Diginomica

It's been quite a while since I spoke with James Norwood, EVP episerver, a firm that has been quietly building a reputation as a CMS platform for building digital experiences. The company is doing well and is now under new ownership with growth as its mandate. In this conversation we talk omni-channel and personalization. 

Links from the digest: You want AI with that? McDonald’s latest tech gambit gets highly personal ‘Streaming data, but screaming staff!’ – Ciena turns to Graph to solve customer issues Adobe Summit 2019 analysis – CX hype is countered by Chegg’s digital turnaround story

Here's the links for today's stories - enjoy: Censorship or fair play? European Parliament takes step closer to controversial copyright regime, but will Big Tech fight back?  How Graph offered a Eureka! moment for a UK SMB Open source is free – yeah, right! 

On today's show Oracle Cloud, Subscription Economics and Internet Regulation.   Burgers, toothbrushes and flatpack furniture – Zuora CEO points to Subscription Economy transformation boom  Regulation or hesitation – how to manage the internet? The story so far…  Regulation or hesitation – how to manage the internet? Where we go next… Why Sportable Scoreboards moved to cloud ERP, and what they’ve learned about change – Oracle MBX ’19.

After 2 days of intense sessions, Jon and Brian get into the issues that bother them about software-driven CX. Top of mind? Creepiness. 

Apologies to those who like to think we're regular. It's a taxing time at the moment but the upside is that you get a two-fer and a turkey. What's that turkey thing about? Here's the link. It's priceless. 

When I interviewed Alex Shootman, CEO Done Right I had some open questions, based on my review from the beginning of the year. This was my opportunity to get answers. There are useful insights and an update that will prove invaluable for people trying to discover what 'modern work' means and how leaders can make work a rewarding experience. 

Vinnie Mirchandani and I discuss the big themes that came out of his new book SAP Nation 3.0 (pre-order here.) There's plenty to enjoy and unpack in what I think is his best book of recent times. 

Derek's wondermissive includes Thinking about the social impact - a report on how the UK government is contemplating the inclusion of social metrics in deals. If this is an area you care about then you can provide your feedback here.  the shocking state of Bank of England procurement in The Bank of England needs to modernise ASAP while we also have the UK Government gets tough on digital competition

Quite the selection today with more retail roundup stories around omnichannel, manufacturing ERP and video marketing advice. 

Apologies for missing yesterday's show. I have a good reason - and it was not 'the dog ate my homework' - tune in to find out what happened.  On today's show, we have ECM revista, two important pieces about International Women's Day, apprenticeships, spend management and taxis.  My favorite quote from one of the stories: I hate the dogma behind modern methodologies. Of course we use Agile but we also use Waterfall. We are “experience led and product centric” with rapid feature iteration, but we also run traditional projects. The question is always, are we improving the customer (passenger and driver) experience and can we do it better and faster? And, by the way, Agile is not always about fast. Amen brother, amen!

Phil Wainewright, who coined the term XaaS for 'everything-as-a-service' sits down with Tod Nielsen, CEO FinancialForce to discuss the topic. Nielsen provides three examples of customers who are building out their service economies. It is early days and the vendors are ahead of customers in understanding how XaaS works and what needs to be put in place but this conversation provides a good start to the topic.

Derek duPreez provides the words for this show. Links to appropriate content: How do you solve a problem like identity? Government-as-a-Platform agenda Going global with G-Cloud We still don’t know how to effectively manage a contract and the Public Accounts Committee released a damning report Elsewhere, Derek says: If you’re going to read a blog this week, read Richard Pope and James Darling’s Medium post about where we are at in terms of progressing digital government.

This is a shortened and slightly nuanced version of the 2,500 word opus I penned yesterday on the topic - SAP’s restructuring – Hunger Games, Game of Thrones or both? - there's a lot to digest. 

Target goes to prove that its omnichannel strategy is working - and that Stuart was right. Bonus points for this additional story: Delivering digital growth – how Target’s store-as-hub strategy paid off Plus an upbeat Salesforce as it targets (sic) $28 billion in revenue. Then we have the idea of 'gated offerings' as a way of personalizing for customers. Hmmm...I'm a tad skeptical as personalization is very tough to get right.  As an added extra, I talk about this week's reorganization at SAP. The company seems to have taken a strange position on those who stay and those who leave. There is confusion and the picture is not entirely clear. However, I think SAP is making a mistake in some cases. Check my Tweetstream to find out more. 

We've had a lot of retail coverage recently. Much of it has been unfortunate.  Old Navy widens the gap between its omni-channel future and The GAP’s legacy retail present Lowe’s and Home Depot – home improvement retailers in search of digital fixing up JC Penney CEO – we need to re-establish “the foundations of retail” despite years of digital transformation Macy’s – another year, another restructuring, but there are omni-channel retail successes and our Breaking Bad just has to be seen to be believed

Phil Wainewright's XaaS positioning has gained considerable attention in the last year. Here is a precis of his first update to our d·book The XaaS Effect. Included links are:  XaaS virtuous cycle of engage-monitor-improve. How Bosch has replaced its old 7-layer hierarchy with a matrix of 54 separate teams of less than a dozen people each and fintech startup Monzo is a showcase for rapid decision-making enabled by its use of Slack. Here too, cross-functional teams have become the norm. It may be fashionable to demolish hierarchies, but the trend toward flat organizations already faces an academic backlash Writing in Forbes, Unit4’s Claus Jepsen says Service organizations need to put their XaaS hats on and engage with their customer ecosystem. If you’re attending UNLEASH19 in London later this month, catch Phil's session at 11:45am on the 20th, when I’ll be speaking on Frictionless Enterprise, Digital Teamwork and the Future of Work. It’s a perfect opportunity to talk XaaS in person!  

This is a podcast that talks to the newsletter that Derek duPreez curates. It includes stories about data sharing in the context of the NHS, an interview with Karl Hoods CDIO at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and some thoughts about Matt Hancock's recent bans on pagers and fax machines.  Derek also shares a few tweets that come from alternative voices. Check this status update.  

On today's agenda - construction, media streaming and open source. Includes a hard-hitting customer story.  And...such important news...

In this 26 minute conversation, Den speaks with Robert Townley, a deeply experienced ERP consultant who, in the last 5 years has turned his attention to cloud deployments. Why? They deliver value and that is something that is seen as important from, of all places, the PE market.  Robert is a firm believer in what BYD offers but like others he wishes SAP did a better job of helping the partner ecosystem.