Episode 34 | Tech Event Insights The Big Themes: Employee hiring and development trends: AI is enabling predictive candidate performance analysis, and refining job descriptions. Employee engagement and well-being are crucial in the remote and hybrid work landscape, with HR addressing concerns like burnout and mental health to retain talent. Data-driven decisions empowered by AI are enhancing HR functions. Financial wellness: Earned wage access is a key development in HR tech, reflecting the grow...
Nov 02, 2023•30 min•Ep. 399
AI's Transformative Landscape The Big Themes CIO and CDO roles: When the roles of CIO and CDO are separate, each can have its own priorities. A strong collaboration between the two should be encouraged to help align these priorities and increase focus on what benefits the business, even if the timing of returns varies. Data-driven transformation: Transitioning to a data-driven company has been pivotal for Rubrik. By embracing data-driven insights, it's gained a deeper understanding of its busine...
Oct 26, 2023•33 min•Ep. 397
Episode 47 | The Impact of the GenAI Revolution The Big Themes: The fast-paced nature of the GenAI Revolution: Because generative AI is being developed at a rapid pace, companies are able to accelerate their progress and pace of innovation. GenAI brings greater time to value, leading to quick adoption and impact. Reimagine business processes: Organizations must consider how they can harness generative AI to maintain a competitive edge. By optimizing this technology, business leaders can reimagin...
Oct 25, 2023•27 min•Ep. 396
The Big Themes: CIO role change: CIOs are facing a shifting role in the age of AI. While AI technologies are automating many routine tasks and processes, CIOs are increasingly focusing on enabling business transformation, fostering a culture of innovation, and ensuring that AI is used strategically to empower employees. Evolution of technology: AI and technological advancements are part of the natural evolution of the business world. There’ve been similar discussions and concerns when new techno...
Oct 20, 2023•21 min•Ep. 395
Challenges and Strategies in Tech Industry Ecosystems The Big Themes Industry-specific applications: The tech industry is witnessing a significant shift towards industry-specific applications and the importance of ecosystems. Tech vendors are grappling with challenges in aligning their strategies with the evolving landscape, where industry expertise and partnerships play pivotal roles. Strategy sequence: Ashlyn outlines a four-point sequence for effective strategy implementation in the tech indu...
Oct 12, 2023•22 min•Ep. 394
Episode 15 | Building Recruitment Trust The Big Themes Contingent agency vs. other recruiting models: The differences between contingent search (fee-based recruitment paid upon successful placement) and other recruiting models, like retained agencies and social recruiting, are explored, emphasizing the value of contingency agencies in today’s job market. Contingency agencies mean less risk for the client. Connecting with good candidates: Todd explains he has a good team, with many senior people ...
Oct 11, 2023•35 min•Ep. 393
Episode 33 | Transparency for Customer and Partner Relationships The Big Themes: Maintaining strong partner relationships: The partners ecosystem is a key component to delivering value to customers, especially within the enterprise software industry. Workday emphasizes how much partners have contributed to its growth, so it prioritizes maintaining a healthy partners ecosystem. Customer reviews: By actively seeking customer reviews, companies can build credibility and maintain strong customer rel...
Oct 04, 2023•17 min•Ep. 392
Episode 30 | Embracing the Future Today Note: this episode contains explicit language. The Big Themes Digital transformation reshapes industries: McDonald's has seen a significant shift in its sales, with 40% of its revenue coming from apps, delivery, or kiosk orders. This reflects the growing preference for digital ordering and the decline of in-person dining, prompting changes in restaurant layouts and services. AI's impact on creativity and innovation: AI is influencing various aspects of cre...
Sep 27, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 391
What's Next With Data The Big Themes Business and IT convergence: IT and business operations are increasingly converging. CEOs and executives are recognizing the critical role of technology in achieving strategic business objectives. Juergen is seeing more and more "fusion teams" where IT and business come together. Generative AI impact: Generative AI is a transformative technology with significant implications across industries. Businesses are exploring how generative AI can enhance operations,...
Sep 25, 2023•25 min•Ep. 390
Road to Oracle CloudWorld | CloudWorld Preview The Big Themes AI capabilities: Customers will receive over 50 artificial intelligence (AI) use cases in Oracle applications including customer experience (CX), human capital management (HCM), and finance. AI can improve business processes and decision-making. Data quality and security are important for effective AI implementation. Business processes flow: Technology and business processes are evolving, shifting from traditional distinctions between...
Sep 19, 2023•12 min•Ep. 389
Episode 32 | Optimize Your CloudWorld Experience The Big Themes Explore new technology. Identify areas of interest and focus your attention on them. Engage with fellow attendees to learn from their experiences and gain real-world perspectives on the technologies and partners showcased at the event. Take notes efficiently to capture important insights and share them with your team promptly. Partner selection. CloudWorld has upwards of close to 200 partners in the expo hall. It’s a very efficient ...
Sep 18, 2023•28 min•Ep. 387
Road to Oracle CloudWorld | Cloud Giants Unite The Big Themes Historic multi-cloud partnership: Oracle and Microsoft's recent meeting marks a historic collaboration in the world of cloud computing. Larry Ellison was on the Microsoft campus for the first time, appearing with Satya Nadella. This partnership signifies the culmination of years of effort in promoting multi-cloud tools, making it easier for customers to utilize both companies' services. Interconnected clouds: The integration between O...
Sep 16, 2023•12 min•Ep. 388
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
