What’s the progress since SAP acquired Ariba last fall? Tim Minahan, SVP of Network Strategy at Ariba, visited with Dennis at AribaLIVE 2013 in Berlin to share Ariba’s current news, as well as the company’s vision for the future.

One conference announcement which interested Dennis was Ariba integrating with Sage and Quickbooks, prompting the question, “Who in either of those communities are going to use Ariba?” Tim explains the overall strategy is to provide the necessary connectors that make for easier on-boarding of particular customers, and to expand Ariba’s market footprint.

SAP is generally regarded as a large system of record for internal use, whereas Ariba’s use cases are external. Doesn’t that mean big changes for both companies?. Tim agrees that that journey is only in the beginning stages, but he does point out that shops like Disney have been extending their SAP platforms with the Ariba network for a decade or more.

The next big frontier? Making vendor relationship management the exact mirror image of CRM done right – a goal that, the guys agree, is still a ways off.  As for the  “what’s in it for me?” factor, Tim says that, at a customer’s request, one supplier joined the network, and in the first year, saw their business with that customer increase 300%. In the second year, business went up 250%. Another customer said their clients were OK with being charged more because they were actually saving them money by taking away admin pain.

The big story to tell, Tim says, is that being part of SAP allows Ariba to recognize the full value of business networks. Every business process that touches the edge of the enterprise can benefit from a business network. The long-term vision? Gathering ideation from a community of suppliers, and being able to cost out the feasibility of that design in real time.
Show Notes

:46 Tim’s take on Ariba LIVE

1:26 Integrating with QuickBooks and Sage

2:53 Adding new connectors for easier onboarding

4:30 Discussing connectivity scenarios

5:24 Big SAP companies and their history with Ariba

6:39 Vendor relationship management needs to be mirror image of CRM done right

8:48 Value for suppliers in joining the network lies partly in eliminating admin pain

10:03 Today’s business networks do more than push docs; they manage multiple processes

12:17 What’s next – connecting to supply chain and CRM systems

“Impressive and impressively vague.” That’s how Jon’s recent blog post described SAP’s lofty goal of building a big data organization, as outlined on Day One of Sapphire Now 2013. Steve Lucas, EVP for Database and Technology at SAP, took the time to join Jon at Sapphire Now to tell him exactly what building a big data organization means.

These days, Steve says, SAP has a classic analytics organization that focuses on BI, dash-boarding, reporting, EPM and GRC. And it also has a classic D&T organization with integration and storage tools – HANA, Sybase, middleware and EIM.  Citing some surprising feedback from customers who aren’t considering SAP for their big data fix, Steve  saw that he clearly needed to be more relevant in this area – part of which means not confining the focus to SAP technologies, but extending that to other, classic big data-associated technologies like Hadoop.

In terms of enabling transaction and other unstructured data to come together, Steve cites an example of a customer taking social commentary and news feeds and dumping it all into Hadoop – while, at the same time, looking at running their business suite on top of HANA.  If a customer’s past purchase history, stored in ERP, could be married with their social commentary sitting over in Hadoop, a company might be able to take advantage of cross-selling potentials. To do that, all of the pieces and parts need to come together — a bit of big data, a bit of HANA, a bit of analytics – which, Steve admits, means there’s still some work left to do.

Steve also talks about his role taking over SAP Analytics (again), and what his plan is going forward. Stability of the platform is one thing, but what is the growth potential?

The guys talk about whether Steve’s vision might spread his efforts too thinly, a point he suggests can be mitigated as like-minded colleagues step up and lead. And, having lived through the whole enterprise-BI wave, Steve sees people shifting back to very fast BI purchases – department-centric and very tactical. They want their answers now, with high-quality visualization, the ability to go mobile and the option to predict.

Steve’s  #1 Challenge to his analytics management team? Attract 250,000 followers on Twitter – something that, Jon notes, won’t be the product of press-release blasts. Nor by purchased followers, either, adds Steve. Given the need to move quickly, Steve says the JD-OD Team should check back on his progress no later than by Tech Ed time.

Show Notes

:37 First day’s sports-themed presentation hit the right notes, Steve says

1:36 Big data presence means offering solution packages that match up with solutions like Hadoop

3:19 Combining big data, HANA and analytics to meet customers needs

4:50 Steve: SAP is number one in the world at analytics – and must lead like they are

6:34 Like-minded analytics folks at SAP to be given the opportunity to step up and lead

7:27 People want answers now, with high-quality visualization, mobile and predictive tools

7:58 Steve’s #1 Goal: Analytics management team must have 250,000 followers on Twitter

8:46 Check back in 3 months – if SAP is going to go fast, they should have advanced the story by then

Do platforms matter? And if they do, why?

The JD-OD team sat down with Aiaz Kazi, SVP for Platform Strategy at SAP, at Sapphire NOW 2013 to get Aiaz’s take on how platforms change the game for both partners and customers in terms of building apps.

Aiaz says platforms absolutely matter. Looking at any successful company in practically any space proves the point. Whether it’s consumer products,  enterprise software or hardware, if you don’t provide a platform that others can build on, you won’t have a long-term sustainable company

A classic case? The return of Apple in rolling out the iPod and the iTunes marketplace – bold moves that transformed a hardware company into a platform company. Aiaz goes on to say that, for him, a platform has two key components. One is the technology that people build on. The second piece involves monetizing the applications that are being built.

When it comes to how people perceive SAP’s platform, Jon points out there are some varied opinions, as well as a degree of confusion. What does SAP plan to do about this? Aiaz says that with HANA having matured rapidly since it was introduced, HANA now provides both the application development and the data management capability at the foundation. This eliminates the forced choices of the past. The essential message needs to be further spread — HANA is both a database and a platform.

Aiaz emphasizes that the true way to look at HANA is as a platform, the core foundation of all the applications that SAP will be delivering on top. Nowhere is that seen more clearly than in the energy of the startups that are using HANA. The way Aiaz sees it, a platform isn’t a platform until you have many thriving applications on it. Aiaz needs 5 million applications on his platform. Doing that means fueling the imagination of the startups.

But as Aiaz sees it, you don’t do it by pushing the platform in a conventional marketing sense. You do it by enabling the ecosystem, which means re-thinking and re-inventing it, as well. Startups are bringing an entirely new base to SAP — with 60% to 70% of them, perhaps more, building for net-new SAP scenarios.

Show Notes

:52 Successful companies provide a platform others can build on

1:56 Platforms give customers a chance to rethink processes

2:30 Platform’s two key components: buildable tech and potential for monetization

3:16 Varied opinions exist on  SAP’s platform strategy

4:40 Why HANA, which is a database and a platform, eliminates forced choices of the past

5:42 Generating 5 million apps on HANA depends on fueling the imagination of startups

7:50 SAP’s intent is not to sell the platform, but to enable the ecosystem

Disclosure: SAP paid most of Jon’s travel and expenses to Sapphire Now 2013.

Outside of SAP, the future of  Business ByDesign is much-debated. As for Financials OnDemand, now “SAP Cloud for Financials”, there are plenty of questions. Who better to clear it up than Rainer Zinow, SVP of the Cloud Unit at SAP.

Zinow  sat down with the JD-OD team at Sapphire NOW 2013 to provide an update on how things have been going over the last year or so. He also sets the record straight regarding some tweeted info on Cloud for Financials that was heavily discussed.

The guys kick it off by talking about how ByDesign, which started out as a pure mid-market solution, has found its way into two new additional markets: 1) Subsidiaries of SAP’s Business Suite install base, and 2) Very large professional services deals, which were unexpected as wins when ByDesign was solely SME-focused.

Given that a number of  ByDesign subsidiary projects have gone live, Jon asks what kind of feedback SAP has received. Rainer cites a recent article in CIO Magazine in which the CIO of HILTI, Dr. Martin Petry, says he’s found a way to roll out a new country in 8 weeks – a real breakthrough compared to on-premise ERP (see the JD-OD interview with HILTI on ByD). Petry’s overall point? ByD is a lot faster to rollout, and, given the built-in mobility and cloud access, it’s well suited to subsidiary units. Last but not least, Rainer notes, Petry doesn’t depend on SAP to provide a country-specific version. ByDesign customers can now customize their own country-specific versions.

As SAP’s customers continue to customize ByD, the country count is going up – 20 SAP-created versions are expected by the end of the year, along with 26 additional country versions built by SAP customers. As for development resources, Rainer estimates that about 80 partners are building last-mile capabilities for customer-specific projects.

As for any confusion about ByDesign versus Financials OnDemand, Rainer has this to say: Financials OnDemand is nothing else than the kernel of financials in ByDesign. SAP then adds additional interfaces to Cloud for Financials,  so that other applications can feed into the sub-ledgers, which wouldn’t be needed in a ByDesign world. And SAP builds other applications on top of Cloud for Financials, some of which may be available to ByDesign customers in the future.

Show Notes

:32 ByDesign, moves into two new additional markets

2:13 HILTI’s ByDesign for subsidiaries experience

3:08 By year’s end, ByD will be in 20 countries; customers have customized 26 other country versions

4:11 80 partners have development capabilities to build ByD add ons

5:26 ByDesign vs. Financials OnDemand

When Aasonn started in 2006, every solution they offered was cloud-based – except for financials. Now, that’s in the cloud, too.

Allen Peterson, CEO of Aasonn, talked with the JD-OD team at Sapphire NOW 2013 about the recent decision to go with Cloud for Financials (formerly known as Financials OnDemand).

Allen says the functionality of Financials OnDemand and SAP’s product roadmap, played major roles in the decision. So was being able to integrate other SAP products, such as Cloud for Travel. The ability of those two programs to natively talk to each other solved a couple of the Aasonn’s problems – and was also a key part of their decision to move to cloud.

How have customers taken to sharing Aasonn’s vision? Allen says that, with everyone concerned about marketing terms like ROI, Quick Time to Value and Easy to Consume, the latter has been answered very quickly. With ROI and Quick Time to Value, the proof is in the doing: Aasonn was able to get its system in and up in three months, including multi-org, multi-currency and multi-country.

But is the cloud secure? And can it scale? With 1,500 customers in 30 countries over the last 6 years (4,500 projects), Aasonn can look to its own experience. As Peterson sees it, cloud is a secure solution. When you add in ease-of-access and scaleability, it’s a persuasive option for many customers. In Peterson’s experience, cloud security is almost always greater than on-premise security.

Show Notes

:39 Aasonn went all-cloud when starting up in 2006, and recently moved financials there

1:14 SAP’s commitment and product roadmap key to Aasonn’s cloud decision

1:51 Aasonn aimed for a pain-free integration, and got a good result

2:17 Native integration of other SAP products was a big factor

2:58 Multi-org, multi-currency and multi-country was live in 3 months

3:59 Aasonn’s cloud pitch: “Work anywhere from everywhere”

4:41 Cloud security almost always greater than on-premise security

At the end of all three Sapphire NOW 2013 conference days, Jon gathered a rotating cast of characters to assess the week’s events. The day 1 shoots are broken into three segments: the keynote assessment (above) and also a look at SAP mobility and the HANA startup program. On day 1 Jon was joined by John  Appleby, Harald Reiter and Graham Robinson.

The first item at hand? Scoring the Day 1 keynote address delivered by co-CEO Bill McDermott.

We join the conversation with Harald saying that a message from previous years rang truer than ever this time around: “This is a new SAP. Not old-school SAP.” John adds that SAP wants it known that they are reaching the end consumer – part of SAP’s attempt to position itself as a B to B to C company.

However, the guys discuss the issue of geographic and gender diversity as a downside.  Graham translates that to mean there was too much testosterone on the stage. Plus, he jokes, they missed out big time by not having a cricketer up there. John says that, for him, it was a very male, American-vibe on day 1. He wants to see if that is balanced out on day 2 and day 3.

Show Notes – Clip #1  (above)

:21 Two main messages: SAP is a B-B-C company that is also very human

2:00 ”A little too much testosterone on the stage”

2:58 NFL/NBA theme underscored emotional loyalty enterprise companies need with customers

The guys shifted gears to discuss SAP’s Afaria cloud announcement that came later in day one:

Show Notes – Clip #2

:30 Day 1 highlights – rapid fire

1:34 Afaria cloud announcement: significant, if underplayed. Pricing is clear – for a change

2:37 Afaria, SAP’s “rough diamond”, costs users a flat charge of one euro per month

3:12 Partnership with Mocana keeps private and business phone lives separate and secure

The second video kicks off with quick takeaways from Day 1.  The guys then hash out the Afaria cloud announcement as significant, but surprisingly underplayed. The big thing for Graham is the pricing, which, unlike previous SAP ventures, is transparent, clear, easy to find – and, at a euro per user per month, competitive, as well.

The conversation turns to how SAP is addressing the security issues, as well as the partnership with Mocana, a mobile security vendor. Harald explains that upside this way: You have a private life and a business life on your phone. And, with Mocana, the business life gets secured and controlled. But your private phone life is essentially untouched.

Next up – assessing the SAP HANA Startup Program:

Show Notes – Clip #3

:20 Startup program is well on its way, though issues remain

1:14 Some startups, with 300+ customers, are startups only in a HANA context

2:36 Are enough startups saying, “I want to use HANA because it’s the best”?

3:32 With no downloadable option, HANA remains hard for some developers to use

The guys agree on one point at the outset: With 400+ startups participating and a $30 million funding pipeline, the program makes for a good story. But for building apps on HANA, a couple of key developer issues remain. Jon points out that startup and developer engagement is a little bit different, only because a lot of the startups involved have significantly more resources than an individual developer on their own steam.

Jon notes that, with some of the startups having as many as 300 customers already, it’s hard to consider them all classic startups – though they are new to HANA. Still, as Graham says, with no downloadable option, it’s hard for developers to get their hands on HANA. So there is work still to do on HANA developer engagement, despite the significant progress made. The guys also touch on the relevance of developer topics to SAPPHIRE Now – a conference with a business user focus.

Disclosure: SAP paid most of Jon’s travel and expenses to Sapphire Now Orlando. 

When it comes to the needs of manufacturers and SMEs, NetSuite recently announced expanded solutions that look promising – if some challenges can be overcome.

While attending the NetSuite SuiteWorld 2013 conference in San Jose, CA, Dennis sat down with Frank Scavo, CEO of Computer Economics, to talk about NetSuite’s attempts to meet manufacturers’ needs in a cloud ERP solution. They also riff on NetSuite’s multi-books solution, which brings new international accounting capabilities. But what are the cost/benefit tradeoffs?

One of the conference’s big announcements centered on a partnership with Autodesk, which is integrating their cloud-based PLM system with NetSuite. One of the issues in manufacturing companies is that engineers already have PLM or CAD systems that they’re very comfortable with. As it turns out, with a couple of the companies that Frank talked to, they’re already doing integration with other PDM (product data management) systems. The Autodesk Fusion 360 product does a lot more than that. It’s used for ideation, requirements gathering – the whole lifecycle of product development.  But is it ahead of what most NetSuite customers need now? Frank gives his take.

The guys switch gears to talk SMEs and multi-books, which in theory would help SMEs to move upmarket by helping them maintain multiple sets of books in different currencies. Frank is concerned about, 1) the price of the application; and, 2) the footprint size. It’s a fine line to balance global functionality with price and ease of implementation. Frank and Den think the success of multi-books  might come down to NetSuite’s partners.  Bottom line:  there are a lot of other cloud-based entrants out there eager to fit the bill. Which, Dennis and Frank agree, is good for customers.

Show Notes

:30 NetSuite announces expanded functionality for manufacturing

1:06 The manufacturing solution builds out from the core

2:20 Partnership with Autodesk’s Fusion 360 product will fit very well with NetSuite

4:26 Multi-book accounting product looks promising

6:03 Competition from other cloud-based entrants is good for customers

This isn’t your mother’s CRM. What do we have instead? Solutions that are adopted by 90% of the sales force – nearly triple the rate of the average CRM toolkit.

Garth Hamilton, SVP for Strategy and Delivery at Liquid Analytics, sat down with the JD-OD team at Sapphire NOW 2013 to provide insight into why salespeople in the field have adopted Liquid’s CRM at such high percentages compared to the norm. He also talks about how Liquid’s approach to CRM, enabled by SAP HANA, helps to transform sales reps from order takers into trusted business partners.

Garth explains that Liquid decided to build a holistic tool set that goes after a day in the life of the sales rep. Liquid’s product can tell a tablet-carrying rep when certain customers need a re0stock in real-time, down the specific item numbers. By turning a five-minute appointment into one minute of order-taking and four minutes of business talk, the rep adds value both to the customer and the company.

And because Liquid has built the app to enable the salesperson’s day, and not as a management app, adoption levels have come in on the high end. The product is built on top of the SAP Mobile Platform, and uses HANA One to drive the real-time analytics, with options for on-premises or cloud management. With thousands of users already, Garth says it’s a matter of doubling and tripling in scale to get to critical mass. One challenge: Getting the stuff that Liquid offers on executives’ radar screens – a classic marketing problem.

Demo Notes

:55 Moving from order takers to trusted business partners

1:57 Real-time order management

3:17 Streamlining order process strengthens customer relationhips

4:04 Adoption levels are  nearly triple the CRM average

4:51 Combining mobility, analytics/big data and cloud

6:11 Getting Liquid’s solution on executives’ radar

With the Liquid Decisions app, a sales rep does more than just walk into a customer’s business and asking which of his 20,000 items are needed – predictive analytics show the specific items and quantities that the business likely needs to restock its shelves.

Garth Hamilton, SVP for Strategy and Delivery at Liquid Analytics, shows Jon how the app enables sales reps while they’re in the field, real-time:

Show Notes

:18 Liquid Decisions dashboard uses map and pins to communicate customer issues

1:07 Goals screen uses predictive analytics to help reps meet periodic goals

1:53 Tapping restock icon shows CRM-style information about the business

2:19 RapidOrder function IDs products and quantities that customers should need, right now

2:55 Predictive analytics also generate a Recommended Products page

3:28 App verifies quantities against warehouse stocks, checks credit and confirms order

Disclosure: This video is part of a project commissioned by SAP to amplify startup activity and developer innovation on HANA, mobile, and the SAP cloud.

Most of Infor’s customers are evaluating the cloud in one form or another. What can be done on it that’s real, that’s safe, that’s production-grade? What’s more, who they should use, and what are Infor’s plans?

To get a better grasp on those ideas and concerns, the JD-OD team caught up with Ali Shadman, SVP for Business Cloud and Upgrade/S at Infor, at the recent Inforum 2013 in Orlando.

The guys discuss a couple of major announcements that came out of the conference, including a new relationship with IBM, where Infor will partner with Big Blue to move their applications to the SmartCloud platform. Another bit of news — Amazon Redshift will support Infor’s newly-announced SkyVault.

But what about cloud outages? Amazon has certainly had a few. Is this something Infor’s customers need to worry about? Ali points out that if, say, Netflix crashes and you can’t watch a movie for an hour or two, your world is not going to stop. But if you’re running a manufacturing floor and the floor goes out for three or four hours, it’s serious. Ali explains how Infor is approaching these issues to make sure its customers are not on the wrong side of cloud outages.

Show Notes

:37 What can be done on the cloud that’s real, safe and production-grade, customers ask

1:19 Clients see edge applications as easier to move than transactional systems

1:51 Partnership with IBM SmartCloud will span a range of Infor systems

3:22 Cloud outages influence Infor’s choice of vendor, and how they provide systems

3:47 The use of Amazon Redshift, and Ali’s detailed criteria for deciding who to go to

Duncan Angove, President of Infor, says his company is one of the few in enterprise software that can scale up to the really big companies, and scale all the way down to the really small ones.

Speaking with Dennis at the recent Inforum 2013 in Orlando with Jon behind the camera, Duncan explains that two factors have driven Infor to its current position: First, they have a purpose-built ERP strategy, not just by micro-vertical but by size of customer. Second, the ION platform is very elegant and lightweight, yet also super-scalable. And, Duncan adds, with the release of 10X, Infor expects growth to be exponential, not linear.

Duncan confirms to Dennis that Infor plans to dive into micro-verticals, especially those that are under-served or not served at all. Infor’s equipment cloud, for instance, focuses on the heavy machinery space –a market Infor felt could be served better. The company has also released a micro-vertical called Printing & Packaging – which targets some 400,000 companies globally. The company can now get to market about 12 months after deciding which micro-vertical to target, unlike the old 3 to 5 year cycle.

As for the recently announced SkyVault, Duncan says that Infor wants to leverage the cloud as the world’s supercomputer – not just for storage, but for computing power. That’s in keeping with the bigger picture, which, Duncan stresses, is to pick some really big problems that haven’t been solvable before — and go crack them.
Show Notes

:45  Duncan: Infor can scale its solutions to most any size of company

:57  Specialized programs running on the ION platform deliver simplicity of integration

1:45  With the release of 10X, Duncan expects growth to be exponential, not linear

2:18  Infor focusing on micro-verticals that are under-served or not served at all

3:23  With SkyVault, Infor wants to leverage the cloud as the world’s supercomputer

4:00  Collaborating with customers and solving real-world problems

It’s little use investing gobs of money in software suites if users aren’t held accountable for their performance. Dan Barton, chief of the new startup, Consulting Sapphire, talks over his approach to bridging that gap with Dennis in Owestry, UK, near the Welsh border. Dan’s new company seeks to make SAP projects accountable with the objective of reducing failure.

Especially given the squeezed margins of the U.K. food and beverage center, Dan says it’s vital that people achieve their ROI. To that end, his company covers four areas: Strategy and Governance (business case tracking); SAP Clinics (recommendations for technical architecture); SAP Resources; and, SAP Support. With his years of experience in this area, Dan takes a pragmatic and realistic view because he’s felt the pain of delivering the business case.

It’s not enough to present a good business case. Tracking and understanding the actual numbers involved means you’re going to learn for the next time what went wrong – and, eventually, avoid pitfalls before they happen. As Dan puts it, “There’s nothing like a bit of pain to sharpen the mind.”

Show Notes

0:45 Consulting Sapphire helps small- and middle-sized businesses get their ROI on SAP

2:24 Tracking the value chain and re-tooling business cases for success

3:34 People are accountable for delivering projects and accurate numbers

4:10 Tracking numbers and closing gaps are the keys to ROI on SAP

4:35 Closing the gaps on business cases is an area to exploit

5:27 “There’s nothing like a bit of pain to sharpen the mind”

To get a better idea of how data sharing can benefit both manufacturers and customers, Dennis paid a visit to Chris Moore, Director, Hi-Technology Group Ltd., an SMB based in the UK and Slovakia. Hi-Tech has chosen to implement the ION extension from Infor in order to expand the service element of its business. With ION in place, once key customer agreements are entered into the system, Hi-Tech can show the client where the product is – at any stage.

Chris believes that Infor’s solution takes the guesswork out of the manufacturing process. That means visibility into where the product is from a scheduling standpoint – at all points. In the long run, that means better customer relationships.

As for future plans, Hi-Technology Group wants to push the data to mobile devices so that employees, salespeople and executives can look at the business from wherever they are in the world. As Dennis points out, that’s hardly the way business used to be done. There’s a whole new level of tech-enabled service capability now.

Show Notes

:37  Hi-Tech specializes in working with customers at any or all stages of the product process

1:19  Hi-Tech uses technology to interface with customers on the same level as larger companies

2:14  Infor’s ION extension takes guesswork out of the manufacturing process

3:09  How ION helps Hi-Tech provide a better customer experience

3:57  Data sharing allows customer and company to have a “level understanding of the product”

4:14  Hi-Tech hopes to push the data onto customer-supplied mobile devices

5:19  Pushing data directly to customers would add a significant service component – and value

Is radio a dead format? Far from it, according to Daniel Mruk, CEO – Bear Clan Studios, whose signature product, WaveSnap, seeks to deliver contextually relevant ads inside radio shows, disintermediating the old actuary model.

Daniel, whose Kansas-based startup won an award for Most Innovative Solution at the SAP Startup Forum in Boston, tells Jon that his business places a sound barcode advertisement into music – a process they call “WaveSnapping”. As people listen to the radio, they earn points and rewards that are redeemable for offers. The most valuable currency is time, says Daniel. “So if you’re spending time doing something, why not get something back?”

By harnessing the power of individual data points, WaveSnap essentially says to radio stations, “This is the kind of music your target demographic is listening to, and these are the kinds of products they want.” Daniel also shares his plans to move the tech to television – just as soon as it’s proved itself reliable on the radio side of things.

Though he still needs to evaluate SAP HANA with his developers, Daniel says that HANA might be the right platform to handle things, especially as the company scales. With 2 or 3 seconds amounting to a lifetime from a consumer’s point of view, the most attractive HANA features for WaveSnap would be real-time capabilities and multiple data sources. With speed not very far behind.

Show Notes

:43 On being awarded Most Innovative Solution at SAP HANA Forum

1:11 WaveSnapping involves putting a sound barcode advertisement into music

1:42 Each radio listener is its own data point

2:23 The tech tells you what people are listening to and the products they want

3:00 Radio is the proving ground for moving the technology to television

3:35 HANA might be the right platform to handle things as the company scales

4:31 HANA features most attractive to Daniel are real-time and multiple data sources

5:06 Real-time is critical: 2 or 3 second difference is a lifetime in consumer’s eyes

5:23 WaveSnap is upgrading radio to the modern era, doing away with old processes

Disclosure: This video is part of a project commissioned by SAP to amplify startup activity and developer innovation on HANA, mobile, and the SAP cloud.

If only for pulling off the user experience piece, the Inforum 2013 was a success, says Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research, who traded chit chat with Dennis at Infor’s annual user group event in Orlando with Jon behind the camera.

The guys talk about the big themes they heard discussed, including how Infor plans to engage business users. Ray sees the company as targeting the CFO sale by going after CMOs, many of whom now report directly to CFOs. Ray’s POV: with Infor managing to prove, over the last 10 years, that their programs are cheaper to run than those of Oracle or SAP, the question of cost savings has already been answered. Now it comes down to innovation.

Dennis and Ray trade information and opinions about ION and Ming.le, as well as recently announced partnerships with IBM and Amazon Redshift. Ray points out that those last two shouldn’t be compared, because IBM and Amazon cloud options are very different.

How does Ray see things 12 months out? Infor is currently targeting market leaders (5% of the overall market) with an appeal to fast followers (15% of the market) close behind. If Infor nails down those two, Ray expects we’ll soon see the long tail. At that point, the competition should start getting worried. If, Dennis adds, they aren’t already.

Show Notes

:42 Ray deems the Inforum a success, if only for pulling off the user experience piece

1:05 Infor is appealing to business users by going after CMOs, targeting the CFO sale

1:28 With Infor cheaper than the competition, what to do with cost savings?

2:12 The pros and cons of ION

2:48 Assessing Ming.le, Infor’s collaboration play

3:34 A roundup of Infor’s cloud announcements, including IBM and Amazon Redshift

4:15 Why Redshift shouldn’t be compared to IBM

5:07 Infor targeting market leaders and fast followers, which should concern the competition

The massive amount of data being created today doesn’t necessarily have the right structure for analysis. Nor does it easily fit into an existing schema or relational table. Hadoop-savvy companies (like Hadapt) have been able to take the Apache Hadoop open-source product and do some nifty things with parallel programming. The opportunity? Fortune 500 companies that are itching to give their analysts access to that data with some easy-to-use Hadoop front ends.

At the SAP HANA Startup Forum in Boston, Scott Howser, VP Marketing at Hadapt, tells Jon that it’s all about getting those Hadoop-enabled tools into the hands of the masses. By enabling SQL for Hadoop, and also embedding a relational database, Scott says that Hadapt is giving its customers a competitive advantage that – up until recently – has been restricted to companies with an ample supply of PhDs and quants.

The guys talk about Hadapt’s current customer focus of fraud detection for financial services ,as well as enhancements they are pursuing for Consumer Behavior Analytics (CBA). Scott says that Hadapt’s CBA work has attempted to use information like click-throughs and windowing to harvest more granular data about transactional behaviors.

So where might HANA fit into the picture? While Hadapt is still in the tire-kicking stage concerning whether to use HANA, Scott sees several areas of interest. Example? Using HANA to speed the processing of combined transactional and analytics data. Hadapt also has a relational engine that lives inside Hadoop – this could potentially be transitioned to HANA for in-memory database performance.
Show Notes

:40 By using SQL on Hadoop, Hadapt has exposed analysts to the data they need

2:23 Hadapt wants to give everyone a competitive advantage, not just the Quants

3:13 Fraud detection and customer behavior analytics are Hadapt’s current focus areas

4:34 Use of HANA could enhance Hadoop’s relational engine and marry different workloads

Disclosure: This video is part of a project commissioned by SAP to amplify startup activity and developer innovation on HANA, mobile, and the SAP cloud.