Andy McAfee knows Digitization is moving faster than a New York Minute
The holiday season is here and SAP customers and prospects heading to New York City on December 3rd should certainly expect magic in the air – but not just from the splendor of the season.
SAP has created a highly informative agenda that will deliver some remarkably clear insight into what proactive, aggressive organizations are – and are not – doing to address the Internet of Things (IoT) today.
The tone will be set early, with a highly anticipated keynote from Andy McAfee.
I’ve had a chance to speak with McAfee leading up to his keynote and (as you might expect, given his role at MIT and his extensive research into how technology is changing business, the economy and society – research that forged the backbone of his NY Times best-selling book: The Second Machine Age), attendees will benefit from his matter-of-fact assessment of IoT – how businesses must quickly get past the basics and grasp the fundamental shift that has occurred with IoT specifically, and the Second Machine Age, more broadly.
Keeping with my blog’s holiday theme…it’s time to B-E-L-I-E-V-E, in my opinion. While it’s not necessarily ‘do or die’ today, we are at a point where attention and action are both critical. The complexity of data has permeated our economy rapidly and the speed of digitization is making a New York minute seem long. What’s more, as McAfee has said, “we ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Everyone has heard mind-boggling predictions about the number of ‘things’ that will be connected to the web in the coming months/years. But do companies understand the data challenge this creates today— and how exponentially difficult that challenge becomes tomorrow? Do companies understand that this ‘fire-hose’ of data is a positive for them because it demands a new design for, and capability from, technology. Technology must be re-engineered – innovated to have digitization and the ability to manage big data at its core.
On December 3rd, SAP will show you that S/4 HANA and the HANA Cloud Platform are the ‘data thirsty’ solutions needed today — and tomorrow. Innovations that have risen from the one simple question: how can we truly utilize paralyzing amounts of data today, and tomorrow.
But it’s Andy McAfee that will provide attendees with a frank and honest conversation about IoT representing the biggest business shift since the industrial revolution. And, he’s also likely to explain to you why he doesn’t believe many companies – including some of today’s best-run companies – aren’t going to survive the shift.
If you miss the holiday magic that NYC is famous for this time of year, don’t worry. McAfee’s keynote, and the SAP IoT Summit overall, will fill in nicely.
Here’s a short MIT video interview of Andy McAfee talking about the Second Machine Age and Digitization. Enjoy and see you in NYC.