SAP and Enterprise Trends Podcasts from Jon Reed (@jonerp) of diginomica.com

I was unable to get Josh Greenbaum and Brian Dennett together for an on-the-ground podcast at ASUG Tech Connect in November, but the show provoked important talks on RISE, clean core, and why SAP projects need enterprise architects. Those topics aren't going away, so we got together virtually to make sense of what we learned - and what's next. With looming ERP deadlines on the one hand, and modernization/AI on the other, it's a crucial year for SAP. The role of the S/4HANA public cloud edition is in the middle of this also. That's plenty for this discussion, which starts out on a humorous note as the cities and shows blurred together for your host. Note: there are more podcasts from this show, including an ASUG collaboration on Enterprise Architects coming soon - and my on the ground taping with Jelena Perfiljeva of the Boring Enterprise Nerds on SAP developer issues, clean core debates and more: https://jonerp.podbean.com/e/asug-tech-connect-review-jelena-perfiljeva-of-boring-enterprise-nerds/

AUDIO ECHO NOTE: the echo is addressed after the first three minutes. How effective are we at visually engaging enterprise content? I'd say - not very. But Heather Willems of Two Line Studios is doing something about that. Can we revive stale events with visual storytelling? How does AI hurt and/or help our cause here? As always, you can expect a jugular and interactive convo - and Heather will share illustrations from some of her favorite past events, including Constellation's Connected Enterprise, which is how I first learned of her team's work.... Note: to see the visuals on this, check out the YouTube replay at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruqcx29swRQ.

In the final section of my informal audiobook reading of Reaching the B2B Informed Buyer, we wrap up the strategies in the book - and the pitfalls to avoid. I also revisit the impact of AI on content generation and strategy; where it fits, where it doesn't. Where do we go from here? A combination of outstanding/expert content, savvy use of AI and personalization tools, but always in a context of making customers' lives better and earning trust piece by piece. Where trust is earned, opt-in data follows.

In part five of my informal audiobook reading of Reaching the B2B Informed Buyer, we get into my favorite content strategy debates, including: AI for context, content experiences and entertainment value, and AI versus opt-in communities. The goal, however, isn't just to flesh out the debate but to advance the conversation, so we can get the most out of the right content and better serve our audiences. Hopefully as we do that, buyer trust and momentum is achieved.

In this shorter section of my informal, self-recorded reading of Reaching the B2B Informed Buyer, I take a break from the content strategy methods and debates to ask - who has put this into practice? I use a cross-section of examples, from diginomica and beyond - some more visionary, some more provocative, some more practical. I kept this section short to keep the examples easily consumed, before we move into the concluding chapters and AI content debates.

In part three of my informal, self-recorded reading of Reaching the B2B Informed Buyer, I get into the importance of earning topic authority: earn attention with industry expertise. This is where B2B marketers often stumble. Marketing is still about attention. Digital marketing didn't change that. And the new era of what vendors call 'AI-powered content experiences' doesn't change that either. So what do we do about it - and how can we serve buyers better, and earn their trust? Note: the full dbook is available on diginomica, and also as an ebook on virtually all ebook platforms.

Time for part two of my informal-but-hopefully-entertaining reading of reaching the informed B2B buyer. In this edition, I get into an important debate I've had with Gartner's Hank Barnes: just how informed is today's B2B buyer? And: why is reaching B2B buyers so different now? Then we move on to chapter 3, where we examine the challenge of content marketing ROI - while today's B2B buyer "ruins the content party." 'Brandware', email blasts and chasing social virality has minimal impact on today's B2B buyers. So what to about it? Let's dig in. Note: the full d·book is available on diginomica, and also as an ebook on virtually all ebook platforms.

To kick off this informal audio book reading of his Reaching the B2B Informed Buyer d·book, Jon Reed gets right into the executive summary: why the sales funnel is broken, why marketers get B2B buyers wrong - and why the right content strategy still has a huge impact, even in the so-called age of AI. Note: you can get the full d·book on diginomica in the d·book section. It's also available now on Kindle and most ebook platforms, and a printed version and full audiobook version is coming soon. For now, you can get these chapters which will be issued in order on my main podcast feeds. Reader views impacted so much of this content, so let me know where you want to take this next...

I recently crashed the CRM Convos AI agents video show. Some of you may have seen me on there before - I have come on periodically in their AI debate series. So this time, they they had an interesting AI expert in the enterprise space, Andreas Welsch, to talk about the future of AI agents. At around the 27 minute mark, I crashed the podcast and start pressing some questions, and blowing a gasket of two. Here's the full conversation. Via the CRM Konvos team, following is the official text preview: Join us for CRMKonvo #234 with Andreas Welsch: AI Agents—Where are WE headed? And where will WE be? Get ready for an insightful discussion with Andreas Welsch, Founder & Chief AI Strategist at Intelligence Briefing. Andreas is an internationally recognized AI leader, advisor, and speaker known for helping the world's leading enterprises turn technology hype into business outcomes. In this session, we'll explore the future of AI agents, ethical considerations, and the impact on businesses and employees. Don't miss out on this opportunity to gain valuable insights from one of the top voices in AI! Reposted to Jon Reed's podcast feeds by permission of CRM Konvos - see the original video replay at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuHdXtU-zh4.

CIOs are in the pressure cooker. But advice is often cookie cutter. No cookie cutters with my next guest, Tim Crawford. We'll count down top CIO mistakes and Tim's top/overlooked CIO moves for being business-relevant, AI-savvy etc. I've wanted to get Tim on the show for a while, this is going to be a dandy - bring your sharpest and snarkest questions as usual.... Note: part two of this discussion, on next-gen analyst relations, has already been released as a separate podcast on my channel.