Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

SAP GameChangers Radio from SAPPHIRE NOW 2013: Day 1 LIVE interviews with Game changers from SAPPHIRE NOW 2013.

SAP GameChangers Radio from SAPPHIRE NOW 2013: Day 1 LIVE interviews with Game changers from SAPPHIRE NOW 2013.

SAP GameChangers Radio from SAPPHIRE NOW 2013: Day 1 LIVE interviews with Game changers from SAPPHIRE NOW 2013.

Today's buzz: Who's minding your call center right now? You'd better know who. Because they alone are responsible for the instant opinion a caller forms about your entire company. Are your agents generating rolls of thunder or applause for you? The experts speak. Dennis Goodheart, IP Network Consulting: "You can fool some of the people all the time, and all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." (Abraham Lincoln) Neal Shact, CommuniTech: "The customer experience is an increasingly critical marketing battleground and the contact center sits dead-center. It's the 'face' your customers see. A great experience with intimacy and personalized service builds customer loyalty and repeat business; if not, hope it doesn't go viral like United Airlines found out with the video United Breaks Guitars (12.75M+ hits)." Jim Goldfinger, SAP: "Just because it's usable, doesn't mean it's useful." Join us for Your Call Center & CRM: The Face Your Customer Sees First.

Social and business. Will this marriage last? The experts speak. Prof. Jerry Kane: "We're only at the beginning of the revolution ushered in by and through social, mobile, and digital technologies. Businesses, societies, and governments will be so radically different in 15 years...we'll barely recognize them." Gabi San Martin: "Business...has quickly become a conversation between the customer and the company." Rohit Ohri: "As social media becomes overloaded and 'popular,' the key skill will be properly filtering the data, or in a more human sense, listening." Mark Yolton, SAP: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one most adaptable to change." - Not by Charles Darwin. Todd Wilms, SAP: "By 2015, we will be drowning in content and messages. As marketers, it is our responsibility to clean-up the landscape by creating smart, targeted content and messages, and stop the deluge of trash..." Join us for The Next Generation: Social and Business.

Reality check: Health matters. More than your job, social status, money, car, house. But health is elusive. So much so that 65 million U.S. caregivers provide weekly care to the ill, disabled, aged. How can technology help? The experts speak. Robert M. Miller, National Fragile X Foundation: "Technology will never replace the caring spirit, but technology can provide the necessary tools for caring to make a real difference in the lives of those with special needs." Louise W. Gane, MS, M.I.N.D. Institute: "Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries." (Corita Kent) Cheryl Pray, Els for Autism Foundation: "Autism: It's not game over. It's GAME ON!" Faheem Ahmed, SAP: "Social networks have already transformed how we find music, discover restaurants, compare prices, and plan vacations. Isn't it about time that we apply this technology to transform how we care for our loved ones?" Join us for People Who Need People: Caregiving Goes Social and Mobile.

Today's buzz: Should we pin our hopes for a vibrant global economy, sustainable innovation and job creation on high growth entrepreneurs aka small and midsized enterprises (SMEs)? The experts speak. Aviva Freudmann, EIU: "SMEs in developed and developing economies show surprising similarities in their goals and expectations. For all the challenges they face in their business environments, they are an exceedingly optimistic bunch..." Bryan Pearce, Ernst & Young: "Last year, our 650 U.S. EOY finalists employed 700,000 people, grew revenues 48% over two years, and achieved 30% job growth. They've learned how to defy gravity." Carl B. Lewis, Vision33, "Some SMEs are enterprise business in disguise, expanding their operations into other countries by starting new and independent business units." Kevin Gilroy, SAP: "SMEs have to change their mindset regarding IT in order to excel: understand IT is their friend, not foe. It's simple..." Join us for more on Defying Gravity: SMEs Go Global.

Big Data dominates the business conversation. Of its "3 V" attributes – Volume, Variety, Velocity – the third is grabbing the spotlight. Bottom line: Are you getting answers fast enough to support real-time business? The experts speak. Lee Dittmar, Deloitte: "Analytics prowess will determine winners and losers. But even as we talk about Big Data and the importance of 'predictive analytics,' many organizations still struggle to accomplish basic reporting efficiently and effectively. As companies compete for a limited supply of data scientists to perform advanced analytics, there is a lot of work to do to fix the foundation." John H. Fleming, PhD, Gallup: "How do we ensure quality data? Garbage in garbage out. Is more better or is better more?" Reza Soudagar, SAP: "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." (Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre, 1904) Join us for more insights on Business on Speed: Real-Time Insights and Execution.

Dizzy from all the hype around Small vs. Big Data, big picture vs. exact insights, real-time vs. right-time answers, and more? The experts speak. Evan Quinn, ESG Global: "We're entering a new world in which data may be more important than software."(Tim O'Reilly) Marie Goodell, SAP: "Every day, 3 times per second, we produce the equivalent amount of data that the Library of Congress has in its entire print collection. But most of it is like cat videos on YouTube or 13-year-olds exchanging text messages about the next Twilight movie." (Nate Silver, statistician and author, "The Signal and the Noise." Silver correctly predicted the winner in 50 out of 50 states in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.) Surya Mukherjee, Ovum: "To sustain beyond the hype, Big Data needs to become a first class citizen of the enterprise IT environment." Join us for more insights on Debunking Big Data Myths: The Elephant in the Room.

Business networks. You connect with people you know, want to know, should know on social networks. Should your company join, too? Tim Minahan: "Online social networking tools have transformed our personal lives by connecting us to people and information in new ways. Businesses are undergoing that same process. How many times did you check Facebook, LinkedIn, send a tweet, text, Instagram in the past 30 minutes?" Quentin Fisher: "'Ants aren't smart, ant colonies are.' (D. Gordon, Stanford Univ.). Let's look to biology for insights and a vision to the possibilities in our ever-evolving business ecosystem." Sameer Patel: "In the world of work, connecting doesn't come from just bringing people together. Really really connecting to impact performance and execution comes from surrounding real purpose and context such as a sales forecast data point...a curve ball customer request, a need for supplier arbitration, with your network of people." Join us for Business Networks: More Than Social