AbleBrains

AbleAdvisory: Marty Homlish Joins HP As New CMO

In a surprise move, Marty Homlish has left SAP to join HP as its new CMO.   What's not surprising is Leo Apotheker reaching out to Marty to join his team.  They had a close working relationship while both were at SAP.   And Marty does come out of the consumer hardware space having spent over 15 years @ Sony Corporation.  After 1o years at SAP, Marty also now has an appreciation for the intricacies of B2B marketing in the enterprise technology space. Marty's strongest asset though is his ability to create and grow a strong brand for an organization.

Will he be able to pull off a strategy that can unify all of HP's disparate businesses and make them look like a unified brand?  Will he be able to create a compelling customer experience - something he talks about often?  Hope he builds a strong team.

I had thought Marty had had enough after ten years in "The Matrix."  Guess not. (Hat tip to Ed Brice for coining "The Matrix" term as applied to SAP.

 

 

Léo Apotheker's Ascension

Well there was a lot of jaw droppin  over the announcement that Léo Apotheker is HP's new CEO and that Ray Lane is joining the Board.  Here's all the analysis worth reading. It's just that, well, hmmmm.  I'm a Léo fan. I am. I admit it. And I think he's got some game.   But is this the right team for him?  Lets not jump to any conclusions before the man finds the key to the executive bathroom! But lets get to the color before we get to the analysis shall we?   Reactions in the EI community ran the gamut :

I really don't understand the HP Board of Directors... seriously, is this the best they can do? How much shareholder wealth do they have to destroy before being satisfied?

All I know is if I am a CIO, I love my choices now - buy from Oracle, SAP, ex-SAP, IBM.

This is good for cloud, and up and comers type companies as these guys try to integrate hardware and software to "extract more wallet share" we all can deliver real tangible value and grow without being noticed or fought.

I am baffled.

WOW.  I did NOT see this coming!  What a very strange choice given where HP is and where they might need to go...

stunned

SAHP. You heard it here first.

Pretty negative eh?  Josh Greenbaum takes another tack with his post:

I’ve seen Léo in action, and he may be just want HP needs: someone from outside Silicon Valley culture who understands how to navigate in a global economy, a consummate sales professional, a strategist and thinker, and, above all, someone who gets enterprise software, and the value of looking high up the food chain for opportunity.  Of course, I’m biased, but, that’s why I didn’t chose to become a storage technology analyst 20 years ago.

Phil Ferbst  takes a wait and see attitude and approaches it from an M&A perspective:

With Léo Apotheker taking the helm at HP, all sorts of questions arise as to why they hired a software guy, who wasn’t exactly a wild success when he was top dog at SAP.  Léo is the man you’d want if you are planning to acquire SAP.  He knows the company inside and out and is savvy enough to work out some sort of game plan to integrate the German giant into the HP empire.

Ray Wang is also positive:

Apotheker and Lane bring software vision and leadership. Léo bring global software experience, effective salesmanship, and a highly strategic point of view.  Ray Lane brings Silicon Valley credibility, long term vision, and wisdom sorely needed to the board.  HP needs to make acquisitions in software to take this to the next level.  Time is not on HP’s side.  The core printer and ink business can be vulnerable and must be defended while making the play for enterprise software.

Once you get to know Léo you see a man who is willful, witty, intelligent and deeply engaged.  He's got a socratic/Talmudic thought process that while driving YOU crazy, makes you think, defend your position and serves his decision making process oh so well.  He also listens better than almost any man I have ever met.  And that my friends is an undervalued talent.  I like the fact that he's a consummate salesman, that he brings a depth of enterprise software experience that is lacking at HP. 

My guess is that between the enterprise application play that HP can execute on with Léo at the helm  and their infrastructure software with things such as HP OpenView, Léo can leverage both to be the glue that keeps HP humming. I know a lot of you application types forget about plumbing. But every house needs it and HP's got it. Its good plumbing too. It gives both IBM Tivoli and CA's Infrastructure management solutions a run for their money.   How he combines both application and infrastructure management into a unified software solution (talk about an uber suite) and how Léo can manage the hardware and consumer spaces will be an interesting challenge for him.  The other challenge will be developing rapport and trust with the engineering teams at HP.  An area where I believe Léo got some serious schooling while at SAP.

Lets wait and see before judge shall we?

 

SUSE Linux Optimization for SAP Apps... Now?

There was a little blurb on internet.com a couple of days ago mentioning that Novell would be optimizing the SUSE Linux OS for SAP applications.

Linux vendor Novell is releasing an optimized version of its SUSE Linux Enterprise Server tailored for applications from software vendor SAP.

Now I don't expect Novell's business to stand still right now, but this is interesting given that there were reports a couple of weeks back that that Novell was about to break itself into 2 parts and sell itself off. From the NY Post believe it or not:

Novell Inc. has reached a deal in principle to sell itself in two parts, and is three to four weeks away from signing a deal, according to people close to the process.

A strategic buyer will buy the piece of the software provider that develops and delivers Linux SUSE systems, with a private-equity firm picking up much of the rest. Both deals are expected to close simultaneously and the company will be de-listed, according to one source, who noted that the talks are in a sensitive stage and could fall apart.

This feels right considering that Elliott Associates, a Waltham, Mass-based Hedge Fund, made an offer to buy Novell back in March.  The offer was rejected. An optimized Linux enterprise server for SAP applications will benefit the new SUSE Linux owner, whoever that may be.  I will be sad to see an independent Novell go the way of so many other enterprise software vendors... how Darwinian eh?

German User Groups Stepping Up The Pressure On SAP

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung notes that after the quarrelsome and strained relationship with former CEO Léo Apotheker, starting with but certainly not ending over proposed maintenance hikes, the SAP German User Group - DSAG is experiencing a better relationship with the SAP's new co-CEO, Jim Snabe. 

What I gleaned from the article is that  DSAG is moving from "critical distance" to "critical closeness" with SAP.  At least that's what  DSAG chairman Karl Liebstückel said.

It also looks like SAP customers are demanding that that they be more involved in product development and pricing decisions.  I gotta tell ya. I love this simply because, the company has been preaching co-innovation with customers and the market for years now. In fact that was one of the founding reasons to create the SAP Community Network. Now customers are coming back to SAP and saying "ok, put your money where your mouth is (literally!) and co-innovate with us."

So for customers to be demanding this "critical closeness" it says to me that the customer relationship (as viewed by the customer) is not as close as SAP thinks.  Only time will tell.

Was Dennis Howlett Right?

Back in March 2009, I received the following tweet from Dennis Howlett:

    @choirshark @stevemann : I know you are all over Twitter, but your method is annoying, blatant pimp    crap

At the time I was creating SAP's Social Media strategy so I wrote about it and in fact I was pretty defensive about SAP's presence on Twitter.  I told Dennis that I thought SAP was at a cultural tipping point and that the company was evolving its market engagement model.  Well, today I received this tweet:

 

I clicked the link and was taken to a page on SDN:

I was bummed and I immediately thought back to Dennis' critique of the organization's presence on Twitter.  Let me get this straight, if I follow @SAPEcoHub   (SAP's online marketplace) I'm gonna win a $100 American Express Gift Check???  Are you kidding? You are going to pay me to RT and follow you?   If we were accused of of pimping back then what's this?

SAP you know how to do this. Folks who are going to follow you for 100 bux are not the folks you want following you at all.  Don't you want folks who want to have a genuine conversation with you?  To engage with you?  To grow from having a conversation to you to attaching value to you to actually having an affinity for the brand? 

C'mon you're better than this.  What's going on?

SAP At A Cultural Tipping Point?

I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about the use of Social Media at and by SAP.  And although this is a post on my personal blog, consider it a motivational speech to my SAP colleagues. This was motivated by a brief conversation on Twitter with Dennis Howlett, a person I respect and consider a friend.

This weekend, Dennis tweeted myself and Chris Horak. Den had an extensive conversation with Chris about SAP's presence on Twitter. (Here's the feed of that conversation) but what Dennis had said to both of us:

Wow. I was surprised.  Blatant pimp crap?  I thought we were pretty good at having conversations.  As you'll see from the feed, I was brought into this conversation at the tail end, the majority of it was between Dennis and Chris.  But I appreciate Den including me and it in fact spurred this post.

I can imagine that many of you are wondering to yourself?  Am I pimping crap?  I don't think so. And  I haven't yet spoken to Dennis directly to get his thoughts. But I think its fantastic seeing so many new SAP initiatives which include a Social Media component.  I'm so pleased to see it and be a part of helping to create these strategies.  But remember, our capabilities as marketers must evolve so that we become  Conversationalists and Storytellers.
 

So back to Dennis' reaction.  My guess? (and it is a guess)  Dennis is reacting to the fact that there has been a tremendous influx of SAPers into Social Media channels.  This is all goodness.  And we're kinda swarming about trying new things, some of it more uni-directional than true conversation and some of it which may or may not belong in these channels. Also some of us have not yet used Social Media in support of a business brand before.  That's why we've been doing the training and immersion that many of you have attended. And some may be using it in more traditional ways, more as a one-way communication channel, rather than using it as an opportunity to have value-based conversations.  If you're not saying something of interest -- how do you know its interesting?  Someone is talking back or at least listening... if you're not doing that then stop.   Re-think why you are here and if you have questions... go to the experts on SCN or come talk to me or Mike Prosceno or many other folks designated as responsible for Social Media and ask their advice.   

You can't really serve offers thru these channels unless a channel has been designated as such (a la @delloutlet ) or you have the permission of those you are conversing with to do so.  That's why we are so keen to understand who is following us on these social channels and what type of information they are interested in seeing.   We did this on Facebook and here's a link to the Survey Data we collected.  We now know what's an acceptable framework for conversation on Facebook...

• Customers want to be able to research solutions
• They want to connect with other customers
• They want to understand what their peers in their industry are doing to weather the economic crisis.

You need to do the same -- you need to understand what the folks who are following you on Twitter or who are Fans on Facebook want to talk about.  You do this in the same way you have a real time face to face conversation... you ask..."So what do you do?  What's happening these days?  What's new?"

Look, I told Dennis I think we're witnessing a shift in SAP's corporate culture. And I think we're approaching a Tipping Point. We're getting out onto Social channels, en masse and we're beginning to integrate those channels into our overall development, services and go-to-market strategies.  But, some of us have evolved into the conversationalists, and some of us are still on the journey.  I think we're moving in the right direction and I encourage you to keep evolving. And if you want our assistance.  Please ask!

Evolution, Enterprise 2.0 and Integrating Conversations with Processes

Enterprise 2.0 is spurring the evolution of us business professionals.   Its enabling employees, no matter their role in an organization to engage directly on behalf of their brand - to advocate for their brand, products and services.  We all know the market talks about our brands - with or without us being present.  By integrating conversations with business processes, brands can not only tell their story with convication and passion but they can act on those conversations.

          Now, the ZDnet crowd as well as many of the Enterprise Irregulars and many others have weighed in on the SAP Business Suite launch and the Enterprise 2.0 functionality now found in the Suite.   As I've been lucky enough to be included in some of the discussions around this type of integration, I thought it'd be helpful to share a bit more of our thinking and perspective as we approached this new wave of functionality.

Lets start with a couple of assumptions:

1. Social Media is a HOUSE OF CARDS

Easy to Build and Easy to fall apart unless you tie it directly to your business objectives and hence the processes of your organization and use it to enrich the experience ca customer has with your organization

 

2. Conversations Can Impact Top and Bottom line Revenue Growth

When a customer or prospect has an experience with your brand--  "marketing" in any form (product experience, service experience or Big M marketing, conversation begins.  Those conversations may be with the brand or with other customers.  If customers find value in those convesations, they begin to develop not only an affinity for those value driven exhanges but relationships develop.  Out of those relationships and value exchanges eventually the customer not only comes to appreciate the intrinsic value of the conversation but affinity for the brand develops.  At this point, a buying cycle is likely to proceed to everyone's satisfaction.

You can think about people engaged in conversations as a non-linear process.  In any conversational dynamic, individuals take away nuggets of information and pass that information onto other groups and other individuals.

    

 

What we've done is integrate conversations into enterprise processes so that they are actionable on behalf of the enterprise.  These take 2 forms.  Conversation -> Process integration and Process -> Conversation.

A good example of Conversation -> Process integration was demonstrated yesterday briefly but to elaborate, by pulling Tweets into the SAP Business Suite and applying a sentiment engine to those tweets, a customer service rep can make those conversations actionable by identifying and emerging customer or brand issue. Someone may be complaining about your product or service.  With Sentiment analysis not only can an organization proactively address a looming customer crisis but they can initate corporate processes such as raising a Customer Service Ticket to initiate a problem resolution process.

 

Once done, SAP can then issue the results of those trouble tickets on Twitter itself!

Going the other way, a super example of Process->conversation integration is the deployment of Marketing Campaigns using Social Channels.  Using Business Suite functionality,  users can now design and deploy marketing campaigns which can execute over a variety of social environments, including Twitter.

And there ya go...

 

Enterprise 2.0 is the latest evolutionary pressure on businesses.  Those of us that adapt will survive this pressure and thrive as the new ecosystem comes to dominate our business dealings.  Those that don't will find themselves facing extinction pressures that will be hard to avoid. 

My CIO.com Interview on Social Media

Tom Wailgum was kind enough to spend some time with me talking about what it is I exactly do for the SAP.  :)  You can find the article here... but one of my fav lines?

Our strategy has been to tie social media to specific business objectives, and the reason why we're focused on customer experience is that as an organization we've recognized that a lot of the power in the market has shifted. Traditionally, vendors were very much in control of selling cycles; we don't believe in selling cycles any more. We believe there are buying cycles now, and in buying cycles, the customers are in control.

So our focus around social media has been to ensure that we're giving customers the tools they need to be empowered, to make the right decisions regarding the software services and selection process, and that will predispose them to do business with SAP.

Another SAPer Joins the Blogosphere

Ed Brice, who runs Demand Generation for SAP Global Marketing has started a blog entitled Marketing Gimbal. Ed is  a perfect choice to write this type of blog.   Ed truly gets marketing and more than that, he knows what works and what doesn't, what we can throw away and what's new which we should adopt.  Check out Marketing Gimbal!

SAP to Acquire Business Objects

Things just got interesting again...especially after our announced intention to "grow organically"

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - SAP (SAPG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) has agreed to a cash offer to buy software group Business Objects (BOBJ.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) (BOBJ.O: Quote, Profile, Research) for about 4.8 billion euros ($6.8 billion) in the face of an aggressive acquisition spree by rival Oracle (ORCL.O: Quote, Profile, Research).

The world's leading business software maker said on Sunday the primary driver for the acquisition, its biggest and a reversal of its avowed organic-growth strategy, was the potential to gain new business.

   

Entire article @ Reuters