In this episode Ralf Korb, Marshall Lager and I had two very special guests: Bob Stutz, president of SAP's CX group, who shapes the CRM industry for more than 20 years now and Esteban Kolsky, former analyst, both independently and at Gartner. Esteban has deep roots and a passion for customer service processes and now leads the sales and service products at SAP CX. 

And then there was a special star, perhaps the youngest guest who we will ever have.

Again, and as usual for our CRMKonvos, we did not stick to one hour. Bob and Esteban actually shared their insights for a full 90 minutes, which is something for which we are deeply grateful.

We covered a lot of ground starting with how 22 years of experience in the military services can help in the software industry - and not ending with why it took him and his team that long to publish an SAP CX strategy. 

You are interested in the state of AI and machine learning? Ask Esteban - or listen to his statements in this episode. Same for what we are doing wrong in customer service for five decades now. And he needs to know, having a service centre background and having covered the service arena for 20 years now in various roles.

Did the acquisitions that SAP did in the past years make sense? Why did it take SAP that long to figure out some of the gems in their portfolio? 
How should pricing look like and why would make this pricing vendors build better software? 

Why Emarsys? Where does it fit into the stack - and why?
Ever wondered what the real purpose of a CDP is? Well, let Bob explain it. 
Will SAP go with Thunderhead? 

And why does Esteban think that SAP is actually the only(!) company around that can create CX the right way?

All this made up for a more than fascinating CRMKonvo with two of the most outstanding brains in the industry.

A little spoiler: Not surprisingly, the key success factors that matter in both environments - military as well as software industry - are "focus and execution".

The episode is in English, barring some introductory words in German - and after Esteban switched to his headset his sound quality went up considerably - so do not get disturbed by his first few statements.