Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

• ServiceNow Partner, Nicus: Financial Intelligence Layer for Enterprise Tech

  In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explore how ServiceNow and Nicus Software are teaming up to deliver a financial intelligence layer that helps enterprises optimize their cloud, AI, and IT spending by unifying data across finance, IT, and business units.Highlights00:08 — ServiceNow is working with a partner, Nicus, to deliver a financial intelligence layer for enterprise tech. Interesting angle here: It's trying not just to consolidate the numbers, but to go beyond that. It involves multiple parts of the organization working in concert to really get not only the best data but also the ability to act on it.00:34 — Tom Smith had a conversation with Ron Wastal, the Chief Ecosystem and Partner Officer at Nycus. Wastal described how this works for companies. It's in the category of Technology Business Management, but goes beyond that. Nicus is trying to bring financial teams, IT teams, engineering, and lines of business together to share this intelligence and collaborate.01:22 — Again, this isn’t just about saying, “Hey, here’s how much is going on.” It’s about answering: Where is it happening? Why is it happening? How is it contributing or not contributing to business outcomes? That way, they can optimize the substantial dollars being poured into cloud and AI spending. These optimizations can really add up.02:11 — Why ServiceNow in particular? Why did Nicus want to work with them? Ron explained that the IT data for many big companies lives in ServiceNow databases. That’s where they can find out what’s really going on. Tapping into those massive data stores allows them to have a huge impact.02:38 — What Nicus does is put a financial intelligence layer on top of that IT data to enable a cycle of understanding, tracking, and optimizing IT spend. It's also leveraging ServiceNow’s unique workflows and cutting-edge AI capabilities to take action on these insights. That’s the difference Nycus sees in what it does versus others.03:13 — Nicus has developed two specific applications—one for costing and one for planning. These apps are used across the platform to deliver a comprehensive picture of what’s going on. This is another example of how ServiceNow is working with world-class partners and ISVs to deliver great business outcomes for customers.This episode is sponsored by ServiceNow. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

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• 'Legacy' Rocks! Microsoft + Oracle + SAP +IBM = $5 Trillion Valuation

  In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I look at the ongoing relevance and success of so-called "legacy" organizations in the Cloud Wars Top 10.Highlights00:16 — Now interesting to see across the 10 companies in the Cloud Wars Top 10, we've got four that would fall under the sort of goofy legacy title. They've been around about half a century or more. And then we've got six companies that we referred to as cloud native. Interesting to see that right now the Cloud and AI revolution is fully underway.00:49 — Because if you take the valuations of those four companies, Microsoft plus Oracle plus SAP plus IBM, it comes to a little over $5 trillion, which is almost exactly the same as the combined valuations of the six cloud native companies. My point is not just to play some goofy arithmetic game, but rather to say that there is a lesson here about the power of incumbency, right? 01:20 — If you've been in a market for a certain amount of time, something new comes along. You can try to ignore the new thing and say "No, no, we'll just power through this on our own." Or you can say, "Let me take the capabilities I currently have as an incumbent ... and then blend that in with his cool new stuff here." 02:11 — I mentioned the four legacy, so-called legacy tech vendors, Microsoft is say 52, no 50 years old this year, $3.71 trillion market cap. Oracle is about 47-years-old this year, $667 billion, SAP is 53-years-old, $370 billion, and IBM 114-years-young, and combined those four add up to $5.02 trillion. 03:14 — I'm not taking away anything from either side, but this is a remarkable example of how it's not just the bright shiny objects that are going to determine who's going to win or lose or start up with the cool new stuff. 04:10 — It also shows us that the mindset of companies is so important these days. We can't say, "Well, I can't make it. I am caught in the old world." But instead, "How do I take the new things that are happening, weave that into what I h Visit Cloud Wars for more.

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• SAP Uses Its Own Sustainability Tools to Boost Green Goals

  In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I take a look at how SAP is advancing its sustainability agenda by becoming its own test subject.Highlights00:03 — SAP has announced that it's utilizing its own sustainability software to further the company's sustainability goals by acting as the ultimate test subject. Its pushing the boundaries of its sustainability offerings while also addressing common customer challenges such as mass data management, compliance, and analysis.01:05 — Solutions include tools like SAP Sustainability Control Tower, SAP Sustainability Footprint Management, and SAP Green Ledger. The company has been using these tools since 2022. From the beginning, SAP recognized that its team needed to consistently collect emissions data, ensure dedicated governance, and build on the carbon data capture element of the project.01:37 — There's much to admire about this process. First, there is the trust and confidence element. SAP demonstrates utmost trust in its products and confidence in its ability to address specific customer needs. Additionally, this strategy provides an incredible opportunity to show customers how best to utilize the tools it supplies. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

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• AI Agents, Data Quality and the Next Era of Software Fit | Tinder on Customers

  Bonnie Tinder is the founder and CEO of Raven Intelligence, an independent B2B peer review site that amplifies the voice of the customer. She focuses on software customers, consulting partners, and software vendors and helps identify the best partners for their needs. In this episode, Bonnie shares insights from a recent Salesforce event, exploring how AI agents, data clouds, and robotics are reshaping customer experience, software implementation, and enterprise transformation.Episode 52 | AI Agents in ActionThe Big Themes:Campaigns Are Out, Conversations Are In: Marketing is undergoing a radical transformation. Gone are the days of mass email blasts and no-reply addresses. Instead, AI is ushering in a new era of real-time, personalized engagement. Salesforce is leaning into this shift with tools that replace one-way campaigns with dynamic conversations. AI agents now tailor interactions based on behavior, preferences, and real-time context, fostering true customer intimacy at scale.Unified Data Is the Bedrock of Smart AI: No AI strategy can succeed without clean, connected data. Salesforce’s Data Cloud addresses what SAP calls the “swivel chair problem” — when teams toggle between disconnected systems to piece together a customer story. AI agents can’t operate effectively if data is fragmented or siloed. That’s why Salesforce is investing in tools that unify sales, marketing, support, and financial data, giving AI a full-picture view of the customer journey.AI Agents Are Already Delivering Real Results: AI isn’t theoretical anymore — it’s working in the wild. Bonnie pointed out two standout cases: University of Chicago Medicine and Ford Pro. In healthcare, Agentforce transformed an outdated, frustrating appointment system into a streamlined digital process, improving both efficiency and patient experience. At Ford, AI agents guide customers to ideal vehicle matches with minimal input, keeping users on-site and increasing conversion.The Big Quote: “I think that buyers are looking more at the execution and fit of software, as opposed to the software brand itself. And I would say that that is a shift in the last year or so, especially now with the advent of AI and just the rapid pace that everything is moving so, less on brand, more about how are you going to offer me the complete solution and break down silos of data?” More from Bonnie Tinder:Connect with Bonnie on LinkedIn or send a message via her Acceleration Economy Analyst page. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

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• Ajay Patel Talks AI Strategy and Enterprise Adoption Trends | Cloud Wars Live

  Ajay Patel is the General Manager of Apptio and IBM IT automation. He and Kieron Allen sat down to talk about how enterprises are transitioning from AI experimentation to real business impact. They explored key challenges like cost transparency, governance, and data readiness, as well as the rise of agentic AI to automate workflows at scale. Ajay also introduced Apptio’s new AI TCO and Usage tool, designed to help CIOs and CFOs measure and optimize AI investments.Smart Spending on AI The Big Themes:Enterprises Are Moving Beyond AI Experiments to Strategic Deployment: The era of AI experimentation is over. Enterprises are now actively deploying AI, particularly in sales, service operations, and software development. However, those achieving meaningful impact are taking a strategic approach, rather than letting teams experiment in silos. The C-suite increasingly sees AI as critical, but that value perception isn’t always shared by the wider workforce.AI and IT Budgets: AI now consumes more than 20% of IT budgets, yet overall tech spending is only increasing 4–5%. This creates a 10–15% gap, leading companies to “forward fund” AI initiatives by reallocating from other areas. A key challenge: there’s no standardized pricing for AI. To address this, IBM's Apptio launched the AI TCO and Usage solution. It helps CIOs and CFOs baseline current AI investments, measure unit economics, and identify areas to optimize or expand.Agentic AI, the Next Frontier: Agentic AI is key to scaling beyond isolated use cases. It enables automation at scale and connects AI investment to tangible business outcomes. From cost savings in infrastructure to better visibility in FinOps to boosting customer experience, the ROI is clear when deployed correctly. But none of this happens without data readiness, governance, and strategic clarity.The Big Quote: "AI TCO solution fundamentally starts by giving CIOs [and] CFOs in the business a complete view of where the tech spending and AI spending is, and what stage is that? Is it in a pilot phase? Is it for training models?"Learn more:Connect with Ajay Patel on LinkedIn and learn more about Apptio. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

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