(upbeat music) >> Hey everyone. Welcome to theCUBE's coverage of Women In Tech, International Women's Day 2022. I'm your host, Lisa Martin. I have two guests from AWS here with me. Carolina Pina joins us, the head of Enterprise Enablement for LATAM and Laura Alvarez Modernel is here as well, Public Sector Programs Manager at AWS. Ladies, it's great to have you on theCUBE. >> Nice to meet you. >> Thank you for having us. >> Carolina, let's start with you. Talk to me a little bit about your role, what it is that you're doing there. >> So my role in AWS is to actually create mechanisms of massive training to try to close the talent gap that we have in the region. And when I mentioned talent gap, I'm talking about obviously digital and cloud-computing skills. So that's, that's, in a nutshell what my role entails. >> Lisa: Got it. How long have you been in that role? Just curious. >> So I've been at AWS a little bit over, over two years. I was actually in the public sector team when I joined, leading the education vertical for Latin American Canada. And I recently joined the commercial sector now leading these massive training efforts for the region for LATAM. >> And Laura, you're in public sector. Talk to me a little bit about your role. >> Yes, I'm in public sector. I'm also based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. So yeah, I'm from Latin America, and I lead educational and community impact programs in the Southern cone of Latin America. I also lead diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and I'm part of the Women at Amazon global board. That's our affinity group to make sure we make efforts towards building a more equal world. And on a personal note I'm really passionate about the topic of gender equality because I truly think it affects us all as women and as Latins. So that's something that I'm always interested in collaborating with. >> Lisa: Excellent. Carolina back to you. If we think about from an enablement perspective how is AWS partnering with its customers and its partners to train and employ women particularly in technology? >> Oh, sure. Lisa, so it's not a surprise. We, like I mentioned, you know we have a big cloud skills, talent gap in the region. In fact, you know, 69% of companies have reported talent shortages and difficulty hiring. So, and this represents a 15 year high. So, many of these companies are actually, you know, our own commercial customers. So they approach us saying, you know, asking for for support training and developing their talent. So like I mentioned, in my role I create massive training efforts and initiatives. So we always take into consideration women, minorities, underrepresented community, and not just for the current talent, meaning like the people that are currently employed, but also to ensure that we are proactively implementing initiatives to develop a talent of younger you know, a younger generation and a talent. So we can, you know, to inspire them and, and ensure that they, that we're seeing them represented in companies like AWS, you know and our customers, and in our partners. And obviously we, when we sit down with customers to craft these massive trainings you know, leveraging their ecosystems and communities, we actually try to use all our AWS training and certification portfolio which includes, you know, in live in class with live in structures, in classroom trainings. We also have our AWS Skill Builder platform which is the platform that allows us to, you know to reach a broader audience because it has, you know over 500 free and on-demand classes. And we also have a lot of different other programs that touches in different audiences. You know, we have AWS re/Start for underrepresented, and underemployed minorities. We also have AWS Academy, which is the program that we have for higher education institutions. And we have AWS, you know, Educate which also touches, you know, cloud beginners. So in every single of these programs, we ensure that we are encompassing and really speaking to women and developing training and developing women. >> Lisa: That's a great focus there. Laura, talk to me about upskilling. I know AWS is very much about promoting from within. What are some of the things that it's doing to help women in Latin America develop those tech skills and upskill from where, maybe where they are now? >> Well, Lisa, I think that is super interesting because there's definitely a skills gap problem, right? We have all heard about. And what's funny is also that we have this huge opportunity in Latin America to train people and to help further develop the countries. And we have the companies that need the talent. So why is there still a gap, right? And I think that's because there's no magic solution to solving this problem. No, like epic Hollywood movie scene that it's going to show how we close the gap. And it takes stepping out of our comfort zone. And as Carolina mentioned, collaborating. So, we at AWS have a commitment to help 29 million people globally to grow their technical skills with free cloud-computing skills training by 2025. I know that sounds a lot through educational programs but we do have as Carolina mentioned, a Skill Builder you can go into the website for free, enter, choose your path, get trained. We have Academy that we implement with universities. Re/Start that is a program that's already available in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Costa Rica. So there are a lot of opportunities, but you also mentioned something else that I would like to dive a bit deeper that is Latin American women. And yesterday we had the opportunity to record a panel about intersectionality with three amazing Latin women. And what we have to learn from that is that these are two minorities that intersect, right. We're talking about females that are minority. Latinas are minority. And in tech, that is also something that is even bigger minority. So there are more difficulties there and we need to make sure that we are meeting that talent that is there that is in Latin America, that exists. We know for sure we have unicorns in Latin America that are even AWS customers like Mercado Libre, and we have to meet them with the opportunities. And that's why we created a program that came from identifying how this problem evolves in Latin America, that there is a lack of confidence in women also that they don't feel prepared or equipped. There is a cultural component why we don't choose tech careers. And we partner with universities, more than 12 universities in Latin America with the International American Development Bank as well to create tech skills that's a free five weeks program in order to get students and get female in Latin America, into the tech world. And we also have them with mentorship. So I think that is an opportunity to truly collaborate because we as AWS are not going to solve these by ourselves, right? We need everyone pitching in on that. >> Lisa: Right. It's absolutely a team effort. You mentioned something important in terms of helping women, and especially minorities get out of their comfort zone. Carolina, I'm curious when you're talking with women and getting them into the program and sharing with them all of the enablement programs that you have, how do you help them be confident to get out of that comfort zone? That's a hard thing to do. >> Yeah, no, for sure. For sure, Lisa, well, I, you know, a lot of times actually I use myself as an example because, you know, I studied engineering and industrial systems engineering many years ago. And you know, a lot of my career has been in in higher education and innovation and startups. And as I mentioned in the intro I've been at AWS for a little bit over two years. So I, my career has not been in cloud and I recently joined the cloud. So I actually had to go through our own trainings and get our own certifications. So I, that's, you know a lot of times I actually, I use my own example, so people understand that you don't have to come from tech, you don't have to come, you can actually be a non-tech person and, and also see the the benefits of the cloud. And you don't have to only, you know, learn cloud if you're in the IT department or in an IT team. So sometimes, I also emphasize that the cloud and the future is absolutely the cloud. In fact, the world economic foreign, you know teaches us that cloud-computing is that the technology that's going to be mostly adopted by 2025. So that's why we need to ensure that every single person, women and others are really knowledgeable in the cloud. So that's why, you know, technical and untechnical. But I, you know, I use myself as an example for them to say, you know, you can actually do it. And obviously also I collaborate with Laura and a lot of the women at Amazon Latin America Group to also you know, ensure that we're doing webinars and panels. So we show them ourselves as role model like, Laura is an incredible role model for our community. And so it's also to to show examples of what the possibilities are. And that's what we do. >> Lisa: I love that you're sharing >> And can I make a note there also? >> Please, yes. >> To add to that. I think it also requires the companies and the, and the private sector to get out of their comfort zone, right? Because we are not going to find solutions doing what we are already doing. We truly need to go and get near these persons with a new message. Their interest is there in these programs we have reached more than 3,000 women already in Latin America with tech skills. So it's not that women are not interested. It's like, how do we reach them with a message that resounds with them, right? Like how we can explain the power of technology to transform the world and to actually improve their communities. I think there's something there also that we need to think further of. >> It's so important. You know, we say often when we're talking about women in tech, that she needs to see what she can be or if she can't see it, she can't be it. So having those role models and those mentors and sponsors is absolutely critical for women to get, I call it getting comfortably uncomfortable out of that comfort zone and recognizing there's so many opportunities. Carolina, to your point, you know, these days every company is a tech company, a data company whether you're talking about a car dealer, a grocery market. So your point about, you know, and obviously the future being cloud there's so much opportunity that that opens up, for everybody really, but that's an important thing for people to recognize how they can be a part of that get out of their comfort zone and try something that they maybe hadn't considered before. >> Yes. And, actually, Lisa I would love to share an example. So we have a group, O Boticário, which is one of our customers one of the, the lead retails in Brazil. And they've been a customer of AWS since 2013 when they realized that, you know the urgency and the importance of embracing state of the art technology, to your point, like, you know this is a retail company that understands that needs to be, you know embrace digital transformation, especially because, you know they get very busy during mother's days and other holidays during the year. So they realized that they, instead of outsourcing their IT requirements to technology experts they decided to actually start developing and bringing the talent, you know within itself, within, you know, technology in-house. So they decided to start training within. And that's when we, obviously we partnered with them to also create a very comprehensive training and certification plan that started with, you know a lot of the infrastructure and security teams but then it was actually then implemented in the rest of the company. So going back to the point like everybody really needs to know. And what we also love about O Boticário is they they really care about the diversion and inclusion aspect of this equation. And we actually collaborated with them as well through this program called Desenvolve with the Brazilian government. And Desenvolve means developing Portuguese and they this program really ensures that we are also closing that gender and that race gap and ensuring that they're actually, you know, developing talent in cloud for Brazil. So we, you know, obviously have been very successful with them and we will continue to do even more things with them particular for this topic. >> Lisa: I've always known how customer focused AWS is every time we get to go to re:Invent or some of the events but it's so nice to hear these the educational programs that you're doing with customers to help them improve DEI to help them enable their own women in their organizations to learn skills. I didn't realize that. I think that's fantastic very much a symbiotic part of AWS. If we think about the theme for this year's International Women's Day, Breaking The Bias I want to get both of your opinions and Laura we'll start with you, what that means to you, and where do you think we are in Latin America with breaking the bias? >> Well, I think breaking the bias is the first step to truly being who we are every day and being able to bring that to our work as well. I think we are in a learning curve of that. The companies are changing culturally, as Carolina mentioned we have customers that are aware of the importance of having women. And as we say at AWS not only because there is a good business reason because there is, because there are studies that show that we can increase the country's CPD, but also because it's important and it's the right thing to do. So in terms of breaking the bias I think we are learning and we have a long way to go. I talked a bit earlier about intersectionality and that is something that is also important to highlight, right? Because we are talking about females but we are also talking about another minorities. We're talking about underrepresented communities, Indigenous People, Latins. So when these overlap, we face even bigger challenges to get where we want to get, right? And to get to decision making places because technology is transforming the ways we take decisions, we live, and we need someone like us taking those decisions. So I think it's important at first to be aware and to see that you can get there and eventually to start the conversation going and to build the conversation, not to just leave it but to make sure we hear people and their input and what they're going through. >> Lisa: Yes. We definitely need to hear them. Carolina, what's your take on breaking the bias and where do you from your experience, where do you think we are with it? >> Yeah, no, I'm as passionate as Laura on this topic. And that's why we, you know we're collaborating in the Women at Amazon Latin America Chapter, because we're both very, I think breaking the bias starts with us and ourselves. And we are very proactive within AWS and externally. And I feel it's also, I mean, Lisa, what we've been doing is not only, obviously gathering you know, the troops and really making sure that, that we have very aggressive goals internally, but also bringing you know, bringing our male counterparts, and other, you know, other members of the other communities, because the change, we're not going to make it alone. Like the change where it is not women only talking to women is going to make the change. We actually need to make sure the male and other groups are represented. And the dialogue that they're that we're very conscious about that. And I feel like we're seeing more and more that the topic is becoming more of a priority not only within AWS and Amazon but we also see it because now that I meet with when I meet with customers around the region they really want to see how we can collaborate in these diversion and inclusion initiatives. So I think we are breaking the bias because now this topic is more top of mind. And then we are being more proactively addressing it and and training people and educating people. And I feel we're really in a pivoted point where the change that we've really been wanting to we will see in the next you know, few years which is very exciting. >> Lisa: Excellent, and we'll see that with the help of women like you guys. Thank you so much for joining me today, talking about what you're doing, how you're helping organizations across AWS's ecosystem, customers, partners, and helping, of course, folks from within you, right. It's a holistic effort, but we are on our way to breaking that bias and again, I thank you both for your insights. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Lisa, for the opportunity. >> My pleasure. For Carolina Pina and Laura Alvarez Modernel, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage of Women in Tech, International Women's Day 2022. (upbeat music)

>> Announcer: From around the globe, it's theCUBE, with digital coverage of Red Hat Summit 2020, brought to you by Red Hat. >> Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of Red Hat Summit 2020. I'm Stu Minneman and, of course, this year, the event is really happening globally where people are. So, we're talking to Red Hat executives, their partners, and we're always thrilled when we get to talk to the customer. So, joining me, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, I have Maria Alehandro-Trosee, who is the Deputy Manager of Solutions Architecture at Edenor. Alejandra, thank you so much for joining us. >> Oh, thanks to you, of course. I am pleased to be here. >> All right, so we know we are living in some challenging times right now. Certain things become very important. Everybody is working at home. Of course, Edenor is energy. So, talk about something that is essential. You look at Maslow's hierarchy, want to make sure everyone is healthy and, pretty soon after that, your company is making sure that things get running. So why don't we start with a little bit, Edenor. Tell us a little bit about the company, and your role in the organization. >> Yeah, of course, of course. Well, Edenor is the largest electricity company of Argentina with almost 5000 employees and three million customers, in parts of Buenos Aires city and surroundings, too. It represents a 9-million population. And we have the residential, commercial and industrial customers. So, we bring electricity to homes, to schools, to hospitals, to airport. And well, of course, commercial and industrial customers that are in our concession area. >> Excellent. Great, and solutions architecture. So tell us a little bit about your role there, or purview of your group. >> Well, I am part of the information systems, of the technology information direction in Edenor. And, as the solution architecture area, we are helping to establish good architectures for business objectives. For the business to meet the objectives in a very, or in the best quality, and in the best way. We are seeing how the trends, how technology moves, how industries, similar industries and companies are moving, beyond technology and architectures, and we try to go this way for the company. >> Great. So, just so I understand. So is that this infrastructure piece? Is cloud part of the mix? Where is your connection to, really, the business applications? Any developers, you know? >> Yes. I usually think about it as the glue. As the glue that join our pieces together. Applications, infrastructure, and the business that makes a solution. It involves software, but it depends on power, it depends on infrastructure, security and so on. There is an infrastructure area, a security area, a solutions area. In I.T. too. Now our I.T., too. And architecture is one of them, and we try to glue all these pieces to meet requirement. >> Yeah. I love you give that analogy of the glue, bringing things together. >> (laughs) Yeah. >> We know there, you know, the pace of technology continues to change so fast. The requirements of the business don't stand still. So, bring us inside. Help us to understand some of the integration challenges you're facing. What drivers of the business are causing you to evaluate what you're doing. And tell us a little bit about what you're using, today. >> Yeah. Well, we have had a lot of challenges. Some time ago, we had lots of integrations running. And I think that I usually see, see these challenges in several ways. The integrations that we are running, and we are having trouble. We are having a a lot of issues. Maybe issues in data, in quality, and in performance or viability, too. And, most of these issues were because of online transactions that, maybe started to grow, much more, and started to add some complexity to the system platform that was almost for batch processing. So we have a huge amount of LAN integrations, that started to be big, to be big in volume, to be critical for the business. Any maybe we don't have, we didn't have the right picture. We had to do it, a lot of hand craft job, with a lot of work force behind. A lot of micro-batches and so on, to keep things running. But with a lot of effort behind that. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, tell me. >> Yeah. Just, you know, very typical challenges that I am hearing from you. Help us understand, you know. How do you choose the technology partners that you're working with? You know, it is the paradox of choice out there. There are so many companies, so many products. You know, especially you company. You've got the DevOps pieces. I look at the DevOps tool chain today, and it is more than any one person can comprehend. So, how does Edenor approach, you know, who you integrate with? And choose the various pieces? >> Okay. Well, the center of the evaluation, or the decision, was integration. Of course, the center of the evaluation process, and the research, was about integration. But we wanted an integration platform or to be, as an architecture, an integration architecture that could solve all of the issues that I mentioned before. All of the issues that we had. But that could take Edenor to a next stage. That prepare us for what, in that time, we could see as the future of departments. And nowadays, they are almost, actual departments. But, at that time, two years ago, we are some kind of future requirements, like DevOps, micro services, APIs, and the cloud. Well, the cloud requirement was one of the first that we managed at IT. The new concept, for Edenor. And we had to manage all of that. Some platform that prepare us for all that were coming, and for cloud or high-width architecture. So, we started our research, and we found, in Red Hat, an excellent technology. But this is a technical aspect, and the other aspects that we looked for, were the experience in the region. You know, maybe there are a lot of technologies that could be great, but maybe unrepresented in our region. It's not just a case of integration, because integration platforms, the biggest, or the best integration platforms, I think they are mostly clear. But, with many technologies, it could happen that, maybe there are good technologies, but not with some presence in our local region. Adding that, I would say that experience in similar industries, and a presence and, most important for us, I mean, was, pretty well, it works really well. A supportive way of working. That the company could support us. Support all along the project. Not just the possible additional support, but also, support for all the journey. All the learning process, all the implementation process. We could find all of these in Red Hat. Of course, that's why we chose it. >> Absolutely. So, Alejandra. Tell me, where are you with the roll out of what you are using with Red Hat? What have you put into it? Give us where you are so far. >> Well, we started with an initial phase, a pilot phase, where we chose some initial services that were not so complicated, not so complex, not so critical. But, with a good sample of what we have, in terms of protocol, in terms of patterns, in terms of connectors with other systems. So we started with a kind of sample of all of that. And not, making some changes, making changes in the way of working. It's something like, well okay, let's go and try the technology. Let's put some first services, and let's learn. One of the services was not-so-complicated, but just had a lot of volume, a lot of transactions. We have almost 800,000 events per day, with that service, and was maybe the one of the most important, of that initial phase, in terms of scalability. And we could test it and see the bright of the technology, with that pilot. >> Excellent. And so what's been the result inside the organization? Has that impacted development time? Is it something that your ultimate end customers would have any positive results, after you've rolled this out? >> Well yes. After we started, or we finished the initial pilot phase, we started another phase, that consisted in a review, all the integrations, flows. And we knew which ones were the most critical, for the business, and have a lot of issues in the architecture, so we agreed with the rest of the team, solutions teams and business teams, just where to start to making real changes. So, another initiative started, that consisted in implementing a trial methodologies, in trying this on framework, for example. And we thought that it was a great combination, to try new ways of working, in this new phase of integration, with re-engineering. So, these new services, that we arrived. We are about, we are between the outage management system, the system that manages all of the technical reframe, of the electricity service, and the field management system. That is the system that manages all the work force industry, the logistics, or distributes the work, or in terms of priority. So all these flow, all of these flows are, increanals, are online flows. We have to send data, in simultaneously, just to change or to renew those priorities, all the time. To make a new schedule, and repair things better and faster. So, the business. I could say that the business and I, and our team, put a lot of increases in agility and speed. We could solve issues faster. For example, I learned about outages that could flow in terms of seconds, rather than in minutes. And, the development processes that fix. We could fix problems in production, maybe in a day, when sometimes we took weeks. So, we could find things like that, but with a new way of working, too. That could take all of the technology could being to us. >> Excellent. Well, when you talk about integration platform, traditionally middle ware, sits right in the middle between the infrastructure side of the house, and all of the app, you know, development pieces that you have. So, I am just curious. As you have rolled out the solution with Red Hat. Have there been any cultural change? You know, one of the things we have been looking at is, You know. Can tooling help bring teams together? You know. How much retraining do you need to do? How much fear and uncertainty is there, from groups? So, from an organizational standpoint. How has this gone inside of Edenor? >> Well. We have had a few huge changes. And I can mention some of them, or the most important. One of them was that we have to reorganize. Many teams have to reorganize their activities. Maybe it is not structural, or organizational chart situation, but functional. The way that the teams, maybe, organized their activity. We started to build a team where we have a project owner, a scrum master, Devs and architects from different providers, all on teams. And different specialties all working together, in the same space, with kind of dedication. I couldn't get full dedication. But yes, with a great dedication, that could give that team the autonomy, and the communication, and the collaborative space that we needed. So the teams, and managers of those teams, had to reorganize their activities. And it was possible, thanks to that. Thanks to them. But, the other aspect was that we have to learn, learn technology and learn new ways of working at the same time. And it's not just to have a training. This is an important aspect, but besides that, we have to incorporate all of these new concepts. This is a difficult, or the most difficult part, because we could do training and take courses. But we really, incorporate those new ways of working. It's really difficult. And we were, with you in the process, the team, helping the team. Just to, not to make a hybrid or something that is not the genuine. Because we wanted the genuine change, in the way of working, just to see better results. Then you, maybe we could get more flexibility, with time, with some level of maturity. But, in the first time. We saw, and our experts tell us, that it's better to attach to the pure sense of the way of working. A new way of working. So we have to incorporate all of that, to make a genuine change. >> Great. Well Alejandra. My final question, actually. I want to talk a little bit about community. So, you've been to Red Hat Summit before. Many of the things that you were talking about, and the change that you are going through. Many of the companies that I talk to. Of course, you know, the vendors are going to help you. Red Hat. They're partners. If you have a channel partner, they will help you. But often times, it is the peers in the community that are an important piece of this. That you can learn from others. You contribute back what you're learning. So, the question for you is. You know, this week, we're coming together while being apart at Red Hat Summit. So tell us how you engage with the community? The importance of Red Hat's ecosystem, and your peers in the community, around using these sorts of solutions? >> Well, I always said Red Hat people, Red Hat group that are near me, here in Argentina, and now with the U.S. guys, that I am really thankful of all of the Red Hat community. Because they've made real great things. It's really amazing to see the great technology that they could build as a community, as a whole community, in all the world. All around the world, people contributing, and coding technology. This is the biggest collaborative experience, I think, that we could see, and we could learn of. A very high collaboration, remote and very spread around the world. Really, a great inspiration for all of that, all of this, all of us. >> All right. Well Alejandra. Thank you so much for sharing your story, and all of the update with Edenor. And wish you the best of luck with the rest of the roll out of the projects you are working on. >> Oh, thanks to you for giving me this opportunity. It's a pleasure to talk to you. >> All right. Lot's more coverage from Red Hat Summit. I'm Stu Minnamen. And, as always, thank you for watching theCUBE. (gently chiming music)

>> From Orlando, Florida, it's theCUBE! Covering SAP SAPPHIRE NOW 2018. Brought to you by NetApp. >> Welcome to the CUBE we are in Orlando, at SAP SAPPHIRE 2018, I'm Lisa Martin with Keith Townsend as my co-host. We're in the NetApp booth, and we are very excited to talk to the VP of the Chief Customer Office at SAP, Mark Marcus, Mark, welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you, glad to be here I appreciate it. >> This event is enormous. One of the things that really struck me in Bill McDermott's key note was, you know, we always here about, oh we are expecting 20 thousand people, he talked about a million people engaging with SAP SAPPHIRE this week, via the in person, and the live, and the on demand video experiences. Massive! 390 thousand customers, hundreds of customer sessions the voice of the customer validating SAP as one of the world's most valuable brands is not only pervasive here its palpable. So talk to us about the Chief Customer Office. What is it, what's it's mission, why was it created? >> Yes, okay that's a great, a great way, so first of all thank you, I appreciate you being here, I live in Orlando so it's great to see this event in my-- People wonder why SAPPHIRE is actually in Orlando, it's because I live here. (all laughing) >> You're the reason! >> You're the reason. >> I'm the reason SAPPHIRE is in Orlando, Florida. >> Okay, you heard it, Mark Marcus, you're the reason. >> No, so what happened is, when Bill McDermott came to SAP, he was a different type of leader, and what he wanted to do immediately is start meeting with customers. So what he did is, he started meeting with customers, and he said if you have any questions or problems, give me a call. And so what happened is, his phone started ringing, people needed help, so he needed somebody that could help him with the customers when he ran North America. And so that was the genesis to Chief Customer Office. So we started off, first, we were extremely reactive. And so what I mean by that is, if the customer had a problem, we'd have to go in, and we'd have to help them. And it's much more difficult when you have a problem, then try to prevent a problem. So what we've been doin' the last several years, is trying to be much more proactive, so instead of waiting for the phone to ring, we've been getting with customers, and making sure, you know, as their project start, begin their steering committee meetings and make sure that things go well. >> So, you've taken that more proactive approach, it's almost how the organization's evolved. What is the focus today? >> Yes, well the focus has always been the customer, but I think it's more of, taking the best practices that we've learned, and actually sharing those with the customers, and helping them explain how other people have done their journey, because what you'll find, is people are in different phases of their journey, and what they like to hear more of is, you know, what did other customers do, what did they do right, what did they do wrong, and how can we be more successful? So we've been able to, over the years, if you think about, just to put it in perspective again, there are, SAP North America has 158 thousand customers, and we're only on, my particular team only has about a hundred of those customers, that we have. So it's a very, very small amount, they're are ones that, you know, are strategic to SAP, that we get involved in. But what we're able to do though, is, through social media and other areas is, customers wanna hear what happened, again, in the past, and how we can, you know, learn from that and move forward. >> So, I'm a big social media fan. Twitter handle has 38 thousand followers, which a lot for your focus on a hundred customers, so I think that, that you're echoing the, the theme very well. Talk to us about how it's changed over the past, 14 or so years, shift has focused from on-premises solutions to hybrid-cloud, to cloud analytics, AI, what's the, what are customers talking about? >> I'll tell you what, you're talkin' my language now, (Keith laughing) okay, because what happened is what we did is, actually what I'm in part, what I'm a part of is actually the cloud ambassador program. And so what that is, is it's focusing on our cloud customers so, you know, success factors, Ariba, Concur, and those kinda things, and so, really what happened, is, you know, when SAP, when I came to SAP 14 years ago, it was all on-premise ERP, alright? So it's very contained, very controlled with what people had now there's Cloud's, we're not really sure what customers are doing, how they're interacting with the solutions, and so what we have to do is we really focus, and again, my group is 100% focused in on that, so. What part of our mission has been is, we're not necessarily know what customers are doing, so we're helping to understand what they're doing, and trying to help educate groups inside SAP to be more responsive and help them. >> So you mentioned having responsibility for some strategic accounts, about a hundred. Do those represent kind of a subset of some of the key areas in which you're looking for the voice of the customer, and their practice using your technology to influence the direction of some of the key technologies? >> Yes, 'cause I'd say they're some of the biggest, most strategic customers that we have, and so what we do a lot of is, we're able to, we align directly with the executives, at the customer, so one of things with Chief Customer Office, is we're aligned at the C level, so it's, the CIO, the CEO, the CFO, at that level, so we're able to say we heard directly from the leaders of the companies, our most important customers, key customers, and we're able to take that back the other areas of SAP, and say, this is the what the leadership's demanding, and that's what we're able to help them with. >> So, as we're going through this phase of digital transformation, through a lot of organizations, that audience is even more important than, what?! (chuckles) Tell me how, as digital transformation has become, more than just a buzzword but a imperative from the C-suite, from CEOs to CIOs, CMOs, CDO, all the C's, CXO! How has the conversation between those groups changed, from the SAP perspective? >> Yeah, I'll tell ya, that is, again, I'm not just sayin' that you are, you're hitting exactly what we focus in on because, traditionally SAP has been focused more on the CIO level, so it's more the IT groups of implemented ERP, it's been more of a back-office type solution, well now, what we're finding is the line of businesses are the people that are actually making the decisions. So what we're finding out is that, it's not necessarily so much that the, technically, how they work, it's more the business processes they have, and how we can help actually, basically automate, and help them run more smoothly. >> Yeah, Hasso Plattner actually, and some of the guys this morning during the keynote talked about that, in terms of, customers were saying, you know, I'm getting kind of confused, there's so many different product names, a lot of acquisitions, he was talking about that, we heard from customers that there was confusion there. So when he was talking about, in the context of C4 for example of, making things simpler to understand, but also to your point, the back office and the front office now has to be connected so they also talked about that, in terms of, the integration with SAP Cloud, and how they really focused on enabling wholistic integration because it's the processes that have to now communicate together, so that, a whole, kind of proactive, customer responsiveness, that was really apparent this morning. 46 years young SAP, you have a new initiative about the customer for life, tell us about that. >> Okay, so customer for life is a new initiative that we have, so what I told you, at the Chief Customer Office we've done, we're able to touch very few customers, but, you know, again, you know we have 156 thousand, in SAP North America, you know, multiply that all over the world, I mean, it's many customers, okay. So what we've tried to do, is take what we've done on a small scale in the Chief Customer Office, and make that pervasive throughout the whole company. And so what we're really good at too is actually, you know, understanding what the customers do, finding them a solution, but now what we wanna do is go through the whole life-cycle of what we do so, I mentioned, you know, having a customer executive assigned to every customer. Being able to be part of the steering committees that we have, and being able to follow them through so we can help guide them, so it's not only selling the solutions but actually helping them through all the way, so the new initiative we set is customer for life, it's something that we're rolling out right now, and we've had, and again, it's taking what we did in the Chief Customer Office and, you know, propagating that through the rest of SAP. >> So, this facility, you like to say it, 16 football fields, American football fields, so that's a big facility. I walked the facility this morning, got in about three thousand steps. Hundred plus partners on the floor, ranging from system integrators, technology partners, and infrastructure space, software SIs. Help us understand as SAP, 20 thousand plus people here at the show, a million people online engaging on SAPPHIRE, SAP is becoming a platform company. How has that changed your role, your conversations? >> Well, I think what has happened a lot is, especially in the cloud projects, again I'm gonna focus more on what I'm a part of is, you know, there's a lot of new partners that come up. Because what happened is that, you know, we acquired several companies, we did, you know Concur, Ariba, SuccessFactors, a lot of big companies, and a lot of different partners. So really what our role is, in the Chief Customer Office is, to basically, to help these partners to understand how to work together, and we do a lot of things in meetings, we have, what we do, is, it's usually like the three legged stool, it is, you know, it's SAP, the partner, and the customer together, and we all do that together. And what I've found is, some of the problems that we've had is not neces-- you know, I always say like, how can take the exact same solution, and it works well in one company, and it doesn't work in another company? And what it is, to your point, with all the partners here, is it's communication, are they working together, you know, is the partner, and SAP, and the customer all working together, and so that's what I'm really focused on today is meeting with all the, you know, do the SAPPHIREs, to meet with the partners, to make sure we're aligned, you know, talk about our key customers, and make sure that we're all working together. >> We talked to one of the gentleman yesterday who was running some of the communities around HANA and Leonardo and, just the massive amount of content that is being generated to enable and educate customers across 25 plus industries, was massive, as well as, leveraging that peer validation from customers, like you're saying, you know, some customers in certain industries have a ton of success with the same thing that others customers struggle, depending on a lot of different variables. So that sort of collaboration and communication, even within the SAP communities alone, was very apparent yesterday that that's one of the big drivers, of I'm sure, the customer for life initiative is, as you have evolved, so have your customers. One thing that struck me yesterday was, you know, looking at, you're now number 17 of the World's top most valuable brands up there with Apple, you know, products that we can engage with and, I saw on a bus yesterday some of the messaging, and ERP you can talk to, and hear from. (Keith laughing) So SAP really set a very lofty ambition of being up there with the Amazons, and the Coca-Colas, and the Googles, and now you have technology that people can, you know, like at home with their digital assistant, talk to and communicate with. I thought that was very powerful message. >> And I'd say that's, I'd say too that, you know, I've worked with SAP for 14 years, and when I came to SAP, nobody had really heard of SAP and what they were, they thought maybe, you know, sometimes on TV when you see SAP when it's translated in other languages or something, that's what they think of SAP, they don't really know what the company is but, yeah, it's been great to see how, you know, people would stop you, you know, whether you're wearin', you know, they'll see somethin' on your laptop, on your shirts or somethin' like that, yeah so it's been good. I think that's been a big focus of getting it out because, one thing is is we have 150 million cloud users, that's a lot of people, so a lot of people use SAP, so. Again, one of the cloud products that we have is called Concur, it's for expense and reporting, and so a lot of times people might not've heard of SAP, but they've heard of Concur, because they all do their expenses, that kinda stuff. So, exactly right, it is pretty good, you know, when you have even family members know who SAP is now. They've done a great job, you know, hiring, you know, with the market department and the people they've hired, it's been great, it's been good. >> So, okay, we talked a little bit about analytics and the customer experience as we're looking at intelligent business. Is that a message that's actually resonating with customers in that top 100 strategic accounts, are they using analytics to actually power business, What are some of the data analysis success stories? >> Yeah, I would say that, what I would say is that, what I've found a lot of times is that, you know, people can get the information in, but they need to be able to get the information out. And so, everybody across that has done it, so, I would just say almost every customer we have has basically needed to get that out, and do reporting and those kinda things, you know? So, part of what we do at the Chief Customer Office is, you know, not only, you know, help them with the reports that they have, but to be able to run that kinda stuff. >> You guys also have, you know, some really interesting use-cases, I'm a Formula One fan, I've worked with Formula One before, I'm, I understand it from a fan perspective. You guys are really involved in McLaren Motorsport, for example, from finance, to procurement, to manufacturing. How are you seeing some of these really big use-cases like Formula One, or Coca-Cola, infuse into some of the, you know, the mid-sized businesses, who, you say, might be using Concur for example. What is some of the value that a small company can get from the massive users? >> Yeah, well I'd say there's a lot of things, because what happens is that from those big massive customers that we have, we're able to put together as we call model company. And so what a model company is, is it takes the best practices you have and puts it into more of a, I'd say nothings out-of-the-box, but makes it much more easier to implement, to be able to do it, so what we're able to do is, you know, with the massive amounts of info like McLaren, I think Hasso mentioned what, there's 400 sensors that they're getting on their cars, and that kind of stuff. So basically being able to take all the information that we have, and then from that, distill it down into where it's a very, repeatable type instance we can use for other customers. So there's a lot, I mean that's what we do with a lot of the, what the customers have, we try to get that back to where other people can use it. >> A Formula One car is basically an IOT device. You said 400 sensors, generating a ton of data, per race weekend, times three days, times 20 events a year. I read from Gartner just the other day that by 2020, which is around the corner, there's expected to be 20 billion IOT devices. What are you hearing from your customer base regarding IOT and being able to synchronize this, you know, modern next-gen data center with myriad devices? >> Yeah, so that is one of our top initiatives that we have right now. Because, one of the things that we've done is, we have an offering that we have called Leonardo, and what Leonardo is, it was named after the inventor Leonardo da Vinci, alright? So, you know, in his time he was, you know, a great innovator, actually went and saw his house and went over to Europe, and I've done a lot with Leonardo, you know what I'm sayin'? To be able to do that, right? But what that is, is that's basically all about, you know, getting devices to be able to get that information in. Because what you do is, you have you know, thousands of sensors and stuff like that and a good, you asked me earlier about a good success story on that, is one of the ones that I think resonates the most on that is in Buenos Aires, they have a massive problem with rain, you know, it rains a lot, and they have severe flooding, and the architecture is antiquated. But what they've found, is the reason that they were having these flooding problems, is because the sewers and the drains were all getting clogged up. So what they did was, they put a sensor in every one of the drains to be able to make sure that they were unclogged and they were flowing freely. So what they did is, they were able to, if the water flow started going down they were able to empty out the drains, even with an antiquated sewer system, because they were keeping it aligned with, you know, using Leonardo now, they can go and keep it cleaned out, they've had massive rains and the flooding hasn't really been there where it is, so now, what's interesting is every time I go by and see a gutter that's all clogged up, I think, you know, they need Leonardo to be able to help! >> I was reading as well about Alicia Tillman, your CMO, who's been at the helm for about nine months now and, in the context of this desire to become one of the top global brands with an invisible product, she said, you know, that one of the most important things for SAP right now is brand narrative, messages and campaigns will change quarterly or, every six months as they should but, she said, you know, to be able to show the value of basically under-the-hood software, you've gotta be able to show how it transforms countries, lives, industries, and that's one of the things that I think is very, very palpable here at the event is how much impact SAP is making in, whether it's rhino conservation in Africa or, you know, helping water scarcity in India, the impact, which is really the most, the biggest validation that you get, right from the voice of your customers is massive. >> Yeah, and I'd say to that, you know I like to say that, you know, it sounds like, you know, yes we're a software company, and, you know, that kinda stuff, but, it is really a noble endeavor, because we are doing a lot of things to help people's lives, and to run their businesses better, and what you realize is that, Chief Customer Office sometimes we see that other side when the systems aren't running properly at times, you know, they're usually runnin' right, but sometimes they have problems, and when they do, you can just see the impact you have on, you know, people's lives and businesses and stuff like that, that it is really running, you know, it is core to what you have, you know. So I'll tell you one of the interesting things that SAP's involved in is, they do a lot with instant messaging, so they have a part of, one of the acquisitions we have does instant messaging, well, you don't think about that but like, when you use, let's say, Facebook Messenger, or something like that, those messages go inside an SAP infrastructure at times, right? So imagine, you know, if you can't change messages, or doin' those kinda things, you know, so. You're exactly right, it definitely does, what we're doing does really impact a lot of peoples lives, so it's important. >> Well mark, thanks so much for taking some time to stop by theCUBE and chat with us about what SAP is doing with customers, how they're really symbiotically working together with you to evolve and transform this company. >> I wanna say one other thing too, it's great to work with two professionals here, you guys have really helped me a lot. >> Aww! >> I don't do this a lot, but it really made me feel comfortable, so you, I appreciate your help, thank you. >> Our pleasure, thanks so much! And, so you're the reason SAPPHIRE's in Orlando, are you also the reason they got Justin Timberlake tomorrow night?! (Mark laughing) >> I would like that. But I would like to say real quick, one thing before we cut real quick, I would like to say one thing just about the NetApp partnership we have. So RJ Bibby is the person that I work with at NetApp, and, just what he's done to basically, because NetApp really helps run a lot of our infrastructure inside SAP, so it's success factors, some of the high-availability in things that we have, and just working with RJ, and kinda learning how we, how we work and can help other customers, they've really volunteered to help a lot of our customers, and so, I just wanna thank NetApp again for helping us sponsor this. >> Great, great closing. We wanna thank NetApp for having theCUBE in their booth. Lisa Martin, with Keith Townsend, we are at SAP SAPPHIRE NOW 2018, thanks for watching! (bubbly music)

>> Announcer: Live from Las Vegas it's theCUBE covering ServiceNow Knowledge 2018. Brought to you by ServiceNow. >> Welcome back everyone to theCUBE's live coverage of ServiceNow Knowledge18 live from Las Vegas. I'm your host Rebecca Knight. We're joined by Raja Renganathan, he is the Vice President of Cloud Services at Cognizant Technology Solutions. I should say welcome back, it's not just welcome, it's welcome back to theCUBE. >> Thank you Rebecca. >> So tell our viewers a little bit about Cognizant Technology. What does your company do and what do you do there? >> I head the cloud services for Cognizant in the capacity of a vice president. Cognizant is a world-leading professional services company. Our objective is to help our clients to navigate the shift to digital. We have three pillars: go to market, we have Cognizant Digital Business which focuses on the user experience, data related, and we have the Cognizant Digital Operations which is predominantly a middle-office, back-end processing in an enterprise, and the third pillar is Cognizant Digital Systems and Technology which is basically modernizing the platform systems that is required to create the digital foundation. >> And you're also just this week been called a Certified Global Partner of ServiceNow so explain how that works. >> Our relationship with ServiceNow goes back six years. Today I think the ServiceNow line of business, which is under the cloud services, is one of the fastest-growing business unit for us. The key thing in any platform such as ServiceNow is the human intellectual capital. That is where we give a lot of importance. While technology is created by ServiceNow, someone has to go execute and implement the technology. So that's where we spent time and started hiring people, re-skilling the people, and then getting certified across different facets of what ServiceNow recommends as a part of their education system. So today we have about 850 plus certified people across the globe and we also do the delivery across our global operation centers, we also call it as RDCs, Regional Delivery Centers, we have one in Budapest, one in Phoenix, and one in Buenos Aires. So all these three centers caters to different service areas of ServiceNow. As a part of this RDC we're also adding, creating an experience zone, a ServiceNow experience zone, so when client walks in they not only see our associates working on projects, but they also get the panoramic view or the panoramic experience of how ServiceNow orchestration happens, how automation happens, how HR module works, and things like that. Because of the people we have, in terms of re-skilling and certification, we are being measured as the best overall global partner award yesterday in Knowledge18. >> Well congratulations. When you were searching for these people, as you said you had to so a lot of hiring, what were the kind of skills you were looking for when you were trying to find the top talent? >> If you look at Cognizant as a 265,000 plus organization we know the art of hiring people. >> And it is an art, it absolutely is an art. >> So our approach is, one we go to the campus, hire the fresh grads in all of the campus. If you look at of late the kids that are coming out of the campus, they are pretty smart in the sense of they come with the latest digital technologies, artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing understanding, and things like that. So we take them and then we, within 30 days, we completely format them for ServiceNow. This is one approach. The second approach is we go to the lateral market and we hire and we bring them up to speed on the ServiceNow-related technologies. The third option is, with 265,000 people we have, the raw material is inside Cognizant, so we take people from other business units, other domain and then try to format them and to do that. But of late what we have started, especially within the U.S. footprint, is we go to all the community colleges and also we go to all the veteran's associations, those type of organizations and we hire them. So if you look at our Phoenix RDC, I'm proud to say that it is a woman-powered delivery center, when it comes to ServiceNow, with a pretty good mix of veterans. So these are the different approaches we use to hire people towards the ServiceNow practice. >> And they've been successful. >> They have been successful and if you look at how long can they continue in ServiceNow 'til they retire? No, so we do job rotation, every three years we give them opportunity. I have a unique advantage since I run the cloud services. I always rotate my people from ServiceNow to go to Amazon or to Microsoft as you're in different technologies every 24 to 36 months we do the job rotation. In that way I think I'm managing my retention well. >> So we know that the role of IT is really changing in so many organizations around the world. What are you hearing from customers, what are their pain points? What are the challenges that you're trying to solve? >> I think that's a great question now, Rebecca. We are in a very interesting time. The customers have a tremendous problem in their hand because they need to stay relevant in their business because business models are changing and if you look at for a retailer, the competition is not from the same industry. Similar for a pharmaceutical company, the competition is not from the same pharma industry. Everybody wanted to know, a pharma company wanted to know why Google is hiring 100 physicians. So the disruption is going to happen not in your industry, outside your industry. So that is the biggest challenge. The second thing is they need to continue to reinvent their business model. They cannot operate. We are hearing many stories like a lot of regional stores are closing because they didn't stay relevant to the business, to the customers. The third thing if you look at, let's take healthcare industry. Typically patients expect, historically, they were asked to maintain their prescription and medical records, but today in the new age patients are expecting the hospitals to manage everything because keep the data and intelligently apply the data because data is the new fuel or new oxygen, whatever you want to call it. >> Fuel, oxygen, one of those analogies. >> Data is going to play a critical role for any business. So every business is looking for how do I take the data and apply it intelligently? In the process how do I elevate experience? When I say experience it's both customer experience and also employee experience. So that's why if we look at, going back to the purpose of ServiceNow when John Donahoe was presenting in the keynote, he said, "We are in the world to make people's work better." The work is basically the experience. So we know about all the digital, every client is adopting the digital because of the advent of the cloud and the technologies around the AI, machine learning, et cetera, everybody is having a clear chatter of the digital transformation chatter as a part of their enterprises. So that is where we, companies like Cognizant, we go to them and then help them in truly being digital, how do you get there. That is where technologies like ServiceNow plays a critical role. >> And so it is the mission of ServiceNow, and it sounds like also the mission of Cognizant, to make the world of work work better for people. So give me some examples of ways that you are creatively solving employee headaches. How are you making the world of work better? >> I'll give a couple of examples. To start with, for a leading manufacturing company there are a lot of equipment dispersed across the field so we use IOT technology, sensors, and we collect the data, and the data gets analyzed and then we give a dashboard to our customers. When I say customers, the chief customer support officer, he or she can look at the dashboard and send the technician for evaluate it Imagine if the cloud was not there and moreover we use ServiceNow as a platform to do all the orchestration. If the cloud was not there, if products like ServiceNow was not there, this could have been a humongous task, but we are helping the problem for the customer. Today, with one click, the chief customer support officer can know which machine is giving which problem, accordingly dispatch a technician. This is one example. The second example is we are helping some agricultural companies where, in fact this came out during our hackathon, which I'll talk about you a little bit later, all this agricultural farms, the lands are there. When you wanted to grow something, you also need to know everyday what is the moisture of the soil, what is the temperature, et cetera. So we apply IOT technology and then collect the data and use ServiceNow dashboard to give it back to the customer. These are all real-time problems the customers are facing. There are so many examples, but if you look at most of the solutions and the outcomes what we give to the customer, it's all triggered by our innovation. So we are the only company, I can proudly say, conducted three hackathons with ServiceNow. When I say hackathon, all the people are put under one room and ideas were given and end of the day you'll get 100 plus ideas. Recently we did, about a month back, we did a global hackathon. First time we wanted to try India, three continents, seven cities, India, Budapest, Phoenix, 20 hours of continuous time. We generated about 115 ideas. Out of the 115 ideas, I think we are going to come with certain ideas and then put that back into ServiceNow app store. We have close to six plus apps already running on the ServiceNow store, now our plan for the next six months is to add another about 10 plus apps onto the ServiceNow store. >> That is the other questions that that begs. Are hackathons the best way in your mind to spark energy and innovation and creativity? >> Especially with the millennials. The millennials, yes definitely because they don't want to very mundane, routine work. They want a challenge, they are asking for challenge. So this hackathon is one of the ways to keep them happy. Because the future of workforce is changing with millennials coming in. And the jobs, they're also expecting, even in my team people wanted a change every 12 months. While we need to address our customers, we also need to take care of their expectations also. >> Let's think about the future a little bit now. What do you see your customers' future demands and where do you see Cognizant and ServiceNow being able to provide solutions to the problems they don't even know they're having. >> Right, right. So digital is the heartbeat. When I say digital is the heartbeat, the outcome is all about experience because if someone asks me, digital is not technology. Digital is all about experience so in order to give that experience, customers wanted multiple technologies, they wanted to reinvent, rewire, rethink their business models. So that is where we wanted to go as a Cognizant. For example, if you take ServiceNow, if you're taking that platform to them, how can I digitize your enterprise process, digitize your entire workflow and create automation, et cetera and then bring a collaborative work environment within your ecosystem. So this is what they are expecting. Nobody wants non-value add, mundane task, everything they want to get operated in an automation manner. That is where we are helping, basically anything that changes the experience, or pave a new way to the experience, that is where we at Cognizant we are constantly reinvesting on people, process, technology, and then taking that back to our customers. >> That's a great note to end on. Raja, we'll look forward to seeing you again at Knowledge19 next year. >> Thank you, definitely. >> I'm Rebecca Knight, we will have more of theCUBE's live coverage of ServiceNow Knowledge18 in just a little bit.

>> Narrator: Brought to you by ServiceNow. >> We're back in Orlando, I'm Dave Velanto with Jeff Frick and this is theCUBE, the leader in live tech coverage. We go up to the events, we extract the signal from the noise. Andrew Wilson is here, he's the CIO of Accenture and TV personality (laughing). Good to see you again. >> Good to see you gents again. Welcome, congratulations on a great show so far coming out of the Knowledge17. >> Yeah and back to you, we were at the Accenture event last night, it was pretty good. You had a lot of really great customers there and ServiceNow was there in force, so when a company like Accenture stamps it's impremature on a community like this, excuse me, that is a testament. So, how do you feel? >> We enjoy being a major player in the ecosystem. It's an ecosystem of platforms. We consume a lot of tech for ourselves. We have 400,000 people, we're in 55 countries, 200 cities around the world. So I've got to make them feel good, I've got to create great tech, I've also got to put tech out there that our clients see, and I've really got to get there first so that they can emulate us. I want to be a sandbox. So I'm here as a consumer but also as a service provider of ServiceNow. I think it's a great event so far. >> How do you spend your time as a CIO. I mean, especially inside a company like Accenture, I would imagine, you're getting pulled in a lot of different directions. >> I think the role and the time has changed. It used to be about running big programs, doing big builds, integration testing and big programatical old fashioned data center IT. The world's changed. I'm the Chief Experience Officer now. It's around orchestrating, brokering new experiences a lot that I'm procuring in and configuring, the platforms like ServiceNow. And other big, major brands like 0365 and Salesforce, etc. I'm focused on end to end experience, employee experience. We've got 100,000 new people arriving every year, they all bring their own tech. If mine isn't good, they will just use their own. So I want to compete with that, I want to be better than that, I want to be sticky, I want it to be like YouTube, Netflix, things like that. >> I wonder if you could dig into that a little bit because that's one of the themes we see over and over and over all the shows. The consumerization of IT and people's expectations of the way enterprise IT should work based on what I do on my phone and on my consumer apps. >> Well they should just work all the time, shouldn't it? It should work all the time, it should require no training, it should be fun, it should be bite-sized and it should all be there on my mobile device and upgrade automatically. And by the way, it's all free as well. (laughing) >> Little different than an old school SAP implementation from back in the day. >> Absolutely and, I mean SAP are a good platform provider, and we still...And they've had to change. The platforms deliver big agile releases now and we have to re-present tech. But those days of setting a course, annual spending, big functional requirements and then delivering and not course changing, that's all out the window. We have to listen, feedback, course-correct, be agile ourselves. And I also think inject fun. Tech has to be fun, modern, light-hearted, light-touch. It's a part of all aspects of life now. >> And has to have loud music. (laughing) >> Thumping in the background. >> You're a consumer, you said of ServiceNow as well. What's your ServiceNow experience like? >> We've been in production on ServiceNow for over a year. I like it, I think it's a good platform, well-architected for Cloud. It allows me to create rich moments of experience for my team. I bought it initially to do IT, SM type stuff. But I've had a learning experience that it's much broader. I like the adding analytics and intelligence into the platform that we've been hearing about here in Orlando. We're using it to power HR processes, legal processes, new contract set up. In the end, I want people to be enjoying the process and experience through life at Accenture. I don't want them to be thinking about what system I am, what platform I own? That's all under the hood. Experience first, experience only. Process based. ServiceNow is really helping us do that. >> One of the things as a CIO you're looking at, you said Chief Experience Officer, what are some of the things that are exciting you? You hear a lot of AI, nobody talks about big data anymore. It's all AI and machine-learning. >> It's all cognizance. >> Deep learning, right? Is it same wine, new bottle? Is it real? What do you see as a CIO? >> It is changing. A lot of... Like the Cloud a few years ago. A lot of talk but we're not all there yet. We're 71% in Cloud. We got on with it. I think we're about to get on with AI. I think about enterprise insight, that's what gets me excited. It's not a technology service anymore. It's a data and analytics service. The things are coming of age, we can now deliver it for the enterprise. >> When you think about strategy, vision, the role of the CIO, how do you see that changing? >> Well, I'm a broadcaster, like you. So I'm a Chief Communications person. I'm producing content. I'm not just running the cameras and the green-screen studios, I'm doing my own show. I'm not writing emails. We're popping up studios around the world. We're ingesting content into something which is beginning to feel a lot like a live network. And that's how people want to consume. They don't want to sit there and watch an hour long training course. And if they want to learn about security, and how we do it at Accenture, they want to watch something that looks and sounds like 24, we call it Hackerland. It's a series of dramatized episodes. That's the future of how we consume tech. >> So what are some of the topics that you're covering? First of all, what's the objective of your show and what are some of the things you're talking about? >> My show exists primarily to glue my family of eight or 9,000 IT workers around the world together so that they can stay current in a fast-moving, changing world of our own strategy. We course correct our strategy, we do hundreds of releases of different services every month. Being the CIO team that does that, I want them very aware so it's our internal, stay ahead, under the hood, stay ahead of our broader user base. By the way, practice new techniques because we're amongst friends with our CIO audience, before our CEO and the others start using the services as well. >> Have you done a show that related to service management? >> Uh not... oh well we've certainly talked about ServiceNow deployment, but the show we like to mix. So we'll have different teams and projects on. We'll have news reports, we'll have some humor. We don't do an hour of the same thing, because they'd switch off. >> You do a lot of events like this, I presume? >> I go to a lot of events like this. We don't do the show for most events. We take our show on the road. We've done the show live from India. We're about to go, two weeks time to Dublin in Ireland. And then we'll be going down Buenos Aires. So it's a global show. When I'm here, I'm typically on others' stage, like I'm here with you guys today. Talking about our work in the market and how we power all of our client work through these platforms. >> It's so different, cause I remember long time ago, at a small software company, we were trying to break in with Accenture and it was a roadshow. You guys had little shows all over the place, whether it be the Vertical Group, the Industry Group, the Horizontal Group. They'd bring the partners together and that was the way that new technologies were communicated. We'd set up a little expo, and they would all come in, we'd pitch our wares and that was it. So different than what you're talking about now in this communication, video-- >> Accenture's a global company, global brand. It's actually a series of businesses. Technologists, operators, strategists, consultants. I think we are platform practitioners and we are a major service provider. So we use ServiceNow to support hundreds of our own clients. So I'm not just using it to power Accenture, we're powering all our client work as well. It's a new Accenture. We talk about the new in our digital strategy and at least half of the work that we do for our clients is all in this brand new space of digital. That percentage is increasing rapidly every quarter. >> How much of your time is practice leads dragging you into clients? >> Quite a bit. We do hundreds of client dialogues. I come from a business, I spend more time talking to client's as CIO than I did when I was the business. >> Excellent. Andrew, thanks so much for coming on theCUBE. It was a pleasure having you. >> Great to see you guys, good luck. >> Good luck with your show, we'll be watching. >> Thank you. >> Ya, we'll be tuning in. >> Enjoy, thank you, take care. >> Alright keep it right there everybody we'll be back with our next guest right after this short break. This is theCUBE, we're live from Knowledge17. We'll be right back.