Tech-Driven Business
Get ready to think differently about how technology driven solutions can lead to business success. Mustansir Saifuddin is the co-founder of Innovative Solution Partners. With a career that spans multiple industries and a variety of roles including a software quality assurance engineer to leading global teams and projects, he knows what it takes to fuse technology with what a business wants. Listen as he interviews tech experts, business experts, and visionaries on their successes, challenges, and lessons learned. We’ll cover everything from SAP and ERP focused solutions, to leveraging data analytics, to how to achieve your business goals with technology.
Episodes
Monday Sep 19, 2022
Inside Insights: Choosing a Cloud Analytics Tool with Hau Ngo
Monday Sep 19, 2022
Monday Sep 19, 2022
In this next episode of Tech-Driven Business, Mustansir Saifuddin continues the conversation with Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics to discuss what enterprises should consider when choosing a tool like SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). They cover everything from system landscape, data sources, visuals, security, and cost considerations. His key takeaway: look at how an analytics tool fits into your business, timeline, and total cost of ownership.
Hau is an SAP Analytics Architect and an early adopter of SAP Analytics Cloud. In 2017, he helped a technology company in California consolidate global sales reporting across 7 different ERP systems. This effort culminated in one executive dashboard that displayed real-time information, eliminating weeks of manual coordination and data wrangling. Subsequently, Hau has presented his work at conferences such as SAPPHIRE 2019 in Orlando Florida, and has gone onward to help additional customers streamline their reporting processes and visualize the key company metrics. His experience with SAP Analytics Cloud extends to customers with various systems such as SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, BW/4HANA, and S/4HANA.
Connect with Us:
LinkedIn:
Hau Ngo,
Mustansir Saifuddin,
Innovative Solution Partners
Twitter: @MmsaifuddinYouTube
or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.
Episode Transcript
[00:00:05.170] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Welcome to Tech-Driven Business. Brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. In this episode, I welcome back Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics. Listen in as he shares key points to consider when choosing an analytics tool like SAP Analytics Cloud or SAC.
[00:00:27.750] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Hello, how are you, man?
[00:00:29.530] - Hau Ngo
I'm doing well, Mustansir how are you doing?
[00:00:32.610] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Doing well. Welcome to Tech-Driven Business again.
[00:00:36.030] - Hau Ngo
I'm good to be here. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:38.470] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Awesome. Hey, so I know we've been kind of talking about different topics so far, and today I would like to kind of zoom in into this very important point where a lot of customers, when we talk about considering SAC as their cloud analytics tool of choice. What are some of the considerations they should take into account? That's how I'm thinking we can dig a little bit deeper, at least from a cloud analytics point of view.
[00:01:11.490] - Hau Ngo
Yeah. So it really depends on what their system landscape looks like, if they have the legacy ECC or S/4, or maybe they have a BW or HANA Data Warehouse. So all those decisions sort of come into play. And I don't think a lot of customers are aware that SAC Analytics Cloud as a tool has different functionality depending on what you have on the back- end. So we can talk about that in this episode.
[00:01:43.230] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Absolutely. And I think that kind of is a good segue to what I was alluding to earlier. When we talk system landscapes, it means a lot of different things depending on who you're asking. In this example, I'll use the system landscape, especially from a data source point of view. Especially when we're talking about creating models in SAC and those visuals, how does that come into play when you're dealing with, let's say, for example, an ECC source system or an S/4 for that matter, or compared to a non-SAP source, what are some of the things that you should take into account when creating your SAC models?
[00:02:30.070] - Hau Ngo
Oh, sure. So one thing SAP does really well is they market their tool in terms of features and benefits and everything you can do from a Dashboarding perspective. I think the inherent problem, though, is SAP has such a large product matrix that it's hard to say, does this feature work here versus another one? So if you're using the legacy ECC as a source, there's really nothing you can do in terms of getting around it. You have to have some sort of data warehouse because SAP Analytics Cloud works best with a proper data warehouse. But if you happen to have an S/4 system, you can connect your dashboarding tool directly to S/4. And I was going to say on my first project in late 2017-2018, the integration between the front-end Analytics Cloud and all the back-end system weren't fully fleshed out or developed at that time. But if you were to fast forward to today, you're almost looking at feature parity for all the different systems. Before, it used to be that we have to import the data into the tenant, into the cloud tenant first, to have everything in terms of all the functionality, all the utility of the tool.
[00:03:46.820] - Hau Ngo
But now a lot of that feature set is rolled out to BW, to the HANA data warehouse, of course, data warehouse, cloud, and now even S/4. So there are differences now, but they're getting much less and smaller between the different systems.
[00:04:04.770] - Mustansir Saifuddin
That's good to know, because especially you see, a lot of customers have a mixed bag of systems and depending on whatever source system they are using, it seems like the tool itself is capable of consuming that data, right. In a way that is, from a user standpoint, it doesn't really matter what is the source, it's just the visuals. And the tool itself can mask that from them, right?
[00:04:34.680] - Hau Ngo
Yes, absolutely. And then I think in certain cases, I think my current client now we're exploring even a use case, a dual use case where some reports come from their BW system that we're initiating, and then a different set of reports come from S/4. But the UI, the interface is still SAC, so to the user is transparent, but depending on the use case, it could come from a data warehouse or their transactional system.
[00:05:03.690] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Right. And I think that kind of brings up this point. Right? The lines are getting blurry when it comes to the data itself. Right. It is real time information versus data stored in a warehouse and being consumed based on whatever frequency is getting updated, right?
[00:05:22.310] - Hau Ngo
Yep, absolutely.
[00:05:24.810] - Mustansir Saifuddin
So, talking about tips, right? Can you share some ideas or tips that when it comes to using different visuals in SAC, are there any best practices or any ideas that you like to share?
[00:05:43.410] - Hau Ngo
Oh, sure. So the cloud itself, the tool itself, Analytics Cloud, has a number of different chart visualizations and they're categorized primarily by function. For example, you have a group of bar charts for comparisons. If you want to see trends, there are a set of line graphs, and then there's pie graphs and tree maps for distribution. So you have a good number of chart types to choose from, depending on what you wish to communicate with. That being said, the three that I've seen the most on my last ten projects has been bar, number one, numeric, the large numbers, the aggregation as number two, and tables as number three. And what I found early on, when I try to experiment with all the different chart types, it tends to confuse people if they're not statisticians. Right. You can't just throw a scatter plot and assume people know what that means. So what I find is most people tend to stick to those three bar numeric and table as the three most common chart types. If you stick with that and start from there, you should be in good shape.
[00:06:57.150] - Mustansir Saifuddin
That's a good tip. I mean, keep it simple. It seems like the more simple you keep, the better usability you get out of that, right?
[00:07:05.940] - Hau Ngo
Absolutely. And a lot of these folks, they do generate their existing dashboard from Excel. And if you were to look and use the existing dashboard from the managerial report deck, they almost typically use those three chart types.
[00:07:23.270] - Mustansir Saifuddin
I think one of the things that I'm looking at from a prerequisite point of view, talking about, what are some of the prerequisites required for a client. When they're using SAC as a self service tool? Because it's almost like a parallel, right. Things that are done currently in Excel, especially when you're doing some kind of manager or reporting that you want to customize in Excel and you want to take those skills into SAC. So what are some of the things that they should have in place from a prerequisite standpoint if they want to use this as a self service tool?
[00:08:04.000] - Hau Ngo
Oh, sure. So I think that may be a two part answer. From a personnel or staffing perspective, I would suggest that our audience consider finding someone, whether they be internal or external, who is excited about dashboards and what this tool can do for the company. And I'm not talking about the technical features of the tool, but the way the tool itself can benefit someone's day to day chores or workload. And now imagine if you were a business analyst and you can tell your team that they don't have to open their laptop and log into SAP to see the numbers. And that would be cool, because if they got an email each morning with a full color PDF with all information they needed, that simplifies and cuts out that friction. Right. And for the field staff, if they could open up a phone or a small tablet and get the customer sales history before going to a sales meeting, that would be easier than what they're using now. And from a technical perspective, companies with an S/4 landscape should consider SAC as a reporting tool of choice. I'm working on a proof of concept where I'm embedding the SAC dashboards into the S/4 environment for a customer, and maybe we can talk about that on a future episode.
[00:09:28.670] - Hau Ngo
But if you have a BW or Hana data warehouse and you're deciding between SAC or another cloud based tool, then I would strongly suggest you consider SAC. And that's because you get tighter integration with live data connections and you don't really have to worry about the security.
[00:09:48.550] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Yeah, for sure. And I think that kind of is a good segue into my next question, which is all about leveraging what you already have in place, right. So when you are dealing with an S/4 or data warehouse cloud source system, what are some of the quick wins when you want to leverage the security models the roles definition that you have in your source system, do you have some examples that you can share with us?
[00:10:17.800] - Hau Ngo
Oh, sure. So I would say the quickest wins you can do when you're going in and highlighting the features of a new tool is to eliminate the unnecessary things that you would have to do, which is building data model, model data validation, and setting up security. If you could connect your dashboard to existing data warehouse or S/4 system, you're halfway there. And the beauty of SAC in terms of integration is there is no security. You inherit the security profiles of your source system, whether it's BW Hana or S/4. And the front end tool with single sign on respects all of the privileges you set up versus another tool where you have to kind of maintain or even duplicate that setting. With SAC, you don't have to worry about it, single sign on takes care of all of that.
[00:11:13.790] - Mustansir Saifuddin
I think that can go a long way, right? I mean, I'm thinking from the ease of use as well as the ease of deployment. It seems like if I can leverage my source systems for my security and my roles that are already in place, it can make much easier for folks to kind of leverage that information. That mapping that is already in place.
[00:11:40.450] - Hau Ngo
Yeah, I would say it's an easier sell. And also long term, there's only one point of failure. There's no dual maintenance that someone has to maintain in different systems. So I think it's an easier path as well. In terms of the actual tool itself, you can have some limitation in terms of whether user is a content viewer where they can consume the information or if they're a power user. Right. But in terms of the actual line by line, row by row authorization, let that be taken care of centrally in either your data warehouse or your S/4 system.
[00:12:18.830] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Okay, that makes sense. Now, what are the opportunities? It seems like that's a good feature to have. Right. And that comes out of the box from SAC if you want to do any additional security in SAC because I know there are some planning functionalities as well as just pure reporting and dashboarding capabilities. Are there features available in SAC that allow you to further customize your securities or the role?
[00:12:49.410] - Hau Ngo
Yeah, sure. So for some customers, they have data sets that they upload, whether they're doing manual compiling of information or planning or something like that. You can still set up security inside analytics cloud from a team perspective. So you can define team roles where certain team members can see the financial information but other team members cannot. So there are some security functionality, but it's more around who can see what sensitive information that's maybe not in your systems, but in these confidential flat files.
[00:13:29.990] - Mustansir Saifuddin
That's good to know because I think your point earlier, right, when you talked about source systems, and especially when you're dealing with multiple source systems, it seems like it may be a better idea to have SAC drive some of the security of the role definitions. Right, because you have a mixed bag of information coming in to your models.
[00:13:48.530] - Hau Ngo
Yes, absolutely.
[00:13:50.930] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Good to know that. It's interesting when you look at this overall, we talk about everybody's looking at cloud analytics as the way to go and it's just so much simpler and the technology has advanced so much across the board. Right. It seems like the most logical choice for customers to move forward in the direction. Would you say so?
[00:14:17.290] - Hau Ngo
I would say so. I think what you're going to see moving forward is maybe not SAP specific, but more cloud based technology. Just because from a deployment perspective, the vendor only has to maintain one instance or one master copy of the tool. It's just so much easier to use than what I think we've had a struggle with in the past, where even though a lot of customers are doing similar things, we have to have our own installation on custom repository. Here I've noticed at least on the early days, SAP was rolling out features every two weeks and it was really hard to keep up. But now the products seem to have matured a lot more. So I think at this point we're going to focus more on usability versus features.
[00:15:07.910] - Mustansir Saifuddin
For sure. I know we covered a lot of different things in the session. Would you like to share any one key takeaway that our listeners can take it with them?
[00:15:19.750] - Hau Ngo
Oh, sure. So we talk about SAC quite often and some of the different considerations for implementing this tool. But overall there are other tools and if you consider implementation and tool selection in a broader perspective, I've been lucky to be in a few early conversations during the tool selection phase and most customers seem to struggle with either SAC or another cloud based tool such as Power BI or Tableau and deciding which one to use. And most of the time the conversation seems to be centered around features versus cost between these tools. And what I've seen in terms of outcome from a couple of these meetings with different companies is that the SAP centric customer tends to stay under the SAP umbrella due to the tighter integration and security benefits that we spoke about. And other customers with non SAP systems in the mix choose the other tools because they have similar features at a lower cost. But that cost saving is usually offset by higher development times. So that's just the cost of doing business when you're integrating different systems. But that's just something to think about.
[00:16:42.830] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Yeah, and that's a good tip, right. And a good takeaway, especially when you have all these choices available to you. One thing that folks tend to leave behind is the fact that sometimes costs can be a factor in most cases, it is a factor. But what is the cost? Are you looking at the cost at this point in time, or are you looking at a future cost perspective? Especially when you're doing integration? Right. And this is all about maintaining your systems in the long run, right. So you have to keep that in mind.
[00:17:18.090] - Hau Ngo
Yes, absolutely. I think a lot of customers, they're very intelligent, but sometimes they get too focused on a certain thing and they get tunnel vision. But like you said, if you were to step back and look at the total cost of ownership of not only the tool, but maintenance, and will this be accepted? And which tool can actually be embraced by the business community? So those factors are taken into account. I would leave, I guess, the audience with one thing. People now are more impatient than they were in the past, because at the speed of things and their expectations have changed. Right. So app development, dashboard development, it's much faster. And if your tool can meet that demand from your customer base, then you're golden. The fact that you can whip up a dashboard in an hour or two is great, but if you're taking three months to get a lower cost tool up and running, that might be a deal breaker for your community, for sure.
[00:18:20.070] - Mustansir Saifuddin
And that's a great takeaway. I mean, it's something to keep in mind, especially when you're doing any cloud based analytics, right? What is the time to delivery that matters? Thank you so much, how. This has been a great session. Thanks for some of the insights into what things we should consider, especially when you're going with SAP analytics cloud as a tool of choice. So really appreciate your time and we'll look forward to meeting with you in the future.
[00:18:47.940] - Hau Ngo
Yes, absolutely. Have a good one, Mustansir.
[00:18:50.930] - Mustansir Saifuddin
You too.
[00:18:55.770] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Thanks for listening to Tech-Driven Business, brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. Hau has shared some key pointers for you to think about when choosing SAC. His main takeaway? Look at the bigger picture when choosing a tool. Be careful when being driven by cost. We would love to hear from you. Continue the conversation by connecting with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. Learn more about Innovative Solution Partners and schedule a free consultation by visiting Isolutionpartners.com. Never miss a podcast by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Information is in the show notes.
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
Inside Insights: Data Modeling & Visualization in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) with Hau Ngo
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
In this next episode of Tech-Driven Business, Mustansir Saifuddin continues the conversation with Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics to discuss how to approach data modeling and visualization when using SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). Hau first joined us for a 6-part series in 2021 to talk about SAC and what it means to enterprises as they move to the cloud. Hau and Mustansir share real-life tips on how to approach this depending on your team and company. Listen in for quick takeaways that you can put in to place today. As the tech industry moves to simpler tools, data modeling plays an even more important role.
Hau is an SAP Analytics Architect and an early adopter of SAP Analytics Cloud. In 2017, he helped a technology company in California consolidate global sales reporting across 7 different ERP systems. This effort culminated in one executive dashboard that displayed real-time information, eliminating weeks of manual coordination and data wrangling. Subsequently, Hau has presented his work at conferences such as SAPPHIRE 2019 in Orlando Florida, and has gone onward to help additional customers streamline their reporting processes and visualize the key company metrics. His experience with SAP Analytics Cloud extends to customers with various systems such as SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, BW/4HANA, and S/4HANA.
Connect with Us:
LinkedIn:
Hau Ngo
Mustansir Saifuddin
Innovative Solution Partners
Twitter: @Mmsaifuddin
YouTube
or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.
Episode Transcript
[00:00:06.010] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Welcome to Tech-Driven Business. Brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. In this episode, I welcome back Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics listen in as he talks about the importance of balancing data modeling with visualization to get the most out of your investment in SAP analytics Cloud or SAC.
[00:00:34.110] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Hello Hau, how are you?
[00:00:37.110] - Hau Ngo
I'm doing well, Mustansir, how are you?
[00:00:39.570] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Hey, doing great, man. Welcome to Tech-Driven Business. Again, today we will talk about the balancing act they call it, especially when you talk about SAC. And you have so many different variables in terms of the data modeling part, the data visualization, and what is the right balance. That's what I want to talk about today.
[00:01:06.070] - Hau Ngo
Oh, sure, yeah. I think it gets a little bit tricky, I think now with this newer tool because you can do so much with it. Before we used to just do everything in either ABAP or BW and you just have like a table dump either in Excel or an LB grid. But now with SAC, you can still do a little bit of data modeling. You can define calculations so the lines are blurred, like where do you do which things? Right? And I think in terms of what I would suggest for a good data model in this new paradigm, I would try to have all your work done on the back end, meaning you would have all your calculations done in either S/4 or BW or Data Warehouse Cloud, and treat SAC as a read-only layer. So SAC as a reporting layer, just read what you've written and leave that. Now of course there's some give and take, some things are easier in SAC, but I think for the most part, make sure everything is done on the source system and you should be off to a good start.
[00:02:13.930] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Interesting. So what seems like a good data model in your example that you just shared? It's almost like do more of the heavy lifting on the back end, which can be either S/4 or Data Warehouse Cloud or any other system for that matter, as long as you can connect to SAC and then use SAC as almost like your reporting layer. But create your stories, but avoid more detailed calculations and modeling in SAC.
[00:02:47.170] - Hau Ngo
Yeah, exactly. Because if you start reading into the technical documentation, SAC explains the technology in this way. Each widget, each table that you see in your dashboard is a separate report or query call to the back end. So if you're doing a lot of heavy lifting on the front end, inside Analytics Cloud, it has to do that X times per widget. So we have nine or twelve there's nine or twelve separate calls. It's going to fetch a lot of data and then you're going to do a lot of calculations in your browser and that may slow it down.
[00:03:27.770] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Yeah, that's for sure. I mean, the number of widgets does impact your so, I mean, when we talk about widgets, especially, I've seen some dashboards or stories that can go from a single pager to multiple pages. Is there a good definition of exactly how many visuals you can have or you should have just to make your dashboards more robust?
[00:03:56.110] - Hau Ngo
Oh, sure, yeah. If you're looking for like a really responsive, quick rendering type dashboard, something that the user can open and see the data right away. The approach I've been taking is if you can break up your stories into multiple pages, I think SAP still recommends having only six at most charts per page, which is kind of sparse, to be honest. I typically run between nine and twelve per page, but if you can render all of your stuff on different pages, you only have to load those widgets per navigation. So typically I build for directors and executives, and they almost always want to see an overview page, which is like one chart type from one page, another chart type for another page, and they want to see specific things on the overview, and as they go from page to page, they go into a more specific look or drill down into their data. But if you can break it up, it renders much faster. If you can stick with the simpler chart types, like bar charts, numeric, pie, anything that's not a table, you should be in good shape.
[00:05:13.230] - Mustansir Saifuddin
That makes sense. Yeah, especially those cards are very useful. As you mentioned, when you're working with the C-levels, the information can be readily available. It's easy to grasp what's being presented on the initial overview page.
[00:05:27.230] - Hau Ngo
Exactly.
[00:05:28.290] - Mustansir Saifuddin
So that kind of leads me to my next question. This is good because we always get this inquiry, especially when you're dealing with a source, especially when you have multiple source systems feeding into your SAC model. Right. What constitutes like, a model, especially when you're dealing with data warehouse and S/4, what would you prefer?Usually you see from your experience, do you see a blend of those data sources or do you see a single data source and then working with that on the SAC side?
[00:06:16.520] - Hau Ngo
Yeah, I would say typically when we first start off on a project, I see a blend and then it moves into a centralized data warehouse. And I say that because with SAC, you can get things up and running pretty quickly. So we can leverage this trick called in browser blending where you can say, I have data coming from multiple things. I want to them all mashed together on a dashboard. And if I were to select something like company code, that selection applies to all of the chart types regardless of the source of data. So to get those types of dashboards up and running quickly, to make sure that the information you're presenting is clear, understandable is what the user is looking for. That is a great starting point, but almost always you run into the data integration issue and that's almost always better done in a data warehouse because the tools are made for that.
[00:07:13.310] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Yeah, that makes sense. Well, especially I'm just thinking of a scenario where you have a need to quickly bring something up, especially when you're dealing with executives and they want information on their fingertips, and you try to kind of get information directly from the source system versus a model based on a data warehouse, things can get a little tricky.
[00:07:42.260] - Hau Ngo
Yes. And with this tool, also, you get around that trick or that tricky scenario by showing these executives what you can do with the tool before committing three to six months into a lengthy implementation. They want to see what's possible upfront, and if they want to invest that fund towards that effort.
[00:08:04.380] - Mustansir Saifuddin
It's a great advice, actually. I like that. So what I'm hearing is you can do a quick show and tell and then see what the capabilities are and how the tool can interact with a transactional system versus a data warehouse. And then once things are the way it's supposed to be from a business standpoint, you can create a model behind the scenes. Right. To make it more the reusability seems to go up, correct? Is that my understanding?
[00:08:37.110] - Hau Ngo
Yeah, exactly. I consider this more like a high fidelity mock up where you're using production data. They're familiar with the figures, and you can get them most of the way there with business content. So regardless of which system that you have, the tools are there for you to kind of take apart and blend together in your browser with this tool.
[00:09:00.410] - Mustansir Saifuddin
For sure. Yeah. So let me ask you this. Based on your experience, I know you talked about you've done multiple SAC implementations in your experience. Anything that stuck out for you, like, any example that you would like to share with our listeners?
[00:09:14.760] - Hau Ngo
Yeah. So this is going to be, I would say, a tricky one to answer because I work with large teams where the project budget is $400 million, and then I work with small teams where it's just me plus the client, because newer companies are being formed now through divestiture where there's a larger firm, they spin off a smaller subdivision or subsidiary. And those folks, they know what they want. They're used to having information in a certain way, but they no longer have the staff or the team to deliver that. So I would say if you don't have a data warehouse, don't worry, you can use this tool. You can use other cloud based dashboard tool with your source data, whether it's ECC or S/4. But as you get more mature and as you consider purchasing a data warehouse, maybe you don't even need a large team for that either, because now SAP has another tool called Data Warehouse Cloud, which is a cloud based data warehousing tool that doesn't require the large upfront cost and the team to implement.
[00:10:25.400] - Mustansir Saifuddin
That interesting. Yeah. I think the way the industry is going depending on the size of the implementation and the requirements. Right. You can take multiple approaches and there's no right or wrong answer. It depends on what your requirements are at that point in time, right?
[00:10:54.870] - Hau Ngo
Yes, exactly. And it seems like now the tools are advancing that in a way that we can do more with less and we can get things done quicker than before. So it's pretty exciting.
[00:11:08.430] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Yeah, for sure, I think. And that's the key piece, right? I mean, you can spin up a dashboard in a matter of days and hours versus weeks and months. That used to be the case in the past.
[00:11:19.540] - Hau Ngo
Yeah, exactly.
[00:11:23.050] - Mustansir Saifuddin
That's an interesting segue into this idea of like, folks talk about getting things quickly and that means that a lot of times a lot of projects want to bypass our data warehouse. Right. What are your thoughts on that? What would be your advice to them or the right way to do it?
[00:11:47.290] - Hau Ngo
Oh, sure. So if they're, I would say relatively small and nimble in terms of company size, you can create beautiful dashboards with S/4 data. You don't need a data warehouse if you happen to run S/4, so that there's a lot of business content there that you can leverage and extend. But if you are looking at a data warehouse, like I mentioned, data warehouse cloud is an option. But a lot of these cloud based tools, they seem to work better and they seem to work across different data sources as well. I would say just go ahead and give it a try. The takeaway here isn't so much the tool, it's trying to get the user buy in from your business. So I would focus more on that before really focusing on how do we do it, making sure if this is something that the users want to get done.
[00:12:44.470] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Yeah, for sure. I think that is probably one of the key takeaways. I always ask this question because my listeners like to hear, especially when you're talking about these kind of insights. What is the one takeaway when you talk about the balancing act between data modeling and data visualization when it comes to SAC?
[00:13:07.510] - Hau Ngo
Oh, sure. I think in the past we used to have, I would call them clunkier tools like business objects or Lumira, where you need a dedicated resource or team of resources to maintain the server to do the development. What I've seen now is the transition to simpler tools, both the front end and the back end, the SAC visualization tool and the data warehousing tool that's coming out because they're so much easier to use. I would focus less on the reporting visualization need in SAC because you can get a dashboard out and running in an hour if everything is really clearly defined, so the effort is much less. Right. But the classic problem exists if you happen to be doing a lot of data transformation or merging data from different places, the data modeling efforts still remains, even though you can get it done quicker. The effort between visualization reporting versus back end modeling, the ratio is now leaning more on the back end. So before, if it's three to six months on the back end, maybe a month on the front end. Now it's more like a day at most on the front end, depending on how many revisions you want to go to.
[00:14:38.760] - Hau Ngo
But the data validation is still there on the back end. So I would focus more on hiring developers for the back end who knows what they're doing and are familiar with the process. More so on the back end than the front end.
[00:14:52.450] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Yeah. So I think it kind of leads up to that question about how do you architect your data? Right. In your source system? And what is that? The possibility of pulling the information in a way that it makes sense from whatever the business KPI that you're working on, correct?
[00:15:09.250] - Hau Ngo
Yes, absolutely. And you'll find, as you know, the time sync is validation and there's really nothing that you can do to get around that, depending on how many sources of data you're combining, transforming, and the complexity that is still there.
[00:15:25.570] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Yeah, for sure. And that's probably not going to go away until you have all these different definitions of the key indicators and how you measure it. And every company, every organization has their own way of doing it. So as long as that is well defined and well published, the front end work seems like it's become a lot more easier and better in terms of the visualization with Sac.
[00:15:56.170] - Hau Ngo
Yeah, absolutely.
[00:15:58.450] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Great. Hey, it's been great talking to you. How really good insights in today's session. Look forward to our next coming up soon. Thank you so much.
[00:16:09.200] - Hau Ngo
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Have a good one.
[00:16:11.760] - Mustansir Saifuddin
You too.
[00:16:15.530] - Mustansir Saifuddin
Thanks for listening to Tech-Driven Business brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. Hau shared some key pointers as you think about where to focus your efforts in SAC. His main takeaway, as we transition to simpler tools focus on data modeling. We would love to hear from you. Continue the conversation by connecting with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. Learn more about Innovative Solution Partners and schedule a free consultation consultation by visiting Isolutionpartners.com. Never miss a podcast by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Information is in the show notes.
Monday Jul 25, 2022
Inside Insights: SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) - Keys to Success with Hau Ngo
Monday Jul 25, 2022
Monday Jul 25, 2022
In this next episode of Tech-Driven Business, Mustansir Saifuddin brings back Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics to share an update on SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). Hau first joined us for a 6-part series in 2021 to talk about SAC and what it means to enterprises as they move to the cloud. He revisits us to talk about what it takes for an architect to be successful in implementing SAC. Listen is for quick takeaways that you can put in to place today. With the wealth of learning tools available, SAC is no longer out of reach for clients or consultants.
Hau is an SAP Analytics Architect and an early adopter of SAP Analytics Cloud. In 2017, he helped a technology company in California consolidate global sales reporting across 7 different ERP systems. This effort culminated in one executive dashboard that displayed real-time information, eliminating weeks of manual coordination and data wrangling. Subsequently, Hau has presented his work at conferences such as SAPPHIRE 2019 in Orlando Florida, and has gone onward to help additional customers streamline their reporting processes and visualize the key company metrics. His experience with SAP Analytics Cloud extends to customers with various systems such as SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, BW/4HANA, and S/4HANA.
Connect with Us:
LinkedIn:
Hau Ngo
Mustansir Saifuddin
Innovative Solution Partners
Twitter: @Mmsaifuddin
YouTube
or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.
Episode Transcript
Mustansir Saifuddin (00:03)
Welcome to Tech-Driven Business. Brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners. In this episode, I welcome back Hau Ngo of Summerlin Analytics listen in as he talks about his real-life experience of SAP Analytics Cloud, specifically, how SAP is making it easier for clients, lessons he has learned since he last joined me in 2021, and more importantly, what you need to do to be successful with an SAC implementation.
Mustansir Saifuddin (00:51)
Yeah, it's been a while. It has been a year and a half when we last spoke about SAC and the role of SAC in the business intelligence SAP world.
Hau Ngo (01:04)
Yeah, I think so. And I think at that time, SAC was still relatively new and unknown. So it's good to catch up after some time in the field and see what other people are experiencing with the tool.
Mustansir Saifuddin (01:16)
Yeah, for sure. I think it's come a long way since we last spoke, and for today's session, I would like to talk about some of the key ingredients, especially when you're making your reporting and analytics implementation right. And what makes them successful, especially when you're dealing with SAC.
Hau Ngo (01:35)
Yeah, sounds good. And I would say now that things are starting to pick back up, projects are starting to come back online, a lot of people are starting to look at reporting as the key driver in the businesses again. And it's good to see that SAC is up there with the other cloud tools.
Mustansir Saifuddin (01:51)
For sure. Yeah, I think we've seen a lot of good changes coming through the tool and how it has kind of developed over the past couple of years. So okay. With that, let me get into the first topic I would like to get your insights into. So when we talk about SAC, what is the role of the analytics architect, especially when it comes to implementing SAC?
Hau Ngo (02:20)
Sure, I think that's a great initial question, and I think a lot of clients overlook communication as a quality that should be high up the list. Of course, technical competency and familiarity of the tool is a given. The resource should know where 80% of the time, where to find the option to change a setting or to enable a feature. And I think I've done about ten SAC projects so far, and I still ask my clients for direction when they come and ask for something I'm not clear about. But getting back to the communication part, I think this skill ranks nearly as high as the technical know-how, because building a dashboard is very collaborative and it's an effort that involves directors of finance or supply chain who then need to present the information to someone in the executive office. So folks at these level are exceptionally pressed for time and having a resource who communicates well, whether it's during the working sessions or through email makes this process go smoother, quicker, and more enjoyable.
Mustansir Saifuddin (03:30)
Interesting. So it seems like one of the key skills required for having a successful implementation, especially when you're playing the architect role, is communication.
Hau Ngo (03:40)
Yes, absolutely. Only because this tool is end-user friendly. And there's a lot of things now, I guess, two or three years later, written about this tool and the functionality, and SAP has done a wonderful job of marketing that. Where it gets into a little bit of trouble, I think, for a lot of end users and clients is they're not sure what the tool can do because it can do a lot. But what they have in their specific environment, whether it's Analytics Cloud to S/4 directly, or if they're connecting to the new Data Warehouse Cloud, or if they're connecting to HANA Data Warehouse, or BW Warehouse, or BW/4HANA. So depending on how it's used and what it's connected to, it can do certain things in some instances, but not another. And having an architect who maybe have a little bit of experience in all four different areas could definitely help walk them through that process.
Mustansir Saifuddin (04:40)
That's interesting. Yeah, I think that makes sense, especially when you're dealing with the level of users who are more business focused and having that communication skill, as well as a way to understand what their requirements are. Right, I think that makes sense.
Hau Ngo (05:00)
Yeah, absolutely.
Mustansir Saifuddin (05:01)
So I think this kind of leads me into my next question. We always talk about this, right? Why does the business knowledge and collaboration with business users is so important, especially when you go about implementing SAC?
Hau Ngo (05:15)
Yeah. If you recall a couple of years ago, and this is maybe speaking to our age, but most of the reporting tools were excel-based, and now dashboards have been recognized as the more efficient way of presenting large amounts of data in a quicker way. And the challenge with this new approach is that each business department looks at different metrics and how they interpret the data differently. Right. So, for example, someone in finance looks at the profit and loss or maybe the sales margin numbers and may want key data points in a tabular review and in a specific order or grouping. Someone else in order fulfillment or customer service may like the larger numeric tiles that show daily sales numbers or bar tiles that show open orders for specific items that may not ship in time. So to add to that, each dashboard will be tailored to the preference of that particular executive. Maybe she's older and you have to use larger fonts and maybe consider something that's print ready. Or you may have a director who's younger and wants to see numbers on the go. So you may have to consider a mobile, responsive layout.
Hau Ngo (06:29)
So all of this is to say that design dashboards and the data models that go with it is often highly customized and require a lot of interaction. More so than your typical back-end developer maybe used to.
Mustansir Saifuddin (06:42)
I think that is important to know, especially when you talk about a demographics. Right. Who is my end client, especially the age. The way of presenting the information based on their key roles seems like one of the key reasons that you need to understand the business. And what I'm hearing from you. Collaboration is the key piece, right?
Hau Ngo (07:10)
Yes, absolutely. Because you don't want to go back and forth with a higher-level executive. Too many times they are pressed for time. So however, you can shave off those cycles of back and forth, whether you're familiar with the process area or maybe you can anticipate the request. That definitely goes a long way.
Mustansir Saifuddin (07:31)
For sure. So I think that let me ask you a personal question. What do you consider one of your biggest accomplishments when it comes to doing these implementations? Any personal favorites?
Hau Ngo (07:49)
Yeah, I would have to say that learning new skills and learning them quickly has been exciting and rewarding. I would say during the first 15 years working with SAP, the technology has been relatively slow. Back then you had BW and ABAP for data warehousing and reporting. But just in the last five years, that has been a blur with Hana calculation views, S4 CDS views, analytical cloud and the application design, of course. And now with Data Warehouse Cloud and each one of these required learning and retooling and it's a very exciting time.
Mustansir Saifuddin (08:30)
Absolutely. I think that kind of sums it up. Right. I mean, things have changed quite a bit in the past few years, especially when it comes to SAC and certain tools that are very business focus and the whole layout and the communication that it brings to the end users, I think is much different than what it was in the past.
Hau Ngo (08:55)
Yeah, you can almost say we went from waterfall to agile very quickly.
Mustansir Saifuddin (09:02)
That's a good comparison. Things were done a certain way for a very long time, especially when it comes to analytics. Now we are able to take that to the next level, right?
Hau Ngo (09:13)
Yes, absolutely.
Mustansir Saifuddin (09:14)
Especially with SAC some of the key ingredients that it contains. As a tool, from predictive to planning to the stories, everything is just giving you the information very quickly in a very precise way.
Hau Ngo (09:34)
Yeah, and SAP has done a good job with that. They actually package a lot of the information where it's almost out of the box and implementation is very minimal to get your data into a presentable format quickly.
Mustansir Saifuddin (09:47)
Absolutely. We always talk about these implementations and that question comes up. Right. Analytics implementations are challenging at times and especially when you're dealing with different levels of business users. What are some of the key indicators for a successful implementation? How would you quantify that?
Hau Ngo (10:12)
If you ask a lot of people, I'm sure you'll get different answers. But I think the clarity of the project goals and limitations of the tools are important. Sometimes I see projects fail because the client expects more than what the people or the tool can deliver. In a limited time, the scope keeps expanding. But where I've often seen successes are when projects that have a team that constantly work together to define and agree to what's possible. Those projects tend to be more successful more often than not.
Mustansir Saifuddin (10:48)
So I think it kind of sums it up with that statement you had just made. Right. As long as you have a very succinct definition of the requirements and then a resource or an expert who understands architecture can do things, these things in a very precise manner right. In a very timely delivery also.
Hau Ngo (11:13)
To be honest, most of my projects, the one I enjoy the most, I actually learn from the client. So it's an oxymoron. You're hiring someone who's an expert in this field but that person is also learning both the functional business side and the technical side, sometimes, from the client. So it has to be collaborative for some of these things to work out well.
Mustansir Saifuddin (11:35)
Yeah, I think that's a key statement you just made. Especially a lot of these kind of projects tend to go different ways depending on how requirements are defined and what kind of challenges you have when you come on board in these projects. Technical challenges, business challenges, et cetera. And when I look at it as a whole, it seems like the learning is on both sides, especially when you are interacting with the level of users in these kinds of cases is definitely different than working with an analyst, right?
Hau Ngo (12:21)
Yes, absolutely.
Mustansir Saifuddin (12:24)
Okay, great. So I know we kind of come to our time for at least this particular session. I would like to ask you this based on what we have covered so far, what is one of the key takeaways that you would want to leave the listeners with today?
Hau Ngo (12:42)
I would say most of the new cloud-based tools that we see today, like analytics cloud, they're relatively easy to use, but still I see a lot of hesitation when it comes to adapting or even trying out these new technologies. So my advice is to just give it a try, even if it's just an evaluation, and learn what it can do and just as important, what it cannot do. There's a lot of tutorials, online video and written, so the barrier to entry isn't as high now as it's been in the past. You'll have to put in the work, of course, but you'll be surprised how quickly you can become an expert with these new tools. And after that, it's about sharing what you've learned and helping your team succeed.
Mustansir Saifuddin (13:28)
That's a great advice. That's a great advice. I like it. Especially when you mentioned that there are so many tools available for anyone who is interested and has the desire to take that to the next level. So the information is available as long as you're willing to go out and explore.
Hau Ngo (13:48)
Yes.
Mustansir Saifuddin (13:49)
Great. Well, thank you so much, Hau. So it's been a pleasure talking with you and look forward to our next session.
Hau Ngo (13:56)
Yeah, likewise, Mustansir, to dive into some deep conversation technical conversations next time. So talk to you then.
Mustansir Saifuddin (14:05)
Thank you so much.
Hau Ngo (14:07)
Yes, thank you.
Mustansir Saifuddin (14:11)
Thanks for listening to Tech-Driven Business, brought to you by Innovative Solution Partners, Hau gave a great overview of SAP Analytics Cloud in today's environment. His main takeaway: take advantage of the many resources available to learn. The barrier to entry for SAC is low, so take advantage of it to learn all that you can. We would love to hear from you. Continue the conversation by connecting with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. Learn more about Innovative Solution Partners and schedule a free consultation by visiting Isolationpartners.com. Never miss a podcast by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Information is in the show notes.
Monday Jun 06, 2022
Monday Jun 06, 2022
In this next episode of Tech-Driven Business, Mustansir Saifuddin talks with Dawn Solomon of Haworth. With Dawn's decades of industry and tech experience, she shares what she has learned while implementing and using SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC). Dawn not only shares what has worked well, but also what to watch out for when implementing BPC; especially if you look to combine it with Microsoft Power BI. Her key takeaway: as a life-long learner, Dawn has been able to stay abreast of changing technology and support Haworth through it's refinement and use of SAP.
Dawn Solomon is a Sr. SAP Business Process Analyst supporting HR and Finance in the Center of Excellence (COE) at Haworth Inc. During Dawn’s career she’s done everything from Accounts Payable to being a Subject Matter Expert to joining the COE. Involved with multiple upgrades of the finance systems at Haworth, she has also supported Haworth globally including North America, Asia Pacific, and European sectors. This global support was for not only finance applications but some parts of Human Resources as Haworth moves to Success Factors. Dawn is an active volunteer with America SAP User Group (ASUG) where she shares her insights and expertise with others.Continue the conversation on:
LinkedIn:
Dawn Solomon
Mustansir Saifuddin
Innovative Solution Partners
Twitter:
@Mmsaifuddin
@DawnSolomon5
YouTube
or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.
Monday May 09, 2022
Inside Insights: The Power of No-Code with David C. Williams
Monday May 09, 2022
Monday May 09, 2022
Mustansir Saifuddin continues the conversation with David C. Williams of AT&T whose background includes leading large-scale IT projects which result in large returns for the organization. In this episode, David dives into no-code and how companies are leveraging no-code to make a significant impact. Low-code and no-code have the power to transform business processes in an exponential way with a lower financial investment. It also opens the door for those that may not have the traditional tech background.
David also shares his latest venture, the "Business Model" book that he has authored to highlight how we can combine our past experience with our business passion to create our own business model. In other words, how his mom made "$1 out of $0.15. David's takeaway : be bold and courageous to take your idea boldly to where it should go. No-code and low-code is a great way to get it moving forward.
During David's career with AT&T, he has created deep-link HTML marketing initiatives that garner 90 million monthly impressions, led Competitive Intelligence which helped shape AT&T's Mobile First strategy, has been responsible for supporting several Fortune500 companies encompassing $120M in revenue, and authored two patents for Reprogrammable RFID and bridging satellite and LTE technology. In his current role, David is responsible for hyper-automation & emerging technology to transform Customer/Employee Experience and Cost Structure for his organization. He leads the largest Robotics Process Automation program worldwide. His innovations are driving change across the company as his team has developed 600+ Bots automating 70M contacts, realizing $400M in operating income at over 3,000% ROI. Additionally, he also invented & sponsored a decision engine driving $200M credit reduction annually.
David is the 2021 Legacy Award recipient at Black Engineer of the Year STEM Global Conference, 2x Dream in Black winner, AT&T Champion of Diversity Award winner, a proud mentor of multiple Employee Groups, & Diversity Ambassador. David’s humble beginnings in the poorest corner of Dallas, TX, continual giving back through Solar Robot Workshops to the community, and rise through a corporate giant is encapsulated in his soon to be released book entitled, Business Model.
Continue the conversation on:
LinkedIn:
David C. Williams
Mustansir Saifuddin
Innovative Solution Partners
Twitter:
@dcwglobal
@Mmsaifuddin
YouTube
or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Mustansir Saifuddin continues the conversation with David C. Williams of AT&T who leads one of the largest Robotic Process Automation initiatives for AT&T. Now covering 70 million transactions daily with a 3000% ROI, David understands what it takes for a RPA initiative to be successful. He'll discuss the importance of giving a bot time to mature and the power of sustainability. David's belief in "culture trumps strategy" has allowed for him to build a team that always keeps improving their bots. He discusses how Corporate America can be a lot, but we are humans first. He follows his mom's mantra of making "$1 out of $0.15" to drive ingenuity and that "1" by "1" makes "11".
More importantly, David shares how the end game of creating hybrid solutions allows for collaboration tools and RPA to leverage the best from each solution.
During David's career with AT&T, he has created deep-link HTML marketing initiatives that garner 90 million monthly impressions, led Competitive Intelligence which helped shape AT&T's Mobile First strategy, has been responsible for supporting several Fortune500 companies encompassing $120M in revenue, and authored two patents for Reprogrammable RFID and bridging satellite and LTE technology. In his current role, David is responsible for hyper-automation & emerging technology to transform Customer/Employee Experience and Cost Structure for his organization. He leads the largest Robotics Process Automation program worldwide. His innovations are driving change across the company as his team has developed 600+ Bots automating 70M contacts, realizing $400M in operating income at over 3,000% ROI. Additionally, he also invented & sponsored a decision engine driving $200M credit reduction annually.
David is the 2021 Legacy Award recipient at Black Engineer of the Year STEM Global Conference, 2x Dream in Black winner, AT&T Champion of Diversity Award winner, a proud mentor of multiple Employee Groups, & Diversity Ambassador. David’s humble beginnings in the poorest corner of Dallas, TX, continual giving back through Solar Robot Workshops to the community, and rise through a corporate giant is encapsulated in his soon to bereleased book entitled, Business Model.
Continue the conversation on:
LinkedIn:
David C. Williams
Mustansir Saifuddin
Innovative Solution Partners
Twitter:
@dcwglobal
@Mmsaifuddin
YouTube
or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.
Tuesday Mar 22, 2022
Inside Insights: Key to Managing Change With David C. Williams
Tuesday Mar 22, 2022
Tuesday Mar 22, 2022
In this next series of episodes, I have the pleasure of speaking with David C. Williams, Assistant Vice President-Automation at AT&T. David understands how to use the power of IT to manage change quickly and effectively in times of uncertainty. He and his team were responsible for putting the technology in place to move AT&T's 40,000 reps from being in the office to being remote with the pandemic forced lockdown. Listen in to how David worked cross functionally to make this massive change in 5 weeks rather than 6 months.
During David's career with AT&T, he has created deep-link HTML marketing initiatives that garner 90 million monthly impressions, led Competitive Intelligence which helped shape AT&T's Mobile First strategy, has been responsible for supporting several Fortune500 companies encompassing $120M in revenue, and authored two patents for Reprogrammable RFID and bridging satellite and LTE technology. In his current role, David is responsible for hyper-automation & emerging technology to transform Customer/Employee Experience and Cost Structure for his organization. He leads the largest Robotics Process Automation program worldwide. His innovations are driving change across the company as his team has developed 600+ Bots automating 70M contacts, realizing $400M in operating income at over 3,000% ROI. Additionally, he also invented & sponsored a decision engine driving $200M credit reduction annually.
David is the 2021 Legacy Award recipient at Black Engineer of the Year STEM Global Conference, 2x Dream in Black winner, AT&T Champion of Diversity Award winner, a proud mentor of multiple Employee Groups, & Diversity Ambassador. David’s humble beginnings in the poorest corner of Dallas, TX, continual giving back through Solar Robot Workshops to the community, and rise through a corporate giant is encapsulated in his soon to bereleased book entitled, Business Model.
Continue the conversation on:
LinkedIn:
David C. Williams
Mustansir Saifuddin
Innovative Solution Partners
Twitter: @Mmsaifuddin
YouTube
or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Inside Insights: Leveraging Compliance with Mark Stifter
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
In this next episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Mark Stifter who's career focus has been on compliance. As tech professionals we often are at the receiving end of compliance requirements. But what does that really mean? Mark explains the four pillars of compliance, why it's important, and the successes and failures he's seen with companies as they implement their compliance strategies.
Mark, president of Herndonwood Associates, is a global governance, risk and compliance entrepreneur with a cybersecurity background. He has extensive experience successfully managing teams and supporting organizations with the creation and implementation of IT compliance strategies and programs required due to growth, acquisition, divestiture, disruption and new or reinterpreted regulations. His background includes developing solutions that are sustainable, measurable and leverage automation using both proprietary and custom tools.
Continue the conversation on:
LinkedIn:
Mark Stifter,
Mustansir Saifuddin,
Innovative Solution Partners,
Twitter: @Mmsaifuddin
YouTube
or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.
Monday Jan 24, 2022
Inside Insights: Unlocking Innovation with Shabbir Aqeel Danish
Monday Jan 24, 2022
Monday Jan 24, 2022
In this final episode with Shabbir Aqeel Danish, we dive into how the data driven economy results in innovation and disruption. He'll share how businesses who embrace change, transformational leadership, and mass customization are becoming innovators and disruptors. Listen in as Shabbir shares what makes companies successful in this new economy as well as disruptors being seen in the media industry.
Shabbir currently serves as the co-founder and CFO of Exeest, a startup media tech company aimed at revolutionizing how premium film and tv content is bought and sold across the world. Prior to starting Exeest, he served as the Chief Financial Officer for NBCUniversal’s IT where Shabbir drove a company-wide, multi-year technology transformation strategy, while managing a $0.5B global budget.
Continue the conversation on:
LinkedIn:
Shabbir Danish
Mustansir Saifuddin
Innovative Solution Partners
Twitter: @Mmsaifuddin
YouTube
or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.
Monday Jan 10, 2022
Inside Insights: Driving Mass Customization with Shabbir Aqeel Danish
Monday Jan 10, 2022
Monday Jan 10, 2022
In this episode, Shabbir Aqeel Danish rejoins me to share valuable insights on how mass customization can help companies grow and succeed in this new era. He'll share key takeaways on how mass customization and transformational leadership combine to make businesses successful.
Shabbir currently serves as the co-founder and CFO of Exeest, a startup media tech company aimed at revolutionizing how premium film and tv content is bought and sold across the world. Prior to starting Exeest, he served as the Chief Financial Officer for NBCUniversal’s IT where Shabbir drove a company-wide, multi-year technology transformation strategy, while managing a $0.5B global budget.
Continue the conversation on:
LinkedIn:
Shabbir Danish
Mustansir Saifuddin
Innovative Solution Partners
Twitter: @Mmsaifuddin
YouTube
or learn more about our sponsor Innovative Solution Partners to schedule a free consultation.

Mustansir Saifuddin excels in bridging the gap between business and IT so that clients can create and implement solutions that produce results for years to come. That's why, in 1999 I co-founded Innovative Solution Partners, an IT consulting firm specializing in providing our clients with data insights for informed decision making. As a passionate and visionary leader, I know how to lead teams cross-functionally as well as around the world to drive results.