PegaWorld 2014 Alan Trefler Opening Keynote

I am attending PegaWorld 2014 and we kicked off with the opening keynotes with a focus on becoming a digital enterprise.  New channels, more devices are driving an unprecedented degree of change according to Alan Trefler, CEO. Organizations must become digital by design, intentionally, focusing on three key areas:

• The power to engage with customers, across channels and over time
• The power to simplify, delivering end to end solutions
• The power to change, responding effectively to a wide range of change drivers

This must be delivered in both a customer and a work context – delivering what customers want (external focus) and understanding how to deliver this from a work perspective (internal focus).  Alan, and Pega, argue that this requires three capabilities:

• Case Management
  More than just a transactional, process context but a more overarching concept that ties together multiple processes (and decisions).
• Next Best Action
  Having a view of the customer journey so you can decide what to do next.
• Omnichannel
  Across all channels, all the time at the customer’s choice.

This can seem like a very B2C-centric view at one level but most of these concepts can easily be extended to B2B engagement too.

Delivering these capabilities requires software and requires that companies are effective with software. This is a challenge as many companies are fundamentally uncomfortable with software and with their ability to manage and develop software. Cloud, apps or other “balkanized” approaches won’t get it done, he says, you need a unified architecture that delivers the direct, situational power that is required.

Pega is growing, passing $500M in revenue, and so is able Alan says to make significant engineering investments. As you would expect, Social, Mobile, Analytics,Cloud and Things are the focus of Pega’s engineering efforts and various acquisitions over the last year have extended the platform in these areas. Some specific notes:

• Mobile “everywhere” rather is important to Pega, with UI design intended for use across channels.
• Big Data analytics with the integration of Hadoop as well as an increasing focus on real-time analytic updates.
• Cloud means both hosting Pega applications and a first SaaS offering.
• Internet of Things whether in transportation or vehicles or medical devices means linking responses from sensors into cases and processes managed by Pega.

Alan wrapped by reiterating this focus on being digital by design, repeating his advice to companies that they must become good at software as part of this transformation.