them to market. We’re very passionate about this: If you reall...
May 04, 2021•34 min•Ep. 208
The Big Themes: We’ve been having multi-cloud and hybrid cloud for quite some time: Without a lot of churn or having to rip out some core solutions that they’ve been using. Our unique AI, ML capabilities: Ranked highest in the market by lots of outside sources, and really help us to respond to our customers very, very quickly. At Google Cloud we can build from the ground up: We’re looking at an industry transformation, but what our customers really want is to understand and transform their busin...
May 03, 2021•21 min•Ep. 209
The Big Themes: Extremely unique in the industry: It’s not just about verticalizing one aspect of the cloud service – it’s bringing verticalization across the cloud services in a unified and seamless way. Tech intensity: That is about having the tools at hand to build a strong digital foundation, to allow you to be resilient and future-proof. The digital factory of the future: How do you have a rapid response for the supply chain – bringing together Azure HoloLens, as well as Dynamics 365. The e...
Apr 29, 2021•21 min•Ep. 206
The Big Themes: Heading back to the office: The pendulum is swinging back in the other direction, and B2B or B2C becoming artificial boundaries. That’s part of our DNA: We’re a company that’s built around the notion of flexibility – and we can talk about it from a fan’s perspective. The CIO’s role has changed : My role is a leader first, and a businessman second, and a technologist third. Maintaining a culture of care: People really want to be here and they deliver excellence. This is not soft a...
Apr 28, 2021•29 min•Ep. 205
The Big Themes: Turnover in a post-pandemic world . It appears that we’re going to see a higher level of turnover in companies as we come out of the pandemic. A year of forced locked down, a strong economy emerging and a sense of “a need for change” is driving this increase turn over. This is both a problem as well as an opportunity for business leaders today. Industry cloud : Market transition or marketing hype? The major tech players are jockeying for position to dominate the emerging position...
Apr 26, 2021•52 min•Ep. 207
The Big Themes: Tens of thousands of people working in our vertical business: They have deep vertical knowledge and apply to some of our horizontal products, like ERP and CX. General contractors and subcontractors: 88% of users are small- to medium-sized businesses that make up the contractor/subcontractor community. It’s an easy and painless way to go to a pure click technology. We announced a partnership with Microsoft: For Oracle and Microsoft, we have exactly these types of scenarios, and we...
Apr 20, 2021•26 min•Ep. 204
The Big Themes: We launched the Cloud Database Report in February: Sign up now via the Cloud Wars website. Moving data to the cloud is more complicated than it seems: Will your next database migration project take one year, or one click? Snowball, Snowcone, Snowmobile: Snowmobile is an 18-wheeler. It’s a tractor trailer that they back up to your data container and upload a hundred petabytes at a time. InterSystems has been around for 40 years: They have deep expertise and proven technologies, an...
Apr 15, 2021•38 min•Ep. 203
The Big Themes: Roaring 20’s redux: Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the economy was at an inflection point: 6%-7% or more growth, and unemployment 4%-5%. Two books on strategy: “Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity,” by Scott Galloway. And “Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick” (McKinsey). Technical debt can sink you: But a due diligence approach can save you. The Forbes article by Noah Barsky offers great insights—as do Wayne’s comments. Board governance of technology: A certified board of dir...
Apr 14, 2021•36 min•Ep. 202
The Big Themes: $5 billion building and rewriting modern cloud apps: In the last few years we’ve really had all the ingredients, the products, the market, the technology – and so we’ve pushed it hard. We’re private and extraordinarily well-funded: That’s actually given us an advantage on that front. We are truly thinking in decades. Last mile functionality, last mile content: The solutions have to be architected in a way to address an adjacent set of industries. One throat to choke: We’ll have o...
Apr 08, 2021•35 min•Ep. 201
The Big Themes: Pet peeves: Not every manager is a leader. When you need a leader but hire a manager, you quickly realize that you’ve either hired the wrong person, or the wrong team—and it’s usually the wrong person. A culture of fear: What kind of culture do you have? How are you leading and how do you assess whether you’re courageous or not. You have to embrace the notion that everybody in your organization is a leader. We teach the Marine Corps how to be a leader: In bootcamp, I remember sta...
Apr 06, 2021•33 min•Ep. 200
The Big Themes: We’re getting back to normal – which is awesome: But the markets are crazy and the blank check companies – or SPAC as they’re often called – are red hot. Private schools are expensive: Do you want to get that Gulfstream or not? These magical moments: A lot of these companies want to delight their customers. They absolutely do make these companies more efficient. There’s a bigger mountain over there: We’re looking over there and saying it’s a ton of fun right now. The Big Quotes: ...
Apr 01, 2021•26 min•Ep. 199
The Big Themes: Manufacturing is hot again: In this country there’s a Renaissance, I love it because I joined Thomas four years ago with the idea it is going to get white hot again. The millennial generation: Young people in particular are starting to imagine what their future might look like, and what manufacturing provides for them that other technology doesn’t. The Dollar Shave Club: The technology enabled the ability to create a subscription business out of razors into a retail outlet of my ...
Mar 30, 2021•36 min•Ep. 198
The Big Themes: The appetite for industry solutions is expanding in a very big way: Speaking the language of our customers is key. AI becomes much richer: The key element is how do you imagine the whole thing using AI – including industry-specific data models, processes, and analytics. Industry-specific offerings: Partners and customers building on top of not only our 360 platform but also industry-specific clouds. The Big Quotes: “We have seen an immense need from our customers and we have resp...
Mar 25, 2021•28 min•Ep. 197
The Big Themes: Results based upon ~400 vetted project reviews: Completed by customers involved with the implementation of SAP, Oracle, and Workday within the past 24 months. On-budget delivery scores: As a rule of thumb, customers should figure on 1.5x the proposed amount for implementation. The team stayed the same – no changes: If you are like the majority of customers, your team is likely to change during the course of the project. Highest satisfaction for partner and project : SAP Highest s...
Mar 23, 2021•32 min•Ep. 196
