Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

The Big Themes:"The moment of truth" in retail execution: Wisy is not focused on inventory management issues, but rather on helping brands and retailers optimize the display and pricing of products through AI-powered computer vision analysis and predictive analytics.Reaching a tipping point: Tech solutions that leverage AI for retail execution have existed for a while, but have been overly clunky and thus under-utilized. The Wisy platform, by contrast, is optimized for use by human beings in all sorts of environments.Offline analysis: Wisy just announced a major breakthrough—users will now be able to get instant results and analytics, even if they don't have an internet connection or their cloud has gone down. This will save time and lots of money in terms of processing.The Big Quote: "We don't think AI is going to replace humans. On the contrary, we still need humans for a lot of things. But we want humans to be more productive and do what is more rewarding... We see this as a transformation of a whole industry with a new set of tools." Want to learn more about Wisy and founder Min Chen?Explore Wisy in the Acceleration Economy DirectoryConnect with Min on LinkedIn Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Big announcements at recent flagship event in Amsterdam: Toni and Mitch talk about the new "vertical product strategy" SAP Fioneer unveiled at its Financial Services Forum, including three new platforms for banking and insurance customers.Trends in the larger insurance industry: At their recent mega-event, the SAP and SAP Fioneer teams gained a ton of insight into what is top-of-mind for banking and insurance customers in this time of massive change.What's next: With recent technological advances—including the cloud, AI, IoT, 5G, and more—insurance is moving towards a focus on the individual, a shift that has the potential to dramatically change how consumers engage with insurers' products.The Big Quote: "We announced our platform strategy from an SAP Fioneer perspective... Over time, what you're going to see is specific vertical solutions deployed within each one of these three different platforms from us." - Mitch Bouchard This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Speaking the Same Language: Decision-makers accelerate change by embracing industry and vertical cloud with vendors who can understand the transformation of their industries to co-create to grow the business.Buyer Motivations Are Shifting: Vendors need to understand the expectations of today's companies to fulfill promises to ensure they can deliver on the benefits to customers.Features and Function, Not Pricing: Not a new concept. However, decision-makers in the marketplace are experiencing a level of change behind technology-driven features for their P&L.The Big Quote: "…I do think if there's a shift in…who actually sits around that, that boardroom table, I think there's a substantial shift there today, and an exciting one actually for a lot of companies, as long as they can adapt to it."This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Events evolved: As attendees adapt to hybrid shows, understanding what changed enables people to leverage both in-person and online benefits of industry shows.Get creative, opt for flexibility: Hospitality resources may be short-staffed, travel could be affected, or speakers might not be able to attend in person. Event organizers can help vendors increase visibility by going online, conference speakers into the event, and holding virtual meetings.Do your homework to lay the proper groundwork: Outline plans on which vendors to see, sessions to attend, and how to divide and conquer with other colleagues attending. Have you thought of social media to amplify your presence as a leader?Bring it home and take it forward: Vendors look at the opportunity to connect with customers in high-quality conversation and seek feedback to achieve solutions and understand experiences while engaging with business leaders.The Big Quote: “It’s those pure insights that are equally as important to watching and making sure that feature function during a software demo is what you need…certainly the vendor relationship is important, but the experience of your peers is going to speak volumes about if that is real.“This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Three priorities for hiring: Pat says that the best hires (1) are able to do the job well, (2) help diversify the organization in terms of background, ethnicity, etc., and (3) are a good fit culturally for the company and the role.Recruiting today is too passive and too focused on ops: To find the right person for the role you need to fill, companies need to embrace active recruitment done by a talent attraction leader.The most successful companies combine recruiting ops with talent attraction: Hard data about candidates is important to help HR managers make their assessments, but you also need a talent attraction leader who understands soft skills, culture, and other factors like that in order to find the best possible hire.The Big Quote: "You've got a brilliant sales leader focused on customers, customer success, big-deal strategy, how to develop account executives, how to attract them... If you take that person out and put in their sales ops person, that's the same analogy as what's happened to recruiting to talent acquisition leadership over the last several years."This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:A new POV on recent Microsoft announcements: Wayne talks us through his understanding of some key points made by CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood on the company's latest earnings call, and how CIOs and CTOs should interpret them.Microsoft's full-stack offering is key competitive advantage: Purportedly lowering costs for customers is part of how MSFT is working to stay ahead of AWS and others, and the gamut of services they offer is essential to their efforts.The win-win-win of embracing WFH: It's time for boards to accept that WFH is here to stay—sustainability is important for the world and our future, ESG is good for corporate perception, and employee satisfaction is critical to both businesses and workforces.The Big Quote: " When you talk about lowering the customer's bill, I don't think [Satya Nadella] is trying to lower the dollar spent with Microsoft. He's trying to raise the value of what you get. If I spent $1 and got a server, what did I get? If I spent $1 and got a place to run a modern, secure application that's automatically on my phone, what did I just get for that dollar? Yeah, I think Microsoft is saying I'm gonna give you a lot more for your money, because of our unique approach." This episode is brought to you by BMC. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Some background on SAP Fioneer: Falk and Mitch explain how the partnership came to be and offer details about how the two organizations work together while maintaining independence.What makes SAP Fioneer unique in the market: by building the backbone for "the end-to-end business process," SAP Fioneer is more than a point solution or even a vendor, it sees itself as a partner to customers.Looking to the future of financial services: Falk and Mitch each share what they expect to be the next big trends and transitions in FinServ, from making a cashless economy more accessible and equitable to AI to the metaverse.The Big Quote: "It will be more and more important that these systems integrate with each other, speak the same language. This is where you get the economies of scale. This is where you standardize, automate and harmonize your landscape. And if you're able to do that, you will be good for your customers. And what's good for your customers is actually then good for your business, as you can imagine." - Falk Rieker This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Introducing Task Force Tribute (TFT): Inspired by a group of military veterans in Chicago who walked 13 miles to honor 13 service members who died during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, TFT comprises a small group of people who are traveling 7,054 miles together, to all corners of the country, one mile for every service member lost during the Global War on Terror.Creating a virtual memorial to those we've lost: During the cross-country trip, TFT will be raising awareness around its intent to collaborate with leading tech companies in the U.S. to build what Christian calls "the first highly inclusive and encompassing virtual war memorial."How listeners can get involved: Christian suggests three actions to take. First, just spend some time learning about the effort and following the journey. Second, make a donation of $70.54, or any amount, to help support the trip and the memorial. Finally, anyone who is a military member or family of a military member, reach out to the TFT team to share your stories.The Big Quote: "So many people don't want to talk about this kind of stuff, because they don't want to talk about themselves. We want to make it clear that this is an opportunity for our military members to talk about the other great women and men that they served with, and the great examples that they saw, and candidly, and provide a ground truth, if you will, to the history that they were all part of making."This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Project success depends on preparation: About half of enterprise software and digital transformation initiatives fail, and Raven Intelligence data points to the fact that many companies simply don't have their ducks in a row before getting started.Inside the Readiness Tool: Bonnie explains that the tool is both free and easy to use. Anyone on the project team can complete it by answering 14 questions about stakeholder support, team leadership and roles, change management, and planning and prep.The benefits of assessing readiness: The tool will provide a score, one through 100, that will help companies gauge where they are on the spectrum in terms of readiness. It's essentially a litmus test for, should we start this project now?The Big Quote: "You'd be surprised how many customers go through the motions—they select a software, they select the partner, and they truly aren't ready internally to start the project. And lo and behold, they choose a great software, they choose a great partner, and it still fails."Curious about your transformation readiness? Try the new, free tool on the Raven Intelligence website. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The buyer-seller relationship has changed: Customers are claiming more power than ever before, and Jonathan says that companies need to earn the title of "strategic partner," not just throw it around.Telco is transforming around 5G: While recent years have left many telcos in turmoil, the advent of 5G technology is getting the industry its "mojo" back, according to Jonathan.Banks are moving to the cloud: Recent geopolitical upheaval has raised a ton of questions for the banking industry, but at the same time, Jonathan says banks are ready for a "generational leap" in technology.The Big Quote: "I think that's quite fundamental, because that focus on enabling our customers through technology and through partnerships, is key to trust between us. And trust is the foundation of our relationships with our customers."This episode is brought to you by Oracle. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The embrace of vertical approaches is bigger than go-to-market: companies are looking to software not just to address functional problems, but to solve business challenges and transform business modelsMassive internal reorganizations are coming: in addition to new and surprising partnerships like Microsoft and Oracle on multi-cloud, Tony expects both customer and vendors to deeply evolve their structures and operationsMerger of supply and demand chains is a key example: Professor Luyi Yang in his fireside chat at Cloud Wars Expo talked about "demand distortion events," and the need to knock down silos to better serve today's customers.The Big Quote: "Oftentimes, market transitions are sort of so obvious, they're happening before your very eyes, and then you wake up and you go, 'Oh, I should have paid attention to this.'" Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:What CXOs need to know about hybrid cloud: Wayne walks us through a number different, equally valid hybrid cloud models and explains key security implications when moving to hybrid cloudLook out for "fake cloud" models: CXOs need to be on guard against terms like "virtualization" and "hyper-converged," tactics that might make sense for their company but which are definitely not cloudThe pros and cons of becoming a software creator: amid all the talk about co-creation models between cloud vendors and customers, Wayne offers some critical advice based on his past experience working on both sidesThe Big Quote: "If you get something listed in the Microsoft Store, or the Oracle store, or the Google Store, or the IBM store, and it is a solution for a problem others have and your software is good, your scalability of that product is almost infinite." This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Great software alone isn't enough: For success in a digital transformation project, choosing the right partner to help implement software is just as important as choosing the right software itself.Partner-project fit: The most important factor to consider in picking an implementation partner is project fit, and making sure that the team members assigned to work with you are well versed in the software, in your industry, etc.Why being a "preferred partner" matters: Bonnie estimates that the top 25% of software vendors get around 80% of the opportunities and projects.The Big Quote: "To the extent that you can tell them something they did not know... or you have a level of expertise or intelligence that competitively they could take advantage of, if you can be that person to them, that trusted advisor, that's really key." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Innovation inspired by disruption: From early 2020 today, the world looks completely different. Boards of directors and other leaders are responding by interrogating the way they've always done things and looking for new, more agile systems.RISE gives customers a team behind them: One of the biggest things SAP has heard is that customers love that the RISE program makes clear what everyone on the team's responsibilities are, including SAP, its hyperscaler partners, and the customers themselves.Finding differentiation thru technology: Brian says that every company needs to be a tech company, and to lean on the cloud to help them reimagine and differentiate their business to stand out from competitors.The Big Quote: "What we want to allow customers to do is focus on the build, focus on the innovation, focus on the things that are going to really differentiate themselves from the competition, as opposed to focusing on the run." This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Retail supply chains and OODA loops: Fighter pilots are trained to Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act when engaged in fast-moving environments. Retail business leaders should adopt the OODA approach for supply chain planning.Sustainability is key to supply & demand chains: We should not be looking at sustainability in a vacuum, but rather as integral to the efficient production of goods.Invest in connecting IT and OT: Let's talk less about carbon-neutral data centers and more about optimizing physical processes, which improves quality, saves money, and lowers emissions. (NB: keep an eye on strong cybersecurity!)The Big Quote: "If I've observed and oriented and have the tools to decide, then in a supply chain environment, I can act. I can take the shot and I can win the engagement. And that's what companies have to be thinking about in the modern supply chain." This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Differentiate in the market: Reflect on business operations. Make decisive moves and decisions, and act in an agile fashion for the future.Supply chain transparency is essential to stay ahead of the curve: Integrated processes from the quotation down to cash management to facilitate those processes are crucial. Companies need to be able to explain the delay and provide alternative solutions to deliver quality outcomes to customers.Sustainability and getting to a circular economy: Embed sustainability throughout the processes and data models natively. Infrastructure complemented with additional applications, like the sustainability control tower, brings all of the ESG KPIs together to measure the progress, product footprint management, and carbon footprint into an auditable session.The foundation of success for the future: Bring together vertical and horizontal integration to how companies solve problems and establish industry networks to optimize supply chain and for sustainability purposes.The Big Quote: "The new normal is about constant crisis management. That’s the reality we need to face, and you need to be prepared. That’s the reason why an agile enterprise architecture is essential – software is a key ingredient to succeed."Connect with Thomas on more ways to drive sustainable supply change in the digital revolution. This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The Yext promise: Josh describes the platform as a place for "ingesting data, structuring it, and then delivering it as in the form of answers everywhere that it's needed."Keeping public data in sync: Yext customers want to help their consumers easily find information like hours of operation, product availability, and more, wherever they're searching. Yext helps structure that data, then automatically syncs it across various websites.Working across multiple clouds: Part of the reason that Yext and Redis work so well together is that both can operate in multiple clouds. Redis serves as a back-end system for Yext anywhere it has a point of presence.The Big Quote: "As a SaaS platform, we're continually evolving. If a new place appears where consumers are looking for data, we will build an integration with them. If a new use case comes up, we will be able to satisfy it. And we're always adding new features." This episode is sponsored by Redis. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The stats, yet with so little scrutiny: Machine, also referred to as bot-related ad revenue, was $81 billion in 2022 with projections to increase to 100 billion in 2023.Machine or bot accounts inflate financials: If Twitter or Facebook decided to take down all of the fake accounts, they would have to restate their earnings.Dealing with a completely different mindset: Companies and executives realize they will be judged by their ability to harness technology to transform their businesses.Thought of the day: We are now hitting an inflection point based on the unbelievable power of cloud infrastructure, applications and tools and the agility that it gives these companies. What is technology enabling us to do to dazzle the customers and make more money?The Big Quote: "I think the part that analysts are probably missing that links directly to the market is, I think you need to go upstream as an analyst and understand how companies are deploying modern technology today, as a part of your analysis of their financial performance." This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Three tips for the precarious present: As the coronavirus continues to evolve and spread, Wayne says that business leaders need to be realistic about people returning to work (or not) and think creatively about how best to move forward.The CXO Lounge at Cloud Wars Expo: Wayne previews this unique feature of next month's conference, a dedicated space for conversations, debates, and jam sessions between and among C-level execs and Acceleration Economy Analysts.Looking beyond a potential recession: This year, the tech industry is going to invest $20 or $30 billion just in innovation. So while it's good to think about a downturn in spending, leaders need to have courage to make key investments now.The Big Quote: "Have the courage to invest in technology. Invest in your manufacturing, your supply chain, your fulfillment, your customer during a slowdown... There's going to be opportunities at the end of that that we can't even envision today. Be ready to seize them. And the cloud gives you that opportunity." This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Balancing conflicting responsibilities: Christian's first story takes place during an operation by the Marine Corps when he was a young platoon commander.Reflecting and preparing for big life changes: The second lesson Christian learned came to him after he left active duty, and was struggling with the loss of community and camaraderie.Staying vulnerable and open to input: Lastly, Christian recounts a period in his business career when he got himself trapped in tunnel-vision on a project—and the results were quite bad.The Big Quote: "I don't always want people to hold my hands. When I make a mistake, sometimes I want somebody to go, you made a mistake. There's something really powerful about direct and even near-immediate feedback, when delivered with good intent, with the purpose of correcting something that maybe needed to be corrected." This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:ERP as a Service: In the past, business transformations and ERP transformations took years to complete. Today, customers need to get up and running on new platforms much more quickly—so Infosys developed an ERP as a Service offering, a bundle that simplifies and accelerates the process.Industry cloud solutions: Part of how Infosys guides clients through business transformation is through industry-specific "templates" that help customers envision what their new processes will look like.Clients save 30 to 40% on TCO: Infosys helps its customers get up and running on S/4 HANA cloud more quickly, but also at a reduced cost thanks to increased efficiencies.The Big Quote: "We are very thrilled to take the partner-managed cloud approach for RISE with SAP. We're seeing a lot of successes and clients are loving it. Clients are saying that the whole adoption of S/4 HANA cloud is simplified even more with Infosys ERP as a service."This episode is sponsored by Infosys. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The trap of vanity metrics: certain statistics you hear all the time, like "we have 96% customer satisfaction," are not telling the full story. These metrics are easy to come by and make us feel good, but in the end they do not really help us.Metrics that actually matter: in a digital transformation, the stats that you need are those that tie back to business objectives. This means revenue improvements, cost reductions, and working capital improvements.Trust but verify: Raven Intelligence can help with choosing a vendor or partner by helping you verify the metrics you're hearing from salespeople. It's important to confirm the source of the stat, and its relevance to your business and goals.The Big Quote: "You hear a statistic like 'on-time delivery.' But how is that defined? Because if on-time delivery is 96%, and it's based on a date that's moved eight times... Well, it's easy to have an on-time delivery for a moving target. And so in those types of cases, when you hear numbers like that, you always want to sort of peel back the onion." This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Massive changes to cloud marketplaces: Amazon and Google Cloud are transforming the ways that companies buy software through their cloud MPs, and DoiT is helping customers respond to those changesGrowth requires agility: the standard locked-in discounts of the past aren't working for software companies anymore, so DoiT is taking on the lock-ins with cloud partners and delivering flexible, growth-oriented benefits to ISV customersTrusting customers to know what they need: DoiT’s ISV Program and products like FlexSave, GTM Funds, and Agency selections, reflect its belief in trusting customers to know best what they needThe Big Quote: "It's this fundamental shift from the old way of thinking, which was 'if I spend a million dollars, will you give me 5% off?' And this new way of thinking is, 'because I'm spending a million dollars with you, how can you help me grow?'" This episode is brought to you by DoiT. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The "cradle to grave" approach: Pat and Pam worked together for many years to develop creative, advanced programs for talent acquisition and retention. One of their initiatives was to increase the collaboration between talent acquisition and talent management teams.Planning a culture vs. letting one happen: Companies should be in the driver's seat when it comes to HR and company culture. This requires focused, pointed culture development.Assessments and candidate data: The information gathered about candidates through formal assessments or otherwise should be shared throughout the organization to help develop their training and path.The Big Quote: "I think a lot of organizations think of assessments as being punitive, but in fact, the data is so rich and can really help you think about somebody's career plan, somebody's career growth opportunities, and help to align that with somebody's own aspirations." - Pam Seplow This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Netflix's disruptive start: Tony had an "inside baseball view" of the early disruptions Netflix made to the entertainment industry in the early 2000s, and he reminds us of just how innovative the company wasA myopic focus on customers matters more than ever: when companies start to "over manage the equity markets" and fail to put the customer at the center of everything they do, that's when things go southLet's talk about business growth at Cloud Wars Expo: join us in San Francisco June 28-29-30 to explore critical questions about how to unlock, manage, and accelerate growth in today's world.The Big Quote: "Somehow, one of the world's most valuable and and most scalable companies ever created lost touch with customer sentiment and customer needs. And I think that's the real story here." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Episode 20 The Big Themes:Change management and change agility are often overlooked: Raven Intelligence research shows that customers' most frequent regret after completing digital transformation projects is that they didn't dedicate enough time and resources to change management processes.The Six Es of Operationalizing Change: From a presentation by Josh Bersin, these six steps are absolutely essential to change management, Bonnie says.Change agility: With how fast technology evolves, change management is always an ongoing project, so companies need to commit to cultivating a culture within their organization that is change-agile.The Big Quote: "It's not just an idea, it's something that you need to budget for during a digital transformation. It's sort of a box that you need to sort of put around all of these things. And I will tell you, it's not a cheap box."--This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:How silos impede product innovation: Ray describes "a chasm" that has traditionally existed between product teams and their counterparts working in sales and marketing. Given that every person in those departments has a hand in bringing a product to market, closing that gap is necessary to make better products, and make them faster.Industry-specific solutions are the future: Customers' expectations are higher than ever before, and they expect their vendors to understand their specific needs, pain points, and goals. As such, companies like Propel need subject-matter experts to help design software and solutions tailored to customers' industries.The tailwinds driving growth for Propel: The way businesses work is changing rapidly and in countless ways. As leaders rethink their business and revenue models, internal structures, and more, Propel is the perfect partner to help them design a "whole office" solution for product development.The Big Quote: "It used to be that we as product people and product managers thought, 'We understand what the customer needs. We're gonna design it. If we build it, they will come.' It was kind of a Field of Dreams mindset of how products were designed and launched. But it's not the case today, because people have way too many choices."--This episode is sponsored by Propel. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:How Ulta grew 40% amid Covid-19 disruptions: Omar talks about the company's innovation department and the remarkable 4-week turnaround it achieved for introducing curbside pickup at all physical locations.Merging the physical and digital: Ulta aims to dazzle customers with a seamless experience, no matter where they're shopping. Omar describes what that would look like from the customer's perspective and what Ulta's doing in terms of increasing personalization.The power of data and Redis: In addition to making Ulta's backend systems faster and more efficient, Redis has helped simplify the entire process of upgrading Ulta's technology platform. The Big Quote: "What we don't want to do is just put something out there because Omar wanted it, but millions of customers don't even care about it. So data is key. Data helps us make the right decisions, data helps us to make the right investment. With data we can be sure that we're actually delivering what our customers are looking for."--This episode is brought to you by Redis. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:An update on the sale of Thomas to Xometry: Tony describes how the two companies are fitting together and creating a new kind of on-demand manufacturing marketplace.What's the true ROI of technology these days? Following the acquisition, Tony's been on a bit of a listening tour, having lots of conversations with other business leaders, and a theme that's emerged is uncertainty around the real impact that new technology can have on a business. Tony has some important ideas about this.The role of CXOs in tech implementation: It's essential that business leaders work to demystify new technology for employees, and help their teams understand how they fit into the new structure and processes it creates. The Big Quote: "Technology is about growth. Yes, you might create something more efficient. But if that increased efficiency doesn't allow you to reallocate resources and push growth, then frankly, I don't know that your shareholders are going to be dazzled."Want to be part of Tony's listening tour?Connect with him on LinkedIn and fire away. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Data-first modernization: the return of the Chief Data Officer in many organizations goes hand-in-hand with an increasing effort to streamline data landscapes and eliminate technical debt.Opportunity at the edge: compute power at the edge has strengthened, allowing companies to push real-time analytics out of the edge with a relatively small footprint and transforming how businesses think about it.Industrialized data supply chains: like at a car plant, Matt says that end-to-end automation is needed in data supply chains, which means lots of new software and tools and lots of new skills training.The Big Quote: "The early adopters have figured out that cloud is not a cost savings, it's an agility and velocity engine, right? It's profit centers. It's the ability to address our customers in new and different ways." This episode is sponsored by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Modernizing without compromise: every customer is going to have vastly different needs and different use cases, but HPE is adamant about meeting the specific requirements of each one.Putting the platform next to the data: giving customers the ability to access their data in its native form helps them avoid running through hoops in terms of compliance, governance, operations, and more.What's next for HPE GreenLake: look for more in the realms of protected infrastructure, data set management, and exploring what it looks like to separate database administrator roles, the classic IT roles, from the data operation roles.The Big Quote: "HP GreenLake's fundamental problem proposition is to bring in what you've been buying before... and then have our GreenLake managed services organization take care of it for you, so that you don't have to worry about it anymore. And it scales up and down based on your needs." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• President Zelensky of Ukraine's heroic example: Leaders are force multipliers for the people that they lead, and to do that, they have to communicate, compel, and inspire. Zelensky is doing all of those things, while refusing to flee his country in the midst of war. It's inspiring.• The sacrifices of leadership: Being a leader is an exhausting occupation. Because you are constantly having to put other considerations before you yourself. True leaders are always last in line, and that is difficult.• We deserve better leaders in the U.S.: From both a business and political perspective, Christian says that the United States is really lacking in true leadership. "The great resignation" is as much about leadership as it is about anything else.The Big Quote: "Yes, companies need to make money in a profit in order to continue, but that profitability does not need to supersede the demand the leader should have on them to ensure the longevity of the organization and the care and feeding of the people that work there."--Explore more in the Cloud Wars series - https://accelerationeconomy.com/cloud-wars/Listen to more episode of Cloud Wars Live - https://accelerationeconomy.com/tag/cloud-wars-podcast/Connect with Christian on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiananschuetz/--This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Watch "Sadin on Digital," a monthly series that explores the fast-changing and high-stakes world of digital business and what approaches CEOs and boards must take to lead their companies successfully into the Digital Age. A series by Cloud Wars Live.The Big Themes:• The new Future CXO and Board channel from Acceleration Economy: Wayne is helping to lead a new content stream, and his tagline is "two minutes of tech talk for top executives." See more here - https://accelerationeconomy.com/future-office-of-the-cxo/• Technical debt and what CXOs need to know: there are 3 main danger areas when it comes to technical debt and cybersecurity, and Wayne explains each of those and why non-technical CXOs need to understand them.• "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is wrong: in tech, being proactive is the only way to stay ahead. Ignoring problems you can't see in front of you is going to cause massive problems, so CXOs must invest now.The Big Quote: "The acceleration economy is accelerating, whether you are or not. And that's the message I want to give to the CEO, to the CFO, to the CMO, to the board executive: you've got to understand what this stuff can do for you, or do to you."--This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Embracing opportunities created through change: The pandemic obviously disrupted how Sarah and her team collaborated with each other and with other parts of the business. Sarah says that it gave the finance team opportunities to think differently and learn new skills.The new role of a modern finance leader: rather than always responding to events, end-of-quarter requests, emails, etc. Sarah says that she is looking to unearth insights and action items in a proactive way, to help make the whole business better.AI's impact on planning and budgets: KAH has more than 40,000 associates and lots of physical locations, so using AI to analyze large amounts of data from lots of different sources in Adaptive Insights has been a game-changer.The Big Quote: "There's not a one size fits all approach. And you really need to have a discussion with your entire team to understand what works for them, what motivates them—and really, you know, how can you help me be productive during these uncertain times?"-- This episode is brought to you by Workday. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Acceleration as key to digital transformation: Ajay says acceleration is about getting rid of constraints, hurdles, and manual processes within the business.Data democratization is nuanced: before pursuing "democratization," companies must make sure they're generating the proper transactional data, that it's readily available for people to consume, and that there's a shared language.The modern CIO role: it's about so much more than technology. The new CIO has to drive strategic thinking, by being joined at the hip with the business.The Big Quote: Workday Adaptive Insights "is how we stay proactive, right? This is how we are able to weather these marketplace storms, and the roller coaster ups and downs, and just make sure that we continue to stay ahead."--This episode is brought to you by Workday. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• Oracle runs its end-to-end business on Oracle Cloud, which Doug says enables them to deliver improved experiences to customers and its own employees.• The key outcome of the shift to a services-based business: As a cloud provider, Oracle’s culture has become one where everyone is expected to ask, ‘how can I help?’• Doug is focused on removing friction points between the customer and achieving business value. For example, today, about 90% of Oracle’s customer contracts are executed through a fully-automated system, giving customers quicker access to its cloud services and a path to faster business outcomes.Doug says it’s critical to have a “Relentless focus on continuously evaluating how you’re doing.” He emphasizes that transformation is never finished, and Oracle’s own cloud journey has given its people unique insight into customers’ challenges that they can use to help other companies achieve the same. --This episode is brought to you by Oracle. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The lessons of the pandemic response - Stacy says she and her colleagues discovered that WSU as an institution could be much more nimble and fast-moving than they might have thought beforeChange management when moving to the cloud - Workday's systems revolutionized the employee experience at WSU, which involved some challenges but mostly major benefitsEvolution in the CFO role and in higher ed in general - a need for flexibility and the breaking down of silos are key themes prompting change in both areasThe Big Quote: "Everything's going to involve money. It's all going to involve technology, high-level decisions about impacts, the need for data analysis and all of that... I think it's a welcomed change that those silos will be broken down, not just for the CFO, but for other leaders at the campuses."--This episode is brought to you by Workday. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• The Web3 breakthrough: basically anything that is built on the blockchain is considered Web3, and Chris believes that it represents a bit of a return to idealism in tech.• Data is under hyped: it might sound crazy, but Chris says that the vast potential of data is still expanding and being discovered.• Native Digitals vs. Native Analogs: the fact that people under 35 grew up with technology represents perhaps the largest change in the definition of what it means to be human, ever.The Big Quote: "I don't know why this isn't being reported widely—in 2021 venture investors invested 15 billion into Web3 / blockchain."This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• What is talent intelligence? The application of data relating to people, skills, jobs, functions, competitors, geographies, to drive business decisions.• What are the core data sets used for TI? The bread and butter data sets are demand, supply, and cost.• Beyond the job title: TI can be used to source candidates based on skillsets that a company is looking for, not just specific titles.The Big Quote: "If you ask any CEO, what's their biggest asset? It's their people. What's their biggest risk for the future? It's access to the right people."This episode is sponsored by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:CFOs looking beyond financial data - interconnected parts of the business like HR are equally important to understanding performanceData access is a game-changer for quick decision-making - the disruptions caused by Covid-19 forced WestMed to make huge calls about the business without delay Taking your time when setting up cloud-based systems - Anthony explains why he was so hands-on and methodical when implementing Workday systemsThe Big Quote: "Workday was really the first big investment into a cloud-based offering that we had. It was definitely new to us, there was a lot of things we needed to understand about it. But once you're operating on it, you wonder why we hadn't done this sooner."--This episode is brought to you by Workday. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• Three tenets of data: (1) data volumes keep growing in size and complexity, (2) business leaders are always looking for new ways to extract value from data, and (3) it's all about data security and governance.• John's predictions fall into two buckets: (1) the competitive landscape, and (2) the technology innovation and architecture• Overall, customers are becoming a top priority when it comes to data, both in terms of understanding customers thru data and empowering customers thru new data-driven capabilitiesThe Big Quote: "The immovable objects are meeting irresistible forces, and by immovable objects, I mean, the incumbents, and by irresistible forces, I mean, the startups."--This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• The power of relationships: The deal between Thomas and Xometry probably wouldn’t have happened without a trusting relationship.• Helping small and medium-sized companies grow: Xometry developed a way for smaller manufacturers to be able to take on bigger projects and grow their businesses.• Digital transformation inevitably leads to business model transformation: For business leaders it's an important time to find ways to look at your business differently.The Big Quotes:• “We announced yesterday that Thomas has been acquired by Xometry, an on-demand manufacturing marketplace.”• “The exciting union of these two companies will help accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing.”• “If you embrace the idea that you could do things differently, or do things that you didn't before, I find that that pace of change is less frightening.”This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• Vendors did a great job: But played to type.• Work From Home/Work From Anywhere culture: Omicron delaying return to the office again. Employment market and stock market point at even more.• Workplace culture evolves: The ‘Screen-ish generation’ (Millennials) doesn’t see f2f as the ideal. The ‘Screen Generation’ (GenZ) lives on screens/games/async comm.• Reminiscent of RPA market: Start with workflow, BPM, doc management. Add scripting and interfaces and templates. Voila! Huge multiples.The Big Quotes:“I want my electricity to come from a socket in the wall. And so it's changing the way we operate.”“We'll all have a Hollywood Squares box like you and I are in.”“Why are we making office workers – who are in theory the force multipliers of the company, the analysts, the managers, the thinkers, the changers.”This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• Good scope = good outcome. And the opposite is almost always true!• Massive personnel turnover. Services firms and their clients need to find new ways to minimize disruptions caused by job changes.• A very clear timeline: Those simple sort of project hygiene type of things really make a big difference in the success of the project.• Software vendors have their own issues: Partners and customers are changing rapidly, and those changes are not limited to personnel.The Big Quotes:“They felt like it made their job 10 times more difficult because of the lack of travel they enjoy as part of being a consultant.”“It was actually a refreshing experience especially with little face-to-face interaction due to the pandemic.”This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• Well-represented by this flag: We hope other countries have organizations that feel that way about their flags.• Someone's putting on space helmet: They're talking about the paradigm shift from big conventional wars and theaters.• A winning mindset: There is a standard of behavior that says we are going to act this way, and we are going to behave within structure within this mindset.• Not about the money: There's lots of job opportunities – and going to go where they can be the most happy.The Big Quotes:“They're going to stop working there. They're going to somewhere else.”This episode is brought to by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• The ability to tailor applications: A top CFO concern is tax management, and must be addressed on an end-to-end basis.• The right foundation: It's been a big change from when we relied on it to give us reports and manage the data model.• Transforming and enriching data: How a single, unified data model can turn operational data into accounting entries posted into the general ledger.• CEOs are demanding cloud-based ERP: An end-to-end solution breaks down silos, accelerates insights, and drives better and faster decisions.The Big Quotes:“It's really an exciting time right now to be in finance.”“For us adding or changing a legal entity or a business unit, maybe a division or even a currency is quick and easy.”“I like to think about it as the two T's--technology and talent--and talent is definitely on everyone's mind today.” Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• It’s important to pick the right horse: In terms of transformation, in terms of collaboration, communication culture, in terms of DevOps and engineering culture, in the spirit of becoming a digital company.• Can do a lift and shift: Choosing a path now with our entire executive team and over 500 people and 3,000 – 4,000 customers.• The model would guide us eventually: To land in a place where we can definitively prove that we continue to deliver value because if we don't they'll stop spending and then we're out of business.• People want to do impactful work: This is the place where you're going to be on the leading edge of what's possible because you're literally using a platform which is limited only by your imagination in terms of what you can achieve.The Big Quotes:“And it takes a significant amount of effort, but we love playing that role specifically because we're so passionate about the outcome.”“We've got more than 28 regions. We've got plans for 10 more. We've got the largest network with the lowest latency of any cloud provider.”“I loved the library when I was a kid and I love it even more now because now the library is the world.” Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• Every industry has gone through some profound changes: But when you shift online, there are significant challenges in understanding where do you position inventory?• There are breaches all the time: Because almost every cyber breach is like a black swan event. Before the breach, the organization thought it was secure.• Building large scale consumer services: We now want all our clients to be able to stand on our shoulders as we support them on what they're trying to do.• Look in the rear view mirror: Our goals are to help organizations. We truly believe the important challenges and our mission is to help clients with their most important challenges.The Big Quotes:“How do you broaden the nature of the products and services, as well as how do you broaden the reach of the financial market?”“But working with Ikea, we learned a lot from them on how to make such an experience possible.”“And so people will want to cherish some aspects of how they work with that along with obviously being in the office, ideating with their colleagues and working.” Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• Now you can put your own paint on it: That's going to be a terrific thing for the clients, the buyers into next year and the year after.• It's a mindset change: Message for the board and for the CEO is to think about whether you're really changing the nature of the business.• The secret sauce for the vertical: We have to work in the wider ecosystem of that industry, whether it's healthcare, retail, manufacturing, or financial services.The Big Quotes:“I've got an article coming out later this week or next week on Acceleration Economy where I define the term digital transformation – and the opposite.”“Downside of this you got to get on this bandwagon, or the acceleration is going to flatten you like roadkill.”“We don't have to worry about things like servers and storage and networks anymore as ITP, and neither do the vendors.”This episode is brought to by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• Hyper focused on the four markets in regulated industries: Healthcare, telecommunications, financial services and government.• IBM's heritage is in the mid office and the back office: Our mainframe runs the systems of records in the back office. That essentially is the sun in our solar system.• We're an open company that provides choice: As we go through the next transformation of which IBM's been through many in its hundred plus years.• Working within the wisdom of clouds: We de-risk cloud consumption as variants, infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and also software as a service.The Big Quotes:“So actually I'll put it into the context of the three-legged stool which is what all of those three groups will think about.”“If you think about the steps to that journey, IBM has always been very active in open source.”“And that has resonated really well with the policy makers and the actual regulators as with three central banks and the European central banks last week.” Visit Cloud Wars for more.