Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

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 are a step in the right direction. There's an example of a customer who had to talk to more than 50 different regulators while implementing an SAP suite.AI and machine learning: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are being applied in banking processes to improve efficiency, predict contract consumption, and provide guided buying procedures. The Big Quote: ". . .cloud is not like the old managed services where you took your mess, and you made it someone else's problem to execute. It really does require you to understand what you have today [and] where you want to go. And you have to be prepared for that. Because otherwise, it really could be a very unpleasant deployment . . . we avoided a lot of that by being prepared and taking our time and not rushing."

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 success and customer satisfaction is important for sales teams because it’s another selling point for them. Reviews and other measurements are helpful for sales teams.Clear communication and expectations: Misaligned expectations can lead to project failures and dissatisfaction. Clear communication between customers, partners, and vendors is necessary to avoid misunderstandings and to ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding goals, timelines, and outcomes.The Big Quote: “Customers don’t want to be marketed to anymore. They want to hear realistic stories, they want to hear candor from clients who have gone through the experience . . . authenticity is so important.”Stream the audio version of this episode:

Innovating InsuranceThe 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, although some companies have already begun integrating it. Gen AI, along with the cloud, will dramatically change insurance so that ten years from now the public might not even recognize where insurance is bought from or where it is included.Regulatory compliance and localized requirements: Global companies like Sun Life must make sure they meet many different countries' regulations and requirements. Regulations can go beyond countries and regions and come from different companies or governments. Regulatory compliance for insurance often necessitates data centers in specific countries. The Big Quote: "The objective is to further simplify, standardize, in the end, the core systems, because only by doing that [will] companies . . . be able to go into a public cloud now. The end goal ... is not the private cloud. It's the public cloud, and in the public cloud, standardization is a key topic. And in the public cloud, SAP is offering [the] right services."

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 TransitionThe Big ThemesPandemic innovation opportunities: Specialized Bicycle Components experienced accelerated sales and a difficult supply chain during the pandemic. It was a chance for Oracle to be utilized as a strategic partner. The company transitioned to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and had a cloud-first approach as it tackled its issues. Reliability and scalability of platforms became paramount to support and enable the business.Technical debt focus: Technical debt was addressed in part by investing in technology and partnering with Oracle’s Customer Success Services (CSS), which led to accelerated project delivery and increased support satisfaction.Co-creation with business: Specialized’s global technology 2027 strategy has a focused theme on co-creation with business. Business and technology leadership will work together and co-create to have alignment and accountability across the board. Jazowick sees this as critical in order to build morale and increase delivery across the company.The Big Quote: ” . . . subscription-based models or pay-as-you-go models, those are all opportunities that we didn’t have pre-pandemic . . . And as we . . . brought in and transformed our B2B platform with CX [customer experience] commerce with Oracle, and really drove growth with the partnership with our retailers, that allowed us to look at those other business models and [have] technology empower and accelerate those areas. “

Road to Oracle CloudWorld | IAC’s Oracle JourneyThe Big ThemesIAC’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, negating the need for third-party systems. This approach offers better control, compliance, and cost-effectiveness and promotes innovation and growth.Enhancing Employee and Customer Experiences: All end users, including employees, should be considered customers. Oracle’s technology enables smoother experiences by improving backend systems. An example is given of a significant reduction in processing time for a specific report.The Big Quote: “So, with various 606 revenue rules, with various 842 lease accounting rules, the Oracle applications allow us to expand and utilize the functionality that’s inherently available in the applications, therefore allowing us not to bolt in any third-party applications, which is hugely beneficial for multiple reasons. One being, you have one less system to manage; two, you have better compliance and controls over the data; [and] three, it’s cost-efficient, as well.”Want to be part of the action at Oracle CloudWorld 2023?Get an Oracle pass to join in person.

Episode 29 | Don't Miss the ParadeNote: 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, driving many to invest in AI startups to avoid being left behind. This AI frenzy can lead to both promising innovations and potential investment bubbles.Opportunity and awareness gap: While many acknowledge the potential of AI, a substantial number of individuals, including smart and established players, remain passive or ignorant about the ongoing technological revolution.The Big Quote: "We're at the very front end of AI, and it reminds me of [an] old expression . . . there's three kinds of people. There's the people in the parade, and there's the people who watch the parade, and there's the people who said, 'Oh, is there a parade?' And there's a stunning number of people who don't even know there's a parade right now . . . that's where the opportunity is."

Road to Oracle CloudWorld | Shifting CX Dynamics The Big ThemesAttendee 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 models and innovating those into Fusion Cloud applications. Gen AI leans heavily into Fusion Cloud’s push to build truly end-to-end flowsRise of the subscription business model: The subscription business model is becoming the new normal, and the Fusion Applications Suite enables it in the back-office and the front-office. Salespeople must readjust their behaviors and processes to handle subscriptions effectively.The Big Quote: “There are lots of companies that were not born in the cloud and obviously have worked for a long time with [a] . . . non-recurring revenue model, a one-time interaction between a customer and a vendor . . . That’s changing dramatically in every industry . . . customers want to subscribe to usage.”

Road to Oracle CloudWorld | Databases with Jenny Tsai-SmithThe Big ThemesInclusive 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 learning (ML) into its database offerings. The company already supports over 30 ML algorithms within the database, enabling data processing and training without moving data outside. Graph analytics and real-time graph views are among the upcoming AI-related features.Enhancements in Exadata and developer support: Oracle's Exadata product line, in collaboration with AMD, brings enhanced performance through increased memory, processing speed, and storage. The company is committed to supporting a variety of customer configurations, acknowledging the transition to the cloud while ensuring on-premises options. Developers are also a focus, with a developer-friendly release approach, tools to increase productivity, and discussions about features like Kubernetes support and data processing enhancements. The Big Quote: " . . we're going back to those some roots, if you will, and looking at what are things that developers really care about? Maybe they're even suffering through. And how can we solve those kinds of problems for them?"

Episode 21 | Thriving in ChangeThe 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 aspect of fear is being worried about what other people will think, but this shouldn't dictate your behavior.The courage to say no: To say yes to something, you have to say no to something else. Companies dislike saying no, but it's essential to have the courage to say no to what's not working.The Big Quote: “We should embrace our curiosity, we should satisfy our curiosity, we should feel free to explore, to experience, to learn, and to understand. And that is about people. That is about ideas, that is about practices, that is about processes, that is about businesses, it's about relationships, it's about love... we should embrace our curiosity and never ever, ever... be ashamed of it or... try and squelch it."

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 traditional knowledge worker is in a lot of trouble due to AI, but there are new avenues available to them. They must become creators.The Big Quote: "If a robot can do your job, you need a new job . . . [as someone] who creates net new thinking, creates net new knowledge, who takes existing knowledge, stands on its shoulders, and bring[s] it forward."