Busting the omnichannel - enterprise hacks and chats

In part two of my on-site taping at CCE 2025 with Esteban Kolsky, we get into what he's learned in the past year on curating intelligence for executives. But why is there a need for this service? How are the big analyst firms falling short? Is the AI research disruption real, BS, or some combination? Kolsky walks us through what he's learned in the last year, firming up a curated intelligence offe...

In part one of my two part podcast series with Esteban Kolksy, Chief Distiller, Constellation Research, we discuss the AI debate, and our differences with that debate, and each other. Has the AI discussion changed this year at CCE 205? What were the key issues - and is there an AI gap between vendors and customers? We also hash out AI context, and why Kolksy doesn't like the "context engineering"...

On the final day of Oracle AI World 2025, before their Vegas escape, Jon Reed and Brian Sommer sit down and look to make sense of what they just heard, from Oracle's AI visions to customer realities - how do the two match up? Where are the success stories coming from? What does AI readiness look like? Does Oracle have a competitive edge in AI, if so - why? We work off of Brian's trusty notebook an...

For my final podcast in the SAP Connect series, I get the process/line of business view from analyst and series regular Josh Greenbaum. Josh has advocated for an end-to-end SAP event for a while. So was the ambitious SAP Connect a success? What worked? What didn't? Was the end-to-end potential realized? What did we hear from customers on the ground? Before hitting the tarmac, we sorted it out. Not...

In the first of two SAP Connect 2025 podcast wraps, I sat down with Brian Dennett of Lemongrass, and SAP Mentor. We discussed the pros and cons of this ambitious show, and what Brian learned on the ground in pursuit of BTP and BDC clarity. We also get into the state of SAP public cloud ERP, a topic that was not front and center at the show but remains important. The state of smaller SAP partners i...

In this recap of the SAP Connect opening keynote live Watch Party, you can hear the pre-game and post-game breakdowns with myself, Josh Greenbaum, Bonnie Tinder and Thomas Wieberneit, who crashed the post-game review. This was a compelling keynote to review, but as always we had our pros/cons, high points and nits. If you want to see the full video review with the entire keynote in the background,...

It's time - to rehash the event season to date and ask: where is the actual sign of innovation? Join us - and help sort out the promising HR tech from the BS, we've got special guest and HR tech analyst par excellence Stacey Harris joining Jon Reed and Brian Sommer. Harris should also have fresh data on what matters to customers and HR leaders. Brian and Jon will pick their enterprise highs and lo...

What makes a good enterprise analyst? There is no one I'd rather ask that Hyoun Park. But then why did Park move away from his analyst firm to work for an emerging AI vendor? (Levelpath). And how will AI change the analyst profession? It's time to mark Hyoun Park's career shift with a send off like no other: an interactive discussion on everything he has learned. Join us with your sharpest questio...

Yup, it's time folks - the Enterprise Month in Review is upon us. This time we'll bear down on the so-called AI disruption of professional services and research, with epic special guest Frank Scavo. We'll also get Frank's take on Brian's leadership research reveal, and why we may need a leadership detox - or detox from toxic leaders. As usual, bring your savviest and snarkiest as we share our pick...

As the summer winds down, fall event season is about to heat up, with a slew of events from SAP (and SAP's biggest competitors). But what do customers need from SAP right now? And can fall events deliver on that? How do you get what your team needs from hectic events, without getting lost in the vendor narrative? It's time for another SAP-in-review podcast with Jon Reed, Josh Greenbaum, and Geoff...

Get ready for another round of enterprise highs and lows, with Brian Sommer and Jon Reed issuing their top picks (and pans) of the month, and unveil another unexpected half-time segment - deconstructing AI and recruiting, with surprise guest Bonnie Tinder of Raven Intel. The three dig into the provocative prediction of the end of recruiters in six months, via Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. Tinde...

Is LinkedIn now the business TikTok? Are keynotes legacy artifacts? And why are Watch Parties the future of enterprise keynotes? Here's the full version of Jon Reed's talk with Brent Leary of CRM Playaz - where we learn why unscripted video content is more trusted - and builds buyer confidence. Note: you don't need the video version for this one, but if you want to see the before/after of Jon's ca...

At the end of the first official day of SAP Sapphire Orlando 2025, we taped a live podcast at the ASUG Hub with questions from the audience. On the mic: Jon Reed, your host, ASUG CEO Geoff Scott and analyst Josh Greenbaum. We gave our instant keynote reactions, and discussed the topics SAP needs to address to deliver for users - at Sapphire and also beyond. Audience questions kept this one spicy,...

As event season winds down, prognosticators have a lot to say about the future of the enterprise. Do Jon and Brian agree, or are these fever dreams? Let's review what we've learned this spring - and where customers go from here. As always, bring your savviest and snarkiest commentary, as you are an integral part of this show....   If you want to see the slides, you can see them on the YouTube repl...

On the final afternoon of Salesforce Connections, I catch up with Rebecca Wettemann, CEO of Valoir, to make sense of the what we just saw. Rebecca has some instructive thoughts on Salesforce's planned acquisition of Informatica - a topic we didn't hear much about at the show, but one worth discussing. We also discussed how this show compared with Valoir's prior research on Salesforce and customer...

At Salesforce Connections 2025, Salesforce announced the Marketing Cloud Next - as the end of "do-not-reply" marketing. Is this a realistic goal for marketers? Is Marketing Cloud ready for the challenge? Time for a quick hot take from Constellation's Liz Miller, who was up for the challenge.

In a time-honored Sapphire 2025 tradition, I located an empty hallway and commandeered a couple of chairs to debrief on what we heard in Orlando. This time, with a new guest, Conor Riordan, Chair at UKISUG. Riordan brings a fascinating perspective to this conference review, as he's had a deep career in SAP IT leadership before moving over to the business side - and that's the gap that SAP (and all...

For SAP Sapphire 2025 opening keynote, we took the old school retro chat backchannel, and turned it into a public watch party. I invited special guest commentators Bonnie Tinder and Josh Greenbaum, and it seemed to go pretty well. So for this podcast version, you can hear our pre-game keynote expectations, and then a post-game keynote wrap to see how it stacked up (the replay of most of the keynot...

Yep, it's time for another Enterprise month in review. Join us live as Jon Reed and Brian Sommer issue their enterprise picks and pans. Our special guest on the virtual couch will be HR tech PR maven Jeanne Achille, who will help us sort through vendor hype and PR gotchas and chime in on the top HR tech stories. As always, bring your snarkiest/savviest comments and questions... Note: all my podcas...

With SAP Sapphire and the ASUG Annual Conference right around the corner, Jon Reed reconvened with analyst Josh Greenbaum and ASUG CEO Geoff Scott for a two part podcast. Part one: a review of SAP's ambitious Business Data Cloud announcement, what we've learned since the launch news, and the open questions heading into Orlando. Then we shift into a discussion of why so many customers have brought...

Yes, it's time to revisit my take on AI and human creativity, with trusted foil Thomas Wieberneit, who has plenty of insights and an ability to push my arguments. I'll have some fresh slides and fresh thinking on this topic, hot takes, and make a case for why enterprises are drastically underestimating the need for human creativity, and where AI does fit in - including pros and cons of various ent...

Active Inference AI is not necessarily in conflict with LLMs, but Active Inference is definitely a different approach - one that challenges AI assumptions and opens up new thinking. It's been almost six months since Denise Holt shook up Constellation's Connected Enterprise event with a keynote on how Active Inference AI is changing the field. Since then, much has happened. In this audio-only podca...

Yep, it's time - Brian Sommer and Jon Reed are back with the high and lows of the enterprise month, and your own salty commentary. Let's do this! Note - this is the first show of the year so there is a lot to cover, including a research dive into the flaws of LLMs and RAG/agent evaluation, and the status of the AI copyright situation. We attempt to give a new take on the return-to-office debate -...

Eric Kimberling wrote a must-read post on the pros and cons of customization - and the debate is joined. In this special "blogs that matter" edition, we'll drill into Eric's analysis, and then take up some critical points customers should be aware of. As always, bring your sharpest and snarkiest viewpoints, your live comments are part of this show. If you appreciate unfiltered enterprise content w...

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...