TECHtonic: Trends in Technology and Services

After years of focusing on growth at any cost, SaaS companies are now being forced to balance growth with improved profitability. Abbas Haider Ali, VP of customer success at GitHub and SaaS advisor and investor, believes that this pivot is creating a moment of truth for customer success organizations.

Today, Ali talks to TSIA’s Thomas Lah about his experience as an investor and customer success executive, and what he sees in the customer success landscape today. They discuss topics such as:

• Key questions that customer success executives must ask themselves and their teams to be successful

• The current customer success landscape
• Key levers that customer success organizations must pull to improve profitability
• Vital telemetry for customer success today
• The possibilities of AI for customer success

Today on TECHtonic, we dive into the role of customer success in a profitable software business model with Mike Flannagan, corporate vice president of global customer success at Microsoft.

Mike and host Thomas Lah discuss what customer success entails today and how organizations can get it right, answering questions such as:

• How has customer success changed over the past few years?
• How can companies leverage data and analytics in terms of helping customers achieve business objectives?
• What is the role of AI in delivering customer success?
• What does the digital experience look like for larger, more complex customers?
• What should somebody newer to customer success or customer success leadership be thinking about?

Today’s tech companies are struggling with the question of how to maintain corporate culture in a world where the workforce is rapidly evolving. But how do we define culture, and what are its effects?

This week, we tackle the tricky topic of corporate culture with Culture Partners’ Chief Scientist of Workplace Culture, Jessica Kriegel, discussing such critical topics as:

• What defines company culture
• How culture drives results
• Elements of a strong or weak corporate culture
• What virtual work means for culture
• How leaders drive company culture
• Managing a multi-generational workforce

Catch Jessica at TSIA World ENVISION this October 16-18! Her keynote will demystify corporate culture, providing attendees with an inspired perspective on achievable culture transformation and four actionable steps for cultivating an intentional culture that strengthens business strategy and performance.

Shally Stanley, SVP of Global Delivery at Salesforce, joins us on TECHtonic to discuss the future of the professional services function within technology providers. In this episode, we cover topics such as:

• How companies are breaking down silos between professional services, customer success, and support
• KPIs and future metrics for success in professional services
• How companies are pricing and packaging professional services offers
• The impact of AI and data on consulting and professional services
• The market’s current demand for customized offers

Founding a successful SaaS company has never been easy, but as of 2022, it got much harder. Valuations took a hit, investment dollars became scarce, and for the first time ever, SaaS companies actually started laying off employees.

In this episode of TECHtonic, Thomas is joined by Phil Alves, SaaS entrepreneur, CEO of DevSquad, and host of SaaS Origin Stories, a podcast where he interviews SaaS founders. In this fantastic conversation on the current state of SaaS, they discuss:

• How the current economic environment is impacting SaaS companies
• The best approach to starting a SaaS company
• How AI plays into SaaS valuations
• Whether AI will soon start to replace technical staff

Ready to learn more? Keep up to date on this subject by subscribing to TSIA's Research Journey, The Year of Profitable SaaS today!

Managed services is one of the fastest-growing revenue streams in the technology industry, and can be a bridge to recurring revenues.

Joined by Peter Lacoste, SVP of Managed Services at Dell, we shine a light on what it means to provide managed services in today's technology industry, and address the following questions:

• What is managed services and how is it different from traditional outsourcing?
• What are the best pricing approaches for managed services offers?
• How can managed services accelerate digital transformation?
• How have managed services sales evolved?
• What internal relationship is most critical for managed services success?

Ready to learn more? Keep up to date on this subject by subscribing to TSIA's Research Journey, The Evolution of Pricing Models for Managed Services today!

Edwina Fitzmaurice, Chief Customer Success Officer at Ernst & Young, gives some insight into effective customer success at a services company. They discuss the human side of customer success, as well as:

• How AI is impacting the tech industry.
• How to monetize customer success.
• What to look for in customer success talent.
• How to create a better B2B customer experience.
• How a chief customer success officer defines success.
• Why diversity is important in customer success.

About 15% of Fortune 5000 companies have a chief product officer (CPO), and we believe that percentage will only increase. We click into the role of CPO with Moe Tanabian, veteran of AWS and Microsoft, and current CPO at Cognite, discussing:

• The challenges of moving into a leadership role.
• How a CPO drives best practices.
• Differences between CPO and chief technology officer (CTO).
• Challenges of the current economic environment.
• How to differentiate your business and keep margin on the table.
• How to become more profitable as a SaaS business.

Free Executive Briefing: How can SaaS companies become profitable?

Free Executive Briefing with Thomas Lah

TSIA World ENVISION

Thousands of sales, service, marketing, and training professionals are playing around with and imagining how AI can be used in their jobs and at their company.

This episode is a panel discussion from TSIA World INTERACT 2023, which examines:

• The potentially constructive (and dangerous) uses of AI across the B2B customer lifecycle.
• How AI should (and should not) be adopted in the short term in sales and service.
• What the rise of AI might mean for B2B customers and their demands.

In this keynote, TSIA President and CEO J.B. Wood led a panel of researchers who shared their thoughts on the current and future states of AI:

• Kevin Bowers, Director, Field Services Research, TSIA

• Maria Manning-Chapman, Distinguished VP, Education Services Research, TSIA

• Jack Johnson, VP, Customer Growth and Renewal Research, TSIA

• John Ragsdale, Distinguished Researcher, VP, Technology Ecosystems, TSIA

• Mark Troyan, Sr. Director, Customer Success Research, TSIA

Oliver Johnson, Chief Commercial Officer at SimCorp, joins Thomas to discuss the impact of XaaS transformation on the go-to-market capabilities of a company—specifically, how companies reduce the cost of growing revenue, utilize data in the sales process, and execute outcome-based sales. 

Questions answered include:

• What are the responsibilities of a Chief Commercial Officer?
• What does outcome selling mean?
• How do you execute outcome selling?
• What data is most important to a chief commercial officer?
• What type of as-a-service offers is SimCorp taking to market?
• What should companies do to reduce overall cost of growing revenue?