Mike Giesler

Over the last few months, I’ve had some fascinating conversations with CIOs, CFOs, and operations leaders across the Americas and around the world. What’s clear is that we’re entering a new phase in enterprise tech. It’s one that’s less about experimenting with innovation and more about scaling what works.    And what’s working? Systems that are connected, semantic data that’s trustworthy, and embedded AI and knows your business and can do more than just automate.    We’re seeing the early signs of something powerful: a quiet, steady shift toward embedded, operational intelligence at scale.    This is not a technology upgrade. It’s a business architecture transformation and the organizations investing in it now are building the operating model for the next decade.   Check out my new blogpost in Forbes to learn more about how SAP is delivering this for our customers: https://lnkd.in/eFaNZCHA #SAPBusinessSuite #AI #CloudERP #Productivity #EnterpriseTechnology #Leadership 

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In the AI era, the toughest investment decisions aren’t what you say yes to—they’re what you say no to. As President and CFO of ServiceNow, I’m accountable for both financial discipline and strategic growth. AI presents extraordinary opportunities, but opportunities without prioritization are just noise. For me, the real work of enterprise leadership means: - Placing big bets ahead of the curve—even when returns don’t show up immediately. - Saying no to good ideas so we can double down on the great ones. - Accepting that not every bet wins, but seeing around corners and connecting dots across the enterprise creates enduring value. Last quarter, we were proud to have seen year-over-year revenue growth of 22.5%. We didn’t get here by chasing hype cycles. We got here by pairing bold investments with financial discipline and an unwavering focus on customers. That balance matters now more than ever, as AI is rewiring how work gets done. Bold bets + operating discipline. That’s the formula for turning AI potential into long-term growth.

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SFMC’s collapse (not even going to mention Oracle marketing cloud today….) is Braze's multi billion dollar opportunity While one MarTech giant was talking about "weakness," a focused competitor was busy eating their lunch. The Q2 earnings numbers don't just suggest a trend; they scream it. There's a five alarm fire happening at Salesforce Marketing Cloud. A mere 3% YoY growth in constant currency (Marketing AND Commerce combined) makes it the anchor dragging down the mothership, especially when you see their other clouds posting 8%, 12%, and even 16% growth. This isn't a blip; it's a death spiral in slow motion. The growth has cratered over six quarters, from 10% down to 3%. For at least the third quarter straight, Salesforce leadership had to explicitly name "weakness in marketing and commerce" as an offset to their success elsewhere. While they talked up AgentForce for Sales and Service, their marketing product was left to wither on the vine. Salesforce bundles Marketing and Commerce together, but let's do some back of the napkin math. Assume 75% of that revenue is Marketing, and 75% of that is the legacy Marketing Cloud (SFMC). No matter how you slice it, the core marketing product is likely flat, or EVEN shrinking. The narrative from the earnings call backs this up - all the exciting customer stories and innovation focus were on AgentForce for Sales/Service and the Data Cloud. Marketing felt like an afterthought. So where is that market share and growth going? Look no further than Braze. Their Q2 results are from a different universe. They posted 24% YoY revenue growth, smashing expectations and raising their full-year guidance. Even more telling, their largest enterprise customers (>\$500k ARR) grew by a blistering 27%. This isn't just growth; it's a hostile takeover of the enterprise marketing budget. This is The Great Unbundling in action, and it's happening faster than anyone predicted. Remember when everyone thought the all in one marketing cloud was the only way? Now, the smart money is no longer settling for the "good enough" module. Leaders are staging a quiet rebellion, keeping Salesforce for its world class core CRM but carving out the marketing budget for a best of breed platform that actually delivers ROI. As one analyst bluntly put it, the decline in Salesforce's M&C is likely a "positive read for SHOP + BRZE market share gains." Want even better news for Braze? Ed McDonnell started as CRO only two months ago. The real acceleration hasn't even begun. The market has spoken. The verdict is in. The only question is: which side of this disruption are you on, and what are you going to do about it? You already know which side Stitch is on.

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I’ve rarely seen the highest-activity rep finish #1 on the revenue leaderboard and it’s fundamentally changed the way I measure productivity. Celebrating activity volume has one critical pitfall: What you measure increases - and it’s not always beneficial. If you focus primarily on number of calls made, a rep is better off making 100 dials and getting 0 connects than improving their list quality to make 50 dials with 3 connects. Not the behavior I want to incentivize. A good day isn’t just doing a bunch of activity - it’s doing all you can to make that activity meaningful. Over time, I’ve built a system that helps sellers balance volume of activity with quality of activity. It ensures that every day is spent on activities that drive revenue - not just check boxes. Because you don’t need to be the busiest rep on the team to be #1. You need to be the most intentional. That’s what makes a good day. And enough good days = a great year. Maybe you already know how to spend every day to ensure you hit quota. If you don’t, I’ve got my no-cost “Good Day” Framework and calculator for you here: https://lnkd.in/g879yrCK

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The real ROI of technology isn’t in percentages. It’s in the freedom to transform. Complexity is the silent tax on innovation. Disconnected systems, manual processes, siloed data. These are the things that slow organizations down and keep people from doing their best work. That’s why the latest Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study on Boomi matters. A 347% ROI and payback in under six months isn’t just a financial outcome, it's proof of what happens when you remove digital fragmentation. When complexity disappears, innovation thrives. Customers get better experiences. Teams focus on what matters. Transformation becomes possible. At Boomi, that’s the mission: simplifying so others can amplify. http://spklr.io/6044BHI5e

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This is a glimpse into future of Demo Automation with Agentic AI I've seen AI playing a role in the Presales/Solutions space for some time. Automating RFPs, injecting data, call recording software. The next phase is a layer deeper. It's helping us find problems, fix problems, and maintain our demo environments. It's writing the code that makes demos work - not just the click path. Both can be helpful, but in most of my time as an SE I've demo'd beyond a click path. We want AI to produce fully interactive environments that look and behave like the real thing - but are more reliable, predictable, and cost way less to spin up. Dig in with Reprise: https://lnkd.in/ebJXAM-A

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I really enjoyed digging into this Forbes Technology Council piece by Tricentis CEO, Kevin Thompson. 📰🧑‍💻 In the article, Kevin breaks down the significant business impact of poor software and, more importantly, how AI is emerging as a powerful solution. As modern software systems become increasingly complex, leaders are well-positioned to take an active role in shaping how AI is applied to software delivery. AI won’t magically fix poor processes, but when it’s embedded into disciplined frameworks with clear goals, it can drive transformational gains in software delivery. Highly recommend checking out the complete article and gaining Kevin’s insights: https://bit.ly/47XO0Zw #Tricentis #Forbes #AI #SDLC

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