On the last day of the first ASUG Tech Connect in New Orleans, Jon sat down with Josh Greenbaum to make sense of what just happened. What was on the agenda of the SAP tech leaders present? Was the show a success? If so - why? How did the interest in AI compare to the interest in S/4HANA? We discuss our own session with customers, what we learned in our pursuits - including Greenbaum's six week SAP show tour. Jon brings up the issue of the clean core, and Greenbaum shares why our talk with Juergen Mueller wound up in discussing new possibilities for RISE - as a process evaluation and landscape management solution. Would that fly? Greenbaum connects the Signavio and Cloud ALM dots, and we head out.

Join Jon Reed and Brian "Brain" Sommer for this special fall event review, featuring guest star Laurie McCabe from the SMB Group. As usual, your snarky comments and smart ideas are expected. We'll pick the most notable content of the month, and try to make sense of a hype-laden AI event season. Note: if you like uncensored, unsponsored enterprise content like this, help me surface it with a good rating, it's one of the only ways free content like this can beat today's algorithms. Thanks.

"We need a language on what's going wrong with work" - fantastic lead quote from my guest on Friday the 18, Melissa Swift. Bring your sharpest commentary on the problems of work, and what better work futures look like, with and without AI. Swift, the author of "Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace," will count down the top reasons why work is broken, and skewer a few of her most disliked HCM catch phrases. Then we'll take stock: where do we go from here? What would a smart/savvy/inclusive workplace look like, and what are the building blocks of that? Bring your questions and let's see where this goes.

On the final day of SuccessConnect 2023, Jon sat down with Luke Marson for a wide ranging discussion on what he learned from his customer discussions at SuccessConnect, and how that matches up with what he heard from the keynote stage. Luke shares the questions about onboarding that were one big theme in his customer talks. He also details what the most successful SuccessFactors projects looks like. We compare notes on what constitutes customer success, the value of AI, and why skills is a core opportunity for SuccessFactors going forward.

Jon reignites his old school SuccessConnect podcast troublemaker series with SuccessFactors community leader and partner Chris Paine. Chris wrote a post prior to SuccessConnect about his predictions and expectations - did the show deliver? What did he learn as of the end of day one? The guys also get into the AI topic, reviewing how SAP can succeed in AI, what customers think, and how AI might impact implementation services in good and bad ways. *** Audio note: the main recording ran into an issue, so this final is a splice between two recordings. I've leveled over the volume but you may notice the splice - the result isn't perfect but I hope it's pretty listenable.*** Chris' pre-event blog post: https://www.wombling.com/hr/successconnect-2023-expectations/ Chris' post-event blog post: https://www.wombling.com/hr/successconnect-2023-expectations-met-and-exceeded/ Jon's 1st show post on gen AI and more: https://diginomica.com/successconnect-23-under-hood-saps-generative-ai-news-and-beyond

On diginomica, I've been pushing back on the generative AI hype machine with vigor, but also digging into its enterprise possibilities. Who better for an enterprise AI gut check than Vijay Vijayasankar? Vijayasankar has a deep interest/passion for AI but also has an reputation for debunking its misconceptions. In his role at IBM managing financial services clients, he can also speak to project realities - and how customers weigh GenAI risks and opportunities. I lay out my generative AI views/research for a gut check from Vijayasankar. We also discuss why he wrote his post on GenAI in the enterprise, and what he thinks customers should prioritize, as they move into GenAI projects. Vijayasankar also shares his own project learnings, and promising use cases. We hit on many issues in this podcast, such as whether bias and hallucations can ever be eliminated from LLM, and whether domain experts, customer data and reinforcement learning can improve the accuracy/effectiveness of GenAI for the enterprise. As Vijayasankar notes in the podcast, the views he expresses here, and in his post, are his views alone, not his employer. Vijay's AI post: https://andvijaysays.com/2023/08/05/genai-in-the-enterprise-nine-themes-that-i-have-seen-so-far/ My AI post: https://diginomica.com/enterprises-will-test-limits-llms-and-chatgpt-just-beginning

In this spontaneous podcast review on the final afternoon of Oracle CloudWorld 2023, Jon Reed and Brian Sommer compare what they learned, culminating in Sommer's quip, "You may have to partner with your enemy, because that's what your customer wants." Customers definitely want more vendor options in their strategic mix - did CloudWorld support that premise? Is Oracle's generative AI messaging differentiated? Does Oracle have an industry applications advantage from their acquisitions, which go well beyond Cerner? And: did Larry Ellison's strong keynote push on healthcare resonate? These are some of the topics we hash out during this 25 minute recap. Production note: Jon's audio was a bit quiet due to a tech glitch, worked on tweaking that as best possible in post production, hopefully it will be solid enough for this time around.

On July 20, 2023, during SAP's Q2 earnings call, SAP CEO Christian Klein made bold statements regarding the future of SAP innovation - in particular RISE, AI, and why SAP's close relationship with customers, including opt-in customer data, give SAP an AI advantage (and premium AI pricing). It is our view that these statements constitute a notable change/evolution in innovation strategy that warrant debate, user group dialogue - and discussion on how customers should track these issues.

Since Klein's earnings call statements, other executives inside of SAP have re-iterated and provided more context to these statements. These points are not necessarily firm policy yet, but are definitely messaging to look hard at. Since that time, along with my podcast guests Geoff Scott, CEO ASUG, and analyst Josh Greenbaum, we've had a chance to clarify these points and press questions. We don't have all the answers, and this is still unfolding, but we now have enough information to have an informed debate with our own views.

Some of the hottest issues, such as AI pricing, reflect a surging market that has not yet gelled around the value of AI and what that will look like for customers. These AI pricing/value issues are not unique to SAP, but warrant scrutiny nonetheless. We taped this podcast as a way of letting listeners know what we've learned so far, and to lay out the questions we can pursue across SAP events this fall, culminating in SAP TechEd India, virtual SAP TechEd, and ASUG TechConnect New Orleans, which occur across the same times in November.

Strong opinions are declared in this podcast but we do want to point out that SAP may yet shift and further clarify the policies we are debating. Those customers with specific questions should not treat this podcast as definitive, but contact SAP with open questions. We would also like to thank DSAG for providing their views, some of which are incorporated here. Also a thank you to our various contacts at SAP, who worked hard to get us the most current information that is publicly available.

They may not agree with our opinions, in fact we are pretty certain they will not, but we are much better informed due to SAP's efforts, and SAP's willingness to engage in an important community dialogue. Any inaccuracies will be corrected in the podcast description, but these topics are too important to wait for perfect information, some of which is likely to be tied to event announcements this fall, yet to be made public.

We expect to regroup with a shorter podcast later this fall to discuss what we learned at those events. Finally, we did cover, in brief, our initial takes on SAP's LeanIX acquisition, though we are out of time for a thorough review. This discussion relies almost entirely on published information in our prior blog posts, and in other news stories and transcripts:

Geoff: https://www.asug.com/insights/asug-ceo-we-will-clarify-and-communicate-saps-cloud-strategy-for-our-community

Josh: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joshuagreenbaum_read-the-full-story-now-activity-7092925003704266754-eN4b/

Jon: https://diginomica.com/generative-ai-disruptions-rise-and-grow-thomas-saueressig-reveals-next-steps-saps-ai-strategy

DSAG: https://dsag.de/presse/on-premise-customers-cut-off-from-innovations/

Okay, bring your popcorn and saltiest commentary - it's the debut of the enterprise month in review with Brian Sommer and yours truly. In this edition, we are joined by Hyoun Park of Amalgam Research to discuss his important post on Zoom's terms of service issues, and the implications for customers considering AI moves in the enterprise. In each edition of this show, we'll each pick our top stories of the month (and why), and the underrated story that got lost in the hype. We'll pick our most loathed tech buzzword of the month - so will you - and our worst PR pitch. A surprise guest may crash the party - perhaps it will be you. We'll send you on your way with a project tip or two. If you like uncensored, unsponsored podcasts like this one, leaving me a strong review on a popular podcast platform makes a world of difference; thanks for listening.

Companies are whiffing on ESG - but why? Regulatory requirements bring added pressure, but the incentive to change goes well beyond that - as a new wave of ESG vendors demonstrate. This is now well beyond reporting. It's tracking/managing ESG in real-time across supply chains. Join Brian Sommer for his ESG research preview/reveal session - and bring your best/toughest questions. Bonus: for the final third of the show, sustainability expert Tom Raftery joins the show to weigh on in how the ESG market is changing - and why. Note: if you like this type of unscripted, uncensored enterprise podcast, reviews on the popular podcast platforms are the best way you can help me.

Returning champ Maureen Blandford is back, but much has changed. Now she's a founder of Serendipitus - and she's got some tough love talk (and data insights) into why digital transformations fail. Join our interactive, no filter discussion as Maureen takes us through the top digital transformation botches, and what we're gonna do about it. No buzzword (or tech event) is safe, as life as a female founder tends to surface a lot of industry BS - and we're gonna call it out on Friday. Let's do this...

Enterprise video can be effective - or a true yawner. Join special guest Brent Leary as we discuss the highs and lows of enterprise video, and the secrets of his portable video gear and Playaz Production Network adventures with Paul Greenberg. We're also going to hash out the AI for video editing use case, share recent experiments - and the best options out there. As always bring your questions and Friday attitude... Note: the video version, if you want to see the pics of Brent's setup, can be found on youtube.com/jonathanwreed. If you want more unfiltered/unsponsored enterprise content like this, consider giving me a rating on your fave podcast site. thx.

Enterprise spring events were a generative AI carnival - but did we learn anything customers can use now? Forget keynote reviews - what did customers learn that can actually help them compete in a spank tunnel economy? Let's have an informal rehash shall we? There was enough generative AI hype to create a circus, but did we actually learn anything customers can use? Let's hash this out. Jon also hands out letter grades for event achievements, and lack thereof. Also check the itunes channel for the full podcast archives.

We're back, and about to go live - What is MACH-washing? Why is it worse than cloud-washing? No one better than Phil Wainwright to discuss, fresh off a deep dive into headless architectures and the MACH Alliance show. We discuss the hype around the micrservices enterprises, including Amazon's recent decision to retreat from microservices for a Prime Video use case. As part one ends, Brian Sommer challenges Jon and Phil to a wardrobe duel, and we begin our generative AI discussion.

Brian Sommer crashes the show to exhibit his wardrobe versatility and a fresh tie. We dive back into microsservices, this time from an ESG data perspective. Then the audience moves us into a debate/discussion on generative AI for the enterprise. We discuss viable use cases, as well as the limits and shortfalls. Jon shares what he learned when pressing vendors on issues like 1:1 personalization with generative AI. (Note: to see the ties you'll want to check the youtube video replay at youtube.com/jonathanwreed).

To make sense of the barrage of news stories, keynotes and meetings, Jon gets Josh Greenbaum in the podcast chair. Josh hit on a few key storylines he was pursuing at the show: the state of SAP Business Networks, partner ecosystem issues, and whether SAP's sustainability push has progressed. The guys also talk about their discussion with ASUG members at the ASUG Executive Exchange program on the Monday prior to Sapphire's kick off. The discussion closes with Josh and Jon's personal reflections on a memorable Sapphire LGBTQ+ Pride panel, moderated by Julia White.

I haven't caught up with Brian Dennett in a few years. After honing his tech chops in AI startups, Dennett is back in SAP land as an SAP Mentor. I was pleased to learn, during our conversation, he is keeping the tradition of the outspoken/critical/a little grouchy SAP Mentor alive. Dennett has strong views on the SAP Datasphere news, SAP's cloud business model transition challenges, and the future of SAP TechEd. This on-site podcast discussion also weaves in a few of my recent interviews and digging on SAP's hot Sapphire topics.

In this online podcast taping, Jon talks with Tim Rodman, creator of the first independent Acumatica cloud ERP user group, AUGforums.com. We talk about the importance of community and user group voices in the enterprise, and Tim shares what he's learned over the years by starting his own independent user group. He also shares how he has produced so much Acumatica-related content, and how he sustains these efforts.

Time to hash out what HR tech is getting right - and where it's falling short. Join us for an interactive discussion and research reveal. Bonnie Duncan Tinder, Stacey Harris and Brian Sommer will surely bring their A game, so bring your smartest questions. We'll also blow off steam via the most hated buzzwords in HR tech. You can bet ChatGPT is going to come up. Before we wrap, we'll have advice for HR leaders on making their talent goals stick, despite the economic "headwinds" and KPI overdose. If you like no-BS podcasts, consider leaving me a review on your favorite platform - I take no sponsors ever.

In this on-site podcast from Acumatica Summit 2023, Jon Reed talks with Joni Girardi of DataSelf. ERP as a data platform? Extracting more value out of ERP was a big topic at the show. Acumatica customers - like all ERP customers - are looking to get more out of their ERP investment with analytics, planning, and improved reporting. Girardi has spent 20 years on this topic - he shares the pitfalls and potentials of BI projects, as the two hit on topics ranging from the impact of AI to the great dashboard debate - do dashboards lead to better decisions? Some of this discussion is Acumatica-specific, but most is relevant to any enterprise software listener concerned about deriving more customer value from data. Note: if you like unsponsored, ad-free, no BS enterprise podcasts please consider giving me a good rating to help me beat the algorithm. I fund these myself for discerning listeners.

Jon didn't think SAP TechEd put enough emphasis on DevOps and AIOps, so he set about to correct that, via a roundtable with John Appleby and Brenton O'Callahan of Avantra, and Martin Fischer of Neptune Software (Fischer is also the lead for DSAG's DevOps interest group). But is DevOps even relevant in an ERP context? And what about AIOps? How do we move beyond dashboards and observability? What do SAP customers need to move forward with effective automation? Has this issue been overlooked by SAP, and what kind of educational/project content is needed? What is the future of SAP Basis engineers in this context? Do they have one? Is DevSecOps even worth a mention? These are just some of the issues the guys get into during this "alternative SAP TechEd" session.

Show notes: the company mentioned by Martin for the DevOps session at SAP TechEd is Nuve.

Jon is back on the CRMKonvos show to make his case for why hybrid events matter - and to issue a scorching grade to vendors (and yet, the grade is an improvement over the spring). The CRMKonvos gang, Thomas Wieberneit, Ralf Korb and Marshall Lager once again keep the hot seat hot, but making sure that Jon is forced to comment on how the metaverse might play a role in hybrid events (the metaverse is Jon's favorite tech concept - err, not). But it does make for a convo with some surprises. Thanks to the CRMKonvos team for permission to issue this audio version - catch all their video replays on their YouTube channel.

In this special appearance, Jon joins the CRMKonvos gang in the hot seat, to help sort industry cloud BS from reality. Industry clouds matter - but customers should evaluate carefully. What are the true criteria? Jon shares his views, while the smart CRMKonvos gang of Thomas Wieberneit, Ralf Korb and Marshall Lager keep the hot seat hot. This replay is issued with the express permission of the CRMKonvos team - thanks to them. Catch all their replays on the CRMKonvos YouTube channel.

Yep - we're back. Phil Wainewright and Josh Greenbaum both wrote landmark posts on customer success - but do they agree? And what should customers take from all the "customer success" brouhaha? To help me weigh the arguments, Bonnie Tinder of Raven Intel was on hand to share data and find a way forward. As usual, the audience brought their sharpest and smartest questions. Trivia note: this is my diginomica colleague Phil Wainewright's debut on my hits/misses video show, not to be missed.Also check the itunes channel for the full podcast archives.

Here we go - continuing with my "blogs that matter" editions of the hits/misses interactive video show, I'll be diving into the recent milestone blogs Gartner's Hank Barnes has published on enterprise buyers, via his own dialogue with Geoffrey Moore ("Crossing the Chasm"). Barnes and I will also revisit our debate on how informed today's enterprise buyer actually is, and how customers can make better buying decisions (or not). Bring your sharpest questions for the free for all chat, this will be a good 'un.

Yep, on this edition of Enterprise hits/misses radio, Josh Greenbaum and I will settle our differences on customer success. Bonnie Duncan Tinder of Raven Intel will join us to reveal her latest research on the problematic role of professional services partners in customer success initiatives. Join us for this live discussion and yes, your comments will be a big part of this. We'll hash out the problems and shine the light on those getting it done the right way. Reference post: Attention vendors - please stop the customer success hype train, unless you have these six proof points (You can get Josh's post here too). 

In this "blogs that matter" edition of hits/misses video, we'll dig into several of CX gadfly Thomas Wieberneit's notable blog posts. Join this free-for-all as we talk about how NOT to manage your customer journeys, why we DON'T want a 360 degree view of the customer, and why "ecosystems" are not what they appear. Sound like fun? This series is brought to you commercial-free by Jon Reed of http://www.diginomica.com.

This Friday, Constellation's Nicole France and Liz Miller will crash my Enterprise hits/misses video show together. Join this audience participation free-for-all, which will kick off with discussion of Nicole's lightning rod blog post, It’s Time to Set the Record Straight on Customer Data Terminology. Can we get customer data right? Will cookieless life confound marketing teams, or compel organizations to (finally) adopt white hat tactcis to earn trust? Will this dynamic duo take over the show? Will I get a word in? We're about to find out...

This series is brought to you commercial-free by Jon Reed of http://www.diginomica.com. If you like the idea of unfiltered, non-commercial enterprise content, consider giving this a nice rating so Jon can beat the commercialized crud in the search algorithms. Thanks.

Brian Sommer makes his triumphant return to Enterprise hits and misses radio, as we count down overhyped HR tech buzzwords and field audience questions on HR projects and the future of work. Note: you can see the video version of this at youtube.com/jonathanwreed.

As PowerPlex 2019 - the Plex Manufacturing Cloud user conference - kicks off, Jon Reed and Brian Sommer claim a quiet spot for an in-depth talk on why he finally wrote a book - Digital with Impact. After pressing Brian on why he entered the overhyped book area of digital transformation, Jon and Brian turn their attention to the exercises in the book. What has Brian learned by using these these exercises on project sites? How can you use Digital with Impact as a workbook to spur the cultural change needed to make digital stick? Brian also shares his recent chat with Geoffrey Moore as they contrasted their views on digital change. The guys also get into how to balance the challenge of a long term transformation with the quicker wins needed to ensure buy-in. One key theme? Overcoming the quicksand of technical debt. Note: Den Howlett has also authored a book review of digital impact on diginomica.com.   

In the third and final podcast in this special series from SAP TechEd Barcelona 2018, Den Howlett of diginomica talks to cloud expert and diginomica contributor Dick Hirsch review the takeaways from Barcelona, and assess the progress SAP has made with cloud models. The guys discuss how well SAP fleshed out the "intelligent enterprise." SAP's challenges with developer engagement in a more open/cloud model is also covered. Also check for Den's analysis of SAP TechEd Barcelona on diginomica.com. You'll find Jon's prior TechEd Vegas reviews and use cases there as well.

In an SAP TechEd special, Jon Reed is joined by SAP Mentor Graham Robinson in the lost Vegas corridors to hash out what they learned behind the scenes - and how that stacks up with SAP's news announcements. Graham, who is an independent consultant and expert SAP developer, has plenty to say about SAP's ABAP PaaS announcement, and how ABAP on the SAP Cloud Platform impacts developers and customers. The guys also hash out the "serverless ERP" annnouncement, and how ERP functions as a service could play into running the SAP Cloud Platform at scale. The highs and the lows of the show are covered, including the keynote, and a surprise challenge to Jon by SAP CTO Björn Goerke in response to his diginomica show review. The guys reflect on SAP's change in community leadership - and the future of TechEd as SAP attempts to turn community into an edge again, after some down years.

In Jon's annual Sapphire Now event review, he has a new guest, Brian Dennett of Enable AI, who was also part of the SAP blogger program coverage. Jon and Brian hash out the messages of the show, including the "intelligent enterprise" messaging and whether the Leonardo aspects actually made sense this year. They discuss Brian's pick for the sleeper announcement of the show, Master Data Management as a service, and why it matters. The guys share their findings from their often-spirited blogger sessions; Brian explains why has a philosophical difference with SAP on their "AI" approach. The guys wrap by giving their letter grades for the show, and Jon airs a couple of SAP gripes. Note: this recording was made on Jon's backup recording rig due to a microphone failure. 

In this interactive live discussion from Western Mass Podcamp 2018, Jon shares his views on researching the so-called informed buyer, and why marketing and sales must change. Participants from the session share their own challenges, and Jon hits on the dynamics of winning (and sustaining) attention, and why topic authority and opt-in audiences are essential. He explains why social media is useless without content, and why content is useless without a clear business identity. The role of subscription and curation is discussed. (Jon did a related session that continues these themes with a look at the power of immersive creativity; look out for that podcast soon). 

Is customer experience a fantasy, or an achievable goal? At Argyle's Digital Marketing Leadership event in Boston, Jon pushed his skeptical view on customer experience with CX expert Howard Beader of SDL. Jon and Howard kick around the lessons (and poll results) from the marketers/CMOs in attendance, and talk about how data fits into the customer experience challenge. Jon also pushes the issue of the difficult marketing-IT relationship and Beader shares his own view on the role of IT as marketing shifts to cloud

In this 47 minute highlight replay from a live interactive Crowd Chat, hosts Dennis Howlett and Vinnie Mirchandani explore and debate the issues raised by Mirchandani's new book, SAP Nation: A Runaway Economy.

This event replay was prepared for this podcast feed by Den Howlett and Jon Reed, two of the co-founders of diginomica.com. You can review the text-based Crowd Chat discussion here: https://www.crowdchat.net/SAPNation

Note: there are a few minor audio glitches on the file due to international bandwidth, but I think you'll find this discussion is well worth a few blips.

In this audio combo of two diginomica video shoots, Jon first talks with Ray Wang about the future of digital and whether the Chief Digital Officer is a BS idea, or a pressing need. Then, Jon shifts gears to talk to Brain Sommer about the future of selling and why selling is changing profoundly. The guys also kick around the impact of media on selling - "stop putting, and start blogging."

In this "best of" audio from Jon and Den's SAP TechEd and d-code filming collection, Den, Jon, and the always-quotable SAP Mentor Graham Robinson sit down for a review of a hectic and important week for SAP's first "post-Vishal" technology conference. 

In this (very) informal discussion, John Appleby and Jon Reed reflect on their 30 minute blogger conversation with Bill McDermott on the future of SAP and the departure of Vishal Sikka. (Den Howlett blogged about the call, as did John). During the podcast, John and Jon pull out the main themes from the call, and look ahead to the challenges SAP must tackle at ASUG/Sapphire - including cloud, HANA, and the field issues customers are facing, which may not be solved via HANA or cloud talk.

Jon has an in-depth talk with Sina Moutamed on the future of the cloud CIO and the real world impact of cloud. This is connected to a diginomica.com feature already published.

In the first of his "lost podcast" series, Jon talks devops and cloud disruptions on sys admins with Chris Kernaghan, SAP Mentor and outspoken/out-in-front devops dude. This is connected to a diginomica.com interview, and there is also a video version of this talk on jon's youtube channel..

During this non-controversial ByDesign discussion, Leo shares with Jon the insights he has on the ground at SAP TechEd. The focus is on practical considerations, cloud platform and roadmap topics, rather than a deconstruction of the current ByDesign news and how it was handled. 

At the end of SAP TechEd 2013 day two, Jon sat down with SAP Mentor and intrepid blogger Dick Hirsch to kick around the day's events and make sense of SAP's HANA, cloud, and PaaS directions. 

Jon and Chris kick around their SAP TechEd day one experiences and open questions over the course of a half hour of banter, critique and kudos.