Busting the omnichannel - enterprise hacks and chats

The ZohoDay 2025 podcast review - did Zoho make its enterprise (and AI) case?

On the final afternoon of a whirlwind ZohoDay 2025 analyst event, I finally got a live sit down with Brian Sommer after a couple of near misses. The topics on deck: did Zoho make its enterprise case? And how different/effective is its AI strategy? We took a bit of extra time to delve into Zoho's interesting-and-provocative AI messaging in the aftermath of DeepSeek. (Zoho's Sridhar Vembu considered these disruptions of "big AI" significant enough to refer to this phase of AI as "After DeepSeek.") Though some of the ZohoDay content is confidential, ZohoDay includes enough open conversations to let us bring you many of the issues we debated. And: this includes a much higher than average integration of customers into the sessions, which inform our podcast review.  Audiophile note: I had to revert to the backup recording due to some distortion on the main recording, but I think the sound quality is still pretty strong. Will do even better next time...

Where do Enterprise Architects go from here - in SAP and beyond? Live from ASUG Tech Connect

At ASUG Tech Connect 2024, for the first time, I hosted a joint podcast collaboration with the ASUG Talks team - to be issued on both of our platforms. Joining me in for a live podcast taping were familiar suspects: ASUG CEO Geoff Scott and analyst Josh Greenbaum. But this time around, we had a live audience - and pulled them into the conversation. The audience had a choice of an Enterprise Architect or AI focus. They chose Enterprise Architects - and, I think, for good reason. Effective AI is probably not possible for enterprises without the right data platform and Enterprise Architect approach. I think you'll agree that hearing so many articulate real world questions from the audience made this podcast a standout, and I'll look to do that again this year where possible. And, of course, we covered AI also - that topic always finds its way in. EDITING NOTE: This podcast was recorded and produced by the ASUG Talks team, and initially released on the ASUG Talks platform. The podcast was (very) lightly edited by ASUG Talks for listening clarity. The only difference between this version and the ASUG Talks version are the differences in musical intro (which I don't do) and my outro.

The Acumatica Summit 2025 Review - with Brian Sommer

Acumatica has been a influential vendor in the cloud ERP midmarket - but does AI change the equation? Were there surprises on the ground in Vegas? Time to make sense of an important Acumatica Summit, but with a plot twist: Jon Reed is home in his bat cave, slugging down Vitamin C, while Brian Sommer grabbed an outdoor chair prior to his takeoff from Vegas. Jon gets into why Acumatica matters and asks Brian: what stood out this year? Was the AI narrative convincing? What did Brian hear that we didn't pick up on via the news announcement? Brian reveals the pesky questions he asked Acumatica execs, and we discuss how Acumatica is contending with its growth - a good problem to have, but nonetheless something to be tackled.

Hashing out SAP in 2025 - pitfalls and opportunities with Greenbaum and Dennett

I was unable to get Josh Greenbaum and Brian Dennett together for an on-the-ground podcast at ASUG Tech Connect in November, but the show provoked important talks on RISE, clean core, and why SAP projects need enterprise architects. Those topics aren't going away, so we got together virtually to make sense of what we learned - and what's next. With looming ERP deadlines on the one hand, and modernization/AI on the other, it's a crucial year for SAP. The role of the S/4HANA public cloud edition is in the middle of this also. That's plenty for this discussion, which starts out on a humorous note as the cities and shows blurred together for your host. Note: there are more podcasts from this show, including an ASUG collaboration on Enterprise Architects coming soon - and my on the ground taping with Jelena Perfiljeva of the Boring Enterprise Nerds on SAP developer issues, clean core debates and more: https://jonerp.podbean.com/e/asug-tech-connect-review-jelena-perfiljeva-of-boring-enterprise-nerds/

Why the enterprise needs (live) visual narratives - with Heather Willems

AUDIO ECHO NOTE: the echo is addressed after the first three minutes. How effective are we at visually engaging enterprise content? I'd say - not very. But Heather Willems of Two Line Studios is doing something about that. Can we revive stale events with visual storytelling? How does AI hurt and/or help our cause here? As always, you can expect a jugular and interactive convo - and Heather will share illustrations from some of her favorite past events, including Constellation's Connected Enterprise, which is how I first learned of her team's work.... Note: to see the visuals on this, check out the YouTube replay at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruqcx29swRQ.

Reaching the informed B2B buyer, recap 6 - what (bots) lie ahead?

In the final section of my informal audiobook reading of Reaching the B2B Informed Buyer, we wrap up the strategies in the book - and the pitfalls to avoid. I also revisit the impact of AI on content generation and strategy; where it fits, where it doesn't. Where do we go from here? A combination of outstanding/expert content, savvy use of AI and personalization tools, but always in a context of making customers' lives better and earning trust piece by piece. Where trust is earned, opt-in data follows.

Reaching the informed B2B buyer, recap 5 - the great context and AI debate

In part five of my informal audiobook reading of Reaching the B2B Informed Buyer, we get into my favorite content strategy debates, including: AI for context, content experiences and entertainment value, and AI versus opt-in communities. The goal, however, isn't just to flesh out the debate but to advance the conversation, so we can get the most out of the right content and better serve our audiences. Hopefully as we do that, buyer trust and momentum is achieved.

Reaching the informed B2B buyer, recap 4 - winning B2B examples

In this shorter section of my informal, self-recorded reading of Reaching the B2B Informed Buyer, I take a break from the content strategy methods and debates to ask - who has put this into practice? I use a cross-section of examples, from diginomica and beyond - some more visionary, some more provocative, some more practical. I kept this section short to keep the examples easily consumed, before we move into the concluding chapters and AI content debates.

Reaching the informed B2B buyer, recap 3 - earn your audience with topic authority

In part three of my informal, self-recorded reading of Reaching the B2B Informed Buyer, I get into the importance of earning topic authority: earn attention with industry expertise. This is where B2B marketers often stumble. Marketing is still about attention. Digital marketing didn't change that. And the new era of what vendors call ‘AI-powered content experiences’ doesn’t change that either. So what do we do about it - and how can we serve buyers better, and earn their trust? Note: the full dbook is available on diginomica, and also as an ebook on virtually all ebook platforms.

Reaching the informed B2B buyer, recap 2 - just how informed is today’s B2B buyer?

Time for part two of my informal-but-hopefully-entertaining reading of reaching the informed B2B buyer. In this edition, I get into an important debate I've had with Gartner's Hank Barnes: just how informed is today's B2B buyer? And: why is reaching B2B buyers so different now? Then we move on to chapter 3, where we examine the challenge of content marketing ROI - while today's B2B buyer "ruins the content party." 'Brandware', email blasts and chasing social virality has minimal impact on today's B2B buyers. So what to do about it? Let's dig in. Note: the full d·book is available on diginomica, and also as an ebook on virtually all ebook platforms.

Reaching the informed B2B buyer, audio recap 1 - where the funnel goes wrong

To kick off this informal audio book reading of his Reaching the B2B Informed Buyer d·book, Jon Reed gets right into the executive summary: why the sales funnel is broken, why marketers get B2B buyers wrong - and why the right content strategy still has a huge impact, even in the so-called age of AI. Note: you can get the full d·book on diginomica in the d·book section. It's also available now on Kindle and most ebook platforms, and a printed version and full audiobook version is coming soon. For now, you can get these chapters which will be issued in order on my main podcast feeds. Reader views impacted so much of this content, so let me know where you want to take this next...

Crashing the CRM Konvos AI Agent debate - full replay

I recently crashed the CRM Convos AI agents video show. Some of you may have seen me on there before - I have come on periodically in their AI debate series. So this time, they they had an interesting AI expert in the enterprise space, Andreas Welsch, to talk about the future of AI agents. At around the 27 minute mark, I crashed the podcast and start pressing some questions, and blowing a gasket of two. Here's the full conversation.

Via the CRM Konvos team, following is the official text preview: Join us for CRMKonvo #234 with Andreas Welsch: AI Agents—Where are WE headed? And where will WE be? Get ready for an insightful discussion with Andreas Welsch, Founder & Chief AI Strategist at Intelligence Briefing. Andreas is an internationally recognized AI leader, advisor, and speaker known for helping the world’s leading enterprises turn technology hype into business outcomes. In this session, we’ll explore the future of AI agents, ethical considerations, and the impact on businesses and employees. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain valuable insights from one of the top voices in AI! Reposted to Jon Reed's podcast feeds by permission of CRM Konvos - see the original video replay at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuHdXtU-zh4.

Hashing out CIO pitfalls - with Tim Crawford

CIOs are in the pressure cooker. But advice is often cookie cutter. No cookie cutters with my next guest, Tim Crawford. We'll count down top CIO mistakes and Tim's top/overlooked CIO moves for being business-relevant, AI-savvy etc. I've wanted to get Tim on the show for a while, this is going to be a dandy - bring your sharpest and snarkest questions as usual.... Note: part two of this discussion, on next-gen analyst relations, has already been released as a separate podcast on my channel.

Workshopping personalization - is great enterprise content still relevant?

Is great/human-generated enterprise content still relevant? And how does today's content strategy and AI content hype stack up with my views on reaching B2B audiences? Can I tie this back into the hype (and potential) of AI for content distribution and hyper-personalization? To sort this out, it took a live/opinionated audience, and a special guest appearance by CRM analyst Thomas Wieberneit of CRM Konvos and more. Wieberneit is an excellent foil and sounding board, and I think we actually got somewhere on all of this.

Enterprise month in review - IT FinOps and AI with Hyoun Park

Yep, it's that time again. Join Brian and Jon for their rollicking review of the highs and lows of the enterprise event circuit - along with their article picks and pans. Speaking of article picks, special guest Hyoun Park will join the show to talk about his notable blog post on the state of IT FinOps. We'll also revisit Hyoun Park's landmark post on the "instant mediocrity" of generative AI and what's changed since then. As always, bring your smartest and savviest commentary... Note: to check the slides, catch the video replay as always at https://www.youtube.com/@jonreedofdiginomica

How can analyst relations serve customers better? Hashing it out with Tim Crawford

In the end, shouldn't analyst relations service customers better? Shouldn't enterprise analysts advocate for customer concerns? After discussing CIO pitfalls/opportunities with Tim Crawford of AVOA, we pick up in this podcast with a spirited discussion of the future of analyst relations - with a vigorous chat of experts keeping us on track. This was not always an easy talk, getting into issues of independence and disclosure, but these are important topics in the analyst industry.

Note 1: Crawford's response to this was sparked by Jon's post on next-gen analyst relations: https://diginomica.com/what-does-next-gen-analyst-relations-look-and-why-should-customers-care.

Note 2: The CIO section of this conversation is not yet released as an audio podcast. You can see the entire show on video replay at https://www.youtube.com/@jonreedofdiginomica.

ASUG Tech Connect review - Jelena Perfiljeva of Boring Enterprise Nerds

On the final day of ASUG Tech Connect, Jon gets a strong (overdue) podcast debut from Jelena Perfiljeva of the Boring Enterprise Nerds. During this taping, Perfiljeva was fresh off her interactive session on the state of SAP developers - where clean core turned into the topic that stirred up the room. Perfiljeva explains why, which leads to a different discussion of clean core than Jon was expecting. The two also discuss the impact of AI on SAP developers, and why the sessions at Tech Connect brought customer concerns to the fore. They also trace back to Jelena's emergence in the SAP community, and why strong/outspoken voices matter to customers. Audiophile note: to remove static from the recording Jon's audio had to be adjusted, but this was still the best of the two recordings and hopefully is a good level of listenability for you.

What can Unit4’s strategy tell us about the direction of cloud ERP (and enterprise AI?)

At the end of a vigorous session with Unit4's leadership team, Jon Reed and Brian Sommer camped out in an unused conference room to break down what they learned. While successfully dodging interruptions from the hotel staff, Brian and Jon hash out Unit4's "self-driving" cloud ERP approach, the service industries they are targeting, and why this vendor brings the right cloud ERP issues to a head. The talk shifts to Unit4's potentially problematic end-of-maintenance deadline, and why they are handling this differently than we might expect. The pros and cons of Unit4's approach to AI are also covered - and Unit4 gets kudos for one of the few analyst days without any NDA material of note, which makes it easy to share an open podcast discussion with all.

CCE 2024 - how active inference shook up the AI conversation - with Esteban Kolsky

In this 15 minute companion podcast, Jon Reed asks Esteban Kolksy about the highlights of his "Beyond Gen AI" panel - and why active inference AI shook up the AI conversation this week. Active inference AI still has a lot to prove, but because it is *not* from the deep learning area of AI, its promise lies in moving beyond probabilistic AI (correlations) into a causal form of AI with a world model. In turn, the contrast highlights the shortcomings of LLMs, and gives Kolsky an AI to consider that he hasn't skewered on LinkedIn. For more on active interference AI, check out the work of Denise Holt, who appeared on the panel and keynoted at CCE. Also check out the work of Dr. Karl Friston of active inference AI vendor VERSES. One Holt blog post: https://deniseholt.us/active-inference-ai-the-future-of-enterprise-operations-and-industry-innovation/

Customer intelligence is what we’re missing - inside the evil plans of Esteban Kolsky

For part one of this on-site podcast from Constellation Connected Enterprise 2024, we have the triumphant return of Jon's sparring partner and occasional enterprise muse Esteban Kolsky, who has launched a new customer intelligence venture with Alan Berkson. Why? And how has this re-inspired Kolsky? We get into the context of the stale and/or noisy approach to enterprise advisory, and how Kolsky found a way out of his LinkedIn AI vinegar posts, without backing down from his AI criticism. Note: the AI part of this conversation, including how active inference AI shook up CCE 2024, is in the shorter companion podcast. Note: if you believe in unscripted, unsponsored unfiltered enterprise convos like these, consider a rating or share, it matters.