jerome levadoux

My Take: What does Salesforce’s acquisition of Informatica mean for MDM? Salesforce is again acquiring legacy technology with a significant installed base, prioritizing revenue scale over innovation. Here’s my candid take on the implications of Salesforce's acquisition of Informatica: It underscores the importance of trusted data:  Having begun my career at Siebel, I've witnessed firsthand how CRM solutions struggled, not because of lack of functionality, but because they became YET ANOTHER data silo. Similarly, during my time at Qlik and Celonis, it became clear that even the most sophisticated and visually engaging analytics solutions fail to answer business questions if they’re based on low quality data.  The move to adopt AI has lit a fire under the challenge of crappy data – trusted data has never been more critical. Missing the data movement trees, through the business context forest:  Ok, that’s a mouthful, but hear me out.  Data people care about moving data around, because that’s what they do all day.  Someone wants “a cut” of the data in a slightly different way, so a script is built and yet another database table is stood up.  But this is a huge mistake, and a missed opportunity.  The opportunity is to organize data into business topic areas (“entities”) that matter to the business (“customer”, “supplier”, “product”, “part”, “facility”, etc.).  The world doesn’t need more new ways to move data around; it needs trusted data organized to answer questions.  There is only one way to do this:  use AI (Tamr) and don’t rely on rules. Clearing away the cruft:  The enterprise software business is like a forest, it benefits when a fire clears away the dead growth and lets new growth flourish.  Informatica’s acquisition clears away some of the biggest dead wood in the data management forest.  This is akin to IBM buying Cognos or SAP buying Business Objects in opening a market opportunity for Qlik and Tableau 10 years ago. 

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@Salesforce acquires @Informatica for $8 billion to bolster Agentforce https://bit.ly/4kA79Uj Salesforce said it will acquire Informatica for $8 billion, or $25 a share, in a deal that will give it a neutral data integration and management platform to connect Agentforce across systems.

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In an exclusive conversation with Express Computer, Yvette Cameron, senior vice president of Global HCM Product Strategy at Oracle shares growth and risk mitigation as the two primary themes for generative #AI adoption by enterprises within HR. #AIWorld https://lnkd.in/enzpirfV

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Is Salesforce poised to win the Agentic AI battle? 🤖 With its announced acquisition of Informatica, Salesforce is no longer just the front-office System of Record—it’s now actively playing across all three foundational layers of the agentic enterprise stack: 🔹 System of Record – CRM has long been the source of truth for customer data. 🔹 Data Fabric – Informatica brings enterprise-grade integration, governance, and metadata intelligence. 🔹 Workflow Orchestration – With Flow, Copilot, MuleSoft, and AgentForce Salesforce powers actions across domains. In an agentic world—where AI doesn’t just advise, but acts—this trifecta could be decisive. Agents need: 1. Trusted data to think clearly. 2. Integrated logic to reason contextually. 3. Seamless execution to deliver outcomes. Salesforce is now positioning itself as the agentic operating system for customer engagement—a unified platform where agents can live, think, and act. Who else is poised to win? 🔸 ServiceNow – owns workflows and is pushing aggressively into RevOps. Could become the agentic OS for enterprise ops. 🔸 Google – building deep AI-native infrastructure and tooling for agent deployment (Gemini + Vertex AI). 🔸 Microsoft – the most balanced stack: Dynamics (SOR), Fabric (data), and Copilot (workflow + interface). 🔸 SAP – quietly extending into agentic ecosystems via Databricks, AI hubs, and ecosystem orchestration. 👉 The real question: Who will own the substrate where your agents operate—your data, your logic, your outcomes? The answer will define the next era of enterprise platforms and the foundation for a new economy where labor scarcity gives way to Agentic scalability. Who else stands to dominate in the Agentic AI game? #AgenticAI #CRM #Salesforce #Informatica #EnterpriseAI #WorkflowAutomation #DataFabric #EcosystemOrchestration #EcosystemStrategy

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What happens when a father and son set out to teach generative AI across the globe? We found out on this week’s Sidecar Sync podcast, where Mallory Mejias, AAiP and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Finn and Conor Grennan, the first father-son duo we’ve had on the show. Conor is NYU Stern School of Business's Chief AI Architect, advising top-tier organizations like NASA, Google, and PwC on AI adoption. Finn? He’s just finished his sophomore year of high school…and is already shaping his school’s AI strategy and leading workshops in Nepal. Yes, Nepal. What stood out? - AI feels like magic. Whether you’re a nonprofit leader in the U.S. or an educator in Nepal, the awe, curiosity, and fear are shared across borders. - Peer-to-peer learning matters. When Finn, a teenager, led sessions on AI for educators and NGOs, the response was powerful. Why? Because when the messenger feels relatable, the message lands deeper. - Education is ripe for disruption. For centuries, the cycle has been teach → memorize → test. GenAI challenges this, making it harder to tell if it’s the student or the AI being tested, and that forces us to rethink what learning truly means. - The AI adoption blueprint is surprisingly universal. Whether you're in pharma, finance, or a remote village, it's less about prompts and tools, and more about starting with what you actually do. From there, AI becomes your second brain. I’m inspired by Finn’s clarity, Conor’s humility, and their shared mission to democratize AI education. For #associations, there’s a key takeaway: build guardrails, not roadblocks. Empower your members to experiment safely. Encourage bottom-up innovation. Catch the full episode on Sidecar Sync. It’s heartwarming, eye-opening, and a blueprint for how associations can lead in the AI era. Link in comments. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:09 Backgrounds in AI: From NYU Stern to Sophomore Year 8:52 How Schools Handle AI Guidelines 15:55 The Nepal Trip: Why They Went and What They Did 19:32 Structuring the AI Workshops for Teachers and NGOs 23:06 Cross-Cultural AI Challenges and Common Concerns 28:30 Addressing Critical Thinking and Student Cheating Fears 35:02 Peer-to-Peer Influence and Student-Led AI Learning 42:45 Democratizing AI Education 48:45 Final Thoughts #AIforGood #GenerativeAI #AIInEducation #Nonprofits #DigitalTransformation #Leadership #SidecarSync #AssociationInnovation #AIAdoption #FutureOfWork

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Traditional Enterprise SaaS will have to be re-platformed. But can you expect it to provide scale, efficiency and speed to address today's AI needs? Today, we’re launching C3 AI #Agentic #Process #Automation — AI-driven workflows that work at machine speed with human-level inference, reasoning. C3 AI agents bring agility and intelligence to business and operational processes, setting a new standard for AI-driven workflows. The platform is designed to transform real-world workflows and help visualize a purpose-built #EnterpriseAI application within days and minutes. Build an enterprise that runs itself, freeing teams to focus on what matters. Follow the C3 AI #Agentic #Process #Automation coverage here: https://c3.ai/c3-ai-apa/ Read our latest press release: http://spr.ly/6049AHvr5

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4) Go-to-Market Changes Translating Into Better Sales Productivity Entering CY26. In October of 2024, Appian hired sales veteran Mark Dorsey (ex Oracle, IBM and Alteryx) as its Chief Revenue Officer. Since this hiring, Mr. Dorsey has implemented a numbers of changes to the sale organization including: 1) abandoning the pursuit of 5-figure deals (where sales reps were spending 50% of their time) in favor or larger 7- and 8-figure opportunities; 2) changing sales incentives to encourage larger deals and expansion; 3) streamlining account ownership to drive greater accountability (no hunters / farmers); and 4) narrowing focus on the most productive partners to foster greater sales leverage. As a result of these changes, sales efficiency (as measured by TTM current billings / TTM S&M expense) thru 2Q25 has been trending higher for 9 quarters in a row with new bookings per sales rep also up materially in 2025.

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