Tag Archives: Transformation
A data transformation problem in SQL and Scala: Dovetailing declarative solutions
Part I: Problem Space, SQL Server Simulation and Analysis
This article covers an interesting approach to a software problem. The software to be built must transform data in an operating system file. Would it make sense to include SQL Server in the development environment?
Solving problems first in T-SQL provides result sets against which software results can be compared. Adding to that, query execution plans may serve as blueprints for software development.
In this Part I of the series, I’ll fashion business rules, requirements, and sample data into a denormalized table and query. The query’s WHERE clause includes several logical operators, but its query plan is trivial. To get one that can serve as a software design model, I’ll rewrite the query’s logical connectives as their set operator equivalents. The new query plan is more complex but suggests a logical approach for the software effort.
In Part II, you’ll see T-SQL components realized as structures you know: lists, sets, and maps. What you may not know, though, is how to code algorithms declaratively – e.g. without long-winded loops. The software makes extensive use of map functions, which take functions as arguments and are supported to varying degrees in many Visual Studio languages.
For this article, you’ll need development experience in a relational database and some knowledge of relational theory. For the next, any experience in an imperative or declarative language suffices. Though I’ve written the code in Scala and solely in the functional paradigm, I hope to present just enough background for you to grasp the core strategy of the solutions.
You can download the complete files for both articles.
Problem Space: Ice Cream
Ice cream manufacturers and retailers, whom I’ll refer to as makers, purvey many flavors. Here are the business rules:
- There is a many-to-many relationship between makers and flavors.
- There is a many-to-one relationship from flavor to base flavor (functional dependency: flavor → base flavor).
The term base flavor is an article device not an industry standard.
Participation is mandatory in both. This illustration shows the relationships for five of twelve rows from the operating system file in entity-occurrence style:
Figure 1. Many-to-many and many-to-one relationships
This is the statement of the data manipulation requirement to be done on the operating system file in software:
For rows in which maker names end in ‘Creamery’ or the base flavor is Vanilla, further restrict these to their flavors being Mint, Coffee, or Vanilla. Return result for all three columns.
The reference to maker name of suffix ‘Creamery’ will result in a non-searchable argument (SARG) that will be handled transparently by the T-SQL but must be addressed directly in the software.
There is a subtle incongruity between the business rules and the data transformation requirement. Do you see it? The file and table will have the same twelve mockup rows but imagine thousands in a real project and how this could impact performance. I’ll point out the issue and resolve it later in a query and take what was learned when developing the software.
Problem Space: The Ice Cream Database
The goal of the table in the simulation database simply is to mirror the data in the file. The many-to-many relationship implies that (Maker, Flavor) is the sole candidate key. Since flavor → base flavor, the table would not be normalized; in fact, it is an intersection table in violation of 2NF. Further, there are no foreign keys or other tables as they would add nothing for the software design.
Figure 2. File sample rows having redundancies – not in 2NF
Denormalization is visible in rows 5 and 6 and in 11 and 12. The non-clustered covering index (added post-population) will give a better query execution plan (query plan). More importantly, it will be matched by a key structure in the software – I’m tuning the database only to the extent that it will be relevant later.
Figure 3. Denormalized intersection table and covering index creation
All database work was done in Azure Data Studio connecting to a local copy of SQL Server 2019. The script is in the download.
Solution Space: T-SQL Queries
The first goal is to create a result set against which the software result can be verified. Adhering to the business rules and requirements, the query constrains on four logical (Boolean-valued) operators, LIKE, IN, AND, and OR:
Figure 4. Original query that creates rowset for software verification
This is the query outcome over the sample rows:
Figure 5. Verification rowset with single-step query plan.
The Index Seek operator over the covering index expands the IN() operator, which implies logical OR, into Seek Keys (for a range scan count of 3), and further constrains on the Predicate as expected:
Figure 6. Bottom part of expansion for Index Seek operator
All is correct to this point, and I can convert the index into a structure that will be used twice in software. However, the trivial query plan is not as useful as it could be. Relational theory is based on set theory, and the query rewrites next will more directly reflect this. This is important because the transformation algorithms in the software will all be set-based.
Query Rewrite I
The second goal, as you recall, is to fashion a query whose query plan will serve as a model for the software design. The trick I’ll employ is to replace the logical connectives OR and AND with their T-SQL equivalent set operators UNION and INTERSECT.
Figure 7. Query rewrite using set-based operators
It produces the detailed query plan I’m looking for:
Figure 8. Query plan for Figure 7
The outer input uses the same non-clustered covering index and Seek Keys for range scans (scan count remains 3) as the original query but without the Predicate. Instead, each outer row directly joins via Nested Loops (Inner Join) on all columns to the rowset produced by the union of the Creamery and base flavor rows (discussed next). The Nested Loops operator, then, accomplishes a row-by-row set intersection.
In the inner input to Nested Loops, the upper Clustered Index Seek on the primary key is for the LIKE(% Creamery) condition. Although the value to the LIKE logical operator is a non-SARG, a true index seek range scan (not table scan) is done on each outer row’s (Maker, Flavor) prefix, during which the LIKE Predicate can be applied. The lower Clustered Index Seek parallels the upper, differing only in the predicate condition: BaseFlavor = N‘Vanilla.’ Since the Inner Join is done on the superkey – i.e. all columns – and since flavor → base flavor, either lower input branch can produce at most one row. If both produce a row, they must, therefore, be the same row.
The Concatenation simply appends one output to the other – think UNION ALL in T-SQL. To get the T-SQL UNION, then, the Stream Aggregate (Aggregate) operator collapses duplicates via grouping (and no aggregate expressions are computed). Specifically, both Concatenation and Stream Aggregate show only the same Output List, which consists of column header Union 1004, Union 1005, and Union 1006, and their rows are returned to the query.
This query plan lends all the information needed to create index simulators and filter and map operations and algorithms in the software. An optimization, though, remains unaddressed – so almost all.
Query Rewrite II
There is no index on the BaseFlavor column, but in the middle subquery from Figure 7 above, BaseFlavor is constrained on value ‘Vanilla.’ This suggests that the lower-level software might need a data structure(s) and algorithm(s) to support the restriction. To start the analysis, I’ll create this covering index, which parallels that on the Flavor column:
Figure 9. Covering index on BaseFlavor key
The proposed index has no effect on the query plan in Figure 8 above, nor the original query plan in Figure 5. This is not proof, though, that separate resources are not needed in software to enforce the restriction.
The next illustration shows the subquery run in isolation. A minor point is that the Query Optimizer chooses an Index Seek on the new index in place of an Index Scan using IX_MakerFlavor_Flavor. The central point is that subqueries that form part of a larger, single-statement T-SQL query will be translated into individual software resources that can and will be accessed in isolation.
Figure 10. Query in lower half of UNION run in isolation
Now rerun the query but this time constrain the ‘Vanilla’ value by the Flavor column:
Figure 11. Constraining on Flavor column yields two fewer rows
This is not an idle thought experiment. The former result set contains two extraneous rows – column Flavor values being ‘French Vanilla’ and ‘Cherry Vanilla’ – that are not in the result set from Figure 4. The software effort needs a decision as to which constraint to enforce. Whether in queries or software transformations, performance is better served when rows not needed are culled early. The question I posed early on regarding the mismatch between the business rules and requirement can now be restated: Can the restriction on BaseFlavor be replaced by that on Flavor and still be correct?
Constraining on the one side of a many-to-one relationship as does the top query form (BaseFlavor) is not wrong per se but is the root of the performance issue here. A business rule, however, signals the solution. The second states flavor → base flavor. Given this, and since the query’s set intersection operation removes rows not matching on the Flavor column, the T-SQL can constrain on the many side (Flavor) without affecting correctness. The implication for software is that it obviates the need for special structures – those for simulating the proposed index to start the section – and handling (algorithms), as will be made clear in Part II.
Figure 12. Query in final form
Testing: A Note on the Sample Data
Say set A denotes the rows produced by the query that restricts on the three flavor names and set B the rows from the union of the two other queries. Given the sample data, it happens that A B and hence B ∩ A = A. Therefore, the query on flavor names alone yields the same result as the full query and the knowledge of which can aid testing.
It is important to realize that this outcome is entirely data-dependent. The proper subset relationship may not hold over an operating system file having different data, and the software will make no assumptions regarding this limited analysis. In general, it is never a good idea to deduce business rules from data that can change over time. With that caveat in mind, sample runs done here and in software over these rows can only boost confidence in results.
In Conclusion
You saw how business rules and software requirement were mapped to a single intersection relational table in which normalization and referential integrity were nonessential. The initial query on the table provided the rowset against which the software result could be verified, but its query plan was inadequate as a pattern from which the software design could proceed.
Rewrites using T-SQL set operators did yield a query plan as software blueprint and provided other insights as well, chief among them the optimization of the base flavor column.
Last Word
Neither loops nor branches were used in any of the T-SQL work, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. They are – visible underneath in the query plans, which describe the process steps (operators and data flow) the SQL Server database engine follows to produce results. A salient example of looping is the Nested Loops operator used in the T-SQL rewrite query plan to match each outer row to an inner row, i.e. perform the INTERSECT. This style of coding, in which the logic of the computation is expressed rather than the lower-level control flow detail, is declarative programming, and is a major theme of this series. (The latter being imperative programming.)
The next article, which uses functional programming to solve the series’ problem, continues in this vein. The logic written to the map and filter functions encapsulated in the data structures is again compact and elegant, even as the compiler translates it to control flow statements.
Translating insights gained here into functional programming will be straightforward but not paint-by-numbers simple. You may have found this discussion challenging – I hope stimulating – and may find Part II the same as well.
An Insider’s View of Data-Driven Business Transformation in the Nordics
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Home to over 27 million people and comprising five sovereign countries including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, I find the Nordics to be one of the most interesting and innovative regions in the world.
Its unique geography is diverse with Lapland’s conifer forests, Norway’s fjords, and Iceland’s volcanic landscape contrasting sharply with cosmopolitan Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, and Stockholm. Home to world-leading industrial firms such as ASEA/ABB, Jotun, and Volvo; leading energy firm Equinor; and world-class innovators such as Ericsson, Nokia, Novo Nordisk, and Spotify, the region is incredibly prosperous.
Like the rest of the world, data is transforming the landscape of how Nordics citizens live and work, how commerce occurs, how its governments engage, and so much more. Accelerating this transformation is Enfo, TIBCO’s strategic partner and exclusive reseller of TIBCO solutions in the Nordic and Baltic Countries.
To better understand data-driven innovation in the Nordics, I reached out to Enfo Group’s Björn Arkenfall, Executive Vice President.
Hallå Björn. Let’s start with a little background on Enfo Group?
“We are a Nordic IT service company enabling our client’s data-driven business transformation. With our deep expertise across hybrid platforms, information management and applications, we bring together relevant data for more intelligent operations that drive long-term business value. Because data is where the magic happens, we help our clients optimize how they manage, refine, analyze, and use data. Our 900 experts pride ourselves in our ability to master complexity, build and run transformative digital solutions, and support our over 370 customers with genuine care.”
Tell me about your TIBCO partnership.
“We have been working with TIBCO for over 18 years, initially focused on enterprise application integration, service-oriented architecture, events, messaging, and other capabilities that optimize our client’s operations. This integration foundation has continued to evolve in line with technology change, so today this domain includes significant work in REST, JSON, API management, and of course cloud migration. Over time, as TIBCO added analytics capabilities and a broad set of data management solutions, we also added these to our solution mix.”
Over 370 customers across the Nordics! That should give Enfo an excellent vantage point on the kinds of data-driven transformation underway. How are Nordics organizations transforming today?
“I would say, in general, that Nordics organizations have moved quickly to adopt data-driven business transformation. Fastest are newer, smaller companies that have less legacy infrastructure and can build modern data-driven business processes from the start. While older larger companies started transforming sooner, they have more to do. As an example, in 2013 we helped one of our customers move all event-based integrations and analytics to the cloud. That was really early and has proved to be a great foundation for continued transformations.”
It seems data is a key enabler. But data can be troublesome. How do you help your clients overcome typical data challenges?
“Our clients understand that the data produced by everyday activities can be worth more than gold. But their data is scattered in multiple places and often unavailable when they need it most. They are not sure the data is reliable, or struggle to combine it. Complying with data management regulations requires a lot of effort. And data ownership might be unclear, too.
We help them combine, refine, and analyze their data on the road to transformative business value. Our success formula combines several key elements including:
- A more holistic approach to data management that spans data engineering, data management, and data analytics disciplines.
- Modern data management solutions, such as TIBCO’s master data management and data virtualization offerings that build on legacy data investments rather than rip and replace them.
- A clear data architecture vision that takes advantage of the cloud and all the other great data storage and processing options available today.
- To make the above work in a synchronized, business-driven way, we have our Enfo Baseline(R) best practices that help our clients move faster based on our experiences.
- Plus a deep bench of talented architects, developers, project managers, and more that complement our clients’ internal teams.”
Based on the customer cases on your website, your approach appears to drive huge business impact. Can you share a few highlights?
“Taking care not to exploit sensitive competitive information, here are a few examples. We have helped retail clients optimize their logistics to reduce supply chain costs. We have also helped them engage with their end-customers in a more personalized, data-driven way to increase revenues.
We have helped hospitality clients use data to optimize customer experiences. For example, we helped a hotel chain capture and analyze restaurant data to optimize service levels and reduce food waste, resulting in happier guests, lower costs, and a greener business model.
Making decisions faster is something all our clients care about these days. We help them remove classic batch delays to make their data more available, more widely, sooner.”
Because data is where the magic happens, we help our clients optimize how they manage, refine, analyze, and use data. Click To Tweet
If Nordics based organizations wanted to explore data-driven business transformation opportunities with Enfo, how do they reach you?
“Readers can contact us directly to start a conversation about their data-driven business transformation opportunities and how Enfo can help. We also regularly publish blogs, hold webinars, and write papers about data-driven opportunities and use cases.
Why Digital Transformation Is Essential to Improve Business Outcomes
Peak commercial performance — it’s what all organizations strive to reach. At the most baseline level, we’re talking about sustained, profitable growth. But while talking about it seems easy enough, actually getting there is another story.
Businesses that have cracked the code adapted to meet the evolving needs of the customer in spite of the increasing complexity of an ever-changing economy.
Doing so successfully requires them to find ways to accelerate revenue and manage key relationships, while tackling the complexity that threatens to slow them down.
The Keys to Digital Transformation
If you look at who’s winning in the market, it’s the companies that not only embraced digital transformation early, but also made it a core building block of their foundation moving forward.
So, what does it take to win today? The most successful companies have five key things in common:
1. Analyzing top-down to know where to start a digital transformation journey.
It is important to fully understand “who” the company is today, and how it has changed over time or under the current circumstances. Once companies understand this, they are in a better position to reshape business architectures in a way that best aligns with business goals.
Another option is to work with a third-party vendor to perform an audit of the company. This will help to get an unbiased view on where a company can improve. A vendor would also be able to provide industry best practices on what similar businesses have done to become more efficient.
2. Securing buy-in from all teams, especially company leaders.
Cultural transformation is the key to digital transformation success. One of the biggest challenges companies face when implementing new digital strategies is ensuring all team members are on board. This can be done through strong and clear internal communication. Outlining clear key performance indicators that will help show benefits such as increased sales effectiveness, customer satisfaction, and revenue, will help everyone involved understand why changes must be made.
When company leaders are on board, they can help act as advocates for projects and initiatives, while encouraging and rewarding agility amongst the rest of the teams involved. It is also crucial to provide training on any new technologies prior to implementation, while continuing to support and tend to any questions, and troubleshooting as new strategies are being rolled out.
3. Meeting customers wherever they are in their digital transformation journey.
The popular adage ‘patience is a virtue’ doesn’t apply when achieving peak commercial performance is the end goal. Doing business gets harder every day because the ever-increasing complexities of a changing economy causes friction between companies and their customers.
Victory goes to those who are impatient and challenging the status quo with new business models that leverage digital transformation for speed. Those who can remove that friction are performing disproportionately well, even in the unpredictable times we are in today.
The secret to removing friction is meeting customers wherever they are in their digital transformation journey. This applies to businesses of all types across various industries — from small retailers trying to bridge the technological gap with their older buyers, to large manufacturers that want to simplify complex purchase and fulfillment processes.
Winning businesses are transforming the way customers do this by meeting them where they are on the journey and enabling them to provide an enjoyable and frictionless customer experience.
4. Making customers business-agile so they can move at the speed of their customers.
Another key component of digital transformation is the ability to move at the speed of the customer. Businesses that get it right invest in ways that will get the customer from Point A to Point B as quickly and painlessly as possible. This requires an understanding that it’s less about features and functions and more about removing screens, clicks, and other bottlenecks.
For example, consider Door Dash’s success over the past six months. While the food delivery service was doing well prior to COVID-19, it’s been doing even better during shelter-in-place and quarantine. Door Dash understood the points of friction in their customer’s journey and implemented things like touchless payment and contactless pickup.
Today, the volume of its pickup business is growing by double digits as a result of removing friction and enabling customers to pay for and receive their meals sooner. Success requires moving faster to meet customer needs today while simultaneously increasing agility to prepare for an uncertain tomorrow.
5. Providing customers with resources for an all-digital, work-from-anywhere world.
Remaining agile in a dynamic market requires the ability to go fast in a straight line while also navigating around corners with confidence. This is especially important as companies grow and dodge inevitable curve balls during their digital transformation efforts.
For example, today we must provide customers with the resources they need to succeed in an all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. Because let’s face it, even when the pandemic is under control, the return to the office will never look like what it used to. Businesses that invest in ways to help customers tackle complexity with confidence add capabilities under the hood to make features and functions faster, more dependable, and scalable.
Conclusion
High-performing businesses reach peak commercial performance by reducing friction in customer interactions in the face of a market with increasing complexity. Those who can meet their customers at any point on their digital transformation journey to help them move at the speed of their customers in an all-digital, work-from-anywhere world, are set up for success today and well into an uncertain tomorrow.
Eric Carrasquilla is SVP of Product at Conga, where he is responsible for the vision, design, and delivery of Conga product portfolio. Eric has over 20 years of experience building, launching, and monetizing enterprise grade applications that deliver successful customer experiences. Prior to Conga, Eric served as SVP of Product at Model N where he led the strategy to identify and drive the right angle to enter markets and dominate them with innovative products and solutions. He has also held various product and marketing leadership roles at [24]7.ai, Amdocs, Baan, and Fujitsu. Eric holds an MBA from Santa Clara University and a BS in Marketing from San Jose State University.
Accelerate Your Digital Transformation with PowerBanking [VIDEO]
PowerObjects currently partners with many of the largest retail and commercial banks globally, empowering them to deliver omnichannel customer service, business process automation, and intelligent customer insights. All while enabling banks to adhere to stringent data protection and governance policies. And we can do it for your bank, as well! Why are we so successful helping banks transform…
Overcome the Most Common Roadblocks to Digital Transformation
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Your digital business is constantly changing: customer demands are shifting, as are the means of production and operation. To support effortless experiences, new business opportunities, and real-time intelligence, your business needs to be agile. However, transforming into a digital business that enables agility is not easy. You have a lot of legacy architecture and a culture that’s just not ready to change. Fortunately, you now have two resources to help you overcome any roadblocks you might be facing in your digital transformation efforts.
Both Gartner and TIBCO have recognized the most common roadblocks to digital transformation and have laid out manageable road maps of how to overcome them. Using both the Gartner report (talked about below) and the TIBCO solution (the TIBCO Responsive Application Mesh blueprint), you can become a truly agile, digital business, regardless of your current technology debt or any other hurdle that may be preventing you from becoming a digital organization.
To begin, Gartner explains three application architecture trends that you can use today to facilitate transformation, modernize your application portfolio, and deliver new capabilities. The three modern application architecture trends that they recommend you adopt to help transform are:
Mesh App and Service Architecture (MASA)
First, you must build a mesh app and service architecture (MASA) that provides fundamental architectural capabilities that enable applications to multi-channel experiences. It responds rapidly to digital business demands such as agility, shared business capabilities, security, and resiliency. As digital business depends on a flexible application portfolio that enables effortless experiences, supports new ways of doing business, and makes the most of new technologies, now is the time to implement a MASA in your organization.
API Platform
Your organization needs APIs that enable access to the services that implement your business capabilities and data. However, It is not enough to just create APIs; you must also manage and govern your APIs and pull them together into a platform of shared business capabilities. You need a full lifecycle management API platform and strategy to design, build, publish, advertise, and manage your APIs.
Event Processing
The fast pace of modern business requires that organizations improve their real-time awareness and decision making. Event driven architectures have proven to be a differentiator for those businesses that have taken the time to learn and deploy them. They deliver intelligent insights gleaned from event processing solutions detecting and responding to patterns in business operations, often in real time. Event processing is an old concept that has never really taken off in many enterprises, mainly due to its apparent complexity. However, embracing this type of architecture in a phased way can greatly speed up your digital transformation efforts.
TIBCO Can Help You Transform into a Digital Business
According to Gartner, to build business agility and transform into a digital business you need to start with three modern application architectures: MASA, an API-platform, and event processing. These provide the foundation for rapid innovation—one that is API-led and event-driven to maximize connectivity and take action on events in the business as they occur in real-time.
To help your organization take advantage of these modern application architectures, TIBCO has devised an easy to use blueprint, called the TIBCO Responsive Application Mesh. This blueprint can help you efficiently build a technology foundation that will enable agility, regardless of your current infrastructure and technology debt. Meaning – if you use the TIBCO Responsive Application Mesh, you don’t have to throw away what you already have. We will help you transform no matter what roadblocks you may face.
To support effortless experiences, new business opportunities, and real-time intelligence, your business needs to be agile. Click To Tweet
Digital businesses are constantly demanding new application capabilities. Thus, application leaders should work to modernize their application infrastructure with the latest trends to enable these capabilities. Read this report from Gartner and learn about the TIBCO Responsive App Mesh to learn how you can implement modern application architecture trends to facilitate transformation regardless of your current situation.
People-First Leadership: Shock, Transition, Transformation
In Navigating Change in Crisis, we explore how individuals and companies are adapting to a “new normal” in order to keep essential services functioning. We provide actionable advice around how organizations, and ultimately the builders of data and analytic apps, are adapting to meet these changes. These insights aim to help you and your team navigate these unprecedented times.
There’s more on the line today than ever before — for people, businesses, and their leaders. A steady hand navigating uncharted waters is a must. Leaders who prioritize people first can mean the difference between success and failure.
In the COVID era, human connections have become even more vital. People-first leadership means bringing positivity to a world where we are all experiencing countless challenges. This leadership style can lead to increased productivity, performance, employee retention, and an overall positive work culture.
In our recent Sisense webinar, People-First Leadership During a Crisis: Shock, Transition and Transformation, Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, joined Amir Orad, Chief Executive Officer at Sisense, and Nurit Shiber, Chief People Officer at Sisense, to discuss the keys to building a robust people-first leadership strategy when companies are faced with new and unexpected challenges.
Managing during crisis: Focusing on the human
People-first leadership means acknowledging that we are all human and experiencing a generation-defining trauma right now, regardless of position. Being honest and transparent about what’s happening throughout the business is essential.
Successful leaders understand that during a crisis it’s crucial to be:
- Human
- Optimistic yet Realistic
- Vulnerable
- Empathetic
- Decisive
“As leaders, we can share that we are going through these challenges as well. For example, everyone has experienced a bad wifi connection and it’s easy to feel embarrassed. But it’s important to remember that it’s ok because it’s showing a vulnerability that we all have and are experiencing.”
Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight
Become the “Chief Empathy Officer”
As a people-first leader, your job isn’t to be the “Chief Cheerleader” but to understand that everyone has unique situations and perspectives. Being empathetic about where your people are at right now is key to your success as a leader. You have to be conscious of how you deliver information and how people perceive it. Emphasizing the need for your workers to engage in self-care and leading by example is necessary for the future of the business.
“We owe it to our customers and employees to give our best, so we need to be successful at balancing extreme work/not extreme work. For our sanity, we implemented ‘Self-Care’ days across the company to balance the extreme work efforts that Sisensers naturally obtain, so we don’t burn ourselves out.”
Amir Orad, CEO at Sisense
Balance your decisions and consider key trade-offs
With people’s wellbeings and livelihoods at stake, it’s important to understand the “trade-off” of being empathetic, while still setting your company up for business success with extra preparation. Having open discussions with your management team on how to push their teams to perform at their highest potential, while being cognizant of the personal issues that everyone might be dealing with is important.
“The trade-offs are always challenging because what’s at stake is people’s livelihoods, long-term and short-term success, and balancing people’s well being and health without being overburned with what’s going on.”
Amir Orad, Chief Executive Officer at Sisense
Maximizing performance during crisis
Understanding that there are things you can and can’t control is crucial in times of crisis. While you can control the quality of presentations, the amount of outreach, and the research and preparation going into demos, you can’t control your customers’ and prospects’ new decision processes post-COVID-19.
“We’re doing more account reviews, more celebration of the pipeline, and more all-around around preparation to set ourselves up for success post-COVID-19.”
Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight
Shifting focus: Finding new ways to give back
When approaching new initiatives in the COVID-era, shifting energy to focus on ways you can help your customers survive, and new ways to connect with them in this new reality is vital. With more companies using analytics to pivot during the pandemic, Sisense has taken the initiative to offer a COVID-19 relief package for customers.
“During the COVID-era, we have shifted more energy into thinking about the community and helping institutions fight COVID with free products and offerings.”
Amir Orad, Chief Executive Officer at Sisense
Focusing on the future and innovation, while adapting to the present, starts with people-first leadership. To strive and thrive in times of crisis you need to balance your company’s need for financial durability with a focus on the health and well being of your employees and maintaining customer-obsession.
For more tips on people-first leadership during crisis, watch the full on-demand webinar.
Nurit Shiber leads our organizational strategy, operations and developing our people and culture. Previously, Nurit was the VP of Human Resources at NICE Actimize where she helped double the employee base worldwide while building strong leadership and organizational foundations. Nurit is best known for cultivating strong company culture, building human-centric people functions and building teams to help companies scale.
API Success: The Journey to Digital Transformation
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Application programming interfaces, or APIs, enable external and internal consumers to seamlessly access, interact, and engage with a company’s data and functions. APIs essentially bind different parts of a value chain together even though the underlying components may be based on different systems, technology, or supplied by different vendors.
The use of APIs can be easily seen in the marketplace through the web of interconnectivity developing between popular SaaS and PaaS providers, along with partners and the developer community. For instance, the customer service management platform Service Now can interact via APIs with the customer master data in your NetSuite customer relationship management (CRM) system so when a customer calls your organization, all of the caller’s correct details are readily available. You know who they are and you don’t keep them frustrated on the phone for 10 minutes while you type in all their information.
APIs make the needed information readily accessible, promote the rapid development of new capabilities, and even greatly reduce the amount of rework required should you switch to a different vendor or datasource. Or, another example of the power of APIs is how your corporate travel site can “talk” to Trip Advisor (via APIs, of course!) to help manage your itinerary, share feedback on the hotel or airline, and help you sync travel plans with colleagues or customers.
The Power of APIs
When companies have access to data and functions via APIs, it empowers them to make smarter decisions, improve customer satisfaction, drive innovation, and identify new areas of business. In fact, many businesses have identified APIs as their largest enabler of digital transformation strategies. According to Harvard Business Review, Expedia.com, for instance, generates 50% of its revenue through APIs and eBay, 60%. The benefits of using APIs are many, including enabling new digital products, reducing time to market, opening new partner opportunities, enhancing customer experiences, and preparing for the future.
To reap the full benefits of all that APIs have to offer, your organization’s API strategy should reflect the key business drivers and goals upon which you are focusing in the market today. Say, for example, you supply a network of large companies with components. And they use an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system like SAP. Ideally, you would provide them with API endpoints so their order management system can talk to your order management system without any manual intervention, leading to automation and a lot of time saved. But how do you build an API strategy that will enable this digital transformation?
Developing a Successful API Program
Developing an API program is a significant undertaking that can have a profound impact on your organization. Because it can drive new products, new innovation, new customers, and new revenue streams, it’s not a task to take lightly. Even though APIs are important, many companies still struggle. We have found that it’s not enough to just start using APIs. In our experience, organizations that establish a comprehensive API strategy, whether the APIs are being consumed internally or externally, are the most successful.
For starters, you need to plan your API strategy like it’s a new business. That includes:
- Aligning to the business goals
- Identifying supporting technology
- Measuring performance
- Engaging your ecosystem
Aligning the business goals with the API program is important, as is identifying the appropriate use of technology and supporting architectures. KPIs are for measuring the success of the API program and ensuring that it is meeting the goals of the business. And engaging the ecosystem is important, whether this is for external API consumers or even internal API developers. It is important to know and understand your audience, what capabilities they need, how to support this audience, and how to build an effective communication plan for your program.
As you can see, building a successful API program is not just about technology. You need to define the foundation of your API program in terms of its strategy, monetization approach, target audience, goals, etc. And then evaluate and find an appropriate technology upon which you can execute the API lifecycle. Think about it. It’s like any other product that you produce. You wouldn’t launch a new product without a go-to-market strategy, would you? APIs are the same. They need nurturing and support to grow into their full potential.
In his new, easy-to-use book, “API Success: The Journey to Digital Transformation,” API and tech expert Nelson Petracek sets out the criteria, questions, and thought processes you need to consider to build and deliver a successful API strategy that is technology-agnostic. Petracek draws on his decades of customer use cases and interactions to layout a guide that your company can use to create and run a successful API program.
Global Supply Chain Management For A Rapid And Dynamic Transformation Environment
Large corporations with global operations define their global supply chains with the intent to match supply with demand. More importantly, they consider material flows, established manufacturing and co-manufacturing sites, storage locations, cash flows, technological advantages and restrictions, regulations, tax benefits, and market opportunities.
These supply chain operations run in technology systems of record, planning and analytical applications, and global trade management systems that support solutions to resolve a complex set of regulations to maintain compliance with export and import processes.
Many use global intelligent transfer price supply chain (GITSC) business processes to:
- Optimize the landed costs for every product to the customer destination
- Define the total costs of ownership
- Define the relationship with the market and customers in terms of customer acceptance
- Understand and manage customer satisfaction and market share
Here is an example of a GITSC that represents the flow of a product manufactured in China, reprocessed in the European Union, and finally sold in the United States of America.
The transfer pricing strategy in this model shows how the product flow gains tax advantages by using operational ports in Singapore and the Netherlands to offload the tax revenue.
In this example, the GITSC model shows that the total global tax accumulated is $ 29.50, for a total accumulated profit of $ 611.50. If the same supply chain did not use the tax advantages of Singapore and the Netherlands, the estimated tax rate would be $ 192.30, with a net profit of $ 448.30. This example GITSC offers an 85% reduction in tax payments and 36.30% net revenue increase.
The following figure shows the GITSC transfer pricing model in blue and the standard supply chain transfer pricing model in yellow.
Companies running GITSC models implement business processes supported by IT systems that allow the execution of transactional operations to comply with tax, foreign trade, and customs regulations.
Areas of opportunity for global intelligent transfer price supply chains
The first area of opportunity is the inclusion of an intelligent business system that supports decision-making to manage changes in the supply chain. This is both a challenge and an area of opportunity. These business-intelligence systems rely on the ability to collect transactional data across the supply chain. The objective of increasing the current analytical capabilities of the supply chain is to maximize global after-tax profits by determining the flow of goods and the transportation cost allocation between each of the supply-chain actors. The inclusion of simulation models is the first attempt to stabilize the decision making, with the changes inflicted on the supply chain elements, and the addition of artificial intelligence heuristic expert systems.
The second area of opportunity is to enhance current GITSCs based on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. The opportunity lies in managing the supply chain ecosystem, not in an isolated and disintegrated industry ecosystem model.
This industrial ecosystem integration is considered the most important priority to enable supply chain ecosystems to efficiently operate in this new reality characterized by fast, dynamic changes.
Join us in our exclusive webinar session on May 19 to get an overview of the SAP Readiness Check tool, which gives a first analysis of your existing SAP ERP application, highlighting key project activities.
Digital Culture And Enablement In Finance Transformation Journeys
Part of the “Digital Finance Transformation” series that provides a framework for CFOs to move forward confidently on the journey toward digital transformation
In finance transformation journeys, one of the hardest parts is to create a positive climate that supports an innovative environment for change. This is one of the most mentioned key issues within the area of finance transformation. Digital innovation in business areas like logistics or sales is promoted much more heavily and therefore they serve as attractive role models for finance. Creating a tailored change-management plan that considers the organization’s culture is crucial for all CFOs.
Elements of a digital culture
Norms, values, and symbols are key indices that shape decisions, actions, and the behavior of organizational members. An organizational culture can be defined as a shared pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. Thus, a digital culture evolves in digitally transforming companies. It’s a constant change process as part of a vision, especially for CFOs. The elements must be specified for financial departments based on the maturity of their digital culture.
The key elements of digital cultures are:
- Leadership in a digital culture fosters autonomous working conditions for accountants, which encourages self-reliance, initiative, and self-management, as well as creating an environment where explorative working is desired.
- An organization focused on entrepreneurship, digital technologies, and agility. It is also influenced by aspects of the leadership culture that support more flexibility to run digital projects.
- Performance combines elements like entrepreneurship, innovation, and learning. Furthermore, it includes a culture of failure that supports employees trying out new ideas and approaches.
- Cooperation within the organization is the main characteristic. It comprises knowledge-sharing and interdisciplinary and inter-divisional working. Collaboration and joint development with customers are also part of it.
- Innovation combines entrepreneurship and learning as well as agility.
- Change is related to the culture of innovation and contains the four elements of entrepreneurship, agility, innovation, and learning.
- Growth, new business, and brand relate to agility as the keys to the use of digital technologies and digital processes.
- Stakeholder and relationship are main characteristics of a digital culture leading to innovation and learning. In addition, customer orientation is key for a successful stakeholder and relationship culture.
- Communication in a digital culture is enhanced by digital technologies and digital processes. They allow a new type of collaboration and cooperation within the organization and with interfaces to customers.
Changing existing into digital cultures
In a fast-changing environment, companies can stay successful if they change their holistic ways of working – if they change their culture into a digital culture. This insight can only be obtained by creating urgency for everyone. Providing digital tools in the finance area – for example, tablets – is an important requirement of today’s job market, but it also helps to lead a company into a digital behavior. Going one step further and in the context of financial IT projects, an agile methodology is essential to reach the right degree of innovation.
Alongside this, the measurement of success has changed. A classical sequence approach with one big “go-live” at the end of a project must be rethought. In addition, the requirements for project members, including the leadership team, have changed. They must enjoy the trust of all concerned stakeholders and pursue the same goals. This can be achieved only if employees of different departments and stages are united.
The vision and strategy must be communicated well. When all involved parties can muster a common understanding for an agile way of working, the risk that a transformation project will be canceled decreases. The motto here is: high tolerance for failures. Those who fail early learn faster. Therefore, a unified vision with a suitable strategy must be developed. At best, it has a motivating effect on employees and acts as a support during the first steps of change.
For a smooth transformation, the leadership team needs to remove potential obstacles. This ensures a higher commitment within all stakeholders as well as trouble-free business continuity. To keep all necessary stakeholders involved, short-term successes should be communicated and celebrated. This illustrates the transformation progress and keeps all parties in a good mood, which increases their commitment. Change is a constant companion in times of digital businesses. Therefore, a mindset of a steadily changing business environment needs to be established within the company. Only then can the company adjust to changing market demands and business requirements.
Takeaway
Changing a corporate culture to one of digital transformation is certainly not an overnight process. Every cultural change takes time – from the initiation to the moment when the culture shapes the action – and can only take place step by step. In summary, it’s best to carry out cultural change in areas where technological change is particularly relevant to business activity or for reasons such as cost optimization. It is important to focus on the corresponding quick wins, which in turn contribute to reinforcing cultural elements.
Dig deeper into “How CFOs Are Successfully Navigating The New Reality Of Uncertainty And Change.”
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Starting A Digital Transformation Project
It seems like no day goes by without me hearing the word “transformation” tossed around, usually with the prefix “digital.” At a deep level, I think everyone knows and understands that transformation of any kind is not only difficult but, in most cases, has an extremely low probability of success.
The term digital transformation is a misnomer that has quite a lot of people confused. It is first and foremost transformation enabled by digital technologies. But people confuse this by making “digital” the operating word rather than “transformation.” This is probably where most of the trouble starts with all digital transformation projects.
And yet, everyone talks about digital transformation as if they are pretty sure that their project will not only see the light of the day but also be very successful.
In the past, people used terms like “innovation” and “disruption” so much and in so many different contexts with so many meanings that they lost relevance. It looks like digital transformation is going the same way.
Acceptance
I believe that to have even a shot at success, all {digital} transformation projects need to start from accepting the current reality or state of affairs. And true acceptance can only happen if we own the role that we have played in creating and shaping the current reality.
The questions that need to be answered at this stage are:
- What is our current reality?
- What was our role in creating this?
- Are we happy with this reality?
If we are happy with our reality, there is nothing much to do except to continue doing what we have been doing. No transformation is needed. You can’t force-fit this onto a set of people who are happy with their reality.
If we are unhappy with our reality, the question then is: Does it hurt? And how much does it hurt? Does it hurt enough for the people to want to change? Change is difficult in and of itself, and it becomes a lot more difficult if it is done without wanting to change.
Vision
Once we decide that the current reality is hurting us enough and that we want to do something about it, we need to come up with a vision of what the future looks like. This is where taking on a leapfrog challenge would be a good start.
Leapfrog challenges, according to Porus Munshi, are challenges that force you to rethink the way you do things. This is your aspiration. The bigger and bolder the aspiration, the more you are talking about transformation.
A good example of digital transformation was the onset of ATM machines. They fundamentally changed how we interacted with banks. The same is happening now with peer-to-peer lending and the revolution that fintech firms are bringing.
The goal of any transformation project is to reimagine work, not to do the same thing faster or cheaper or better. There is a place for doing that; these projects are called continuous improvement projects.
Even if we are trying to make things better, faster, and cheaper, we need to look at the scale of impact. In his book Making Breakthrough Innovations Happen, Porus says it is better to take on 10x challenges rather than 20% or 30% challenges. When you are trying to do 20%, 30%, or even 40% improvement, you tend to do more of the same: work harder, reach out to more people, get more efficient, increase your sales conversion ratio, etc.
However, the moment you are attempting a 10x improvement, you know right away that doing more of the same is not going to help. You are forced to think differently, explore newer ways of working. You tend to look for completely new opportunities; you get permission to challenge the assumptions that the entire business or even industry is operating in, Therein lies the true opportunity to transform.
Alignment
Then comes the need to share this vision and get the teams rallying around the vision. This is not going to be easy. By definition, a 10x improvement project will sound too difficult. It will look improbable.
This will bring out all kinds of excuses from the team:
- This is just impossible
- No one has ever done this
- We don’t have the ability or the talent to do this
- We don’t have the budget for this
- Our partners will not agree
- Our margins don’t support this
- And many more
This should tell you, the leader, that you are on the right path. If you don’t get these kinds of responses, it means that you haven’t aimed high enough.
However, it is now your responsibility to get the teams aligned and agree to the vision you want to aim for. Two ways to do this are:
- Burning platform scenario: Show the team the grim reality of the present course of action and what that means for all. Make them feel the pain the team will have to endure if everything remains as-is, then show them that the only option is to burn your ships and march forward toward the new reality. The idea is to scare them enough about the current course that everyone wants to change and move toward the new vision.
- Garden of Eden scenario: Talk about all the great things that the new reality can bring. This is when you motivate the team with a vision that is so much better than their current reality that there is no doubt in everyone’s minds that the new reality is where their future lies. This is all about enticing them with the gifts that the new vision will bring them, once realized.
It’s easier to use the burning platform, as humans typically react much stronger to negative than positive emotions. However, leaders need to be careful about which strategy to use, as people are not dumb and can easily see through any kind of deception. So, if you are not on a burning platform, don’t use one, or find a way to create one that all can agree with, then use it to kickstart your transformation project.
In conclusion
Two of the most important success criteria of a transformation project – digital or otherwise – are the scale of transformation you’re aiming for and getting buy-in from the people who will be working on the project. These are necessary (but not sufficient) conditions for any transformation project to become successful.
Strong execution is another necessary (but not sufficient) condition for successful transformation projects. I will talk about execution in a future post.
Want To Transform Your Business? Transform Your People
This post first appeared on Musings of a Neo-Generalist and has been republished here with permission.