>> Live from Washington D.C., it's theCUBE covering Inforum DC 2018. Brought to you by Infor. >> Welcome back to Washington D.C., we are live here at theCUBE at Inforum '18. I'm John Walls along with Dave Vallante and it's a pleasure now to welcome to the show from Capgemini couple of folks, Rachel Myers, who's Director of Alliances at Capgemini. (laughing) And John Clark, who's the VP of info-practice at Capgemini and Dave put your phone away, would you please. >> We're off to a good start. >> We are. (laughing) >> Who are you guys again? >> I think it was givin' him directions for dinner tonight. I think what you're doing. It's down at K Street take a right. >> Don't drive scooters without a helmet. >> That's right. Inside story. Rachel and John, thanks for being with us. We appreciate the time here. >> Thanks for having us. >> Let's talk about the partnership with Infor. Where it's coming from. What you are adding to that. How you view it and what you're gettin' out of it. And John, if you would? >> Yeah absolutely. First, hello from D.C., he said. The relationship that Capgemini has had with Infor goes back over 20 years. But we formalized it really two years ago and had a strategic partnership defined around several of the products that Infor has with a big focus on digital and cloud. So Capgemini sees that Infor is really leading the charge in a lot of native cloud products out there and we know that, that is certainly something our clients are looking for. So formalized relationship and extremely excited to be lead partners and sponsors here at Inforum. >> And so Rachel, where do you come into play here then as far as Director of Alliances goes? I think the job title probably speaks for itself, but in terms of how the Infor relationship works and where it comes in to your portfolio onto your plate, how does that work? >> So I manage the relationship with Infor as our customers are looking at cloud and all the options out there. I manage the relationship into Infor bringing the right folks to bear to our customers and joining at the hip where we need to in support of our customers. >> Okay, so you mentioned John, that its been a 20 year relationship. So that means it goes back probably to the loss and software days, right? The whole early days of ERP. Now we come into the modern era, cloud. We're hearing all about AI. We're also hearing about, sort of, micro-verticals and industry expertise. >> Yes, yes. >> So square that circle for me because you guys have deep industry expertise. How do you mesh with Infor? >> Yeah great question. We absolutely, as you said, go to market from a sector perspective, so everything we do has some tent of an industry or a sector verticalisation and it matches exactly well with how Infor goes to market with last model functionality. So what we do for example, is look at where Infor and our sector team see gaps like on food processing companies and we'll build out that solution and take that to market. So really kind of extending the last malfunctionality with Infor and having Capgemini's solutions as well. >> So does that functionality ultimately make it back into Infor code or not necessarily? >> Not necessarily. >> Okay, all right. So it's like last inch function-- >> Right exactly. That's a pretty good analogy for it. >> Okay so, well, it's always the hardest part, right? I mean you think of cable, you think of all the-- >> Telephone whatever. >> Sort of examples, right? So, you know the old story is if you're here and you want to get to the wall and you go half way, you never get there, right? >> Exactly. >> So that's kind of the process that you're in. There's always more to do, right? >> Right. >> Okay, so what's hot these days in your space? >> Well we're here at Inforum talking to customers and our partners about many things. But we actually are speaking about Industry 4.0 which is a big hot topic. Supply chain and EAM, Enterprise Asset Management. We have practices and expertise in all of those, so we can bring the best to our customers from a system integration partner capability which would be us along with Infor and the products that they bring to bear. >> So what's the 101 on 4.0? Presumably a lot of automation, more efficiency, driving business value. How would you describe Industry 4.0 Next Gen? >> It's the next evolution, I would say, to automation of processees. We're getting closer, I would think, and people are definitely piloting to get there, but building a road map and helping them really see the value is what we're trying to do with our customers these days and making it real and really producing some ROI beyond that with automation. >> So AI is a piece of that? How about, have you seen like blockchain hit yet? Or is that sort of on people's road maps? >> I think it's definitely a road map item. I think there's some experimentation, but what we're definitely seeing become real is robotics process automation, RPA. We're doin' a lot of that with our customers and taking it beyond experimentation to actual ROI. >> And the RPA is exploding. I was actually impressed and surprised to hear so much RPA talk this morning. I didn't realize that Infor had quasi out of the box capbilities there. So what are you seeing? A lot of, sort of back office functions getting automated, software robots getting trained to do mundane tasks? What's the experience there? >> I think as we are implementing ERPs like Infor's, there is a need to take processes that customers are doing today manual and automate those to see the extension and the ROI beyond just the ERP software. >> We do see a lot of it start in the back office, so a lot of finance and HR functions is kind of the first place that companies look for 'cause on thing that we do see on RPA projects is don't try to tackle everything, but get focused and get some quick wins, if you will and that's really where we built our library and where we work with Infor. >> Is it fair the automation of it is coming from the lines of business which is kind of your wheelhouse, right? >> Right. >> It's not, sort of an IT thing so much. IT is probably a little afraid of it, but is that the way you see it? >> Yes it is. >> Okay and so talk about Capgemini's strategy as the world sort of evolves. You know, you always hear small projects, small wins are the way to go and for years it was like the big SAP implementation >> Yeah. >> Or the big Oracle implementation. How are you guys changing your business to accommodate that new thinking? >> So really on several fronts. One is definitely the methodology that we have and we see on projects is shifting from a waterfall to an agile. So much quicker iterations and cycles on the projects themselves and usually the scope. It will start off with a line of business and again, if it's looking for, hey, I just need to improve the digital relationship I have with my customer. Which can a lot of times just mean start a digital relationship with my customer. So it's really, you kind of keep a tight focus on the scope and just have an agile approach which, again, is what we have changed our methodologies for. >> So digital obviously is real. I mean, every CEO that we talk to is trying to get digital right. A lot of experimentation going on. Like you said a lot of, hey we have to have a digital strategy then you throw AI into the mix. You throw things like blockchain. It's a complicated situation for a lot of firms. What are the discussions like with customers? Where are you seeing the most success or early traction? >> I think having the vision and the scope of where you want to go three years, five years down the road and being able to prioritize against that road map what's going to give you the biggest benefit first, so that it's not just haphazardly trying out these technology enablers like RPA and AI, it is a clear vision and strategy of where we're trying to go and solely hitting some of that ROI and seeing value. >> Are you seeing more of a save money, make money kind of a mix? What are you seeing there? I would say probably a mix, save money for the right reasons and spend money to get the ROI that we're planning for in that road map. >> Just to amplify on the point that you're making Dave. Just from the customer side of the fence on this, for people who aren't, you're just introducing them to the cloud, right? To begin with and they're trying to embrace or understand a concept that they don't have any experience with and now you think of all these other capabilities you have down the road or all these other opportunities whether it's artificial intelligence or whether it's RPA, whatever it is. It's got to be mind-blowing. A little bit, doesn't it? And how do you, I guess, calm 'em down if they realize we are that far behind. We're never going to get there. We're always going to be three, five, 10 years behind because we're that far behind right now. So how do you, I guess, allay their concerns and then get them up to speed at such a way that they feel like they can catch up? >> Yeah, say one of the key things that we can provide is various maturity models. So we have kind of a keepin' it simple of a two by two grid of where do you fall from digital enablement? A, do you even know what that means? Do you do it within divisions or certain lines of business? And then, is that a part of the strategy for your customer acquisition, customer retention, employee retention, et cetera. And start with kind of a fit there and then we basically have offerings that then go from okay, if you're starting out then the approach can be let's go through what cloud is. Like I said, there are absolutely still discussions that we have now on, hey what is the difference between cloud and on-prem? Is it the same software version? Is it a different software? What are the security features and the data center? Some of those questions are still out there as you said and we've got to look at the maturity model to get 'em there. >> So let's go through the simple, I like simple, the two dimensional, one of the buckets, so it's like, hey, we're not even thinkin' about it, it's kind of lower left. Upper left would be line of business focus sort of narrow. Lower right would be at strategic, but we're not acting on it yet. >> Right, in a division or a single line of business or I may have a cross functional solution with a great digital road map, but it's in one plant, you know, 'cause then you get into, okay, well that's probably because you either had a champion locally or you had some trigger such as some customer issues or production issues or something that forced the issue, so to speak, there. And then the top right is, yeah, it's part of the strategy. It's built in to where the budget is allocated as well and it's a part of all the conversations we're having with business and IT. >> Were you guys seeing particular, thinking about sticking on digital for a minute, you think particular industry uptake, I mean, obviously retail's been disrupted, publishing, you know the music industry's been disrupted. But there's certain industries that really haven't been dramatically disrupted yet, financial services, healthcare, defense, really to date, these high risk businesses. What are you guys seeing and kind of where's the greatest familiarity or affinity to digital? >> Where we're starting and where we've been focused with Infor and the market place is consumer products and distribution as well as manufacturing. That's really been a focus area for us and we didn't get into this, but John's team has capability in Infor and is skilled in Infor and there are some focus areas for us with the customers in those industry segments. >> Do you think that automation, AI, improvements in the supply chain, you know robotics even software robots will reverse the trend toward offshore manufacturing tariffs, I guess maybe help too, but I mean, are you seeing any evidence of that automation sort of making the pendulum swing back or are the cost advantages so attractive and is the supply chain so intrenched? >> I'll let John elaborate, but I would say that there is still a fit for purpose for offshoring certain things and for automating certain things and that's why I think it's important to build a plan and a strategy for which things will be solved for in which ways. >> Yeah and the one thing I want to add is as you see some plant go from, it took 200, 300 people to operate a facility to I can do it with 10. That changes the economics of now the labor cost and labor arbitrage isn't as much a function, but yes, what about the rent, facilities and transportation? So we are seeing the economic calculation change a bit from the point of just go offshore for labor. Well if labor is not a big a point, we are seeing a shift there. >> Right, so the labor component's shrinking. And then you can automate that. Is there a quality aspect or is that kind of a myth? >> We think that's a myth from what we're seeing. >> Quality can improve a little bit. >> Exactly. >> Won't go down. Won't go down. >> You're saying coming back on-shoring? Or are you saying offshoring? >> Or automating. Automating whether it's on or off. >> Oh regardless of the location, right? >> Right. >> Automation's going to drive quality up. Lower re-work, right? Okay. >> Robots do it a little bit better than us especially if it's repetitive. >> They don't get tired. (laughing) How about some of your favorite kind of joint examples with Infor, any kind of customer wins you can talk about? >> We're actually working together in a lot of spaces, but one of the biggest ones that we are actually talking about a case study here on the floor at Inforum is at Coke Industries, one of it's companies Flint Hills Resources. We're actually in the middle of an EAM implementation with Flint Hills and working together collaboratively with Infor at the client. >> And is that the or bigger picture, you said 20 year relationship formalized much more recently than that. Ultimately what does that deliver for the client? You think at the end of the day? What's the power of that partnership? >> So I think that there's several things, one is that with the experience and history of a Capgemini with 50 years of consulting experience and strategy work. We now specifically bring Infor and Infor's technology into the conversations that it was not a structure before two years ago. So now we specifically have, where does Infor fit in the road map from a software agnostic industry perspective? And then from a just a plain and simple support and keeping your customer's Infor environment running that's additional strength that we have that we didn't have before. >> So you guys are known for being technology agnostic even though you've got an affinity of going to market with a company in this case Infor. How are they doing? What's on the to do list? If you're talking to customers saying, hey this is the sweet spot," here's where some of the items we want them to improve on. What would you say? >> I'd say for, I can at least say tactically with my team we are looking to enhance our solution is around burst and analytics. So that's definitely a best debris tool in the marketplace and so where we can integrate that into more products 'cause it's, Infor acquired it year and a half ago. So we're trying to fold it in with each product and keeping that trajectory. Where again a customer only has one platform to support for-- >> So that's kind of infusing that modern BI into the platforms. Functionally you're kind of happy with it. >> Oh absolutely. >> And it's just a matter of getting the function into-- >> Right. >> The sweet. >> Have it the defacto. >> Right. >> That's where we want to get. >> Right, right. >> But honestly if you just look at the floor out there, you know from our perspective, the great showing and the excitement and just the conversations that we have around Infor. There's been some confusion, I would say, from, without naming names, other competitors of Infor's on what is our cloud and digital road map and then when we look at Infor with cloud native, you know from the ground up, it makes that back to one of the questions you had on, depending on where customers are starting, if you can go from the beginning like Infor has done with some of their products, natively built cloud up. Then those are great conversations and we're seeing more of that in the market right now. >> When we talk to customers, when you talk to the sort of, traditional vendors, they'll say it's a hybrid world, which seems to be. >> It's true. >> When you talk to other cloud guys, it's like, cloud, cloud, cloud. Now even AWS has somewhat capitulated, they've made some announcements to do stuff on-prem. But logically it makes sense that if the data is in some data center location, it's probably going to stay there for a while if it's working and it's a lot of it and you don't necessarily want to move it to the cloud, so do you buy that? Is it a hybrid world? Will it stay a hybrid world? Or do you feel like the pendulum really is swinging into the cloud or not because of IoT, it's more sort of a decentralized world. What do you guys think? >> I think it's a customer choice. Sometimes we have some federally regulated customers that are concerned about data and security and not necessarily there yet in terms of the cloud and we have some customers that are wanting to go 100% cloud so I think it is definitely customer choice and we are there to advise them whether cloud is the right answer and even to help them implement and support them on their journey. So I think we've seen all, every which flavor of cloud, hybrid. >> From your stand point, whatever you want, you're going to-- >> Yeah, I'd say in the past two or three years there's definitely more clients, I would say most now will look at some, when they're doing their TCO and software selection, they absolutely will lead with, hey at least the core part, ERP part, for example, what can I do for cloud with that? 'Cause there's just so much-- >> Considerationalities. >> Yeah the consideration versus three, five years ago no you wouldn't look at that, but I do think there absolutely will be a hybrid foot print going forward. >> Well, if there's an affinity to cloud, presumably Infor has an advantage there, 'cause they're born on the cloud, or at least for that part of the business and other entrenched ERP is not going to be so easy to move to the cloud. In fact that's what you want to do. >> And I think we share the vision with Infor and talking to customers with the cloud first approach. It makes sense to move to the cloud. There is value in the cloud and we can help build that story for them. >> Charles Philips pretty smooth spokesperson, he's a clear thinker, he laid out the strategy. The strategy of, this is my fourth Inforum, I mean, it's grown, but it's consistent, you know, he presents it in a manner that I think is pretty compelling, so that's got to make you feel good, right? You got a leader that's committed, been here for a while. >> Yeah absolutely and one other thing that I really do like about coming to Inforum to see Charles is he actually gets it. If you think of it from CEO of a large software company with hundreds of products, he knows where they actually fit and can go through kind of the road map and the story. So very credible. >> The partnership's a win-win for sure. It certainly sounds like you've painted a very good picture and we appreciate the time. >> Yeah. >> Thanks for being with us and good luck the next couple of days here at the show. Have fun. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate the time. >> Should be, right? (laughing) Back with more live in Washington D.C., you're watching theCUBE. (upbeat music)

>> Narrator: Live from San Francisco, it's theCube, covering Flink Forward, brought to you by Data Artisans. >> Hi, this is George Gilbert. We're back at Flink Forward, the Flink conference sponsored by Data Artisans, the company that commercializes Apache Flink and provides additional application management platforms that make it easy to take stream processing at scale for commercial organizations. We have Steven Wu from Netflix, always a company that is pushing the edge of what's possible, and one of the early Flink users. Steven, welcome. >> Thank you. >> And tell us a little about the use case that was first, you know, applied to Flink. >> Sure, our first-use case is a routing job for Keystone data pipeline. Keystone data pipeline process over three trillion events per day, so we have a thousand routing jobs that we do some simple filter projection, but the Solr routing job is a challenge for us and we recently migrated our routing job to Apache Flink. >> And so is the function of a routing job, is it like an ETL pipeline? >> Not exactly ETL pipeline, but more like it's a data pipeline to deliver data from the producers to the data syncs where people can consume those data like array search, Kafka or higher. >> Oh, so almost like the source and sync with a hub in the middle? >> Yes, that is exactly- >> Okay. >> That's the one with our big use case. And the other thing is our data engineer, they also need some stream processing today to do data analytics, so their job can be stateless or it can be stateful if it's a stateful job it can be as big as a terabyte of base state for a single job. >> So tell me what these stateful jobs, what are some of the things that you use state for? >> So, for example like a session of user activity, like if you have clicked the video on the online URI all those activity, they would need to be sessionalized window, for the windows, sessionalized, yeah those are the states, typical. >> OK, and what sort of calculations might you be doing? And which of the Flink APIs are you using? >> So, right now we're using the data stream API, so a little bit low level, we haven't used the Flink SQL yet but it's in our road map, yeah. >> OK, so what is the data stream, you know, down closer to the metal, what does that give you control over, right now, that is attractive? And will you have as much control with the SQL API? >> OK, yes, so the low level data stream API can give you the full feature set of everything. High level SQL is much easier to use, but obviously you have, the feature set is more limited. Yeah, so that's a trade-off there. >> So, tell me about, for a stateful application, is there sort of scaffolding about managing this distributed cluster that you had to build that you see coming down the pipe from Flink and Data Artisans that might make it easier, either for you or for mainstream customers? >> Sure, I think internal state management, I think that is where Flink really shines compared to other stream processing engine. So they do a lot with work underneath already. I think the main thing we need from Flink for the future, near future is regarding the job recovery performance. But like a state management API is very mature. Flink is, I think it's more mature than most of the other stream processing engines. >> Meaning like Kafka, Spark. So, in the state management, can a business user or business analyst issue a SQL query across the cluster and Flink figures out how to manage the distribution of the query and the filtering and presentation of the results transparently across the cluster? >> I'm not an expert on Flink SQL, but I think yes, essentially Flink SQL will convert to a Flink job which will be using the data stream API, so they will manage the state, yes, but, >> So, when you're using the lower level data stream API, you have to manage the distributed state and sort of retrieving and filtering, but that's something at a higher level abstraction, hopefully that'll be, >> No, I think that in either case, I think the state management is handled by Flint. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Distributed. >> All the state management, yes >> Even if it's querying at the data stream level? >> Yeah, but if you query at the SQL level, you won't be able to deal with those state APIs directly. You can still do actual windowing, let's say you have a SQL app doing window with some session by session by idle time that would be transfer for job and Flink will manage those window, manage those session state so you do not need to worry about either way you do not need to worry about state management. Apache Flink take care of it. >> So tell me, some of the other products you might have looked at, is the issue that if they have a clean separation from the storage layer, for large scale state management, you know, as opposed to, in memory, is it that the large scale is almost treated like a second tier and therefore, you almost have a separate set or a restricted set of operations at distributed state level versus at the compute level, would that be a limitation of other streaming processors? >> No, I don't see that. I think that given that stream will have taken a different approach, you find like a Google Cloud data flow, Google Cloud flow, they are thinking about using a big table, for example. But those are external state management. Flint decided to take a the approach of embedded state management inside of Flink. >> And when it's external, what's the trade-off? >> That's good question, I think if external, the latency may be higher, but your throughput might be a little low. Because you're going all the natural. But the benefit of that external state management is now your job becomes stateless. Your job make the recovery much faster for job failure, so either trade-off over there. >> OK. >> Yes. >> OK, got it. Alright, Steven we're going to have to end it on that, but that was most enlightening, and thanks for joining. >> Sure, thank you. >> This is George Gilbert, for Wikibon and theCube, we're again at Flink Forward in San Francisco with Data Artisans, we'll be back after a short break. 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