Timo Elliott

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Google has unveiled the latest Gemini AI model. But it apparently runs on new WYSINWYG technology (What You See Is Not What You Get)… One of my maxims has always been “if the reality is better than the marketing, you’re doing marketing wrong”—but there are limits, and the apparently-somewhat-faked launch video of the new Gemini Ultra model seems to have gone beyond them, generating significant backlash: “Google admits Gemini AI Demo was at Least Partially Faked: This is just embarrassing”

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147

Timo Elliott

DECEMBER 6, 2023

It was one of my favorite events of the year last week — the annual conference for the members of the UK and Ireland SAP user’s group, UKISUG Connect 2023, in the ICC in Birmingham. As is customary, Paul Cooper, UKISUG Chairman kicking things off with the results of a member survey highlighting current concerns: ….Take the issue of indirect licensing […] after a bumpy ride, we, along with the other global user groups, managed to get SAP to recognize that the customers needed a more t

Innovation 147

Innovation Planning 147

Timo Elliott

DECEMBER 4, 2023

“I never learned about survivorship bias and I turned out okay!” This is a concept that is incredibly relevant to digital innovation—because when the people on stage tell you how to be successful, you’re not seeing all the other people that followed that same advice but failed miserably. Here, for example, is professor Scott Galloway explaining why the “worst advice you will ever hear in business school” is “follow your passion” Scott Galloway explains w

Innovation 147

Innovation Digital 147

Timo Elliott

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

Did you know that every single person who confuses correlation and causation ends up dying?! ?

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Timo Elliott

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Data is like children, it’s constantly on the move, and loves to get dirty — but holds out the promise of huge new value in the organization, thanks to Generative AI. I just listened to industry veteran analysts Jon Reed and Josh Greenbaum discuss the recent ASUG Tech Connect Event in Orlando. I strongly urge you to take a listen to the whole thing , but one thing jumped out: that bad data is one of the biggest problems organizations face when trying to take advantage of Generative A

Data Quality 282

Data Quality 282

Timo Elliott

JUNE 19, 2023

I recently recorded a stream-of-consciousness video interview on the top topics that SAP Partners (and customers!) should be taking account of in the coming months and years. Here’s the recording and a transcript below: SAP Innovation Evangelist SAP on the top topics SAP Partners should be thinking about. Hello everyone, my name is Timo Elliott and I’m an Innovation Evangelist for SAP and there are four topics that I think should be top of mind for partners around the world.

Innovation 264

Innovation Digital Transformation Digital Government 264

Timo Elliott

JUNE 16, 2023

SAP Sapphire Barcelona was a few weeks ago, and you can review the highlights from the event on the virtual site. I had the honor of giving a 20 minute overview of SAP Business Technology Platform and the benefits it offers to business looking to innovate faster and unlock their business potential.

Innovation 245

Innovation 245

Timo Elliott

MAY 22, 2023

Heading off to SAP Sapphire in Barcelona this week? Here are some technologies you may want to take a look at, based on the SAP Sapphire Orlando Innovation Keynote last week, and you can watch the replay yourself here. Thomas Saueressig, head of SAP Product Engineering, and CTO Juergen Mueller presented a series of short demos helped by two “young talent” employees, Lucy Alexander and Sangeetha Jayakumar.

Supply Chain 278

Supply Chain Innovation Data Modelling Planning 278

Timo Elliott

MAY 19, 2023

Mastering Data Hygiene Reliable data is at the core of all digital transformation. Here’s a great example of how technology can help make sure that you have a solid information foundation for innovative new business processes. Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) is a winner of one of the prestigious 2023 SAP Innovation Awards , in the “Experience Wizards” category.

Innovation 246

Innovation Digital Transformation Data Quality Procurement 246

Timo Elliott

MAY 18, 2023

There’s a meme on the internet about drawing an owl. Here’s a PG-rated version: In case you’re unfamiliar with it, here’s a very capable explanation from ChatGPT: What has that to do with AI? Well, it seems obvious that the latest large-language technologies like ChatGPT and Bard can be used to transform business. And that’s certainly true for tasks such as summarizing documents, which these technologies do astoundingly well.

Artificial Intelligence 288

Artificial Intelligence Documentation 288

Timo Elliott

MAY 17, 2023

This is my personal summary of the Day 2 Customer Success Keynote at the 2023 SAP Sapphire Customer Conference in Orlando, Florida. A replay is available on the Virtual Sapphire Platform. Day two opened with SAP’s Customer Success leader Scott Russell and a story about bumping into an old friend, who remarked how hard it is for companies to actually change, to take full advantage of the latest technologies.

Innovation 264

Innovation Supply Chain Data Governance Planning 264

Timo Elliott

MAY 16, 2023

Disclaimer: these are my own thoughts, not those of my employer. I’ve noted the things that I took away as new, interesting, or different. BUT all that is necessarily subjective, and there was a lot more going on than I have mentioned here. In particular, see the official Sapphire News Guide. Unsurprisingly, one of the first big topics was the rise of Artificial Intelligence.

Supply Chain 221

Supply Chain Artificial Intelligence Logistics Digital 221

Timo Elliott

MAY 15, 2023

Frucor Suntory , a leading Australasian drinks company, has embarked on an innovative journey to enhance its sales processes and customer experience, and has written about the experience in their entry for the 2023 SAP Innovation Awards. By leveraging the power of SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), Frucor Suntory revolutionized its sales automation system, empowering its sales team to deliver exceptional customer service.

Customer Experience 243

Customer Experience Customer Experience Innovation User Experience 243

Timo Elliott

MAY 11, 2023

Large-language models are going to fundamentally change how we create and consume documents in an era where everybody will be getting information via chatbots. I have to spend a lot of time reviewing information to try to stay abreast of current trends. News articles, written by journalists who have been trained in structure and storytelling, are usually a pleasure to read — and I’m guessing that they’re an excellent source for information querying.

Documentation 264

Documentation 264

Timo Elliott

MAY 10, 2023

In the latest episode of SAP Better Together: Customer Conversations, Sylvie Otton Sollod hosted a discussion of a project to overhaul the financial systems at Watco , a transportation solutions provider headquartered in Pittsburg, Kansas. The company owns and operates a diverse network of short line railroads, terminals, ports, and repair terminals.

Finance 245

Finance Planning Agile 245

Timo Elliott

MAY 8, 2023

There’s been a lot of hype (and some opportunistic grifting) around the notion of Prompt Engineering: “Prompt engineering is a skill of the future! Learn it today, or regret tomorrow. Buy my course to hear 10 multi-use case prompts you can use to get manual work done in minutes!” But I’ve always been skeptical, and we’re now starting to see that becoming the industry-consensus view.

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Timo Elliott

MAY 8, 2023

I recently talked Marcio Magalhaes of Petrobras , one of world’s largest oil and gas producers, as part of the SAP Better Together series of podcasts and best practice videos. In the interview , we discussed how his team used SAP BusinessTechnology to create a simple and very effective mobile application to enable workers to signal potential safety problems, the lessons learned along the way, and how it’s paved the way for many more mobile applications in the future.

Innovation 258

Innovation Documentation Monitoring Digital 258

Timo Elliott

APRIL 3, 2023

Here’s an extract of a short conversation I recently had with GPT-4, illustrated with images from Midjourney. What is a good analogy to explain the concept of “data fabric”? A good analogy to explain the concept of “data fabric” is a city’s transportation system. In a city, there are various means of transportation (roads, trains, buses, bike lanes, and walking paths) that allow people to move between different areas.

Innovation 276

Innovation 276

Timo Elliott

APRIL 1, 2023

What’s hard about #AI ? It’s not creating the models or doing the data science—it’s actually making it part of an operational process. You don’t have to take my word for it, here’s a quote from Gartner AI Expert Erick Brethenoux talking on a recent (and free!) web seminar “ Beyond the Hype: Enterprise Impact of ChatGPT and Generative AI “ “As an AI expert myself, I didn’t have enough appreciation for my colleagues that are downstream, doing all the

Innovation 254

Innovation 254

Timo Elliott

MARCH 11, 2023

I just did some web/javascript coding with ChatGPT. It’s already amazing what you can do, and it’s only going to get better. I wanted to create a simple text animation, with words zooming from the center of the screen. Overall, it took 14 tries, and it felt like I was talking to a slightly dimwitted genie, asking it to fulfill my wishes!

Innovation 246

Innovation Documentation 246

Timo Elliott

MARCH 6, 2023

There has recently been a cambrian explosion of new AI opportunities, and here’s yet another example. Last year, I gave a 35 minute keynote at the Portuguese SAP User Group (GUSP) Annual Congress, covering some of the top technology trends. I just tried out summarize.tech to sum up the session, and the results are impressive! It provides both an overall summary and section-by-section details, with direct video links to any part that you might be interested in finding more about.

Artificial Intelligence 277

Artificial Intelligence Innovation Supply Chain Logistics 277

Timo Elliott

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

Apple uses SAP to create applications for their staff. For more details, check out this article by Bob Evans of Acceleration Economy and Cloud Wars: SAP Helps Apple Slash Innovation Cycles by 40% “Apple can unleash new applications 40% faster thanks to its deep collaboration with SAP around its Business Technology Platform and the co-creation initiatives the two long-time partners have established…Apple is now able to deliver new apps to its employees in less than six weeks.

Innovation 246

Innovation Retail 246

Timo Elliott

FEBRUARY 19, 2023

The biggest opportunity for AI technology, by far, is health and wellness. Medicine is hard. For many ailments, finding out what’s actually wrong, and determining out the right treatment, has taken hundreds of years of careful data analysis. Anybody who’s seen an episode of Dr. House has seen dramatizations of some of the problems that real doctors face on a daily basis.

Vision 259

Vision Artificial Intelligence 259

Timo Elliott

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Paul Saunders , SAP’s Head of Product Strategy and Chief Evangelist Cloud ERP, was recently the guest of The Future of ERP podcast , talking about “Composable ERP.” It’s a term that comes from Gartner (other analysts have similar concepts): “Composable business means creating an organization made from interchangeable building blocks.

E-Commerce 298

E-Commerce Supply Chain Procurement Innovation 298

Timo Elliott

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

New cloud platform technologies have unleashed new opportunities for business model innovation. Midsize companies, in particular, can leverage their deep understand of their customer needs to go beyond providing products or simple transactional services, and instead introduce more value-added solutions on a subscription basis. ActoVent in Germany is a great example of this trend, and has explained the technical and business opportunities in their entry to the SAP Innovation Awards 2023.

Supply Chain 246

Supply Chain Innovation Retail Design Thinking 246

Timo Elliott

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

A few months ago I was asked for some advice about how I put together presentations as an Innovation Evangelist, and this post is a reworked version of those points. First, the context: most of the presentations I give are keynote-style presentations on the trends around the intersection of business and technology to diverse audiences (i.e. some mix of business technical people, different industries, lines of business, regions, etc.).

Innovation 260

Innovation 260

Timo Elliott

FEBRUARY 1, 2023

I recently had the honor of being a presenter and moderator at some internal kickoffs in the (incredibly dynamic) Middle East region, and with tongue firmly in cheek, I had fun with text-to-AI algorithms to portray what the future might look like: City skylines with flying taxis? A certain software company’s middle east office of the future, with view over the desert (and robot employees?

Vision 264

Vision Healthcare Planning 264

Timo Elliott

DECEMBER 14, 2022

Everybody wants to innovate faster, to be more agile, to be able to react quickly to changes in today’s uncertain business environments. So how do organizations do that? The future is enabled by technology, but it’s not about the technical infrastructures: it’s about optimizing end-to-end processes, business capabilities, and business ecosystems.

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Innovation Artificial Intelligence Data Warehouse Government 262

Timo Elliott

DECEMBER 6, 2022

As an individual, I don’t feel like I can do much to help head off the climate crisis. In fact, I’m personally making it worse. I try to do my part, of course: I switch off the lights when rooms aren’t being used, I sort my garbage, I’m eating less red meat, I haven’t owned a car in over twenty years, and I vote for people who believe in change.

Retail 246

Retail Innovation 246

Timo Elliott

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

This week I was in Dubai for the latest edition of the SAP Partner Innovation Meeting. My role was to talk about the trends and opportunities for 2023, for customers, SAP, and our partners. I believe there are three interlinked areas that will provide the biggest opportunities for the year to come. Innovating Faster. First, everybody wants to innovate faster, to be more agile, to be able to react quickly to changes in today’s uncertain business environments.

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Innovation Vision Data Warehouse Logistics 246

Timo Elliott

NOVEMBER 26, 2022

The power of artificial intelligence is showing us what the prescriptive future of computer systems should look like. This Diffuse The Rest algorithm lets you scribble a picture, add a description, and it paints what you imagined. I’m just about to get on a plane to Dubai for a partner conference, so I quickly scribbled what I imagined my arrival might look like, and added a description.

Innovation 258

Innovation Artificial Intelligence 258

Timo Elliott

NOVEMBER 23, 2022

Some predictive analytics for Thanksgiving… Past performance is not indicative of future results!

Predictive Analytics 264

Predictive Analytics 264

Timo Elliott

NOVEMBER 22, 2022

Simon Jarke is the Head of Corporate Digital Business Innovation at Freudenberg, a family-owned global technology group headquartered in Germany and founded in 1849. He recently explained how the organization has taken advantage of the latest technology advances to give business people more agility and control over their processes, without sacrificing standardization and efficiency: “I think the key to success, especially in times of digital transformation, lies in the philosophy and pract

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Agile Procurement Vision Digital 303

Timo Elliott

NOVEMBER 21, 2022

Last week I was in beautiful Sydney, Australia for the Gartner Data and Analytics Conference. Here’s a quick video summary: One of the big things that struck me was the changing role of data. For the last 30 years, whenever you want to do analytics, the first step is to rip it out of the operational applications and try and move it to a different environment—so data warehousing, data lakes, data lakehouses and now data clouds.

Data Analytics 245

Data Analytics Data Analytics 245

Timo Elliott

JULY 21, 2022

It often seems like some folks will do anything to avoid adopting innovation… which caption works better, do you think?

Innovation 325

Innovation 325

Timo Elliott

MAY 27, 2022

I was at the Gartner Data & Analytics conference in London a couple of weeks ago and I’d like to share some thoughts on what I think was interesting, and what I think I learned…. First, data is by default, and by definition, a liability , because it costs money and has risks associated with it. To turn data into an asset , you actually have to do something with it and drive the business.

Data Analytics 308

Data Analytics Data Analytics Data Warehouse Innovation 308

Timo Elliott

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

A quick Friday reminder that we have to focus on what’s important, despite all the daily complexities and challenges of technology!… All too often I see projects failing not because the technologies aren’t working, but because not enough attention has been paid to the people being displaced. For example, several years ago an executive dashboard project was very nearly derailed by one of the executive assistants.

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Planning 298