>> Announcer: Live from Orlando, Florida it's the Cube covering Servicenow Knowledge 17. Brought to you by Servicenow. (electronic music) >> Welcome back to Orlando everybody. This is the Cube, the leader in live tech coverage. I'm Dave Alante with my cohost Jeff Frick. Mark Toludo is here with Patrick Stonelake, cofounders of Fruition Partners now, a DXC company. Welcome to the Cube, Mark you were one of the first SIs that we ever met in the Servicenow ecosystem, acquired by CSC and now the spin merge with HBE, explain it all, how'd you get here? >> Yeah well that's great so we really grew up in the Servicenow ecosystem, right. That's where really Fruition became really what it was and is. CSC came 2015 so they came, acquired us, we became Fruition Partners with CSC brand. CSC then did an acquisition of UXC, a very large SI out of Australia and with that was Keystone, probably now the largest Servicenow system in the greater Australia so they came into our practice as the Fruition Partners Australia brand. We then went out under CSC and did another acquisition in mainland Europe Aspediens. They covered Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain. And so now they're the Fruition Europe end. So we still have this Fruition practice inside of CSC at the time and then the HP enterprise services so that's only the EDS group, the services group, not the hardware or software group. So then they choose to spin merge with CSC and form DXC. So we're still the Servicenow practice Fruition Partners DXE technologies company so all the Servicenow, everything you're seeing, that's what we're enabling for customers. >> Now Patrick, how did that all affect the go to market? >> It enables us to be more global right. Part of the reasons why we acquired these companies and continue to look to do so is our customers are demanding from us a very consistent, boots on the ground experience, multiple languages, but all running the same methodologies, running the same accelerators and getting them to the finish line at the same time. So DXC and the kind of checkbook and influence of DXC has really helped us do our part in consolidating that market. But what I think we've really just started to scratch the surface of is how we can empower DXC as you know kind of become the engine that runs the nine major offerings of DXC and start to get service now into support of those offerings, modernize them, make them more efficient, and make them more attractive to customers. >> You guys were early on, you know we've talked about this in the past, kind of placed your bets, paid off. Is this sort of work flow automation the next big thing? It seems now that everybody's glomming onto it. >> Yessir. >> Is it and why now? And where do you see it going? >> So we see this, as Patrick mentioned, DXC has nine service offering families, right and that includes like big data, cyber, vertical applications, certainly the outsourcing business is still significant. But what we're seeing is Servicenow is this workflow backbone middleware that kind of connects us all. So we have the DXC offering family leads coming to us and saying listen we understand that Servicenow can do ITOP for a business process orchestration, we understand it has a SECOPS component, so now we have an ISECOPS offering. So they're seeing that Servicenow is kind of the glue to bring together these various offerings and it helps us go from our traditional relationship with the IT department to now branching out into HR, into security, into that CSM space. Even in the business process automation space, that can be claims process. The total business functions that are automated by this work flow, it's not just the work flow itself, it's that the work flow ties into the other silos so that it's not just email, it's actually intelligent email, intelligent routing. So we see it as the glue to keep all these offerings together. >> And then you guys are starting to build solutions on top of a Servicenow platform and go to market with the solution, versus you already have Servicenow, we're going to be a kind of typical consultant and help you do best practices, et cetera. >> Exactly, you know it's kind of a combination of the two. But I think the best way to think about it is that Servicenow is doing its best to be as horizontal across the enterprise as possible, right? Security is a really excellent example of a place where Servicenow is a natural fit, you connect the cycle with security and IT. But one of the things that we're looking to do is to bring the industry expertise of DXC to some of these Servicenow enabled solutions. Mark talked about our ISECOP solution, which is horizontal managed security services. But we debuted yesterday that we're going to be working with Servicenow and their catalyst program around a healthcare splinter of ISECOPs because there are all kinds of uniquely healthcare provider oriented security concerns that the actual thought leadership and the knowledge of the cyber consultants at DXC really bring a lot to the table. So we could build a solution in conjunction with Servicenow. They rely on us for the industry expertise, and they just keep that security piece humming and up to date and locked in with the rest of the platform. >> You know we have another offering, just to add to that, is out of Europe, one of the consulting groups said environmental health and employee health and safety in manufacturing plants. They said listen there's a product out there in the marketplace, can you do something better or different using the Servicenow platform? So we actually took that subject matter expertise from DXC consulting experience, we've married that with our Servicenow expertise and we actually have another product that we're going to market with. It's an employee health and safety, for manufacturing plants, for slip and fall, for any environmental concerns, any of the safety issues that they have. But that's really combining industry and vertical expertise with Servicenow. >> And that shows somebody might not even know they're buying Servicenow, right. (crosstalk) >> You're essentially OEMing the platform. >> That's what we would like to get to. >> You're not there yet. >> I think there's a lot of, we have a lot of we sell a stand alone on top of a Servicenow platform and it gets built. Tony Beller who's the new GP Alliances coming in with a lot of force, environment experience, and I think he's really charging with some of the bigger partners like us to really lock down that OEM because I think that's where we get a lot of leverage for Servicenow and our customers essentially want to consume as they need it and that makes a lot of sense. >> And are you reselling Servicenow in that solution offering so that they don't have a separate relationship with Servicenow, it's all integrated into that. >> Exactly, yup. >> Correct. >> And do you guys use Servicenow internally? >> We do, yeah. Ourselves we've been big drinkers of the champagne as they say for a really long time. We have a number of systems we use to run our professional services organization. But DXC, particularly in the area of asset management, some of the real ROI driven pieces of IT is taking a very hard look at the successes they've had there and trying to figure out how we can enable that success in the rest of the organization. Purchasing, project management, you know, these are things that I think we're going to do internally and then start to share results with our customers. >> Well we also have something called My Order Style, so there actually is how we do manage service provider outsourcing relationships that's built on Servicenow. And we do that internally as well, so basically when we get support or when we need support for our equipment, whatever, worldwide, that's being logged and tracked in Servicenow. >> And in Servicenow you clearly have very strong messaging around we start with IT, IT service management and then ITOM and then moving into the lines of business. How rapidly are you seeing that in your customer base? And maybe add a little color to that. >> I think we're trying to accelerate that. >> Yeah. >> I think what we're seeing is a shift as infrastructure goes to the cloud, as the IT department moves away from being the T of technology and more the information side, that they're starting to realize this role as more of a service management organization because oftentimes the applications that they're supporting are coming from a third party if it's Servicenow, if it's Work Bay, if it's Sales Force, but they can be the glue that holds it together. They can worry about the releases, the data hierarchy, but it's that IT as they are reinventing themselves. They see themselves going out towards those other departments towards HR, towards CSM, towards field service and saying we actually have a solution we want to bring to you. >> I got to ask you guys, as a consultancy, complexity is your friend. You know when things are chaotic it's like call you guys and solve the problem, but at the same time, you hear from a lot of Servicenow customers, we're trying to minimize the customization, custom modifications. >> Patrick: Yes. >> Mark: Right. >> Is that antithetical to the way you guys typically do things? >> It shouldn't be I don't think. I mean we don't want to do as much work as possible in one project, we want to deliver value over the course of many, many transactions that are shorter in duration. And so the more we can stick to the configurable aspect of Servicenow, the better off we're going to be and the better off our customers are going to be. They'll take releases more smoothly and so forth. And what you can do with configuration and app scoping is really, it's a whole other level than what it was five years ago so we're actually starting to fulfill that promise. >> And so if you can build value on top of the platform using the platform, >> That's the point, yeah. >> Those functions beget the advantage of the upgrade. >> Yeah I would look at this and say when Fruition really got going is when we really embraced Servicenow, not just the technology, but the methodology. Because we knew a lot of other service providers, they want a two year project, they want that SAP three year whatever it was. But we embraced the methodology and said that if we can't show results in four to five months using this technology, we're not going to be invited back. But look at today, we have 400 customers worldwide, about 70 percent of those make up our annual bookings again for the next project and the next project because they see value in these increments and we're delivering that. So I would rather not elongate projects, they need to see things very fast. >> Awesome, guys congratulations, I love your story, and Mark you got to present to the financial analyst group yesterday so well done. Thanks for coming on the Cube. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you for having us. >> Keep right there buddy, we'll be back with our next guest right after this.

>> Announcer: Live from Las Vegas it's theCube, covering ServiceNow Knowledge 2018. Brought to you by ServiceNow. >> Welcome back to The Cube's live coverage of ServiceNow Knowledge18, I'm your host Rebecca Knight along with my cohost, Dave Vellente. The biggest conference of ServiceNow, 18,000 people here at the Venetian. We're joined now by Marc Talluto, he is the DXC Fruition Global Practice Lead at DXC. Thanks so much for coming on the show. >> Thank you for having me, appreciate it. >> So let's start out by telling our viewers a little bit about what you do in your role within the organization. >> Sure, you know, just a brief history, so I was one of the co-founders and CEO of Fruition Partners. So we were acquired by CSC, now DXC, about almost three years ago and within DXC, you know, DXC made a very conscious decision to use ServiceNow as kind of a pivot point to digital transformations for the customers. So by acquiring Fruition and then further investments, so we've done acquisitions in Australia, mainland Europe, the Netherlands, we've really consolidated a lot of the best regional partners inside one DXC Fruition practice. So within this practice, that's where we do a lot of our transformation work with customers that are starting or continuing their ServiceNow journey. >> Marc you and I met in the early part of this decade when this show was a lot smaller and it was, you know, well under, maybe around 5,000, probably even a little bit smaller than that. And it was companies like Fruition that got in early. You didn't see the CSC/DXCs and the other big systems integrators and this thing has just exploded. What's your perspective on the last five, six years? >> Oh boy, well I will say a lot of this is driven, a lot of the growth, not just from ServiceNow but from the GSIs, the global system integrators, that really see ServiceNow, how it can really be applied to their customer base. And so in the last five years you went from people that were interested but really didn't understand what it could mean, 'cause you know, if it's perceived only as a ticketing tool it's like, oh, that's not important. But as it's now seen as a, really a service manager platform, that getting in and servicing IT is just a way to go help HR, to go help suck ups, all these other venues. So what we're seeing is really an explosion of the GSI community here trying to do acquisitions like we've done. So there's been about, in the last five years, 17 different acquisitions of all those regional players into those various global SIs. But then those global SIs themselves, as we've seen on some of the presentations here, I and DXC ourselves, we're now using ServiceNow internally as a way to automate a lot of our internal processes. Used to be what we called Customer Zero or the Lighthouse Account is now the GSI themselves. So I think they've really embraced the message we've been kind of saying all along, which is, yes it's good for IT, but it's really good for how you operate all your shared services' businesses. So that's been, and it's been just accelerating every year. >> Yeah, remind me, so when you started Fruition did you start with ServiceNow or did you have, had you had experience with other platforms before that? >> Yeah, so we actually started in 2003, so about five years before we ever met ServiceNow. >> Dave: There was no ServiceNow, really. >> No, yeah, so we were used to using the remedies of the world, I mean, the other kind of various tools that were out there. But we also weren't a system integrator when we started. We were an, it's funny 'cause you hear the messaging now, organizational change is more important, customer success is more important. Those are really the roots of our company. We were like, listen, the process needs to be better. You know, we're pouring in to governance and all these things, we could use Remedy, we could use other tools but we need to really figure out why people are choosing to engage to do service management or they just kind of go off and do their own thing. So for those five years that's all we did was talk to organizations about crawl, walk, run. How are you maturing from fragmented service offerings, fragmented support, to really kind of being able to centralize those operations and then extend outside of IT? And when we met ServiceNow it was like, it's like they were telling us what we've been telling customers for years so I was like, that's great. >> The lack of a tool, a platform, that really does what ServiceNow does, in a way it might've been a tailwind for your business 'cause complexity, but on the other hand you had to respond and you jumped on it early. I mean I would think a lot of SIs might've said, oh no, that takes complexity out, complexity is cash for us. You guys had a different philosophy, you said were going to get in early, talk about that journey, that position. >> True, well you know when we first met ServiceNow, like I said, 2008 when they were about 40 people total, you know, their entire company. And I think we were 10. So we were almost, you know, similar sizes. But you know what we were able to provide ServiceNow was explaining the customer journey. That the technology was very important, it was very lightweight and nimble but that customer journey, that customer needed to understand, what should I do first, what should I do next? What should my one year, two year, three year look like? And that's something that we've always kind of held, that we saw ServiceNow also as being this platform. We believed in the Glidefast story which was ServiceNow before ServiceNow, maybe we were one of the first ones to say, there's IT service managers, let's just talk about cloud service management, enterprise service management. So I feel like their story and our story, we've kind of been maturing together as we've seen customers really adopt the platform. And some of the great case studies that we've seen over the years, those have been our customers that we've helped encourage to say, what's the difference between an asset that's in IT and an asset that's in manufacturing, right? These are the same disciplines so let's help them go out there and do that. So it's been, it's obviously been a tidal wave of work. It's been very interesting expanding globally and you know, this is just a result of a lot of hard work on everybody's part. >> We're sort of, at this conference we're hearing that this is a real moment in time, when you were describing talking to companies, trying to understand those who were sort of happy to operate in this fragmented way versus those that were truly committed to a technological change and bringing things together. Is that true in your mind, that there really is a recognition on the part of companies and employers? This is, we need to get better at this. >> You know what we're hearing? We're hearing from very large enterprises, some of them and even Aerospace and Defense that are like, we have to recruit younger talent. They do have aging populations that'll be exiting their workforce. I see this from universities that recruit, obviously students, but it's then the workforce. The expectation is now so much higher that their experience with IT inside their employer is much closer to their experience as a consumer. We've been saying it for years but now it's really become a business imperative as customers, I should say as our customers, they are trying to make their workforce happier. Well not only just more productive, more engaged, but also, you know, retention. It's, I feel like it's the moment of the worker themselves. And look at other economic factors, unemployment's at a historic low. Finding people, you're competing for your own workforce to come work for you. They can't show up and you give them a Windows 95 machine or like an Office 2001 product suite, they're like, that's a reflection of how you as a company actually operate so all of those are kind of coming together in to this consumer like experience for the employees of our customers. >> And a lot of talk about new ways to work, the future of work. So what's your expectation going forward for how that affects business, affects your business, organizations? Sounds like they're closing the gap between consumer experiences and enterprise experiences, what's next? >> So you know, big word, friction, been frictionless. Right, like where's the efficiency, what is the friction in different departments working together? I think as people really do adopt this, call it the service manager platform, that system of engagement, once those silos start to come down, once they start to share that data, we see it in individual customers, they kind of go through this aha moment. They've cleaned up their data sources, they realize everything's on one platform, and then they're like, can't I build this, can't I build that, can't I build that? Yeah, you can, and it really starts to accelerate. So I think we'll see the barriers of these business units really fall, I think IT's role is going to shift to be almost a, we talk about a service management office not a project management office. So the service management office is, how well are all of my services, whether it's HR, whether it's finance, how are those services being consumed by my employees? So I think we'll see that pivot, it gets away from IT being more T, the technology, and more to the I. Like what information and services am I providing? I think really we are at that catalyst and as people start to adopt that it moves much more quickly from here. >> What's next, what is, going forward what do you see as the DXC ServiceNow strategy? >> Boy, so this is something that we've been working, so DXC's only been in existence for one year, right? But it came from HBES, it came from CSC, right, 26 billion dollar company, 180,000 people. DXC is putting all of their investment strategy around digital transformation, behind ServiceNow. So we have another team here that focuses completely on building ServiceNow offerings that are behind all the other DXC offerings. So what do I mean by that? The difference is whereas Fruition will go up to a customer and say, we'll help you do ServiceNow work, the platform DXC team says, we want to deliver cloud orchestration, we want to deliver desktop and mobility workforce call centers, but all of those are powered by ServiceNow at the back end, all of our analytics so we do a lot of other things as DXC, obviously billions of dollars worth but we're switching that all to be standardized on ServiceNow. So we're actually breaking down the silos in our own company of how our different departments work together. So if a customer buys a cloud orchestration platform and they're also a workplace and mobility customer and they also have maybe the HR BPO, that's all on ServiceNow. The DXC platform, DXC, built on ServiceNow. So that's everything DXC's throwing at it is to be that player. >> And do you see ServiceNow, is that the platform of platforms? >> Marc: Yes. >> And I mean, you guys really are a technology agnostic. But if it fits you'll use it. >> Well we're an independence offer provider. We don't create our own products like an IBM might or somebody else might and basically put those products in front of a customer when they're really not the right fit. >> So, I mean, you think we had John Donaho on early and he said, look, there's WorkDay and there's SalesForce and there's SAP, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We want to be the connective tissue to those platforms. Software companies are funny though, they all want to be the connective tissue. But if this is what ServiceNow does, so, do you feel like they are in a unique position to be that platform of platforms and-- >> I really do, and we've worked with a lot of other software companies that want to connect in to that ServiceNow ecosystem because what we find is other software products are like, listen, I might be really good at security, intrusion detection, but do I want to create a work flow? And I want to create the CMDB, that means that I have to go build an entire almost secondary product to my core competency. So if I'm really good at anti virus, if I'm really good at intrusion detection, even if I'm really good at reporting I still need people to act on the information I'm providing them. But I don't want to build that action engine, so that's what they're almost setting up their own boundary, saying let ServiceNow be the action engine for me and we'll just plug in to them. They're becoming the standard for how customers work between silos. >> Great, well Marc, thank you so much for coming on the show, this has been really fun talking to you. >> It's my pleasure, thank you, great to see you. >> I'm Rebecca Knight for Dave Vellante, we will have more from ServiceNow Knowledge18 just after this. (upbeat techno music)