And Vijay Says…

I am on vacation and woke up late and the first thing I saw on my phone is this news that Salesforce is buying Tableau . I – and many others – have predicted for a long time that Tableau would get acquired but several years passed by without that happening . And now that it has happened – I would like to share my initial thoughts . As always – these are strictly my personal opinions !

I think it’s a REALLY good move for both companies – so congrats to both sides . Well done !

Is the price fair ?

The most recent acquisition to consider as a rough compare is SAP buying Qualtrics for $8B . Considering Tableau makes a lot more $ every year than Qualtrics , the price SFDC is paying makes a lot of sense . The other one is Looker going to Google . I don’t think comparing what Google did is not the optimal way to look at this given Google already had a lot of functionality home grown and acquired , and just needed to close some small-ish gaps .

Tableau has always been considered over valued. Back in 2013, SAP publicly said so and many others said that privately over the years . I don’t know if SAP Lumira is still a thing – but I firmly believe it was best for SAP to buy Tableau at that time instead of trying to build a competitor product from scratch .

Who else could they have bought ? There are companies like Alteryx, Domo , GoodData etc that they could have bought and for cheaper too. But none of them are anywhere close to the kind of market leadership that tableau enjoys . It might even still be the case that alteryx might end up in Salesforce kitty for the right price .

But behind the scenes – a lot of big companies have had tableau as a target to buy for a long time . Benioff just proved to be the most decisive leader to pull the trigger – and bravo for that !

Is it good for tableau ?

I think tableau had kind of hit a plateau and needs fresh thinking on where to take the product next – perhaps also rethink licensing models for that matter . Microsoft Power BI is giving them a good run for their money in the market . I think this acquisition will be perfect for the team to get some fresh thinking – and maybe some fresh talent as well .

Is it good for Salesforce ?

Salesforce is the undisputed leader in CRM . And the key to customer facing tech is how great insights can be derived from the rich data and how those insights are surfaced to users to act on . Salesforce has been on that mission for a while – and with decent success – and having tableau in its fold will accelerate that mission . It should ideally reduce the custom work that their clients do today .

Cloud loves On-Prem !

It’s also worth noting that Salesforce – which is the poster child of cloud computing – is the most pragmatic enterprise software company . They bought MuleSoft not that long ago – which was a primarily on premise company . And now tableau too – also serving the on-Prem company . Tableau is leaps and bounds bigger/better than the cloud BI players . That pragmatism is one of the things that I love about this deal the most .

This time – with feeling

Salesforce has been dabbling with analytics and AI for a while but without great traction . Analytics – or more accurately visualization – is an ever green market . So it makes sense for Salesforce to get a significant market player into their portfolio . It doesn’t hurt that it helps with a significant revenue uplift too right off the bat . It also prevents tableau ending up with their big competitors .

Talent is already there

SFDC already has a lot of analytics talent – although a few good ones have left . For those that hung around and were reassigned to non data work – this is an excellent opportunity to get back to their roots and hit it out of the park . I may even venture a guess that some of the people who left SFDC might come back now given this acquisition

(Hi guys – will call you directly instead of calling out your names here. ) .

Integration is key

One of tableau’s strengths is its ability to connect to a variety of data sources – something that will come very handy once they are a part of Salesforce ecosystem . Next to simplicity for end users – ease of integration has always been the key to successful analytics !

New doors for Salesforce to knock on

On the go to market front – Salesforce has a great opening now to get close to the parts of enterprise they haven’t historically had direct access – like Finance and Controlling for example . That in itself should make the deal totally worthwhile in my opinion . I cannot think of a single large company I know of with significant Salesforce footprint that doesn’t also have Tableau deployed . I am tempted to wonder why they didn’t think of this sooner 🙂

Tableau is simple to use and solves a much needed visualization problem in an elegant way . It practically sold itself in a land and expand model in many companies I know of . They were brilliant in how they got to their current footprint in companies big and small . That trend will continue for some more time – and with a product refresh under new management it could pick up momentum – so even as a stand alone company, there is plenty of juice left for Salesforce to feel happy about .

Is it good for customers and partners ?

As with all large acquisitions, I expect customers to brace for impact on how the world looks like under new management for the products of the acquired company . I expect two different reactions from large and small companies ( of course as a generalization ).

I expect the larger companies to generally like this – because they can negotiate and rationalize and right size their licenses on both Salesforce and tableau , and hopefully reduce custom work on Salesforce over time . Of course we won’t know till joint roadmaps are fleshed out in detail .

For smaller companies – I expect a bit of grief in general as their first reaction . Smaller companies generally seem to like tableau more than they like Salesforce ( just from my limited view ). It’s not unusual – I have seen their general apprehension for all large vendors in the past too . I am sure Salesforce will gain their confidence quickly .

As for partners of all stripes – I expect a lot of cheering for this acquisition . Both companies have big partner ecosystems for their relative sizes and there is plenty of overlap . Generally that is a good thing when customers have lot more choice .

First the back story

My mother in law flew from Kochi to Phoenix last week . Her original route was COK-AUH-LAX on Etihad and then LAX-PHX in American . It’s her favorite routing since the airports are familiar to her, and she can finish customs and immigration in AUH and her bags will hence come straight to PHX .

She missed her connection in AUH and they rerouted her through JFK to PHX . When we picked her up at PHX , we found out that her bags didn’t make it with her . That’s not unusual – so we filed a claim with AA and came back home . We were given the link in AA website to track the bags .

She had two weeks worth of prescription medicines in her carry on , and a few months worth in the checkin bag . Rest was clothes and gifts and such .

The weekend from hell

Next morning, we go online to check the status and it said “no scan data available” and I thought I will just check back later.

Literally nothing changed throughout the day. Digital channel proved to be a non starter for customer service

Switching to Voice channel

So my wife started calling American’s toll free number . Thank god for the call back feature – she found humans on the other side soon enough . No luck – they also didn’t know what happened to the two bags . We went through the calls a few times with similar results

Trying digital again – this time via twitter

Since I have some presence on twitter, and American usually responds quickly on twitter – I tried pinging both AA and Etihad on twitter . Both responded – with AA saying they are still working on it, and Etihad saying “you should work with AA on this and not us” . AA promised to come back with updates – which obviously never happened .

We have no records , says American Air

Finally my wife is told by someone in AA that they just got word that TSA released the bags in JFK and it should reach us soon . Except – when she calls back few hours later to confirm – AA cannot find any record of anyone giving that response . Was it a rogue AI system that assumed human characteristics for one call ?

Ok let’s try Etihad next

Since AA doesn’t have any info – my mother in law called Etihad in Kochi . They confirmed it went to AUH. So next she called AUH and got a super helpful agent who confirmed that the bag is definitely in JFK , but he has no visibility on where it is once it has left Etihad . We feel better – clearly the bag exists somewhere and we may still get it back !

There is no one version of truth

My wife called AA to confirm, now that Etihad has found the bag has landed in JFK . No luck – AA still has no idea .

Call logging is alive and well

By now, we had made several tens of calls and AA agents who pick up the call would read back all the past conversations 🙂 . Good to know some part of the support system are still alive and well – except for the record of the one call where they told us they found the bag in NY 🙂

Finally there is light at the end of the tunnel – at least a flicker

On Sunday evening, finally we get word from another AA agent that the bags have been found in JFK and they will be delivered by the first flight to PHX on Monday . I wonder if I should keep champagne in the fridge and decide against it .

Of course they didn’t send it by that flight – which took another call to find out . By this time the digital channel went from bad to worse ( yes that is possible ) and started erroring out when we searched for the baggage tag.

Good things come for those who wait

Finally the bags landed in Phoenix later on Monday and we even got a link to track the delivery car in real time . Glad to see another piece of technology actually doing a fine job . Eventually by late evening , my mother in law and her bags were reunited !

Post Script

I am a million miler and have lost bags several times in my life . My bags have been to more countries than I have . And yet – American did a fine job stressing me out this time .

Both the process and tech seems broken in airline customer service . However they have amazingly talented people working the phone channels and I am very grateful that they were totally pleasant and tried to help us as much as they can with all their obvious constraints .

Now that the customer in me is calm again , the technologist and consultant in me is thinking about the tech and process improvements that can save much of the grief – and cost – in servicing customers .

I really wish American will redesign the digital experience for customer service . The delay was not what caused us grief – it’s the conflicting information , and the absolute lack of proactive communication that drove us nuts . It’s an eminently fixable problem . And since my line of work will need me to do more millions of miles , and American being our local airline in PHX – I hope and pray you will get this right quickly !

Till then, I will try my best to stick with my policy to pack lightly and not checkin bags 🙂

I woke up at 4AM PST today to watch the first innings of Eng vs Pak in the cricket World cup. And at 5AM , I saw an email pop up from someone I mentor – who wanted some help in thinking through whether he should stay in his current job, or move to a new opportunity that came up recently. Some variant of this has been a common theme for such conversations I have had for the last few years thanks to the talent war in the world of tech.

I have used a very simple framework to evaluate jobs for myself and we talked through it over phone . Since it might be useful for others too, I thought I will share it here. Its just four questions. If I could answer any 3 of the 4 in favor of the job I had – I passed on new opportunities. Any lower and I went go through the process with the new opportunity and rechecked which way the 4 point scale was tilting.

1.  Is the job paying you well overall ?

The “overall” part is important here to make fair comparisons. Its the easiest comparison on the planet given the tangible nature of the dimension. If the current job does not make you depressed every time you look at your bank statement or paycheck , it will take a lot more convincing to leave the current gig. Money is a rather weird motivator for both you and your employer. Early in your career – it is perhaps the biggest differentiator between jobs. But at some point along the way – if you are good at what you do, you will figure out that most employers won’t let money be the big reason to not hire you or retain you.

2. Does the current job continue to inspire you ?

If the job does not satisfy your soul, money alone will not keep you there very long. Are you solving problems that you feel are important ? Are you learning things that you did not know before ? Are you able to apply things you are good at in your job ? If so – you most probably will stay even if pay is a little bit low.

3. Do you really like your boss ?

Your direct boss represents the company to you more than anything else. In a matrix organization where you have multiple bosses – this becomes a bit of an issue since you could get conflicting views from different senior folks. Though not as straight forward as money – this one is also a fairly easy judgement when it is about the current bosses . Most bosses are not that great in reality – a problem that matrix organizations can make better or worse quickly. The trick is judging correctly the new bosses who have all the incentive to be on their best behavior to try and get you to join them.

4. Do you see growth in your future ?

This is perhaps the hardest dimension since after the first few rungs of the corporate ladder, you are mostly going to operate in gray areas. And to make it even more complex – growth might come in terms of lateral moves instead of promotions and those are harder to evaluate. In many cases – the leadership forgets to clarify the elementary things like “do people actually know what it takes to grow from their current role?” or “are the standards we currently have for promotions still valid for the market we operate in?”. Given it is hard to base this decision purely on facts – It is more a question of perception of whether you are going to get stuck where you are vs the ability to start fresh elsewhere and grow from there. All the more important why you need open lines of communication with your boss and other mentors to make a determination on this one.

Parting thoughts

It does not make sense to ask these 4 questions just once and make a decision based on that. Good bosses have off days. Some years, the bonus and raise might be pathetic. You may see an unqualified person get promoted some times. You may have to earn the right to be in the best projects. So it is important to ask these questions of yourself over a period of time and think about the trends more than discrete point in time answers, especially after someone has made you an offer.

It is also important to have a view on your future – what inspired you in the past might not be what gets you off your bed today and tomorrow. You may have an awesome boss, but he maybe retiring next year. Maybe your team is doing great but the larger business it is part of might not have relevance in future and you don’t see a path to fix it.

Once you have evaluated the past, the present and future through these four questions – I think you have higher odds of making a good decision.