Bob Evans, Founder of Cloud Wars, calls the cloud “the greatest growth market the world has ever known”. Many companies are propelling this growth even further with huge investments in industry-specific cloud solutions.
Why? The answer to this question was covered in unique ways by Google Cloud, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, and Workday during Day 1 of the Industry Cloud Battleground Week digital event.
Here are 6 key ways these industry giants are delivering value through industry solutions.
1. Google Cloud: Invests in Deep Domain Experience
Knowing about an industry is one thing, but having direct industry experience is another. Lori Mitchel-Keller, Global Leader, Industry Solutions at Google Cloud, emphasized that its overall industry strategy is to hire executives who have deep domain experience.
This strategy is working for its customers; the holistic effort of Google Cloud infuses the best of its arsenals such as Deep Mind, Google Earth, Voice Search, Google Lens, Google AI, and more into scalable enterprise-grade industry-specific solutions. A couple of examples that stood out:
- In the financial services industry, BYN Mellon used big query and Google Cloud AI. According to Lori, this equipped BYN Mellon to “develop a collateral management and liquidity solution that predicted 40% of settlement failures in Fed-eligible securities with an accuracy rate of approximately 90%”
- Launched in July 2021, Google’s Retail Search provided retailers the ability to have Google-quality search on their own sites potentially saving $300 billion annually.
2. Microsoft: Provides Cloud for the Greater Good
Kees Hertogh, General Manager of Global Industry Product Marketing at Microsoft, noted that Microsoft’s customers want a strong digital foundation. This feedback shaped the Microsoft Cloud, helping customers improve time to value, lower costs, and increase agility.
Another vital part of Microsoft’s solutions is its co-creation efforts with partners and customers. This is further defined in two parts. One is having a common understanding of data. The other is leveraging its citizen platform technology – the Power Platform. The co-creation and collaboration are showcased in a couple of examples:
- CEO Satya Nadella stressed in industry-first focus for Microsoft. This initiative forced Microsoft to break down traditional silos and better leverage its data estate and increase its AI usage. Now, Microsoft can help customers utilize the true power of the cloud.
- Microsoft formed a partnership with Truveta whose mission is to save lives through data in healthcare. This partnership led to a unique “provider-led data platform owned and governed by 17 innovative leading health providers”. This solution provides insights into billions of data points from medical records, images, genomics, and more.
3. Oracle: Delivers Solutions from Hybrid to the Edge
The backbone of Oracle’s solutions is its “critical infrastructure and leading database technology” as outlined by Mark Hura, Executive Vice President at Oracle. This means providing cloud, on-premise, 5G networks, and enterprise communications solutions to its customers.
Additionally, Oracle is surrounding core cloud infrastructure with advanced technologies like machine learning, AI, and scaling for customers. This allows them to “take vertical functionality and start embedding that into the horizontal applications”. For example:
- Within the utilities industry, Oracle powers scale and speed needed to process 1.6 trillion meter reads. This data is provided to a billing system which leverages autonomous databases to distribute over 3 billion electic, water, and gas bills annually.
- Oracle provides integrations capabilities with other platforms such as SAP or Salesforce. This is done through pre-built integration and API solutions which customers and partners can leverage to extend their infrastructure.
4. Salesforce: Commits to Expanding Industry Sustainability
Many industries are shifting focus to incorporate an environmental sustainability model. Aligning with these efforts, Salesforce has established goals to address more than just carbon accounting according to Jujhar Singh, EVP & GM of Industry Clouds at Salesforce.
Therefore, Salesforce is using the power of data “to help them succeed into the future”. This future includes investing heavily in big AI models and compliance security along with a scalable and flexible platform for customers. These investments are highlighted by:
- Salesforce partnered with Orange Polska which has about 14 million mobile customers and about 2 million broadband customers. It had a legacy system and wanted to equip the digital-savvy customer. Orange Polska was able to provide self-sevice capabilities, allowing customers to control their services and provide music, videos, and roaming passes.
- One of Salesforce’s partners was able to add onto its existing infrastructure the Salesforce solutions. By going this route, they grew their net promoter score and attained new activations with 50% of them coming from competitors. This allowed them to acquire new customers and leverage the complete strength of the Salesforce platform.
5. SAP: Extends Enterprises with Modular Solutions
Peter Maier, President of SAP Industries, described how SAP delivers one industry cloud versus many industry clouds. This is achieved by extending SAP’s intelligence with new vertical capabilities.
SAP has developed a very close relationship with its customers spanning 40 years of technology experience across 25 industries. This deep-rooted expertise defines their point of view into where the industries are headed and how they are being influenced. Examples of this are:
- In the automotive industry, SAP is collaborating with dealerships and is co-innovating with ChargeX to provide smart charging solutions.
- The relationships that SAP has developed with its partners is driving new business outcomes. For example, its Asset Intelligence Network focuses on the digital twins of assets like machines and equipment to optimize operations.
6. Workday: Drives the Last Mile of Innovation
“Born in the cloud” is something to be proud of according to Indy Bains, Vice President of Industry Solutions Marketing at Workday. And, the reliance on cloud partners to deliver the capabilities allows its platform to address use cases for finance, operations, human resources, and more.
Eric Washer, Vice President of Product Strategy at Workday, believes the Workday industry-specific solutions are “driving that last mile of innovation”. Further, they are “putting a single intelligent data core at the center” to remove the risk of siloed data. So, what are the outcomes of this approach?
- Healthcare customers were able to combine data from multiple sources, such as patient scheduling data, healthcare records, inventory, space allocation, and staff. This allowed them to analyze, plan and react proactively to address potential issues, review intentory stock, and see upcoming pay schedules.
- One customer, CNA Insurance, a large property caualty organization, was running operations across multipl ERPs, different financial systems, and different front-office systems which contains policy claims data. Workday helped them consolidate five systems into one saving 30% in annual finance systems spen. Further, they automated many processes which resulted in a 50%-60% reduction in managing accounting rules.
Bonus: Standing Partnership: Leads with Intelligence to Drive Growth
Ashlyn Brewer, Vice President at Standing Partnership, chatted with Bob Evans, Founder of Cloud Wars on how they are addressing the frustration that many companies are feeling. Ashlyn believes that organizations want to buy from, and partner with, companies that they believe are invested in understanding their challenges and build products and capabilities to solve those challenges.
Moreover, it’s important to prioritize strategies around an industry focus that is intelligence-driven, not just a “gut feeling”. This needs to be complemented by an understanding of the market needs for sales enablement.
Lastly, once sales enablement is well established, then it’s important to rapidly transition to sales optimization. Sales teams need to believe in the overall industry-focused strategy and they have the resources to be effective.
Industry Cloud Battleground Week: Available On-Demand
Sponsored by Salesforce, Google Cloud, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, and Workday, this 5-day digital event delivered insights to inspire, educate and engage business and technology leaders who are actively defining their industry-specific cloud strategy.
