(upbeat techno music) >> 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. You're watching theCUBE live from day one of our coverage of Dell Technologies World 2019. There's about 15,000 people here, about 4,000 of Dell Technologies' partners, lots of folks. We're pleased to welcome to theCUBE, a couple of guests. We've got Melanie De Vigan, VP of Digital Workplace Portfolio from Atos. Melanie, it's great to have you on theCUBE. >> Thank you for having me. >> And we have Justin Grimsley, Product Marketing from VMware. Justin, thank you for joining Stu and me as well. >> Yep, good to be here. >> So, workplace. One of the big themes from this morning's keynote, one of the themes that we've actually heard all day is, we talk about digital transformation, we talk about it at every event. It's essential. But, people are essential for digital transformation. And we have this workforce that has changed so much in the last few years. Some of the stats that were shown this morning, I think I remember seeing 81% of people now work outside of a traditional office. And about half the people, and I'm one of them, and I know Stu is too, work in at least three different places in a single week. So, in order to enable digital transformation to be real, it's got to start with the people. So Melanie, talk to us about transformation of the modern workplace, and what Atos is doing to facilitate that. >> Yeah, I think we've seen a big change in the market lately, where in the past successful organization would be focusing on employee productivity, but lately all of them realize the importance of employee engagement and employee experience. This morning, Pat mentioned the fact that ideally, engaged employees were going to drive success of the company. What is very striking is that if you compare that to the fact Gallup released a study last year saying that 87 percent of employees are not engaged. So you can see the huge gap, and how by focusing on this employee engagement, by transforming the employee experience, you are actually going to contribute to the business. And I think, really, when we talk about employee experience, we need to look at it from a wholistic point of view. So at Atos, we used to talk about "people, places, and platforms." "People" is all about the company culture, how people are engaged, what type of leadership in the company. It is about digital inclusion and accessibility. "Places," of course, is about from where you work. You mentioned the stat about mobility and from where people work. It's also about the building itself, and how the building is going to foster collaboration. And of course the "platform," it is about the IT, the technology that is going to enable all of that. What are the tools that you give to the end user, to the employee to be able to perform his jobs, so it starts with a device, it is about the collaboration solutions that are going to foster and help changing the mindset, changing the way people work. >> Alright. So, Justin, how does VMware tie into the picture that Melanie was painting there? >> Absolutely, I think this is why Atos, VMware, and Dell are such good partners, right? Our visions are so well-aligned to that employee experience that you guys were talking about. For us, the three major trends that we see are that users are no longer tied to the company network. They're not tethered to their cubicle with that Cat 5 cable. They're working shoulder-to-shoulder with their customers, or in the coffee shop, or at home. They're accessing all sorts of different types of applications now. It's not just legacy Windows apps, it's SaaS applications, it's virtual apps. And then the third trend is, they're using all sorts of different devices. And so, as companies are really looking to attract and retain talent, they want to enable employees to use the devices that they love, to be productive how they want to be productive. And so, many employees that we see now use two or three different devices. They might use their Dell laptop to be really productive and crank out work. They might use their iPhone or their Android device as well, and the applications that are available to them there. And so, we really see these three trends comin' together as a way for organizations to change how their employees work. And Atos and VMware and Dell are coming together to help enable that for our customers. >> So Justin, I don't know if it struck others, but for me, seeing Pat Gelsinger and Satya Nadella up on stage together was impressive, because Dell and Microsoft have a long, long relationship. VMware and Microsoft, it's an interesting relationship there, you know. End-user is something that we actually have seen Sanjay and his team with end-user computing growing out. But, can you comment on the news of the week, as well as the importance of bringing Microsoft into this discussion? >> Absolutely, you know, I think with everything that you said, the one thing I would say is that I think VMware compliments Microsoft very well. So, when we look at the end-user computing space, for years now, we've looked at how can we-- as Microsoft introduced Windows 10-- how can we bring that into the fold and extend a great experience on Windows 10. When you look at Office 365, I just did a session earlier and the number of hands that went up that are deploying Office 365, VMware has a great story around conditional access for those applications and providing a great experience. And so I think what we see now is this: customers are making different investments. Some customers are making investments in Microsoft 365, and others are making them in Workspace ONE, and so now, we can maximize those investments so they can get the most out of their end-point, and their end-user computing strategy. It's really a "one plus one equals three" scenario. And then we have services from companies like Atos, and Dell, and others that are coming around to help drive transformation across any of the devices that employees are using. Whether it is a Windows 10 PC, or whether it is a mobile device and accessing Office and other applications on it. So it was really powerful to see, I think, Satya, Pat, and Michael onstage this morning, coming together. >> Indeed, it was really, really impressive. I think just the fact that they were onstage were the most powerful message, for end-user computing at least. >> So Melanie, we look at this importance of employee engagement-- you mentioned, Justin, talent attraction and retention. What is Atos doing to actually-- there's got to be another-- maybe it's employee transform-- well, it's workplace transformation, really, right? But how are you kind of leading in that, to really drive business outcomes, like a business being able to generate more revenue, because "hey, we're enabling our workforce "and the way that they want to work." And as Justin said, with all the devices that they say, "let me use what I'm familiar with." >> Yeah, so one thing for us which is really key, is that, I mean, all this employee experience, it's a really nice story, but if we just talk about it, it remains a story, and we can't really do anything about it. I heard many people say this morning, "it's about the data." And this is what we're doing. What we're really looking at now is how do we make this employee experience tangible? So, it's all about moving toward a data-driven approach. So we are going to collect all the data. So again, we have this "people, places, and platforms," so we're going to collect the data from the devices. At Atos, we manage 4.5 million devices, so this is that much data matrix that we can collect to understand what's happening and what's going. It is the same with the feedback of the End-user, understanding how they work, like on a collaboration solution, understanding how people are working with each other, how they can change, so that at the end, we are going to be able to give some insight. We're going to be able to give some insight to the employee, so that again, he can understand what he can do differently. We're also going to give insight to the organization. It can be the IT department, it can be the HR department, it can be the facilities. It's all about bringing all of that together, so we give this wholistic vision and be able to drive the change, this is what we're targeting. >> Yeah, I love that. If you look at digital transformation, one of the most important things is, I need to have my business being driven by data, I have to have those feedback loops. What I'm curious is, what are some of those key measurements, how are you looking at these environments today when I have all this data, versus maybe how I would have done things in the past? >> Yeah, so, indeed, and this is where today, we are working away from this service-level agreement, the way we used to measure the IT services. People talk a lot about this watermelon effect, where it's all green outside, but red inside. So, all the KPI are green, meaning the server and infrastructure is working, but at the end, the end-user is not happy. So today, we are talking about experience-level agreements, so it's about defining metrics, which are really going to show how does the service perform, and what makes sense for the employee at the end. So more or less, we're moving away from the infrastructure, and we're getting closer to the business, taking measures that are really going to show what is going to impact the business. >> Just to build on that, I think what's one of the interesting things that we see now is that IT teams aren't just measured on cost. They're being measured more and more on employee experience. We're seeing companies do employee net promoter scores now. How can we elevate the employee experience from the day they start at the company, to the day they retire, right? And so, I think that's what Atos and others are really bringing together for their customers, and for our joint customers. >> And that's cultural impact at a business. Whether it's a business that's been around 35 years, as long as Dell has, or one that's maybe younger. That cultural change is hard. We talk about that at every event, with every company, because, especially for veteran employees, or more seasoned, who are used to certain ways of doing business, that company has to transform culturally as well, for their digital transformation to enable them to become the leaders that they want. So I'm hearing that one of the things that Atos is enabling is that cultural transformation. It's not just about having new KPIs and changing SLAs, it's driving change for entire business units to impact that whole company. >> Yeah, and to be able to do that-- So we still want to be data-driven, so we're going to get this KPI, but with KPIs, there is no "one size fits all." There is not one KPI that we're going to apply to all our customers. It is a war that we're doing with the customer to understand what is key for them. An example, which is a bit... I don't know if it's funny or interesting, is we have this customer for whom we have these tech bars, you know, the walk-in bar where an end-user can go and get coaching, support, help from a technician. And so, we had this customer where the tech bars were very successful, so there were more and more people going there. And because there were more and more people, they started queuing, and we said, "Okay, there's an issue. "we don't want people to be queuing." So we went into a discussion with the customer. At the beginning, everybody's idea was, "Okay, let's put more people behind the desk, "so they can help." And when we had this discussion with the customer, it turned out it was not a good solution, because it was a company with a very strong family culture, very centered about the relationship and the network, and these tech bars, they were meant to be a place where people can go and chat with each other, and share about what's going on. So, instead of putting more people behind the desk, we talked about adding coffee and cookies at the desk so people are willing to go. I mean, this is just an example, but it's just to say, it's not about measuring how long someone is going to wait at the desk, it's about understanding what is important for this customer, and then we can define with them the key matrix that we need to follow. >> That's excellent. And a tech bar, that's a bar I can get behind. (laughing) Melanie, Justin, thank you so much for joining Stu and me on theCUBE this afternoon, we appreciate your time and it's always exciting to hear how the employee experience is so pivotal and critical to digital transformation. >> Thanks for having us. >> Thank you very much. >> Oh, our pleasure. We're Stu Miniman, I'm Lisa Martin, and you're watching us live in Las Vegas. Day one of theCUBE's coverage of Dell Technology World's 2019. Thanks for watching. (electronic techno music)