Starting CIO2CIO

http://sapphirenow.blogs-sap.com/2010/05/19/sap-cio-starts-forum-with-cios-of-customers-and-partners/

It sounds like a simple enough idea. Let's connect the CIO of SAP (Oliver Bussmann) who is running one of the largest SAP landscapes in the world, with the CIO of our customers in a non-sales, non-marketing, open dialog conversation.

We kicked this off at this year's SAPPHIREnow show in Frankfurt. Customer CIO's responded very favorably to this idea and I think we will get a lot of super-valuable feedback from the process.

Why have we not done this before?

Well, I think there are a lot of changes happening at SAP that makes this possible, and one of these changes, is a change of culture and leadership style. Oliver is part of this change, and I am happy to help him frame the messages, and turn this into a value added experience for our clients.

If you'd like to meet Oliver and get his perspective CIO to CIO, comment on this blog or send me a mail and I'll see what we can do to set this up.

Best regards

CHHO

Process Orchestration ... another silver bullet?

I am writing this as I return from a very interesting internal discussion to prepare my moderation of an upcoming panel at SAP SAPPHIRE NOW called "Process Orchestration, Hype or Silver Bullet?"

Initially, this looked straight forward enough. Invite some customers and have an engaging chat about process orchestration. No problem. Well ...

The more people I speak with, the more interesting perspectives I get on Process Orchestration. It's like, you ask 9 people and come away with 11 opinions. And all of them seem valid.. what gives?

Here is what I have learned so far:

• In the most simple terms, process orchestration means the coordination of events in a process.
• In a slightly more complex definition, it is the tools and practices needed to ensure process integrity in a landscape of distributed process components
• In its most forward looking interpretation, it is the new mission statement of enterprise applications, as they transform from handling focused LOB level processes to an overall business process platform that is able to deliver process innovation and process integrity at the same time.

So far this is not much different from what we have been saying about SOA and BPM for the past decade or so. What's changed? Why is Process Orchestration all over sudden shifting into the lime light? Is this just another one of the "hype-de-jour" IT industry "flash-in-the-pan" movements or is there a serious shift happening?

As I usually say in these blogs, quoting sage Yogi Berra "predictions are hard, especially when they are about the future". But maybe we can learn something from the past, to make the future more easy to anticipate.

When BPR or Business Process Re-Engineering became "hot" in the beginning of the 1990's, the message to the enterprise was to get rid of functional silos and look at end to end processes. This, among other things, lead to the emergence of a new category of software we now refer to as ERP, and to the development of end-to-end suites, to replace the brittle landscape of best-of-breed applications.

Now, history seems to repeat itself. Functional silos seem to be having a renaissance. Why? Because of the rapid emergence of SaaS and On-Demand point applications that are easy to buy and easy to install, customers are lured in by the attractive prospect of rented software in a pay-as-you-go model to avoid lengthy and expensive implementations and to realize the value proposition of enterprise software more quickly. So you buy a bit of SFA here, a bit of HR talent management here, a bit of SRM there and there you go .. you have a completely functional on-demand suite ......

AND THEN YOU WAKE UP ...

I think the topic of Business Process Orchestration is hot, and becoming hotter as we speak, because more and more customers are realizing that they need to watch out for the brittleness of these new best-of-breed "archipelagos" of SaaS applications. Who owns the master data? Who ensures process integrity? Who instruments the landscapes for insight and analytics? Who ensures updates to one app don't kill the integrity of an end to end process? Who maintains your identities? etc. etc. Problems are well defined and addressed in enterprise software suites are being created all over again. This does not make a lot of sense to me, but it is happening with a vengeance nonetheless.

Humans have short term memories when it comes to pain.

I believe customers should be looking to their enterprise application vendors for a holistic approach to process orchestration. Not just a few tools, but for a comprehensive approach including:

• ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) ... in other words: How do you manage the integrity of your landscape and keep things in synch?
• MDM (Master Data Management) ... in other words: How do you ensure the integrity of your data model including identities and meta data across potentially 100's of small applications running on-premise, on-demand and on-device?
• BPM (Business Process Management) ... in other words: How do you ensure process flexibility and integrity in a model driven approach that fully leverages what you already have?

Once you think this through, it becomes clear that multiple categories of software should converge to create this Process Orchestration Vision. This should lead to the coordinated delivery of a process orchestration suite that melds BPM, ALM and MDM as well as event-driven and rules-based analytics into a new concept that is still looking for a name.

aside: Maybe this is a move from classic Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) to Process Orchestration Platforms (POP) :=) ??

Once this happens and gets delivered, the classic separation between transactional, analytical and collaborative applications can blur, especially in an hybrid landscape where on-demand, on-premise and on-device applications will co-exist as the new architectural standard. Customers will come to expect collaboration, insight and integrity "Out of the box" ... without the need to glue things together after the fact with classic middleware.

With this, Business Process Orchestration becomes the secret sauce, the foundation of a new breed of enterprise software that combines the flexibility and ease of consumption of SaaS with the integrity and reliability of enterprise software.

It will be an interesting space to watch. I look forward to the SAPPHIRE NOW panel, and what our customers have to say about this, and what they're getting out of IT. Because in the end, that's the only thing that really matters.

My 5c for today

CHHO

The TOP-3 impactful IT trends -- or is it really just ONE?

Over the weekend I had to make up my mind which 3 IT trends are most impactful to prepare for a short editorial in a german magazine. The reason I say impactful is that this industry is usually so full of hyped up trends that it sometimes becomes difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff. Impactful means what is really making a dent in the way companies purchase and deploy IT products, as opposed to what are they all talking about. .

So, trying to avoid bias, and instead of wrecking my own brain, I decided to ask the crowd on twitter for some ideas, and within 24h I had a few responses, which are visible inthe comment section below. Although there are only 4 responses (admittedly not exactly a statistically significant sample), the one trend all seem to mention is cloud computing.

Notably absent is the trend around social computing, which I think is as significant as cloud computing.

The combination of these two key waves of change is significant because they have a common underlying cause. The sea change in IT away from scarcity (little of everything: memory, disk, users, locations) to abundance (masses of everything: memory, disk, users, locations). Of course not everything changes from scarcity to abundance. IT resources are continuing to shrink in terms of IT staffing and budget. This, in my personal opinion, is forcing the third mega trend: Simplification

So, what do we have now:

(1) Cloud computing (incl. virtualization, anything-as-a-service, on demand, etc.)

(2) Social computing (incl. social media, web and enterprise 2.0, collaboration, mobile, etc.)

(3) Simple computing (incl. any data everywhere all the time, better user interfaces, etc.)

If one had to combine these 3 trends into a single term one might chose CROWD COMPUTING,

defined as an approach that leverages the abundance of memory, disk, users and locations while keeping cost and compexity to a minimum to make this approach truly sustainable for the masses.

Can one make a prediction based on this? Probably not. But, if you have read Taleb's "Black Swan" you probably agree that our ability to predict things is invesely proportional to our desire to do so. So I will refrain from any predictions and keep with Yogi Berra who said:

"Predictions are hard, especially when they are about the future"

AND

"The future ain't what it used to be"

So, while I am not trying to make any predictions, I think one can safely assume that the speed of change will continue to increase and it will be ever more impossible to accurately predict what will happen in the world of IT. However, one thing seems to be clear. If the trends of Cloud, Social and Simple computing truly converge into a sea change around CROWD COMPUTING, any enterprise software that is not quickly moving in this direction right now is faced with a severe challenge.

What do you think about CROWD COMPUTING?

CHHO

Timeless Software

I just recently got assigned as the marketing lead for the Office of the CTO at SAP.

One of the things I am working on is to take the concept of Timeless Software (that our CTO Vishal Sikka has been talking about for quite some time), and find out how the concept is being received by the various constituents and target groups, take in their feedback, and improve the communication around it.

It's a fun assignment. You talk to 10 people about it, and you get 11 opinions. But the interesting thing is, everyone seems to have an opinion. Timeless Software seems to resonate at a fundamental level as something that "sounds right". But there is still quite a journey ahead to not only validate the concept, but to fine tune the message around it to the various target groups.

It's still early days in the project. I will have to talk to a lot of people to really get a good understanding of the different interpretations of timeless software. But one thing has already become clear, even though the names and labels might still change a bit over time.

Applying the newest technologies to make software better in order to support business change management - without disrupting the business operation - is the right idea for enterprise software. Timeless software is what customers expect. And it is not something that can ever be done perfectly, or be 100% complete. It's more of a set of attributes and quality characteristics every piece of software should be scrutinized against. Given the fact that we have thousands of customers who have run our software for decades, the fact that we have completed the enterprise SOA roadmap, that we have pioneered the switch framework for selective activation of functionality in our enhancement packages are all in evidence that we're well under way. And the new push under the label of timeless software will move this along even more quickly in the direction on software innovation on a stable core without business disruption.

So. That's what I think the concept of timeless software is all about. What do you think?

Cloud computing ... de-geeked (work in progress)

Yesterday I started a little challenge on twitter to see if we can come up with a non-geek definition of Cloud Computing in 140 characters or less. 

I am posting the responses here in the order received and will update as more definitions are coming in. 

I look forward your your comments on this one.

Cloud Computing is ... 

@jonerp (John Reed)

Is *supposed* to make life easier by using the Internet to help me do things my own computer would choke on.

@timbo2002 (Tim Sheedy)

(1) IT Vendor and analyst hype designed to further alienate IT from the business. How's that?

(2) Your business as a service

@CeeCeeUK (Cristin)

In cloud computing you login to the program you want, which is hosted elsewhere, for a monthly or quarterly fee.

@timoelliott
"What's cloud computing? That's exactly the point -- you don't need to care. It just works, wherever you are"

@mgd  (mark dixon)

(1) Cloud computing provides application, database, platform, storage, and computing services in a virtualized utility to enable agile business.

(2) Using computing services on demand, on a pay-as-you-go basis, like I buy electricity from my power utility.

Darren Crowder

A cost effective hosted platform that provisions business software capabilities on demand e.g. like electricity or water

Christian Büngener
Services and applications that are hosted on and accessed through the Internet

Face off ! Facebook gets its fan base miffed .. a bit

Facebook decides to change its terms of service. Fair enough. 

Some people get wind of it and start a protest group. Fair enough also. (Thanks Anne)

Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=77069107432

And that group grew from nothing to more than 36,000 protesters almost over night. Sounds like phenomenal growth, but compared to the 175 million accounts on FaceBook, this is actually very little. 

Or is it? Maybe size does not matter? What's really at stake here? 

Let's see... Granted, FaceBook needs to have the right to do things with (y)our/their content, otherwise there would be no sharing, no forwarding, no collaboration.  No fun, in other words. 

And I don't think most people really mind that social media platforms have the right to manipulate and distribute the content we all contribute so willingly. And I think we all know, once we put our content into the public domain, it's pretty much "out there" for anyone to look at, copy and distribute. Fair enough. 

Given the assumption, however, that most of the 175 million people on FaceBook have little or no clue about the risks to their privacy and intellectual property rights, the problem is about the need to create transparency.  

That's why I like the initiative and jumped right in when I found out about the protest group.

- This is not about protesting against FaceBook

- This is not about pointing out another flaw in the emerging world of Social Media.

- This is also not about whining, because FaceBook changed the terms of service.

It's about creating awareness. It's about a call to action to all Social Media platforms to follow 5 simple rules to keep us all on facebook, twitter, myspace, blogger or any other platform for that matter. 

- Be very clear up front about what you intend to do with the content we contribute

- Give us a way to opt out easily if we don't like to play according to your rules 

- Allow some discussion before you actually change your Terms of Service

- Notify your clients before you're making a change

- Keep educating your clients on these issues, we are all learning here.

These should be the common rules of courtesy we can all subscribe to, and they are no so different from what we all commit to when we borrow a book from the library. And it's also important for enterprise software companies who depend more and more to tie the worlds of collaborative innovation into their standard processes. 

So. Dear social media platforms. It is important we address these issues in a open and proactive format. We are your platform. And we are willing to help. You know how to reach us. 

User contibuted content, co-innovation in communities, and collaborative development of new products and services are a key engine to innovation.  In this economic climate let's not screw that up, please?

SAPPHIRE reloaded ... What do you want to experience?

2009 will mark the death of events .. events as we know it, I mean. 

A lot of people/companies will not spend the money to travel to some random location, just to consume the content they can download afterwards, or see keynote speakers from 100 yards out. And with the advent of social media, telepresence, and many other ways to engage with vendors in a relevant and specific way, the whole business of events as we know it will change. Has to change. I think it's about time, and the economic downturn is only accellerating the inevitable. Or so lots of people say.

Granted. 

Yet, there is still a lot of a value to taking the annual pilgrimage to the BIG event, watch the keynotes "live", see the big acts on stage at the post-show party, meet a lot of your peers and the experts etc. However, the question remains, now more than ever, are our customers really getting the most out of these happenings, with hundreds and hundreds of booths competing for attention, with speech after speech, and with meeting after meeting, until you are so tired you really really want that party and the free drinks. Is there another way? Yes there is. 

This years SAPPHIRE needed to be different, and will be different.  

SAP like every other company in this business is rethinking the whole concept of "events", and is taking a step back to look at how people want to consume information, and to make a trip to this event even more worth while. As one of the content strategy leads for the CIO village at this years SAPPHIRE, I have decided to try to tap into the wisom of the crowds to make this part of the show the best it can be.

So. The listening has started. What would you like to see at SAPPHIRE '09? And how do you want to consume this information moving forward? 

Cheers

CHHO