Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

Episode 29 | Key Takeaways from Oracle Summits, Customers, PartnersThe 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 addition to modeling data, demand planning, and supply chain flexibility.Oracle's area of focus: Oracle is both an application and an infrastructure platform, which is one of its competitive strengths. Oracle demonstrates its ability to help customers unify the products it offers in the Oracle suite to engage customers more effectively than individual point solutions.The Big Quote: "While Oracle is still very much a technology company, selling software, their delivery model is moving more toward a consumable services type, repetitive business than it is, you know, the singular software installs of the past. And we saw in some of the, you know, the new product theories and new service bundles that they're proposing in the future, you know, that sort of shift happening. So, you know, I think that that was a really interesting way to kick off the day, sort of the level set things. And, you know, the things that they said, are top of mind for their customers that they're solving for, through their product lines are things like inflation and cost of living, right, this idea of cashflow. Number two, staffing shortages and the cost of labor. That's enormous."

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 already do.Cost savings and better security: With Aviatrix, customers don't have to decide between cost savings or better security; they reap the benefits of both. Architecturally, distributed cloud firewalls are the way, hence customers flocking to Aviatrix. The Big Quote: "As the CEO, and the business, what do they care about? They care about agility. Why are we moving to the cloud, right? That's why we're moving to the cloud. It's not for cost savings, we all know that. Gonna be more expensive than it was on-prem. The reason we're going, is that, right? Speed to the business. How quickly can I deploy applications to my customers, because that's driving my business? This is a business-led transformation. What's great about what we're doing is it simplifies things, right...We decouple all that Bob. Our system is intelligent, we create simplicity, right? Not manage the complexity, such that you actually don't need to think about the network and how the network deploys that network security. Because we own it end-to-end, we figure out the best way to do that."

How Workday Applies AI and ML Technologies to Healthcare IndustryThe 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 industry-specific capabilities are being utilized by over 375 healthcare systems. The same notion can be applied to other industries, too. Workday releases two major system upgrades a year to its industry-specific software.Driving digital innovation agenda: To drive the digital innovation path forward, Workday offers a true enterprise management cloud for healthcare. "And it's the same cloud for all systems, all environments, and all industries," explains Kravitz. "But the Workday platform is built on an intelligent data core that takes security, privacy, compliance, organizational hierarchy and analytics, and business policies into account as the foundation for the dynamic platform." The Big Quote: "The difference from Workday and other companies that have moved to the cloud, is we didn't have an application that was developed for your data center, and then migrate that to the cloud. Ours was built in 2005, and, the idea behind it was to start moving to the cloud, you know, 18 years ago, we decided we're gonna build it in the cloud. So all the intelligent data core and the frameworks were all built-in with the cloud in mind from day one. So I think that's an important factor."

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 teams has enabled data and information to be shared across the entire company. Prior to migrating to Adaptive, teams were siloed as they had independent data models with independent information, creating less-productive conversations.How Adaptive establishes end-to-end digital processes: Arima says there are two ways this happens. First, the tool itself, which is very user-friendly. Secondly, Workday Adaptive Planning enables more users with greater access to the system, delivering actionable insights, connecting "upstream" and "downstream" processes.The Big Quote: "I think the word continuous can sound very daunting, if you really think about it, as you're always planning. We talk about continuous planning a lot at Workday. But the intent is not to be always planning and always adjusting your models. That idea is really to be agile, and to be able to have a plan that can adjust as your business adjusts. And so that's really the spirit behind continuous planning. And it, certainly, it helps to have the tools in place like our Adaptive Planning, and the data model that's aligned to that solid foundation. All of these things really help to build that agility and your planning muscle. And so once you have that capability, it really yields benefits in terms of less manual work." 

Episode 14 | Lost Your Job? Here's What to DoThe 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, personality, and value to a potential employer to differentiate themselves. Mark explains that when new hires possess the correct EQ, hiring managers will look to place the candidate in the company. Emotional EQ has become a bigger focus than what it used to be.Do your homework: Do proper research on the company, come prepared to ask the right questions, and connect with a hiring manager on facts, data, and information that relates to a company. Hiring managers will respond to what you know, and how much effort you put into your application and interview. The Big Quote: "Those of you like me that are introverts, know your facts, connect with the people on data on information on facts. Be knowledgeable about what their company is doing and what their role is, about what they personally have done. You don't have to be an extrovert, you can be an introvert, but people will resonate, will really respond to you, by you having the right knowledge, you know, to be able to ask those questions in the interview, that, to me, it doesn't matter what kind of personality you have. You've got to differentiate yourself... But people will respond to you by what you know, and frankly, how much effort you put into, before you go into the interview cycle or even before you even present your job, your resume, to the offering."

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 significantly faster than what they are used to.Bringing a unified approach forward: IBM supports its Financial Cloud customers with control frameworks and framework mapping, creating a faster deployment and implementation approach.The Big Quote: "I think, with our [IBM's] understanding, and what we now have built with the hybrid cloud approach and the underlying technologies, we really open up that you get the best of all worlds. 100% sure a lot of the banking workload will remain on the mainframe. But you need to have, let's say, part of the workloads most likely in platforms like IBM Cloud for Financial Services, but you still need to manage different providers. So you will always have multi-clouds in your IT shop. With what we are now building, and we've built over the last few years, we basically build a coherent strategy and platform to get the best of, let's say, the traditional mainframe workload and the future."

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 "as delivered" aspects generally are not in alignment. "By having a system that runs all the way from opportunity to renewal, we [Certinia] bring those things into alignment with each other and have the "as quoted" and "as delivered" very much in sync with each other," notes Brown.Automation to enhance opportunity: When speaking with service economy workers, it is clear that "low-value work makes them crazy." Automating this work enables service economy workers to do more of what they love, like being in front of customers and providing "intellectual horsepower." Certinia applies automation as a means of optimizing the employee experience, too, and having a "great, enriched career journey." The Big Quote: "We are, kind of, starting a new chapter in our company's history with the rebranding to Certinia... and everything that we've developed up to now is widely increased the aperture of who we are. If you look at it across the spectrum of all those different products, we now are a full end-to-end provider. And hence, Certinia, as our new name. And we think it probably reflects not only the company we are today, it's the company we aspire to be. And so working with the large customers and the mid-tier customers that we have, we listen very carefully to what they need to get certainty in their environment, how to manage the very large and complex services organizations, and ultimately to have success. So we think the rebranding is the next chapter of our history, we think it's a really important thing to do, because it reflects the nature of who we are. But more importantly, we see big things in our future."

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 rid of their jobs.Creative destruction: Christian proposes that there is a whole lot of "creative destruction" that will take place as a result of generative AI getting smarter. "That's the trajectory we are on...we have to be conscious of it," he notes. The Big Quote: " I think there are great challenges ahead. And I think they're fascinating challenges. And I think they're important challenges. And some are going to do well. And a lot are going to do very, very poorly. Let's hope though that for the sake of, you know, the company's colleagues, you know, all over the world, that we start looking at how we run our businesses and employ these really potent technologies in a way that actually gives our employees a fighting chance. Yes, to sort of climb the capability ladder and find their next place in this changing world."

Episode 44 | How Partners Ecosystems Drive the Acceleration EconomyThe 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 "helping build systems that touch every aspect of my business."How do we work better with partners?: As tools become more flexible, the way we engage with partners has dramatically changed. "It's also the business demand is changing our need to implement quickly."The Big Quote: "In the acceleration economy, it's about getting stuff from here to there more quickly, within our four walls, and across of our entire partner ecosystem. And so a vendor, and a co-creator that knows the industry, and has the clout to have people say,' yeah, they probably know what they're doing,' encourages people to then build the connection into them. So I think that's the direction you're gonna see a lot more partnerships go, if the vendors are willing to extend themselves and think 'I'm not just in the software business, I'm in the letting customers use my software more creatively business,' and a customer of theirs steps up and says, 'my secret sauce is not so secret,' not 'I don't want to sell it to other people to help us all improve our business.'"

Bonnie, an expert in generative AI, discusses the impacts and effectiveness of generative AI on software selection and implementation. She highlights the revolutionary nature of generative AI in organizing and synthesizing mass amounts of data. However, she also acknowledges its limitations, such as not being comprehensive in understanding customer needs and lacking directionality for creating roadmaps. The podcast emphasizes the importance of human involvement in successful projects and cautions against overestimating AI capabilities.