In this live conference wrap, taped on SuccessConnect day two, Jon Reed and SuccessFactors consultant Jarret Pazahanick kick around the key themes of the conference and provide a gut check. Pazahanick is known for his pesky questions, but this review catches Pazahanick in an upbeat mood. Pazahanick explains why his views on SuccessFactors have shifted, and the guys hit on multiple themes of the conference, including diversity and business without bias, Intelligent Services. mobile UX and more. The guys hit on under-reported news, keynote reviews, and Pazahanick detailed his biggest concerns going forward. Jon does manage to get Pazahanick in a feisty mood regarding ASUG's announcement of their "Partner Place" program for evaluating SAP consulting partners. 

Jon Reed and Vinnie Mirchandani have their differences when it comes to the outlook for robotics and jobs. At Inforum 2016, they sat down for a podcast taping where Vinnie explained the motivations behind his soon-to-be-released book and why he is optimistic about robotics and how workers can find new ways of working with tech and alongside the robots of the future. Vinnie made his case for why alarmists aren't helping us and the guys do some back and forth over the responsibilities of workers and employers and our educational system for adapting to the changes that automation brings.

In the second of their seat-of-the-pants Inforum 2016 podcasts, Jon and Brian Sommer discuss the radical future of finance, based on Brian's recent posts on radical EPM on diginomica.com. Brian makes his case for why big data threatens spreadsheet culture, and how robotics is changing the finance profession. He brings in real world examples on social media sentiment analysis, and why finance people and CIOs have to get on the same page. The guys wrap with a preview of Brian's piece on how the airlines can redeem the customer experience with applied analytics - the topic of a recent multi-part series, "The Right Stuff" - now up on diginomica.com. Listeners who make it to the end get to sample Brian's Rodney Dangerfield "no respect" impersonation, dedicated to frequent flyers everywhere

In this informal video hangout, Jon Reed of http://www.diginomica.com talks with SuccessFactors consultants/experts Jarret Pazahanick and Luke Marson to get their views on Sapphire Now and ASUG 2016, and the key questions customers raised. The guys dig into the future of SAP HCM in an S/4HANA world, and also break down the open questions on S/4HANA that customers are asking. Because of the critical issues on private versus public clouds and what this means to customers, Jon has added an 8 minute audio postscript with additional comments and clarifications from SAP Mentor Dick Hirsch.

In part two of their informal video hangout, Jon Reed of diginomica.com, Jarret Pazahanick and Luke Marson shift their focus to cloud HCM in the field. Using their recent podcast with Steve Bogner's SAP HCM Insighs as a starting point, Jarret and Luke talk about bad versus good practices in SuccessFactors consulting. the guys hit on the demand for SuccessFactors skills, the need for independent experts, and they hit the always-hot issue of SAP certification. Note: part one of this video chat, on S/4HANA and HCM, will be released soon.

At the day one LiveWorx keynotes, Internet of Things security was an overlooked topic. Jon set about to correct that by sitting down with Volker Gerstenberger and Tomi Ronkainen of Giesecke & Devrient, a firm with a deep history of security - everything from bank notes to, now, the IoT. The guys talk about the thorny security issues raised by IoT, and how they can be addressed during the design process. Autonomous/smart cars are one hacking controversy the guys cover. They also discuss the tensions between airtight security and great UX, and what they tell end customers about security preparedness.  

In this now-infamous reunion shoot, the five dudes/miscreants/wayward travelers are reunited for a rehash of the events of Sapphire Now Orlando 2016. Harald, Jon, Den, Vijay and John all have new gigs or roles since the were last together, but the goal remains the same - a frank breakdown of what they've learned and heard. The guys review the keynotes, discuss the viability of S/4HANA at this juncture, and evaluate SAP's customer-first intentions. Digital moves such as Digital Customer Insight also get the rundown. This audio is pulled from a video shoot - you can read extensive Sapphire Now/ASUG 2016 coverage on diginomica.com.  

During this candid interview with ASUG CEO Geoff Scott, Jon gets the skinny on ASUG's latest collaboration with DSAG - a position paper on digital transformation that is a key issue for SAP customers. Scott shares the story on how the collaboration came about, and Jon presses to find out if ASUG endorses S/4HANA and SAP's view of S/4HANA as the digital core. Taped live in Orlando the day before ASUG Annual Conference and Sapphire Now, Scott shares his goals for the show and beyond. He also gives the view on ASUG's surprise acquisition of the U.S. division of The Eventful Group. This is the audio of a video shoot - you can check the companion analysis Jon wrote of this shoot on diginomica.com. 

During this live interview, taped in the midst of a bustling Consensus 2016, Steemit co-founder Ned Scott gives Jon the inside view on the creation of Steemit, and their unique approach to rewarding/paying content creators and curators through their blockchain-based platform. He also announces the launch of Steemit.com. Ned talks about Steemit's different asset classes, including Steem dollars, and how they've sparked their launch with a Slack-based community. The guys also get into the failure of existing networks to compensate content creators, and create a civil environment for discourse.  Jon also vows to jump off a bridge it companies like Steemit can't build new media models as viable alternatives to living on Facebook. 

Following their annual tradition, Jon Reed and Dick Hirsch steal an empty room - or in this case, a (mostly) empty hallway - for a review of the news and events of Sapphire Now and the ASUG Annual Conference, 2016. Hirsch shares his investigations, and the guys compare notes on topics such as the HANA Cloud Platform, the SAP-iOS partnership, and S/4HANA clarifications. The guys discuss S/4HANA's viability as a digital core, SAP's cloud positioning, and how attendees reacted. Customer feedback to SAP on integration, a big theme of the conference, is addressed. This podcast leans on the technical side, which was surprising given Sapphire Now is a business conference - but even Hasso Plattner's final day keynote had an in-depth S/4HANA migration demo.