Enterprise Apps Unpacked

What separates successful enterprise technology implementations from costly failures? Here on Enterprise Apps Unpacked, we’ll do a deep dive into strategies that actually deliver results. Every other Monday, veteran IT journalist David Essex interviews corporate leaders, industry experts and vendors—the people who are truly in the know—about important developments in ERP, HR and supply chain systems and the other applications that run the business. For business and IT leaders, these conversations cut through the chatter to help them make smart decisions about how they buy, deploy and use enterprise software.   Episode 1 drops on August 11, 2025 at 5am ET. Rate and review the podcast to tell us how you like this new content. Find us on YouTube at Eye on Tech or explore our written work on Search ERP.

SAP has faced numerous challenges in recent years, but three big ones stand out: moving its on-premises products to the cloud; convincing customers to adopt its current ERP platform, S/4HANA Cloud; and meeting the unprecedented demand for artificial intelligence by developing practical AI applications. SAP touted significant progress on all three fronts at its annual Sapphire conference, which was held on consecutive weeks this month, first in Orlando and then in Madrid. It repositioned S/4HANA Cloud ERP as a mix-and-match, AI-infused "business suite" – a throwback to the brand name of its previous ERP flagship. It augmented its primary data platform, Business Data Cloud, with prebuilt, composable applications that combine data products with AI and simulation features. And it embedded the Joule AI co-pilot in more business processes across the application suite, making it more autonomous and omnipresent as a user-friendly interface to ERP. The result, SAP claimed, is an integrated "flywheel" of AI, data and apps that feed off each other to accelerate digital transformation. While reaction was generally positive, it was leavened with the wait-and-see attitude that is typical after the ambitious promises and glitzy presentations of a software conference. SAP still has integration and data management work to do if the components of the business suite – especially cloud platforms like Ariba and Concur that it acquired – are to work seamlessly together.   In the podcast, three Informa TechTarget editors offer their analysis of Sapphire developments and observations from the Orlando and Madrid events: Jim O’Donnell, news director at SearchSAP; Brian McKenna, enterprise applications editor at London-based ComputerWeekly; and industry editor David Essex. Other topics discussed include: how far SAP has progressed in its AI, cloud and S/4HANA migration efforts    interviews with SAP executives and partners at the conferencewhy integration with SAP’s digital adoption platform, WalkMe, could make Joule more autonomous and personalized Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, Informa TechTarget Subscribe via Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2TakQHezOu42MCKSQRigDv Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/erp-confab/id1669762576 Subscribe via YouTube Music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5OdmBrO1LpmcDea2Zb-8mNQt0nLg-3SK

An emerging technology called spatial computing combines virtual reality and augmented reality to enable location-aware digital interaction with the real world. It has big potential, but practical applications have been slow to arrive. A new offering from Dassault Systèmes, a French maker of 3D design software, could begin to change that. Called 3DLive, the new app, expected in summer 2025, integrates the vendor's 3DEXPERIENCE product development and collaboration platform with the Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality AR/VR headset to create a "virtual" twin of a product -- an immersive, information-rich type of digital twin created in 3DEXPERIENCE -- that appears to exist in the user's physical space. The headset's cameras, sensors and tracking technology collect real-time data and allow the twin to interact with the physical world. Dassault Systèmes claims the result is a scientifically accurate virtual twin that companies can use to test a product's viability. For example, an engineer could use it to confirm -- in actual size -- that a new piece of industrial equipment will fit in the available space or estimate the effect of heating and cooling systems. Besides product development, the technology has other applications, including team collaboration, workforce training and knowledge sharing. In the podcast, Tom Acland, CEO of Dassault Systèmes' 3DEXCITE brand, explains how 3DLive works, shares some likely use cases and gives his take on where spatial computing could go in the future. Acland, based in London, has held the CEO role since 2020 and has a background as co-founder or manager at various startups, including COBI.Bike, which developed IoT mobility systems for bicycles and was later acquired by Bosch eBike Systems, where Acland served as product owner. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: how virtual twins differ from digital twinsDassault Systèmes' engineering partnership with Applenew capabilities enabled by virtual twins' interaction with their environment    Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, Informa TechTarget Subscribe via Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2TakQHezOu42MCKSQRigDv Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/erp-confab/id1669762576 Subscribe via YouTube Music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5OdmBrO1LpmcDea2Zb-8mNQt0nLg-3SK

For two glorious years, generative AI held sway as the AI darling among ERP vendors. But impressive as Gen AI might be, it's mostly limited to generating content and not really capable of the process management and decision making needed to reach the holy grail of AI: Fully autonomous artificial intelligence. That level of technological innovation is the promise of so-called agentic AI: smart "agents," such as AI-driven chatbots and robotic process automation (RPA), that can perform tasks autonomously, make decisions and learn from experience. In recent months agentic AI has become the new vanguard of AI innovation in business applications. Major vendors, among them Salesforce, Oracle and SAP, have eagerly rolled out agentic AI to their customers. In the podcast, Brian McKenna, enterprise applications editor at Informa TechTarget's London-based ComputerWeekly, reports on the latest AI trends and shares his takeaways from conferences he attended this month: the Salesforce TDX 2025 developer conference in San Francisco, followed by Oracle and NetSuite conferences in London. McKenna covers business applications, information management and cybersecurity topics for ComputerWeekly. He holds a degree in History and English from the University of Glasgow and a doctorate from the University of Oxford. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: the strong similarities between the agentic AI approaches of Salesforce and OracleNetSuite's more cautious approach to agentic AIhow these AI offerings compare to those of SAP, the ERP market leader Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, Informa TechTarget Subscribe via Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2TakQHezOu42MCKSQRigDv Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/erp-confab/id1669762576 Subscribe via YouTube Music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5OdmBrO1LpmcDea2Zb-8mNQt0nLg-3SK

It's been said that the main job of a chief information officer is "keeping the lights on" – making sure an organization's IT systems are up to date, reliable and running smoothly. But CIOs of software vendors sometimes play an additional role as early users of products under development. The approach is often called Customer Zero, "drinking your own champagne" or "eating your own dog food," and advocates say it can improve innovation and quality control in products and services and boost customer satisfaction. In the podcast, Sumit Johar, CIO of Blackline, a Los Angeles-based maker of cloud-based accounting and finance software, shares his experiences with the Customer Zero method. He also discusses the role of machine learning and generative AI in Blackline's internal IT automation and digital transformation efforts, the insights that were gained and how they affect product development. Johar was previously CIO of Automation Anywhere, a provider of AI-based robotic process automation, and mobile security vendor MobileIron, now part of Ivanti. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: the business processes where AI has the biggest impactwhy AI poses a threat to compliance and security but also offers solutionswhether increased use of AI will cause significant job losshow employees can prepare themselves to stay ahead of the AI curve Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, Informa TechTarget Subscribe via Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2TakQHezOu42MCKSQRigDv Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/erp-confab/id1669762576 Subscribe via YouTube Music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5OdmBrO1LpmcDea2Zb-8mNQt0nLg-3SK

A case can be made that for the past decade and a half, SAP has been almost entirely focused on two things: getting customers to adopt its next-generation ERP platform, S/4HANA, and shifting its development efforts from on-premises systems to the cloud – and getting customers to follow. Now, with the calendar turned to 2025, the December 31, 2027 deadline -- when SAP says it will stop supporting legacy on-premises ECC and R/3 systems, in effect requiring most customers to upgrade to S/4HANA -- looms uncomfortably near. A Gartner survey shows most have yet to make the move. SAP enters the new year having struggled through a 2024 that presented its own challenges. The vendor underwent major personnel shakeups as three C-level executives left the company, legendary cofounder Hasso Plattner retired, and 10,000 employees were moved into strategic initiatives – primarily AI -- or left after being bought out. SAP customers and industry analysts will be looking to see if SAP can stabilize its management structure and re-establish trust with its employees. At the same time, SAP will face more pressure than ever to show progress on getting customers to move to S/4HANA and the cloud. In this podcast, Jim O'Donnell, senior news writer at Informa TechTarget's SearchSAP website, joins host David Essex to discuss last year's developments and their impact on SAP and its customers going forward. They also analyze the effectiveness of the Rise with SAP and Grow with SAP programs in guiding customers on a path to S/4HANA Cloud, and what SAP must do to right the ship and show more progress in moving customers to S/4HANA and the cloud. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: the impact of SAP'S promise to limit major innovations to the two cloud versions of S/4HANAhow confusion over S/4HANA migration could benefit competitors like Oracle and Workdaywhether SAP might extend the 2027 deadline Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, Informa TechTarget   Subscribe via Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2TakQHezOu42MCKSQRigDv Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/erp-confab/id1669762576 Subscribe via YouTube Music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5OdmBrO1LpmcDea2Zb-8mNQt0nLg-3SK

ERP vendors have been eager to ride the generative AI wave, and it has become commonplace for them to assert that machine learning and other types of AI will revolutionize the way people interact with business applications and data. AI is already enabling natural language data queries and commands and starting to take over workflows that cross ERP modules. Chatbots are evolving from simple logic machines to become "smart" agents capable of communicating and making decisions like humans. The user interface will become so automated and abstracted from the underlying applications, proponents say, that users will rarely need to interact directly with back-end systems. John Bates, CEO of Bonn, Germany-based SER Group, sees the next generation of software UIs as centering on the documents and other digital content that are the lifeblood of commerce. He says "sentient" documents will soon be developed that are self-aware enough to communicate what they are and the information they contain.  As documents become essentially conscious, they will be able to initiate actions, remove language barriers and glean fresh insights from enterprise data. Sentient documents will be the foundation of anticipatory UIs that can figure out what users need and execute processes for them, often before they have to ask. In the podcast, he explains how sentient documents and anticipatory interfaces will work and the important role of AI. Bates earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Cambridge University in 1994, after which he became a tenured professor leading research on distributed computing. He has held executive positions at Progress Software and Software AG and founded startups in algorithmic trading and the internet of things. He joined SER Group, which sells an enterprise content management platform called Doxis, in 2022, and is the author of the book, Thingalytics: Smart Big Data Analytics for the Internet of Things. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: why today's AI hasn't achieved true intelligence, despite the claims of AI advocateshow the European Union's strict privacy regulations could stifle innovationthe importance of agentic AI in processing digital contentwhy people's enthusiasm for natural language interfaces is fading Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, Informa TechTarget Subscribe via Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2TakQHezOu42MCKSQRigDv Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/erp-confab/id1669762576 Subscribe via YouTube Music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5OdmBrO1LpmcDea2Zb-8mNQt0nLg-3SK

ERP increasingly serves as the hub of organizations' environmental sustainability strategies. But so far, it has mostly been used to standardize and automate the collecting and reporting of environmental, social and governance (ESG) data for customers, investors and regulators. There's a growing sense that ERP can be put to greater use if it's more closely integrated with enterprise technology that has a direct impact on sustainability, such as supply chain visibility, logistics and asset management, to effect real change. This more ambitious vision of IT-driven sustainability calls for digital transformation of business processes and presents daunting development and integration challenges. So ERP vendors have set up partnerships with the professional services and Big Four accounting firms Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC to make it a reality. One prominent example is EY's partnering with SAP to help customers implement sustainability through their SAP systems. In this podcast, EY partner Marsha Reppy shares her experiences and insights on the challenges of sustainability and assesses where companies stand on the maturity curve. Reppy heads EY's sustainability consulting practice for the Americas, having joined the firm in 2006 after five years at Deloitte. She has worked for more than 20 years helping consumer products and retail companies with their digital transformation initiatives through technologies like analytics, AI and intelligent automation, and has extensive experience working with SAP systems. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: what sustainability means in practice for organizationsthe biggest technical challenges of sustainabilityEY's role in the SAP partnership Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget Subscribe via Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2TakQHezOu42MCKSQRigDv Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/erp-confab/id1669762576 Subscribe via YouTube Music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5OdmBrO1LpmcDea2Zb-8mNQt0nLg-3SK

Supply chain sustainability is an ambitious strategy for managing the environmental, social and corporate governance impacts of product sourcing, manufacturing and delivery. But the inherent complexity of supply chains makes it difficult to ensure that each component in a product, from raw materials to subassemblies, finished goods, packaging and transportation, meet the environmental and labor regulations of countries and international organizations.   Companies have long used information technology to manage their supply chains, but most still struggle to achieve adequate visibility into the practices of their suppliers. In recent years, the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement has brought new pressures from shareholders, customers and regulators for companies to collect and report data on their sustainability practices. Artificial intelligence shows promise for helping organizations make sense of the enormous amounts of data needed for supply chain sustainability and for meeting increasingly strict ESG requirements. RobobAI (pronounced "robo buy"), a vendor of spend analysis and procurement management software based in Sydney, Australia, is applying its AI-driven analytics platform to supply chain sustainability. In this podcast, CEO Julian Harris explains how RobobAI works and how it monitors risks, such as raw materials from suppliers sanctioned for modern slavery. He also describes ways it supports diversity by, for example, identifying opportunities to employ indigenous labor. A native of Wales, Harris held executive leadership positions at several IT service companies before co-founding RobobAI in 2017. He is also chairman of Search365, a company with offices in Australia and Singapore offering AI, analytics and search products for the financial services and government sectors. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: where RobobAI fits in ERP and supply chain management software architectureshow it can improve supplier visibility by analyzing spend data from multiple ERP systems and other data sourceshow Coca-Cola uses RobobAI to improve visibility into its supplierswhere the ESG movement stands today Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget Subscribe via Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2TakQHezOu42MCKSQRigDv Subscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/erp-confab/id1669762576 Subscribe via YouTube Music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5OdmBrO1LpmcDea2Zb-8mNQt0nLg-3SK

Every major ERP vendor has strived to move its on-premises applications to the cloud and entice its customers to follow. Most still struggle to replicate the capabilities of their legacy ERP systems in software as a service (SaaS), and new products built in the cloud from the ground up tend to appeal more to first-time buyers. Cloud migration remains the industry's biggest challenge. Oracle, which in most assessments ranks second to SAP in global ERP market share, appears to be winning the fight for SaaS ERP leadership among vendors with long histories in on-premises ERP. Its Fusion Cloud ERP is the most complete multitenant SaaS suite, bolstered in recent years with dozens of AI apps and a new user interface. What's more, Oracle underpins its applications with AI-infused Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and cloud versions of its flagship Oracle Database. It claims to be the only vendor with the complete cloud "stack," from foundational infrastructure to databases and business applications. At its annual CloudWorld user conference this month in Las Vegas, Oracle wrote a new chapter in its cloud story with a raft of product introductions, including Oracle Database@AWS, which enables customers to access its AI-based Autonomous Database on Amazon Web Services, the leading public cloud. Oracle also unveiled new generative AI agents for Fusion Cloud ERP and supply chain applications, among other notable features. In this podcast, Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, shares his assessment of what the CloudWorld developments mean for Oracle's cloud strategy and its customers, and where they leave Oracle in its rivalry with SAP. Before joining Constellation Research in 2013, Mueller spent over two decades in consulting and product development, including stints at Oracle, SAP and Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO). His research focuses on next-generation apps, human capital management and the future of work. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: What the addition of the Redwood UI to Oracle NetSuite means for the popular SaaS ERP platform for SMBsWhy Oracle's rapidly rising, multi-billion-dollar investment in its own data centers shows how serious it is about using OCI to deliver AI to customersRecent board departures at SAP, which leave it with perhaps the least experienced board since the company's founding Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

Warehouses have long been the center of some of the most sophisticated information technology. RFID tags and readers, warehouse control systems, automated conveyors, voice picking and mobile devices are all commonly used to move goods and manage inventory with greater efficiency and precision. Nowadays, the emphasis is on adding more autonomous technology that takes over some of the drudgery and risk from warehouse workers. Robots and artificial intelligence play an increasingly important role in warehouse operations.    One company on the leading edge is London-based Dexory, which makes what it calls a warehouse intelligence platform that combines stock-scanning robots, analytics software, AI and digital twins. The vendor claims the system provides 99.9% inventory accuracy and significantly improves warehouse efficiency. In this podcast, Dexory CEO Andrei Danescu explains how the platform improves warehouse visibility, automation and efficiency, as well as its broader implications for supply chain management and logistics. Before co-founding Dexory (previously BotsAndUs) in 2015, Danescu held engineering roles in the automotive industry. He developed autonomous vehicle technology for Jaguar Land Rover and was a trackside systems engineer for a Formula One racing team, responsible for sensors, telemetry systems, data analytics and other technologies. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: how the COVID-19 pandemic changed logisticswhether AI and robotics threaten the jobs of warehouse workersthe potential of warehouse data intelligence to further the long-sought goal of end-to-end supply chain visibility Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

Artificial intelligence and digital twins are probably the two most hyped information technologies of the 2020s. Yet both are already delivering practical benefits in fields ranging from industrial design and manufacturing to customer service and healthcare. They are especially powerful when used together, with each helping to improve the other. Digital twins – virtual representations of real-world entities or processes – can supply the structured and comprehensive data AI needs for machine learning while AI adds analytical and predictive capabilities and automation that make digital twins more effective. Technology vendors and researchers have been exploring ways AI-enabled digital twins can improve healthcare by, for example, virtualizing pharmaceutical trials, tailoring heart monitors to individual hearts or optimizing medical procedures. Some even envision someday building a digital twin of a patient. In this podcast, Gary Shorter, head of AI at IQVIA, explains the challenges and potential of pairing digital twins with AI in healthcare. IQVIA provides data analytics technologies and clinical research services to the life sciences industry. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: Why digital twins of patients are probably a long way offBenefits of more narrowly focused digital twins of hearts, eyes and other organsWays AI and digital twins are being used nowTechnology segments that are driving development of digital twins in the life sciences Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

Ever since generative AI's debut in late 2022, ERP vendors have raced to embed its human-like communication, research and analytical capabilities into their software. Besides responding to customer demand for AI, they're keen to use the technology to make their complex systems easier to use and more responsive. At its annual Sapphire 2024 conference in Orlando, Florida, the biggest ERP vendor, SAP, made generative AI the focus of almost every major product announcement, stage presentation and demo. It also announced AI partnerships with Nvidia, Microsoft and Google and significant enhancements to its Rise with SAP program, which is designed to ease the transition to SAP's newest ERP platform, S/4HANA Cloud. In this podcast, TechTarget Industry Editor David Essex and News Writer Jim O'Donnell discuss the major developments at Sapphire and what they mean for SAP and its customers. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: SAP's plans to make its Joule generative AI assistant the new user interface to its business applicationsthe surprise announcement that SAP is buying WalkMe, a digital adoption platform, for $1.5 billion dollarshow the role of implementation partners such as Deloitte, EY and PwC in S/4HANA migration is evolvingSAP's advocacy of an ERP "clean core" as a foundation for multitenant SaaS applicationswhere the Sapphire announcements leave SAP in the generative AI race against ERP competitors Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

As the largest ERP vendor, SAP makes the software that runs much of the world's business. And whenever SAP makes a major change in its product portfolio, its customers often must scramble to adapt. No change in the past two decades has had more impact than SAP's decision to replace its popular ERP Central Component (ECC) software and related Business Suite applications with S/4HANA, a new generation of ERP that only runs on SAP's HANA in-memory database. SAP is also pushing customers to change deployment models by moving off Business Suite and the first incarnation of S/4HANA – both of which run on premises – to cloud versions of S/4HANA. More recently, the technological tsunami from the 2022 introduction of generative AI is transforming the SAP product portfolio yet again. Since 1991, Americas' SAP User Group (ASUG) has strived to help members through such changes with networking events, education and research on SAP products while serving as their advocate with SAP. ASUG claims to be the world's largest SAP user group with 130,000 members across North America. In this podcast, ASUG CEO Geoff Scott shares member feedback and his personal take on SAP S/4HANA, cloud migration and generative AI with TechTarget Industry Editor David Essex and News Writer Jim O'Donnell. Scott, who has been ASUG CEO since January 2014, came from senior IT roles that involved implementing and managing enterprise applications from SAP, Oracle and other vendors. He was CIO of TOMS, a footwear and apparel maker, and JBS, a global meat processor and distributor. Prior to that, he was a senior IT manager at Ford, after being CIO of Edcor Data Services and a consultant at PwC. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: what to expect from the upcoming Sapphire conference in Orlando, which ASUG co-sponsors with SAPthe success of the Rise with SAP and Grow with SAP services for moving to S/4HANAhow ASUG manages its relationship with SAP to keep customer concerns front and center Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

E-learning technologies, such as online courses, instructional videos and augmented reality apps, are in hot demand at corporations. Much of that demand is driven by the sheer number and complexity of the software applications employees must learn to use. It's a massive training and onboarding challenge, one that many organizations are addressing with a digital adoption platform (DAP), a layer of software that works inside applications to guide users through their daily tasks. The market for DAPs is growing, according to research firms Gartner and IDC. Companies are using DAPs to streamline employee onboarding, speed up training, foster compliance and even handle some tech support. DAPs are also becoming important tools in digital transformation initiatives. In this podcast, Krishna Dunthoori, founder and CEO of Apty, explains how DAPs work and how organizations are using them. Apty, founded in 2018, specializes in making DAPs to ease the adoption and use of enterprise applications, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday and Microsoft Dynamics ERP. Dunthoori was previously founder and CEO of Excers Inc., which provides professional services for project portfolio management and enterprise software implementation. Before that, he was a solutions architect at the World Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.   Other topics discussed in the podcast include: using DAPs in change managementwhere DAPs fit in learning and development strategiesApty's plans to add generative AI to its platform Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

For years, artificial intelligence has helped to improve customer service by making automated chatbots more intelligent and enabling voice-controlled phone menus. But now the human-like communication abilities of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are helping contact-center agents find quick answers for customers. And despite AI's reputation as a soulless automaton, the newest generation of AI could instead help humanize customer service by letting agents spend less time searching for information so they can be more attentive to the feelings and needs of customers. In this podcast, Brian McKenna, senior analyst of business applications at TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), shares the results of a recent ESG survey in which IT professionals revealed their contact-center challenges and technology plans. He explains the most common use cases of AI in customer service, names some of the leading vendors and gives his take on where the top-line business benefits will be.   McKenna is based in the London office of TechTarget, where he helps to direct ESG's analyst services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, covering business applications, information management and cybersecurity topics. Until recently, he was the longtime business applications editor at TechTarget's ComputerWeekly. He holds a degree in History and English from the University of Glasgow and a doctorate from the University of Oxford. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: whether generative AI threatens contact center jobswhere contact centers fit in overall IT spendingthe risks of using AI in customer service Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

Organizations are quickly realizing that AI -- especially generative AI with its human-like creative and analytical capabilities -- raises legal, ethical and managerial issues that must be addressed before it can be deployed responsibly. Workers also need extensive training in developing and using generative AI chatbots, text generation and other applications to ensure the technology supports and amplifies human talent and potential instead of eliminating jobs. In this podcast, Balakrishna D.R. (who goes by Bali), executive vice president and head of AI and automation at Infosys, a global IT services and consulting firm, shares his extensive experience in implementing AI in large enterprises. He names the most common uses of AI by Infosys clients and offers best practices, including setting up a responsible AI office to establish trust and transparency, and adopting an AI-first operating model to take full advantage of the technology. Bali leads internal applications of AI at Infosys and has managed large programs for Fortune 500 clients across a variety of industries. He joined the podcast from India – coincidentally on his 30th anniversary as an Infosys employee. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: * how Infosys implements responsible AI in its own operations * the importance of U.S. President Joe Biden's executive order calling for standards for AI safety, security and privacy * the role of AI in ERP systems * AI's possible impact on human potential Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

In most discussions about digital transformation, cloud ERP usually plays a critical role. ERP is the digital nervous system and data repository of a business, deeply embedded in the processes likely to be impacted by a digital transformation project. And cloud ERP is now the preferred – sometimes the only – option for adding the other technologies needed to truly transform the business, such as AI, analytics, e-commerce, team collaboration and CRM. But does that mean digital transformation always requires taking on the substantial challenges of moving to a new, cloud-based ERP system for companies that have on-premises ERP? In this podcast, ERP consultant Eric Kimberling, CEO of Third Stage Consulting Group, shares his advice and experience in using cloud ERP for digital transformation. Kimberling has long been a contrarian about the need for cloud ERP – a rarity among industry analysts and consultants -- especially the software-as-a-service variety. He explains why his skepticism about SaaS ERP has softened and how he helps clients decide which parts of their business to move to the cloud.   Kimberling has more than two decades of experience helping organizations implement major ERP brands, including SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and Infor, and is often called as an expert witness in legal cases. His latest book, "The Final Countdown: Strategies to Reach the Third Stage of Digital Transformation” came out in 2023. Other topics discussed in the podcast include: * the most common things people get wrong about digital transformation * whether transformation is possible with a less ambitious "lift and shift" of on-premises ERP to a public cloud hosting provider * examples of clients who have taken transformation the furthest * lessons learned from writing the book Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

Hybrid ERP combines on-premises ERP for common business processes like accounting and HR, with cloud applications – typically software as a service (SaaS) – for more specialized functions, such as customer experience or field-service management -- or even a second ERP for a new subsidiary. Why deploy hybrid ERP, and what type of enterprise architecture do you need? In this podcast, Iain Saunderson, chief technology officer of Spinnaker Support, explains the practical issues of hybrid ERP. Saunderson has over 30 years of experience implementing complex technologies across a wide variety of commercial and government verticals. He has served in leadership roles in companies including Oracle and P2 Energy Solutions. In 2015, he joined Spinnaker Support, a third-party provider of maintenance and managed services for SAP and Oracle ERP and databases as well as Salesforce CRM.  Other topics discussed in the podcast include: * How hybrid ERP can extend the life of on-premises ERP * Whether companies use hybrid ERP to ease their transition to all-cloud ERP * Integration challenges of deploying hybrid ERP * How to decide which business processes to keep on premises and which ones should run in the cloud Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

Intelligent Voice CTO Nigel Cannings explains how AI-based speech-to-text technology can catch criminals, protect privacy and ensure regulatory compliance.