Wednesday, October 19, 2011

“The Social Economy” Embarks for New Harbor, Bigger Ship

Seven weeks ago I posted a short piece on this site announcing the launch of Stellwagen Research and this blog.  Both were created to focus on the broader issues of the Social Economy, including the next wave of enterprise applications and platforms, social intelligence, Big Data, information visualization, and the corresponding effect on the “future of work.”  These topics have been passions of mine from my days at AMR Research.

While the goal of circumnavigating the social economy remains the same, I’m shifting to a new port and a more seaworthy vessel.
As you may have read on Twitter, LinkedIn, or ZDNet , I will be joining salesforce.com in a new role -- Chief Enterprise Strategist.   I’m excited about the opportunity to work with some of the world’s largest companies to help them in their transformation to “social enterprises.”

Why the change in course?
As I sat in the audience at the recent Dreamforce event, I realized that I was witnessing the start of the next major upheaval in enterprise software.  The social enterprise breaks down hierarchies and builds a tight, inclusive web with employees, customers, partners, and suppliers.  If you’ve read my previous posts, you know I see a huge opportunity in the “social supply chain.”

To me, Chatter represents the future of work.  The desktop is dead.  Instead, we need to have our laptops, tablets, and smart-phones seamlessly linked.  Information must be continuously updated and pushed to us.
The logical next step is to aggregate all of the Big Data in a virtual network operations center that visually displays your global performance in real-time – all at the swipe of your hand.  Touch here and see the pipeline by region or product or profit or rep. 

Force.com is a double threat to the current world order.  While it started out supporting “edge-apps-in-the-cloud” away from the core position that ERP vendors have enjoyed, that’s changing as new vendors move closer to the center with apps for ERP, financials, order management, and contract/configuration management.  In addition, Force.com has become the best-selling platform for do-it-yourself apps.
As an analyst, I always enjoyed watching the action from center court or the 50-yard line.  Salesforce.com offers me the opportunity to move my seat much closer to the eye of the upheaval. 

I can’t wait.
What do you think?

As always, I welcome your feedback and ideas.
Bruce

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations Bruce. I look forward to working together -- I recently joined Salesforce, too. http://kellblog.com/2011/10/10/my-new-job-svpgm-of-the-service-cloud-at-salesforce-com/

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  2. Congrats Bruce. Salesforce has a unique opportunity to take someone who has vast knowledge of this industry, and it's players, and combine that with the agility and prestige of force.com for a cloud-based, enterprise future. I read Howlett's piece on ZDNet, and although I believe your experience and "rolodex" are key- it's your interpersonal skills that act as the catalyst for driving SFDC to the next level. They can execute, but you can dream, and communicate that dream into a contemporary, realistic; roadmap....

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