Enterprise hits and misses - retailers get ready for the vaccine economy; Silicon Valley reels from corporate exits as the workforce changes
- Summary:
- This week - your roundup of the final surge of events and acquisitions (we hope). Retailers try to anticipate the vaccine economy with the holidays in full swing, and Oracle becomes the latest to acknowledge flexible work - via their corporate headquarter plans. As always, your whiffs.
Lead story - Omni-channel retail in a Vaccine Economy - Kroger prepares for a pragmatic 2021 response, by Stuart Lauchlan
MyPOV: Retailers pushed through a difficult 2020, only to face an even more complicated 2021. Double down on digital? Or count on storefronts re-opening? We're going to need plan A, B, and C on hand. Stuart quotes Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen:
Everything we can see, we think that pandemic has accelerated growth or transition to digital probably by three years or so. It wouldn't surprise me if it dropped off a smidgen, but I think it will continue to grow from that, because it is a long-term trend where the customer really expects to be able to get something in-store, pickup or delivery, and they expect to be able to bounce back and forth based on what's easy for them.
Count McMullen amongst the "changes are here to stay" folks:
We believe a number of the impacts of COVID-19 will be structural and lasting.
If you're preparing for whatever's next, customer data/preferences better be at the core. As Stuart writes:
So what does that mean in practical terms? McMullen says the key to what happens next lies in "leveraging our unique data and customer insights." This is about the relationship that Kroger has with its customers and what it knows about them and how that insight can be exploited to service both the buyers and the bottom line.
Kroger believes they have deeper and better customer data than the competition; time will tell on that one. As for the broader retail predicament, Stuart closes out with this:
There will be a recalibration of customer intent and the likes of Kroger need to be aware of the need to find the new omni-channel balance that has proved so elusive on other retail sectors.
Also see: Stuart's follow-on, The omni-channel lessons retail needs to take from COVID - Macy's CEO on pandemic learnings for 2021.
Diginomica picks - my top stories on diginomica this week
- The Alan Turing Institute is working to put trust at the top of the digital identity agenda - Derek takes on an issue that will be a huge factor in 2021: solving the digital identity riddle.
- National Institute for Health Research rapidly responds to COVID-19 with Google Workspace - Derek strikes again, this time with a nifty/important use case.
- Fall event highlight - field lessons on extracting value from data, from Constellation's Supernova Award finalists - 2020's virtual events were more goofy than special, but I always have time for customers sharing their ups/downs and ups.
Vendor analysis, diginomica style. Here's my three top choices from our vendor coverage:
- Ellison pledges data center build out after a Q2 when demand outstripped supply for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure - Oracle's been a steady player in the pandemic, bolstered by some customers while others struggle with pandemic times. But all in all, as Stuart reports, it's enough for a confident earnings call: "Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison drilled down on two areas of success, starting with cloud ERP. Fusion ERP grew 32% in the quarter and ended with 7,500 customers, while NetSuite grew 21% to over 24,000 customers. That left room for some Ellison bragging rights"
- Adobe eyes $15bn in revenue in 2021 as Q4 numbers beat expectations - Derek on Adobe's strong performance: "Despite beating analyst expectations, Adobe's stock dipped on the latest numbers. Uncertainty around the scale of the opportunity, whilst we are still in the midst of the pandemic, is likely dampening enthusiasm somewhat."
- The revenge of the sales and marketing suite - HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar on product updates, training, and education - For a while, sales and marketing software seemed to be leaning best-of-breed, but is the suite back? Perhaps, but with a platform twist. Barb's on the case.
SAP TechEd analysis as the fall event season (finally) winds down: the last shows of the year rolled out last week. Den and I took in the SAPiness. Den chews upon breaks down a surprisingly meaty event: The big takeaways from SAP TechEd 2020 (and, it must be said, a vast improvement over the online Sapphire Now misadventure). Also see: Den's Q&A for new cloud extension developers at SAP TechEd 2020.
A few more vendor picks, without the quotables:
- Salesforce Chief Revenue Officer Gavin Patterson talks sales, Slack and the shape of things to come - Stuart
- Asana posts Q3 results, ponders impact of Adobe on enterprise work management - Phil
- Coupa tops off 2020 with strong Q3 revenue growth, customer wins and that important supply chain acquisition - Stuart
Jon's grab bag - It wouldn't be 2020 without Facebook roiling the regulators again (and again). But is change in the offing? Stuart isn't so sure: Facebook under fire for illegal monopolistic practice, but what chance genuine action by regulators? Meanwhile, Neil dissects AI hubris gone wrong AI flaws and potentials in The ups and downs of cognitive computing, from Watson to Amelia.
Speaking of monopolistic chokeholds, can Google search ever be upended. Yext thinks so. See Stuart's The search for change - Yext CEO wants answers to Google's ad fetish. Jerry ponders an even tougher set of California privacy regulations in California voters approved a new and even tougher data privacy act. What happens now?
And yes, Brian and I are at it again, with your annual predictions-gurs-recovery-program satirical holiday tonic, The 2021 enterprise software un-predictions - your fallible guide to the next un-normal. This year, we also provided an un-predictions generator, well stocked with your fave synergistic buzzwords.
Best of the enterprise web
My top six picks
- Coronavirus Resurgence Has Office Workers Back at Home Again - Bloomberg crunches stats on the work-from-home movement, with some surprising twists.
- How COVID-19 is redefining the next-normal operating model - McKinsey with another buzzword-heavy deep dive. Gist: smart businesses are seizing the opportunity for change.
- Electronics Supply Chains Are Staying Put In China, For Now - I enjoy linking to Forbes articles as much as I like watching "personalized" adverts on YouTube, but this one is worth a look, given the supposed supply chain upheaval away from China didn't exactly happen.
- News Analysis: ServiceNow Gets Serious About AI With Element AI Acquisition - Constellation's Ray Wang makes sense of ServiceNow's holiday shopping excursion for AI.
- SAP TechEd 2020: Low-Code/No-Code to the Rescue? - ASUG with a detailed summary of the SAP TechEd news milestones, with low-code/no-code getting SAP TechEd keynote attention for the first time.
- Oracle moves its HQ from California to Texas - the Silicon Valley corporate exodus continues... Is this the impact of the pandemic economy? Oracle admits as much, citing "a more flexible employee work location policy."
Whiffs
So Netflix has 'no plans' to add disclaimer that The Crown is work of fiction... Glad that's sorted, though I was hoping it was all true. Oh, and we got this officially sorted also:
Holiday music may be bad for your mental health, according to science https://t.co/aD58tjMzWL
-> science confirms what many of us already knew :) pic.twitter.com/9E6Q6lt3Ck
— Jon Reed (@jonerp) December 12, 2020
Stalwart diginomica contributor Kurt Marko wonders why he presses so hard for insights, when there's clearly another way:
How can I make the big bucks by coming up with 𝚐̶𝚎̶𝚖̶𝚜̶ tautologies like this? 🙄
FYI @jonerp"There's one thing that makes investor optimism typically go higher and that’s higher stock prices," said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at SunTrust Advisory Services.
— Kurt Marko🤔🇺🇸 (@krmarko) December 9, 2020
Bonus points for the strikethrough... Our social channels bustled with un-predictions riffs:
There’s some doozies in @jonerp & @BrianSSommer’s 2021 enterprise software un-predictions, but this one definitely made me chuckle:
“A PR firestorm erupts when a vendor's customer data platform shows up on Craigslist.” 😂 https://t.co/9Zg3pCfMDu via @diginomica
— Ryan Greives (@RyanGreives) December 9, 2020
Graham Robinson gets the nod for being the first to use our un-predictions generator:
Post-Cloud Disruptive Platforms Maximise Mega-Tenant Victories
— Graham Robinson (@grahamrobbo) December 8, 2020
And that's a wrap for 2020. Hits and misses will return in 2021 with my annual enterprise blogger awards edition. You can expect some holiday specials and roundups from the diginomica crew in the meantime. We thank you for your loyal and vocal readership. If you didn't voice your views and see us as relevant, we wouldn't be around. Have a good holiday, or make it good if you can, whether it's holiday music, or a playlist of your own making....
If you find an #ensw piece that qualifies for hits and misses - in a good or bad way - let me know in the comments as Clive (almost) always does. Most Enterprise hits and misses articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. 'myPOV' is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.