Today’s interview is with Sanjay Brahmawar, the CEO of Software AG, a software pioneer that is helping over 10,000 organisations worldwide connect people, departments, systems and devices through integration & APIs, IoT & analytics as well as business & IT transformation. Sanjay joins me today to talk about the supply chain problems that have been affecting many businesses in recent months, unstable consumer demand patterns, Internet of Things (IoT) and streaming analytics, sustainability, innovation and how brands should be responding.

This interview follows on from my recent interview – Creating a metaverse experience that helps veterans suffering from PTSD – Interview with Robert Bell of 2B3D – and is number 435 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Here’s the highlights of my chat with Sanjay:

• Software AG is a 50 year is a software company which is helping companies become truly connected enterprises in today’s world.
• What’s happening now is you’ve got a tremendous amount of computing power on the edge.
• Whether you’ve got a machine in a manufacturing location or you’ve got a wind turbine in a remote location, all of these assets whether they’re moving or they are static, they all have a tremendous amount of computing power that’s available on the edge.
• They are building software that can be put on the edge to allow the collection of data, analytics of data but also computation on the edge. This means that those assets don’t have to be connected to the cloud all the time and allows the assets to operate and make adjustments independently.
• Best Buy’s CEO, Corie Barry recently opined that today’s consumer is “uneven and unpredictable.”
• We have to learn to live with unpredictability and changing preferences but technology can be a real help with that.
• Technology can help you understand how customers are browsing, how customers are looking at their purchases but can also help feed and manage your supply chain.
• The problem is not the unpredictability of customers. The problem is the digitization of the supply chain.
• There hasn’t been enough investment in the digitalization and digital transformation of supply chains.
• Leaders are increasingly talking about optimizing supply chains to minimize fuel consumption and ensure sustainability..
• This is becoming an increasingly important issue for all stakeholders.
• The challenge is not that this is a topic that is important or it’s at the boardroom agenda. It is definitely there and many companies have come out and put out both targets and have claimed that they’re going to be carbon neutral by so and so date.
• There isn’t a shortage of targets and ambition. There is a shortage real plans and tangible actions that are really going to get organisations there. I’m a big advocate that we must leverage technology to helpmwith this.
• For example, we run a process management engine called ARIS and we recently launched it specifically focused on sustainability. It allows companies to really understand their business processes and help them understand how they can address them in a more sustainable way and how they can achieve the objectives that they’ve laid out for themselves around achieving sustainability.
• Then we have an IOT platform and IOT technologies that allow for, for example, monitoring of carbon dioxide emissions.
• For example, we work with a company that reduces carbon monoxide of trucks in the supply chain logistics space by almost 25-30%.
• DHL is our client and I am inspired by them as they have really thought through how they support their customers and how they deliver a great experience to their customers. https://blog.softwareag.com/dhl-express-logistics/
• Specifically they have done three things that inspire me:
  • They have embraced technology to help deliver a great customer experience.
  • They have embraced IOT technologies and other technologies to allow them to monitor carbon dioxide emissions, reduce their carbon footprint and, whether it is air, land or sea, optimize their operations.
  • The way they took care of their people and were still able to serve their customers who were hugely dependent on them during the pandemic.
• The pandemic has tested the digital readiness of organizations and whether they have invested in the right digital infrastructure to be able to serve their clients.
• Delivering a customer experience that meets expectations or even beats expectations is not possible without a digital backbone and the right digital infrastructure.
• We have learned that our supply chains are very fragile. They are optimized for certain aspects like labor arbitrage. But, they are not optimized for being able to rapidly respond to changing market and customer dynamics.
• If we want to avoid this going into the future, we have to address the digital and the technology aspect of the supply chain to make sure the moving of data is frictionless, is easily accessible easily and that we’re able to collect intelligence much faster to be able to respond.
• I absolutely think with the amount of intelligence and data we are gathering now will change how we approach inventory management to allow us to respond to both changing dynamics and customer behaviour.
• There is only one thing that we know for certain and that is something else will happen.
• Double down on a frictionless experience for your customer. It has to be frictionless. It has to be easy and intuitive for them to to engage with you. Creating a frictionless experiences is super critical.
• Sanjay’s Punk CX word: Frictionless
• Sanjay’s Punk XL brands: Amazon, Walmart and John Lewis

About Sanjay

Sanjay Brahmawar became Software AG’s Chief Executive Officer in August 2018. He leads Software AG in a new era of digitalization, a time when digital connections via integration, APIs, the Internet of Things and analytics are increasingly important to ensure business continuity. Before joining Software AG, Brahmawar served as general manager for global revenue at IBM’s Watson IoT and managed the global business of data analytics and artificial intelligence software products in that capacity. He previously held GM, Vice President and Executive Partner roles within various IBM businesses.

Brahmawar brings hands-on IoT expertise, a wealth of international experience and technical know-how blended with an entrepreneurial vision to Software AG. Prior to IBM, he served at PwC, Fedex, DSM and Honda. He is a frequent guest speaker at industry events and conferences where he demonstrates the value of the connected IoT ecosystem and his obsession for customer-centric innovations that can deliver unprecedented organizational performance.

Brahmawar earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing from University of Leeds. He is a citizen of the world, born in India, and having worked and lived in England, Finland, Belgium, Holland and Germany. An avid cyclist and runner, Brahmawar resides in Darmstadt, Germany.

Check out Software AG, say Hi to them and Sanjay on Twitter @softwareag and @sanjaybrahmawar and feel free to connect with Sanjay on LinkedIn here.

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay