In(tegrate) the Clouds

Cloud Integration and Data Management at Informatica World 2013

dcunni — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:35:27 +0000

I recorded a brief video this week on the new Hybrid IT track that will be a big part of Informatica World 2013. It wasn’t too long ago that there were only a few sessions focused on the topic of cloud integration.

What’s changed?

Analyst firms like Gartner are publishing more and more research on the importance of integration platform as a service (see: Enterprises Should Use iPaaS for Cloud Integration) and enterprise IT organizations continue to seek new ways to keep up with the need for speed, while maintaining good governance practices as SaaS application adoption continues to accelerate.

Join the Informatica team in Las Vegas in June to learn more.

Importance of Informatica (svronlinetraining.wordpress.com)
Informatica and Amazon Redshift Team to Change the Economics of Data Warehousing (virtual-strategy.com)
Informatica: Poised To Accelerate? (blogs.gartner.com)
Active Endpoints Bought by Informatica in Cloud Workflow Deal (xconomy.com)

Organizing your Salesforce Orgs

dcunni — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 07:24:05 +0000

Does this sound familiar? You’re moving from an independent instance (or org) of Salesforce CRM to the consolidated corporate org. While there will definitely be business benefits in terms of visibility, reporting, customer/prospect communication, support, responsiveness, enablement and general leverage of corporate resources, it still represents a potential loss of autonomy. But it’s the right strategy for your business. Or is it?

Whether you ended up with multiple Salesforce orgs through mergers and acquisitions, separate brands or divisions, or through organic growth: at some point your organization is going to need to determine what is the right approach to multi-org consolidation. Here is an overview of 3 approaches to consider.

Salesforce.com Multi-Org Consolidation from Darren Cunningham

Where are you Salesforce? (channel-buzz.com)
Salesforce.com set to build out Chatterbox with EntropySoft acquisition (techworld.com.au)

The Benefits of a Single Customer View

dcunni — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:49:50 +0000

social crm dissertation wordle (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

The promise of a single customer view is nothing new to CRM. But is there a comprehensive list of the benefits that such a promise might be able to deliver? Today on the Informatica Perspectives blog, Dina Elsokari took a crack at not 10, but 12 benefits. It’s also notable that she talked about single customer view benefits without once mentioning cloud master data management or any associated technology for that matter. Well done!

Here’s her list:

Increase upsell and cross sell opportunities
Identify your most valuable customers
Higher customer retention
More targeted product development
Clearer targets for your marketing initiatives
Increased ROI on marketing campaigns
Credible forecasts
Respected reporting
Supporting data for a possible merger or acquisition
A sales culture, not a data gathering and cleansing culture
An increased adoption of Salesforce
Controlled risk

Be sure to check out the entire post and provide your feedback here.

So You Can Access Your Organization’s Social Media Data – Now What? (customerthink.com)
Vala Afshar: The 10 Must-Have Sales and Marketing Business Tools (huffingtonpost.com)
99 ways to get more from your CRM software in 2013 – part 3 – ideas 51 – 75 (customerthink.com)

Cloud Data Management in the Spotlight

dcunni — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 04:48:06 +0000

This week I had the pleasure of hosting a webinar featuring two great subject matter experts on the topic of cloud data management in the era of hybrid IT:

Mike West, VP and Distinguished Analyst at Saugatuck Research
Andrew Bartels, former CIO, CTO and current Cloud consultant, guru and evangelist

Mike West outlined why “hybrid” (or highly interwoven) deployments are the new normal for enterprise IT. He reviewed how the coud is radically changing the role of enterprise IT and why data management must be a part of an overall cloud strategy. He identified 7 trends of the so-called Boundary Free Enterprise and pointed to these 5 best practices:

Commit to (Cloud) Data Management
Manage the Organizational Issues
Partner with a Data Management Provider
Manage Both Control and Access
Approach Data Management as Value Creation

Andrew Bartels shared the story of how he led the transition at his company to “cloud first” and drove Salesforce adoption from a peripheral system to a key driver of business performance and success. Andrew spoke passionately about the need to treat data as an asseet and concluded with the following words of advice:

Communication is key
Focus on real needs not just philosophy
Establish a Data Committee
Become a partner & not an obstacle
Integration & accessibility is key
Be prepared for a long road

I’ve embedded the video below and posted the slides on Slideshare. There’s some great insight here. I hope you find the discussion interesting and useful – I sure did!

Dirty Secret about Cloud and Data Integration (blogs.gartner.com)

Congratulations to the 2012 Best of AppExchange Award Winners

dcunni — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:48:35 +0000

Every year Salesforce announces the top partners by AppExchange category based on the quantity and quality of reviews. Today they blogged the winners. Congratulations to these partners who continue to demonstrate such a high degree of cloud customer adoption and success.

Sales: There are multiple winners in this category based on functional area.

Overall winner: Adobe EchoSign (They have now won 7 years in a row! I actually thought the award had only been around for 5 years. Hmmm…. They have an astounding 2040 reviews for their electronic signature application.)

Reports and Dashboards: Hoopla Scoreboard by Hoopla Software (we have the big screens running in our office!)
Methodologies: Opportunity Management Optimizer by Sales Optimizer
Geolocation: Geopointe by Arrowpointe
Quotes and Orders: Configurator by Big Machines
Compensation: Xactly Incent by Xactly

Customer Service: Clicktools Surveys and Scripts by Clicktools

IT and Administration: Informatica Cloud Integration for Salesforce (Informatica has been recognized 5 years in a row as the top cloud integration solution!)

Marketing: Marketo (Big win over Eloqua in a very competitive category – congrats!)

Human Resources (HR): Jobscience for Professional Recruiting by Jobscience

ERP: Ascent by Precisio Business Solutions (I’m interested in feedback on this app. Thought you’d see Financial Force here.)

Collaboration: SpringCM Free Content Management from SpringCM

Analytics: Sales Pipeline Visualization by SalesClic (First I’ve heard of this app – looks interesting.)

Congratulations to all of the winners and thanks to the Salesforce users who took the time to post their reviews!

Related Articles:

AppExchange Customer Choice Award Winners 2012 (blogs.salesforce.com)
Oracle Buys Eloqua: Winners and Losers for B2B Marketing Automation (customerthink.com)
Top 10 Things You Can Do With Salesforce (blogs.salesforce.com)

In(tegrate) the Cloud 2012 Highlights

dcunni — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 04:47:05 +0000

Every year WordPress sends a year in review summary of your blog. They do a nice job with it.

Here are a few highlights that I thought were worth sharing:

The busiest day of the year was July 23rd, when I posted Cloud Data Replication for Better Business Intelligence. I’m not sure if it’s the topic or the use of the Salesforce.com logo that drove the traffic that day.
None of the posts that got the most views in 2012 were written in 2012. Hmmm…I’m not sure I feel great about that.
Twitter was the top referring site most in 2012. Alltop was number two.
Cloud computing is the most popular topic I’ve written about, followed by SaaS, PaaS and Cloud Integration.

Here’s the most popular video first posted on the site. Thanks for reading – Happy New Year!

More 2013 Technology Predictions

dcunni — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 05:26:02 +0000

I posted a few cloud data management predictions on the Informatica Perspectives blog this week:

Master Data Management will catch fire in the cloud
Cloud deployment options will extend the universal reach of MDM
Integration will help broaden PaaS adoption
“Governed self-service” will become the Hybrid IT mantra
Integration will surpass security as the primary barrier to cloud adoption in the enterprise

For the first time in a few years I didn’t mention anything about cloud-based analytics / business intelligence. In fact, I didn’t mention much about Social, Mobile, Analytics or Big Data. Seems like there’s not much more to say, beyond pointing to Mary Meekers technology forecast.

I must admit that I didn’t see this week’s Oracle acquisition of Eloqua coming. I thought Marketo would be a more likely target. In fact, that was the rumor circulating back at Dreamforce 2012. IDC predicts more aggressive spending on SaaS acquisitions by traditional enterprise software vendors in 2013. Here are the IDC Predictions: Competing on the 3rd Platform:

2013 Will Be Dominated by Mobile, Cloud Developments: IDC (sys-con.com)
10 Changes That Mark The Tectonic Shift in IT Job Market (bootstraptoday.com)
Cloud Computing and Big Data in 2013: What’s Coming Next? (sys-con.com)

Embedded Cloud Integration and the 3 V’s of SaaS Applications

dcunni — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:00:21 +0000

I recorded an interview recently as part of the Cloud Channel Summit in Mountain View. Industry analyst Jeff Kaplan from THINKstrategies posted his views on the event here and here. In my interview I talk about the need for SaaS application and platform (PaaS) providers to either build, buy or partner when it comes to cloud integration. Everyone talks about the 3 V’s when it comes to Big Data. My belief is that IT organizations are equally overwhelmed with the volume, variety and velocity of SaaS applications coming into the enterprise. This is why the topic of cloud integration will continue to it’s rise in relevance and strategic importance in 2013.

Platform as a Service emerges from shadows of SaaS and IaaS (zdnet.com)

Governed Self Service: Applying Lean Principles to Cloud Integration

dcunni — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 06:24:02 +0000

Today I moderated a webinar focused on Eliminating SaaS Sprawl with Cloud Integration. We focused on the usual challenges of silos and data fragmentation, but also focused on the opportunity to apply Lean Integration principles in a next generation integration Center of Excellence (CoE) or integration competency center (ICC). The conversation centered on the need for speed and business agility, while also maintaining strong governance and control in IT. What I call “Governed Self Service.”

David Lyle, co-author of the book on Lean Integration, pointed out that integration is a concept that mirrors the “just-in-time” (JIT) manufacturing principles of the automotive industry. With JIT manufacturing, the necessary components to assemble a car are sourced throughout the supply chain and brought onto the factory floor just before they are needed thus minimizing the amount of time a worker has to wait for the necessary part. Lean Integration transforms organizational processes and relies on leading-edge technology for automation and reuse to systematically reduce costs and accelerate delivery. His presentation summarized how the objectives of cloud integration are one and the same as Lean Integration:

Eliminate waste
Increase value for end-user customers
Drive continuous improvement

Mark Murray from the Informatica Cloud team, then delivered a powerful cloud integration demonstration that focused on re-usable templates and the concept of having a central instance and sub-instances that can be deployed out to the divisions and lines of business, while maintaining centralized administration Pretty powerful stuff!

I’ve embedded the webinar in it’s entirety below:

From SaaS Spree to SaaS Sprawl to SaaS Sanity? (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)

Re-Imagining the Future of Software and Technology as We Know It

dcunni — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 17:33:01 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

I wrote a summary of my 2012 cloud integration predictions on the Informatica Perspectives blog, but haven’t yet posted 2013 predictions. Today Mary Meeker’s slides are making their way through corporate boardrooms at most, if not all, technology companies, not to mention getting some great coverage across the web. Here’s the presentation. I really like the “re-imagine” section. There’s no doubt that cloud computing and software as a service (Saas) have forced a great deal of re-imagination in the traditional application, platform, middleware and infrastructure markets. Marc Andreessen believes that 2012 Will Be Remembered As The Year Of SaaS. Some have said that “Cloud and Data are the New Black” (although black clouds are generally not a good thing, right?).

2012 KPCB Internet Trends Year-End Update from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

One thing is for sure, whether it’s social, mobile, cloud, analytics, Big Data or [insert secular megatrend here], two words we’re going to hear a lot of in 2013 are: ”re-imagine” and “disruption.”

Mary Meeker looks to “wallet, healthcare, and education” for growth [GigaOM] (gigaom.com)
Here’s Mary Meeker’s Big Year-End Presentation On The State Of The Internet (businessinsider.com)
Mary Meeker releases stunning data on the state of the Internet | VentureBeat [del.icio.us] (venturebeat.com)
Mary Meeker: 2012 Summary (dailywireless.org)
Cloud 2.0 : The SaaS Opportunities (cloudbestpractices.net)

In(tegrate) the Clouds

Cloud Integration and Data Management at Informatica World 2013

Related articles

Organizing your Salesforce Orgs

Related articles

The Benefits of a Single Customer View

Related articles

Cloud Data Management in the Spotlight

Related articles

Congratulations to the 2012 Best of AppExchange Award Winners

In(tegrate) the Cloud 2012 Highlights

More 2013 Technology Predictions

Related articles

Embedded Cloud Integration and the 3 V’s of SaaS Applications

Related articles

Governed Self Service: Applying Lean Principles to Cloud Integration

Related articles

Re-Imagining the Future of Software and Technology as We Know It

Related articles