2/14: NBC News names Oppenheim president, returns Deborah Turness to Europe; Closing the digital gap in pharma




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Foxconn group to see iPhone 8 windfall in the second half of 2017 (South China Morning Post)

Apple’s Eddy Cue says the future of TV is much more interactive (The Verge)

Here’s What an Apple Exec Says About a Big Media Acquisition (Fortune)

NBC News Names Noah Oppenheim President, Deborah Turness Moves to International Role (Hollywood Reporter)
NBC takes a 25 percent stake in the European network Euronews.

Comcast to Launch ‘Xfinity Stream’ App on Feb. 28
(Multichannel News)

SAP: Hidden Figures (Vinnie Mirchandani / Enterprise Irregulars)

Amazon Is Quietly Becoming a Major Player in Enterprise Software (The Street)


Closing the digital gap in pharma (McKinsey & Co.)

Untapped Opportunity Lies in Pharma’s Supply Chain
(Supply Chain Executive)

Linode challenges DigitalOcean with its new $5 instances (TechCrunch)
Linode's been mostly quite for a while. Meanwhile, no word on when it might complete its previously announced move to Philadelphia.





2/13: Samsung reportedly signs deal with Apple to make more OLED panels for iPhone 8; Ivanka Trump clothing no longer shows up on Burlington’s website




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Comcast Comes To Roku (but it’s not the app you wanted) (Zatz Not Funny!)

The top 5 execs leading cable (very quietly) into wireless (FierceCable)

AT&T lights up gigabit fiber in five new metro areas (Ars Technica)



Samsung reportedly signs deal with Apple to make 160 million OLED panels for iPhone 8 9 to 5 Mac)

Ivanka Trump Clothing No Longer Shows Up on Burlington’s Website
(Fortune)

Oracle Fleshes Out Cloud Data Strategy (EnterpriseTech)

The rocky road to digital transformation – CEO Infosys under fire (Diginomica)


The Equestrians of North Philly (The Atlantic)
Didn't know about this - remarkable.





Philly Tech People News 2/13: Siemens proposes former SAP boss Snabe as next chairman; Entercom Names McCann to Lead New Content Group




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Jim Snabe 2013 / Wikipedia

Pai to Be FCC Chair (Multichannel News)

Siemens proposes former SAP boss Snabe as next chairman (Reuters)








Scott O'Neil: CEO for the NJ Devils, Philadelphia 76ers and Prudential Center (Podcast: Fortune Unfiltered)

Scott McAllister joins Comcast as SVP of Digital Transformation (Philly Tech News)

Entercom Names McCann to Lead New Content Group (RadioWorld)

Dell Boomi Names VP of Business Development to Expand Global Partner Channel

NFI Adds James S. Shafer to Engineering Leadership

Lee takes principal role at Osage (Global University Venturing)

Jerry Leimkuhler Joins Ben Franklin as Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Bioclinica Medical Imaging & Biomarkers Announces Pivotal Hires

Greenphire Appoints Dave Espenshade as Vice President, Contract Research Organization Partnerships




Previous: Philly Tech People News 1/19: Local guy Patterson making good at PTC ThingWorx

Philly Tech People News 12/26: RevZilla co-founder Bucci to depart; New leadership joins Ben Franklin Tech's board

Philly Tech People News 12/11: QVC promotes new blood; Comcast, Verizon name key strategy execs




BVP Partner Sees Big Year for Cloud IPOs (Bloomberg Video)



The trouble with OTT: Not ready for Prime Time?

Tom Paine



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With all the complaints about DirecTV Now, I've got to say Dish's Sling TV has big problems, at least on my MacBook. It crashed at least five times the other night while I was trying to watch basketball, and rebooting is a painfully long process. Its seems to be getting noticeably more unstable rather than less. I've been a user for over a year.

Some people have told me they don't have those problems on other devices, such as Roku, though I see that there have been some on that platform as well. I thought closing all other apps might help, but it really doesn't. Reinstalling the app (prescribed solution) might help sometimes, but doesn't always, and its a pain to do over and over again.

There are a legion of similar complaints on the web.

I never have problems with Netflix and YouTube. Of course, those are different delivery systems, and Sling TV's troubles appear to be mostly (though not exclusively) with live broadcasts, not canned.

There are still industry-wide technical challenges with OTT that need to be addressed. 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch (Fox owns about 1/3rd of Hulu) says Hulu remains “very, very focused” on avoiding the kinds of technical hiccups that have haunted DirecTV Now and Sling TV when it launches its own broad OTT offering later this quarter. We'll see.

Sling TV is celebrating its 2nd birthday this weekend with a free weekend trial that has less than a day to go. A full week trial is available if you put your credit card on it and remember to cancel at the end of the week.

Sling TV is estimated to have 1 million subs, several times more than either DirecTV Now or Playstation Vue.

Update 2/24: Since I wrote this piece, the problems I've been having with Sling have magically almost
disappeared.





Sunday highlights: Wharton MBA investor charged with insider trading in Comcast-DreamWorks Animation deal; New FCC chair closely guards strategy




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Nets Sell Jersey Sponsorship to Koch-Backed Company Infor (Bloomberg)

SEC charges Chinese investor with insider trading in Comcast-DreamWorks Animation deal (LA Times)


New FCC chair closely guards his strategy to restructure net neutrality (Reuters)

Gannett, McClatchy close out a dismal year (Ken Docter/Politico)

Amazon cloud leader Andy Jassy sizes up the competition in rare public remarks about rivals
(GeekWire)

Amazon spent just $103M on acquisitions last year, down sharply amid broader tech M&A slowdown (GeekWire)

Retailers Are Offering Free Phone Charging to Get Customers in the Door (Bloomberg)
Features ChargeItSpot.

Pinterest and Curalate are now pinned - to each other (Philly.com)




Could New York tech company's move to NIZ signal a trend? (Allentown Morning Call)




SAP Unveils Next-Generation, Intelligent ERP with SAP S/4HANA Cloud (Press Release)


SAP Unveils Next-Generation, Intelligent ERP with SAP S/4HANA Cloud

February 9, 2017 by SAP News 252 Hot Story
NEW YORK — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today introduced the latest advances to SAP S/4HANA Cloud and shared its innovation road map for the industry’s next-generation, leading-edge cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite.

With a new architecture of in-memory technology in combination with contextual analytics, digital assistant capabilities, machine learning and the award-winning SAP Fiori user experience, SAP S/4HANA Cloud enables customers to instantly adjust and adopt business processes and models and act on real-time insight and advice. The announcement was made at SAP Capital Markets Day at the New York Stock Exchange, where SAP executives showcased a combination of strategy and innovation.

The ERP offering from SAP provides enterprise-ready functionality for digital business in industry and line-of-business functions, with faster deployment, time to value and lower entry costs of cloud delivery. Industry research firm IDC predicts that the software-as-a-service (SaaS) business applications market will grow 17 percent annually to $103.9B in 2020 from $47.4B in 2015.*

“Decades ago, SAP invented and became the leader in first-generation ERP,” said Darren Roos, president of SAP S/4HANA Cloud. “Later, we were early to build first-generation cloud ERP along with other new cloud vendors. While many cloud ERP vendors remain on this early architecture, SAP did not stop there, and invested in innovating the next generation of cloud ERP. SAP S/4HANA Cloud encompasses the latest architecture and technology innovations, along with SAP’s proven set of business management expertise to usher in a true new generation of intelligent ERP in the cloud.”

Intelligent, Immediate, Integrated

Thanks to the SAP HANA platform, SAP can help companies to get a real-time view of their business, with the assurance that SAP is managing their digital core and offering superior integration with SAP’s full portfolio, including SAP SuccessFactors solutions for human capital management, SAP Ariba solutions for procurement, SAP Hybris solutions for customer engagement and commerce, Concur solutions for travel and expense management, and SAP Fieldglass solutions for services procurement and external workforce management.

The latest release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud enables customers to carry out their digital transformation faster and to make business processes more efficient through increased transparency, automation and quality. Different solutions in the cloud ERP suite include:

SAP S/4HANA Professional Services Cloud, delivering end-to-end project management
SAP S/4HANA Finance Cloud, an easy-to-use modern finance solution that includes procurement and order management capabilities, and supports large enterprises and subsidiaries
SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management Cloud, combining professional services and finance capabilities for comprehensive real-time business management

“As a purpose-driven business with an ambitious strategy, we realized we needed a best-in-class ERP solution to support our growth,” said Bob Barton, chief financial officer of MOD Pizza, the pioneer of the “fast casual” pizza segment with over 200 locations and over 4,000 MOD Squaders system-wide. Named America’s fastest-growing chain restaurant by research and consulting firm Technomic, MOD Pizza had 220 percent growth in 2015. “MOD prides itself on its commitment to employees and customers, and SAP S/4HANA Cloud gives us a stable, scalable platform to help us manage our business and our people cohesively, with real-time access to reliable, actionable information.”

Road Map for Innovation

SAP also outlined the road map for future cloud ERP innovation. The quarterly updates planned by SAP include setup wizards that will grow increasingly intelligent with machine learning and artificial intelligence; prepopulated, easy-to-adjust settings; and additional cloud-to-cloud integration and external application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate with other applications and legacy systems. In addition, SAP detailed plans for including blockchain digital ledger capabilities and Internet of Things capabilities that will support broader global, digital business models, as well as plans for partners to build localization and industry vertical extensions.

For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, see here.

For more SAP news, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews and join the dialog at the hashtags #S4HANA and #CapitalMarketsDay.

About SAP

As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to the boardroom, warehouse to the storefront, desktop to a mobile device – SAP software empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 345,000 business and public sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

Note to editors:

To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links, and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV.

For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:

Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: +1 (800) 872-1727

For more information, press only:

Jim Dever, +1 (610) 661-2161, james.dever@sap.com, ET
Hilmar Schepp, +49 6227 7-46799, hilmar.schepp@sap.com, CET
SAP News Center press room, press@sap.com

* IDC, Worldwide and Regional Public IT Cloud Services Forecast, 2016-2020, Doc # US40739016, Dec. 2016.
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
© 2017 SAP SE. All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices.

Origin: http://news.sap.com/sap-unveils-next-generation-intelligent-erp-with-sap-s4hana-cloud/.WJ4JdT5D8Cw.linkedin



2/10: Report: Foxconn, Sharp pick Pennsylvania as likely LCD plant site; Wawa to offer mobile ordering




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Foxconn, Sharp pick Pennsylvania as likely LCD plant site (Nikkei Asian Review)

Wawa Becomes Latest C-store Chain to Offer Mobile Ordering (Convenience Store News)

DuPont seeks pesticide buyer to 'create strong competitor' (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Subaru Could Be Soon Testing Self-Driving Cars in California (Fortune)


Main Line couple give millions to MIT for autism research (Philly.com)
Hock Tan is CEO of chip maker giant Broadcom Ltd. in Southern California.

Ford bets $1B on startup founded by Waymo, Uber vets (AP)
Pittsburgh autonomous car startup; how can you be a 'vet' of Waymo?


Centiq to in-memory SAP HANA users: Psst. Meet us in the public cloud (The Register)







The Death Of The Commercial Database: Oracle's Dilemma (Samadhi Partners, SeekingAlpha)

Engineering Software Finally Starts Moving to the Cloud (Bloomberg)



FCC’s TV-for-Mobile Spectrum Auction Ends With $19.6 Billion Bid (Reuters via Fortune)






SAP #CapitalMarketsDay



MOD Pizza an SAP Client; SAP S/4HANA Cloud & SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suit

MOD pizza is being featured in today's SAP #CapitalMarketsDay.

From SAP November Press Release:

MOD Pizza, a United States-based fast-casual restaurant company, purchased SAP S/4HANA Cloud and the SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite. The company is taking the restaurant industry by storm with its innovative "made-on-demand" superfast pizza chains. Named by Technomic as the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the United States in 2015, MOD has over 160 stores throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, and expects to double in size in 2016. SAP provides this innovative, successful growth company with a comprehensive public cloud platform that will support MOD's core financials, inventory, project management, recruiting and employee data processes.





2/9: Zenefits lays off half: Twitter shows not much growth




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Troubled startup Zenefits just laid off almost half its staff — here's the full email sent to employees (Business Insider)


Twitter shares tank as revenue growth stalls
(Reuters via NY Post)

Publicis Groupe's Q4 Revenue Fell 2.5% Due to Poor U.S. Performance (Ad Age)
Serious issues at digital agency Razorfish.

Acxiom Poached Three Merkle Execs to Grow Global Data Team (Ad Age)

Comcast CEO buys sky-high condo units in company's new Philly tech tower (Philly.com)

Mike Tirico Replacing Bob Costas as NBC's Olympics Primetime Host (Hollywood Reporter)

CenturyLink Targets Q2 for OTT TV Launch (Multichannel News)