The Value of Mentors

Last thoughts of the year and time to close out the decade and what a decade it has been! This blog is going to be more than a little self-indulgent but hopefully those that read it will draw something from it. So, with a little reminiscing of the early days I want to highlight the positive influence mentors can bring and also say thank you to those that have supported me throughout my career. 

I started my career in 1987 at Lloyds Bank at the bottom run of the ladder, in-fact I was in a basement by Blackfriars Bridge on the banks of the River Thames, so you couldn’t get much lower. I never envisaged that one day I would run my own business. 

That journey from a lowly “Input / Output Operator” (Yes, that really was my job title) printing bank statements on IBM 3800 laser printers and loading magnetic tapes on an IBM 3420’s tape drive (there the ones you see in the old NASA films) to Chief Executive would never have been possible without those individuals who saw something in me and then took it upon themselves to invest their time into developing me. 

My “overnight success” only took 15 years to shape me into an Entrepreneur, and then a further 17 years making a myriad of mistakes and three start-ups until a successful exit. 

Serendipity

Throughout my career I have never gone out and looked for a mentor but for some reason circumstance and serendipity have played a part where they have always found me. Yes, some of them were my Managers, but Managers are not necessarily mentors. There is a big difference here. Also, some of them only stay with you for short periods of time, maybe six months to a year, others I can’t get rid of 33 years later! (Big Smile) and have become dear friends.

I have all the academic and professional letters after my name courtesy of seven years of study at night school. Whilst I had my thinking opened through academia it is not this that has got me where I am today, but a combination of personal drive and ambition intrinsically linked to those individuals who were prepared, without asking, to give up their time to listen, to guide, to question and make me think about what I was doing and how I was doing it that has had the real impact on my career. Not only have they made me a better professional but they made me a better person.

Metaphorically, my mentors have come in all shapes and sizes. It would also be fair to say that some of them weren’t even knowingly mentoring me. However, ALL of my mentors have had one thing in common in that they simply wanted to see me succeed. 

Raw Material - A Complete Lack of People Skills

In 1987 I was straight out of school and didn’t have a clue about anything except, I didn’t want to go to university and I wanted to work. I did however have a talent for computing and from the start I had a natural grasp on what an IBM mainframe was doing. I can’t tell you why I could do this, I just could. My brain was a constant sponge hungry for knowledge, and I had an ability to learn at pace. This caused its only set of problems, as though I have always been a grafter my people skills were completely undeveloped and my ability to frankly upset people who had been in the job for many years was un-precedented (another natural talent). 

For all my technical talent I struggled to communicate with my peers let alone those senior to me. In-fact I developed a rather unhealthy lack of respect for those who just couldn’t keep up. It is probably this why I still cringe today when I watch “The Apprentice” (love that programme, always wonder how I would get on?) as I see myself from 1987. 

On reflection this fundamental flaw in my DNA was actually my greatest strength - an ability not to follow the crowd, not to accept the status quo, always searching for a better way of doing something through an enquiring mind are the very foundations you need as an entrepreneur. I just didn’t know it then. 

However, this “raw material” needed to be focused, channelled constructively and developed in the right direction to create much needed experience and learning opportunities. I was lucky I had the right people around me that were prepared to knock me into shape.      

Highs and Lows 

I have had many ups and downs over my career. The highs have been incredible, the lows have been so deep at times it would be a lie if I said I didn’t think I wasn’t going to be able to climb out of the various holes I found myself in. 

This brings me nicely to a story that has always resonated with me from the “West Wing”, (for those that don’t know the West Wing, check it out, it was the best political drama every produced). There is a scene from the episode titled “Bartlet for America” where Leo McGary, the White House Chief of Staff tells Josh Lynaham, one of the President’s Senior Advisor’s the following story…

“This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out.

A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey you. Can you help me out?' The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on

Then a friend walks by, 'Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.'"

Now you have to dig yourself out of the hole, but it helps when you have someone who tells you where to dig and shows you how. That’s the value of what mentorship is all about.

What to look for in a Mentor

• Somebody who has been there before – I always say “If you are not the smartest person in the room then keep quiet, listen and learn. If you are the smartest person in the room, ask yourself, why am I in the room?” You can learn a lot from reading books, but you will always learn more by talking with people who have got the “Been there, done that, T-Shirt”

• Somebody who is genuinely interested in you and wanting to see you become a success – Being around positive people is an absolute must. The world, unfortunately, is full of people who will doubt your ability and find criticising you is a lot easier. In the corporate setting, this is often political deflection in order for self-preservation, so it’s quite easy to spot. My advice is just to stay clear of such individuals, they are not going to be a part of your game plan 

• Somebody who is Prepared to give you their Time – One’s time is one’s most valuable asset. To invest your time in someone else regardless of what level of relationship is something very special. Remember that and also remember to reciprocate 

• Somebody who challenges you and makes you THINK! - You don’t necessarily have to agree with them but you do have to open your mind to other’s perspectives

I don’t believe a mentor takes you to the next level that’s something you have do yourself. However, their advice and guidance can give you the focus and direction that definitely helps you raise your game if you are prepared to listen and learn. 

To My Mentors Throughout the Years 

My thanks to those that gave me a chance and mentored me over my career, I honestly know I would not be the success I am today without these people being in my life. So indulge me here please… 

Mum & Dad – for instilling my work ethic in me, and the values embedded into all their three children of “Always treat people how you expect to be treated”; “Always be true to yourself and don’t just follow the crowd”; and “No one ever owes you anything in life”

Ian Cohen & Chris Hunter – who took an 18-year old boy who had a lot of potential but didn’t know his arse from his elbow and got him to calm down and to focus. They still guide my career even now and I still go to them for advice, 33 years later – can you believe that???

Barry Coleman - my friend and my first Manager who actually understood me and built upon the on-going work in-progress. Never ever afraid to pull me up when he had to and was never phased by giving me a real wake-up call when I got too big for my boots 

John Downey - the man who not only introduced me to project management psychology and how to play the corporate politics "power game" to one’s advantage to get things done, but also taught me there was more to life than just work. Albeit it took me years to master this but his impact on me was enormous, and I am forever grateful for his tutelage

Julie Winterburn - who spent hours listening to me, even when my first girlfriend left me (ah!) and told me on more than one occasion to get a grip! “If you want it, go make it happen!”. One of the very best managers I have ever met

Lance Alexander - for giving me a chance when I didn’t tick all the boxes and someone that always believed in me from the first moment we met. (That was a blast!). One of the pivotal moments in my career joining a small expanding entrepreneurial company – “The HUON Corporation”. Absolutely loved it and my first real steps after 8 years in the corporate environment into what business was really about 

Mike Freeman – “Mentor of Mentors”. The nicest man I have ever met. A man of such great experience and someone who would always give up his time to talk, coach and encourage you even late on a Friday afternoon on a customer site in deepest Scotland missing his plane home. One of the greatest lessons I remembered him teaching me after a really difficult horrible week, when even we had clashed over something to the point of a complete relationship breakdown, “Never go home on a Friday upset, it’s just work, you disagree with people but you’re a professional and you have done your job, so shake hands have a drink and go home to your family”. Come Monday we were best of friends again and ready to take on the world. Synopsis “Learn to let it go, no point holding a grudge, life is just too short, and you are always stronger together”. I and others miss him massively; a truly wonderful human being – RIP Mike. 

Gillian Baker – “Mark, you’re the most unemployable person I know”; enough said, but when it comes from the Lady that broke the glass ceiling in IBM in the early 1990’s and acknowledged as one of the best marketeers in the software industry you can only smile. When Gillian talks to me, I always shut up and listen

Jenny Hedge - Forever grateful for teaching me everything about how Central Government and the Civil Service works – 3 years of daily masterclasses. Best Public Sector education ever. Some-one who became a true friend as we built one of the first (and the very best!) Government Shared Service Centres for HM Prison Service. The “Phoenix Programme” made me famous and was the birth of Certus! (PS: I swear my legs are still bruised from all the kicks under the table at meetings)

Tim Warner – We have worked together for 15 years and the voice of reason behind Certus. Yin to my Yang; I could never have done it on my own. Someone I still constantly go to get his calming perspective. Also, the person I have to thank for improving my English grammar and introduced to me to Latin. (I am fully expecting he will point out every flaw in this blog)

Debra Lilley - For getting my attention and for my constant education in Oracle Product Development strategy and its impact on our company. I have absolutely adored working with her over the years and Certus was so much a better company when she came onboard. One of the very best decisions we ever made.

Richard Haycock - for trusting me to pioneer Oracle SaaS Cloud in UK&I; for giving us focus, direction and encouragement with the Oracle sales teams in the early days. The man who told me directly “Face it, you’re an entrepreneur, stop bitching about it, just accept it and get on with it”. I left his office on more than one occasion with my tail between my legs

Mark Robinson – “The Entrepreneurs Mentor”; the “masterclasses” over dinner and several bottles of red will never to be forgotten during the Certus journey. Absolutely phenomenal insight

And Mr Peter Jenkins (“Uncle Albert”) for making me the sales-person I am today! The difference he made to my personal conversion rates was truly remarkable. Imagine going into every opportunity knowing, regardless of competition, you had a 50:50 chance of winning. Unreal.  

Finally, a massive shout out again to Tim Warner, Rob English, Mary Thethi, Ian Carline, Richard Atkins – my brothers and sister in arms. We took on the world and in our own way and changed it in our space forever. Not many people can say they did what we did with Certus. You were the very best travelling companions anyone could have. Thank you.

Last but not least, my wife Natalie. Is she a mentor? absolutely she is as she keeps my feet firmly planted on the ground at all times and as she says I may have been a CEO (now a “Was a”) but not in this house – “it’s bin day and the cat litter needs changing!”

Time to Ride the Elevator

“If your lucky to do well, it’s your responsibility to send the elevator back down” – Kevin Spacey

I find my career is now also changing unexpectedly. Ironically since the sale of Certus, opportunities I wasn’t even looking for or I would have thought I was qualified for are appearing. Also, things I never even thought of doing are materialising not just in business but in my personal life. I am dabbling with the idea of going back to night school to bring my education up to date; I seem to have developed a healthy (or unhealthy depending on your point of view) interest in Politics and Political Science. I guess 15 years of working in Central Government has rubbed off on me and my passion for classic cars and planes has never left me. 

In the business world I now find myself in a small gene pool of those Entrepreneurs that have undertaken a successful exit of a business. I remember many years ago talking to a number of similar people whose ranks I have now joined listening to them say “I would never do it again”. I don’t seem to be in that club for some reason. Only now have I really begun to understand that it is also my responsibility to contribute and give back to the next generation, i.e. send that elevator back down.

No-one can ever make it on their own, so seek out those that have gone before you, meet them and really listen to them opening your mind to new perspectives. Diana Ross said, “You know, you do need mentors, but in the end, you really just need to believe in yourself”. 

My own advice to people is always this “Believe in yourself and Go be Brilliant!’. Serendipity played a large part in meeting people who really helped me. But I am a firm believer in that you create your own luck so go seek out those who can help you. 

As for me turning 51 I suddenly feel I have only just got started. My gut is telling me that the next decade is just going to be fantastic both in business and personal growth.

So, for now I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I will see you on the other side. 

Fool’s Gold - “Best of Breed” – Part II

In Part I, I raised the spectre of the return of a “Best of Breed” strategy for slicing and dicing up the Back Office corporate Finance and HR systems and outlined the drivers for this behaviour.

The questions I pose too anyone thinking of doing this are: Knowing the benefits of Finance and HR working together why would you separate them? What are you really achieving by having multiple Cloud platforms for the Back Office? Why go to the expense of doing this? Are you really better and have deeper pockets than that of the Silicon Valley fuelled Research & Development (R&D) investment that has taken place over the past 15 years?

Powerhouse of R&D Investment 

Oracle, SAP, Workday, Unit 4, Infor, FinancialForce et al collectively invest billions of dollars a year in R&D. Oracle’s R&D budget in SaaS applications is quoted to be around $6 Billion a year! Where does it all go? 

Engineering world class software is a capital expensive business and it is fuelled by R&D. It starts off with an abundance of initiatives that over time are whittled down into the final product. Constant iteration against a moving marketplace can easily mean investments can become sunk costs and write-offs as the sands move under you. Software engineering is a high-risk poker game. The rewards can be massive, but the risks required to be undertaken are equally substantial. It all requires money and lots of it and that’s why Venture Capitalists and Private Equity exist in the first place. It is also a game played by experts with a lifetime of experience.

So why do Organisations and the Users of these systems now consider that their new world Enterprise Structure should consist of multiple Back Office platforms? In effect re-engineering and undoing all the benefits and learnings that has been derived from the billions of R&D investments undertaken. If you pursue a strategy of breaking up the Back Office across multiple platforms hosting multiple SaaS applications just why do you think you can do it better? and what business benefit are you really delivering?

The power of SaaS Cloud applications is in the intrinsic value that is created in terms of operational insight of bringing Finance and HR together in a single fully integrated instance. One data model providing the foundation for technologies like adaptive intelligence and machine learning for many years to come. The R&D at great investment has already been undertaken bringing together the very best talent across the world including, but not limited to: the most current thinking of subject matter intellectuals and thought leaders; behavioural scientists; data scientists; creatives; and the very best software designers. 

No organisation, private or public sector has the money, time or experience to pull together what the major software vendors have achieved in regard to Back Office SaaS applications, let alone keep pace with the underlying forward investment required to continuously drive innovation. Their sole focus should be on front of house and their business.

Fool’s Gold – Challenges of a Best of Breed Cloud Strategy for the Back Office

Not one of the Tier 1 Software Vendor powerhouses I know would openly endorse multi-platforms for the core enterprise applications (HR & Finance). The challenges you open yourself up to include, but not limited to:

• Barrier to Entry for Technology Innovation – Technologies like AI and Machine Learning are embedded in the applications and work off a single aggregated data model as they are data driven not process driven. Split the data model up and potentially you can’t necessarily make full use of this type of innovation that comes with the platform. The Software Vendors are always building for tomorrow and not for today so you won’t be able to keep up 

• Continued Investment to Stay Current – One of the biggest benefits of SaaS is the ability to constantly stay current on the latest release of software. To replace Back Office functionality with microservices means you are going to have to replicate similar types of on-going investment. Do you really have the finances and the investment capability to continually do this?

• Reduced Negotiating Power – SaaS vendors love to do commercial deals on bulk of modules and volume. By not selecting one Vendor for the core product suite, you are at risk of losing significant commercial discounts and your negotiating position becomes weaker

• Higher Implementation Costs – Now you have multiple Cloud platforms to implement and then integrate. The costs include but not limited to are significant everything from contracting, commissioning, mobilising Consultants with different skill sets to implement, and then on-going support. You lose economies of scale in terms of cost

• Multiple Patching Cadences - Multiple SaaS packages from different vendors will be on different patching schedules; trying to get these to align throughout the year is not realistically possible. The risk is constant that one side of the two systems (possibly more) is going to change and something is going to break. You are going to be in constant state of regression testing 

• Consistency of UX is lost / Accessibility Impacted – Multiple SaaS packages from multiple vendors means by default multiple UX. Accessibility is also significantly impacted which will result in compromises through off system work-arounds. Consequently, to regain consistency another layer of the enterprise potentially, though not required, would need to be added

• Integration or Interfaces or both – Open systems aside. Are you integrating the data, or just building point-to-point or a middleware enterprise service bus? Regardless, data models and interface technology changes; these all require ongoing support. It doesn’t take much for either to stop working  

• Disaggregated Data Model – Instead of a single data model, we have data replicated all over the enterprise. This naturally needs to be constantly synchronised and in all probability in real time 

• Increased Security Risk Profile – Integration and Interfaces require security. Transferring data between platforms naturally introduces greater risk of data loss. Neither SaaS vendor is going to take responsibility for the data while it is being transferred; that’s for you to take responsibility for 

• Increased Support Costs – More products, more integrations, more knowledge, different skills required both inside and outside the tent and also the cost of managing multiple vendors and contracts

The bottom line is your total cost of ownership is going to be significantly higher over the long run. Welcome to the 90’s!

Where does Best of Breed Make Sense?

Now there is a place for integration of SaaS application platforms that can leverage huge benefits and that area is in Organisations connecting their Front Office to the Back Office. This is where integration and use of open systems architecture comes into play – at the macro level, not at the functional module micro level in the Back Office.

There are Software Vendors that have laser like focus and have transformed software development for the Front Office from a customer experience perspective. One stands head and shoulders above the rest and that is Salesforce - the blueprint for Cloud in terms of product but also as a service organisation. Being a platform itself it has enabled a myriad of specialist SME’s to bring highly innovative products to the market that should not be ignored! SME’s are the powerhouse of innovation, especially in the United Kingdom. (Definitely a blog for another day)

Personally, I think Oracle still have much to do in the CX area and this is becoming an area of greater focus for them. CX encompasses a whole host of different products usually acquired through acquisition. It is only matter with time with Oracle before they get this right.

However, one to look out for is the company “Service Now”. Once merely the domain of the IT Helpdesk, it already is and looking further to extend a suite of “vertical experiences” over the top of other platforms. Personally, I have high expectations for Service Now. 

Finally, the “Qualtrics” acquisition by SAP could be their saving grace and a potential game changer here as this is key to their future strategy of delivering “experiences”. However initial reaction to their "X" (eXperience) and "O" (Operational) data strategy has not been overly positive.

What Should You do?

1. Decide upon a single core platform for all the core back office business functionality and stick with that platform vendor for better or for worse
2. Use your single core platform Open Systems Architecture that is rich in API’s to extend the functionality by creating bespoke microservices that provide services that are specific to the Organisation but are not delivered by the core platforms functional modules. (Look to host these as a Platform as a Service, preferably on the same infrastructure supporting SaaS)
3. Collaborate with your chosen platform Software Vendor to continually raise the bar and help them become an even better delivery partner than they are today. Cloud isn't just about product its about customer service. You will ultimately benefit from this
4. Leverage new core SaaS innovation as and when it arrives looking as to how this can positively impact on your business operation and then make sure you implement it and use it (so many don't and this becomes missed opportunity)
5. Consider a Best of Breed strategy for the Front Office; looking to take advantage of those Software Vendors that have innovated in this area (especially SME’s) or the further build of local specific microservices that reflect your offerings with a view if connecting to the Back Office and driving value end-to-end across the enterprise delivering superior customer and employee experiences

Fool’s Gold 

Regardless of platform preference for those that proceed with the approach of splitting up an already fully integrated back office suite of HR & Finance SaaS applications on a single platform need to be challenged. 

It doesn’t take much to look into the crystal ball, roll forward the clock five years and listen to the noise around “total cost of ownership”; the unreliability of the integrations; the cost of managing all the integrations; the size of the internal Information Technology department; and then for the penny to drop and those Organisations starting to strategically retire such applications and finally move to a single core platform. For me this is and always will be simply “Fool’s Gold”.

So, if you have made it through to the end of these two blogs – thank you and congratulations as I have probably just saved you somewhere between £250-500K and 3-6 months in expensive Consultancy fees to point out the same findings. (Nice work if you can get it though). Cheques in the post are still always kindly accepted. 

I very much look forward to people’s opinions and the ongoing discussion, but as I stated in Part I, the answers to many of today’s problems can usually be found in the past.

  

Fool’s Gold - “Best of Breed” – Part I

You can probably guess from the title that I am not a fan of the recent emergence of “Best of Breed” as a strategy for separating out the individual functional components of ERP and HCM SaaS Cloud platforms for the Back Office. 

As my thoughts became written-word I took the decision to split this blog into two parts to keep readers focused. Part I looks at the business drivers where Part II the implications and reality of undertaking such a strategy.  Yes, this has a heavy Oracle Cloud slant to it and for good reason, however I have commented on the wider market throughout. I want to stress from the outset that I am not talking about the Front Office where equally brilliant innovation can be found amongst both the Tier 1 and Tier 2 SME market providers for niche solutions that can add tremendous value to a business and can be integrated into the Back Office.

Many will disagree with my views but I genuinely hope many will also find them useful and gain some insight from my observations and arguments which is built upon my 30+ years’ experience as a practitioner who lived through the first generation of on-premise “Best of Breed”; has been involved in 40+ Oracle SaaS Cloud implementations as well being a former Chief Executive who was responsible for the vision, strategy and ultimately the successful exit of the UK’s premier Oracle Cloud professional services company.  

Urban Myths and Missed Opportunity

Over three years ago I published a series of blogs titled “The Urban Myths of Oracle Cloud Implementations” (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/urban-myths-oracle-cloud-implementations-part-i-mark-sweeny/). Technology innovation has advanced relentlessly to the extent that I honestly struggle to understand Organisations that are still “dithering” about moving to the Cloud. The costs involved in making and justifying the many known benefits for what is a “no-brainer” decision too many is just perplexing to me. Add this to the opportunity cost of delay itself or just doing nothing and the missed opportunity in terms of return on investment, both tangible and intangible, becomes eye-watering.

Since then, Oracle Cloud has accelerated in its maturity and functionality across the organisation’s Back Office. Whilst the offering still isn’t perfect (what product ever is?), it’s become THE platform play for combining Finance and HR onto a single data model providing operational insight; possessing a rich depth of business functionality; and become an engine for the constant delivery of technology innovation that makes use of new technologies like Adaptive Intelligence (AI) (a subset of Artificial Intelligence) and Machine Learning (ML) that are already embedded into the platform. 

Oracle’s strategy of re-architecting the “Fusion” products for the Cloud a decade ago is now paying off big time. Acknowledged as being late to the Cloud, Oracle Product Development has now created so much momentum it has pushed itself to the front of the pack in the on-going Tier 1 “Cloud Wars” for the Back Office. This is now universally recognised, with even the likes of the mighty Gartner and Forrester (who Oracle have never had the easiest of relationships with) acknowledging this through their magic quadrant analysis.

Missed Opportunity? Not On My Watch

People will argue I am naturally biased because of my own rich Oracle heritage. But anyone who knows me well will also know that my argument is that I always saw “Cloud” purely as a business opportunity and Oracle created the best environment for future commercial success and a healthy long-term return on investment.

I will also tell you quite freely what everyone knows already that SAP is not true Cloud but a suite of products collected through acquisition that are “stuck” together and requires somebody else’s Cloud infrastructure to be installed upon. The core was never re-engineered for the Cloud so SAP is effectively “on-premise” in someone else’s data centre. However, the recent “Qualtrics” acquisition by SAP was an inspired strategic move.

Workday is a great company and truly has a great product for HR but soon as you need to stretch the product across the enterprise it becomes exposed with a lack of breath and depth of functionality. Its financial offerings are not as broad or as deep as Oracle or SAP. Will it catchup? Yes, but it feels like the “Peoplesoft” product development market cycle again and time is against them. Workday continue to develop their HR product in terms of depth and position it from a system of record to a collective set of capabilities. Its Achilles heel is that “experiences” go across an Organisation and finance functions touches every employee in some way so both HR and Finance need to be present. People just don’t work inside functional modules or silos.

The result of all of this is multiple core applications makes the underlying data model disaggregated and you immediately start to compromise on a consistent user experience and accessibility; data mining and insight; and future innovation delivery across the suite becomes much more complex as it is not naturally embedded into the product, not to mention the underlying integration between modules that has to be wired in and maintained. 

The Experience Economy

The fundamental point here is the game has changed and regardless of platform choice we are now in the business of delivering “experiences - a collection of end-to-end capabilities combined togetherover standardised processes ensuring a single record of truth is maintained”. Software Vendors are investing more than ever to innovate at speed and win market share. In doing so tighter integration is required between traditional functional modules as well as a data model that is used by the new technologies like Adaptive Intelligence and 

Machine Learning.

Employees do not work inside functional modules whatever platform you ultimately select. In-fact with the advances in voice recognition technology the new “UX” is in-fact no “UX” whatsoever. Try doing that effectively on an on-premise system and by the way “putting lipstick on a pig” isn’t the long-term answer either! (See https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/welcome-experience-game-mark-sweeny/) 

Graveyard of Acronyms & Phrases

However most recently there has been murmurings across the market of a phrase that I had personally hoped would remain in the graveyard of acronyms and phrases. 

“Best of Breed” the first time around in the 90’s was probably the most-costly ill-conceived technical strategy ever created and its possible return is now even more concerning. Promoted at the time to be the universal panacea to all of one’s problems it failed on an epic scale. 

What seems theoretically an idea of merit in taking the best solutions that each of the market software vendors possess and integrate them to deliver the ultimate enterprise Cloud Application SaaS platform in reality I will assure you will quickly become a nightmare! An absolute money pit of despair and frankly “Fool’s Gold” for carving up back office functionality by module as well as possibly creating a barrier to entry for use of new future technology.

History Repeating Itself 

I vividly remember such visions of corporate Best of Breed architecture excellence from a previous generation of leaders with business cases stacked full of healthy ROI for justification.

It was then left to the Technical teams to work out how to get all of this to work. No surprise to any of us that we seemed to spend a lifetime wiring it all together (often with sticky tape and string) to then having to constantly plaster over the cracks. IT departments got bigger as we had to justify keeping this rat’s nest of cobwebs all hanging together as systems were upgraded and interfaces broke. Business got frustrated and hence “IT fails to deliver” became the mantra of the day.

2020 - Roll forward to the start of a new decade and now we seem to be talking about it again. The technology may have changed and we have sexy new architectures and tools: Open Source; PaaS; middleware; integration clouds; advanced transport mechanisms and REST API’s etc… to play with but effectively the conversation appears to be returning to the thinking of 25-30 years ago. So, what’s driving this? 

1.     Market Competition– the thinking that by continually playing Software Vendors off against one another through constant beauty parades prevents monopolies, drives excellence and value for money through competition. Wrong on every count – you cannot manipulate the market as the market adapts accordingly. The tier one SaaS market is already an oligopoly with Oracle, SAP and Workday the only three large scale enterprise solutions in play. Their growth plans are based upon known market behaviours, economics as well as the need for future innovative products

2.     Avoiding Vendor Lock-in - Whilst every SaaS contract has exit clauses and great stress is often put on this during procurement cycles ensuring the customer is not locked in forever into one given platform. The reality is the transition and exit costs are on par with undertaking a new platform implementation. Changing the core SaaS platform on a regular basis (say every 3, even 5 years) is not going to stack up commercially. It is this that locks you into the platform and not the Vendor’s

3.    Procurement Competition Structure - the way procurements are often structured (especially in the Public Sector); it’s still feature function against a scorecard. Completely the opposite way SaaS systems are designed and used in practice. But because business users often see functionality in isolation during a procurement sometimes the prettiest system just wins (fickle!)

4.     Pandering to the Business- “We’re Special”- not really prepared to adopt Cloud processes and adapt business processesaccordingly. Best of Breed can be perceived as a way of providing greater flexibility which in reality it won’t

5.     Build v Buy – There is a real need for the core data held centrally in a Cloud SaaS system to be accessible to feed local satellite systems or “Microservices”. It is these microservices that are specific to the Organisation and used on a daily basis that cannot be delivered through the core SaaS functionality is where local investment and development should reside. However, extending the “build” thinking into the Back Office SaaS domain with moving to a “plug and play” scenario where functionality can just be swapped in and out accordingly at module level is just wrong

Recognise any of these? I am a great studier of history often citing that the answers to many of today’s problems can usually be found in the past. But similarly, the thinking in some quarters of a new generation is obviously skipping these valuable chapters of the book and are unwisely setting their organisations on a course at best can be classed as “lost at sea” or at worse “a train wreck”. 

Look out for Part II where I explain the rationale in further detail and also where “Best of Breed” thinking does have a place.

Some People Just Don’t Want to Be Transformed…

Experience in sales usually comes from one’s ability to read people within the first 30 seconds into the opening salvo of “discovery” questions, whilst working out simultaneously if there is real interest in the conversation rather than just having a meeting exchanging pleasantries. Body language being the key indicator as you cast your lure to see if the prospect is actually going to bite whilst delivering that important open question, followed by a moment of silence, which hopefully prompts an information download in return.

When it comes to the world of digital the word “transformation” usually follows in the same sentence.  Both front and back office Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) based applications have the power to drive permanent change and can positively disrupt the way organisations work as they impact on underlying business models. Throw in some AI, RPA and whatever the current flavour of the month is (acronyms that are now banded around on a daily basis) and with a clever manipulation of an Excel spreadsheet your ROI in such a venture is going to go off the scale. Happy days!

However, there is one major problem and its simply that your prospect’s people don’t want to be transformed – how dare they!

Human Behaviour – It’s in our DNA

Your prospect may say they want to transform the organisation and may even be working on that very business case that is going to return hundreds of ROI percentage points in tangible (cashable) and intangible benefits to support their vision of a brave new world. However, the reality is they really like the status quo and the way of doing things, why? because “Change is Hard!”.

People that like change are, in my experience, very much in the minority. (Exclude entrepreneurs here as we are generally on a mission to disrupt the status quo for the better regardless and the fact that you don’t find many entrepreneurs working inside large organisations as they are often the most unemployable type of people that exists. Anyway, I digress; that’s for another blog on another day).

Basic Human DNA is that when we are comfortable and happy the last thing we want is somebody coming along and up-setting the apple cart. Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? well its true today as it was in 1943 when he came up with it. Mess with the basis of our emotional state and the unpredictable or in this context the predictable happens – instant subconscious resistance to change. 

From a sales perspective again experience usually allows you to identify this within that very first sales call. It is at this point you have to decide your strategy and tactics moving forward to achieve a close. The danger being that you close a sale upon the false emotional context of the buyer.  Congratulations on the sale, however this only sets the ensuring engagement up for immediate failure as both buyer and supplier expectations are instantly out of alignment regardless of what it says in the contract. Instead of having the foundations of success, you have the foundations of a fractious relationship.

What do People really want? The thing they value the most – their time!

Most of us just want an easy life and most people don’t want to change the world. Those that do embark on that journey start by understanding that they usually need to change one’s self first. Change is hard; it introduces risk; it can be unpredictable; your job can change & even worse disappear; and change is not always for the better. 

However, people are genuinely receptive to a positive “experience”, especially one that makes their lives easier. Think about it. Why would you not be receptive to something that makes your life easier? It is quite possible to use the new innovative technologies that are now available to deliver new “experiences” without having to transform one’s entire world. Believe it or not you can even deliver new experiences without technology simply by stopping doing unproductive irrelevant tasks that most of us undertake on a routine basis.

It is equally possible to deliver enough of these new experiences that over time you transform an organisation’s world by stealth by changing people’s mindset and behaviour incrementally. 

A positive experience will resonate and open an individual’s mind to something new. A negative experience will naturally have the opposite effect. More importantly they will remember both.

At this point everyone says “thank you for telling us the obvious”, however brand loyalty is built through customer advocacy - the most powerful type of marketing that exists. It creates the holy grail; eutopia; the universal panacea that we all crave for as it underpins success through repeat business by returning happy customers. Undertaken correctly you create the snowball effect for greater product/service demand and consumption. You would be surprised just how many people don’t understand this fundamental business concept.

From Front Office to Back Office

The last decade has seen digital disruption in the front office take a grip and you only have to look at the likes of Adidas and Nike who create as much as possible an immersive customer experience through their online shop windows as they do in their physical stores. They are no longer just retail companies but technology companies in their own right. 

What is now taken for granted as a way of doing business directly with consumers is now targeting employees inside these businesses. Happy employees make happy customers. A positive mindset and behaviour promote superior customer service, creating positive experiences.  

In the context of a people dynamic at work we can answer the question simply through this equation:

What do People really want? = Positive Experiences that Creates Time

The most valuable thing we all possess is our time. The one thing we all have in common is that everyone’s time is limited and the cliché quote “time is money” is absolutely spot on. We all need to use our time wisely. 

In the workplace we want employees to feel they are valued and too achieve that we want them spending their time doing purposeful work that adds value to the business and that usually means people using their time to interact and collaborate with other people. The social and behavioural elements of work cannot be under-estimated. Part time Mum’s and Dad’s often return to work, not just out of the necessity to earn a wage, but because work provides an environment that provides social interaction with others. Intelligent and stimulating conversation, problem solving, and making a difference, being proud are all characteristics that help us make us feel valued.

The mundane, but absolutely necessary, back office processes need to be executed easily and quickly, in doing so this drives down the costs of operation whilst maintaining control. Result “Better, Cheaper, Faster” executed – the best business strategy ever created fuelled by happy employees who are focusing on using their time to create value, rather than wasting it in the back office. 

So how can Technology play its part in Creating Time?

Stephen R. Covey say’s “The key is in not spending time, but in investing it”. How do we achieve that? by creating positive time saving employee experiences. 

Things are moving fast in tech as I stated in one my recent blog “The Experience Economy” (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/welcome-experience-game-mark-sweeny/) the technology industry has already jumped aboard this ship turning its attention to the employee experience in the back office with the differentiator of data driving experiences and not process.

Imagine the day when you log on to the company work portal, and the technology based upon your individual behaviour (and even one day your emotional state of mind!) has already worked out the working day - prioritised the mundane back office tasks; informed you of things you must address; even setup meetings automatically and ensured that any “industry breaking news” of interest you are made aware of. In doing so it creates a personalised experience. 

We now square the circle in terms of argument and end back up in the 1990’s around the “efficiency v effectiveness” debate, but this time it’s not about the process but rather about an individual’s time delivered through personalised positive experiences at work. The additional benefit possibly being greater work-life balance, allowing even more leisure time that allows for focus with family and friends. Isn’t that’s what life is really about?

Help the Buyer, Be the Honest Broker and Change the Conversation…

Final words of advice - always help the Buyer, especially if they can’t find their way through their own “transformation” strategy let alone their buying process. If you detect that the Buyer isn’t being honest with themselves about their stated intentions - help them, even to the extent of pushing the issue by painting them a different picture that achieves the outcomes they are striving for without having to turn their world completely upside down. Change the conversation.

Full Digital Transformation (as Consultants know it) in the context of the back office is not always the answer and even if it is it, cannot be done overnight and realistically takes between 18 months to 3 years to do it properly. It is also hard work. Winning hearts and minds is never easy. However, using technology to create new experiences can be done today more quickly it just takes creativity, technology innovation and will power to make it happen. 

We are now living in a world where experiences are personalised over standardised processes. Remember long-term value isn’t necessary in standardised process but in the experience that gives back that most precious of assets – “our time”. 

Views? discuss and comment. As always, I look forward to hearing other’s perspectives…

"Welcome to The Experience Game"​

This is probably one of the most important blogs I have written and something I am going to look back on in years to come as we have reached yet another inflection point in the world of enterprise software. Something I began to see at the beginning of 2019 is now becoming reality and I thought I would share my perspective on the direction of travel as the major Software Vendors play their next hand from the deck of cards called “technology innovation”.

In my last blog I previously highlighted the importance of understanding market cycles to seek new business opportunities and now, with certainty, what I was seeing at the beginning of the year is fast becoming reality and in my opinion is going to redefine the ERP marketplace. 

Cliché it maybe, I first wrote about it over four years ago, but the saying “look after your employees and they will look after your customers” is now more important than ever and it just seems like the same light bulb has just gone on simultaneously all over the world. 

Enterprise Cloud based solutions are now taken for granted and whilst many businesses and organisations have still yet to make the move in terms of technology innovation this is now seriously old news. I have commented extensively about bridging the “innovation gap” as all it does is increase and as businesses and organisations continue to defer the decision to move opportunity is naturally lost. A source of personal frustration when I have conversations and find myself having to smile politely when listening to what amounts to poor justifications as to why one has deferred moving to the Cloud. This is usually based upon a poorly informed perspective through the lack of knowledge. Now we have reached an inflection point and the market is moving again.

The conversation in the future for the back office enterprise is no longer going to be about Finance or HR systems in the Cloud nor will it be about Finance or HR transformation (large SI’s please take note!) or even worse the most over used term of a generation - “digital transformation”. Even the abbreviation “ERP” will possibly now be consigned to the history books as this inflection point takes hold.

Enter the “Experience Economy”

The term "Experience Economy" was first used in a 1998 article by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore and was subsequently used as the basis of their book “The Experience Economy” where they articulate that businesses to differentiate themselves must constantly create memorable events for their customers and that the memory itself becomes the product, i.e. the "experience". (A revised edition is coming out in December ’19 this year!). This is another example of looking to the past to find the future!

So now apply this thinking to the employee and not necessarily the customer. Imagine a world in the business context where every business experience is personalised just for you whilst the underlying business processes are standardised. What has dominated the B2C market for years over the internet has now arrived in the back office. The technologies used pre-dominantly throughout social media and modern retail orientated websites to track our behaviours and influence us subconsciously are now going to become common place in the working environment.

It’s the technologies like AI, RPA and predictive analytics that are underpinning this. Remember though the conversation an organisation wants to have is what experiences are we delivering up to our employees, customers and suppliers and not what the enabling technologies we are using. (A rookie mistake that I see many Consultancies make day-in-day out especially those who still try to be all things to all people). Always focus on the business problem you are trying to solve, whatever you are proposing why is it "Better, Cheaper, Faster" than what currently exists today?

In all it’s a new kind of enterprise platform play providing a single employee integrated experience.

Imagine logging onto your work portal to find all your work for the day is already organised for you to undertake. The new platform understands the corporate calendar of business operations, it knows about your personal calendar, it knows your role, and subsequently understands what is required for you to execute your job on a day-to-day basis and it knows how you as an individual like to operate across work and non-work systems (read internet) you interact with.  And if something of interest occurs in the field of your expertise is going on in the world, it already has scanned the Internet bringing that article or point of view to your attention. It ensures you have the tools ready and available 24x7 so you can always be on top of your game. This is something that goes across multiple back office systems, drawing in data and metadata alike to build a personal digital persona reflecting your role and the work you undertake.  

No more navigating screens, no more having to go look for something, it’s just there ready for you. Your life at work has just become easier and you feel good because you have more time. Throw in speech recognition and you won’t even have to touch a keyboard.

Superior employee experiences will drive positive customer experience. The two are positively correlated and a single personalised employee integrated experience delivers this.

Sounds great? Good! because this is where we are now all heading.

The Market Place – The pieces of the Jigsaw Assemble

In my opinion this time Larry and Co at Oracle are ahead of the game. They have talked about this extensively at Openworld and their HCM Captains of Industry and Ambassadors currently are on a World-Wide tour driving home this message leveraging off their current new User Experience tactically, but clearly articulating the future which is here and how they are moving towards it. Give credit where credit is due they even gave the Oracle brand a positive face lift, but watch for greater technology innovation arriving over the next 24 months as Ellison doubles down on his direction in regard to SaaS applications. However Oracle isn't the only game in town.

Salesforce, as you would expect are already talking about this but they still lack the penetration in my opinion across the back office enterprise but to discount them would be fatal. 

Mike Ettling, CEO at Unit 4, made his announcement and a big push into this space just last month at Unleash19 and last week Bill McDermott, the industry veteran CEO of SAP moved to Service Now even more interestingly the ex-CEO of Service Now is moving to Nike! – That tells you something about the retail industry and the value of those who truly understand we are in the “experience” game. McDermott’s forte is acquisition, so watch out for strategic acquisitions that puts the employee experience front and centre. 

Meanwhile SAP are blitzing the SkyNews channel in advertising regard to experience management through their “Qualtrics” acquisition. This could be the solution to what I think is their Achilles Heal in that HANA is not really Cloud, and they need someone else’s – usually Microsoft and also their enterprise suite is a collection of products from acquisitions.  

Workday suddenly appears to behind the ball for the first time so it will be interesting to see what announcements they make in this area. Microsoft will no doubt follow in due course as even the newbies on the block UIPath new marketing message is breaking out from just Robotics Process Automation (RPA) into the experience game. Personally, I always thought Microsoft would try and acquire UIPath.

Just like when Cloud became mainstream the SaaS Platform Vendors are now setting the pace and the tone of the future. The industry has already moved to the new market that being the “experience” play. SME’s take note there is opportunity here. You can argue that the digital design agencies saw this coming over a decade ago, but lacked the technology and capability to deliver, however the point being now is that the “employee experience” is the new “customer experience”. That also leaves a nice gap for the “Supplier Experience”. 

Brave New World brings New Business Opportunities

So a new game is afoot and many new business opportunities exist. The questions are (1) Can the Customer base get their head around what is happening and see the many benefits that this is going to bring? (2) Can the Software Vendors deliver on their marketing messages? – my bet is very much yes they can and already have started to albeit this is still going to take time (3) Can the Systems Integrators see the new market plays recognising that the conversation has changed?

A final thought is that most technologies become commoditised over time and so do the surrounding services. Will this happen with the experience game? Personally, I don’t think so, my rationale being that experiences are intrinsically linked to human behaviour. Our behaviours over time change, and therefore our expectations around personalised experiences will also change consequently the technology platforms providing these personalised experiences will also need to change accordingly.  Whether I am right or wrong with this only time will tell? but I don’t think you can commoditise a personal experience.

I know one thing with certainty though it’s getting really exciting again and the industry is pivoting - I can see it and more importantly I can feel it! “There is gold in those hills…and fortune favours the brave”.