>>Mhm. Mhm Hello and welcome back to the cubes coverage of AWS summit here. Public sector summit here in Washington, D. C. I'm john for your host, We're live at a physical event. People face to face. We're here with the cube on the ground back in business. Of course we have a virtual cube. We got the cube studios in Palo alto in boston. We're gonna bring you all the great coverage and our next guest is parallel casa, Anita Casanova got it. Chief of Channels at Pegasystems, also known as mega official titles, head of global partner ecosystem. But you're known as the Chief of channels. >>Absolutely, thank >>you for coming on. >>Absolutely nice to be here face to face in an event. >>Feel happy, feels good. It feels great. People are happy. I'm still good attendance. Considering what it is about 5, 6000 people roughly give or take maybe up to 7000, who knows. But you guys have a really strong relationship with AWS, you're the chief of the channel. You guys have a great enabling product that crashes itself, as you guys say. So let's get into it before explain what PEG A does. >>Okay, so paga he's a $1 billion dollar company. It's a software company and we call it that software built itself Because we are definitely here to crash customer complexity. So we do it by three doing three things, 1-1 customer engagement customers, customer service and also intelligent automation. So we are a platform and we are helping any single client that has a complex solution to make it simple and to have a good customer experience. >>So I got it wrong. It doesn't crash itself, it crashes complexity, It builds itself okay there it is. All right, I got that out of the way. Software that crashes itself actually doesn't really kind of doesn't sound like a compelling products, but it's not the case. So I gotta ask you So ecosystems are a big part of the cloud amazon has a great ecosystem but the ecosystem has ecosystem is starting to see an expansion of the cloud business with the software model. With cloud scale. What are you guys doing in the channel within the public sector? How do you guys work, how do people engage with you? >>Okay, so first of all we we were always very friendly channel partner but we were using our partners only for implementation because our product is so so uh built for each of the clients, there's a lot of services opportunity and we have very strong peg a practices in the different partners. But last year when I came in I came in almost 16 months ago we decided that we wanted also to improve our our sales with the partners. So we are engaging with partners and to and from the beginning of a sale cycle and brainstorming on what the client needs in order to be more efficient to reduce cost to the moment of the implementation. So we have been working with several uh system integrators, some resellers and with aws as our cloud platform. So we have been moving everything we can to the peg, a cloud that is on aws and clients are are really happy to be modernized in there because there you have the security, the scalability then you the new versions of the product without having to be worrying about it because it's done by our support. >>So it's software on amazon. So customers can buy your software through the marketplace or whatever through a partner or the marketplace and then they can still use the higher level services at in AWS, correct? >>They can use a high services in AWS or with any other partner system Integrator that also works with AWS and we have many cases where we are we we use the power of three. Right. We work with AWS accenture and and for example, Peg or we can use lay does or or booz allen or a parrot on any of the partners that are here in government. >>So you know, the channel equation, you're the chief of the channel. Channel channels love simplicity, simple products to buy. They love products that can throw off gross profit. And you said services, how is that going? Are you guys seeing a good economic equation with your partners? >>Well, our partners do between five and 10 IX of uh, of the revenue that we do on software on services. So that equation definitely works and they love it for that. At the same time we have invested five x the quantity of people that we have supporting the channel. For example, here in government we have invested also two or three times on the rest of the of the business. But there has been definitely good investments for partners. The partners are happy with us because again they not only they can do a good business one off, they can then radiate one. You usually clients one day once they buy peg for one of their use cases or case management as we call it, they usually want to replicate it in other cases and that is where the partners are doing enormous money because they are replicating the same use case in different departments. >>That's the way it's supposed to be, it's their touching the customer, they're adding value on top of your product. So they get to have the best of both worlds high margins on the profits and the services but yet worked with the customer directly to engage, make sure they get the right solution from you and a W. S together. >>Absolutely. Okay, >>what are the key challenges that you find that partners need to solve and overcome to keep this this this equation going. What do you guys focus on? You mentioned more people, what are some of the trends in the public cloud? I mean public sector area? What's this with the dynamics? >>So in in this moment the whole world is with a huge need of digital transformation the every single client but especially in government, they had all digital transformation projects. But they were going at slow motion because of the situation of the pandemic that I don't even want to name it again because everybody's talking about it but it's a reality. These projects have to accelerate 10 times. So whatever it was going to be done in five years has been done in one. So the biggest challenge that we are having is to ensure that we have that capacity to support all these projects that are being done very fast and and for that that's why we also need our partners right Because they have big mega practices. They have been investing as well as we are to ensure that we cover all those needs and but for now we are doing well and so that's that's right. We are growing as a company and with the partners >>carol great to have you on board with the company now kicking some butt now in the channel, Chief of channel good margins happy customers growth. What are some of the use case successes that you've had. Can you name a few customers and what they've done and what's their best practice? >>Well we have, I will name some government because we are in a public secretary event but we have and I will name north America although we also have in the rest of the world. So U. S. Census. That is something that everybody has done right. Even if you did in your mobile, you did it on paper, you did it on the phone. All of that was managed by paga And for the first time ever there was zero than downtime. Not a single problem to access the web. For example, the the US census took us 50% less expense than the one that we did in 2010 just because we use this digital approach And then we also were 50% more efficient because we needed, we didn't need to use all that paper storage that was used in the past. So we taxpayers have to be happy because they really spend less than what they should have spent on this topic. So definitely that was one of the biggest cases that we have in 2020. We have other, we took big big projects like the US and or we do smaller projects and there's one that is not small but that is smaller, that is the New Jersey court that caught my attention because I imagine myself in a situation like that that you are like my mistake taken to the court and you and they are, they are you have to defend yourself that was taking three hours and it's stressful, right? And you don't have to be there if you don't need to And this process got to 20 minutes, that is also reduction and expenses even jail expenses sometimes. So that was one that we did as well. And and that was just by making four legacy systems getting to one having a much faster experience on that. So >>a lot of migrations, a lot of cloud native re factoring going on in the applications sounds like >>yes. What we do is whatever legacy systems you have, we managed to ensure that we connect them all and to have a front line so that you can access information real time and that you can as a user and that you can really have a better experience whatever you do today, whatever company telco company you have, bank you use, I can guarantee you have you have, you speak to you just don't know about >>that. It's under the covers. I gotta ask you my final question. So you guys really doing some good business out here, what if people watching here trying to understand the dynamics of public sector market? What's your take, what's your what do you what would you say, that person? What's the big story happening in public sector? >>Well, to begin with, I'm not a public sector experts, I'm sure that there's a lot of public sector experts out there that can tell me, oh no, you missed this point. But what I have seen in these days that I have been here with the team is that the government needs to act fast in order to digitalized all these projects. So one of our partners yesterday was telling me that there is a mandate in in the army for example to move everything to cloud. How do you do it? They don't even know they're there, there are people that they don't they don't know how to do this. So our partners are building solutions to help them faster get into the cloud because they have to do it by the end of the year. And these are the key things that we are working on with partners to build solutions that can really can access for robust and they can >>escape. It's a very robust ecosystem. Yes, So amazon is an ecosystem you guys and you have an ecosystem. >>It's an ecosystem of ecosystems and that is what works right because Amazon has very good sellers for example, very good people that know the clients and they have a lot of experience but they are not specialized in what to do >>with the channel. These >>other partners have a peg a practice, they are experts and as I told you this is about crushing complexity. So it's making you need to understand the technology and the details behind it to make the best solution to the client. >>Corolla. Great to have you on very dynamic. Love, Love chatting with you Corolla Cazenove >>Cazenove >>Cazenove chief of channels that Pegasystems also known as peg a great to have you on, congratulations on your success. Ecosystems within an ecosystem crushing complexity. Mr que bringing you all the signal out there from the noise. I'm john Kerry. Thanks for watching. Mhm. Mhm.

>> Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE covering Dell Technologies World 2019 brought to you by Dell Technologies and its ecosystem partners. >> Welcome back to Las Vegas. Lisa Martin with Stu Miniman. We are on day one of theCUBE's coverage of Dell Technologies World 2019. We've got two sets, lots of great guests, lots of great conversations already. We're pleased to welcome to theCUBE for the first time Mike Apigian, Senior Director of Education Services at Dell Technologies. Mike, welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you, thanks for having me. >> Our pleasure. So here we are talking about digital transformation. We've been talking about it for a long time. >> Yes. >> I love how last year's Dell Technologies World was make it real, it being digital transformation, IT, work force transformation, security. This year it's about real transformation. We talked a lot about the technologies. What are some of the other things though that companies need to be thinking about as enablers of this transformation? >> Sure, great question and obviously the technology is a huge part of it, right? But of course, myself being from Dell Technologies Education Services, a big focus on the people. So that is what we see as an additional critical focus because at the end of the day, digital transformation is big. It's really big and technology alone isn't going to suffice, right? It's not going to be just that. So focus on the people and you know we hear it time and again from our customers, from research in the market that you know, one of the top three actually barriers from customers and organizations driving adoption and that success in digital transformation comes down to having the right skillsets in place. >> Yeah so Mike, I'm glad we have you on. We just had your Chief Customer Officer Karen Quintos on. >> Yeah. >> And she was talking a little bit about the skills gap. So we know how many people we're going to need to have and you know, half of the programs we're going to need is going to require them retraining of you know, my work force there, so. >> Absolutely. >> We've talked to years with what used to be EMC and is now Dell Education Services. >> Sure. >> From storage certification to converge certification to cloud certification. So what's the latest and greatest? What is the kind of go-to skillset that people need and the ones that people are calling up and saying oh my gosh, if I could learn this, it's going to really catapult my career? >> Yeah so the Dell Technologies now, Dell Technologies proven professional program has been in place for years. A lot of industry-recognized certifications to your point, a lot focused on storage, data protection, product-related and over the past 12 months to 18 months, we've actually got a lot of expansion beyond that into more areas of transformation and those areas where we've expanded beyond just products have been tied back right to that skills gap that we're seeing in customers and what they're challenged with that they drive digital transformation. So some examples being more of a focus on converged infrastructure, hybrid cloud. We have some associate level certifications we recently brought to market there. Multicloud, that's a big focus for us. Obviously some of the discussion and announcements this morning focused around multicloud and they talked about cloud chaos, right? So we have some expert level certification in place focused on that. We also have a focus around security and specifically designing infrastructure with that security-first mindset and then finally the other most recent transformational type of certification is a master level. So think of a career pinnacle level certification that's focused on transformational architecture. >> Yeah Mike, just to follow up on that, one of the things I hear in multicloud is there's certain technologies that might allow us to move, but one of the biggest challenges is skillset because if I learn and I understand how to configure it and how to manage it and how to do it here and if I move somewhere else, even if it's 70% the same, oh my god, that's not awesome. Can you just, I wonder if you can step back and give us you know, what you see out there and what works today and where do we need to go as an industry as a whole to try to help users to live in this multicloud world that we're already in but struggling with? >> Yeah I mean there's a ton of proficiency in the silos, right, in managing specific infrastructure service storage network now also around converged infrastructure as well as cloud deployments, but to your point, in a multicloud environment, there are different providers, both private and public, different technologies, and it can get complex fairly quick, right? So having the skillsets to kind of take a step back and look at that holistically and understand about workload placements, you know, there's knowledge and skillsets that require to make some of those determinations. We obviously have a lot of services capabilities that help provide that, but there's a level of obviously proficiency that our customers want and need in house as well. So a lot of it is building that knowledge and understanding the decision points and the criteria for the different providers as well as workload placement and movement across that multicloud environment. >> Essentially-- >> Very different than skill sets in the past. >> Sorry about that, very excited. I'm curious about if we talk about talent and retention with respect to some of the guys and gals who've been around for a while, Michael mentioned on stage this morning that later this week is Dell's 35th anniversary in business and as we look at all the technology transformations and multicloud world that we live and Stu mentioned, what are some of the benefits for, I don't want to say an older population, but say the veterans of technology? Why, what are some of the things that Dell Technologies Education Services will deliver to say the more seasoned individual to stay relevant and be able to adapt as quickly as technology is so that they're competitive for jobs themselves? >> Yeah, yeah, great, great question and I mean it's the pace of change is so fast and it's impacting everyone, everyone from recent college graduates, right, getting right into the field that we're in in technology as well as to your point, seasoned veterans who've been around for a while and that's where a lot of the difficult transformation is taking place, right? 'cause it's the roles of the past and today, the skillsets of today, like those roles and skills that have gotten us to today are very different than what's needed to get us to tomorrow and that's where a lot of our technical training, our curricula as well as our industry certifications come into play and helping build that knowledge, the required and the skills and the certifications to validate those capabilities for the next generation workforce. So it's really for the right out of school and maybe new to the field as well as evolving throughout their career. >> All right so Mike, we know that your team's doing things throughout the year, talking to your customers, but you've got 15,000 people here at Dell Tech World. I've seen the hands-on lab, I know there's always certification. So give us from your team, you know, some of the big focus, some of the activities and some of the takeaways that you want people to have from your team. >> You know, the one big thing that I would give a plug for is our proved and professional center. So right downstairs in Casanova 501, we have 57 certifications available and we have hundreds and hundreds of customers and partners that will be taking certification exams and then achieving certification this week, all right? We have a promotional offer. So every attempt at, first attempt at every exam is free just for this week so I encourage everyone who's here to check it out. In addition to taking those certifications in preparation for that, we have 29 different preparation sessions that we're running. So right downstairs, two rooms next door where we're rotating through on topics that are specific to our latest and greatest product lines, PowerMax, PowerEdge MX, in addition to that cloud-focused data science certification prep sessions, multi-cloud expert. There's a whole array of prep sessions that are helping our customers and partners prepare for taking those certifications. >> AI machine learning? >> There are some intersections with that as well, certainly, as part of our data science curriculum and certification exams. >> And where are customers in terms of discussing with you, say maybe at last year's Dell technologies World, like these are some of the certifications and the trainings that we really need. Talk about that sort of bi-directional symbiosis where customers are, I'm assuming, help you the teams identify, develop and then deliver this spot-on training. >> Yeah that's a great question. So actually every year here at Dell Technologies World, we have a customer advisory council and that should last two years, came out loud and clear last year was more of a focus in some of the areas that they're challenged with from a transformation perspective. Security came into play in a big way, different aspects of cloud and multicloud, enterprise architecture, a lot of our focus related to Pivotal and a lot of the offerings there, application development. So all of that feedback and discussion that we have into customers actually feeds into our prioritization and road mapping and it has a big impact on the technical training and the certifications that we bring to market. So we're going to be our customers throughout today, also tomorrow and that'll be additional input to where we go in the future. >> All right, Mike, what other feedback are you hearing from customers? We hear in the keynotes some of these broad topics and you talk about AI and IoT and edge computing and how much of that funnel back and are they looking for help on that now or you know, how do they start getting themselves ready for some of these massive waves that are coming? >> Yeah that's definitely part of the themes that we hear and the feedback that we get from customers and what's really relevant to them and that ties into their skills transformation as well. As you said, IoT, AIML, data engineer. That's a more recent role that we're focusing on and you'll see a bunch coming out from Dell Technologies Ed Services on that in the not too distant future so a lot of that. Those themes are, we hear the exact same, same customer base and those are areas that we're addressing in our roadmap and as we bring new technical training offerings to market. >> So listening to your customers is key. As Stu mentioned, we were talking to Karen Quintos a little bit earlier that that's essential for pretty much any role, but you're listening, you're taking that into account, you're designing it and delivering for that. A lot of benefits we can talk about for the individuals going through the training, right, in terms of upscaling and job retention, but from your customers' perspective, do you have a favorite example of a customer who's really been able to transform their company because they've made this investment and ensuring that their talent has the latest and greatest education? >> Yeah, and actually, we've seen, we've done a bunch of research in market and what we see time and again is a really really strong correlation between those organizations that are focusing on and investing in their people and the skills development, a correlation between that and the progress and success that they're having with their transformation initiatives, right, and one area where we've been engaging a lot deeper with customers as of just recent and beginning to do a lot more of is we call it an organizational learning program. So we obviously offer technical training and certifications, but this is more of a consultative engagement with our customers more at the organization level and very consultative and we work closely with them to understand their digital strategy, their plans, and as part of that, drive a very prescriptive assessment of what's going on in their environment from a people and skills perspective. So really understanding their current state and where they want to go, where they need to be, and based upon the findings of that assessment, we work closely with them to develop a defined documented strategy and plan. In this case, it's a learning plan. It's a continuous learning plan for that organization over a series of quarters to work against and drive and really capture, gain those skills and knowledge that's required to help move them forward. >> Yeah, Mike, I love that. It reminds me of the joke in your space is what if we give them new skills and they leave? And of course the alternative is what if we don't give them new skills and they stay? >> Exactly. >> So last thing I wanted to ask is talk a little bit about internal. There's a lot of change going on. You've been from the EMC to Dell for quite a few years. >> Oh yes. >> I won't say how many just to protect the innocent, but one of the things, I mean I spent 10 years at EMC and the training was something that helped me a lot in my career. Talk a little bit about, you know, what's changed and how you help the internal teams and all the different groups stay up on the latest and greatest areas. >> Absolutely so in Education Services to your point, we support our employees, technical employees, around the globe, our partners and customers. So huge focus on enabling those employees and if you think about it, right, they are, they're the front lines, they're the folks that are with our customers and they need to be as up to speed, if not more up to speed in these areas of technology. So we have a massive undertaking to enable our services audiences, pre-sale systems engineers, our consultants around the globe to ensure that they are up to speed and quite knowledgeable on the latest and greatest technologies and really how those come to life within our customer environments. >> It seems like maybe Education Services is a catalyst for this internal cultural transformation that we're seeing from Dell Technologies. >> It absolutely is. There's transformation everywhere. It's internal, it's external and at the end of the day, kind of back to where we started, right? It comes down to the people. It's our customers and us as a company, our most important asset and at the end of the day, you know, the people need the right skills to be successful and to go digital. >> Great stuff, Mike. Thank you so much for joining Stu and me on theCUBE this afternoon and sharing all that you're doing to help transform Dell Education Services for your internal folks and your customers alike. We appreciate your time. >> Thanks for having me. >> Our pleasure. For Stu Miniman, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching us live from Las Vegas. Day one of theCUBE's coverage of Dell Technologies World 2019. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

>> live from Las Vegas. It's the queue covering del Technologies. World twenty nineteen, brought to you by Del Technologies and its ecosystem partners. >> Welcome back to Las Vegas, Lisa Martin with Stew Minimum and we are on Day one of the Cubes coverage of Del Technology World twenty nineteen. We've got two sets, lots of great guests, lots of great conversations. Already. We're pleased to welcome to the Cube for the first time that Mike, a pigeon senior director of education services at Del Technologies like Welcome to the Cube. >> Thank you. Thanks for having me >> our pleasure. So here we are talking about digital transformation. We've been talking about it for a long time. I loved how last year's Del Technologies world was. Make it, really it being digital transformation, it t workforce transformation, security. This year, it's about real transformation. We talked a lot about the technology's what are some of the other things, though the companies need to be thinking about as enablers of this transformation >> your great, great question and obviously the technology is a huge part of it, right? But of course, myself being from Del Technology education services, a big focus on the people So that is what we see as an additional critical focus. Because at the end of the day, digital transformation is is big. It's really big, and technology alone isn't going to suffice, right? It's not going to be just that. So focus on the people and, you know, we hear a time and again from our customers from from research in the market that, you know, one of the top three, actually, barriers from customers and organizations driving adoption and success in digital information comes down to having the right skill sets in place. >> So, Mike, I'm God we have you on. We just had your chief customer officer, Karen Kito song, and she was talking a little bit about the skills gap. So we know how many customers, how many people we're going to need to have and, you know, half of the half of the programs we're gonna need it's going to need going to require retraining of, you know, my workforce there. So we talked for years with you know, what used to be emcee ends now, Del Education services, you know, from storage certifications to convert certifications to cloud certification. So you know what was the latest in Great is what is the I kind of go to skill set that people need And, you know, the ones that you know people are calling up saying, Oh my gosh, if I could learn this, you know, it's going to really, you know, catapult my career. >> Yes. So the Del Technologies now del Technologies proven professional program's been in place for years. A lot of ah, uh, industry recognized certifications to your point. A lot focus on storage, data protection, product related. And over the past twelve months to eighteen months, we've actually in a lot of expansion beyond that, into Mohr areas of transformation and those areas where we have expanded beyond just products have been tied back right to that skills gap that we're seeing in customers and what they're challenged with as they drive a digital transformation. So some examples being more of a focused on converged infrastructure hybrid cloud way, have some associate level certifications we recently brought to market there, uh, multi cloud. That's a big focus for us. Obviously, some of the discussion announcements this morning focus around multi cloud, and they talked about cloud chaos. Right, So we have some expert level certification in place focussed on that way. We also have a focus around security and specifically designing infrastructure with that security first mindset. And then finally the other most recent transformational type of certifications, that master level. So think of it a career pinnacle levels certification that's focused on, uh, transformational architecture. >> Yeah, Mike, just a follow up on that one. One of the things I hear in Multi Cloud is there certain technologies that might allow us to move. But one of the biggest challenges is skill set. Because if I learned and I understand how to configure it and how to manage it and how to do it here and if I move somewhere else even if seventy percent the same Oh, my gosh, that's not awesome. Can you just wonder if you could step back and give you know what you see out there? And you know what works today and where do we need to go? Is an industry as a whole try to help users toe live in this multi cloud world that were already in but struggling with? >> Yeah. I mean, there's a ton of proficiency in in the silos, right? Indian managing specific infrastructure server storage network now also around converge infrastructure as well as cloud deployments. But to your point in a multi cloud environment, there are different provider's, both private and public different technologies, and it gets it can get complex fairly quick, right? So having the skill sets to kind of take a step back and look at that holistically and understand about workload placements, you know there's there's knowledge and skill sets that required to make some of those determinations. We obviously have a lot of services capabilities that help provide that. But there's a level of obviously proficiency that our customers want in need in house as well. So a lot of it is building that knowledge and understanding. The decision points in the criteria for the different providers, as well as work, replacement and a movement across that multi cloud environment. It's very different than skill sets in the past. >> Sorry about that. Very excited I'm curious about if we talk about talent and retention with respect to some of the guys and gals who been around for a while. Michael mentioned on stage this morning that later this week is Dell's thirty fifth anniversary in business. And as we look at, you know, all the technology transformations and multi cloud world that we live in. This two mentioned What are some of the benefits for? I don't want to say, you know, older population But, say the veterans of technology White What are some of the things that Del Technologies, Education Services will deliver to say that more seasoned individual to stay relevant and be able to adapt as quickly as technology so that they're competitive for jobs themselves? >> Great, great question. And I mean, it's it's the pace of change is so fast, and it's impacting everyone, everyone from from recent college graduates, right, getting right into the field that that were in in technology as well as your point seasoned veterans who've been around for a while. And that's where a lot of the difficult transformation is taking place. Right, because it's it's the rolls of the past, and today the skill sets of dead like those rules and skills that have gotten us two today are are very different than what's needed to get us to tomorrow, and and that's where a lot of our technical training our curriculum as well as our industry certifications come into play in helping build that knowledge required and the skills on the certifications to validate those capabilities for the next generation workforce. So it's it's really for the right out of school and may be new to the field as well as evolving throughout their career. >> All right, so, like we, we know that your team's doing things throughout the year talking to your customers. But you got fifteen thousand people here at Delta Tech World. I've seen the hands on labs. I know there's always certification. So give us from your team. You know, some of the big focus, some of the activities and some of the take away if you want people to have from >> your one big thing I would give a plug for is our proven professional center. So right downstairs here in Casanova five o one, we have fifty seven certifications available, and we have hundreds and hundreds of customers and partners that will be taking certification exams and and achieving certifications this week. All right, we have ah promotional offer. So every attempt attempt at first attempt at every exam is free just for this week. So encourage everyone who is here to check it out. In addition, Teo to taking those certifications in preparation for that we have we have twenty nine different preparation sessions that we're running so right downstairs two rooms next door where we're rotating through on topics that are specific to our latest and greatest product lines. Power Left Power Max Power Edge A Max In addition to that cloud, focus data Science certification Prep sessions multi cloud expert. There's, Ah, whole array of prep sessions that air helping our customers and partners prepare for taking those certifications. >> Aye aye, machine learning. >> There is some some intersections with that as well. Certainly is part of a data science curriculum and certification exams >> and where our customers, in terms of discussing with you, say, maybe at last year's Del Technologies world like these are some of the certifications in the trainings that we really need. Talk about that sort of bidirectional symbiosis where customers are. I'm assuming helping you didn't teams identify, developed and then deliver this spot on trainings? >> Yeah, yeah, that's a great question to Eric. See, every year here at Del Technologies world, we have a customer advisory council and Actually, the last two years came out loud and clear. Last year was more of a focus and some of the areas that the challenge was from a transformation perspective. Security came into play in a big way. Different aspects of cloud and multi cloud enterprise architecture. Er, um a lot of our focus related Teo pivotal and some of the offerings, their application development. So all of that feedback and discussion that we have in customers actually feeds into our prioritization and road mapping, and it has a big impact on the on the technical training and the certifications that we bring to market. So we're going to be with our customers throughout today, also tomorrow. And there will be additional input to where we where we go in the future. >> All right, Mike, what are their feedback? Are you hearing from customers? You know, we hear in the key note some of these, you know, broad topics, and you talk about, you know, a I and I ot and ej computing. And how much does that funnel back? And are they looking for help on that? Now are you know, how do they start getting themselves ready for some of these massive waves that are coming, >> Yeah, that's definitely part of the themes that we hear and then and the feedback that we get from customers and what's really relevant to them and that ties into their skills transformation as well. As you said, I o t a m l data engineer. That's, ah, more recent role that we're focusing on on and you'LL see Ah bunch coming out from Del Technologies at services on that in the not too distant future. So a lot of that those themes are we hear the exact same same customer base, and those are areas that where we're addressing in in our road map and as we bring new technical training offerings to market. >> So listening to your customers is kiss as to mention we're talking to Karen can just a little bit earlier that that's essential pretty much for any role. But you're listening. You're taking that into account you're designing and delivering for that long A benefits. We can talk about it for the individuals going to the training right in terms of ups, killing and job retention. But from from your customer's perspective, you have a favorite example of a customer who's really been able to transform their company because they've made this investment and ensuring that their talent has the latest and greatest education. >> Yeah, yeah, actually, you know what we've seen? We've done a bunch of research, and Mark, what we see time and again is did a really, really strong correlation between those organizations that are focusing on and investing in their people and the skills development, correlation between that and the progress and success that they're having with with their transformation initiatives. Right. And one area that that where we've been engaged in a lot deeper with customers as of just recent and beginning to do a lot more of is we call it an organizational learning program. So way obviously offer technical training and certifications. But this is more of a, uh, consultative engagement with our customers more thie, organizational level and very consultative and way work closely with them to understand their digital strategy, their plans, and is part of that drive a very prescriptive assessments of what's going on in their violent from a people and skills perspective. So really understanding their current state and where they want to go where they need to be. And based upon the findings of that assessment, we work closely with them to develop a defined, documented strategy and plan. In this case, it's a learning plan. It's a continuous learning plan for that organization over a Siri's of quarters to to work against and drive and really capture gain those skills and knowledge that's required to help move him forward. >> Yeah, Mike, I love that. Reminds me of the joke in your space is what if we give them new skills and they leave? And of course, the alternative is What if we don't give them new skills and they stay back? So I want the last thing I wanted to ask is talk a little bit about internal. There's a lot of change going on. You've been, you know, from the sea to the Del for quite a few years. We'LL se How money Just to protect the innocent. But you know, one of things. I mean, I spent ten years in the emcee and the Internet. The training was something that helped me a lot in my career. Talk a little bit about you know what? What's changing? How you help the internal teams in all the from groups stay up on the latest and greatest areas. >> Absolutely so in at education services. To your point, we support our employees. Technol employees around the globe are partners and customers. So huge focus on on enabling those employees. And if you think about it, right, they are there, the front lines, they're the folks that are with our customers. And they need to be as up to speed, if not more up to speed in these thes areas of technology. So we have, ah, massive undertaking to enable our services audiences pre sale systems Engineers are car consultants around the globe to ensure that they are up to speed and quite knowledgeable on the latest and greatest technologies. And really, how those come tto life within our customer environments. >> Sounds like maybe education services is is a catalyst for this internal cultural transformation that we're seeing from Del Technologies. >> Absolutely is. It's his transformation everywhere. It's internal, its external and at the end of the day, kind of back to where we started, right? If it comes down to the people, it's are our customers and and us as a company, our most important asset. And at the end of the day, you know the people need the right skills and to to be successful in to go digital. >> Great stuff. Mike, Thank you so much for joining student me on the cue, the stuff for noon and sharing all that you're doing to help transform del education services for your internal folks. Your customers like we appreciate your time. >> Thanks for having me. >> Our pleasure. First time in a man. I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching us live from Las Vegas. Day one of the cubes. Coverage of Del technology World twenty nineteen. Thanks for watching.

>> Narrator: Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE, covering Dell Technologies World 2018. Brought to you by Dell EMC, and its ecosystem partners. >> Welcome to theCUBE, we are live on day one of Dell Technologies World. I'm Lisa Martin with Keith Townsend. This is a huge event, the biggest they've ever had, 14,000 live attendees expected, and an additional 35,000 expected to engage with the live streaming in the on demand video experiences, amazing. We're excited to welcome, from Dell Education Services, Sophie Barratt, Senior Director, and Charles Atkins, VP of Education Services. Guys, welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good to be here. >> Thank you for having us. >> Lisa: Absolutely, our pleasure. So this morning in Michael Dell's keynote, he talked about, and we're going to hear a lot over the three days, of digital transformation, IT transformation, security transformation. There's a fourth transformative element that companies need to apply to be successful, and that's workforce transformation. Chuck, Charles, sorry, I'm giving you a new name, Chuck. We already have a Chuck. You're Chuck for the day. >> We're all friends already. >> We're already old friends. >> Exactly, we go way back. Charles, talk to us about workforce transformation, from a thought leadership perspective, what does it mean? >> Well it's key when you think about digital transformation, that large, at the end of the day it's all about people. I mean you can have a common digital vision for your company, for your infrastructure, but at the end of the day you got to have the workforce to make that real. So, us in Education Services, I mean we talk to our customers on a daily basis, we look at, you know, a nauseating level of research, and there's a huge skillset gap, that continues to grow, expodentiously. And when you look at the level of automation that's been introduced, in all across the workforce, the gap is continuing to grow. So in education, we're taking a long hard look at, okay, what are the skillsets of the future that are needed today? When you think about machine learning, you know, artificial intelligence, data data data, you know, years ago big data was, you know, all the rage. Now we have all of that data. Now that data's becoming more intelligent. Now we need to educate our workforce, to live and work in a digital age, right along with robotics and everything else. So pretty exciting time. >> Well Charles, I would love to hear both you guys are veterans of education, veterans of the IT industry, it has changed tremendously over the past five years, versus when I cut my teeth 20 years ago in IT. It was very step ladder, you know, I got a vendor certification, I learn the product, I was able to get into the industry, how has machine learning, digital transformation, how has that changed your jobs, and your approach to how you educate your customers? >> So great question, and I too come up in that age, right? So back in the day when you needed a Microsoft certification or a storage level certification, having that kind of siloed view, all of that has changed. And when we think about skillsets needed today, it's across multi-Cloud environments, security infrastructure, the in-user devices are as smart as the data center solutions that are driving the Clouds on the backend. So now you have to have a broad range of skillset, so obviously, times have changed, skillset development has changed, and that's a big reason why we in Education Services are hyper focused on that fourth tower, workforce transformation, to enable that digital realization. >> You wrote a blog recently on skills transformation, can you kind of break it down, some of the transformation certifications that Dell EMC's enabling? >> Absolutely, so we just launched four net new transformational certifications, super excited about this, and when you think about, again, the history, you think about product level certifications. You know, individuals go out, and they get trained and educated on how to use that specific product. But as those silos start to go away, and the technology starts to become across multiple platforms, we had to take a step back and say, "Okay, education today needs to change". Both in how learners learn, how they have need personalized education services, 365, 24 by seven across the globe, but also, they need to be less product centric. So we launched four new certifications in the security realm, converged infrastructure, multi-Cloud, enterprise architecture, big one. So think along the line of an enterprise architect, building an end to end, company to company solution, that is a multi-Cloud environment, security architecture on the backend, product level, that's a completely different skillset than we had 10, 15 years ago. So, you know, that is the workforce of the future, is having those individuals, really multi-facet, multi-skilled, all across not only Dell EMC products and technology, but also all the strategic aligned businesses. So we have you know, co-skilled, co-badged, certifications available today, with VMWare and Dell EMC, starts to broaden that range of the true skillset that's needed for today and definitely for the future. >> So I would love to hear from you Sophie, about the CI0, CTO story, what is the ask? Because, there's a combination of University, there's the combination of vendor training, What's the ask from the CIO, (mumbles), on the services that they're expecting from Dell when it comes to education? >> So they're expecting us, just as Charles had articulated, to go well beyond product level training, right? They want their people to understand the context to that they're operating in, and they want them to be able to see themselves as service providers, right? They're managing now a portfolio of IT services, and they need to think about how they deliver that portfolio to their customers. That could be other departments within IT, or onto the end customer, which is a very different way of thinking about IT, right? That when you're just sort of operating, you know, a product, or a suite of products. So that's something we hear from CIOs pretty often. And the other thing I would say is, you know, sort of in return, we have an ask for CIOs, right? Which is to understand that, it's really not just about, sort of training, and making sure that people are trained on, you know, particular solutions, whatever the flavor of the day happens to be, but making sure that as they're thinking about digital transformation, IT transformation, that they're underpinning it with a focus on continuous learning. Because the technology has morphed incredibly quickly, the expectations of IT are morphing incredibly quickly, and if learning doesn't happen continuously, you know, individuals and COs themselves are not going to be able to keep up. So we're trying to enable them with a suite of, you know, sort of point solutions, as well as that continuous learning environment, and sort of cultural affinity, that can help them be successful and make IT really a competitive differentiator. >> In the spirit of continuous development, talk to us about some of the research that you've done recently to understand, and really kind of shape the direction of the new Education Services, that Dell EMC is delivering. >> Sure, well actually you know, one of the really fascinating findings, and I sort of started to elude to it just then, was the importance of sort of the commitment from the CIO level down, as well as the individuals up. And that sort of reciprocity between a person, like an IT professional's commitment to learning, and their own development, as well as the management team creating that environment, where it's okay to learn, right? And it's okay to admit that, you know, you don't know something, or that you have an appetite to develop yourself. So we just did some research that showed that where individuals are the most transformation ready, themselves, is actually in IT departments that have a very strong commitment to learning. And that inverse is also true. >> When we look at IT transformation, as Michael Dell even said this morning, as the opportunity for IT to become a profit center, IT transformation has so much potential to enable every part of the business, to use data and apply it multiple times, to combine it, re-combine it, identify how customers are using that, how can IT, as you were saying, seems like it's much more of a cultural propensity to learn, how can IT help influence other parts of the business, to have this appetite to continuously learn? >> Sure, let me start with that, and then Charles you can add your perspective, but, you know, interestingly we have a customer advisory panel, here at Dell Technologies World every year, and we'll probably talk about it when we have this year's event tomorrow, but last year this was actually a topic that came up, and IT professionals struggle with that, frankly, right. How they can better partner with the business, to talk the same language as the business is talking, and translate the business requirements back into a technology solution, and architecture that makes sense for that digital future. And actually that was one of the main drivers behind our new multi-enterprise architect certification that Charles eluded to a minute ago, so there's a lot there in that, you know, there's a big journey for IT departments to travel, but we're doing our best between helping with those continuous learning environments, the training and certifications that can really sort of bridge the gap right between the business and IT. >> I think most IT organizations are in that transformation, or at the cusp of it, and it really goes back to having that digital vision, and really that digital thought of saying, "Okay, where do we want to go? And how do we get there?". Workforce transformation's a big piece of it, obviously all of the IT architecture software development aspect on the backend is huge. But you got to come up with that vision first, and you really need to think about the future of the IT organization, as really expected customer outcomes. So the customers that they service whether they're internal or external customers, they're expecting an outcome, so really truly becoming an IT customer service organization. And you know, some are struggling, some are at the onset, some are deep into that transformation, and I would like to echo one of the things that Sophie said, when I looked at all of the research, 61% employees surveyed said they're not digitally ready. 61% of companies said, "We don't have a clear digital strategy". So, you know, the emphasis really is upfront, now's a good, opportunistic time for companies to take a step back, and say, "Okay, what does that digital future really look like?". >> Keith: 'Cause we're not-- >> If you look over, sorry, when I look over the next five years or so, look at the advancement in machine learning, artificial intelligence, get too far behind that digital evolution, some companies might not be here. >> So I had a really engaging conversation with one of the leaders in open source, serverless, and he was, he debated that enterprises are absolutely ready for this transformation. Me, maybe not so much. How do you help to do that heavy lifting? We talked about enterprise IT inspiring other organizations, but Sophie, you eluded to that this is a two way conversation. This is not just about Dell EMC Education going out and producing materials, IT professionals have to feel motivated to actually consume that data, and move forward, so that they can embrace the digital transformation, and help educate. Help talk to me about the boots on the ground. How are you guys hoping to inspire regular enterprise IT folks, the legacy DNS administrator who's sitting at his desk. I've been doing DNS for 10 years, I know how to do DNS, now we're asking him to engage and maybe not do machine learning, but embrace DevOps for example. >> Sophie: So there's a few tools that we have at our disposal, actually, speaking of AI and ML and sort of, you know, advanced ways of doing business, we're also trying to incorporate some of those technologies in the way that we create learning experiences. So we're also trying to make the learning experiences themselves more compelling to the people. But that aside, in terms of the content itself, we actually recently did a MOOC, a Massive Open Online Course, around DevOps, so there are a ton of resources for IT professionals who want to get started, and just kind of immerse themselves in this space, and learn, sort of incrementally, like sort of be exposed to it, and then once they decide that they want to take that step and get certified, or whatever it is, we have those more formal tracks for them as well. >> I'm wondering to even how much, in our personal lives, we have everything in our pockets, we expect that, and how many people have our home assistants and are actually using or part of the machine learning user experience at home, and not really thinking about that. How much do you think culturally that's actually going to help the IT folks become more able to make workforce transformation real, at the spirit of the event, by what's happening in their personal lives? Do you think that's going to be a big influence? >> Charles: I think it's going to be huge. I mean, look at the automobile industry, and the transformation that's gone throughout, just the last decade alone. And apply that to our everyday life. I mean, again, if you look at it as a core edge solution, the edge solution, I mean, the amount of data that is transacted on a daily basis just from me driving my vehicle, everything from health and vehicle reports, when it's time to change the oil, et cetera, I mean it's going to be a consumer driven motivator. And it's going to force companies to really kind of think through, okay how do we get more intelligent with our data, because the customer expectations have now increased 10X. And it's going to create smarter devices. I mean, whether it's our mobile phones and, I'm old enough to remember when that got introduced, I don't know if that's a positive or negative, but in looking how much that one device has changed my life, and now the level of intelligence that I see just in the software apps that are on the phones. I mean, it's going to be a key motivator. One of the things I would like to touch on, that Sophie briefly touched on, you said, "Boots on the ground". So we have something called skillset analysis, Learning Needs Assessment's what we're going to name it, but really it's an opportunity for individuals to go out and really go through and define what their level of technical expertise is. I think it's something that, you know, when I look at learning and development worldwide, even for myself, I need an area I can go out and, kind of test my skills, to your point about the DNS person, right? And I talk to these individuals on a daily basis, being an old engineer myself, already know all of that. But getting those individuals to go out there and really do an assessment of what is their true skillset, in this net new world of technology and digitalization, helps create at least a profile that tells Charles, "Hey I'm not really that good in this this and this". So maybe there is an opportunity to improve my skillset development in those areas. I think having that personalized level of learning interaction, and it allows the individual to be honest with where their skillset is, and take a step back and say, "Okay maybe I do need to go learn X Y and Z". And that'll help propel it. >> Lisa: And I'm wondering too, with Imposter Syndrome being something that is so publicized, I didn't even know what it was and I had it, until I saw it being talked about and I thought, I know, it made me feel a little bit better, but I'm wondering, on the personalization front, you know, we expect our lives and all of the digital assistance that we have, in our cars or our home or whatnot, to give us a personally, help us through life. How are you encouraging participants to take this assessment and go, you know what, maybe I've been in this for 20 years but there are things that I don't know. Maybe that's more of a psychological thing, but how do you encourage people to kind of identify, I have Imposter Syndrome, but I want to actually get better. What's the cultural education component to that? >> Charles: Alright, you have to take a a personalized social approach. How many surveys have you done that have randomly popped up in one of your apps on your phone? Or whatever the case may be. Now, obviously we're starting as a little bit more internal, really looking on our internal skillset and capability but, as this, you know, user interface goes live around the world, I expect both customers and employees internally to go out there and just be curious. Where do you fall? And whether you've done an IQ test online, or hey what are your 10 favorite movies, getting that social action, our interaction I think will be a key enabler in driving that. And that's really going to create the stickiness 'cause I would much rather not have a conversation between individuals saying, "Well Charles, you're really not that good at X". I would like to go out and do an assessment so, wow, I was right, I'm really not that good at X. Okay now what do I need to do to drive my own career advancement, my own education advancement, and that really puts, you know, learning in the hands of the end user, because I want to be responsible for my career, yes I want to do great things for the company, but I'm also trying to figure out, okay where does my career go from here? And this allows that user to be in control of that. >> I think it comes back also that reciprocity right, between sort of the environment in which you're working and creating that safe space or learning culture where you are empowered to take ownership of your own development in your own career, and that you have the toolkit, such as this Learning Needs Assessment, you know, that we can provide, as well as many other things, to be proactive and to take those first steps, and then to have sort of air cover if you will, from your organization to do that. >> Last question, how many people are you expecting to go through certification trainings, initiated at Dell Technologies World? >> Several hundred for sure. We have many people who pre-registered to take exams, and there's a continuous flow down through the professional center, you all should come on down and check it out, downstairs, Casanova 501, so we are running exam prep sessions, exams sort of continuously from morning till night, all three and a half days of the show, so we expect probably several hundred new certifications to come out of it. >> It's a tremendous opportunity, I'm afraid if I go down there and take, I'm going to fail all the assessments. I might need your help. >> It's okay 'cause the first failure's free, at least you get an assessment of how (mumbles) you are or not. >> Oh it's my lucky day, I'm going to go gamble. >> I at least understand the questions on there. >> Maybe you could help me cheat? Okay, so Sophie and Charles, or Chuck, as we're now calling you, thank you guys so much for stopping by, and sharing with us the continued learning opportunities that Dell EMC has provided us with. >> Thanks for having us. >> Absolutely, thanks for having us. >> And for my co host, Keith Townsend, I'm Lisa Martin, you're watching theCUBE live from day one of Dell Technologies World, in Las Vegas. Stick around, we'll be right back after a short break. (electronic music)