Jon Reed

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Jon Reed has been building enterprise communities since 1995. These days, Jon is a roving blogger/analyst. He also advises vendors and startups on reaching today's informed enterprise buyer, now that the sales funnel is discredited. He is a diginomica co-founder, Enterprise Irregular, and purveyor of multi-media content.

Jon is an advocate for media over marketing; he sees diginomica as a chance to disrupt tech media, with the BS-weary enterprise reader in mind. Jon's signature weekly column, Enterprise Hits and Misses, is a strike-through-laden enterprise review for readers who enjoy puncturing hype balloons.

Jon's core areas include the problem of CX, the pursuit of AI/analytics ROI, work futures/skills development, and the realities of transformation efforts. Lately, he's been documenting the art - and perils - of virtual event design.

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Jon Reed

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Do we really need a data lakehouse? Hashing AI, cloud, and customer proof points with Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi

Poking fun at vendors for pushing terms like data lakehouses is part of my job. But the real purpose here isn't humor, it's delivering value on data and AI rather than buzzword polishing. Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi was up for the debate, and he brought customer proof points.

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Enterprise hits and misses - hybrid event tech heats up, ERP vendors get called out on sustainability hype, and offices get debated

This week - vendors get called out for sustainability hype, while hybrid event tech gains steam. The return-to-office debate heats up again, thanks to call outs on culture and collaboration. Your whiffs include AI idealism, Amazon's privacy opt-out, and so-called "seamless integration."

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What is the office actually good for? Questioning workplace myths as the return-to-office debate heats up

Why is culture-building dependent on water coolers? Is the centralized office a failure of imagination, or the key to sparking collaboration amongst Zoom-fatigued workers? Here's a roundup of Big Tech return-to-office news - and my own twist on the future of work.

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Sapphire Now 21 - SAP touts the business networks revolution, but can it deliver?

If you dipped into Sapphire Now this year, you heard the "business networks are changing everything" fanfare. But why business networks, and why now? Time to dig in, via my sessions with SAP's John Wookey and Julia White.

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Enterprise hits and misses - Apple employees push back on return-to-office, marketers get woke, and the global AI race heats up

This week - are marketers ready to break stuff? A wake-up call arrives. The return-to-office ratchets up as Apple employees push back. The global AI race gets nuttier, while lessons from the Colonial Pipeline attack linger. Your whiffs include some blockchain fun - at my expense.

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How Mars put customer insights first and flipped its supply chain script

When a company figures out how to significantly improve demand forecasting, they have my attention. At the Kinaxis Big Ideas in Supply Chain show, Mars shared how they are modernizing supply chain planning, driven by the end consumer.

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The opinionated Sapphire Now 2021 preview - my top questions SAP needs to answer

This year, SAP Sapphire Now is spread over several weeks. How to track it? Look no further than my top five burning questions. Here's the standouts from my pre-Sapphire Now research, along with exclusive quotage from SAP CEO Christian Klein and ASUG CEO Geoff Scott.

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Enterprise hits and misses - SaaS vendors ace their earnings exams, while the virtual event silly season hits high gear

This week - SaaS vendors get a boost from the Vaccine Economy, while the virtual event silly season keeps digital scribes glued to their monitors. Digital transformation use cases prove instructive, but cybersecurity threats cast shadows. Your whiffs include another epic dose of Amazon hubris.

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Is continuous planning a realistic goal for finance teams? Planful's CEO on how the pandemic changed planning, and what's next

The pandemic economy exposed our legacy planning approaches. But what to do about it? Planful has a continuous planning vision, but is it realistic? Planful's CEO shares what they've learned about planning maturity.

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Inside Hillrom's business transformation into "Connected Care" - an SAP RISE use case

SAP's RISE fanfare won't hold up without customer use cases. In the run-up to Sapphire Now, I had the chance to dig into an S/4HANA RISE story with Hillrom's CIO Sven Krause. Krause also shared frank views on CEO Christian Klein's agenda, and how that factors in.

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Enterprise hits and misses - retailers get their foot traffic, while the return-to-office debate heats up

This week - retailers get a store traffic boost, but the future still belongs to the omnis. The momentum for return-to-office is building, but have we learned the right productivity lessons? Your whiffs include Google's Quantum 2029, and a gratuitous shot at Microsoft Teams.

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Can AI transform churn risk assessment, or is it an efficiency play? Talking subscription management and CX updates with Oracle's Nate Skinner

Each quarter the Oracle CX team brings out new CX functionality - and I come up with something new to argue with them about. This time, we delve into AI advancements in churn risk and subscription management. But is this just an efficiency play? Let's debate.

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Enterprise hits and misses - digital acceleration earns its hype, cybersecurity gets real, and the market puts the brakes on autonomous cars

This week - digital acceleration gets industry credibility, while cybersecurity earns the US President's attention. ServiceNow makes waves with Knowledge 2021, and supply chains get scrutinized. Your whiffs include a trip to the trough (of disillusionment) for blockchain - and autonomous vehicles.