Ten Enterprise Software Events To Check Out And Follow The Week of May 12th, 2014

The Monday after Mother's day was traditionally the week of the America's SAP User Group and SAP's big show, SAPPHIRENOW.  However, this year the 20,000 plus attendee and over 250 partner sponsored show moved to June 2nd in order to avoid the traditional Mother's Day madness for event organizer's and sponsors. With SAPPHIRENOW's guilt based pull out, competitors rushed in to fill the void in this coveted time slot.  In fact, the week after Mother's Day is a great time for large events for three reasons because it:

• Catches the attention of decision makers in the planning cycle. The time slot is prime time before summer.  The weeks before Mother Day and Memorial Day are the last focused weeks of business before the summer breaks, graduations, and vacation time before Memorial Day Weekend.
• Accelerates first half deal flow.  Deals began in Q1 and Q2 often see an acceleration to close with an event during this time slot.  Events in Q3 and Q4 risk a very tight deal acceleration towards common fiscal years and budgetary planning cycles.
• Beats the hot weather. Favorite conference spots such as Orlando, Florida, Las Vegas, Nevada, and New Orleans, Louisiana ramp up in temperature into the 90's and 100's past June.  The atmosphere for business grinds to a hot in these conference cities.  In addition, lower cost venues in Atlanta, Houston, and Nashville, become quite muggy and sticky.

The Top 10 Events For Enterprise Software With A Digital Disruption Focus
Here's the list of shows as they impact Constellation's business themed research approach to the digital business disruption ahead (see Figure 1):
Figure 1. Constellation's Business Themed Research

Consumerization of IT. This theme examines the policies, technologies, and collaboration frameworks required to balance the speed of technology adoption with the security and scalability requirements of IT.

• ITR Trend 2014 Executive Forum ( Follow along on twitter at #ITRTrend ).  ITR is Japan's largest end user focused research analyst firm. Constellation provides a keynote to their flagship event at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo and the topic will be Digital Transformation and Disruption.  This is one of the largest independent end user focused events in Japan.
• Microsoft TechEd (Follow along on twitter at #MSTechED ). Catch the live stream from the George R. Brown convention center in Houston, TX.  Constellation expects the show to highlight more of the progress on the Azure Cloud, System Center improvements, SQL Server improvements, and of course another battle to win over mobile phone developers.

Data to Decisions. This theme looks at how leaders gather key insights from your data, transform insights into actionable information, and then make the right decisions.

• Anaplan Hub 2014 (Follow along on twitter at #Hub2014 ).  Anaplan is a cloud business planning and execution vendor gaining massive traction in the market.  The faithful gather at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, CA to hear from CTO Michael Gould, CEO Frederic Laluyaux and their vision of what's next.  More importantly, Constellation's clients attending the event expect to gain best practices sharing in connecting other cloud systems and their source data into the Anaplan product.
• Informatica World (Follow along on twitter #Infa14 ).  Watch the preview sneak peaks from the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Constellation expects the show to highlight a new product introduction, success in the master data management space, continued movement into the cloud, new products for big data, and the preparation for new areas such as the Internet of Things.  The Ray Kurzweil keynote is a major highlight.
• ITR Trend 2014 Executive Forum ( Follow along on twitter at #ITRTrend ).  ITR is Japan's largest end user focused research analyst firm. Constellation provides a keynote to their flagship event at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo and the topic will be Digital Transformation and Disruption.  This is one of the largest independent end user focused events in Japan.
• Microsoft TechEd (Follow along on twitter at #MSTechED ). Catch the live stream from the George R. Brown convention center in Houston, TX.  Constellation expects the show to highlight more of the progress on the Azure Cloud, System Center improvements, SQL Server improvements, and of course another battle to win over mobile phone developers.

Digital Marketing Transformation. This theme guides leaders on how to straddle the analog and digital marketing world.  Understand the success stories and the lessons learned as leaders must work in an evolving paradigm.

• IBM Smarter Commerce ( Follow along on twitter at #SmarterCommerce ) Hosted at the Tampa Bay Convention Center in Tampa Bay, Florida, the IBM Smarter Commerce show brings together commerce, customer experience, supply chain, marketing, merchandising, integration, file transfer, and legal all under one room within the IBM umbrella.  The special opening general session keynote is with Ron Howard on Day 1.  Constellation's clients expect the show to showcase who digital transformation and digital business will evolve for IBM customers.

Future of Work. This theme analyzes the confluence of technological, demographical and cultural trends challenging the traditional paradigm of work. Where we work, when we work, how we work, what we work on, and why we work have dramatically shifted.

• Cornerstone On Demand Convergence ( Follow along on twitter at #CSODConf ).  Back at the San Diego Marriott Marquis in San Diego, CA, Cornerstone On Demand celebrates its 12th annual user conference.  Constellation's Holger Mueller will be speaking at the event on the Future of Work.  Attendees can expect more about how work will be reimagined, what new partnerships CSOD will sign, and some new product announcements.
• Sitrion (NewsGator) (Follow along on twitter at #Collective14).  Situated at the former Peabody Hotel now the Hyatt Regency Orlando, the event brings together hundreds of customers from both the original Newsgator company and the HR SelfService company Sitrion. Constellation expects the future of work solutions provider to show case new announcements in the social work place space, mobile enterprise, and HR self service.

Matrix Commerce. As the world revolves around the buyer, channels, demand signals, supply chains, payment options, enablers, and big data will converge to create what Constellation coined in 2011 as Matrix Commerce.

• IBM Smarter Commerce ( Follow along on twitter at #SmarterCommerce ) Hosted at the Tampa Bay Convention Center in Tampa Bay, Florida, the IBM Smarter Commerce show brings together commerce, customer experience, supply chain, marketing, merchandising, integration, file transfer, and legal all under one room within the IBM umbrella.  The special opening general session keynote is with Ron Howard on Day 1.  Constellation's clients expect the show to showcase who digital transformation and digital business will evolve for IBM customers.

• SuiteWorld by Netsuite ( Follow along on twitter at #NSW14 ).  The Netsuite faithful gather at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, CA.  Constellation expects more partnership announcements, developments in matrix commerce, improvements in integration, and success stories in two-tier ERP.

Next Generation Customer Experience. This theme explores new engagement models as customers don't care what department they receive their experience and organziaitons shift from engagement to delivering experiences and outcomes.

• IBM Smarter Commerce ( Follow along on twitter at #SmarterCommerce ) Hosted at the Tampa Bay Convention Center in Tampa Bay, Florida, the IBM Smarter Commerce show brings together commerce, customer experience, supply chain, marketing, merchandising, integration, file transfer, and legal all under one room within the IBM umbrella.  The special opening general session keynote is with Ron Howard on Day 1.  Constellation's clients expect the show to showcase who digital transformation and digital business will evolve for IBM customers.
• Gainsight Pulse 2014 ( Follow along on twitter at #PulseConf2014 ) The second annual customer success event kicks off at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco, CA with over 600 registered attendees.  Malcolm Gladwell is the headliner as this new movement of customer success management.  Constellation's clients expect to attend to hear the latest case studies and see how others have made customer success management a core competency inside recurring revenue companies focused on delivering outcomes and experiences while keeping brand promises.
• Experience 2014 The CEM Conference by Medallia (Follow along on twitter at #Medallia ). Medallia's Experience 2014 event hosted at the Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, CA brings together CEM professionals around the world.  Attendees can expect in-depth and detailed best practices sharing among a wide range of customer experience management projects.

Technology Optimization. Technology Optimization & Innovation advises CIOs seeking to invest in innovation and strategic advantage while optimizing the cost of providing ongoing support.

• Anaplan Hub 2014 (Follow along on twitter at #Hub2014 ).  Anaplan is a cloud business planning and execution vendor gaining massive traction in the market.  The faithful gather at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, CA to hear from CTO Michael Gould, CEO Frederic Laluyaux and their vision of what's next.  More importantly, Constellation's clients attending the event expect to gain best practices sharing in connecting other cloud systems and their source data into the Anaplan product.
• Informatica World (Follow along on twitter #Infa14 ).  Watch the preview sneak peaks from the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Constellation expects the show to highlight a new product introduction, success in the master data management space, continued movement into the cloud, new products for big data, and the preparation for new areas such as the Internet of Things.  The Ray Kurzweil keynote is a major highlight.
• ITR Trend 2014 Executive Forum ( Follow along on twitter at #ITRTrend ).  ITR is Japan's largest end user focused research analyst firm. Constellation provides a keynote to their flagship event at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo and the topic will be Digital Transformation and Disruption.  This is one of the largest independent end user focused events in Japan.
• Microsoft TechEd (Follow along on twitter at #MSTechED ). Catch the live stream from the George R. Brown convention center in Houston, TX.  Constellation expects the show to highlight more of the progress on the Azure Cloud, System Center improvements, SQL Server improvements, and of course another battle to win over mobile phone developers.
• SuiteWorld by Netsuite ( Follow along on twitter at #NSW14 ).  The Netsuite faithful gather at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, CA.  Constellation expects more partnership announcements, developments in matrix commerce, improvements in integration, and success stories in two-tier ERP.

The Bottom Line: The Digital Business and Digital Transformation Theme Will Hit Mainstream By Summer of 2014
A common theme from these events will be the pace of change in the market and the need to build a culture of innovation.  Broad shifts from technology coverage of social, mobile, cloud, big data, and unified communications give way to a realization that digital transformation is among us.  Market leaders and fast followers have already started their digital business efforts by converging these five pillars of digital business technologies and building a culture for digital.  The development of Digital DNA will help  organizations transform business models with digital technologies.  As conference attendees seek best practices, they should ask fellow attendees and speakers, "How are you dominating digital disruption?"
Your POV.
Ready for digital disruption? Do you go to a lot of enterprise software events? What are the top takeaways or benefits you get from the events?  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.